Kenneth R. Timmerman reports at NewsMax:
“The intelligence community has proven over past five to seven years that they can’t get analysis right. They can’t build satellites. They can’t keep a secret," says Rep. Pete Hoekstra.The ranking Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, is “profoundly disappointed” with the way the intelligence community has handled the latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, and says he is “not convinced” of their conclusion that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program in late 2003.
“While the intelligence may have gotten better, it hasn’t improved to the point where we can make this kind of definitive statement, that Iran has stopped their weapons program,” he told Newsmax in an exclusive interview on Thursday.
“The intelligence community has proven over past five to seven years that they can’t get analysis right. They can’t build satellites. They can’t keep a secret. And now they expect us to say, great work? This is dead nuts!” he said.
This latest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear weapons program has become a political football, as Republicans and Democrats dispute its findings, the motivations for its release, and the policies it advocates.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says the report vindicates Democrats who have been skeptical of claims that Iran was seeking nuclear weapons, and has urged the administration to launch a “diplomatic surge” and cut a deal with Tehran.
Republicans are wondering how the intelligence community could reverse itself so thoroughly from its 2005 estimate, and suspect that “shadow warriors” opposed to the president are skewing the intelligence for political ends.
Read it all.
“The intelligence community has proven over past five to seven years that they can’t get analysis right. They can’t build satellites. They can’t keep a secret,"
Yep, it is time to clean house, we need to rid ourselves of the pseudopatriots like sweet Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson. Makes you think back to the bad old days of Philby, Burgess and Hiss, only now we're not prosecuting the rats, but rather rewarding them. Just who's side are they on? It is laughable to think the Iranians have given up their bomb ambitions.
"Just who's side are they on?"
posted by VAF158
Our society’s multiculturalism seeps like raw sewage in our lives. The automatic assumption that any westerner is corrupt and debased permeates the thoughts of our “leaders” and “educators”. Followed by the P.C. BS concept of “Can’t we all just get along” school of philosophy in dealing with Jihadist, that have declared “Islam will dominate.”
The real question is; “Just whose side are WE on allowing this pathetic situation of self flogging to continue?”
Time to clean house!
VAF 158 wrote: "Yep, it is time to clean house, we need to rid ourselves of the pseudopatriots like sweet Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson"
It's draft-deferment-patriot Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby and that lot who are the pseudopatriots. They retaliated against Plame and Wilson for letting...gasp...the truth out! The truth that Iraq was not trying to buy uranium from Niger as your Leader insisted in His 2003 speech. Which was part of the wholly bogus campaign to get our troops into Iraq to "democratize" it and capture its oil for Exxon et al. If it were some leftist who publicized the name of a covert agent, you would be screaming for the death penalty. In fact, punishing liberal whistleblowers is probably why the Reaganauts wanted the law in the first place. And how exactly do you now propose to "rid ourselves" of Plame and Wilson? Perhaps you'd like to issue a fatwa?
Trust the CIA to spoil the little war party. I'm old enough to remember when neocons Richard Pipes, Paul Wolfowitz and Paul Nitze got themselves appointed to a committee called "Team B" in 1976 to critique an allegedly faulty NIE for underplaying the Soviet menace. They issued a report that said the Soviets would soon establish nuclear superiority. But they missed the part where the Soviet Union was already slowly collapsing into its own rust and toxic waste.
Does anyone remember the recent report that included Baker and the current Defence Secretary that was basically liberal wish nonsense from beginning to end ?
Finally preempted by limited victory in Iraq thanks to General Petraus and the US marines ?
Would you trust the NIE to handicap your sports predictions ?
If your sworn enemy wills your defeat, subjugation or death, where does that place him on your list of priorities ?
Keep your eye on islam, evil deceptive islam, which is prepared to kill you.
Hugh has made an effort to somehow link this NIE report to our involvement in Iraq. The ONLY real link is that after the failure to find WMDs in Iraq, the intelligence community now seems hell bent on erring on the side of caution.
Max Boot's synopsis is from the NIE report itself, which states that the intelligence community has "moderate" confidence in the stated findings....i.e., they just don't know.
From the article:
Ah, so there's the culprit. Who knows what villainry lies at the heart of traitorous conspiracies? The Shadow Knows.
So who is part of this shadowy conspiracy? Marine General Carlton W. Fulford, Jr., who verified that the Niger yellowcake document was a forgery? Former U.S. Navy Admiral John McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence that John Bolton fingered? Gen. Michael V. Hayden, USAF, the director of the CIA? U.S. Army Lieutenant General Keith B. Alexander, who is head of the NSA? Lieutenant General Michael D. Maples, director of Defense Intelligence Agency? These are the traitors who are hiding the proof that exists that Iran has nuclear weapons? These are the people that Nancy Pelosi is controlling?
Think about it for two seconds: if one employee of the CIA or NSA or DIA knew of the hidden proof that Iran had weapons, and that our country was in mortal danger, they could go directly to the President or Vice President and give them the information and expose the shadowy coverup.
But no, all the CIA and NSA and DIA are part of the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy.
This pattern of slandering and personally attacking anyone who doesn't go along with the Bush Administration's plans is disgusting. And yes, accusing the patriots listed above as liars and traitors for exposing their country to nuclear danger is slander.
When the first Iranian nuke goes off (they were equally shocked when the 1st Paki Islamic Bomb blew up) they should be forced to eat this NIE report on C-SPAN, page by page.
With crow butter.
How do we know Iraq's WMD report wasn't a little CIA vendetta to begin with? They were already in hot water for their failure to notify the FBI about 9/11, and now Iran isn't seeking WMD??? Puleeze.
We all should remember the CIA was gutted by Clinton, who then hired all his cronies...so what do you think is really going on here???
So yes, you'll excuse me if I do smell conspiracy with the CIA...and nothing will change my mind.
The entire "intelligence" community is a mess. One might as well write it off as an arm of the jihadists for all the help it's providing the US.
An overhaul is long overdue, before another intelligence failure like 9/11 happens.
The rats are different colors, but they are all rats...
This whole thing is silly. Anyone who claims that Iran is not engaging in nuclear weapons development must be force to define thier concept of said program. If thier interpretaion boils down to activly fitting and attaching warheads to delivery systems, and nothing more, then they will be seen for the fraud that they are. Even I know ,John Q public, that this part is the easy part. When they say, "Not pursuing a nuclear weapons program." are they intentionally leaving out the enrichment cycle, or the development of ICBMs in thier analysis, or are they stupid, if they are purposly skewing the analysis ... why the deception? This whole thing stinks to high heaven.
From Skeptico above:
"...It's draft-deferment-patriot Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby and that lot who are the pseudopatriots. They retaliated against Plame and Wilson for letting...gasp...the truth out! The truth that Iraq was not trying to buy uranium from Niger as your Leader insisted in His 2003 speech. ..."
Skeptico, you need to get your read other sources than the New York Times propaganda machine. Cheney and Libby had nothing to do with Valerie Plame's outing. It was the left wing foggy bottom bureaucrat Richard Armitage who outed her, a well-publicized fact, unless you have have locked in the dungeons of Foggy Bottom all this time. Since the NY-Times false propaganda seemed to be the basis of your comment, the rest of it is seems to be founded in mid-air.
I find it quite disturbing that democrats were so quick to hang their lantern on this report as gospel. Who was it in the Democratic party that influenced John McConnell to publicly release this NIE Report last monday?
How many reviews by intelligence committees were conducted before this release? Still the report shows very little change from its appearance in May of 2005, so why was the title;no nuclear work since 2003 put up on the big marques?
This has a terrible smell of politics in it at every turn.We can't have security matters like this become political footballs.The democrats are way to quick to buy into this report.
Why is one of the authors of this report a state department official who worked along with the democrats to derail John Boltons election as US Ambassador to the UN?
I guess Will have to see what Timmerman says about guys like Thomas Fingar in his book"Shadow Warriors".
After the answers that were given after the release of this NIE report to a closed meeting were found to be pitiful, I think this report and how it was instituted is going to get legs much greater than the teddy bear incident did,and rightly so.
Where Iran and nuclear weapons are concerned, we should err on the side of caution, not the side of recklessness. Assuming that an otherwise warlike and intransigent regime does not seek or possess nuclear weapons is stunning foolishness.
However, stunning foolishness is in keeping with the tradition of the U.S. intelligence community. Further, this latest NIE dovetails conveniently with President Bush's apparent preference for comfortable inaction with respect to Iran's acts of war against the U.S.
A pathetic intelligence community and a pathetic executive complement each other - but complements aside, I (like the Alarmed Pig Farmer) am alarmed.
Timmerman gives solid information and is capable of expressing his points succinctly and analytically, he doesn't just run around calling people stupid.
Cut a deal with Tehran??
HAHAHAHA!!!!
Go back to sleep, Dingy.
sceptico said:
1. "The truth that Iraq was not trying to buy uranium from Niger as your Leader insisted in His 2003 speech."
VAF158 replies: Here's a link to help you catch up on current events: http://www.slate.com/id/2103795/
Seems that most of the other folks on this string are already there.
sceptico said:
2. "And how exactly do you now propose to "rid ourselves" of Plame and Wilson? Perhaps you'd like to issue a fatwa?"
VAF158 replies: How about firing them, giving them a pink slip, or as we say in the military: "sending them home." I will give you credit though, at least you are taking the time to read some of the truth on this website.
Sceptico,
What planet have you been living on?
It has been proven, by definition of who and what qualifies as 'covert', that Valerie Plame, at the time of her "outing" was not a 'Covert' agent. Thus, no crime at all was ever committed.
It is also common knowledge now, that Richard Armitage admitted to being the individual who "outed" Plame to the press. This was not illegal, because Plame was not 'covert'; but, had she been 'covert', the source of her outing was known to be Richard Armitage and NOT Scooter Libby.
Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was well aware that both:
A. No crime had been committed, AND
B. that even if there had been a crime, the culprit was Armitage and NOT Libby.
Fitzgerald knew all of this before the case ever went to trial.
Bush's commutation of Libby's sentence merely keeps Libby out of Prison until his appeal is heard - at which point his innocence will become evident.
In addition, it has become clear that Saddam Hussein WAS, in fact, trying to buy Uranium from Niger. It is also clear that Plame's influence allowed her to enable her husband, Joe Wilson, to be the individual to go to Niger to check on this report. This despite the fact that he had no experience or ability to carry out the investigation. It has since been shown that he was basically vacationing in Africa, as the realities of terrorist commerce took place under his nose.
Of course, unrelated to the Plame/Wilson/Libby/Armitage issue; you make the oldest, most hackneyed, and ridiculous argument against the Battle of Iraq. You say that the Iraq campaign is "part of the wholly bogus campaign to get our troops into Iraq to "democratize" it and capture its oil for Exxon et al."
How stupid can one person be?
"No Blood for Oil" or "No War for Oil" or 'We're only in Iraq to benefit the Oil Companies"
Where is it? Where's the oil? Why is the price of oil at an all-time high? Why is gasoline $3+ per gallon? When, exactly do we get to benefit from this "war for oil"?
Geez, if only we actually did take all of Iraq's oil as payment for our liberating them from Saddam, we'd be much better off. Personally, I think we deserve to take all of their oil - to the victor goes the spoils. Nevertheless, we have gained NOTHING economically or "oil-wise" from our invasion of Iraq.
Sceptico, you can't expect to have your views taken seriously when definite, provable reality contradicts your arguments
Please, Dear God, do us all a favor and just wake up to fact, reality and logic; OR shut the heck up & go away - wallow in your "sky is falling" stupidity and spare us normal people your childish musings.
IDF to show US nuclear data on Iran
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847275418&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Dec 6, 2007 23:59 | Updated Dec 7, 2007 11:53
IDF to show US nuclear data on Iran
By YAAKOV KATZ
Disappointed after failing to make their case on Iran and influence the outcome of the United States's National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released this week, Military Intelligence will present its hard core evidence on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program on Sunday to the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff during a rare visit he will be making to Israel.
Iran's nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz.
Photo: AP [file]
Admiral Michael Mullen will land in Israel Sunday morning for a 24-hour visit that will include a one-on-one meeting with IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, as well as with Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
According to a Time magazine article published Wednesday, Mullen is a member of the Pentagon's "anti-war [with Iran] group" that includes Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral William Fallon, current commander of the US Central Command.
In a recent press briefing in Washington, however, Mullen took a hard-line approach, refusing to rule out the possibility that military force will be used to stop Iran's race towards nuclear power.
"I would never take the military option off the table," Mullen told reporters, although he stressed that his remark did not mean that force would be used. Diplomacy, he added, was very important.
Mullen's visit to Israel will be exactly a week after the publication of the NIE report that claimed Iran had frozen its nuclear military program in 2003 and has yet to restart it. During his visit, Military Intelligence plans to present him with Israel's evidence that Iran is in fact developing nuclear weapons.
"The report clearly shows that we did not succeed in making our case over the past year in the run-up to this report," a defense official said Thursday. "Mullen's visit is an opportunity to try and fix that."
In addition to Iran, Ashkenazi and his staff will also discuss with Mullen America's commitment for Israel to retain its qualitative edge in the face of the sale of advanced JDAM missiles to Saudi Arabia.
In the past, Israel had asked the Pentagon to permit the sale of the F-22 fifth-generation stealth fighter jet - also known as the Raptor - but the request was rejected.
Mullen will be met by an honor guard at the Kirya Military Headquarters in Tel Aviv and will sit through a day of presentations by IDF generals, including Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin and OC IDF Planning Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan.
Sunday night he will be honored at a festive dinner hosted by Ashkenazi and will leave Israel Monday morning.
The presentations that Mullen will hear will be on a wide range of topics - including the Hamas buildup in the Gaza Strip, Egypt's failure to stop the smuggling of weapons into Gaza, Hizbullah activities in Lebanon, Syria and Iran.
Israel plans to take advantage of Mullen's visit to Israel to reinforce the already strong ties the IDF has with the Pentagon and the US armed forces.
Appreciation for the IDF has increased within the Pentagon in recent months following the Israeli air strike on the alleged Syrian nuclear reactor.
Mullen's visit will be the first time a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has visited Israel in the past decade. Mullen was in Israel with his wife two years ago when he was the commander of the Navy.
He met Ashkenazi at the NATO military commander conference in Brussels last month, and the two have already established an effective work relationship, defense officials said.
Also Thursday, China's government said it was studying the US intelligence review and remained steadfast in its opinion that talks were the way to end the standoff with Iran.
"We will earnestly study the report and make communications with relevant parties," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters at a regular briefing. "China's position on the Iranian nuclear issue is that we support the international nuclear nonproliferation regime, and oppose proliferation of nuclear weapons, and we uphold a peaceful and stable Middle East," Qin said.
Earlier this week, China's ambassador to the United Nations said the report raised concerns about new sanctions.
"I think the council members will have to consider that, because I think we all start from the presumption that now things have changed," Chinese UN Ambassador Wang Guangya said Tuesday when asked whether the release of the intelligence estimate made the prospect of new UN sanctions less likely.
The New York Times reported Thursday that the change in the US's intelligence assessment vis-à-vis Iran was based mainly on notes acquired last summer from discussions between Iranian military officials.
The notes reportedly detailed conversations in which certain army officials complained about Iranian leaders' 2003 decision to shut down efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
The notes gave no clue as to why Iran had decided to stop weapons development. The information contained in the notes was supported by other intelligence, including conversations between Iranian officials which had been intercepted in recent months, the paper reported.
Meanwhile, US Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday said he had no reason to doubt the intelligence assessment.
"There's always the possibility that circumstances will change. But I think they've done the best job they can with the intelligence that's available," Cheney told Politico.com.
The vice president stressed that the administration would not change its policy towards Iran. "We still think there's a need to continue the course we've been on to persuade the Iranians not to enrich uranium," he said.
AP contributed to the report.
TERRORISM AWARENESS
http://www.terrorismawareness.org/islamic-mein-kampf/
WMD in Iraq: "Slam Dunk!".
WMD in Iran: "Got None!".
Total political prostitution on top of total incompetence - that's the CIA.
They cook-up crooked "intelligence" to Bush's order.
They cooked-up "Yellow Cake" on Iraq because Bush wanted to use the enormous resources of the US government to remove the threat to his family ("He tried to kill my Dad").
They now lie on Iran because Bush and Rice are cowards who don't want Iranian and Hezbollah terrorists to go after them and their families after they leave the government. Family loyalty comes before anything else for the Bushes.
With only one year of this administration left, cowards Bush, Rice and Robert Gates decided to play it safe for themselves and just while this one year away. They are guilty of dereliction of duty. They drop the ball on all of us again, as they did before 9/11, only this time, the cost for us could be even greater.
Ruslan Tokhchukov, EnragedSince1999.
the NIE was written by a handful of partisan, high-level managers. This was not overseen by all the Intelligence Community, or the analysts in the trenches. The majority of the IC never saw the classified information, much less had any input into the report. The classified report will not even be open to scrutiny by analysts, with top secret security clearances mind you, for probably many years.
The fact of the matter is that the weaponization of nuclear material is the very last step in building a bomb! At that point it would only take a few months to do... game over. The enrichment of uranium is the difficult part, which Iran is currently doing full-speed-ahead (and now, thanks to this NIE report, without international obstruction or deterrent). The Iran nuclear weapons program continues unabashedly now, thanks to this NIE report. Hopefully, our politicians and our senior IC "analysts" will come to their senses before it is too late (if, in fact, that is not already so), and we all pay dearly.
Sceptico,
Surprised to see that you did not work "Haliburton" into your rant somehow. Haliburton has become the Trilateral Comission of the looney left. You appear to be to the left of them.
Ahhhh, maybe things are coming into focus...
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Washington and Tehran in Saudi-brokered talks for a deal after US suspends military option
December 8, 2007, 10:29 PM (GMT+02:00)
World War Three on hold
World War Three on hold
Last Friday, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 328 first revealed that a Washington-Tehran understanding was in the making, brokered by Saudi Arabia. This dialogue spanning a broad range of issues generated the US National Intelligence Estimate of Dec. 3 affirming Iran’s nuclear weapons program had been put on hold in 2003. It met Tehran’s stipulation for a guarantee to back a US pledge to take the military option off the table. That pledge also tied Israel’s hands.
Iran is capitalizing on its victory for further strategic gains. One is to strengthen pro-Iran Middle East regimes. Tehran and Riyadh are conspiring to force Israel to accept an informal truce in Gaza and abandon plans for a major military operation which could topple the Hamas government.