Dangerous Curves Ahead

Iran's leaders get what Great Satan is up to, and are frankly cranky about it. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei chewed out visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talbani over the weekend, warning him, according to the official Iranian news agency, that "the occupiers were preparing the ground for a long and permanent presence in Iraq."

Iran considers herself a winner in Iraq - not now - though perhaps if and when Great Satan splits the hood she can collect the ill gotten booty, seal her regional hegemonic ambitions and continue to unsweetly pursue that magical shi ite dominated crescent from Persia to the Red and Med seas.

Meanwhile, Iran is sending former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to Iraq to talk some sense into the Baghdad government. Also, the Iranian government has detained Roxana Saberi, an American freelance journalist (and former Miss North Dakota) who works a lot for NPR.

She should be released immediately.

Plus - it gets better!

Great Satan's Sec of State openly dissed the idea of jawflapping with Iran (wonder how Dennis Ross feels about that?!) as an open doubt that anything would come of it via stopping - or retarding a fully nuked up future Iran.

Washington Post and New York Times stories, there are differences in how the "bargain" is described by the State Department, the Defense Department, and the White House letter. State appears to suggest that the missile defense deployment will be abandoned if the Russian government cooperates on ending the Iranian nuclear weapons program.

Undersecretary of State Bill Burns is quoted as saying,

"If, through strong diplomacy with Russia and our other partners, we can reduce or eliminate that threat, it obviously shapes the way at which we look at missile defense."

Secretary of Defense Gates is quoted as suggesting that deployment of the missile defense system should be halted
"if there is no Iranian missile program."

And in yet a third construct, the Times today describes 44's secret note as saying, "the United States would not need to proceed with the interceptor system, which has been vehemently opposed by Russia since it was proposed by the Bush administration, if Iran halted any efforts to build nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles".

These are important differences. Hope the New York Times has it right (for once).

Last but not least - Iran announced home grown production of "stealth drones" - the description given means these flying robots are built for one thing - kamakize swarm attacks.

Art - "Dangerous Curves Ahead. Check Credit Limit Now"