Posted on 12/10/2007 2:21:30 PM PST by neverdem
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 much the same way as it impressed the Libyans and made them at least reconsider their willingness to continue flouting the Non-Proliferation Treaty. (Given that the examination of the immense Libyan stockpile also disclosed the fingerprints that led back to the exposure of the A.Q. Khan nuke-mart in Pakistan, the removal of Saddam from the chessboard has had more effect in curbing the outlaw WMD business than it is normally given credit for.)
Nobody seems entirely sure what caused our intelligence agencies to reverse their opinion, but it seems rather likely that the defection and/or abduction of Brig. Gen. Ali Reza Asgari, Iran's former deputy minister of defense, in February of this year, has something to do with it. Asgari's ostensibly principal job had been that of liaison with Hezbollah in Lebanon, but his debriefing could also have helped confirm pre-existing surmises about Iran's reining-in of its nuclear ambitions.
Which is the most that can be said about those ambitions. It is completely false for anybody to claim, on the basis of this admitted "estimate," that Iran has ceased to be a candidate member of the fatuously named nuclear "club." It has the desire to acquire the weaponry, it retains...
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
They keep trying to build this mole hill up.
Didn’t Oliver North and Fawn Hall destroy or remove White House documents relating to Iran-Contra?
Good idea - let’s do the same thing with the public education system...
A newspaper? Oh, come on! She used a sword, the one she famously used on TV to dice potatoes. LOL ;-}
Wonder what category Sandy Berger destroying secret documents
falls under
Christopher Hitchens still demands that Henry Kissinger be tried as a war criminal, I believe.
As best I can remember Mr. Kissinger's "crime" was to authorize (through Nixon) the bombing of enemy troops who enjoyed a nice safe sanctuary in Cambodia.
I think it's accurate to say Mr. Hitchens was of the radical Clintonist belief that U.S. forces should be defeated and Uncle Ho's heroic people's democratic republic should win.
IMO he's still a fundamental Clintonist though to be fair he did help expose (and prevent) the planned personal destruction of Monica; but that dastardly deed was beyond radical Clintonist beliefs and was a personal problem created by BJ.
Funny how most of the people that want the VIDEO of these CIA AGENTS made PUBLIC, are the same ones that want Scooter Libby in Prison for MENTIONING Valerie Plame.s NAME!!! It’s OK to put the CIA agents FACE for all the world to see, I guess.....where; sthe OUTRAGE??? HYPOCRISY!
Convention Wisdom - A Minneapolis floor fight is not so far-fetched. Draft Sen. Tom Coburn if the convention gets deadlocked.
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Thanks for the ping!
I destroyed some tapes today also!
SO WHAT!!!
It’s not like they were evidence in a criminal proceeding.
We DO NOT owe it to the world to conduct our terrorist investigations on the 6:00 News!
We wouldn’t want the enemy to know that if they’re caught we just might withhold their daily ration of M&M’s!
(shhhhhhh! .....don’t tell Nancey.....oh....or Hitch!)
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I see this as struggle between factions within the CIA - call them the loyalist and commie factions. The loyalists saw that the commies were going to get hold of the tapes and release them to the public, and destroyed them to prevent the occurrence. It’s readily apparent that any repercussions of this act pale beside the consequences of the release of these tapes, whoever’s heads might roll.
Thanks neverdem. Nice selection at 30.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1937548/posts?page=30#30
I do agree.
Marxism is our nation’s most serious threat. It isn’t islamofascism. Marxists and their Useful Idiots have infiltrated every government bureaucracy, legislative position, and our schools ( K-12, colleges, and universities) are completely controlled by them.
We can survive a nuclear suitcase bomb, but freedom will not survive if the Marxists succeed in indoctrinating the next generation of voters.
Roll one up conically to a nice hard point and think about what it can do to the fleshy underside of your chin.
Any chance of a dis-information campaign?
Nah, move along.
The rules have changed. Our government eats its own.
I think that destroying those tapes, after extracting all possible intelligence from then, is a very prudent thing to do. What was legal/acceptable to do when the tapes were made may not be now or in the future.
Also , do we want our enemies to know our techniques and methods of operations? (I’m sure our internal enemies, the Democrats, do)
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