Seymour Hersh: US is funding Al-Qaeda to counter Iran
Friday, 13 April 2007
Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh talks to Democracy Now about his explosive new article in the New Yorker Magazine. Hersh reports that John Negroponte's decision to resign as National Intelligence Director was made in part because of the Bush administration's covert actions including the funding of radical Sunni groups - some with strong ideological ties to al-Qaeda - to counter Shiite groups backed by Iran. Hersh also reports the Pentagon has established a special planning group to plan a bombing attack on Iran and U.S. military and special-operations teams have already crossed the border into Iran in pursuit of Iranian operatives.
The funding of Wahhabi/Salafi groups, often labeled Islamic fundamentalists in the media, is reminiscient of US policy in the Middle East especially through the mid-70s and early-80s which eventually gave rise to groups such as the Taliban. During this period US administrations, alongside Israel, promoted "fundamentalist" groups to create suitable conditions for their own interests in the region. In the case of the Israelis, their support of such groups was primarily with the aim to evade a settlement plan over Palestine.
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