The Scottish Sunday Herald is reporting a right-wing U.S. think tank called Project for the New American Century created a secret blueprint for President Bush’s Cabinet to attack Iraq in September of 2000, long before President Bush took power in January 2001 and long before the September 11 attacks. The blueprint was drawn up for Dick Cheney, now vice president; Donald Rumsfeld, now war secretary; Paul Wolfowitz, now Rumsfeld’s deputy; and Lewis Libby, now Cheney’s chief of staff. The plan suggests Bush’s Cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region, whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power. It says, “The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.” The blueprint also supports an earlier document written by Wolfowitz and Libby that says the U.S. must “discourage advanced industrial nations from challenging our leadership or even aspiring to a larger regional or global role.”