There are many, many pots of black money, scattered in many places and used all over the world on a variety of missions

The above is just one of many finely crafted lines in an article by Seymour M. Hersh, about the United States plans for the Middle East.

Hersh gazes into a crystal ball for the New Yorker in the current edition, with a fascinating article on the White House plans not only for Iraq, but Iran, Syria, Lebanon and pretty well every other nook and cranny of the Middle East.

He’s been sounding alarms about the path the US government has been taking for a number of years, and was one of the key journalists behind the Abu Ghraib story of events at the now infamous military prison. He has been a particular thorn in the side of the Bush administration since they began the journey in Iraq and seems to not be the slightest bit shy in continuing on with his efforts.

In his piece for the New Yorker called The Redirection (see link here), Hersh determines that the White House is seeking out a plan for action on Iran able to be executed on 24 hours notice, may very well welcome the balkanization of Iraq and is using an old friend Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia as a point man for many matters of the middle east. He suggests that there is a funding plan in place quite similar to the Iran-contra days of Ronald Reagan, in fact with Bandar’s involvement; it’s very much the same group with the same plans just different customers.

According the Hersh, much like the Iran-Contra days the procurement of funding and actual on the ground work is being done far away from public light, with nary a word to congress, contracting out to the Saudis giving them an arms length arrangement on developments.

An interesting side story of all the turmoil in the Middle East has been the development of a more cordial relationship between the Saudi’s and the Israeli’s, the thought apparently being that resolving issues in Palestine may in the long term, keep the brewing troubles of the region from boiling over in the Arab states. Which is something that has been on the agenda for how many hundreds of years now?

The article provides a number of roads to go down, some appear to be wide open avenues, others dark and dangerous back lanes leading to places not many would not want to travel.

It’s rather doubtful that the Bush Administration will be commenting on Hersh’s findings, in fact the only real official word at all on his investigation has been a declaration from the Pentagon that “The United States is not planning to go to war with Iran.”

Considering the nature of the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , and his mercurial statements on destroying Israel and his determination to develop a nuclear industry (whatever that may mean), we figure that time will tell if that declaration by the Pentagon holds up for any length of time.

But taking the time to read Hersh’s article surely gives us a chance to learn quite a bit about situations that are well beyond our control, but still of vital importance for us.

Needless to say while the White House is not inclined to comment, the rest of the world of journalism isn’t quite as shy, his article is sparking a number of articles about his findings and the potential impact of them.

BBC--US body to plan attacks on Iran
The Age--US denies 24 hour bombing plan for Iran
Al Bawaba--Report: US working on plan to bomb Iranian targets
The Guardian--Bush is Alan Partridge
New York Post--US is already in Iran
Jurnalo--Seymour Hersh: Pentagon in serious plans to attack Iran
India Economic Times--US planning to strike Iran, says report