Colin Powell and his Undersecretary of State, Richard Armitage, are apparently - and thankfully - not reading from the same script. Powell had words for Iran's theocrat mullahs that were abnormally, er, honest for Foggy Bottom:
The Iranian people want their freedom back, of this there can be no doubt...They do not want to banish Islam from their lives, far from it...They want to be free from those who have dragged the sacred garments of Islam into the political gutter...They have been imprisoned for wanting this, they have been gagged for wanting this, they have been intimidated and threatened for wanting this, some have already died for wanting this.
Asked about the politically stunning awarding of the Nobel peace prize to activist Shirin Ebadi:
The hidebound clerics of Iran know what it means, too...Should they be worried? Does morning follow night? They should be.
Hidebound indeed. Could someone encourage Mr. Armitage to straighten out his own statements about our Iran policy? Good cop/bad cop would be a good explanation of this dichotemy if we weren't talking about the State Department. Let's hope Powell's statements are neither isolated or due for retraction.