A Blast from the Past

The name "Ghorbanifar" may ring a bell for those of you who remember the Iran-Contra scandal. He was the guy who convinced North and Ledeen of the value of the deal. He also failed three polygraph tests and was dismissed by the CIA as being unreliable. Well, he's back, still telling us that Iran is ready for regime change. He figures prominently in an article by Laura Rozen in Mother Jones.

For Rozen, all of the back movements going on now about Iran seem very much like those that attended Iraq:

• The expatriates who smell revolution
• The money to promote democracy there
• People being moved to the Persian Gulf to get a better view of Iran
• The think tanks launching Iran initiatives

You would think that the debacle that has become Iraq would have chastened some of the leaders who appear to be moving towards making the same mistakes.