Western intelligence officials now believe that Iran is trying to cultivate a new generation of al-Qa'eda leaders who will be prepared to work closely with Teheran when they eventually take control.

Recent intelligence reports from Iran suggest the Iranians are particularly keen to promote Saif-al-Adel, a notorious al-Qa'eda operative who is wanted in the United States for his alleged role in training several of the September 11 hijackers.

Al-Adel, 46, a former colonel in Egypt's special forces who joined al-Qa'eda after fighting with the Mujahideen against Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s, was named in the FBI's list of 22 most wanted terrorists that was issued after the September 11 attacks.

He is also alleged to have been involved in the deaths of 18 US soldiers in Somalia in 1993 and the truck bomb attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

I mean, four years ago we were told how Saddam Hussein, a secular Arab dictator was best buddies with Osama Bin Ladin to help hype the invasion of Iraq. Turned out, however, that story was just a complete fabrication. There was no link. No cooperation. Indeed, Saddam mistrusted Al Qaeda, and Osama hated Saddam.

Now, we are being asked to believe that recent reports received by "Western Intelligence agencies" (from whom, I wonder) indicates Al Qaeda, a fundamentalist Sunni terrorist organization, is about to be taken over by Iran, a Shi'ite theocracy, despite the fact that Al Qaeda in Iraq has been killing Iraqi Shi'ites and blowing up famous Shi'a mosques in order to foment a religious civil war in Iraq. I'm sorry, but I find this more than a little hard to swallow.

I don't doubt there are "reports" from "sources" regarding this new Iran/Al Qaeda intimacy that the CIA, et al., have received. I do suspect, however, that those reports are as valid as the cherry picked intelligence the Office of Special Plans "stove-piped" into Vice President Cheney's office in order to make the case for going to war against Saddam Hussein. The Office of Special Plans is now defunct, though it was successful in accomplishing its mission. We did after all invade Iraq and depose Saddam despite his lack of WMD and connections to the 9/11 terrorists. Mission Accomplished!

However, what we in its place are two new organizations whose apparently have a mission very similar to the one the OSP had, only this time the regime to be changed is the one in Iran. I don't think it is much of a stretch to imagine that we are witnessing another instance of disinformation by neoconservatives in the Pentagon and at the White House designed to build public support for military action against Iran. Indeed, I've written about this disinformation campaign before, and it appears that election defeat or no election defeat, the Cheney cabal is still determined to push its plan to achieve regime change in Iran using America's military forces.

Some bad ideas never die, and as long as Dick Cheney is in office they won't ever fade away, either.