Posted on 12/07/2007 5:59:59 AM PST by PreciousLiberty
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House Thursday struggled to defend the dire warnings about Iran made by US President George W. Bush even after he had learned that Tehran had likely frozen its atomic weapons program in 2003.
A new US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released on Monday formally endorsed that conclusion, which Bush had first heard about in August from US Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell.
On August 28, Bush warned of a "nuclear holocaust" if the Islamic republic developed nuclear weapons, and on October 17 he warned that anyone interested in avoiding "World War III" should support US pressure on Tehran.
On October 21, US Vice President Dick Cheney warned Iran to suspend uranium enrichment or face "serious consequences" -- the very language in the UN resolution on Iraq that the White House says justified the March 2003 invasion.
On Tuesday, the US president defended himself from Democratic charges of exaggerating the threat by saying that he had only been briefed on the NIE on November 28 and suggesting that McConnell's earlier warning had been vague.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
"We judge with moderate confidence that the earliest possible date Iran would be technically capable of producing enough HEU for a weapon is late 2009"
“We assess with high confidence that until fall 2003, Iranian military entities were working under government direction to develop nuclear weapons. We judge with high confidence that the halt lasted at least several years.”
Lasted?!?
"“We continue to assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Iran does not currently have a nuclear weapon.”"
Moderate-to-high confidence?!?
“We continue to assess with low confidence that Iran probably has imported at least some weapons-usable fissile material, but still judge with moderate-to-high confidence it has not obtained enough for a nuclear weapon. We cannot rule out that Iran has acquired from abroad—or will acquire in the future—a nuclear weapon or enough fissile material for a weapon.”
Sure, Iran is no threat at all...if you read the whole NIE there's PLENTY to be concerned about.
The press are having their field day though...gotta love the picture on this hit piece. :-P
#2 Rule of Journalism
Criticize those who are trying to solve problems rather than those who are causing the problems.
So now the press is loopy over the “nuanced” comments of the same intelligance community that concurred with Brit intelligence that Iraq had sought uranium from Africa
This may be the first and only NIE the MSM ever supported.
Its just a coincidence that Iran has 50 thousand uranium centrifuges and has developed a 1200 mile capable missile...
The MSM is ony supporting the NIE because they have cherry picked the comments they liked
And their lefty base continues to demand that Bush and Cheney be impeached for cherry picking NIE’s
North Korea was no threat either. Just ask Madeline who “danced all night” with Kim.
Bushwood
Where’s the headline:
“NIE Under Fire for Previous Iran Claims”
???
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