Friday, November 9, 2007

Spooks refuse to toe Cheney's line on Iran

By Gareth Porter
Asia Times

"A National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, which pulls together the judgments of the US's 16 intelligence agencies, has been held up for more than a year because it contains views at odds with the alarmist conclusions on Iran's nuclear program espoused by Vice President Dick Cheney. The report is expected to be released this month, but without its key findings being made public.....

The release of the Iran NIE will certainly intensify the bureaucratic political struggle over Iran policy. If the NIE includes both dissenting views on key issues, a campaign of selective leaking to news media of language from the NIE that supports Cheney's line on Iran will soon follow, as well as leaks of the dissenting views by his opponents.

Both sides may be anticipating another effort by Cheney to win Bush's approval of a significant escalation of military pressure on Iran in early 2008."

No comments: