"Explosive" new Hersh scoop: Bush funneling money to Al Qaeda-related groups [VIDEO]

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 2:00 PM on February 25, 2007.

So what could possibly be more "EXPLOSIVE" and "DEPRESSING" than the fact that the president is having a 24 hour attack plan drawn up for targets in Iran?



Why, funding anti-Shiite Sunnis linked to Al Qaeda without Congressional approval and without appropriate appropriation, of course.

Seymour Hersh's latest piece in the New Yorker reveals that the Pentagon is accelerating plans for an attack on Iran, that ex-Iran-Contra figure John Negroponte is moving to the State Dept because he's "too ethical" for the Pentagon and that the president is pushing the "absolute limit" of his authority in bypassing Congress and sowing the seeds of an even greater Middle East clusterfuck.



There are so many problems here, not the least of which is watching one of the most oafish, incompetent, and ignorant administrations in history attempt to reach something like equilibrium or control by playing with the various factions and sub-factions of Islam in the Middle East. It's like watching a spastic pre-teen wander into a ceramics studio. Except with the possibility of nuclear war.



In short, the Pentagon is attempting to battle Iran's extremists and Hezbollah (both Shiite) by funding the violent Sunni factions that oppose them. Hersh speculates that the money is coming from the pallet-loads of cash floating around Iraq and has already reached "three Sunni jihadist groups." He says, flatly, that the president is "supporting groups indirectly that are involved with the same people that did 9/11." We should be arresting these people, he says, not looking the other way.

NEW: Generals threaten to quit over war on Iran.

TAKE ACTION: MoveOn has a new petition demanding that President Bush get authorization from Congress before making any move on Iran. Sign ThinkProgress and John Amato.

Tagged as: iran, sunni, al qaeda, seymour hersh, shiite

Evan Derkacz is an AlterNet editor. He writes and edits PEEK, the blog of blogs.