Via Andrew Sullivan, this Economist blog post points out that a quote that Norman Podhoretz used to portray the leadership in Tehran as undeterrable came from none other than known fabricator Amir Taheri, who published the false story in the spring of 2006 about the Iranian government making Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians wear badges.

Iran expert and GMU professor Shaul Bakhash did some digging and concluded that his “research, I think, clearly establishes that the alleged quotation is a fabrication.”

The Iranian regime says plenty of deplorable things. So it says a lot that Mr. Podhoretz’s preferred policies are so far around the bend that the quote that best made the case for them is false. Then again, maybe this sort of thing is par for the course. Mr. Podhoretz has a variety of peculiar views.