Little more than a year after U.S. spy agencies concluded that Iran had halted work on a nuclear weapon, the Obama administration has made it clear that it believes there is no question that Tehran is seeking the bomb.
In his news conference this week, President Obama went so far as to describe Iran’s “development of a nuclear weapon” before correcting himself to refer to its “pursuit” of weapons capability.
The language reflects the extent to which senior U.S. officials now discount a National Intelligence Estimate issued in November 2007 that was instrumental in derailing U.S. and European efforts to pressure Iran to shut down its nuclear program…
U.S. officials said that although no new evidence had surfaced to undercut the findings of the 2007 estimate, there was growing consensus that it provided a misleading picture and that the country was poised to reach crucial bomb-making milestones this year.
The 2007 NIE served its purpose, it seems.
When it’s a non-Democrat, it’s war mongering and imperialism. When it’s a Democrat, it’s a well-thought out, yet sobering conclusion needing necessary action. Just like your previous post Captain, it’s “rendition with a human face.”
You can’t ever prove what could have happened….but I pray these people, as it becomes apparent that there is blood on their hands, let it haunt them the rest of their days on Earth. Personal gain first, always and forever is no life philosophy that leads to the best for all.
Let’s call it for what it is — those who put politics or power or money above country are traitors.
Xformed, I disagree. I am much more of the “here and now” type who would much rather we know who was responsible for that NIE so that they could be (1) fired and (2) prosecuted. THEN they could contemplate their navel(s) while wasting away in some overcrowded prison.
It’s our security they are playing politics with, and I, for one, have no sense of humor about that. I’m in the middle of John Bolton’s book “Surrender Is Not An Option” and the fact that the careerist bureaucrats in government can and regularly do cause such problems needs to be severely curtailed. Probably can never be ended, but severe punishment would stop a lot of it.
Intelligence “estimates”. Right. We”ll know when the big mushroom cloud rises over Tel Aviv. then it will be “yeah, we knew/yeah we told ya so”. Just amazing.
new subj: how the heck do you keep a job and keep this blog moving forward at such a rapid pace? I do the dutiful commute home only to find 4 new subjects. Ack!! Reminds me of transition from T-28s to the Thunder Guppy – how da hell does anybody keep up with this thing?
“The Intelligence Community?”
I know this is an old line, but the first time I heard it as a young 1/lt was from an old ex-104 driver from Paint Lick, Ky. Having summoned the Sq. Intel Officer for one reason or another to grace his presence, the Maj. used to exclaim in a mock gruff voice: “Damn it, I asked for an INTELLIGENT officer, not an Intelligence Officer!” LOL
PS: (I was glad to find out yrs later that he retired as an O-6. One of the last of the “Old School” good guys–a true fighter pilot and a helluva all-round good guy.)
As we pointed out in our wrap-up of ADM Blair’s testimony…
“The media’s failure to be faithful to the record was most glaring with respect to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, despite ADM Blair’s emphasis: ‘I want to be very clear in characterizing the Iranian nuclear program.’ In fact, he was very clear. The press coverage on this vital aspect of his testimony was clearly not.”
We should read what he said, not what they allege he said. Here: http://intelligence.senate.gov/090212/blair.pdf
Always good to stop by, Lex.
V/R
Tom
I got as far as “Chairman Feinstein…”
Gawd.
Was this meeting the one where Chairman Feinstein stated that our Predator strikes in the border area of Pakistan were being flown out of a base in Pakistan?
Or were there other meetings?
The senior officer corps began to be politicized in WW2. That was part of the problem between Tokyo and DC in Korea. MacArthur wasn’t politicized and thought we were at war instead of playing power politics.
During the 60s and 70s the CIA became politicized, and the results are what is haunting us now. Say what you will about Bush, but he refused to fight the bureaucratic battles required to set things right. Combined with immigration, we went well down hill during the Bush maladminstration simply because he would fight the truly needed battles while getting diverted in Iraq and Afghanistan.
having had my share of NIEs and being involved with them, usually the most important thing to read in them is the caveats that separate agencies place there. While they may agree with the overall direction, usually they have slight and and times very energetic disagreements. Usually classified.
My feeling is that this particular NIE (the 2007 Iran one) was published with a specific political view in mind. And if you remember the times and discussions at the time, not sure that it particularly agreed with the administrations positions.