The Bush administration has just lost their number one excuse to bomb Iran. All the posturing and blustering from Cheney and crew has been proven to be based on lies and propaganda:

A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting an assessment two years ago that Tehran was working inexorably toward building a bomb.

The conclusions of the new assessment are likely to be a major factor in the tense international negotiations aimed at getting Iran to halt its nuclear energy program. Concerns about Iran were raised sharply after President Bush had suggested in October that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to “World War III,” and Vice President Dick Cheney promised “serious consequences” if the government in Tehran did not abandon its nuclear program.

The finding also come in the middle of a presidential campaign during which a possible military strike against Iran’s nuclear program has been discussed. The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran’s ultimate intentions about gaining a nuclear weapon remain unclear, but that Iran’s “decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military costs.”

The latest NIE report on Iran “comes out just over five years after a deeply flawed N.I.E. concluded that Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons programs and was determined to restart its nuclear program.”

That report, we all know now (and some knew then) led to the Bush administration pushing for “congressional authorization for a military invasion of Iraq, although most of the N.I.E.’s conclusions turned out to be wrong.” (Note to Karl Rove: no one is buying your attempt to pin the Congressional vote on the Democrats.)

In effort to quell damage to the battered, propaganda spewing Bush administration, national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, quickly issued a propaganda laced statement “describing the N.I.E. as containing positive news rather than reflecting intelligence mistakes.”

“It confirms that we were right to be worried about Iran seeking to develop nuclear weapons,” Mr. Hadley said. “It tells us that we have made progress in trying to ensure that this does not happen. But the intelligence also tells us that the risk of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon remains a very serious problem.”

Sorry Hadley, no dice…

ABC News blog Political Radar notes, “The entire NIE report will remain classified, however the office of the Director of National Intelligence released a declassified version of the key findings that can be read HERE.”

In The Blogosphere:

• On Newshoggers – “say it with me, wingnuts – Iran has no nuclear weapons program.”
• On The Reaction – this report is “an estimate Dick Cheney has been trying to suppress for a while now.”
• Kevin Drum asks “WHY WAS THE NIE RELEASED?….“

Related posts

• Carter: U.S. Tortures Prisoners, Calls Cheney a “Disaster” for U.S
• The Neo-Con Foreign Policy of Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Commander Guy Lies Again…
• We Did What? Could Have Killed Osama but… Didn’t… Again
• Late Night: Blackwater Exposed

Filed under: In The News | Get Permalink or trackback |