Bush Further Distances Himself From Iran Intelligence: My Job Is Not To ‘Defend Our NIE’
Bush Further Distances Himself From Iran Intelligence: My Job Is Not To ‘Defend Our NIE’
When the intelligence community concluded that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said that President Bush “accepted the results of the NIE.” Earlier this week, Perino again insisted that Bush had never expressed “anything but support” for the NIE’s findings.
Yet in an interview with Fox News that aired last night, Bush made clear that he doesn’t share the NIE’s conclusions. While he admitted that the intelligence officials were probably “sincere” in what they wrote, he refused to say whether he believed them:
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you believe — in December there was an intelligence report that Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program as of 2003. Do you believe that?
BUSH: I believe that the intelligence professionals are very sincere in their analysis. That should not say to people that Iran is not a threat. […]
I believe they want a weapon, and I believe that they’re trying to gain the know-how as to how to make a weapon under the guise of a civilian nuclear program.
He then added that “frankly,” it “should not be for me to have to defend our NIE.” Watch it:
Bush repeatedly distanced himself from the NIE throughout his Middle East trip. While in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, Bush “made it clear” that the intelligence services are an “independent agency” and “come to conclusions separate from what I may or may not want.” According to Newsweek, he also told Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the NIE’s “conclusions don’t reflect his own views.”
With these statements, Bush has positioned himself to the right of even Vice President Cheney, who told the Politico in December: “I don’t have any reason to question the — what the community has produced, with respect to the NIE on Iran.”
Transcript:
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you believe — in December there was an intelligence report that Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program as of 2003. Do you believe that?
BUSH: I believe that the intelligence professionals are very sincere in their analysis. That should not say to people that Iran is not a threat. In other words —
VAN SUSTEREN: You believe that —
BUSH: I believe they want a weapon, and I believe that they’re trying to gain the know-how as to how to make a weapon under the guise of a civilian nuclear program.
Basically, what they’re saying, we just want to learn to enrich in order to have civilian nuclear power. The problem is knowledge can be transferred from a civilian program to a military program.
What I have told people out here is that if you had a military program once, you can easily start it up again. A lot of people heard that NIE out here and said that George Bush and the Americans don’t take the Iranian threat seriously. And one of my missions out here is to make it clear to them I do take it seriously, and so should they. […]
For example, our NIE said they had a program. They suspended their program, but they have yet to admit they’ve had a program.
The object, frankly, should not be for me to have to defend our NIE, it ought to be for them to tell the world the nature of their program, to be fully transparent, like they’re so supposed to be under the IAEA and the NPT — these are all initials for agreement that they signed onto to protect the world from proliferation.
And so the trip has been successful from this perspective of saying we take this threat seriously and we will keep the pressure on.
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you think the January 6 incident in the Straits of Hormuz, was that sort of a gesture toward you, do you think, by the Iranian speedboats coming on our Navy?
BUSH: I do not know what their intention might have been, but it was provocative, and it was dangerous. And they should not do that.
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64 Responses to “Bush Further Distances Himself From Iran Intelligence: My Job Is Not To ‘Defend Our NIE’”
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The arrogance of this idiot is beyond belief.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:32 amWhat a MONUMENTAL fool. Why not just disband the CIA and our intelligence services and just ask god? ANYONE that votes for these morons is just not a human being.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:36 amWhat is going to happen in 2008? It is scary!!!!
January 17th, 2008 at 11:36 amplaying to the crowd… er, the base… er, HIS base…
January 17th, 2008 at 11:36 amI think we know how this will all play out….
People will scream that the President followed the NIE about Iraq’s WMDs (conveniently ignoring that the intelligence data for the NIE was cherry picked for the worsp possible case scenario) and is regularly blasted by the progressives for doing so. So now that he’s questioning an NIE, the progressives are being hypocritical for blasting him this time.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:38 amDubya, thinks it is his job to ignore the career professionals and issue edicts like a monarch based on his chats with Jesus.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:39 amwe’re going to be very, very lucky if we arrive at the november elections without a serious incident… last week’s attempt at starting something in the gulf with a routine event spun to look like a provocation does not bode well for the intervening months…
And, yes, I DO take it personally
January 17th, 2008 at 11:40 amBUSH: I believe that the intelligence professionals are very sincere in their analysis. That should not say to people that Iran is not a threat. In other words —
VAN SUSTEREN: You believe that —
…
aaarrrrrrgh! WHY DID SHE INTERUPT HIM!
January 17th, 2008 at 11:43 ami hate when they do that… manipulative and dishonest…
“… the IAEA and the NPT — these are all initials for agreement that they signed onto …”
uuuuuuuuhhhhhhg…
January 17th, 2008 at 11:44 amThis must raise the moral of the intelligence community greatly. Why didn’t he just say, “Hey, it’s not my job to defend these morons decisions!”
Let’s only hope we can get some of them immunity and get some investigations into waterboarding.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:47 am… and I don’t think the title of this article went far enough… Bush is distancing himself from ALL intelligence
January 17th, 2008 at 11:47 amBush Distances Himself from Intelligence?
Wow, I didn’t think he could get any further from intelligence.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:47 am“”I defended our intelligence services, but made it clear that they’re an independent agency; that they come to conclusions separate from what I may or may not want,” said the president.”
Very bizzare. They are ‘independent’ merely because they will not always ‘fix the facts to fit the policy’??? I wonder if there are any other bits of the Federal Government which are also ‘independent’ anymore?
January 17th, 2008 at 11:50 amIronic that the pictured caption reads Effexor and Zoloft under heir Dubya.
One must take both anti-depressants to survive what he has done to this once great nation!
January 17th, 2008 at 11:54 ambush has NO FU*KING CLUE what his job is…..
his previous ventures that ended up in bankruptcy PROVES that!
January 17th, 2008 at 11:54 amGDumbya distanced himself from any kind of intelligence decades ago when he started snorting cocaine and drowning in Jack Daniels. The idiot doesn’t have one synapse still firing in that empty noggin of his.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:59 am‘I left that red button on the floor and barney(bushes dog) stepped on it. Now BARNEY has started WWIII cuz it aint my job to watch Barney’.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:01 pmFrankly, chymp, you haven’t got a CLUE as to what your job was supposed to have been for the last seven years.
UPHOLD THE CONSTITUTION!
SERVE THE PEOPLE!
January 17th, 2008 at 12:05 pmBush wants to bomb Iran so bad but time is running out, only one year to go. He’s getting really desperate
January 17th, 2008 at 12:06 pmBush: “I’m not here to stand behind anything the government does — I’m just here to promote an agenda for my buddies…”
January 17th, 2008 at 12:12 pmthe IAEA and the NPT — these are all initials for agreement that they signed onto to protect the world from proliferation
So the International Atomic Energy Agency is an “agreement”? Wow. I wanna see the trolls splain that one.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:13 pmTo distance one’s self from intelligence assumes that at some point in time, intelligence was present. That is not the case with this man.
Like the drill seargent in Full Metal Jacket once said: “The best part of you ran down the crack of your momma’s ass!”
That pretty much sums up Bu$h.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:13 pmDear Republiscum Morons,
The next time you are in any kind of position to elect a new president, please pick one that is not such a DOLT.
Thank you.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:15 pm…to be fully transparent, like they’re so supposed to be under the IAEA and the NPT — these are all initials for agreement that they signed onto to protect the world from proliferation.
—-
lol, wut?
1. They arent ‘initials’, they’re acronyms. You went to Yale FFS
2. The IAEA isn’t an agreement. It’s an international agency that monitors nuclear energy/materials.
Can we please get someone competent in the oval office?
January 17th, 2008 at 12:15 pmPlease
More Bush:
Being Presnit means I don’t have to be rational.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:15 pmSo the International Atomic Energy Agency is an “agreement� Wow. I wanna see the trolls splain that one.
Comment by Dumb_Fox — January 17, 2008 @ 12:13 pm
—–
beat me to it. Touché sir.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:16 pm#19 - galmud, one senses that his ego will not allow him to go out with a whimper. Unfortunately for us and the rest of this planet’s inhabitants.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:17 pmBush, “My deepest apologies to all of you true Americans watching Fox News who were hoping for WWIII. I’ve done my best as your King..I mean your President to install unqualified sycophants in every branch of the American Government to insure my legacy reaches well beyond my tenure and we’ve done some good work on this. Unfortunately, whenever my underlings here the word “intelligence” they run the other way. I know, I know we’re talking about sixteen seperate independent agencies coming to the conclusion that Iran has halted it’s weapons program but Dick keeps telling me that I feel that Iran is a threat. Mr. Cheney, my friends at the AEI, AIPAC, PNAC, knick-nack patty whack give a dog a bone already, they’ve all told me that Iran must be a threat because they can feel it in their guts. All I can say to my boss Mr. Podhertz is that we’ve still got some time left and with your help here at Fox, God willing we’ll be dropping bombs before next January. Thanks y’all, peace out!”
January 17th, 2008 at 12:18 pmI watched an old “Frontline” program that was aired again last night. It is entitled “Cheney’s Law” and covered his career from the Ford years on. The overall premise is that Darth Cheney has sought to restore the “imperial presidency” since his very first days.
In general, he was not very successful until he hooked up with GDumbya and then not until 9-11-01. Then he used the Office of Legal Counsel and his sidekick David Addington to operate outside the law and usual protocol to emasculate Congress and crown GDumbya king.
This was a very frightening program. Darth Cheney — along with his sock puppet, GDumbya — have ignored the Constitution, international law and the interests of the American people for seven years running now. It is way past time for them both to be impeached, fired and arrested for their crimes.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:18 pmIf that picture isn’t a chympident, nuttin is.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:20 pmBush on taking the country to war in Iraq:
“There is no doubt in my mind, as a result of the actions that this
country has taken to defend ourselves, the world is a more peaceful
place. And there is no doubt in my mind, as a result of the actions this Nation has taken to defend ourselves, freedom has a better chance to take hold all across the world.
. . . No, there’s no doubt in my mind that this country can overcome the obstacles that have been put in our way. There’s no doubt in my mind that when we remain strong and diligent–and we will–America will be more secure. There’s no doubt in my mind, as we continue to work hard for the values we believe, people will realize the beauty of freedom and the benefits of freedom.
. . . There’s no doubt in my mind we’ll succeed, because there’s no doubt in my mind we’re the greatest nation on the face of the Earth because of the American people.â€
5/16/2003
“And there is no doubt in my mind that the military, with every passage of time, will be able to locate any Al Qaida members hiding in this area.â€
6/24/2003
“And we based our decisions on good, sound intelligence. And the–our
people are going to find out the truth, and the truth will say that this intelligence was good intelligence. There’s no doubt in my mind.â€
7/17/2003
“And it’s just going to take a while, and I’m confident the truth
will come out. And there is no doubt in my mind, Campbell, that Saddam
Hussein was a threat to the United States security and a threat to peace in the region. And there’s no doubt in my mind that a free Iraq is important.â€
7/30/2003
And now, regarding Iran:
“I believe they want a weapon, and I believe that they’re trying to gain the know-how as to how to make a weapon under the guise of a civilian nuclear program.â€
1/16/08
Can we buy this guy a doubt?
January 17th, 2008 at 12:20 pmI do not know what their intention might have been, but it was provocative, and it was dangerous. And they should not do that.
So he doesn’t know what the Iranian boatmen wanted, but he does know their actions were “provocative”?
I guess he spoke to God when he was in Jerusalem.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:21 pmWhy did the American taxpayers allow the Congress to appropriate a $60 billion government-wide Intelligence Community budget in 2007 when President Bush’s gut feeling is the only intelligence that matters?
January 17th, 2008 at 12:26 pmBush isn’t even trying to make sense any more. I don’t think we have to worry about him leaving office. He and Cheney will run not walk out of the country before all the shit hits the fan. They’re just trying to start another war so they answer any accusations with we’re fighting two wars and we don’t have time to answer questions.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:27 pmSo the International Atomic Energy Agency is an “agreement� Wow. I wanna see the trolls splain that one.
Comment by Dumb_Fox — January 17, 2008 @ 12:13 pm
—–
beat me to it. Touché sir.
Comment by deebaser — January 17, 2008 @ 12:16 pm
Why thank you, but you deserve the style points.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:27 pmhttp://blog.washingtonpost.com/ capitol-briefing/ 2008/ 01/ impeachment_update.html
Impeachment Update!
Here’s a quick update on the chances that the House will impeach President Bush or Vice President Cheney during their last year in office: It’s not happening.
At the end of her weekly press briefing this morning, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was asked why she had not supported the burgeoning effort to impeach Cheney and “hold his feet to the fire.”
After joking that she wished she had taken another reporter’s question instead, Pelosi said that she has been opposed to impeachment proceedings since Democrats took power a year ago and remains so today.
“What I had said right from the start is that we’re trying to bring the country together,” Pelosi said. “It was my belief that an impeachment of the Vice President or the President would be very divisive for the country.”
Despite significant support for impeachment - particularly of Cheney - at the grass-roots Democratic level and in the liberal blogosphere, Democratic leaders on the Hill have been relatively quiet on the subject and have shown no appetite for such proceedings. An impeachment resolution against Cheney, introduced last April by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), currently has 24 co-sponsors.
Pelosi said that she knows there is some support for such a move, but she cautioned that “the prospect for success is so minimal but the damage would be so consequential.”
She acknowledged that she has been criticized for that stance, laughing about running into people at airports wearing buttons calling for impeachment. But, barring some new scandal, she doesn’t sound ready to change her tune. The current administration has exactly a year left in office, and Pelosi seems content to just wait it out.
By Ben Pershing | January 17, 2008; 11:53 AM ET Branch vs. Branch
January 17th, 2008 at 12:30 pmPrevious: The Year Ahead: Can Democrats Govern? |
President Dinkledorf knows about Iran’s nuclear program and their intentions because God told him.
How one can ever know another’s subjective intentions is beyond me.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:30 pm#29..I couldn’t agree with you more. I watched that too a while back,no one man has hurt this country more than him.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:36 pmHow one can ever know another’s subjective intentions is beyond me.
Comment by stewarjt
subjective…..huh? don’t use words that bush doesn’t understand the meaning of. He knows things that we don’t know….he told you that before….why won’t you guys trust him???/sarcasm off
January 17th, 2008 at 12:39 pmBUSH=WAR CRIMES , LIES, WAR AND RECESSION!
January 17th, 2008 at 12:40 pm“my job is not to defend the NIE, but to torpedo it.”- George W. Bushitler.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:44 pmReality???
I don’t need no steeenking reality!!!!!
January 17th, 2008 at 12:46 pmThe current administration has exactly a year left in office, and Pelosi seems content to just wait it out.
Comment by Capitol Briefing — January 17, 2008 @ 12:30 pm
Pelosi has to go. And is San Francisco sends he back to the House, the Democrats need to vote for a new Speaker. Get that corrupt idiot out of the Leadership position.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:59 pmthis man has continually put himself above his office. For the future of this country we cannot allow this man to be anything more than a figurehead and nothing more can be allowed to be pushed down our throats by this administration.
Pelosi is playing politics and ignoring the will of the people. I hope that the people in her district remind her of what the will of the people truly want.
January 17th, 2008 at 1:01 pmImpeach!! Cheney, Bush, Pelosi and Reid.
January 17th, 2008 at 1:01 pmI believe they want a weapon, and I believe that they’re trying to gain the know-how as to how to make a weapon under the guise of a civilian nuclear program.
Bush is either lying, or he is ignorant of the process. You cannot “make a weapon under the guise of a civilian nuclear program”.
Most present day reactors (Light Water Reactors or LWRs) use enriched uranium where the proportion of the U-235 isotope has been increased from 0.7% to about 3% or up to 5%. (For comparison, uranium used for nuclear weapons would have to be enriched in plants specially designed to produce at least 90% U-235.)
January 17th, 2008 at 1:04 pmIdiot in Chief’s job is not to defend anyone he’s hired in his entire administration. The “buck stops at the top” has reversed itself as Bush distances himself from every one of his appointees and kicks each of them to the curb! I can’t wait to see the melee which is going to ensue as Bush disowns every last one of his appointees and blames THEM for their corrupt deeds while he washes his hands of it all. This is no commander whatsoever - this is a whimp who hasn’t performed a single aspect of his job well or honestly for 7 years! He’s surrounded himself with yes men and sycophants, along with inept, inexperienced children in critical positions so he can easily kick them to the curb when it’s “time”.
January 17th, 2008 at 1:11 pmIn Bush’s pea sized brain, these people are totally “expendable” - and part of the “collateral damage” of his reign of ineptitude.
January 17th, 2008 at 1:13 pmi remember this interview of pelosi on ed schultz radio show…
she told him that if anyone had evidence of impeachable offences to let her know… … HEY NANCY! LISTEN UP!…
YouTube - Pelosi: Impeachment isn’t about putting pressure on the Prez
Nancy Pelosi interview from the Ed Schultz Show Oct 9 2007
OT… but still relative… not?
January 17th, 2008 at 1:14 pmyes…in AmeriKKKa and Bush’s Orwellian world..
you ignore facts, revise statements in your favor and believe in whatever faerytales the BIG HEAD tells you.
all to the benefit of perpetual war, mass murder, death, destruction, torture and rape.
January 17th, 2008 at 1:33 pmI believe they want a weapon, and I believe that they’re trying to gain the know-how as to how to make a weapon under the guise of a civilian nuclear program.
Just like you wanted to believe Saddam had WMD. _________________ [insert herr dubyah’s fool me once flub].
January 17th, 2008 at 1:35 pmNotice how condescending Bush was to the intelligence services. Note how he is sure the little, stupid children were “sincere” in what they developed in the NIE. The backhanded slap of it not being his job to defend the NIE. Bush has always overplayed his omniscience over those with better education, experience and expertise.
January 17th, 2008 at 1:52 pm“frankly,†it “should not be for me to have to defend our NIE.â€
Well, you put yourself in that position, Numbnuts, by calling the conclusions of the report into question.
January 17th, 2008 at 2:00 pmI will say it over and over again…..
Lazy foolish Americans. They’ve forgotten that this country was founded by revolution. If you don’t see a resemblance of King George to King George you ain’t been paying a damn bit of attention.
Without millions in the streets putting aside their shopping mania we can all agree that the REAL ID act, and more war and more spending without restraint, and more carbon emissions without rationing and controls, etc etc etc will be in our future.
Stop pretending this is going to get better by the media choice of your presidential candidate. They chose the candidate not you. Stop kidding yourself. This is WAY more serious than the majority of this country has the cognitive ability to understand.
It’s time for the people to rise up and take back this country. Not violently but in numbers. If this country is not willing to stand up and out for what they believe in risking it all then this country has no future.
“To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards out of menâ€
January 17th, 2008 at 2:24 pmAbraham Lincoln
Why are we so quick to believe intel all of a sudden without thinking logically. It’s obvious from Ahmadinejad’s statements that he would like to obliterate the nation of Israel. How else does he plan to do this but by developing a nuclear weapon?
January 17th, 2008 at 3:28 pmshawnc - check it out… pick any one… get smart…
tell your friends!
Informed Comment
For instance, your assertion that Israel should be wiped from the map of ….. There is no direct translation into English of the Farsi phrase in question. …
http://www.juancole.com/2007/06/ ahmadinejad-i-am-not-anti-semitic.html - 71k - Cached - Similar pages
Informed Comment
Whatever this quotation from a decades-old speech of Khomeini may have meant, Ahmadinejad did not say that “Israel must be wiped off the map” with the …
http://www.juancole.com/2006/05/ hitchens-hacker-and-hitchens.html - 268k - Cached - Similar pages
Informed Comment
January 17th, 2008 at 4:40 pmThe schlock Western pundits, journalists and politicians who keep maintaining that Ahmadinejad threatened “to wipe Israel off the map” when he never said …
http://www.juancole.com/2006/08/ ahmadinejad-we-are-not-threat-to-any.html - 51k - Cached - Similar pages
“The NIE report is wrong because God told me so.”
Uh, George, are you sure it’s God you’ve been talking to?
January 17th, 2008 at 5:16 pmDefense Secretary Robert Gates refuses to call Iran ‘a threat’. Better whip him into line Chimpy.
http://www.npr.org/ templates/ story/ story.php?storyId=18169391
January 17th, 2008 at 6:40 pmPoor GWB only 11 months left (horay) and so many battles yet to fight.
January 17th, 2008 at 6:42 pmWhat a lame ass.
And exactly what is his job? This moron has evaded responsability for EVERYTHING!
January 17th, 2008 at 8:47 pm“should not be for me to have to defend our NIE.”
But he certainly defended, tooth and nail, the NIE he claimed supported his calls to attack Iraq.
It really looked like it was his job back then…
January 17th, 2008 at 9:27 pmIs anyone really surprised that Bush would distance himself from intelligence?
January 17th, 2008 at 10:09 pmInteresting, how georgejr considers facts to be simply a matter of opinion. And, only his opinion matters. Funny, he expects the conclusions to coincide with what he wants(?) - Why wouldn’t he be glad that Iran has stopped its nuclear program? One less thing to worry about - unless you want perpetual war, of couse.
I really don’t like anything about George W. Bush. Don’t wish him dead; but rapture? Please, God…….
January 17th, 2008 at 10:20 pmAnyone would sure as h#ll want a weapon . . .
with one world government killers like Junior’s handlers threatening them.
I hope he ends up on the correct end of the process whose B|tch he is.
January 18th, 2008 at 1:37 am