The Senate and the Iran NIE

"Senate Republicans are planning to call for a congressional commission to investigate the conclusions of the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran as well as the specific intelligence that went into it, according to congressional sources.

The move is the first official challenge, but it comes amid growing backlash from conservatives and neoconservatives unhappy about the assessment that Iran halted a clandestine nuclear weapons program four years ago. It reflects how quickly the NIE has become politicized, with critics even going after the analysts who wrote it, and shows a split among Republicans."  Wright and Kessler in the WaPo

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The "jungle telegraph" in Washington is booming with news of the Iran NIE.  I am told that the reason the conclusions of the NIE were released is that it was communicated to the White House that "intelligence career seniors were lined up to go to jail if necessary" if the document's gist were not given to the public.   Translation?  Someone in that group would have gone to the media "on the record" to disclose its contents.

It is no wonder that the AEI crowd and their congressional helpmates are running around with their hair on fire over this estimate.  In sharp contrast to the ease with which the neocon Jacobins were able to control the content of the October 2002 NIE on Iraq, this time they failed utterly to use a national intelligence estimate as a propaganda tool.

Hearings? Good!  Let there be hearings!  Let there be many hearings!  The more the better and let them be public hearings.  Bring them on!.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/06/AR2007120602457.html

Comments

[Walrus]

If this Neocon witch hunt succeeds in cowing public servants, then you have lost your Republic.

But then bullies like Cheney and his ilk are cowards at heart (remember all those deferments?). My guess is that the Neocons will fail.

[jonst]

and let all who testify do so under oath.

[lina]

The Senate Republicans want to investigate the new NIE? Sure they do. Their 2008 fear-fear-fear campaign slogan just got taken away from them. What else can they do?

I am heartened to hear there are still career people on the inside of this government willing to accept the consequences of doing the right thing.

[Mad Dogs]

Hearings - yayyyyyy!

I'll bring the popcorn.

Roasting neocons slowly over a campfire under a full moon of howling Republicans. Sometimes the gods bless us.

[psd]

This has been the best news since November 1999. The idea that "'intelligence career seniors were lined up to go to jail if necessary' if the document's gist were not given to the public" has given me new faith in our republic....

As for hearings, yes, yes, yes! Long overdue. Let the fun begin........

[Michael]

I find it very interesting that the analysts are taking a stand and getting this information out to the public. Thank goodness someone is standing up and saying, "no more".

[rjj]

"backlash from conservatives and neoconservatives unhappy about the assessment..."

God damn it! They consistently debase the term conservative. I believe it is deliberate.

The backlash from conservatives is against the "effing crazies" of the rogue regime.

[Binh]

Col:

Saw your reply in the other thread on this. This is my take:

http://prisonerofstarvation.blogspot.com/2007/12/iran-war-still-possible-despite-new-nie.html

I agree with you that an attack over the nuclear issue is much more politically difficult now. The question is: what about the "terrorist" Revolutionary Guards that are supposedly sending EFPs (or teaching Iraqis how to make them) that are killing our troops? Won't the admin now lean towards that as the pre-text for war? If Iran retaliates to a strike on the Guards' HQ, won't they be able to take out the nuclear targets in the second round?

[arbogast]

I have changed my mind about why Bush released the report.

Yes, I agree that both the professional intelligence community and the armed forces have had enough. And I believe that is real, honest to God, man bites dog news.

But I think that the real reason this has blown up now (recall that Bush has written a personal letter to the North Korean dictator asking him politely for cooperation) is the coming intersection between the financial world and the military world.

The financial world is melting down. For a decade, debt has been wealth in the US. Now, suddenly, it is debt.

George knows this. He is scared silly, and he's trying to find a piece of dry land to stand on.

IMHO

[Clifford Kiracofe]

Instead of a so-called "Congressional Commission" why don't the Senate Committees on Foreign Relations, Armed Services, and Intelligence just do their job of oversight? There should have been a lot of serious, not faux, hearings since the summer of 2002 and there should be many more now.

Raimundo seems to have some of the politics nailed:

"Israel's lobby in the US is "scrambling," as Ron Kampeas puts it in the Jewish Exponent, to defend the draconian sanctions imposed on Iran for its alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons. With a war-weary America unlikely to respond favorably to the news that President Bush has ordered an attack on Iran, the War Party has had to content itself with preparing the ground for a future conflict, including a campaign to isolate Tehran economically, diplomatically, and politically. Now, however, as Kampeas reports,
"The NIE is being held up by Congress, the presidential candidates and the media as an argument for tamping down isolation of the Islamic Republic rather than a vindication of earlier warnings that Iran indeed was pursuing a bomb. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations organized an emergency conference call of members on Tuesday to address how the news could threaten its recent campaign to isolate Iran."
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12014

The "Jewish Exponent" says:
"The release of a U.S. intelligence report stating that Iran abandoned its nuclear-weapons program in 2003 has American Jewish groups scrambling to head off efforts to end the international isolation of the Islamic Republic. ..."
http://www.jewishexponent.com/article/14753/

So perhaps these investigations and hearings should broaden out to include the pro-Israel lobby of Jewish and Christian Zionist groups. The Judiciary Committee might wish to hold a hearing on whether these organizations should be registered as "foreign agents" with the Department of Justice.

And what about that AIPAC espionage/counterintelligence case relating to Iran. The Franklin case and offshoots. Shouldn't we have a hearings on it for good measure?

Hearings should be conducted on an "open" rather than "closed" Executive Session basis, where possible, so the public and press have full access. Sensitive sources and methods issues can be dealt with appropriately in Executive Session as needed.

[Grumpy]

Sir, Just a short and simple thought. I hope these hearings will only accept THE TRUTH. A TRUE statement is NOT THE TRUTH!

Grumpy

[Smedley Valet]

So, are we going to have a witch hunt of the sane people still left in the Pentagon with this proposed "review"? There is time to do this but not enough time to impeach Cheney? Give me a break! The ones that need to be purged are the 'crazies'.

[joe abbott]

It is so refreshing to hear someone with impecable military/intel credentials tell it like it is. As an attorney who loves human history and freedom I hope to live long enough to read some definitive works on how our present administration bungled the response to a new form of warfare and misled our country into a misguided war. Today, even liberals and opponents of the administration are constantly heard to say, "everybody thought he had WMD". I did not think that.

I believed Scott Ritter and others who said there were no weapons, at least no useful ones and no programs to make such weapons. I told friends and anyone who would listen that they must have a mole high-up who is telling them where the WMD is. As it turned out the mole was telling the CIA there were no such weapons. Ah well, I could go on and on. The big shock to me is that there appears to be no stomach for impeachment.

[StephanieB]

Let's not forget who among presidential contenders repeatedly insisted Iran served no threat to our security and we had no business in launching a preemptive strike against Iran. Congressman Ron Paul is the voice of reason in the GOP debates as well as in Congress.

[John Forde]

What patriots they are!

(you too, Colonel Lang)

[Jose]

Just hope the hearing also cover the Iraqi NIE.

I mean we should know why so many mistakes were made, why Powell had to look like an idiot and most importantly who forged the Italian documents.

Can't wait to see them under oath.

[--Blue Girl]

By all means, let there be hearings! Lots of hearings! With oaths and threats of perjury and all that!

Oh please, please, please, please, please let there be hearings!

And then an impeachment trial!

[Jim Faith]

George knows this. He is scared silly, and he's trying to find a piece of dry land to stand on.

arbogast - that's why he bought 98K acres in Paraguay in 2006 ...

[rakesh wahi md]

COMPLETELY INCOMPETENT AGENCY
I dont see any purpose served by the CIA. The abuses started by Angelton are continuing. The agency has not been right about a single major issue that I can remember. Any one who can read the international press and is familiar with the NPT could have predicted this NIE. The country does not need to spend billions to figure out that a country like Iran , with its current state of development is not a threat to Israel certainly not to us(US). The information provided by CIA can be just as well gleaned by reading the local press and meeting people. The covert operations have only brought ignominy to the country.

[J]

Colonel,

now that the cat, er 'no nuclear weapons' is out of the bag --- the next item to be brought to the table -- the bushies missile shield that they purport will protect us from the big bad nuclear weaponed iranians. snarf.

[JohnH]

The neoconderthals' call for hearings brought back images of the the McCarthy hearings/witch hunt, which occurred in very similar circumstances.

Thank goodness the War Party no longer controls Congress.

Let's hope that spineless Democrats will at least drag the demands for a witch hunt out until after the next elections. AIPAC will not make their lives easy.

[FMJ]

If I read the WaPo article correctly, it looks like the Republicans are getting ready to 'Team B' the Iran NIE. They'll cherry-pick, assume deception and 'fill in the unknowns' (as Rumsfeld would say) until the intelligence fits their preconceived conclusion: Iran is a gathering nuclear threat. Depending on how effictive the Team B propaganda is (six months from now, if I read the article right), the Bush/Cheney plan for Iran may still be in the cards.

[Charles I]

Here we are burbling away that the koolaid seems to be wearing off, alarums in various Quarters the measure of how fecund current conditions are.

My first thought was Jonst's: Under oath, please. The only fellow who got jailed in Iran contra, and who is on station in the Fog of War today, is -+Elliot Abrahams, who went for perjury - for lying about the crimes he wasn't prosecuted for. Half a loaf.

Clifford pretty well sketched out the rest; comprehensive compulsory hearings in public by the Congress. I must say though, my conception of that is redolent of latent impeachment.

You gotta say, enough with the handoff to some commissioner, what a dodge, or if you get them there, (Will that be Sworn or Unsworn seating?) "I really don't recall" . Wtf is that!?

Its gotta be We the Elected, if we ever want to be elected again, Command you to get the fuck over here right now with all your records and computer codes, and, we'll take custody of your records while you appeal to the Supremes, that's what those Marshals there are for, because you have proven you can't even keep a few million emails.

(Here in Canada we have scandal involving cash to a former PM where the big Committee witness has just been sprung from immigration detention pending deportation for a criminal trial - by an actual Warrant, calligraphy and all, issued by the Speaker of the Parliament of Canada. And the Speaker, acted on the command of our relevant, well, sort of relevant, it is politics, of a Committee chaired by a member of the opposition in a minority government. Until this point, the Federal Justice Minister claimed himself powerless to defer deportation of a a prisoner - a Canadian citizen - in federal custody. Our Hero is now out on bail, deportation off, back at home with his wife and his archives. Better yet, villain of the piece former PM Brian Mulroney is on for next week - under oath.)

For nine million reason's not all those things will be addressed. You're in the middle of the war, financial house of cards, institutional and infrastructural decay endemic, and the really big electoral dough and noise have yet to fully work their corrosive effects. .

Election + War + Fox + banana peels = anything could happen. A huge thing has to be done - it has to be. But it won't be done until a whole societal tipping point had been reached, an admission that we gotta do this, and a confidence that it can be done, because these buggers are pros. It has to become safe, and then required, to finally say, not "the King is naked . . . " but rather "That naked man is not the king. Marshal, take him away while we sort this mess out. And Marshal, now is the time we must cleave to our Laws, our Oaths and our Duties. . .

[Steve J.]

I'd like to congratulate the intelligence professsionals fortheir willingness to put America first instead of their careers.

[Arun]

May the backbone displayed by intelligence career seniors percolate into Congress!