engineer wrote:okie wrote:And of course the intelligence community is undoubtedly right, as they sit there in their offices looking at satellite photos? Give me a break.
I'm sure we can trust the Iranians to tell the truth.
If the intel community is of the opinion that Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons, what info is President Bush using to say otherwise? Is this gut feel on his part? What information does he have that the intel group does not and why does he have it? Shouldn't our intel teams have all the information? I think the intel community went forward with the public release because they saw the President marching forward on little or no information and wanted to let their opinion be known before we started dropping bombs. If he has some info that the rest of the world does not, he needs to show his hand.
I don't know how anyone who saw how wrong the Intelligence Community was about WMDs in Iraq (and howled bloody murder about it) can now be so sure that they have it right about Iran.
Nor do I understand how anyone can be alright with the possibility that the Intelligence Community has taken it upon itself to operate outside of the framework of the the Constitution.
It's not a matter of politics is it?
No matter what our intelligence services report, at this time, I am going to be skeptical. Before their credibility is restored in my mind, they will need to get something right, not just report something that happens to compliment my political preferences.
The intelligence services are in place to provide information to policy makers who are a product of our electoral system. They are not in place to fashion or influence that policy.
It's debateable as to whether the report on Iranian nuclear weapons programs put the brakes on a a planned pre-emptive strike, but it surely undermined the State Department's attempt to deal with the situation through international sanctions.
Now I'm not assuming that the members of the intelligence agencies decided that their view of policy issues was better for the country than that of its elected officials, but it appears you are.
You don't have an accurate understanding of intelligence if you believe the Intel Services have a series of concrete documents or photos proving that Iran gave up their weapons programs, and that the only way the Bush Administration can credibly disagree with their conclusions is to produce concrete documents and photos of their own. It is a matter of interpreting a mass of imprecise and cloudy information. Normally I would give the edge to the professionals in the Intel Services, but let's not forget Iraq's WMDs.
Let's assume the Intel Services are completely correct, this is not the same as getting it correct that Iraq wasn't stockpiling WMDs. As long as they continue their plans to enrich uranium (for peaceful purposes only of course) they can turn their weapons program on pretty easily.
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