"Redirection"

"Redirection" is a title of new piece in The New Yorker by Seymour Hersh.

In shorthand: When America occupied Iraq, they hoped that underdog Shiite will be gratefull and become, unlike Iran Shiite, a friend of the western powers.

Link between Iran and Iraq shiite was stronger than they thought. Iraq shiite turned against occupying american army AND against sunni Iraqis who lorded it over shiite in Iraq for, well, ever.

Hence America seeks co-operation from Lebanon (non-withstanding hezbollah shiite south), Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt. Its co-operation with Israel is well documented and of long standing already.

Possibility that Iran might end up possessing nuclear weapons alarms Washington.
Iran, of course is alarmed at being surrounded with nuclear powers: Israel, Pakistan, India, and American bases in Turkey, Afganistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuweit, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Azerbaijzan,

The raging controversy, rarely vented in the media, is that Al-Quida has its roots in militant , Sunni ,religion of uber-conservative walabi islam in Saudi Arabia, and non withstanding that Saudi money pay for world wide proteolysing of this ultra-fundamenlist strain of islam).

Iran, Syria (Sunni, but anty-american ) and Lebanon south with its links to Iran via Hezbollah) are now a local, updated "Axis of Evil.

This change of policy direction occured despite the fact that anti-american Sunni insurgents in Iraq are many times more numerous than Shiite anti-american insurgents.

The clandestine actions are flourishing, without oversight of US Kongress.
America and its allies in the region are undertaking a continuous stream of provocations against Iran, in hope of Iran retaliating and opening the door for a direct strike against Teheran.

Palestinian Killing Zone

Have a look at this dispatches film.