Reuters headline set to fuel fever swamp (Updated)

Report contradicts Bush on Iran nuclear program

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new U.S. intelligence report says Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and it remains on hold, contradicting the Bush administration's earlier assertion that Tehran was intent on developing a bomb.

The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released on Monday could undermine U.S. efforts to convince other world powers to agree on a third package of U.N. sanctions against Iran for defying demands to halt uranium enrichment activities.

(Reuters)

Is Bush the story here?

Bush is the story if he contradicts the intelligence given him from the intelligence community.

If Bush is relaying information from the intelligence community as he gets it, then Bush isn't the story. The change in the evaluation of the intelligence community is the story. But this Reuters account doesn't give any evidence that was the case.

Administration officials denied the new NIE had exposed a serious intelligence lapse but could not explain how agencies failed to detect for four years that Iran's nuclear weapons program had been halted.

Perhaps the press should consider that the new intelligence isn't necessarily better than the old intelligence. Two years from now we might hear that Iran resumed its attempts to develop a nuclear weapon. Perhaps the story will again emphasize a conflict with the administration's statements based on previous intelligence while noting yet another intelligence failure.

Update:
Norman Podhoretz writes down in some detail what I thought about in general terms.


Hat tip to Power Line.

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