Newshoggers Comments
I'm sure the media will bring out John Bolton, Norman Podhoretz et al to tell us how wrong the intelligence was before the Iraq war.
Libby, the newsmaking part of the NIE was known by the IC no later than April, as the following from a November WaPo article indicates:
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said yesterday that a long-awaited intelligence estimate covering Iran’s nuclear program will be finished by the end of this month, attributing the delay to new information collected in late spring that caused a reconsideration of some elements of the assessment.
“We had more information that inserted some new questions, so the effort has been to sort that out,” McConnell said at a luncheon at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Following a recently announced policy, McConnell said he does not intend to release an unclassified version of the estimate’s key judgments.
The above makes clear that the information that the administration didn't want to hear was received way earlier than they are now claiming.
Chef, they're already on it.
Ben, thanks for the link.
>> We'll just conveniently ignore the part of the report that says the program ceased on international diplomatic pressure.
From the Guardian's article:
"The weapons halt roughly coincided with a visit by British, French and German foreign ministers to Tehran in October 2003."
But when you're in a war to steal a country's oil, admitting that diplomacy works would erode your support at home, and would put a big dent in your military recruitment efforts.
Kat
>>...Cheney refused to accept the results and sent it back repeatedly for revisions.
Let's not forget this new policy -- and give credit where due to the guy who refused to stick to it...
From TPM Muckraker: Intel Chief Breaks New Non-Disclosure Policy With Dovish Iran Report.
Kat
Let's not forget this new policy -- and give credit where due to the guy who refused to stick to it...
From TPM Muckraker: Intel Chief Breaks New Non-Disclosure Policy With Dovish Iran Report.
Kat | 12.04.07 - 6:34 pm |
Don't give McConnell too much credit.
Last year, Congress required that key judgments from the NIE be declassified.
McConnell was doing the administration's bidding by trying to withhold the NIE. Prudent folks realized that the bombshell would leak, probably sooner than later. McConnell merely acted in accordance with the mandate from Congress when he signed off on the release of the NIE.
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>> cheflovesbeer said: I'm sure the media will bring out John Bolton...
This Bolton piece was in the Dec. 2nd Sunday Times:
Gun-shy America is losing the best chance to stop Iran: John Bolton, the hawkish former US ambassador to the UN, says Tehran’s nuclear threat is growing and it will have to be halted by force.
After yesterday's article, Iran halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003, US agencies say, the Times followed up today with:
Bush: Iran is still a threat
Relax? Don't. Iran can still build a bomb
and, 'Neighbours still fear Tehran a threat' (which you can easily find via the links above.)
As Libby implied, with such a huge amount of spin going on, we may all need a dose of dramamine.
K
There is absolutely no evidence that a weapons program existed in Iran in 2003.
Thanks for all the input everybody. I'm totally dizzy from the spin at this point. This feels like part of their plan to me. Shock and awe propaganda. It's all about the big lie. It's how they sold the WMD meme.
Libby says
"It's all about the big lie. It's how they sold the WMD meme."
Imagine the crushing disappointment wingnuts must be feeling now. First, it looks like they're not going to get their fun war Iran and second they got a President whose deceitfulness and stupidity is on full display to the world right now.
Imagine, we got the leader of the free world being told in August by his top spychief that he has critical evidence on Iran's nuke program and Dear Leader doesn't bother to ask what it was.
It is ironic nightjar. Our Dear Leader apparently would rather have us believe he's a fool instead of a liar. Of course, he's both.
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