Plausible Deniability?

Stranger at Blah3 points out a phenom I did not know about: namely that Mr. Bush, who hosted Israeli PM Ariel Sharon a record number of times (Sharon all but lived here), has yet to meet or have a serious discussion with Sharon's replacement, Olmert. Stranger thinks there's a method to this madness in the form of plausible deniability.

Read on:

I just came across this article, and it struck me as curious, considering that Israel is traditionally lauded as one of this country's greatest allies.

Despite the Middle East facing its biggest crisis in years, U.S. President George W. Bush has had no contact with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

In fact the president has had no communication with any Israeli leaders, and White House Press Secretary, Tony Snow, says he has no plans to consult with any Israeli officials.

Why would Bush be willfully keeping his distance from the Olmert administration - especially at this crucial time, when the Middle East is on the verge of going up in flames?

Then an old catch phrase from the Nixon era popped into my head: 'Plausible Deniability.'

Plausible deniability is the term given to the creation of loose and informal chain of command in government.

In the case that assassinations, false flag or black ops or any other illegal or otherwise disrespectable and unpopular activities become public, high-ranking officials may deny any connection or awarenes to such act, or the agents used to carry out such act.

In politics and espionage, deniability refers to the ability of a "powerful player" or actor to avoid "blowback" by secretly arranging for an action to be taken on their behalf by a third party —ostensibly unconnected with the major player. More generally, "plausible deniability" can also apply to any act which leaves little or no evidence of wrongdoing or abuse.

Examples of this are the use of electricity or pain-compliance holds as a means of torture or punishment, leaving little or no tangible signs that the abuse ever took place.

Give me a minute to adjust my tin foil hat here...

Okay. It's been speculated around the web that the conflict currently in progress is no more than a proxy war to accomplish what the American military is presently unable to do - attack Iran's nuclear sites to either destroy or seriously throw back the nuclear enrichment program that the US alleges that Iran has been running. In light of stories that broke today - especially Israel's request to buy $120 million worth of jet fuel from the US - seem to point in the direction of Israeli jets flying many, many bombing runs in Lebanon over the forseeable future.

But a darker scenario could be that Israel is planning to use the jet fuel to fill their fuel tankers, fly around the Arabian Peninsula and launch air strikes on Iran.