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Discredited NIE report In 2007, yet another confusing picture was presented to the world. The US intelligence community had appeared to be wholeheartedly, both in public and in many private off-the-record media briefings, behind the George W Bush administration's contention that Iran had a dedicated nuclear weapon research program up and running. However, in late 2007, the flawed and now largely discredited NIE (National Intelligence Estimate) report, "Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities", was published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in Washington and simply discarded years of supposedly hard intelligence. Tehran, it seemed, had placed its...

The United Nations Security Council has passed another resolution concerning Iran because its nuclear program is an unacceptable threat. Iran's violations of Security Council resolutions not only continue, but are deepening. Instead of suspending its proliferation-sensitive activities as the council has required, Iran is dramatically expanding the number of operating centrifuges and developing a new generation of centrifuges, testing one of them with nuclear fuel. Once again, Iran has not made the choice the world had hoped for; once again, the Security Council has no choice but to act. At stake is the security of a vital region of the...

VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Friday it confronted Iran for the first time with Western intelligence reports showing work linked to making atomic bombs and that Tehran had failed to provide satisfactory answers. The United States passed the intelligence, which came mainly from a laptop spirited out of Iran, to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2005 but out of fear for its spies only authorized the IAEA to present it last month, diplomats said. The IAEA said Iran had dismissed the intelligence as "baseless" or "fabricated", but had provided increased cooperation on other issues...

Is there anyone these liberal rags won't publish?Yup, Newsweek has allowed the one, the only, the wannabe Hitler to publish his own diatribe against Zionism and the United States.  With such great passages as this where could a liberal rag go wrong? The American people do not like to see their leaders fall captive to the Zionist network. Surely the American people would prefer U.S.-inspired policies to those perpetrated by the Zionists. No fair-minded American is happy with the present situation. Regrettably, despite the objections of some of America’s elite, personal and political interests—especially those of the present administration—have prevented...

It seems flabbergastingly improbable that President George W. Bush learned of the National Intelligence Estimate concerning Iranian nuclear ambitions only a few days before the rest of us did, but the haplessness of his demeanor suggested that he might, in fact, have been telling the truth. After all, had the administration known for any appreciable length of time that the mullahs had hit the pause button on their program in late 2003, it would have been in a position to make a claim that is quite probably true, namely, that our overthrow of Saddam Hussein had impressed the Iranians in...

"The manner in which the Americans relate to the intelligence report on Iran is similar to the way in which they viewed those reports they received during the Holocaust on railways transporting hundreds of thousands of Jews to their death at Auschwitz," Minister Yitzhak Cohen of Shas said during a security cabinet meeting Sunday morning on the Iranian nuclear issue. "It can not be that (US President George W.) Bush is committed to peace as was declared at Annapolis, and then the Americans propagate such an intelligence report which contradicts the information we have proving Iran intends to obtain nuclear...

After years of trying to build awareness of the threat from Iran, the release last week of a new National Intelligence Estimate claiming that Teheran has no current nuclear-weapons program has sunk the campaign to keep the Islamist republic in quarantine. That is not the spin coming out of the administration or from many of its supporters. Instead, some of them claim the finding that Iran abandoned its nuclear program in 2003 is proof that an aggressive American foreign policy, mixing diplomatic sanctions, threats and military strikes, can bring rogue regimes to their senses. Nice try. But if the Iranians...

France and Germany said Thursday that Iran remained a "danger" and that the international community needed to keep up the pressure over its nuclear program despite a U.S. intelligence report concluding that Tehran was no longer building a bomb. The joint remarks, from two countries that have been important in the diplomatic standoff with Iran, will have come as a relief to Washington four days after the publication of the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate was feared to erode support for tougher new sanctions.

The special defense and foreign affairs cabinet meeting of Dec. 12 did not linger on the dispute between Israel and the US over its last National Intelligence Estimate, which absolves Iran from running a nuclear weapons program from 2003. After briefings from intelligence chiefs, the ministers focused on what to do next. Most objected to letting Israel’s hands be tied by the Bush administration’s apparent waiver of its military option against Iran. They began exploring how to restructure and reorient the missions of Israel’s military from now on and, secondly, how to adapt the IDF’s strategy to the challenges on...

The secret campaign was launched two years ago to undermine Tehran's nuclear program. It has persuaded a 'handful' of key officials to leave. ***************** MANUEL BALCE CENETA / AP Porter J. Goss was the CIA director when the agency launched the defector program in 2005. WASHINGTON -- The CIA launched a secret program in 2005 designed to degrade Iran's nuclear weapons program by persuading key officials to defect, an effort that has prompted a "handful" of significant departures, current and former U.S. intelligence officials familiar with the operation say. The previously undisclosed program, which CIA officials dubbed "the Brain Drain,"...

British spy chiefs have grave doubts that Iran has mothballed its nuclear weapons programme, as a US intelligence report claimed last week, and believe the CIA has been hoodwinked by Teheran. Iran 'hoodwinked' CIA over nuclear plans Analysts believe that Iranian staff, knowing their phones were tapped, deliberately gave misinformation The timing of the CIA report has also provoked fury in the British Government, where officials believe it has undermined efforts to impose tough new sanctions on Iran and made an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities more likely.

U.S. intelligence services attempted to influence political policy by releasing their assessment that concludes Iran halted its nuclear arms program in 2003, said John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Der Spiegel magazine quoted Bolton on Saturday as alleging that the aim of the National Intelligence Estimate, which contradicts his and President Bush's position, was not to provide the latest intelligence on Iran. "This is politics disguised as intelligence," Bolton was quoted as saying in an article appearing in this week's edition. Bolton described the report, released Monday, as a "quasi-putsch" by the intelligence agencies, Der Spiegel said.

The federal agency responsible for national intelligence estimates yesterday defended its report on Iran against charges that it was crafted primarily by former State Department officials who infused their personal politics into the report to undercut the Bush administration. "It's not as if there are two or three people who craft this and then it's just put out there," said Vanee Vines, spokeswoman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The response came after The Washington Times reported yesterday that the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) was heavily influenced by three former State Department officials who dislike President...

Iran threatens Mid-East, US says The US report confirmed Iran had a covert programme, Mr Gates said US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has warned that Iran still poses a serious threat to the Middle East and the US.Mr Gates told a Bahrain conference Iran may have restarted its nuclear weapons programme, despite a US intelligence report saying it had stopped. He urged Gulf states to put pressure on Iran to "come clean" about past nuclear ambitions and stop uranium enrichment. US efforts to get Iran to suspend enrichment were 100% diplomatic and economic, he said. But all options were...

Report has torpedoed plans for military action and brought 'howls' from neocons The intelligence came from an exotic variety of sources: there was the so-called Laptop of Death; there was the Iranian commander who mysteriously disappeared in Turkey. Also in the mix was video footage of a nuclear plant in central Iran and intercepts of Iranian telephone calls by the British listening station GCHQ.But pivotal to the US investigation into Iran's suspect nuclear weapons programme was the work of a little-known intelligence specialist, Thomas Fingar. He was the principal author of an intelligence report published on Monday that concluded Iran,...

It's hard to say whether U.S. intelligence has improved since 9/11, but the intelligence community's public image has sure taken a turn for the better. How much of a turn? Well, erstwhile critics from Washington, D.C., to Tehran are giving its National Intelligence Estimate a level of credibility that would likely embarrass the report's authors. The Iranian government hailed the new NIE finding that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, and Democrats rushed forward to say all this proves Iran is not the global threat President Bush asserts. What's lost here is that we're dealing with intelligence --...

Israel considering strike on Iran despite US intelligence report Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem Friday December 7, 2007 Guardian Unlimited (UK) Senior Israeli officials warned today they were still considering the option of a military strike against Iran, despite a fresh US intelligence report that concluded Tehran was no longer developing nuclear weapons. Although Israel argues that it wants to see strong diplomatic pressure put on Iran, it is reluctant to rule out the threat of a unilateral military attack. Matan Vilnai, Israel's deputy defence minister, told Army Radio today: "No option needs to be off the table." Avigdor Lieberman, the...

Senate Republicans are planning to call for a congressional commission to investigate the conclusions of the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran as well as the specific intelligence that went into it, according to congressional sources. The move is the first official challenge, but it comes amid growing backlash from conservatives and neoconservatives unhappy about the assessment that Iran halted a clandestine nuclear weapons program four years ago. It reflects how quickly the NIE has become politicized, with critics even going after the analysts who wrote it, and shows a split among Republicans. Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) said he plans...

Some experts fear the intelligence estimate will sap international pressure to prevent Tehran from getting nuclear weapons. WASHINGTON — The new U.S. intelligence report that says Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 is suddenly raising concerns among the political center and left, as well as conservatives who have long called for a hard line against the Islamic Republic. Moderate and liberal foreign policy experts said that U.S. intelligence agencies, possibly eager to demonstrate independence from White House political pressure, may have produced a National Intelligence Estimate that is more reassuring than it should be on the potential risks...

Admiral Michael Mullen will land in Israel Sunday morning for a 24-hour visit that will include a one-on-one meeting with IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, as well as with Defense Minister Ehud Barak.…Mullen’s visit to Israel will be exactly a week after the publication of the NIE report that claimed Iran had frozen its nuclear military program in 2003 and has yet to restart it. During his visit, Military Intelligence plans to present him with Israel’s evidence that Iran is in fact developing nuclear weapons.

Stupid Intelligence By Alan M. DershowitzFrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, December 07, 2007 The recent national intelligence estimate that concluded that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 is just about the stupidest intelligence assessment I have ever read. It falls hook, line and sinker for a transparent bait and switch tactic employed not only by Iran, but by several other nuclear powers in the past. The tactic is obvious and well-known to all intelligence officials with an IQ above room temperature. It goes like this: There are two tracks to making nuclear weapons: One is to conduct research and develop...

Iran a threat, say Europe allies The leaders spoke days after a new US intelligence report was issued German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have said Iran continues to pose a threat.The comments came as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began talks with European and Russian officials in Brussels on Iran's nuclear programme. A US intelligence report published on Monday said Iran had suspended a nuclear weapons programme in 2003. But the report also said that Iran was continuing to enrich uranium, which can be used to make nuclear weapons. Iran says the aims of...

Rarely has a document from the supposedly hidden world of intelligence had such an impact as the National Intelligence Estimate released this week. Rarely has an administration been so unprepared for such an event. And rarely have vehement critics of the "intelligence community" on issues such as Iraq's weapons of mass destruction reversed themselves so quickly. All this shows that we not only have a problem interpreting what the mullahs in Tehran are up to, but also a more fundamental problem: Too much of the intelligence community is engaging in policy formulation rather than "intelligence" analysis, and too many in...

U.S. President George W. Bush holds a news conference in the Brady press briefing room at the White House in Washington DC USA on 04 December 2007. Bush discussed the latest National Intelligence Estimate about the state of Iran's nuclear program. EPA/MATTHEW CAVANAUGH Washington - US President George W Bush urged Iran on Wednesday to 'come clean' about its nuclear activities or face further international isolation. Bush said Iran should halt uranium enrichment and enter negotiations with the United States and Europe to end the dispute over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. 'The Iranians have a strategic choice to make,' Bush said....

Not long ago, a respected and sober-minded expert on nuclear weapons -- a former government official now employed by a prestigious Washington think tank -- sat in his corner office and reflected for us on the nightmare brought to life by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani nuclear scientist. "The best thing would have been to take Khan into an alley somewhere and put a bullet in his head," said the expert, who not surprisingly insisted that his name not be attached to such an outrageous suggestion. Although we would not advocate assassination, it is certainly true that the world is...

The latest assessment from the American intelligence community on Iran has been declassified, at least in part, and the directorate of national intelligence would have one believe that in 2003 "Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program". It's advancing a line that could be described with the word astounding if it didn't come from the same intelligence bureaucrats that so famously failed to foresee the attacks of September 11, 2001. One doesn't have to be privy to our country's secret sources to know that this last statement strains credulity. Iran has been enriching uranium, or nuclear fuel, for nearly two years...

TEHRAN, Iran - A new U.S. intelligence review concluding Iran stopped developing an atomic weapons program in 2003 is a "declaration of victory" for Iran's nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday. Russia's foreign minister, meanwhile, indicated that the U.S. report's findings undermined Washington's push for a new set of U.N. sanctions against Iran. The U.S. intelligence report released Monday concluded that Iran had stopped its weapons program in late 2003 and shown no signs since of resuming it, representing a sharp turnaround from a previous intelligence assessment in 2005. "This is a declaration of victory for the Iranian nation...

I wrote yesterday on this whole new NIE story:******************************************* FreeRepublic thread: The New, Suddenly Correct, NIE on Iran********************************* Surprise surprise.  VIPS at work once again?  It smells like more leaks by the VIPS types ala Plame and friends, trying to influence either the tactics used by this Administrations to stop Iran from getting a nuke, or to influence the upcoming elections. And now more information is coming out that bolsters the case that this was another shot over the bow of this Administration by our rogue intelligence agencies.  Kenneth Timmermann, the author of the excellent book "The Shadow Warriors" writes:...

Wild Speculation Alert: I have listed a lot of coincidental and circumstantial evidence in this post folks. I feel compelled to warn everyone when I see links to this NIE and Valerie Plame! It seems the NIE was NOT a consensus view of the US Intelligence Community but a hack job by some folks with possible political aspirations (wonder what CNN debate these folks will turn up in): A highly controversial, 150 page National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear programs was coordinated and written by former State Department political and intelligence analysts — not by more seasoned members of...

Article published Dec 5, 2007 Iran and its Democratic friends December 5, 2007 If anything is clear from the new National Intelligence Estimate, it's that the U.S. intelligence agencies have no clear idea of what's going on in Iran. The authors of the intelligence estimate concede that despite their earlier conclusions they can't really say how far Iran's nuclear program has advanced, or how close Iran is to developing atomic weapons. It's irrefutable that Iran may have a nuclear weapon in the foreseeable future — whether in 2009, 2013 or 2015 is not so clear. The only weapon the Democrats...

Deja vu?  Remember a few weeks ago when that McClellan story came out in which he supposedly said he was lied to about the Plame affair?  I wrote then: Isn't it curious how the left constantly wailed about Scott McClellan allegedly lying during his press conferences, but now that he is saying something that smells like trash talk about Bush, he is suddenly a truth teller. And now when a new NIE is released to the public saying that Iran has stopped its nuclear weapons program, NOW the left believes our intelligence agencies.  For the last year the left has...

Iran nuclear negotiator is accused of spying for UKBy DAVID WILLIAMS - More by this author » Last updated at 00:47am on 15th November 2007  Iran's former senior nuclear negotiator has been arrested and charged with spying for Britain. Hossein Mousavian, who played a pivotal role in Iran's fraught negotiations with the West over Tehran's nuclear programme, is said to have passed classified information to the British Embassy in the Iranian capital. A former security official and respected ambassador, Mousavian is also accused of meeting and communicating with foreign agents and exchanging sensitive information with them. Scroll down for...

Japan freezes more Iranian assets over its nuclear plan TOKYO: Japan decided on Friday to freeze the assets of more Iranian individuals and institutions in line with United Nations sanctions aimed at persuading Tehran to stop nuclear enrichment, which could be used to make an atomic bomb. Fifteen Iranian individuals and 13 institutions designated by a UN resolution as being involved with Iran’s nuclear programme will be added to a list of those whose assets have already been frozen, the government said. The UN Security Council has imposed two rounds of sanctions on Iran since December, but Tehran has refused...

NATANZ, Iran, May. 14 (UPI) -- International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have reported that Iran is beginning to learn to enrich uranium and may be able to build nuclear reactors. They said that Iran seems to have solved most of its technological problems and is now enriching uranium on a much larger scale, The New York Times reported Monday.

TIPP CITY, Ohio, April 19 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush said Thursday he is "very worried about a nuclear arms race in the Middle East." Taking questions after a speech at Tippecanoe High School in Tipp City, Ohio, Bush again called on Iran to stop its program of nuclear fuel enrichment. "Iran is a serious problem," he said. "This is a nation that has said they want to have a nuclear -- or we believe wants to have a nuclear weapon."

US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice was quizzed yesterday over the failure by the current US administration to present any form of solid evidence over Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program. During the questioning one Republican congressman, Ron Paul told the hearing "Unproven charges against Iran's nuclear intentions are eerily reminiscent of the false charges made against Iraq." Paul went on to say "This sounds like Iraq, where accusations came first and proof was supposed to come later – only that proof never came because the accusations turned out to be false."

Minister for strategic affairs calls on Ban Ki-moon to remove Islamic republic from world body over its repeated threats against Israel Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman called on incoming United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to expel Iran from the world body over its repeated threats against Israel and to impose tough sanctions against it over its refusal to halt nuclear enrichment. Lieberman sent a letter to the newly appointed UN chief over remarks he made during a recent interview when he said that the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will give the international community enough leverage to address...

ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons. Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”, according to several Israeli military sources. Under the plans, conventional laser-guided bombs would open “tunnels” into the targets. “Mini-nukes” would then immediately be fired into a plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk of radioactive fallout. “As soon as the green light is given, it will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project will be demolished,” said one of the sources....

A top US investigative reporter says a classified draft CIA assessment has found no firm evidence of a secret drive by Iran to develop nuclear weapons, as alleged by the White House.

See for example this thread first. The road to pandemonium Iran has plutonium? The isotopes traced to nuclear waste... Explanations are "baloney-um!"

Top News Story Western military buildup underway in the Middle East. Global Research published a major report on the military build-up of conventional, ground, air, naval, and nuclear forces in and around the Middle East and Central Asia. The probability of another war in the Middle East is high. Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post reported that the clouds of the coming war are converging upon Israel. But our political and military leaders refuse to look up at the darkening sky.   US confident Russia and China will join in sanctions on Iran. The Washington Times reported that the United...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad to shake up his cabinet. Iran Press News reported that a source close to Ahmadinejad's cabinet said that in the coming days vast changes will be taking place within the administration. The first to leave will be the oil minister; Vaziri Hamaneh is expected to be dismissed from the cabinet.   Ahmadinejad fails to deliver his economic miracle. Inter Press Service reported that Iranian citizens are wondering if Ahmadinejad will ever make good on an election promise to crack down on the corrupt and distribute Iran's vast oil revenues more equitably.BBC News reported that Iran's...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad plans huge increase in uranium enrichment. ABC News reported that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said they want to install up to 100,000 centrifuges to process uranium gas for enrichment in order to produce nuclear fuel. Bush pleased with the Iran Freedom and Support Act The White House, Office of the Press Secretary reported that President Bush said "I applaud Congress for demonstrating its bipartisan commitment to confronting the Iranian regime's repressive and destabilizing activities by passing the Iran Freedom Support Act." Here are a few other news items you may have missed. The International Herald Tribune reported...

Top News Story Bush signs Iran Freedom and Support Act! The Washington Post reported that President Bush on Saturday signed legislation that would impose mandatory sanctions on entities that provide goods or services for Iran's weapons programs.The Associated Press reported that the US Senate finally passed the Iran Freedom and Support Act.The Library of Congress published the full text of the Iran Freedom and Support Act.   But does Condi support a change of regime in Iran? The Wall Street Journal reexamined their recent interview with Condi Rice in which he concludes: Her primary method for dealing with the...

Top News Story Photo evidence of the Islamic Republic's coordinating Iraq's insurgency. Roads to Iraq and Iraqi blog reported that after a fierce battle in “Khan Bani Sa’ad� Diyala governorate north of Baghdad with “Mahdi Army�, Iraqi resistance succeeded to capture one of the “Mahdi Army�. They found a complete modern communications system manufacturing in the Ministry of Defense of Iran believed to be used as a direct contact with the Iranians. Photos.CNN News reported that a Shiite Muslim militia involved in the warfare between Sunni and Shiites in Iraq has received "millions of dollars" and an assortment of...

North Korea ratcheted up the tension several notches last week by announcing its intention to conduct a nuclear test. It appears the North Korea-Iran tag team is giving fits to the United States and adding to the worry that the two nations are coordinating strategies to keep us off balance. Shortly after North Korea launched its missiles last July, intelligence appeared alleging that Iranians observed the launches as guests. Israeli intelligence sources believe that North Korea sold Iran 18 intermediate-range missiles. Countries opposing the U.S. routinely embrace each other as a matter of necessity. Two years ago, the International Atomic...

Top News Story Iran wins another round in the nuclear crisis with the West. ISN Security Watch reported that while a temporary suspension of uranium enrichment would boost diplomatic efforts with Iran, the UN and EU seem to have thrown in the towel, offering talks without suspension and betraying their weak position.Reuters reported that president of the Islamic Republic, Ahmadinejad, said on that Tehran would not suspend nuclear enrichment despite pressure from the West. He said: "Today, Western countries want us to suspend our nuclear technology, but we say to them that we will never give it up."Bill Gertz,...

Top News Story Pentagon report critical of US broadcasts into Iran.   Mercury News reported that a Pentagon unit has drafted a report charging that U.S. international broadcasts into Iran aren't tough enough on the Islamic regime.   The US military on the Islamic Republic's military.   Middle East Newsline reported that the US military officials have assessed that Iran's military was the second most powerful in the Middle East.   Russia finally sets a startup date for Iran's nuclear power plant.   Bloomberg reported that Iran's first nuclear power plant, a Russian-built project, will begin operating by September...

Top News Story "Islam is not compatible with democracy.� - The next Supreme Leader? The New York Times reported concern that Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, is trying to expand his already growing power by packing the "assembly of experts" (which has the power to elect the Supreme Leader) with his loyalists. He said: “Democracy means if the people want something that is against God’s will, then they should forget about God and religion.�   BBC radio's pro-Islamic Republic campaign of misinformation. Ardeshir Dolat reported that the BBC radio 4 in Britain has started a campaign of misinformation on Iran. Its...

Top News Story Is Iran about to launch a war in northern Iraq? DEBKAfile reported that a new Middle East war is in the offing with Turkish and Iranian air units are poised for an imminent coordinated invasion of the northern Iraqi Kurdistan. The report claimed Iranian and Turkish assault troops are already deployed 7-8 km deep inside Iraqi territory.   The EU/Iran have weeks to agree on an agenda for more talks. Reuters reported that France said that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran had weeks rather than months to agree an agenda for talks about...