Iran: The Next War

James Bamford reports that "War with Iran has been in the works for the past five years, shaped in almost complete secrecy by a small group of senior Pentagon officials attached to the Office of Special Plans. The man who created the OSP was Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy. ... Before Bush had been in office a year, Feith's team had arranged a covert meeting in Rome with a group of Iranians to discuss their clandestine help. The meeting was arranged by Michael Ledeen, a member of the cabal brought aboard by Feith because of his connections in Iran. ... Working behind the scenes, the members of the Office of Special Plans succeeded in setting the United States on the path to all-out war with Iran. ... The shift in official policy has thrilled former members of the cabal. To them, the war in Lebanon represents the final step in their plan to turn Iran into the next Iraq." Bamford's article sheds more light on the double-dealings of Ahmed Chalabi, the former darling of the neoconservatives who with CIA funding and training provided by John Rendon and The Rendon Group led the Iraqi National Congress in planting phony stories about Weapons of Mass Destruction with Judith Miller and other US news media.