The New York Sun is running an editorial that chastises the National Intelligence Estimate on its perceived contention that Iran has suspended its nuclear weapons program (the one it was never supposed to have in the first place) in 2003.

It turns out that on Tuesday, as our Eli Lake reported on page one of yesterday’s Sun, the director of national intelligence, Mr. McConnell says he now regrets the phrasing of the unclassified estimate that so stirred America’s enthusiasts of diplomacy. In testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Mr. McConnell went further. He noted that Iran is developing both the long range ballistic missiles and the nuclear fuel for a potential weapon.

…

As for the secret enrichment and weapons design, Mr. McConnell is not even sure as of mid-2007 whether the Iranians have restarted this work. “We assess with moderate confidence that Tehran had not restarted these activities as of mid-2007, but since they comprised an unannounced secret effort which Iran attempted to hide, we do not know if these activities have been restarted,” he told the assembled senators. So why then did the opening sentence of the December 3 assessment state with no equivocation, “We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program”? Mr. McConnell said that it was because he had to assemble quickly a declassified estimate in late November and that it did not occur to him that this kind of declarative statement would confuse the issue.

That Iran continues development on long range ballistic missiles (effective nuclear weapon delivery vehicles) and illegal enrichment is not news. What is an important statement from McConnell is the admittance that the NIE on Iran was not the glorious refutation of the Bush administration that everyone on the left said that it was. Not that his clarification will change anything, but it is important to have on the record, if only to reassure those of us who recognize the danger that Iran poses.

“Confuse the issue” doesn’t even begin to characterize the collective spin-gasm that the mainstream media had over the NIE. Despite the intent, it turned out to be powerful propaganda ammunition to derail any foreign policy that might effectively serve the national security interests of the United States, and is still being cited by candidates like Barack Obama today as why we need “more diplomacy” with those who would see us killed and who have ignored international law thus far.

Update 2:00PM CST: Yourish notices that the Russians might actually be getting wise to something. Personally I don’t see how they can’t be wise, but why would they acknowledge something might be fishy? Are the Iranians not paying their bills?

A senior Russian diplomat on Wednesday voiced concern about Iran’s launch of a rocket, saying it has raised suspicions about its nuclear program, Russian news reports said.

Russian news agencies quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov as saying that Monday’s launch of an Iranian research rocket has raised questions about the direction of Iran’s nuclear program.

The statement appeared to indicate that Moscow, which in the past has been skeptical about Iran’s missile capability, increasingly shares Western concerns about Tehran’s course.

“It adds to general suspicions of Iran regarding its potential desire to build nuclear weapons,” Losyukov was quoted as saying. “Long-range missiles are one of the components of such weapons. That causes concern.”

As she says, Naaaaah, really?

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 8:30 am and is filed under Foreign Policy, Iran, Media Bias. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.