But this time, Cheney and the hawks are leaving footprints

Over the weekend, stories were coming out that Dick Cheney and the collective neocon hawks have repeatedly worked to undermine US policies.

There was the leak on Friday ahead of the Putin meeting which amplified a small speech by a third tier official to a front page NYTimes story.

On Friday night, we got another front page NYTimes story which contained complaints from the State Department that David Wurmser, one of Cheney's hawkish allies, was running around trying to undermine support for diplomacy with Iran.

Then, on Saturday, there was a look back at the neocons in the Defense Department who attempted to undermine US policy on China back when Colin Powell was Secretary of State.

I offer this roundup not only as catchup for non-weekend readers, but also as a bit of an evidentiary preface for this:

Front page WaPo story on Sunday.

Iran has increased arms shipments to both Iraq's Shiite extremists and Afghanistan's Taliban in recent weeks in an apparent attempt to pressure American and other Western troops operating in its two strategic neighbors, according to senior U.S. and European officials.

Sounds unequivocal, right? But wait buried in the wires....

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Monday the United States has no evidence Iran's government is behind a flow of weapons from Iran to Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.....

"We do not have any information about whether the government of Iran is supporting this, is behind it, or whether it is smuggling, or exactly what is behind it."

"But there clearly is evidence that some weapons are coming into Afghanistan destined for the Taliban, but perhaps also for criminal elements involved in the drug trafficking coming from Iran," he said.

But you see, that is exactly the difference. While Condoleeza Rice and Robert Gates are relating facts, Dick Cheney's cadre is conducting a campaign. The hawks' strategically leaked allegations get huge, above the fold placements, while Condi Rice's and Robert Gates' factual rebuttals are buried on the wires.

And, as a final tie in on Iran-Taleban, from Newsweek:

And NEWSWEEK has learned that the veep's team seems eager to build a case that Iran is targeting Americans not just in Iraq but along the border of its other neighbor, Afghanistan.

In the last few weeks, Cheney's staff have unexpectedly become more active participants in an interagency group that steers policy on Afghanistan, according to an official familiar with the internal deliberations. During weekly meetings of the committee, known as the Afghanistan Interagency Operating Group, Cheney staffers have been intensely interested in a single issue: recent intelligence reports alleging that Iran is supplying weapons to Afghanistan's resurgent Islamist militia, the Taliban, according to two administration officials who asked for anonymity when discussing internal meetings.

So, over the coming week, as you read the breathless revelations that Iran is arming the Taleban, keep in mind what's really going on. Cheney's team is engaging in another Iraq-like "information" campaign to force associations that aren't there.

(Sorry for the long post, but this is important.)