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Bush and Co on the march....

Assuming that even just half of this piece in Dar Al-Hayat is true, then the world is about to witness more than turbulence in the Middle East in the next months. One might have thought that the US and its allies had had enough trauma and come to sufficient grief in Iraq. It would seem not!

"Those betting on a quick U.S. exit from Iraq and a change in President Bush's Iran policy would do well to read the recent report from the U.S. intelligence community - reports that indicate a plan of using Iraq as a base of operations from which to launch attacks against regional threats to U.S. interests.

Six years after the attacks of September 11, U.S. intelligence indicates that Al Qaeda is as much a threat now as then, aided by the U.S. war on Iraq and the growth of fanatic movements. It also indicates that the U.S. is losing on several fronts against Al Qaeda - a group that has clearly reconstituted and reorganized itself over the past couple of years.

In addition to threats from Al Qaeda, the U.S. intelligence report identifies a danger from the Lebanese party Hizbullah, which has attacked U.S. targets in the past and is seen as probably attacking again should its interests be threatened or should its patron Iran be subjected to an American attack".

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