This whole episode is baffling to me. Bush appointed the heads of all the intell agencies, yet they turn around and pull the rug out from under him like this. It's been obvious for a long time that elements in the CIA had partisan agendas to promote democrats and undermine various security policies. We need go no further than Valery Plame to see this at work. But this Iran debacle is very troubling, to say the least.
First, they don't contend that Iran has stopped enriching uranium, which is the most important step in building a bomb. Second, they highlighted the claim that Iran has "ended" its nuke work, without disclosing the existence of significant dissent on that point or the fact that it could be restarted at any time without their knowledge. Third, there is no foundation given for their conclusion. We are just supposed to accept it, despite the intell community's many past screwups.
I don't know if this is a case of their policy preferences influencing their conclusions, or partisan politics being involved or merely a case of excessive caution after the embarrassment of being apparently wrong about Saddam's WMD program. While they may be correct, the media and public are clearly reading way too much into this, as they had to know would happen. Finally, there has to be something wrong with a process that would put the president out on a limb regarding Iran's ambitions, then saw it off without warning.
First, they don't contend that Iran has stopped enriching uranium, which is the most important step in building a bomb. Second, they highlighted the claim that Iran has "ended" its nuke work, without disclosing the existence of significant dissent on that point or the fact that it could be restarted at any time without their knowledge. Third, there is no foundation given for their conclusion. We are just supposed to accept it, despite the intell community's many past screwups.
I don't know if this is a case of their policy preferences influencing their conclusions, or partisan politics being involved or merely a case of excessive caution after the embarrassment of being apparently wrong about Saddam's WMD program. While they may be correct, the media and public are clearly reading way too much into this, as they had to know would happen. Finally, there has to be something wrong with a process that would put the president out on a limb regarding Iran's ambitions, then saw it off without warning.