Are they kidding?

The Bush administration now maintains that Iran is arming the Taliban. This, despite the fact that Iran and the Taliban are old enemies. This, despite the fact that Shi'ite Iran supported the effort to oust the radically Sunni Taliban. U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns made this accusation without qualification even though Defense Secretary Robert Gates said something quite different recently:

Defense Secretary Robert Gates voiced concern on Monday about a flow of Iranian arms to Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan but said he had no information linking Tehran to the supply of weapons.

The claims appear to have received a trial run in the U.K.:

Tony Blair yesterday accused Iran of arming Taliban fighters in Afghanistan in order to stir "chaos" and inflict more casualties on Western troops.

The Prime Minister's allegation follows the disclosure in The Daily Telegraph that British intelligence believes that Iran has given the Taliban surface-to-air missiles.

We all recall the role played by British intelligence in the spread of the "yellowcake" fabrication. To put Blair's pronouncement into proper perspective, you must savor the very next paragraph:

In an article in The Economist, Mr Blair also conceded that al-Qa'eda had successfully manipulated public opinion of those in the West into believing that their own governments were responsible for provoking the terrorist threat.

Riiiiight. Al Qaeda. Osama's lads apparently have all sorts of pull with the Western media. Hell, they practically run NBC. Western cynicism has nothing to do with anything Tony and George and Dickie have actually done, such as telling lies about WMDs to start a war. Oh no. Our current season of discontent is all an Al Qaeda plot.

Tony Blair is even more delusional than Bush is.

Look at how the Telegraph words this inane claim: "Mr Blair also conceded..."

"Conceded." As though Tony came to this conclusion reluctantly, as though he didn't want to say it aloud, as though he found the idea almost impossible to believe...but then the evidence mounted, the voices of experts grew to a deafening roar, the proof was conclusive, Adlai Stevenson showed the photos at the U.N., doubting Thomas probed the bloody wound, the DNA lab announced a match, and finally Blair was compelled to admit that Al Qaeda has an almost supernatural ability to control Western perceptions and is thus solely responsible for our distrust of Bush.

Blair concedes it.

This ABC story claims that the Iran-Taliban connection is an established fact. Richard Clarke, no less, is quoted as saying that ""It is inconceivable that it is anyone other than the Iranian government that's doing it." I'd like to know the circumstances under which he said this. I imagine that he probably threw in a qualifier, such as "If these reports are correct." After all, Clarke is no longer on the inside, so he must depend on whatever the Administration decides to toss his way.

Never forget that the neocons used fake documents to start their vile war. Never forget that they have been caught in lies time in again. They told us that Valerie Plame was not covert, that Saddam and Osama were the bestest of buds, that all the detainees at Gitmo were and are guilty. As seen above, they've even spewed hooey about Al Qaeda influencing a large segment of Western opinion.

These bastards are obviously capable of telling any lie. Capable, too, of planting and doctoring evidence.