Expect a fresh round of pretty vicious rants and important action alerts from our friends on the left over this, as their famed toughness on terrorism alas imagines not only taking no tough action against Iran (even if limited to assassinations, as Glenn Reynolds learned) but politely avoiding even the mere suggestion of it. Bombing is not, in fact, a good option at the moment, but threats of bombing might be. The more paranoid the regime gets, the more they choke their own public, the greater backlash they risk.

He mentions Iranian camps at which Iraqi Shiites are being trained to kill U.S. troops, but doesn’t say which he has in mind. Could be the one outside Tehran that the Times of London reported on in April. Or it could be the one in Ahwaz where, coincidentally, you’ll find a replica of the layout of the government complex in Karbala — the same complex where five U.S. soldiers were captured and murdered in January during a mysterious raid which Petraeus himself has blamed on the Iranian-backed Khazali network and the Quds Force. (That’s the same Khazali network U.S. troops have been targeting in Sadr City over the past few months.) Or maybe he’s thinking of some other camp where they train Hezbollah to operate the 20,000 rockets they’re reported to have amassed in southern Lebanon, some of them long-range, right under the noses of the UN and the Lebanese army.

Or maybe those are all secondary concerns and he’s really worried about this:

A British company has been closed down after being caught in an apparent attempt to sell black-market weapons-grade uranium to Iran and Sudan, The Observer can reveal.

Anti-terrorist officers and MI6 are now investigating a wider British-based plot allegedly to supply Iran with material for use in a nuclear weapons programme. One person has already been charged with attempting to proliferate ‘weapons of mass destruction’…

Investigators are understood to have evidence that Iran was to receive the uranium to help develop a nuclear weapons capability. ‘They may argue that the material is for civilian use but it does seem an extremely odd way to procure uranium,’ said Berry…

Details of the plot arrive against a backdrop of increasing co-operation between Sudan and Iran on defence issues, although the level of involvement, if any, of the governments in Khartoum and Tehran in the alleged nuclear plot is unclear.

There’s also a tantalizing mention that “[i]nvestigators believe they have uncovered the first proof that al-Qaeda supporters have been actively engaged in developing an atomic capability,” but the article doesn’t elaborate. Expect more next Sunday or from the Guardian during the week.

Update: Meanwhile, Barack Obama’s newest foreign policy advisor gives “dialogue” a big thumbs up.