State Department And Pentagon Plotting Insubordination, Pretty Much Lying To Prevent Action Against Iran
The NIE report on Iran was hopelessly politicized. It was based on idiotic guesswork. It was part of a broader and sometimes illegal program - conducted by State Department washouts and anti-Bush military officials - to head off any action against Iran:
About three months ago, a federal grand jury issued a subpoena against him, ordering Risen to give evidence in court. A heavy blackout has been imposed on the affair, with the only hint being that it has to do with sensitive matters of "national security." But conversations with several sources who are familiar with the affair indicate that Risen has been asked to testify as part of an investigation aimed at revealing who leaked apparently confidential information about the planning of secret Central Intelligence Agency and Mossad missions concerning Iran's nuclear program. Risen included this information in his book, "State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration," which was published in 2006. In the book, he discusses a number of ideas which he says were thought up jointly by CIA and Mossad operatives to sabotage Iran's nuclear capabilities.
Asked in an online discussion September 27 whether the Bush Administration will launch a war against Iran, Washington Post intelligence reporter Dana Priest replied, "Frankly, I think the military would revolt and there would be no pilots to fly those missions." She acknowledged that she had indulged in a bit of hyperbole, then added, "but not much." There have been many other hints of military disaffection from plans to attack Iran -- indeed, military resistance may help explain why, despite years of rumors about Bush Administration intentions, such an attack has not yet occurred. A Pentagon consultant told Hersh more than a year ago, "There is a war about the war going on inside the building." Hersh also reported that Gen. Peter Pace had forced Bush and Cheney to remove the "nuclear option" from the plans for possible conflict with Iran -- in the Pentagon it was known as the April Revolution.
We discussed this last year - but that was in the context of USAF incompetence. The possibility of a blue-flu style strike by military and intelligence personell has been hovering beneath Pentagon politics. Fair enough. But in the meantime can't we all agree that the NIE was something other than the objective consensus of all US intelligence agencies? Because that would be really unfortunate, given how much it sucks:
The senior US intelligence official on Tuesday stressed that a recent report on Iran had concluded that Tehran had halted only one part of its alleged nuclear weapons programme. Admiral Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, said the November national intelligence estimate had concluded that Tehran had ceased only efforts to covertly enrich uranium and design nuclear warheads. “The only thing that they’ve halted was nuclear weapons design, which is probably the least significant part of the programme,” he told the Senate intelligence committee. Adm McConnell said Iran continued to develop uranium enrichment technology and longer-range ballistic missiles.
It sucks so much, in fact, that it sucks internationally:
Follow the link for details of a contentious, accusatory briefing held recently by IAEA chief investigator Olli Heinonen that featured “an organisational chart linking a variety of nuclear weapons projects. A document on the organisation ‘includes 10 to 15 pages of instructions on how to communicate, setting out in particular rules for correspondence excluding the use of people’s names.’” Another document claimed the weapons program was pursued into 2004, months after the NIE claims it was shut down. The information supposedly comes from the “laptop of death” supplied to the U.S. by an Iranian dissident in 2005.
At least the idiots who produced the NIE haven't engendered a global backlash against any action that might slow down Iran's nuclear program.
References:
* WaPo: NIE Conclusions Were Engineered By Easily Identifiable, Hysterically Anti-Bush State Department Washouts [MR]
* Diving Deep, Unearthing a Surprise [WaPo]
* Who leaked the details of a CIA-Mossad plot against Iran? [Ha'aretz]
* Will the Military Halt an Iran Attack? [Alternet]
* Great News: USAF Accidentally Put Nuke-Tipped Bombs On Bombers, Flew Them Across The Country, And Left Them Unguarded For More Than A Day (Plus: Will USAF Pushback Prevent Bush From Attacking Iran?) [MR]
* Intelligence official revives Iran doubts [FT]
* Senior British diplomat: Contrary to NIE, no reason to believe Iran has suspended nuclear weapons program [Hot Air]
* Support drops for action on Iran [BBC]
Previously:
* Obligatory Followup To Obligatory Post About The NIE Report - The NIE Unbelievably Punted On The Single Most Important Iranian Nuke Question (Plus: Israel Looking To React Now That Bush Is Handcuffed And Iranian Hardliners Are Crowing About Victory)
* Iran To Protest Israeli "Military Threats" In UN
* Iranian Nukes In 2009, IAEA: What Nukes? (Plus: Iran Systematically Persecuting Baha'i. Again)
