Podhoretz on the NIE

Prepare to have your head explode:

Dark Suspicions about the NIE NORMAN PODHORETZ - 12.03.2007 - 17:50

It is worth remembering that in 2002, one of the conclusions offered by the NIE, also with “high confidence,� was that “Iraq is continuing, and in some areas expanding its chemical, biological, nuclear, and missile programs contrary to UN resolutions.� And another conclusion, offered with high confidence too, was that “Iraq could make a nuclear weapon in months to a year once it acquires sufficient weapons-grade fissile material.�

I must confess to suspecting that the intelligence community, having been excoriated for supporting the then universal belief that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, is now bending over backward to counter what has up to now been a similarly universal view (including as is evident from the 2005 NIE, within the intelligence community itself) that Iran is hell-bent on developing nuclear weapons. I also suspect that, having been excoriated as well for minimizing the time it would take Saddam to add nuclear weapons to his arsenal, the intelligence community is now bending over backward to maximize the time it will take Iran to reach the same goal.

[From Commentary » Blog Archive » Dark Suspicions about the NIE]

Norman Podhoretz, of course, is a leading advocate of immediately attacking Iran. He was also in favor of invading Iraq. But since the intelligence on Iraq's WMDs was wrong, then the latest intelligence on Iran's WMDs must also be wrong. Geddit!?!