Thinking Points

You may remember Bush misquoting Ahmadinejad (again) and threatening World War III back on October 17th in regards to Iran’s Nuclear program. Additionally, you may also remember this article from a month ago stating there was no conclusive evidence that Tehran has (or is seeking) an active nuclear-weapons program.

Well, as everyone should now know, the recently released National Intelligence Estimate (which is considered a state-of-the-art product of the intelligence community and reflects the best assessment available to the U.S. Government based on all intelligence sources) “judged with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program”.

Now, before dismissing the NIE because of past “bad intelligence” provided during the run-up to the Iraq War, remember a couple things, First, in the rush to war, few Senators even bothered to read the Iraq NIE Report, which had been edited so heavily by the CIA that only 50% of the entire text was still included . Secondly, keep in mind that  the “proof” provided to Congress was handpicked (and heavily edited)  to agree with and support the Administration’s policies. Don’t believe it? – Read this, this, this, and/or this.

In response to the Iran NIE, Bush held a press conference on December 3rd, where he predictably spun the hell out of the report and offered several half-truths.

Most notably, when questioned about his “World War III” comments, Bush replied that ”it wasn’t until last week that I was briefed on the NIE that is now public.”

Well, according to one reliable intelligence community source: “This is absolutely absurd. The NIE has been in substantially the form in which it was finally submitted for more than six months. The White House, and particularly Vice President Cheney, used every trick in the book to stop it from being finalized and issued.“

Additionally, note the following, which was reported by the IPS on November 9:

Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi stated that intelligence analysts had to review and rewrite their findings three times, because of pressure from the White House. “The White House wanted a document that it could use as evidence for its Iran policy”. 

In October 2006, Giraldi wrote that the NIE on Iran had already been completed, but that Cheney’s office had objected to its findings on both the Iranian nuclear program and Iran’s role in Iraq.

Cheney’s desire for a “clean” NIE that could be used to support his aggressive policy toward Iran was apparently a major factor in the replacement of John Negroponte as director of national intelligence in early 2007.

The bottom line here is not that Bush is lying (he’s certainly been caught lying numerous times before) or that the mainstream media is (once again) letting him get away with it. The real story is that the administration is once again manipulating intelligence and misleading the public into war – this time with Iran.

That they’ve been caught red-handed doesn’t seem to matter.

Those who are looking for war with Iran are already doing as much damage control as they can (notice the familiar “PNAC“/ Neo-conservative names of Norman Podhoretz and John Bolton - as well as their ridiculous arguments) by spinning the report and doing their best to paint the NIE as flawed and untrustable.  Between Fox News underreporting and twisting the issue and The Associated Press printing misleading headlines, I expect many Americans will continue to believe Iran poses an immediate threat – if only to confirm to themselves what they already think they know.

The question we all need to address right now is this: Why is the Bush Administration trying to go to war with Iran?

More on that next week, when I finally get around to finishing up and posting Part 3 of the Peak Oil series. Be prepared for it by checking out Peak Oil Part 1 and Peak Oil Part 2.