Dictators sometimes die hard. Ailing, old Mohammed Mossadegh, the fainting phenomenon of Iran, is a case in point. During his trial for life on charges of treason, the wily ex-dictator has come up with a display of courtroom histrionics that indicate a foxy plan to outbaffle the prosecution and save his skin, or the need for a psychiatrist.

He has fainted, wept, wailed, attacked the judge and prosecutor, fired his defense lawyer and behaved generally as if he were a candidate for a straitjacket. The only evidence that such is not the case is Mossadegh’s record of past performance. He has relied on similar emotional hijinks on other occasions to gain his ends.