Irbil

The news about the raid on Iranian offices in Irbil created a lot of talk and speculation yesterday. Well, Steve Clemons is about the most insidery blogger I'm aware of, and this post is startling:

Washington intelligence, military and foreign policy circles are abuzz today with speculation that the President, yesterday or in recent days, sent a secret Executive Order to the Secretary of Defense and to the Director of the CIA to launch military operations against Syria and Iran.

The President may have started a new secret, informal war against Syria and Iran without the consent of Congress or any broad discussion with the country.

When Clemons says that "intelligence, military and foreign policy circles are abuzz," it means something - he's got the contacts.

And his buddy Josh has a similar report:

I'm getting some hints that this raid on the Iranian consulate in northern Iraq may be part of something much bigger. Is there a classified presidential directive to the CIA and DOD to take down Syrian and Iranian operations inside Iraq, even so far as operations into Iranian and Syrian territory? And is the aim here to provoke a conflict with one or the other of these states? To provoke an attack from Iran perhaps? The plan from the neocons was always to build the chaos outwards. Never too late, I guess. Watch this. Something's up.

Build the chaos outwards. I guess I misunderstood the ink-spot strategy. Raiding these offices in Irbil to set up a provocation for Iran to attack does sound like this administration's MO. I would guess that light would be shed on this matter before long, but who knows.