Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

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This Seems a Bit Farfetched

I know being counterintuitive is all the rage these days, but this Time magazine article suggesting Bush was behind the NIE on Iran’s nuclear program seems a bit too counterintuitive.

Discussions - 4 Comments

Yes, it is interesting to presume that Bush had control over the NIE report. The implication that he runs everything in the government is one I hear from leftists all the time. It is a funny conundrum, that GWB can be all-knowing and all powerful and utterly incompetent at once.

And yet, it is interesting to see Time magazine publish commentary that says, The truth is that Iran is a black hole, and it's entirely conceivable Iran could build a bomb and we wouldn't know until they tested it. which is reminiscent of the magazine's good old days. I remember it from my youth, when it was worth reading. If they keep this up, I might want to read Time again.

Well, you're dead wrong on that. Robert Baer, former CIA, said there was NO way that estimate wasn't cleared at the absolute highest level.

But if you say that Bush was NOT behind that estimate, could you please explain to one and all why, WHY IN THE NAME OF GOD did Bush allow three State Department libs write the damn thing?

Please explain that one to us Steve?

We are on the verge of this administration coming to a close, and yet even now, EVEN NOW, Democrats are writing and limiting the foreign policy of an ostensibly Republican administration.

He told us all, he PROMISED REPEATEDLY that the Iranians would NOT get that bomb. Yet their Manhattan Project moves inexorably forward. And he hasn't done spit about it.

A man would have already obliterated their nuclear dreams, and killed off that leadership just for being general a#$holes.

But not Bush. Not this "Texan" who more resembles LBJ than any Republican that I can recall.

His behavior has been absolutely disgraceful. He's letting that satanic regime in Tehran kill Americans, and get away with it.

I believe the estimate is presented to the President for his use, not for the general public's use, which would make rant just above moot.

"A National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) is the U.S. intelligence community's most authoritative, top-of-the-line written judgment on a specific national security issue. Representatives from key U.S. intelligence agencies participate in writing an estimate, which is then submitted to the president and other policy-makers."
- Backgrounder from the Council on Foreign Relations website, written by Sharon Otterman, July 15, 2004

Oh, also, Otterman states that an NIE is started by a request from an "executive branch official, a member of the House or Senate, or a military commander"

So, how can the President authorize an NIE in the first place?

Now, we do now, at least some from the intelligence community, CIA I believe, asserted, that their managers pressured them to give intel more pleasing to the President in regards a NIE relating to Iraq, but that is a far cry from the President being 'behind' a NIE.

Now, Baer should know this, being a CIA man himself, but maybe he is too spook for his own good.

Then again, maybe Baer is speaking the truth and the NIEs are pretty much worthless since it is the President who must 'greenlight' them.

(Yeah, that is NIEish don't ya think? CYAing myself like any good NIE must do.)

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