The first thing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did when he came to power was purge his diplomatic corps.  The fanatics of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard pushed out the career diplomats of the more softly spoken (and corrupt) Mullahs like Rafsanjani. This week Knight—Ridder reports one result: The new Iranian diplomats just "privately threatened the European powers" at the United Nations in New York. In a story that quickly disappeared from the headlines, Jonathan Landay reported: "Iran menaces European powers Tehran tells Britain, France and Germany it will retaliate if Security Council halts uranium program Iran has privately threatened Britain, France and Germany that it will escalate the crisis over its nuclear program "beyond Europe's control" in retaliation for any steps the U.N. Security Council takes to force it to abandon uranium enrichment. Iranian diplomats delivered the warning orally in meetings Monday with foreign ministry officials in London, Berlin and Paris, said...(Read Full Post)