What Bush Knew About Iran (And When He Knew It)

[BurtWorm]

From War Room at salon.com:
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2007/12/04/iran/index.html


What you need to know about the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran: George W. Bush was first told in August or September that "fresh intelligence" suggested that Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003.

Yes, that was before Bush said that he took "the threat of Iran with a nuclear weapon very seriously," and that the best way to prevent "World War III" would be to prevent the Iranians from obtaining the "knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."

It was before Condoleeezza Rice said Iran is "pursuing nuclear technologies that can lead to nuclear weapons-grade material."

It was before Dick Cheney said that the United States should "reach for any tool that's available" -- including the "possible use of military force" -- to "discourage the Iranians from enriching uranium and producing nuclear weapons."

It was before Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said the United States should "have no illusions about the nature of <the Iranian> regime or its leaders -- about their designs for their nuclear program, their willingness to live up to their rhetoric, their intentions for Iraq, or their ambitions in the Gulf."

...

[BushOut06]

1. This asshole has done nothing but LIE the entire time

Impeach the motherfucker NOW

[King Coal]

15. Can't. Off the table.

[pinto]

2. Good piece. And ironically, Bushco uses Ahmadinejad's bs as fodder.

Truth be told, the man has no real power over the Iranian military or the essential power of the Iranian state. He's a talking head, yet the Bush administration helps play up his rhetoric to bolster their world view.

*shakes head*

[UTUSN]

3. K&R for, the a-hole just said at news conf he was only told LAST WEEK!1 n/t

[BurtWorm]

4. kick

[K Gardner]

5. K&R.. this needs to be BLOGGED to high heaven until the MSM cannot IGNORE it n/t

[tekisui]

6. KNR.

[K Gardner]

7. They just used this exact post title on MSNBC... LOL ! n/t

[riderinthestorm]

8. I'd like to believe the answers are as easy as "Bush lied"

I am sure Bush could/would do that to protect his warmongering position on Iran but how do we know Bush was told in August/September? We don't really. And it makes no sense that he would have known and gone ahead with the warmongering with that report sitting there like a time bomb.

Unless Bush was assured by someone that that report would never see the light of day.

And then it somehow got released.

The bigger questions for me are: who sat on that report? (Cheney most likely), and who got it released? (Gates/Poppy?!)

Has Poppy publicly knee-capped his own son?

Cause I am sure this is some kind of powerplay behind the scenes. Sure Bush may have lied but somebody put that puppet out there to lie, and someone else just exposed the wires....

[gateley]

9. During a debate, Biden PUBLICLY said it would be about a decade before Iran

could launch a nuke - that they were NOT a threat at this time. If he was aware of the situation, THEY surely were. The difference was Biden told us the truth, Bushco lied.

How are they going to squirm out from under this one? How could they possibly make a case that they were studying intel when the Chairman of the SFRC -- and probably most everybody -- KNEW the truth?

[Az_lefty]

10. Therre can be no question now that bush lied us into War with Iraq

and attemped to do the same with Iran. Is this enough for impeachment? Congress, are you paying attention? :grr:

[leveymg]

11. Are the old neocons going to be sacrificed to save the new?

The really interesting question now is whether those who've pushing the Iran WMD deception will go the way of the Iraq WMD fraud crowd.

There's been a steady attrition of those involved in the Iraq WMD deception. Some of the key yellow cake operatives at DoD-OSP, e.g. Feith, Wurmser, got swept out of DoD in 2004 and early 2005. That also happened to their confederates, such as Bolton, at State Dept weapons and policy branch. Some of the more fortunate and better connected -- Wolfie, the Walrus -- got shuttled over to safe jobs at the UN or World Bank.

The unlucky got indicted, or at the very least subpoenaed by Fitzgerald, and are now radioactve.

Politically, there's been some truth or consequences on Capitol Hill for Iraq. The GOP majority was turned out in both houses, and Lieberman was sent packing in the Connecticut Democratic primary. As for the other neocons who've been pushing Iran WMD lies in Congress, it's up to the Democratic base to insure they'll be sent packing the way of Lieberman, and that Ms. "no options off the table" does'nt become the '08 Presidential Candidate.

Nobody who was involved with the Iraq WMD deception is going to survive politically. The bomb Iran crowd will try to get off on the Iran deception by now claiming they were involved in a "successful" deception campaign waged to pressure Iran to stand down in Iraq and to abandon their nuclear program in 2003. They'll declare victory, and run like hell for cover.

If I were a neocon, either new or old, I'd be soiling my pants right now.

They'll sacrifice one group to spare the other.

[riderinthestorm]

12. Wolfie just got hired back on. Something wierd is going on here. nt

[leveymg]

13. He's one of the original Vulcans. They're choosing to crash together.

I agree, it's strange but significant.

http://blog.syracuse.com/strangecny/2007/10/large_UFO.bmp


(ON EDIT - Actually, Wolfie had been twice revived.)

[blondeatlast]

14. Which makes the silence of the think-tank cheerleaders even more suspect:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2401699