Soccer Dad

Mccain covers the beach boys

There's a joke that a Jew goes to a judge in Nazi Germany to change his name.

The judge roars at Mr. Adolph Cohen, "I can tell this is one of your Jew tricks. You want to change your last name so the authorities won't know your identity. But you can't fool me, your request is denied.

Mr. Cohen, in response, stammers sheepishly, "But your Honor, it was my first name that I wanted to change."

Seeing the byline Mohammad Cohen on this story reminded me of that joke (via memeorandum).

The George W Bush administration plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months, an informed source tells Asia Times Online, echoing other reports that have surfaced in the media in the United States recently.

Two key US senators briefed on the attack planned to go public with their opposition to the move, according to the source, but their projected New York Times op-ed piece has yet to appear.

The source, a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community, speaking anonymously, said last week that that the US plans an air strike against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The air strike would target the headquarters of the IRGC's elite Quds force. With an estimated strength of up to 90,000 fighters, the Quds' stated mission is to spread Iran's revolution of 1979 throughout the region.

My guess is that the anonymous source is Col. Larry Wilkerson, actually the Gen. Powell's chief of staff who faults the Bush administration for not engaging Iran diplomatically.

Newshoggers fingers Richard Armitage as the source.

I wonder, does he have inside information he's leaking here or is he just shilling for the War Party again in trying to drum up a narrative for bombing Iran?

Clearly Cernig didn't read the Asia Times article very carefully, because it's clear that the source was against any use of force against Iran. (In my mind that makes it plausible that Armitage is the source as - despite Newshoggers' claim to the contrary - he would likely oppose such attacks.)

iran