The new strategy states: “We do not rule out use of force before attacks occur, even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy’s attack." Essentially, Bush is giving himself the green light to kill any time, anywhere, on a scale that Hitler could never have imagined. The strategy singles out Iran, North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Belarus, Burma and Zimbabwe as potential targets, and also includes threats towards China. Iran, of course, is enemy number one.

As the Bush administration and its functionaries ratchet up pressure on Iran with renewed waves of propaganda and hate, it is no surprise that Iran is emerging as the new home of US military-intelligence asset/construct "Osama bin Laden" (replacing “the mountains along the Pakistan border” and other such versions).

According to a Washington Times report, several (unnamed) members of the intelligence community and Congressman Curt Weldon, are pushing this line. As recently as March 15, in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer, Weldon has even proclaimed that, according to his top-secret source (named “Ali”), bin Laden died in Iran.

This claim has been parroted by both conservatives (see this), as well as neoliberals, such as Air America Radio’s Ed Schulz in recent days. The push towards “getting Iran," the “hotbed of terrorism," is bipartisan, as is the embrace of the USAPATRIOT Act, which was renewed this month by Congress, with virtually no resistance.

Weldon wants to flatten Iran, and expand the “war on terrorism." As I wrote in The Spinning of the Smoking Guns, “Congressman Curt Weldon, who has been spearheading the Able Danger case in Washington, is pushing a right-wing agenda. Weldon, the number one critic of the 9/11 Commission, has a reputation as a loose cannon. His book Countdown to Terror not only pushes for more aggressive anti-terrorism, but also goes after Iran (Iran-as-terrorist, Iran-targeting-nuclear-facilities, etc.). Weldon has been criticized by Dana Priest of the Washington Post, and the New York Times. The bottom line: Weldon's bias and goals must be questioned.”

It is no surprise that a convenient, unproven (and unprovable) Osama connection to Iran now emerges along with the rest of the Bush administration’s wholesale demonization and baiting of Iran. Certainly, more will be manufactured.

The same fraud and insanity that preceded the slaughter and occupation of Iraq is simply being repeated. Bush's recent tour across the "Grand Chessboard" and the incessant Iran-baiting by the criminal Condoleeza Rice are ominously similar to the “diplomacy” that preceded 9/11 and the attack on Afghanistan. Observers correctly view the Bush tour as the harbinger of a new round of war across Eurasia.