The Boston Globe reports (link found via Think Progress) that --
The Bush administration has dismantled a special committee that was established last year to coordinate aggressive actions against Iran and Syria, State Department officials said this week.
The interagency group, known as the Iran Syria Policy and Operations Group [ISOG], met weekly throughout much of 2006 to coordinate actions such as curtailing Iran's access to credit and banking institutions, organizing the sale of military equipment to Iran's neighbors, and supporting democratic forces that oppose the two regimes.
Yet the Wall Street Journal politics blog notes that --
U.S. OFFICIALS BOOST opposition group’s plans for international demonstrations against Syrian government. Some current and former American government figures are helping the National Salvation Front with media promotion for demonstrations in Berlin, London and Washington tomorrow to coincide with the expected re-election of President Assad.
The two stories are of course consistent, but the 2nd one doesn't lend itself to dovish interpretations of the first one. Incidentally, the mystery of why ISOG-type policies would persist even when it is disbanded within the State Department may be related to the mystery of whether Liz Cheney has a new job. Her most recent article for the Washington Post was very Syria-centric.
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