This is an attempt at good journalism, by airing a point of view that apparantly causes some controversy in the Bush administration, but comes as no surprise to most world observers. Their opinion is that the Bush Administration intends to maintain a hard line against Iran, while giving as little ground as possible to critics of Bush's hard line policy--including his dad's friends and business partners at the Iraq Study Group. The news here, for the casual reader, is just how easily co-operation could have been had with Iran, had the focus been maintained on Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden, rather than the sudden shift by Bush into Iraq. The piece does not seem to explain fully what Iran's current attitude is of having ... More »

This is a very important story. It represents the views of a very well-connected insider who is frightened at the Bush Administration's clueless foreign policy, and who is adding to pressure from the "realist" group against Cheney and the neocons in an attempt to forestall a war against Iran. The article redactions are examples of political censorship controlled by the White House, as the article had already passed review. The redactions are printed dramatically as black stripes and one may infer that they match the length of the missing text. The full article may most probably be reconstructed like a jig saw puzzle by going to the links helpfully supplied by the New York Times: ... More »

What a revolting development! Has this happened ever before--when artciles have been blacked out to this point? I want to comment on the content of the article, but I'm completely stymied by censorship.