Iranian Whispers

There was some more speculation about the Prez's plans for Iran and Syria (but mostly Iran) today. Last night, he leaned on the two countries with vague threats. Bill Arkin also picked up on that, and he noted that, given the chance by Matt Lauer on Today, Condi refused to rule out attacking inside Iran's borders.

She also faced a few questions on just that subject when she appeared in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today. As I first noticed from Josh Marshall, Chairman Joe Biden even warned an attack on Iran would cause a "constitutional confrontation in the Senate."

In the meantime, troops in Erbil in the Kurdish area of Northern Iraq, raided an Iranian office in the early hours of the morning and took up to six Iranians into custody. Some reports have said it was the day after the Prez spoke to the nation, but if you figure in the time change, it seems to me that the raid was pretty much instantaneous with the speech. Embassies and consulates are considered the soil of the nation they represent, and it's against international law for another country to invade. The Iranians are upset over the incident (yeah, I know, they don't have a lot of room to complain), but U.S. officials begged to differ:

A senior State Department official said that the Iranian office in Erbil was not technically a consulate, but rather a liaison office which also provided some consular services.

He said that American officials believed that the Iranians intended to turn the office into a consulate at some point, but that had not yet happened. Therefore, he said, the State Department does not consider the office to be Iranian territory.

Certain Kurdish soldiers seemed to think it was an official diplomatic office. About 100 of them with arms drawn surrounded American military vehicles in a tense stand off for about two hours this morning. The Times reports that the Kurds were "possibly angered by the earlier raid." It's worth a reminder that it's among the Kurds where Americans are most appreciated. Are we starting to alienate them now?

Steve Clemons at The Washington Note passes on speculation from "Washington intelligence, military and foreign policy circles" that the Prez has issued a secret order to both the Defense Department and the CIA allowing military operations against Iran and Syria. Although it may be informed speculation, it's still just speculation, so we'll have to see if anyone comes up with something more solid in the next few days. But it does raise the question: If Iraq is Vietnam, does that mean Iran is Cambodia?