In case Safire hasn't noticed, the NY Times slept through most of the "great" events during the Clinton administration.
For years, U.S. officials kept mum about the duplicity of Saudi Arabia in financing anti-U.S. incitement while professing to be a U.S. ally. But because The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh, the oldest investigative reporter alive, held his ear trumpet to our ultra-secret Big Ear,
The NY Times has an ultra-secret big ear! LOL [sorry]
we now have telephone intercepts between Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, and his father, the defense minister. The Saudis never have been on our side in the war on terror — which our leaders have long known but most Americans did not.
I don't believe for a second that the NY Times is just now finding out that the Saudi's aren't on our side in the war on terror. They only report what they want to report, when its convenient to them.
That wearing of blinders by our intelligence agents was recently revealed by The Washington Post's columnist and editor Jim Hoagland, who is dry behind the ears, to say the least.
First super-secret ears, now dry behind the ears...
"One war at a time" goes the coalitionaries' mantra, which our spymasters take to mean "Don't follow leads to Iraq." Journageezers ignore such government manipulation. Nobody has come close to my Times colleagues in covering the cataclysm and the war it triggered, but it would be good to see a new wave of reporters beat the old media bigfeet in advancing this story.
Iraq may be next in line for the bombing, but will we have the guts to take out Saddam? Want to wager??
This is taking "connect the dots" to an extreme. I have seen no evidence that the Bush W Administration is trying to dodge the bullet on possible Iraq involvement. On the contrary, Bush the Elder is very likely to argue in the opposite direction. Having messed it up himself due to pressure from the Saudis and others, the elder Bush should be very pleased to have the opportunity to watch his son finish the job that he started. And I believe that W is listening.