US covert operations helping Muslim radicals: report (Seymour Hersch)

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A secret shift in US strategy in the Middle East toward undermining Iran risks sparking an "open confrontation" and benefits Sunni radicals, which may feed sectarian warfare in Iraq, said a magazine on Sunday.

US policy has been "redirected" toward undermining Iran and its Shiite Muslim leadership, the magazine reported in the issue that goes on sale Monday.

"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...," Seymour Hersh wrote in The New Yorker.

The magazine reports that the United States is pushing its policy in the region with clandestine operations in Lebanon, Iran and 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," Hersh concludes.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070225/wl_mideast_afp/usattacksiraniraq_070225163633

full article here: http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070305fa_fact_hersh

[Kagemusha]

1. I only just finished reading the whole thing.

Just when you thought this administration couldn't get any dumber...

Saudis: "Ok, you don't like Iran? We'll fund all sorts of Sunni extremists so that Iran doesn't get free reign anywhere in the Middle East!"

US Skeptic: "Uh, but the last time you did this, we got Osama Bin Laden..."

Saudis: "Oh nevermind that! We'll watch them REALLY CLOSELY this time! Besides, you Americans keep saying how Osama's small fry compared to the threat of Iran. We take you at your word."

...uh...

[On the Road]

2. Thanks for Posting

Hersch's articles are so important and make the events so much more comprehensible. These policies are just getting more and more absurd. Realpolitik is bad enough, but this is a short-sighted caricature.

[drm604]

3. Video of CNN interview with Hersh

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/25/hersh-qaeda/