And not just turkey. The flurry of Middle East consultations now includes a Dick Cheney trip to Saudi Arabia -- leaving on Thanksgiving Friday, and announced with about 36 hours notice. What are they up to?
UPDATE: One part of the scheme is now apparent -- Cheney is in Baghdad for the "SURPRISE!" Thanksgiving visit to the troops.
2nd Update: The claim that Cheney is in Baghdad was being reported on radio news by Baghdad correspondents at 1400 GMT, citing Iraqi government sources. But as of 1600 GMT, the White House is denying it.
Final Update: While it's always possible that the original reports of Cheney in Baghdad were incorrect, an alternative is that a visit was planned but was put off at the very last minute as a result of the chaos in Baghdad.
OK we lied really final update 23 December: The intrigue has only deepened about what Cheney was up to in Riyadh since his visit. His trip was followed by the abrupt resignation of the Saudi Ambassador to the US, Prince Turki al-Faisal, who it seems returned home to be in a stronger position to battle Prince Bandar, who is pushing a pro-Bush line within the Saudi government, particularly regarding a hard line in Iran. It's not that the Saudis in general want to go easy in Iran, but they differ on strategy. There seems to be a constituency advocating stepped up support for Sunni insurgents in Iraq should the US withdraw, and for a big increase in oil output to drive down the price and hurt Iran economically. Apparently Prince Bandar, echoing the Bush line, is for some reason opposed to the latter. Here's one of several recent NYT articles trying to decipher the signs see also this Washington Post article.
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