NIE Rhymes With "Lie"

We're a tad late to the party on this one, but even a week later the novelty of a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee smackdown of the hyper-left-wing "intelligence community" over its pro-Iranian interference-running is sufficiently jaw-dropping that it merits a mention even this belated:

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell took careful steps to reconsider key portions of a controversial National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear weapons program on Tuesday under sharp questions from members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

McConnell was grilled on the NIE’s disputed conclusion that Iran had shut down its nuclear weapons program in the fall of 2003 under international pressure by both Democrats and Republicans.

Senator Bond, the ranking Republican on the committee, chided McConnell for allowing the NIE to be used as a “political football,” and pointed out that the real revelation of the NIE was just the opposite of how it has been portrayed in news accounts at home and abroad.

“The main news of the NIE was the confirmation that Iran had a nuclear weapons program, not that it had halted it temporarily,” he said.

Even the presumed, temporary halt was open to question, Bond added. “The French defense minister said publicly that he believes the program has restarted. Now if our government comes to that assessment, then we have set ourselves up to release another NIE or leak intelligence, because this last one has given us a false sense of security.”

"Have," Senator Bond, not "had".  The difference is that the mullahgarchy conceals its nuclear weapons development under the fig-leaf of its program being "dual use," having civilian applications as well as military.  But the openly beastial nature of the Islamic regime and its open crowing of its plans to annihilate Israel and bring the United States to its knees makes as much of a mockery of its smirking protestations that its nuke program is {wink-wink} "peaceful" as the so-called intelligence community made of the term "common sense" with its ridiculous pro-Iranian NIE.

If you're thinking that there's no way a Senate 'Pubbie could possibly get this fiesty without somebody sprinkling Spanish fly in his Metamucil, you catch on fast.  In this case, it was a heapin' helpin' of John Bolton:

John Bolton, the former undersecretary of state for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, blasted McConnell and the NIE on the morning of the hearing in a sharply-worded oped appearing in the Wall Street Journal.

“Few seriously doubt that the NIE gravely damaged the Bush administration’s diplomatic strategy,” Bolton wrote.

The NIE was driven by policy considerations, not actual intelligence, and put the community’s credibility and impartiality on the line, Bolton argued.

“Mr. McConnell should commit the intelligence community to stick to its knitting — intelligence — and return its policy enthusiasts to agencies where policy is made,” Bolton added. He called for the reassignment of the three State Department policy-makers who had authored the NIE.

Man, I wish Dubya had made Ambassador Bolton Secretary of State instead of Condi Rice.  His stubbornly bold stand for the "intelligence" community to exit the "reality-based community" and return to reality seemed to open quite a few Bushkin eyes as well - not that their belated shock covers them in glory:

Senior Bush Administration officials who have read the entire classified NIE have told Newsmax they were “appalled” at the thin sourcing and shoddy analysis.

A former career CIA analyst commented, “I have never seen an intelligence analysis this bad. It is misleading, politicized, and poorly written.”

In a column entitled “Stupid Intelligence on Iran,” the former defense secretary, James Schlesinger, wrote, “Clearly, the key judgments in the NIE were overstated . . . and thus incautiously phrased.”

Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger warned (in a December 13, 2007 Op-Ed in the Washington Post) that the authors of the NIE saw themselves as “a kind of check on, instead of a part of, the executive branch,” and excoriated them for seeking to become “surrogate policy-makers and advocates.”

I could have sworn I said that two months ago when this mullahgarchic press released was, um, released.  Or maybe I was too buried beneath budget season in my day job.  But whoever made the point first (and I wouldn't be saying that if I had been the first), it's gratifying to see it made, and in relatively short order.  Which goes to show how howlingly risible that NIE was.

Pity the damage it did to "the national security interests of the country" in Donk Senator Evan Bayh's words can't be repaired as promptly.