Ledeen gives us a peek into the Iranian mullahs minds

... and it is NOT pretty. Setting the stage he discusses a meeting held by Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (not the wacko president Ahmadinejad) for his top advisers that reportedly took place back in December. In the meeting they discussed a deadline of April 8 because "it has been promised that by 8 April, we will be in a position to show the entire world that 'we are members of the club.'" We can all guess at the meaning of these words or rely on intelligence that insists they are several years away from having a nuclear weapon. We can also urge for the administration to push farther and faster when it comes to destablizing the Iranian regime. They've made a good start with $75 million dedicated to TV and radio to be broadcast into Iran, and the world has taken a much harder line with Iran's nuclear ambitions. Still urgency may be necessary based on some other remarks reportedly made at this meeting. The weakness of the Bush administration is notable. Recent public opinion polls show the country seriously divided, and the top Iranian experts on North America have concluded that the president is paralyzed, unable to make any tough decision (and hence unable to order an attack against Iran); 2006 is an election year, and even some Republicans are distancing themselves from Bush, weakening the White House even further; Israel is facing the darkest moment in its history (remember that this conversation took place before Sharon’s stroke). Likud is divided, Netanyahu is openly against Sharon, and the Labor party has lost its old guard. No strong government is possible (and hence Israel is similarly unable to order an attack against Iran). Therefore this is a moment for Iran to take maximum advantage; Iranian power and prestige is at an all-time high among the Palestinian terrorist groups, from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah, to secular, even Communist groups. Terrorists who in the past had rejected Iranian approaches now travel to Tehran for support; The Syrians have given Iran final say over the activities of Sunni terrorist groups in their country; Iran now exercises effective control over groups ranging from Hezbollah, Ansar al-Islam, al Qaeda, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Jaish-e-Mahdi, and Jaish-e-Huti (Yemen) to the Joint Shi’ite Army of Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, and part of Saudi Arabia, as well as Islamic movements in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia; In the four and a half months since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has become president, he has brought the extremist group led by Mezbah Yazdi under control, and, notably, he has forced Syria to resist all pressure from the United States; The Europeans are no longer necessary for the Iranian strategy, and can now be "thrown out of our game." They are in no position to do any damage because they are too busy fighting with one another; Khamenei called for two urgent missions. The first was to do everything possible to drive up oil prices by an additional 30 percent by the first week in April. The second was to intensify the propaganda war against the West in the same period. He stressed that it was important to compel the United States to face at least three crises by the April 8. Not a pretty picture. Ledeen expands on this information a bit. In short, the Iranians at the highest levels of the regime believe they have good reason for behaving quite feisty, and if you look at the events that have taken place since then, you will see that the mullahs are acting consistently with the analysis presented to (and in part by) Khamenei. The propaganda war — lately and dramatically in the form of the cartoon crusades — has indeed been intensified. The Europeans have been systematically dissed, and more: their embassies in Tehran have been stoned, Iranian diplomats have insulted them with regularity, and the regime slapped a trade embargo on all goods coming from the infidel Europeans. When the French announced that the Iranian nuclear program was undoubtedly designed to produce weapons, Tehran demanded an apology. Above all, there is no longer any pretense of cooperation with the Big Three negotiators on the nuclear program. This suggests that the mullahs do indeed believe they have acquired nuclear weapons, and there is no longer any need to play stalling games with the Germans, French, and Brits. And in light of some more recent developments... like In From the Cold pointing out that Iran just inked a huge deal for a major oilfield with China, and China coincidentally was just linked to an illegal import of hi-tech US military items like cruise missiles, Blackhawk helicopter engines, and a F-16 engine. None of this is proof that China is pulling a "right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing" by actively aiding Iran's nuclear quest while publicly going along with IAEA recommending taking Iran to the UN, but it doens't paint a rosy picture of the future with Iran.