NIE authors accused of partisan politics

The Washington Times ^ | December 7, 2007 | Jon Ward

[libstripper]

Several current and former high-level government officials familiar with the authors of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran described the report as a politically motivated document written by anti-Bush former State Department officials, who opposed sanctioning foreign governments and businesses.

The report released this week said Iran once had a covert nuclear weapons program, but shut it down in 2003.

The authors" aim is to undercut the White House effort to increase pressure for sanctions on Iran and to argue that Iran dropped its nuclear-weapons program in 2003 because of diplomatic efforts in which the authors had participated, the officials said.

[libstripper]

If ever there has been proof that the "new tone" was a horrible idea, this is it. If the next POTUS is a Pubbie his first job MOST be cleaning the traitors out of the State Department and CIA.

[edcoil]

Not sure how he does that. Clinton fired every attorney general in the country without a peep from the media. Bush’s AG tried to get rid of a hand full and lost his job.

[federal]

Your 100% correct of course, It is however unfortunate that the demos can’t even consider what is more important. The survival of the greatest country on earth and its role of defending freedom around the world or the next election cycle.

It has been disasterous but I can at least understand President Bush’s attempt to change the hostility in DC, especially after 9-11 and the emergence of islamic fascism as a global threat.

But the fact remains the cleaning out of the political plants in the CIA and State Department has to be priorty #1.

[q_an_a]

The easy answer to this is to have the justice department call the writers into their office and ask them did you lie to congress four months ago?

Where are the republican Henry Waxman's of the world? You haul these guys into a room and read them their rights. Then make show hearings that gets media attention!! Some lawyers get fired and it makes headlines for 6 months - NIE is a lie and the administration folds. All hat and no cattle.

[ravingnutter]

The authors" aim is to undercut the White House effort to increase pressure for sanctions on Iran

Not working...France and Germany are on board as of yesterday.

and to argue that Iran dropped its nuclear-weapons program in 2003 because of diplomatic efforts in which the authors had participated, the officials said.

Not hardly. More likely that Ahmanutjob crapped his pants when we invaded Iraq.

[tobyhill]

If Iran wasn’t working toward military nukes since ‘03 there would be no reason to continue enriching Uranium themselves considering Russia offered them all they need and would be cheaper that way.

[LIConFem]

"...and to argue that Iran dropped its nuclear-weapons program in 2003 because of diplomatic efforts in which the authors had participated..."

Sounds a lot like Chamberlain's "...peace in our time." claim. And we all know how that worked out.

[penowa]

"But the fact remains the cleaning out of the political plants in the CIA and State Department has to be priorty #1."

If the traitors can't be fired, they need to be transferred to some dep't where they never see another piece of classified info and they can play cards all day and pick up their paychecks once/mo. Whatever it costs the taxpayer, it will be cheap compared to what they have been doing to the country.

[McGruff]

Just look at the parts of it leaked. They are all by unnamed or anonymous senior level officials.

[HardStarboard]

>>>If the next POTUS is a Pubbie his first job MOST be cleaning the traitors out of the State Department and CIA<<<

Unfortunately, the saboteurs that Bush failed to clean out at the start of his Presidency have been successful to the point that it is unlikely that the next POTUS will be a Republican!

I'm reading Shadow Warriors by Kenneth Timmerman ....stunning how the Bush team failed to take charge early on and put his stamp on the administration.

[wildbill]

These liberal bureaucratic maggots infest the body politic of the government.

Apparently you can’t get them out.

[Lancey Howard]

Several current and former high-level government officials familiar with the authors of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran described the report as a politically motivated document written by anti-Bush former State Department officials

"Stunning! Who woulda thought it...!?"

[Lancey Howard]

Many conservatives burrowed within the Department of Justice have long complained that Gonzales (therefore, Bush) has permitted career government employees and hold-overs from Democratic Administrations to remain in perches of power and thereby water down conservative directives from the top. As one conservative and Federalist Society member in the Justice Department told me: “This is definitely not Ronald Reagan’s Justice Department, I assure you. You have holdovers from Clinton calling the shots in a lot of places here.”
- - John Gizzi from: Should Gonzales Go? Human Events ^ | March 20, 2007

[Eva]

Gonzales lost his job not because he fired the prosecutors, but because he didn’t stand up and say, heck yes, I fired those attorney’s because they made bad, politically driven decisions. If Gonzales had gone into Congress and just stated flat out that it was the right of the President to fire any attorney that he appoints and that he would do it again if the President asked him to.

[Enchante]

These contemptible weasels need to be tarred & feathered and run out of town. I would prefer trial and executions for treason but of course wtih the soft-headed WH, the treasonous Demagogues & MSM, the spineless RINOs, and the stuporous public the best we might hope for is to get some of the worst charlatans sidelined into positions where they can't do much harm.

"For 14 years, Mr. Van Diepen oversaw the State Department office tasked with stopping proliferation of chemical and biological weapons. When Mr. Bolton came to the State Department in 2001, he hired several people to help him take a tougher stance on companies shipping weapons to countries that might use them to deliver nuclear warheads or chemical and biological agents. Mr. Van Diepen quickly became one of the Bolton team's chief adversaries. "There was never a sanction that Van Diepen liked, never," said one official. "It was a point of religion for him. He thought anything we did outside of tea-cup diplomacy was counterproductive and wrong." Mr. Van Diepen, who declined to be interviewed for this article, often argued against the need for sanctions by saying that the burden of proof to determine proliferation activities should be as high as in an average U.S. courtroom."

[mjaneangels@aolcom]

“The authors” aim is to undercut the White House effort to increase pressure for sanctions on Iran and to argue that Iran dropped its nuclear-weapons program in 2003 because of diplomatic efforts in which the authors had participated, the officials said.”

Is this saying that those who wrote the NIE didn’t want anyone knowing that they failed diplomatically?

[jveritas]

The President did not fold. He did not dismiss the NIE report publicly because he does not want to embarrass the so called intelligence community. He still have the same policy about Iran as he had before this crappy report, in fact he went out of his way to say that nothing has really changed, Iran is still very dangerous and they must be stopped from enriching uranium, exactly what he has been saying all along.

[Enchante]

I wonder if this was all a set-up put in motion months ago — remember how President Bush made some strong statements about Iran and the dangers of “World War III” just a couple of months ago - I’ll be the WH checked with offices in the intel community for latest intel before those remarks, got clearance at least in general terms if not of every sentence, and now the NIE that has been in preparation for months tries to pull the rug out from under the President and enables the treasonous MSM and Demagogues to go on the attack against the WH yet again. I smell a set-up from start to finish.

[jveritas]

Most pundits are saying that there is no way President Bush is going to attack Iran after this NIE report. As usual, most pundits end up being wrong because they analyze the news according to what they wish for. The President has always said that Iran must stop enriching uranium which is the most important step to build a nuclear weapon. He repeated the same things many times in the last few days after the NIE report was released just to tell Iran and the world that nothing has changed.

I am certain that President Bush will launch a major Air and Naval campaign against the Iranian terrorist regime nuclear facilities and military infrastructure if Iran will not stop enriching uranium by mid 2008. Most probably the war will be directly after the 2008 elections, and yes the President can do whatever he wants until his last second in office, there is no Lame Duck President unless a President chooses to be so, I am certain that President Bush will never be a lame duck.

[q_an_a]

While I think that the word “fold” can be taken to mean many things - what would look like raw power getting to the bottom of this crappy report is for a stong statement that if there are factual errors or lies to congress the people will suffer the same treatment as Scooter Libby.