IT PAYS TO FOLLOW LINKS

Kevin Drum has a post about the maniac Cheney and his desire to attack Iran. I looked into the links and found this interesting footnote from the 9-11 Commission Report, pp. 559-60:

⁷⁵DOD memo, Rumsfeld to Shelton,“Some Thoughts for CINCs as They Prepare Plans,” Sept. 19, 2001. In a memo that appears to be from Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith to Rumsfeld, dated September 20, the author expressed disappointment at the limited options immediately available in Afghanistan and the lack of ground options.The author suggested instead hitting terrorists outside the Middle East in the initial offensive, perhaps deliberately selecting a non–al Qaeda target like Iraq. Since U.S. attacks were expected in Afghanistan, an American attack in South America or Southeast Asia might be a surprise to the terrorists. The memo may have been a draft never sent to Rumsfeld, or may be a draft of points being suggested for Rumsfeld to deliver in a briefing to the President. DOD memo, Feith to Rumsfeld,“Briefing Draft,” Sept. 20, 2001.


The red text has the important point: Al-Qaeda was not believed to be working with Iraq, as too many wingnuts still claim. At the time, Wolfowitz thought that Iraq was likely to have been involved in the 9-11 attacks, so I guess there were some sane people in DoD and I'm surprised that Feith seems to have been one of them.