An open mic caught President Obama assuring Russian President Dmitri Medvedev at a nuclear summit in Seoul, South Korea today that he will have “more flexibility” to deal with issues such as missile defense after the presidential election and asked Medvedev to give him some “space” until the election is over.

On CNN this afternoon, Mitt Romney pounced on Obama’s statement. “This is a president who is telling us one thing and doing something else and is planning on doing something even more frightening,” the former Massachusetts governor said, calling the comments “very, very troubling” because Russia “is without question our number one geopolitical foe.” Host Wolf Blitzer followed up:

BLITZER: You think Russia is a bigger foe right now than say Iran or China or North Korea? Is that what you’re suggesting governor?

ROMNEY: Well I’m saying in terms of a geopolitical opponent, the nation that lines up with the world’s worst actors. Of course the greatest threat the world faces is a nuclear armed Iran and a nuclear North Korea is troubling enough. But when these terrible actors pursue their course in the world and we go to the UN looking for ways to stop them … and who is it that always stands up for the world’s worst actors, it is always Russia, typically with China alongside.

So in terms of a geopolitical foe a nation that is on the Security Council that has the heft of the Security Council and is of course a massive nuclear power, Russia is the geopolitical foe and the idea that our president is planning on doing something with them that he’s not willing to tell the American people before the election is something I find very, very alarming.

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It’s unclear what Romney means by “geopolitical” foe in this context, as he did not cast any perceived Russian threat in a geographical sense.

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Speaking on a panel at J Street’s “Making History” conference yesterday, retired Israeli brigadier general Shlomo Brom, former director of strategic planning for the Israeli Defense Forces General Staff, complained that the debate on Iran’s nuclear program and whether to use military force is frenzied and beset with false claims. “The discourse is plagued with emotions … and with a lot of disinformation,” he said.

As evidence, Brom singled out the use of holocaust metaphors to describe the Iranian threat and the fact that there is little discussion about the “political ramifications” of an attack on Iran. “I’m not so concerned about the miltiary reprocussions of a military attack,” he said, adding that he was more worried that an Israeli-initiated attack on Iran would damage the Jewish state’s relationship with the U.S. “The United States will have no choice but to be dragged into this conflict,” he said.

The Associated Press reported this month that many Israelis agree with Brom, saying the Holocaust imagery when discussing the Iran theat cheapens its memory and unnecessarily escalates tensions, particularly when President Obama is urging restraint. Opposition leader Tzipi Livni called Holocaust imagery when referring to the Iranian threat “hysterical.” Dan Halutz, a former Israeli military chief, said the Holocaust comparison was “out of place.”

However, that does not mean the Iranian nuclear program does not constitute a threat. In a recent speech, Obama warned that an Iranian bomb posed a threat to the U.S. and its allies, as well as the international non-proliferation regime. But at this point the Obama administration believes that a diplomatic end to the crisis is “best and most permanent way” to end the standoff.

More to Brom’s point, pundits and politicians regularly peddle the unconfirmed claim that Iran currently has a nuclear weapons program, but neither the IAEA, nor U.S. and Israeli intelligence — while warning that evidence suggests Iran is moving toward a nuclear weapons program — believe this to be the case.

As Brom noted, the Iran debate is also shrouded in hyperbole. GOP Presidential contender Rick Santorum accused Obama of purposely allowing Iran to acquire nuclear weapons and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) once falsely claimed that Iran said it wants to launch a nuclear weapons strike against the United States.

Obama said last year that the sanctions on Iran he worked to put in place are having an “enormous bite” and he recently warned that this kind of rhetoric and misinformation damages the “broad international coalition” his administration built to confront Iran through diplomacy.

Shaima Alawadi will return to Iraq having left nearly 20 years ago to seek a better life in America, according to the Iraqi government.

The 32-year-old Iraqi-American mother of five died over the weekend from wounds inflicted during a beating last week in her suburban San Diego, CA home. Her daughter found the body with a note nearby reading, “Go back to your country, you terrorist.” A note found the week before and ignored as a prank, according to family friends, similarly read: “You’re a terrorist. You should move back to your country.” Alawadi wore a hijab, a scarf covering her head in keeping with traditional Islamic custom. Police are investigating whether the killing constituted a hate crime.

Today, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari requested that Alawadi’s body be returned to Iraq for burial: “The government has ordered to transport her body from California to Baghdad,” he said during a press conference in Baghdad, refusing further questions.

A local imam from Dearborn, MI, where Alawadi previously lived, said she was the daughter of an Iraqi Shia cleric. The Detroit Free Press reported:

The body of Alawadi, a U.S. citizen, is currently being prepared to be flown to Iraq for her funeral, said Al-Husainy. Her father, Sayed Nabeel Alawadi, is a Shia cleric in Iraq, whose government will pay for shipping expenses of the body, he said.

Shaima Alawadi left Iraq in 1993 because of Saddam Hussein’s crackdown on the country’s majority Shia population after an uprising in 1991.

Suehaila Amen, a 33-year-old in Michigan who runs a Lebanese-American Heritage Club there, said the killing raised fears among Muslim-American populations:

This is something that’s really scary. For a woman like myself who wears a hijab, you’re an open target. You’re always looking over your shoulder because of how you’re dressed and because someone might have skewed perceptions of the community.

A social media campaign sought to show solidarity and alleviate fears by encouraging users to post pictures of themselves in hijab. “There should not be an outfit that screams ‘kill me!’ Hoodie or hijab, this needs to stop,” the Facebook page says.

A paranoid Rick Santorum campaign ad, “Obamaville,” briefly replaces a picture of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad with President Barack Obama’s face, as the narrator talks about a “sworn American enemy”:

VOICEOVER: Every day, the residents of this town must come to grips with reality that a rogue nation and sworn American enemy has become a nuclear threat.

Watch a ThinkProgress analysis of the “sworn American enemy” appearance of Obama in the “Obamaville” ad:

After this subliminal editing was noted by Politico, the Santorum campaign professed confusion about Obama’s appearance.

“Obviously I’m not trying to say anything about Obama and Ahmadinejad,” Rick Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley said.

“The intent was to show that there will be a constant threat back and forth between the United States if they have nuclear capability,” John Brabender, the media consultant who made the video, claimed.

“Despite their sanctimonious protestations to the contrary,” liberal blogger Digby comments, “that quick cut in the ad that juxtaposes Ahmadinejad and Obama is a very creepy, underhanded trick.” She continued:

“The Republicans love to do this. (Recall the famous RATS ad.) But this one is especially low because it’s obviously aimed at the none-too-bright right wingers who believe that Obama is a Muslim usurper — which is just another racist dog-whistle with a little xenophobia and religious intolerance thrown in for good measure.”