Over the weekend it emerged that the documents the US presented to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as evidence of continuing Iraqi efforts to obtain fissionable material were forged. Nobody is accusing the US of having forged them; the theory is that some intelligence source sold bogus documents to the US. But the weapons inspectors, who the US is accusing of being unsophisticated, caught the “relatively crude errors” in the documents with little difficulty.

This indicates one of two things, both of them unpalatable. Either the current policy is being made based on intelligence that is highly suspect – after all, if the intelligence services were taken in by these forgeries, other intelligence must also be open to serious question – or the US knew the documents were forged and handed them over to the inspectors anyway, hoping they would not notice.

In the meantime, there was yet another story in the press this weekend indicating that Iran’s nuclear program is “very advanced.” Iran, of course, also has much stronger ties to terrorist groups than Iraq ever dreamed of. And unlike the groups Iraq supports, these are not Palestinian groups fighting Israel, but Islamist groups. Ever heard of Hezbollah? You will.