Powell's Unfortunate Outburst

EDITORIAL
Los Angeles Times
November 21, 2004

Here we go again. Last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell, who apparently is not going to leave office quietly, unexpectedly blurted out that Iran was seeking to outfit a missile with a nuclear bomb. The comment was based, you guessed it, on credible intelligence and reports of exile groups. But, of course, there was no elaborating. Never mind Powell's now-discredited show-and-tell before the U.N. Security Council on Iraq's mythical weapons programs early in 2003, this is the "trust us on national security matters" administration.

What makes the administration's lack of credibility so alarming is that we are under no illusions about the nature of the Iranian regime — or of Europe's ability to police any deal with Tehran, for that matter. Iran is certainly capable of trying to hoodwink the international community by advancing its nuclear weapons program covertly. Last Sunday, Tehran agreed with France, Germany and Britain to freeze its uranium enrichment program temporarily in exchange for trade concessions.

To read the rest of the editorial, see Los Angeles Times

Blog Interruption Explained

Blog editor's note: Several people have e-mailed to inquire about why this blog has not been updated for about a month. I have been traveling, which explains the long "silence" between posts.