Commentary on the UAE Weapons Seizure

The shipment of RPG’s and detonators to Iran being akin to shipping snow to South Dakota in February, I continue to be curious about the ultimate destination for those weapons. Like GI Korea, I think it makes sense that Iran might have been using North Korea as a plausibly deniable source for weapons it planned to give to Shiite militias in Iraq, or to al Qaeda. Iran, after all, is a major manufacturer of antitank missiles, including RPG’s, in its own right. It gives me cause to fear that Iran is planning some kind of Easter Offensive for Iraq. The more I think about this, the less sense it makes that this could have been anything but a willful effort by both Iran and North Korea to arm terrorists.

President Bush removed North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism on October 11, 2008. Discuss.

But the reason I’m posting this is simply to link to some commentary by Claudia Rosett and Don Kirk on the story.

Update: Here, on the other hand, is the kind of baseless conspiracy theory I don’t even like to see printed in an adult publication. I’m no fan of Vlad Putin to be sure and put very little past him, but I think it’s unbecoming of Time to go to print with a story based entirely on one guy’s speculation.