As any sophisticated reader of the New York Times, or its Cold War counterpart, Pravda, will attest, when read backwards, most articles yield up their most telling "facts" or "revelations" at the end, awaiting discovery by only the most intrepid of readers.
Thus Seymour Hersh's New Yorker Magazine article, "The Redirection: Is the Administration's new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?" http://www.newyorker.com/... which led with details regarding the Administration's advanced war planning against Iran, the "scoop" covered breathlessly by the MSM, concluded with the revelation that Dick Cheney's office is running an illegal guns and money campaign against Iran. In keeping with the cynical aphorism that my enemy's enemy is my friend, these weapons and money are finding their way into the hands of radical Islamic Sunni groups in Lebanon with strong affiliations to Al-Queda.

Hersh details how the unintended, yet perfectly predictable, Shiite ascendancy via the Iran/Iraq nexus, now threatens wider US interests in the region, specifically Saudi Arabia. Thus, the Bush Administration now accepts the fact that, as Vali Nasr of the CFR quoted by Hersh states, "the biggest threat is Iran and the Sunni radicals are lesser enemies," thus a "victory for the Saudi line". And in keeping with the adage that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, Cheney et al. have resorted to their old tricks learned from the good ole days of Reagan's Iran Contra Guns for Money criminal machinations to organize, finance with embezzled funds, and manage an illegal anti-Iran campaign involving stolen money from Iraq to finance Al-Queda operations against Iranian proxies, namely Hezbollah in Lebanon.

This huge gamble is predicated upon one precious fact: the Saudi royal family believes that as long as they continue to tolerate and finance schools and charities connected to virulently anti-Shiite Sunni extremists, specifically the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis, the royal family will be left alone to enjoy its illegitimate rule over the country. The last time the Saudis got into the business of aiding and abetting the Salafis, it spawned Osama Bin Ladin and the creation of Al-Queda in 1988. The Saudis now promise the Bush neocons that this time, they won't let the party get so out of hand that jets are crashed into buildings, and will ensure that the Salafis direct their animus, and most importantly, their explosives against Iranians, Syrians, and their respective proxies, Moqtada al-Sadr and Hezbollah. It is with respect to the struggle to subvert Hezbollah that money and guns are being secretly funnelled, via the US-supported Siniora Government of Lebanon, to Al-Queda through the good offices and efforts of our esteemed Vice President, Dick Cheney.

The Siniora Government is handing out our financial and armed assistance to radical Sunni groups in northern Lebabon, such as Fatah al-Islam and Asbat al-Ansar, with known ties to Al-Queda, as a way of counterbalancing Hezbollah power and influence throughout the country. These groups are known to "hate the Shiites, but hate Americans more." The Sunni majority leader in the Lebanese parliamnet, Saad Hariri, not only posted bail for four members of a group, the Dinniyeh Islamists, that according to the Crisis Group , "had trained in al-Queda camps in Afghanistan", but also obtained amnesty for 21 of its members convicted for crimes ranging from the bombing of foreign embassies to assasinations of Prime Ministers.