USA VS. IRAN

Truthout: Target Iran. War with No End by Steve Weissmann

Perhaps as early as his State of the Union address, Mr. Bush will promote this pre-emptive attack as the cutting edge of his "War on Terror." In fact, he knows that Iran and its Ayatollahs had nothing to do with 9/11. But neither did Saddam Hussein.

One indicator of Iran's stance - and of the Administration's - came in the summer of 2003, as I described in an earlier column. The Ayatollahs offered to give Mr. Bush five terrorists they had captured, including bin-Laden's son Saad and the Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who now heads al-Qaeda's terror franchise in Iraq. In return, the Iranians wanted Washington to hand over members of the Mujihadeen Khalq, who were attacking Iran from their safe haven in occupied Iraq. The U.S. State Department had officially labeled the M.K. as terrorists, but Team Bush declined to make the exchange. According to the well-placed Jerusalem Post, a group of Neo-Conservatives headed by Michael Ledeen intervened to undermine the negotiations.