Cheney and Lieberman won't be happy.
A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting an assessment two years ago that Tehran was working inexorably toward building a bomb.
The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran’s ultimate intentions about gaining a nuclear weapon remain unclear, but that Iran’s “decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military costs.
Instead, the N.I.E. concludes it is more likely Iran could have a bomb by the early part to the middle of the next decade. The report states that the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research judges Iran is unlikely to achieve this goal before 2013, “because of foreseeable technical and programmatic problems.”...read on
Matt Yglesias predicts what the reaction will be to it:
The only appropriate response to this is to do what we've done already with IAEA information on Iran, with IAEA information on Iraq, and with Intelligence and Research Bureau information on Iran: ignore it.
Islamofascism is on the march. Deniers and appears must be ignored. Here's the declassified portions of the New Iran NIE about how the Iranian nuclear hype is mostly hype.
I'd assume William "the bloody" Kristol is in meetings all day---red veins popping out of his neck and yelling at the White House for letting this report see the light of day.
