Via Metafilter comes some analysis of recently de-classified US Government documents relating to their overtures to Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980's:

"The Archive incidentally shows that the Bechtel Corporation actively connived to subvert 1988 Congressional sanctions on Iraq for using weapons of mass destruction by seeking non-US subcontractors. Bechtel was awarded an Iraq reconstruction contract by US AID last spring worth at least $640 million."

The analysis comes from the weblog of Juan Cole, Professor of History at the University of Michigan, and it is one more example of how social software provides (almost real-time) access to informed analysis from specialists in their field rather than the usual rent-a-pundit rubbish that is served up by the major news channels. Rather than wait for historians to complete their research and publish a book, we can tap into ongoing research and analysis via their weblogs.