My guess it's a deliberate leak from the Bush team (but not necessarily from Bush himself). I just can't visualize too many closet liberals hiding out in the White House faxing memos to the NYT. Besides, if they really wanted to smear the administration, I'm sure there's much better dirt lying around which could be outed. This document doesn't compromise the Bush team at all. It just shows them doing their job and it doesn't reveal anything everybody doesn't already know.

It does do two things, though. It lets Maliki know the time has come to either fish or cut bait, and it lets Sadr know that Maliki is under pressure from Washington he (Maliki) can't afford to ignore any longer. My guess is they're trying to persuade Sadr to ease off Maliki.

THere is one other possibility, they're getting ready to cut Maliki off at the knees and leave him twisting in the wind, because it's pretty clear he's not working out for us, and this is how they're prepping us for it.

As for the Time's role in all of this, I say it's outstanding! Anything that doesn't involve codes, troop movements, tactics or technical weapons details needs to be put in the public eye. There's been enough lying already.