Ignatius: "Iran's actions add fuel to Middle East saga"

I seem to be making a career of reading columns twice. Here's another case where the Courier editors, through selective editing and a creative headline, have managed to substantially alter the writer's point.

The original column is titled "15 Britons in a Sea of Intrigue" (free registration required). The roughly 300 words that the Courier left out -- "for space considerations," mind -- include more direct thinking on how Iran's radical Revolutionary Guard may be subverting its own government to create an international crisis and protect its interests. These are not "Iran's actions," as the Courier would have us believe, implying official action, but rather quite the opposite. There's description of how Iran is working diplomatically to resolve the problem, as well as a juicy connection to Israel's Mossad as provocateur that Ignatius turned up but the Courier didn't find interesting.

It is Revolutionary Guard, by the way, not Guards. The Courier slot laboriously changed every reference to the organization's proper name from singular to plural, as if Ignatius meant to refer to individual people rather than a military unit. This is just dumb. My gad, people, you're buying stuff from the Washington Post! Do you really think you're better editors than they are?

Parting shot, Tim: Changing "He is a former deputy defense minister" to "He was a former deputy defense minister" is rock-ignorant -- unless he's dead. Nice move.

Compare the original to the Courier's version.

Update, Apr 5, 3pm: Im just listening to a BBC report on the release of the sailors, in which PM Tony Blair is carefully pointing out that various actors within the Iranian hierarchy seem to be operating independently. This may be a diplomatic move, and it may be an admission that he's been a little too harsh with the Iranian government. In any case it backs up what Ignatius was saying.