Burnt offering: how a 2003 secret overture from Tehran might have led to a deal on Iran's nuclear capacity--if the Bush administration hadn't rebuffed it.(INVESTIGATION)

IRAN'S "MAD MULLAHS" WANT NUCLEAR WEAPONS TO destroy Israel and can only be stopped by the threat or use of military force. That's what the Bush administration would have the public believe, as it pushes toward a confrontation with Iran over that country's nuclear program. A key link in the argument is that Tehran has shown no interest in negotiating over the nuclear issue. As State Department spokesman Scan McCormack told reporters last January, the administration didn't then see "anything that indicates the Iranians are willing to engage in a serious diplomatic ...