An old agenda behind ban?

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 04: Demonstrators march in support of a ruling by a federal judge in Seattle that grants a nationwide temporary restraining order against the presidential order to ban travel to the United States from seven Muslim-majority countries, inside the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport on February 4, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. David McNew/Getty Images/AFP== FOR NEWSPAPERS, INTERNET, TELCOS & TELEVISION USE ONLY ==

PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s ban on nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries in West Asia and North Africa (Wana) entering the United States has brought to the fore the role and influence of some of the forces that shape US foreign policy in the region.

With the exception of one country, the Trump list is similar to a purported list of seven countries that the US planned to attack “in five years” that a Pentagon official had allegedly revealed to former US General Wesley Clark in 2001, a little more than seven weeks after the 9/11 tragedy. That list had all the countries in Trump’s list except Yemen. Instead of Yemen, there was Lebanon.