Are the Facts Being Fixed Around the Policy On Intelligence About Iran As a Pretext For Yet Another War?

Question

The NIE coordinates the judgments of 16 intelligence agencies on a specific country or issue.

There is a split in the intelligence community on how much of a threat the Iranian nuclear programme poses, according to the intelligence official’s account. Some analysts who are less independent are willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the alarmist view coming from Cheney’s office, but others have rejected that view.

The draft NIE first completed a year ago, which had included the dissenting views, was not acceptable to the White House, according to the former intelligence officer. “They refused to come out with a version that had dissenting views in it,” he says.

As recently as early October, the official involved in the process was said to be unclear about whether an NIE would be circulated and, if so, what it would say.

Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi provided a similar account, based on his own sources in the intelligence community. He told IPS that intelligence analysts have had to review and rewrite their findings three times, because of pressure from the White House.

“The White House wants a document that it can use as evidence for its Iran policy,” says Giraldi. Despite pressures on them to change their dissenting conclusions, however, Giraldi says some analysts have refused to go along with conclusions that they believe are not supported by the evidence.

In October 2006, Giraldi wrote in The American Conservative that the NIE on Iran had already been completed, but that Cheney’s office had objected to its findings on both the Iranian nuclear programme and Iran’s role in Iraq. The draft NIE did not conclude that there was confirming evidence that Iran was arming the Shiite insurgents in Iraq, according to Giraldi.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/09/5117/

"commande"...a little uninformed this one, in the 1970s when the Shah ("our guy" after 1953 coup) ran Iran, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and outgoing Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz held key national security posts with the Ford administration.
Ford's team endorsed Iranian plans to build a massive nuclear energy industry, but also worked hard to complete a multibillion-dollar deal that would have given Tehran control of large quantities of plutonium and enriched uranium -- the two pathways to a nuclear bomb.
Iran, a U.S. ally then, had deep pockets and close ties to Washington. U.S. companies, including Westinghouse and General Electric, scrambled to do business there.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3983-2005Mar26?language=printer

I guess Fox News forgot?

An advertisement from the 1970s showing Iran as an example of the virtues of Nuclear Power:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x3060229

Answer 1

I don't trust anybody in Washington. I only trust El Baradei.

Answer 2

Considering the word "programme" in your "source" part of the post is of "English" origin...I must believe that it comes from a BBC source. HARDLY a reputable intel factual place, or get truth without a left leaning stance.

Iran has made NO secret it is pursuing a nuclear progam. "Peaceful" usage ? FOR WHAT ??? They have plenty of oil for domestic energy needs. What else could they want nuclear technology for..hmmmm?

Get a clue !

Answer 3

I don't know and just like Iraq it could be a repeat. However, when Iran had that devistating earthquake that killed so many and levelled two cities, my biggest fear is the 3,000 Centrifuges that are currently running and the Plant that just became operational. We sent thousands of volunteers to their country to aid and assist. I wouldn't send them now unless they all had their own Rad. Detector.

Answer 4

That's rather disturbing, especially since our foreign intelligence is, in reality, more suspicion, conjecture, and rumor than established fact.

Answer 5

I worry about Americans, they are getting too stupid and paranoid for their own good.

Answer 6

FROM "A FEW GOOD MEN"

"TRUTH, YOU WANT THE TRUTH, HELL YOU COULDN'T STAND THE TRUTH."