The Pentagon's study of 600,000 documents seized in Iraq since 2003 has shown that Iraq had no ties to Al Qaeda. Well, duh. Here's the Times blurb:

There was no direct operational connection between Saddam Hussein’s government and Al Qaeda before the war in Iraq, says a Pentagon-sponsored study released Wednesday.

The report, by the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federally financed research institution, found “no smoking gun” after a review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that have come into American hands since the March 2003 invasion. Senior administration officials cited the existence of ties between Mr. Hussein and the terrorist network run by Osama bin Laden as a rationale for the invasion of Iraq.

While the report echoes findings of other independent analyses, it represents the most definitive assessment to date by the United States government.

Among other findings, the report said that Mr. Hussein’s government provided support to other regional and international terrorist operations.

Expect the usual noises from the neocon right.

Those who've read my recent Nation piece on John McCain know that the Arizona senator sees Iraq as the base for a long-lasting U.S. regional military presence in the Gulf. But with or without Iraq, the United States is trying to turn the oil-rich Gulf into an American lake, which has been a policy goal since at least the 1970s.

Writing in his Post blog, William Arkin notes how the U.S. presence among Iraq's Arab neighbors to the south is taking root:

In Kuwait, for instance, the Army is completing the finishing touches on a permanent ground forces command for Iraq and the region, one that it describes as being capable of being a platform for "full spectrum operations" in 27 countries around southwest Asia and the Middle East.

Permanently deployed with the new regional headquarters in Kuwait will be a theater-level logistical command, a communications command, a military intelligence brigade, a "civil affairs" group and a medical command. "These commands now have a permanent responsibility to this theater," Lt. Gen. James J. Lovelace told the Mideast edition of Stars and Stripes. "They'll have a permanent presence here."

The Air Force and Navy, meanwhile, have set up additional permanent bases in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman. By permanent I mean large and continuing American headquarters and presences, most of which are maintained through a combination of coalition activities, long-standing bilateral agreements and official secrecy. Tens of billions have been plowed into the American infrastructure. Admiral William J. Fallon, the overall commander of the region, was just in Oman this week after a trip to Iraq to secure continuing American military bases in that country.

This is true imperialism in action.

Petraeus and Crocker are scheduled to testify about the war in Iraq on April 8 and 9, their first Capitol Hill appearance since last September. Needless to say, what they say will dominate the news about Iraq for weeks or months afterwards. Originally, it seems, they were supposed to have been joined by Admiral Fallon, the Centcom commander, but the Pentagon now says that Fallon won't participate. (Fallon's resignation is effective March 31.) That's despite requests from members of Congress to have Fallon take part. Says Geoff Morell, Pentagon spokesman:

"I know there have been requests, in fact, from members of Congress to have Adm. Fallon testify with Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, and I can tell you that Adm. Fallon will not be testifying" with them, Morrell told a Pentagon news conference. ...

Morrell said he did not know if Gates personally objects to having Fallon testify alongside Petraeus and Crocker.

Next week, President Bush will cross the river to meet the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon to hammer out post-surge Iraq policy. Stay tuned.

The veep may have huffed and puffed all across the Middle East about Iran, but his visit to Saudi Arabia wasn't exactly successful. From Arab News, a Saudi newspaper, citing "sources" in Saudi Arabia:

King Abdullah urged Cheney to pressure Israel to seal a peace deal with the Palestinians before US President George W. Bush leaves office in January next year, sources said.

The sources said Saudi Arabia was not happy with the "slow" pace of US efforts to push the Middle East peace process. There has been a lack of US pressure on Israel to reach a peace agreement and end the building of settlements and halt all excavations around Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Discussing Iran's nuclear program and its growing regional influence, the king confirmed his opposition to any US military strike, sources said.

Saudi Arabia, along with other Gulf Arab countries, sees negotiations as the best way to ease tension between the US and Iran.

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shia and former Baathist, is planning a reconciliation conference that he hopes will bring together as many Iraqi factions as possible, according to a report:

Former Iraqi premier Iyad Allawi's National Accordance Movement (NAM) is preparing for an expanded conference in April to discuss political crises and national reconciliation in a war-torn Iraq, al-Hayat newspaper said on Tuesday.

"The movement is preparing for this conference in light of apparent failure of the government to tackle political crises tearing the country apart," the London-based paper's Saudi edition quoted NAM politburo member Rasem al-Awwadi as saying.

My own sources, including those close to Allawi, say that the former Iraqi leader is trying to organize a front that would include Shia tribal leaders from Iraq's south, many of whom are fiercely opposed to the dominance of the religious parties there, along with leaders of the Sunni tribal powers, the Awakening movement, and even some members of the armed resistance. The intent is to create a broad, nationalist movement including both Sunni and Shia.

Interesting pair of items today on Wahhabis and Jews: first, an interesting report in the Times of London that Saudi King Abdullah wants a dialogue with Jews, as part of an interfaith exchange with "people of the book," i.e., Christians and Jews.

"If God wills it, we will then meet with our brothers from other religions, including those of the Torah and the Gospel to come up with ways to safeguard humanity," added [the king].

There's no indication, of course (said tongue-in-cheek), that Abdullah's comments have anything to do with the fact that Iraqi intelligence reported during the Saddam era that the Wahhabi movement in Saudi Arabia was founded by a person who was part Jewish, named Shulman no less. The Post reports, citing the Federation of American Scientists, that this analysis was contained in Iraqi documents recently translated and released by the Pentagon:

The shocking Iraqi analysis says that Ibn 'Abd al Wahhab's grandfather's true name was not "Sulayman" but "Shulman." (Of course! The Saudi Shulmans! ) "Tawran," a source often cited by Iraqi intelligence in the reports as an expert, "confirms that Sulayman, the grandfather of the sheikh, is (Shulman); he is Jew from the merchants of the city of Burstah in Turkey, he had left it and settled in Damascus, grew his beard, and wore the Muslim turban, but was thrown out for being voodoo," the Iraqi document says, according to a Defense Intelligence Agency translation.

It's getting ugly in Basra and southern Iraq, and it could trigger a broader showdown between the Mahdi Army and SCIRI, in advance of provincial elections this year that SCIRI will lose, and heavily. For background, check out (1) my recent article in The Nation on Iran, SCIRI, and Sadr, (2) Reidar Visser's indispensable site, and (3) the comprehensive reports from the International Crisis Group, Joost Hiltermann, and Peter Harling, here and here.

Amazingly, and it's not a joke, one of the authors of the U.S. "surge," Gen. (Ret.) Jack Keane is calling on the British to surge troops back into southern Iraq. [P.S. Keane is a McCain adviser.]

No real surprise here, but a published report says that the U.S. CIA hasn't had any luck getting spies inside Al Qaeda. Excerpt:

US and European spy agencies have largely avoided sending their undercover officers to training camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Few operatives, officials said, have the skills, backgrounds and knowledge to talk their way into the camps.

Tuning in to intelligence sources the rest of us can't hear, Vice President Cheney told the LA Times that Iran is enriching uranium for weapons:

Vice President Dick Cheney charged in an interview released Tuesday that Iran is trying to develop weapons-grade uranium, though international inspectors and U.S. intelligence services have not found evidence of such an effort.

"Obviously, they're also heavily involved in trying to develop nuclear weapons enrichment, the enrichment of uranium to weapons-grade levels," Cheney said, according to a transcript released by the White House of an interview done Monday in Turkey with ABC's Martha Raddatz.

Both the IAEA and the U.S. intel community have found otherwise.

Just in case you were wondering, John McCain's now well-publicized gaffe on Al Qaeda in Iraq, in which he blamed Iran for arming and training AQI, was the subject of a report from the American Enterprise Institute in February. No surprise: AEI agrees with McCain that Iran backs Al Qaeda. (There's no evidence that Senator Lieberman, who whispered in McCain's ear to correct his misstatement, plans to whisper in AEI's ear as well.)

Here's a link to the AEI report, issued February 19, called "Iranian Influence in the Levant, Iraq, and Afghanistan":

From the beginning, Iran did not confine its support of anti-American fighters to Shia groups. It also supported Ansar al-Islam, a radical Sunni terrorist group with close ties to al Qaeda. ...

More recently, Iranian arms dealers have supplied new weapons to al Qaeda in Iraq. A supply of armsflowed from Iran into al Qaeda strongholds in Salman Pak and Arab Jabour, presumably from the Iranian border to the south and east. From there, al Qaeda transported the munitions to Baghdad. Iranian arms became an important part of al Qaeda’s arsenal. ...

Whatever Tehran’s intent might be, it is clear that Sunni insurgents, including al Qaeda terrorists, have received Iranian aid in the form of sanctuary within Iran and advanced Iranian-supplied weapons. It is reported that some of them also received training in Iran.

McCain in the Times, March 31:

“Maliki decided to take on this operation without consulting the Americans,’’ Mr. McCain said on his campaign bus as it rolled through downtown Meridian, saying that the move showed independence but that he had expected the military to focus on Mosul.

And Steve Hadley, who actually knows, in the Times on March 29:

Mr. Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, said the United States had known of the Basra operation in advance, suggesting a good deal of coordination between the United States and Iraq.