Uh, what dots exactly were they trying to connect? AFAIK, this was a pretty blatant attempt to whip up Iran so we can do another regime change. You can say that's part of the war on terror if you like, but it is disingenuous to imply that they're meeting with this jackal to find out information to track down terrorists. ROFL.

To quote the story:

The official said that, while the first contact, in late 2024, had been formally sanctioned by the U.S. government in response to an Iranian government offer to provide information relevant to the war on terrorism

And, I would point out, that tracking down terrorists, per se, isn't all that "connecting dots" is about.

Who says we have to deal with unsavory and untrustworthy individuals? Of course, the larger question is when will neoconservatives dispense with sweeping generalizations to excuse every foreign policy misstep by this administration?

Ghorbanifar has been identified by our own CIA as a "near total, pathological liar" whom Robert MacFarlane even deemed "a total moron."

So what have we here? On one side we have Ghorbie--a con man and a fraud; on the other side we have apologists for Chalabi--another con man and fraud. From this, Steven blithely counsels that somehow good results will follow from this mixture.

Nossir; what is happening is yet another case where this administration has arrived at a pre-ordained conclusion and is now casting about for facts to support them. Con artists like Ghobie and Chalabi are eager to provide those 'facts;' for a price.

I am not suggesting that this is the most wonderful thing that we could do, but I do think that it is possible that such contact could be useful.

And by definition one has to deal with unsavory and untrustworthy characters in the world of human intelligence and in the general world of obtaining information.

Steven:

It's possible that if we all hold hands and hum Smells Like Teen Spirit, WMD will miraculously rise from the desert sands of Iraq.

And by whose definition do we decide to trust someone who has previously burned us on every occasion we've dealt with him? Again, this is yet another instance where this administration is shopping for convenient 'facts' to support a pre-conceived agenda.