Bush Tells Israelis He Doesn't Believe Iran NIE Report

Newsweek:

In public, President Bush has been careful to reassure Israel and other allies that he still sees Iran as a threat, while not disavowing his administration's recent National Intelligence Estimate. That NIE, made public Dec. 3, embarrassed the administration by concluding that Tehran had halted its weapons program in 2003, which seemed to undermine years of bellicose rhetoric from Bush and other senior officials about Iran's nuclear ambitions. But in private conversations with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week, the president all but disowned the document, said a senior administration official who accompanied Bush on his six-nation trip to the Mideast. "He told the Israelis that he can't control what the intelligence community says, but that [the NIE's] conclusions don't reflect his own views" about Iran's nuclear-weapons program, said the official, who would discuss intelligence matters only on the condition of anonymity.

Bush's behind-the-scenes assurances may help to quiet a rising chorus of voices inside Israel's defense community that are calling for unilateral military action against Iran. Olmert, asked by NEWSWEEK after Bush's departure on Friday whether he felt reassured, replied: "I am very happy." A source close to the Israeli leader said Bush first briefed Olmert about the intelligence estimate a week before it was published, during talks in Washington that preceded the Annapolis peace conference in November. According to the source, who also refused to be named discussing the issue, Bush told Olmert he was uncomfortable with the findings and seemed almost apologetic.

Read the whole story: Newsweek

Comments

[Bushgirlsgonewild]

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Just you liberals wait.

As soon Bush is finished having Dana Perino look into whether it's too late to bomb this 'Asswhich' place, he's gonna call Jesus on the red phone and tell him to hurry up and get his ass down here.

Then he and jesus are gonna go a-ridin' across the earth, a whooping and a whamping ever living thing within an inch of its life.

Amen.

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[EspressoAtNoon]

If we get pushed into bombing Iran, I predict it will be the end of Zionist control over our politicians via Israel Lobby.

Israel has its fingerprints all over this drive to war and the Americans will resent it like never before as it will bankrupt us and put us in a position we can't extracate ourselves from, much less win.

Anyone who loves THIS COUNTRY should be against bombing Iran. Anyone who wants to bomb Iran, in my opinion, is an Israel-firster.

[cadawa]

Bush is so far gone that he is unable to separate fact from fancy. His opinion, if he has any, should be of absolutely interest.
He is always wrong.
The fact that the political establishment is willing to tolerate a psychotic in the driver's seat speaks volumes about their lack of judgment and their complicity.
They want a war with Iran and they are going to everything in their power to senselessly murder more innocent people to boost their bottom line and feed their megalomania.
Our nation has been infected by their excesses.

[lungfish]

So how come Dubya and co aren't concerned with the instability created by Israel's nukes? How come they aren't worried that Israel will use them on their neighbors? Why aren't the US and the UN following up on what has become common knowledge to the world?

If the Israeli's want to bomb Iran its their business. They have nukes and the will to use them if their bellicose commentary and hyperbole are to be believed.

This idea that they need us to do it, or agree with it, or support it is nonsense. If they are a soveriegn nation they are capable of making their own choices.

Not one American should fight or die for Israel's ambitions.

There I times when I can't see the difference between Israels rhetoric and that of NKoea, Iran, etc... They are shrill and self-absorbed.

If critcizing Israel makes me an anti-Semite, then so be it. I know that I am a live-and-let-live kind of guy but when religion becomes foriegn policy I get my back up...

[unclejim]

where does saudi fall in on that list ? 3? 7?

[dwillisno1]

Ok lets believe him. If he doesn't agree with the intel, therefore doesn't intend to determine policy on the basis of that intel, then he can no longer blame the bad intel for his dumb ass decision to go Iraq.

[standforpeace]

What the F***? So when there were no WMD in Iraq, Bush said that it was not his fault -- the intelligence was bad, and he had to go with the intelligence (never admitting that there were plenty of reasons to suspect the quality of the information he was receiving). So he shocked and awed and bombed their asses. Now when the intelligence tells him that there are no WMD in Iran, all of a sudden he has a choice and can distinguish good intelligence from bad? I'm guessing that he'll do all that he can to shock and awe and bomb their asses before his long, bloody reign ends in 2009.

[FranklinS]

IMPEACHMENT IS NOT AN OPTION

IT IS AN ESSENTIAL.

[lungfish]

By Israel calling for unilateral military action they are actually expecting Americans to attack, fight and pay for a conflict with Iran that serves Israel.

As for Dubya claiming that he doesn't agree with it.... well.... who is he to disagree? What does he know that the highly qualified and well-funded intelligence community doesn't know?

Nevermind the fact that such comments underscore the lack of unity and contention that permeates the relationship between the Administration and the rest of governemnt.

Its about as inappropriate as aping around the Oval Office during a press conference looking for WMDs in his desk and garbage can, smirking at his failure while the cameras roll and people die.

[realitytrumpsbull]

IMPEACH!!!!!!!
http://www.impeachbush.org
http://www.wexlerwantshearings.com

[CountryBeforeParty]

The President later remarked, "You may make these wild claims, that water is wet, but that's just not the way we see it".

[KPinSEA]

It's hardly news that El Presidente was a valedictorian of the Nikita Kruschev "Don't Bother Me With the Facts" School of Diplomacy.

[doug108]

That's what you get when you put a religious idiot in charge of the country. When you partition off an entire part of your brain for irrational belief, you remain susceptible to irrationality invading other parts of your brain. When you make yourself impervious to evidence in one part of your life, you risk that habit spilling over to other parts of your life. It's easier to become a political ideologue.

As Voltaire said: If I can make you believe absurdities, I can make you commit atrocities.

[JoJoKewl]

Israel has what Doofus Dubya calls 'Nooklur' weapons and the means to deliver them. That's a sufficient deterrent against Iran even if Iran does get the bomb. Pakistan already has the bomb and nobody is freaking over that. I don't think the issue is the bomb Iran doesn't have but the oil that it does.

[forpeace]

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The End of the Road for George W. Bush

................It is the end of the road for George Bush. The world takes less and less notice of him.

He strutted and swaggered across the stage.

He bellowed and raged. He plundered and murdered. And now he wants to be anointed as a peacemaker. His presidency, like his life, has been a tragic waste. But he at least he has a life.........................

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080113_the_end_of_the_road_for_george_w_bush/

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