Voices from America

The juxtaposition of this NIE with the president8217;s suggestion of World War III serves as an important reminder of what we learned with the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq. Members of Congress must carefully read the intelligence before giving the president any justification to use military force.

Valerie Lincy and Gary Milhollin, The New York Times

In fact, the report contains the same sorts of flaws that we have learned to expect from our intelligence agency offerings. It, like the report in 2002 that set up the invasion of Iraq, is both misleading and dangerous8230;We should be suspicious of any document that suddenly gives the Bush administration a pass on a big national security problem it won8217;t solve during its remaining year in office.

John Bolton

The real differences between the NIEs are not in the hard data but in the psychological assessment of the mullahs8217; motives and objectives. The current NIE freely admits to having only moderate confidence that the suspension continues and says that there are significant gaps in our intelligence and that our analysts dissent from their initial judgment on suspension. This alone should give us pause8230;

Ironically, the NIE opens the way for Iran to achieve its military nuclear ambitions in an essentially unmolested fashion, to the detriment of us all.

Rosa Brooks LA Times

As the NIE notes, it appears that 8216;Tehran8217;s decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military costs.8217; In other words: We can probably cut some deals8230;

But to Bush, the NIE isn8217;t good news, it8217;s 8216;a warning signal.8217; The report shows that 8216;they had the programme. They halted the programme. And the reason why it8217;s a warning signal is that they could restart it.8217; So full speed ahead with bellicose rhetoric and punitive sanctions.

We can now say with 8216;high confidence8217; that this administration really knows how to screw up a good thing.