July 28, 2007 (LPAC)--U.S. military and intelligence sources--and even some White House officials--are growing alarmed that Saudi-armed and financed fundamentalist insurgents inside Iraq could trigger an out-of-control confrontation in the region, leading to a new "hundred years war" between rival Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims. According to the sources, when Vice President Dick Cheney traveled to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in Nov. 2006, to promote a Sunni bloc to challenge Iran's growing power in the region, some Saudi leaders took this as an open invitation to bankroll and heavily arm Salafi tribes in parts of Sunni-dominated Iraq, to wage warfare against the Shi'ite majority in the U.S.-occupied country.

Now, eight months since the Cheney visit, the reported flow of arms and cash to Sunni tribes in Anbar province and other Sunni-majority areas of Iraq, has reached the point where a major portion of the insurgency is Saudi-backed. This flies in the face of recent claims, by Cheney and Elliott Abrams-backed propagandists, that the greatest immediate danger comes from Iran's backing for the insurgency in Iraq. In June, Cheney and Abrams dispatched Gen. Kevin Bergner to Baghdad, to establish a one-man "stovepipe" of fake or exaggerated intelligence, targeting Iran as the major source of trouble inside Iraq. Previously, Gen. Bergner had been Abrams' military deputy at the NSC. Bergner's constant stream of anti-Iranian agitprop from Baghdad was recently used by war-hawk Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) to ram through a resolution demanding regular intelligence reports to Congress on Iran's nefarious activities inside Iraq.

The Bergner-Abrams-Cheney "stovepipe" flies in the face of recently released data, showing that over 40 percent of the jailed foreign fighters in Iraq are from Saudi Arabia, and a much higher percentage of suicide bombers are also from the Kingdom. In contrast, one percent of the jailed insurgents are Iranians and under 10 percent are from Syria. Bergner's propaganda wurlitzer also runs counter to the recent Baghdad meeting between U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and his Iranian counterpart, hosted by the Iraqi foreign minister. At the meeting, the second such face-to-face session in the past two months, Iran and the U.S. discussed mutual interests in the stability of the al-Maliki government, and the end of sectarian violence. Work is underway to establish a permanent working commission of American, Iranian and Iraqi officials, to improve the security situation in Iraq. While sources say that the Baghdad meeting by no means guarantees U.S.-Iranian cooperation, they did say that it could counter the Cheney war drive against Iran.