Democracy and spies

As the Washington historian William Blum has documented, since 1945, the US has destroyed or subverted more than 50 governments, many of them democracies, and used mass murderers such as Suharto, Mobutu and Pinochet to dominate by proxy. In the Middle East, America has sustained every dictatorship and pseudo-monarchy. In "Operation Cyclone", the CIA and MI6 secretly fostered and bankrolled Islamic extremism. The object was to smash or deter nationalism and democracy. Most of the victims of this western state terrorism have been Muslims. The people gunned down recently in Bahrain and Libya - the latter a "priority market" for the UK, according to Britain's official arms "procurers" - join those children blown to bits in Gaza by the latest US F-16 aircraft.
Therefore it should come as no surprise that the secret deals to turn a blind eye  to  "Operation Peninsula shield " the rather tame sounding name for the violent suppression of pro democracy protesters in Bahrain are par for the course. With the new Saudi policy of denial it beggars belief that you have senior officials claiming  that there was no major crackdown in Bahrain and that the Shia community was essentially content.
Whilst Saudi King Abdallah has deep pockets and has thrown billions in a carrot and stick approach in an attempt to stem the tide of change sweeping his neighbourhood others such as Syria do not have this luxury.
The inevitability of Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh's demise has meant that the Saudis are putting pressure on even the Jordanian King to resist reform and as Iran has upped the stakes as it piles on pressure as it demands that Saudi remove their troops from Bahrain the uprisings that started out as an attempt to achieve democracy ,liberty and social justice are in danger of falling victim to sectarian divide making a Sunni - Shia clash more likely.
That would be disastrous for not only the region but the world as a whole. Now being a lover of conspiracy theories one has to wonder what role if any have the Western intelligence agencies played in stage managing these revolts given their past track records?
With still a lot of dilly dallying going on with Libya the dangers of things spiralling out of control increase exponentially. Change whether it is regime change or reform has to be speedy.
Whatever happens there is an urgency to change those regimes  that have lost legitimacy by killing their own citizens so that the region can evolve just sweeping democracy under the carpet is not a solution and a security crackdown is not not going to dampen people's desire to live in dignity and have the ability to shape their destinies.