Since the Iran NIE was released, conservatives have desperately tried to discredit it. Former Vice President Cheney aide David Wurmser questioned “how much it can really be banked on.” John Bolton called for congressional investigations into the “politicized” intelligence community.
Some conservatives in Congress are following these calls, proposing a “second look” into the NIE in the form of a commission “based on similar review panels convened in the mid-1970s to reconsider the intelligence agencies’ analysis of the Soviet Union.” “We just see politics injected into this,” claimed Sen. John Ensign’s (R-NV) office.
Today, White House Spokesmodel Dana Perino rejected the partisan witch-hunt into the intelligence community. “They assessed all of the intelligence,” she declared. “I think that they should be supported”:
PERINO: The bottom line for the president on the NIE was that the 16 intelligence communities — community — came together. They assessed all of the intelligence. … And I just don’t know if there’s need to have a second look at it. […]QUESTION: So is it safe, then, to draw from that that the president is fully confident in the information contained in the NIE?
PERINO: The NIE — the president accepted the results of the NIE.
Similarly, Cheney recently said, “I don’t have any reason to question the — what the community has produced, with respect to the NIE on Iran.”
In doubting the NIE, these hawks in Congress are ignoring the fact that the intelligence was heavily vetted and well-sourced. The process was overseen by DNI Mike McConnell, who was hand-picked by Bush for the job.
Transcript:
QUESTION:Does the White House support such a commission just to give a second look at that intelligence?
PERINO: I think, first, I think you should go back and look at the NIE, because the NIE also supports the president’s contention that Iran is still dangerous and that it continues to enrich uranium, moving toward fissile material that could be used to (inaudible) ballistic weapons that they continue to put together.
Plus, they have been not forthcoming with the IAEA, as they said they would be, and they had a covert nuclear weapons program.
And so there’s a lot more questions that were raised by the NIE, and I don’t think that anything in the NIE should give us comfort that Iran is not a danger. It remains a danger, and that’s why the allies agree with us.
As to a nonpartisan commission to look at the intelligence, you know, I’ll check into that. The bottom line for the president on the NIE was that the 16 intelligence communities — community — came together. They assessed all of the intelligence.
PERINO: They spent a good deal of time checking it. And one of the things that they did was they told the president in August, We are due to put this NIE out in response to a congressional inquiry. We’re not going to make the deadline because there’s new information and we have to check it out.
So they were very thorough, and the president appreciates all the hard work that they did on it. And I just don’t know if there’s need to have a second look at it.
QUESTION: I was going to say you yourself just said the NIE raised more questions than it answer. So perhaps that indeed does suggest a second look…
(CROSSTALK)
PERINO: It raises questions about Iran.
And the ball is in Iran’s court in order to come forward and be very truthful about its program or not. They’re going to — the choice is there’s to make.
Meanwhile, our allies, the P-5-plus-1 continues to work forward on a third resolution for the U.N. Security Council.
QUESTION: So is it safe, then, to draw from that that the president is fully confident in the information contained in the NIE?
PERINO: The NIE — the president accepted the results of the NIE. And I think that in any time — in regard to intelligence, you learn new information. That’s what it’s about. It’s not a precise science.
And Iran is an opaque society. They’re not transparent. You cannot get a lot of information out of there. So any time that we can get more information, that’s better.
What the president asked for in 2005 is for the intelligence community to go back, take another look, try harder, get us some more information. And the new NIE was a result of that.
QUESTION: So a second look isn’t…
PERINO: Obviously, the intelligence community continues — the intelligence community did not stop looking at the Iranian issue when they published the NIE. That work is ongoing. And I think that the president — well, I know that the president appreciates their work. And I think that they should be supported because they’re doing very difficult work on behalf of the American people to try to keep us safe. And they’re trying to get the most accurate, detailed information that they can from a very opaque society.
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