News Alert: U.S. Says Iran Ended Nuclear Arms Work

Quote from cgroupman:

I find it difficult to believe that Mr. Bush said he found out about this NIE report just last week. That, in itself, opens another discussion. Who is paying attention to our Intelligence agencies. I'm not one to throw in the towel and discount our covert and not so covert intelligence sources as partisan or just plain not good at what they do. I think it's possible that they were not giving out the Iraq WMD's as pure fact, and that it's possible that their information was simply disregarded.

I don't think we should let our Left vs. Right discussions force us to either agree or disagree with the NIE assessment, rather we should work together to assure that we, as U.S. citizens, are getting good information. Again, pretty tough to do these days.




c
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I think there are two possibilites. One, Bush was given the conclusions and ignored them and continued to say things he knew would make him look like an idiot. Or two, he was basically blindsided by the new estimate. Since the new estimate represents a radical change from the old estimate, I find option two more likely.

Both sides try to shade intelligence assessments to advance their policy preferences. It may be wrong, but they do it and it is foolish to ignore that factor. This new estimate seems pretty weak to me, so i think it is fair to view it skeptically. Why, for example, do the Iranians need to be devoting so much effort to uranium enrichment if they are not planning on developing nuclear weapons? Even the new NIE says they could develop weapons within two or three years. That is surely far too rosy a view. With pakistani or russian assistance, they could develop at least a crude device in a matter of months. It's not like they have to have a bomb that can be delivered via ICBM. A truck or ship will do.
 
Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

I think there are two possibilites. One, Bush was given the conclusions and ignored them and continued to say things he knew would make him look like an idiot. Or two, he was basically blindsided by the new estimate. Since the new estimate represents a radical change from the old estimate, I find option two more likely.

Both sides try to shade intelligence assessments to advance their policy preferences. It may be wrong, but they do it and it is foolish to ignore that factor. This new estimate seems pretty weak to me, so i think it is fair to view it skeptically. Why, for example, do the Iranians need to be devoting so much effort to uranium enrichment if they are not planning on developing nuclear weapons? Even the new NIE says they could develop weapons within two or three years. That is surely far too rosy a view. With pakistani or russian assistance, they could develop at least a crude device in a matter of months. It's not like they have to have a bomb that can be delivered via ICBM. A truck or ship will do.
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I'd give Bush the benefit of the doubt. He wouldnt deliberately claim a country had weapons as a false pretext for war
 
All this isnt over by a long shot. You all seem to have forgotten another ingredient in this mix, the Israelis.
I recall over five or so years ago the Israelis saying to the yanks do something about the Iranians or we will, or something to that effect.
 
Quote from jamjob_ramjet:

I'd give Bush the benefit of the doubt. He wouldnt deliberately claim a country had weapons as a false pretext for war
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You mean he is to dumb to understand what people are reporting him?
 
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