By God! Those filthy little wogs are on the march again! They’re all hooking up! Iran, Al Qaeda, the Sunni militias! Why, probably the Irish Republican Army is involved in this plot up to its kneecaps too! It’s a Grand Coalition of the Evil!

Iran is secretly forging ties with al-Qaida elements and Sunni Arab militias in Iraq in preparation for a summer showdown with coalition forces intended to tip a wavering US Congress into voting for full military withdrawal, US officials say.

“Iran is fighting a proxy war in Iraq and it’s a very dangerous course for them to be following. They are already committing daily acts of war against US and British forces,” a senior US official in Baghdad warned. “They [Iran] are behind a lot of high-profile attacks meant to undermine US will and British will, such as the rocket attacks on Basra palace and the Green Zone [in Baghdad]. The attacks are directed by the Revolutionary Guard who are connected right to the top [of the Iranian government].”

The official said US commanders were bracing for a nationwide, Iranian-orchestrated summer offensive, linking al-Qaida and Sunni insurgents to Tehran’s Shia militia allies, that Iran hoped would trigger a political mutiny in Washington and a US retreat. “We expect that al-Qaida and Iran will both attempt to increase the propaganda and increase the violence prior to Petraeus’s report in September [when the US commander General David Petraeus will report to Congress on President George Bush’s controversial, six-month security “surge” of 30,000 troop reinforcements],” the official said. […]

US officials now say they have firm evidence that Tehran has switched tack as it senses a chance of victory in Iraq. In a parallel development, they say they also have proof that Iran has reversed its previous policy in Afghanistan and is now supporting and supplying the Taliban’s campaign against US, British and other Nato forces. […]

Tehran’s strategy to discredit the US surge and foment a decisive congressional revolt against Mr Bush is national in scope and not confined to the Shia south, its traditional sphere of influence, the senior official in Baghdad said. It included stepped-up coordination with Shia militias such as Moqtada al-Sadr’s Jaish al-Mahdi as well as Syrian-backed Sunni Arab groups and al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, he added. Iran was also expanding contacts across the board with paramilitary forces and political groups, including Kurdish parties such as the PUK, a US ally.

Already committing acts of war against US forces? I guess we will just have to hit Iran first, eh Mr. Bush?

Any US decision to retaliate against Iran on its own territory could be taken only at the highest political level in Washington, the official said. But he indicated that American patience was wearing thin.

Because, after all, your “officials” have “firm” evidence that the leaders of a Shi’ite nation, politically allied to Shi’a parties and militias in Iraq (whose death squads have been murdering thousands of Sunnis by the way), is now joining hands with the very same people who have been fighting and killing their Shi’ite brothers and sisters (with suicide bombers, mortars, etc.) and engaging in one big happy group hug while they plot their sinister master plan to f**k the United States in Iraq.

Oh, and they’re backing the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan too! And, and … don’t forget the Kurds! Iran’s grand evil strategy even has eyes for the same people who want to carve out an independent homeland that will include parts of Turkey, Iraq and Iran! They are so fiendishly clever these Iranian madmen. Oh, how devious is the oriental mind, eh?

It’s a shame that The Guardian is allowing themselves to be used tp push this piece of crap propaganda. C’mon people. You think this anonymous official has the goods then make him speak publicly about it. Or find some confirmation to back up his wild-assed claims. All I see is a bunch of US sources making these claims without any evidence to back them up other than their own anonymous voices.

And why should we believe this Rube Goldberg, kitchen sink, ginned up version of a Grand Islamo-fascist Conspiracy between Iran and Al Qaeda? Because the last I heard it wasn’t Iran that was backing Sunni groups linked to Al Qaeda, it was the Good Old US of A (and our friend the Saudis, too). Or don’t your reporters read Seymour Hersh anymore?

(cont.)

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.

Seems to me I’d love to be an Al Qaeda terrorist these days. The Saudis are paying me, the US is paying me and now even Iran is paying me! What a Middle East!

But seriously, does anyone trust unnamed US sources in the Bush government with a known propensity to lie and a known agenda to change the regimes of oil rich countries like Iran, over Seymour Hersh? I know, I know, maybe some Bush loving, Koolaid Kidz still flying their Confederate flags from their car antennae, Fox News anchors or Neocon ideologues in the bowels of the American Enterprise Institute, might believe this pile of doo-doo being tossed at us once again, but anyone else?

Seriously?

And this fits one of the standard psy-ops campaign tactics for the Pentagon. Push these stories first in the overseas media, preferably in one of the major British newspapers, and then, with the gloss of authenticity that gives, promote them in the mainstream American media, who do far less research and investigation of facts, and are more than happy to bolster their credibility (and save valuable reporter time checking the truth of the matter) by relying on the British news stories as their primary source. (If Judy Miller still worked at the NY Times, I’m sure she would have gotten this scoop, but hey no good “operative” lasts forever).

Let me ask you a question Mr. Bush. Why should we believe a word from any US official about your “Grand Unified Islamofascist Conspiracy” (GUIC for short)? I can’t think of a reason why I should, and I’m surprised and deeply troubled that the editors of The Guardian are allowing themselves to be used in this way. To me this “story” sends a clear signal that you and Mr. Cheney still haven’t taken your collective wet dream of a military attack against Iran off the table. This late in your thoroughly discredited and scandalous reign, that is perhaps the worst news I’ve heard in a long while.