Juan Cole - June 18, 2005

First Round of Iran's Presidential Elections Inconclusive
Turnout Stronger than Expected

The Presidential elections in Iran produced a messy result that will require a run-off between the two top candidates. The final outcome won't be clear until Saturday afternoon at least, but it seems that former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani will be one of the two.

Mosque Attack Wounds 4
US Raids against al-Dhari, Muqtada

Sibernews reports, 'A car bomb has exploded close to a Shia mosque in eastern Baghdad as people were emerging from Friday prayers, injuring at least two people [the Guardian reports 4 wounded]. The driver seems to have rammed a fuel lorry passing through the Kamaliya district, police sources said.

Zarqawi and the Scarlett Pimpernel

WESTLEY: ' Well, Roberts had grown so rich, he wanted to retire. So he took me to his cabin and told me his secret. "I am not the Dread Pirate Roberts," he said. "My name is Ryan. I inherited this ship from the previous Dread Pirate Roberts, just as you will inherit it from me. The man I inherited it from was not the real Dread Pirate Roberts, either. His name was Cummerbund. The real Roberts has been retired fifteen years and living like a king in Patagonia." Then he explained the name was the important thing for inspiring the necessary fear. You see, no one would surrender to the Dread Pirate Westley." '

-William Goldman, "The Princess Bride"

Bill Montgomery's "Form over Substance" goes beyond expressing skepticism about the shadowy stories coming out of Iraq about top aides of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi being arrested.