Think that’s a harsh assessment? Then read this story in the New York Times today:
WASHINGTON, Aug. 23 — Some senior Bush administration officials and top Republican lawmakers are voicing anger that American spy agencies have not issued more ominous warnings about the threats that they say Iran presents to the United States.
Some policy makers have accused intelligence agencies of playing down Iran’s role in Hezbollah’s recent attacks against Israel and overestimating the time it would take for Iran to build a nuclear weapon.
The complaints, expressed privately in recent weeks, surfaced in a Congressional report about Iran released Wednesday. They echo the tensions that divided the administration and the Central Intelligence Agency during the prelude to the war in Iraq.
The criticisms reflect the views of some officials inside the White House and the Pentagon who advocated going to war with Iraq and now are pressing for confronting Iran directly over its nuclear program and ties to terrorism, say officials with knowledge of the debate.
I know I’ve already blogged about this issue numerous times, most recently in this post about Cheney getting prefabricated intel on Iran from a former official of the Office of Special Plans (Doug Feith’s prior outfit that at the Pentagon manufactured intelligence about Saddam’s WMD which we now know was false). We know Cheney wants intelligence that fits his policy for military action against Iran. Rather than rely on the CIA’s and DIA’s analysts, he’s gone off the ranch again, demanding that raw intelligence, no matter how “thin” or “suspect” be delivered to him just as long as it supports his predetermined view that Iran’s nuclear program is an imminent threat to the United States.
What’s especially troubling about this new report in the NY Times (and, as an aside it’s nice to see them finally catching up on this story which has been covered by Raw Story for some time) is that it isn’t just the White House trying to deceive the American people into believing we must bomb Iran. Now it is Republican members of Congress, fearful of their slide in the polls on Iraq, who are trying to distract us into pursuing another unneccessary and far more dangerous war:
(cont.)
The new report, from the House Intelligence Committee, led by Representative Peter Hoekstra, Republican of Michigan, portrayed Iran as a growing threat and criticized American spy agencies for cautious assessments about Iran’s weapons programs. “Intelligence community managers and analysts must provide their best analytical judgments about Iranian W.M.D. programs and not shy away from provocative conclusions or bury disagreements in consensus assessments,” the report said, using the abbreviation for weapons of mass destruction like nuclear arms.
Some policy makers also said they were displeased that American spy agencies were playing down intelligence reports — including some from the Israeli government — of extensive contacts recently between Hezbollah and members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. “The people in the community are unwilling to make judgment calls and don’t know how to link anything together,” one senior United States official said.
“We’re not in a court of law,” he said. “When they say there is ‘no evidence,’ you have to ask them what they mean, what is the meaning of the term ‘evidence’?”
I’ll tell you what the meaning of no evidence is, Mr. Senior US Official who refuses to allow his identity to be known. “No evidence” is what Hans Blix and David Kay found in Iraq after the bogus claims of Saddam’s WMD threat were presented by Colin Powell to the UN Security Council to justify the invasion of Iraq. The same crappy intel that Bush and Cheney relied upon to make their case to the American people. The same crap that ended up as 16 words in Bush’s 2003 State of the Union address about Iraq’s attempt to buy uranium from Niger. You know, just like the phony story somebody leaked to the press about Iran buying uranium from the Congo a few weeks ago, a story with little basis in reality, it now appears.
That’s the meaning of “no evidence.” Whatever you demagogues and reprobates, whatever you liars and smear merchants, want to believe is true so you can get your war on (or at a minimum your warmongering talk on) in time to save your slimy GOP seats in Congress in November’s elections. It’s frankly disgusting that the GOP now thinks the only way to win an election and retain power is to threaten a war that would engulf the entire Middle East.
I guess starting World War III is now the basis of the Republican Party’s election campaign. What a world we live in.
