"Steaming towards a confrontation"

Deja vu all over again.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 — President Bush’s national security advisers have ordered a delay in publication of evidence intended to support Washington’s contention that Iran supplies lethal technology and other aid to militias in Iraq, senior administration officials said Thursday.

The decision was described by officials who were struggling to explain why American officials in Baghdad have twice canceled plans to present the evidence, delays that have raised questions about the quality of the intelligence.

Some administration officials said there was a continuing debate about how well the information proved the Bush administration’s case.

One official who has reviewed elements of the briefing said the decision to delay it — made by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser — was also motivated by concern about potentially disclosing the sources of the intelligence, and by a debate over what might be the most politically opportune moment to press the case that Iran is the source of some of the most deadly attacks on American and Iraqi forces.

Another new product launch.

I guess we should take as a hopeful sign that the administration even gives a damn about its credibility at this point.

Josh Marshall is predicting March Madness.