Sy Hersh on Bushco's Covert Iran War Plans

Sy Hersh has a new article in the New Yorker, The Redirection, which provides an in depth examination of the Bush administration's war planning for a conflict with Iran and its deepening relationship with the Saudi monarchy in order to influence events in the region which could well explode into an all out Sunni/Shi'a civil war beyond the borders of Iraq.

In the past few months, as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, the Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The “redirection,” as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has coöperated with Saudi Arabia’s government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.

One contradictory aspect of the new strategy is that, in Iraq, most of the insurgent violence directed at the American military has come from Sunni forces, and not from Shiites. But, from the Administration’s perspective, the most profound—and unintended—strategic consequence of the Iraq war is the empowerment of Iran.
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Some of the core tactics of the redirection are not public, however. The clandestine operations have been kept secret, in some cases, by leaving the execution or the funding to the Saudis, or by finding other ways to work around the normal congressional appropriations process, current and former officials close to the Administration said.

That reality was highlighted by Hersh in a Sunday interview with Wolf Blitzer. Think Progress has the video.

Hersh summed up his scoop in stark terms: “We are simply in a situation where this president is really taking his notion of executive privilege to the absolute limit here, running covert operations, using money that was not authorized by Congress, supporting groups indirectly that are involved with the same people that did 9/11.”

Central to those funding operations are Cheney and Negroponte - the usual suspects one would assume would be a part of such covert activities. See: Iran Contra for which Cheney was a Reagan White House apologist.

Hersh has certainly done his homework to connect all of the dots and the intricacies of what's been happening behind the scenes ought to be of interest to anyone concerned not only with a pending war against Iran but also with the growing instability in the region. The Bush administration has started fires that it doesn't know how to put out and it looks like millions of people will end up paying the price for its interference once again.

These are dangerous men making dangerous deals.

Will this be enough for the Democrats to pursue impeachment now? If not, what the hell are they waiting for?