Know this, all ye who tremble before the Czar, et cetera. There are no coincidences in foreign policy.

Readers here know the Czar has been sharing a little more each day about the chessboard setup that is Iran. Chess was invented in Persia—one wonders if they still remember the game there. Here is the twelve-step program up until today:

1. Saudi Arabia announces that Israel has flyover rights to take out Iran—if Israel wanted to, for whatever reason—anytime they want. Check!
2. Egypt announces that Israel’s navy has access to the Suez Canal…you know, in case they wanted to get some cruise missile submarine platforms to the Persian Gulf. For whatever reason. Check!
4. VP Joe Biden blurts out that Israel has a right to defend herself against Iran, even if that means a pre-emptive strike. He repeats the same notion a couple more times in the same interview. No one from the White House corrects him.
5. Russia reveals that Iran is attempting to purchase missiles capable of shooting down Israeli aircraft and missiles.
6. Israeli PM Netanyahu travels secretly to Russia to meet with Russian president Dmitri Medvedev. There is no word on what was discussed.
7. President Obama, within days, announces he is not deploying a missile shield in Eastern Europe.
8. Russia elects not to give any missile technology to Iran, and by the way, asks Iran shut up about the Holocaust, because things are not going quite so well for Iran right now. Check!
9. Iran attempts to hold an anti-Israeli protest, but is embarrassed when anti-Iranian protestors show up in massive numbers, and hold a near pro-Israeli demonstration. Check!
10. SecState Hillary Clinton warns Iran to comply fully with the October 1st talks to avoid any further unpleasantries.
11. Medvedev confirms he met with Netanyahu to talk about Iran specifically and come to some understandings still unrevealed. Medvedev also throws out an oddly mixed message that warns Iran of the horrors of an Israeli strike, while assuring the world that the Israelis are not definitely planning to do so before October 1st.
12. Israel states that all options, diplomatic and military, are still in play. Just in case anyone misunderstood what Medvedev was really trying to say.

Now comes word that Americans received a letter from the International Atomic Energy Agency that reveals the existence of a secret second uranium refinery in Qom, Iran. Check!

And this while Russian, European, and American strategic experts are in New York for the UN freak show, nearly everyone necessary conveniently staying in the Waldorf-Astoria. And who else was there? Dmitri Medvedev, who has been a key player in setting up the game. Also, in Pittsburgh, the increasingly belligerent Nicolas Sarkozy and mild-mannered reporter PM Gordon Brown, were conveniently able to meet over the issue.

And who was not? Ahmadî-Nezhâd, who is staying at the Days Inn in New York (he evidently loves the Manhattan street dogs floating in frothy brine; they just don’t get it right in Tehran). Ahmadî-Nezhâd refutes the shock and surprise, insisting that the ultra-secret military-run uranium processing installation hidden from the world was perfectly legal. Why, he has a building permit, too, but evidently the GC forgot to tape it to the front window, the lazy bastard. Why does this matter? Because Ahmadî-Nezhâd is in New York, where he is unable to access either his spin doctors or the Iranian state-controlled media. The Iranian people have been given a well-timed choice: they either hear the truth come over international wires, or they hear nothing from him except humiliating, impotent silence. He’s cut off, but the truth isn’t. Either is a political win for the good guys. Check!

“U.S. officials said the three Western leaders went public because Iran learned that the U.S. had long been aware of the undeclared site.” Is that so? Then why the surprise over receipt of that letter from the IAEA that shocked the world with news of a top secret Qom-based refinery that we evidently knew all about?

Because, friends, there was no surprise. The letter was merely that surprise move where the queen slides and takes out Iran’s queen for another check. The US has known about the base, got the IAEA to write the letter, and then sat on it until the moment was right. Now you have Ahmadî-Nezhâd in New York, trapped. You then reveal the letter when he is unprepared, cut off, and isolated from his handlers. What can he do? Say the letter is a forgery two days after he acknowledged the validity of the UN in his speech? That makes him look like a hypocrite to the rest of the world. Does he admit the letter is genuine? If so, he confesses that the Iranians were pushing for nuclear weapons instead of nuclear power. If he denies the secrecy of it, he now is forced to admit they have the base which becomes a lever at the October 1st meeting.

These are not coincidences. Even if all of this is just dumb luck, Iran must realize that they are being checked repeatedly, and that mate may not be far away.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.