[MaestroLC]

But I entertain an even darker suspicion. It is that the intelligence community, which has for some years now been leaking material calculated to undermine George W. Bush, is doing it again.

I think that is a grand slam and correct.

[Truth29]

Unfortunately, regardless of the motivations and conclusions of this NIE, it further undermines the credibility of any findings from the CIA.

[AZhardliner]

Norman Podhoretz nails it! We have every right to be suspicious. A great essay.

[Lexington Green]

They were lying then. Are they lying now?

If they’re lying now, were they lying then?

[omega4412]

But we know with high confidence that these officials are the experts, the people who successfully predicted the Indian nukes and the Pakistani nukes, right? </sarcasm>

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

I have to state, I do not understand The flip on the North Korea and Iran Nuclear plants!

[pgkdan]

In other words, a full two years after Iran supposedly called a halt to its nuclear program, the intelligence community was still as sure as it ever is about anything that Iran was determined to build a nuclear arsenal. Why then should we believe it when it now tells us, and with the same “high confidence,” that Iran had already called a halt to its nuclear-weapons program in 2003?

Precisely why I don't believe a word of it. This is an attempt to tie the President's hands...nothing else.

[Defiant]

Anyone who knows anything about Iran knows that they are dead set on getting nuclear weapons, and will stop at nothing to get them. They all want to return Iran to world power status, even those who oppose this regime. This regime needs it to stay in power, and its ideology will allow it to use nukes.

Meanwhile, they are killing Americans in Iraq.

Bush should have taken out Syria's regime in 2003 or 2004, and worked to topple Iran from outside ever since. Instead, he has diddled while Iran learned.

[taxed2death]

Yellowcake.

[Mariner]

This estimate virtually assures the world that Israel will act unilaterally...perhaps with nukes.

[Cicero]

But I entertain an even darker suspicion. It is that the intelligence community, which has for some years now been leaking material calculated to undermine George W. Bush, is doing it again.

This is pretty much what I just said on an earlier thread. The CIA and the FBI are stuffed full of clintonoids. George Tenet pushed this line while he was CIA director, and there are plenty more like him still in the agency.

Regretably, Bush has failed to weed them out. So it is pretty certain that the folks who wrote this "intelligence estimate" are working for hillary. STILL working for hillary, since she and bill put them there in the first place.

[PhilDragoo]

[Frank_Discussion]

These internal games are going to spawn a second sunrise in our future, if we don’t all get on the same page. ;(

[bsaunders]

For another take on the NIE report on Iran, please view the article at Beyond the Cusp. Thank you in advance for your consideration.

[SunkenCiv]

thanks Ernest.

[HardStarboard]

So now we think Iran stopped trying to make a bomb in 2003. Did they move the program to....Syria? Plausible.

I have read some reports that the site in Syria, Dayz al Zwar, which the Israeli's took out a couple of months ago may not have been a nuclear reactor under construction, as was originally reported.

It possibly was a Nuclear Weapon assembly operation. The site had no cooling towers, ventilation ports and stacks that are typical of a reactor site.

The Syrians rushed to cover the entire site under tons of sand and dirt....indication that some highly enriched material may have been in the debris, indicative of a bomb making site.

[fella]

Isn’t the CIA cram-packed full of Clinonsistas and leftover Carterites? Kind of hard to get a paradigm shift with such a crowd when they can’t be fired.

[RinaseaofDs]

I believe the Israelis. The number of dyed in the wool liberal whackjobs I’ve encountered as ex-CIA agents is troubling.

[colorado tanker]

I must say I was very suspicious of this 180 degree about-face too.

[familyop]

"I must confess to suspecting that the intelligence community, having been excoriated for supporting the then universal belief that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction,..."

They're the ones who wrongfully made the announcement that there were no "WMDs" in Iraq later on. That announcement was irrelevant, after so much time was allowed for Iraq to hide such materials.

"But I entertain an even darker suspicion. It is that the intelligence community, which has for some years now been leaking material calculated to undermine George W. Bush, is doing it again."

Well, you're close to having it figured out. Now what about some of those leaks mentioning "Zionists" and "neo-cons" from the intel REMFs over the past few years?

Most of them are not Democrats, although their WWII predecessors were socialists. When you know that, readers, you'll know more about what's going on. We've seen a rebellion by balkanizing, ethnic bureaucrats against our nation.