Fatah al-Islam had support from US, claims Hersh

[ck4829]

Fatah al-Islam, the militant Sunni group that has been fighting with the Lebanese army since Sunday was actually supported by the Lebanese government in the past, claimed investigative reporter Seymour Hersh.

Hersh, in an interview on CNN International's “Your World Today,” said that according to an agreement between U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, Deputy National Security Advisor Elliot Abrams and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi national security adviser, the Saudi regime was to “covertly fund the Sunni Fatah al-Islam” as a counterweight to the Shiite Hezbollah.

Accusing the White House of “no longer acting rationally,” Hersh said: “We're in the business of supporting the Sunnis anywhere we can against the Shiite … We're in the business of creating ... sectarian violence."

The support to Fatah al-Islam was given “to stop the spread of the Shiite world,” he claimed, adding that now this policy has “bit us in the rear.”

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=73988

[azurnoir]

1. Was there really any doubt

that the US was behind some of the sectarian violence? Not just in Lebanon either, I would make a bet that the "sectarian" violence in Iraq doesn't end until the oil deal is signed, giving an excuse to stay there.

[tanyev]

2. But, but, but....Rove just said "fund a terrorist, you're just as bad"

Rove suggested, as Bush repeatedly has, that history will ratify the decision to invade Iraq. “You know, the Bush doctrine—‘Feed a terrorist, arm a terrorist, train a terrorist, fund a terrorist, you’re just as bad as a terrorist,’ ” he said. “It’s going to remain our national doctrine, and it’s going to be very difficult, I think, if not impossible, to dismiss this, just as it will be to dismiss the doctrine of preëmption

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x992214