Thursday, December 06, 2007

Bolton On The NIE


Like many of you, I have been wondering about the NIE for the past several days. WTF? What does this mean? The confusion with which it has been received has driven analysts to more and more hallucenogenic explanations.

Norman Podhoretz wrote that the NIE was part of the State Departments war against the war, and then he withdrew that assessment.

He probably shouldn't have, because John Bolton agrees. And, his analyses is filled with cold logic. Here it is (from Atlas Shrugs):


" Part of the President's problem in Washington is fighting against permanent bureaucracies that have a very different point of view from his. And I think that's a real problem for the American people." John Bolton March 22, 2007 The Jon Stewart Show

When John Bolton was Ambassador to the UN, American loyalists knew there was no greater American to represent us. Men of reason drew succor in knowing America had no better representative on the world stage. Many of us grieved when John Bolton resigned his post as US Ambassador to the UN. In hindsight, it was a blessing. It was, in fact, a very good thing for us that Mr. Bolton left Bush administration. If not for him, who could the American people turn to to tell us the truth at this most dangerous time in human history? One British newspaper recently referred to Bolton's "vulcan thinking" and I thought, yes, that's it, isn't it?

Who better to ask on the latest NIE propaganda ploy than Bolton? Bolton called it. Bolton warned us. Bolton said in so many words that this would happen. His book Surrender is not Option is a stunning indictment of the permanent bureaucracy that undermines the policies of those elected by the people, for the people.

Here is his unerring analysis and observation in today's Washington Post;

The Flaws In the Iran Report John R. Bolton


Rarely has a document from the supposedly hidden world of intelligence had such an impact as the National Intelligence Estimate released this week. Rarely has an administration been so unprepared for such an event. And rarely have vehement critics of the "intelligence community" on issues such as Iraq's weapons of mass destruction reversed themselves so quickly.

All this shows that we not only have a problem interpreting what the mullahs in Tehran are up to, but also a more fundamental problem: Too much of the intelligence community is engaging in policy formulation rather than "intelligence" analysis, and too many in Congress and the media are happy about it. President Bush may not be able to repair his Iran policy (which was not rigorous enough to begin with) in his last year, but he would leave a lasting legacy by returning the intelligence world to its proper function.


Go read the whole thing.

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