Iranian headline: “Saddam Visited by Bush.”

It doesn’t matter that the story is outright false. The Iranian government started this rumor to convince Iraqi Shi‘ites that Washington aims to betray them. The lie will be packaged with innuendo about outreach to Sunni insurgents and re-Baathification to convince fence-sitting Shi’ites that they face abandonment, 1991 all over again, and that, therefore, they’re safer siding with Tehran. White House silence will be seen a confirmation of guilt. It is in this context that CIA leaking is particularly cannibalistic. Too much is at stake, well beyond the 2006 elections.