America's Alliance With bin Laden

We're playing the Sunni card in the Middle East – and that means playing footsie with al-Qaeda

The latest Seymour Hersh piece has a lot of new information, some of it shocking, some of it not at all surprising to readers of Antiwar.com and observers of this space. An example of the latter:

"The administration is now examining a wave of new intelligence on Iran's weapons programs. Current and former American officials told me that the intelligence, which came from Israeli agents operating in Iran, includes a claim that Iran has developed a three-stage solid-fueled intercontinental missile capable of delivering several small warheads – each with limited accuracy – inside Europe. The validity of this human intelligence is still being debated."

We can thank Scooter Libby and the vice president of the United States for having blinded American intelligence to Iranian WMD programs – Valerie Plame was reportedly the CIA's resident expert on Iranian WMD, and her outfit, Brewster-Jennings
"consulting," was the U.S. government's regional eyes and ears on nuclear proliferation issues. I guess that's why we have to depend on the Israelis.

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