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

[CaliforniaMike]

Bush's attack on Iran before leaving office will be the final, the ultimate, gift to his backers.

When he was selected president, oil was at less than $20 a barrel. Now, thanks to his policies, it is consistently above $90.

Attack Iran and the sky's the limit -- $150, $200 or more.

$6 a gallon gas.

Wealth stops trickling up -- it flows up.

The rich get richer.

The middle class gets boned.

[JoJoKewl]

Washington is taking orders from Tel Aviv now. I used to say Isarael was the 51st American state - now we're Israels' biggest county.

[Gayrove]

It's Condi who is anti-black. If she is a "hip" American black woman, as the WH and her PR would have it, where are either her corn-rows or her afro? No way baby. Condi has given a new lease on life to conked hair and to Dixie Peach.

[Nonamnesiac]

He had a discussion with God who clued him in that the NIE was false. The last time he had a similar discussion with God, we were saved from making the mistake of refraining from invading Iraq.

[KOisGod]

For little folically challenged Illuminati, aka little neo:

Neos: Obsessed with the external of things, the objects to impress, to scream SUCCESS!

But the reality is this: If a neo has anything, he's gotten it from deceit, screwing someone else, selling some phony promise, then reneged on the money back guarantee, and shutting off the phones.

Neo's lack the creative talent to contribute anything of value for mankind, so instead, like wild dogs hanging out in the darkness, timidly approaching the campfire to grab a scrap, then running back to the safety of darkness, they are beggars and thieves, feeding off of the creative genius of progressive thinkers, who create business's, invent products, and advance the human endeavor.

Here neo, here is a little scrap, now, get the fuck out of our house.

[Chump]

What's the big deal? Nobody has gone to pieces when he's demonstrated or said that he doesn't agree with the American people! His pique with the NIE is corollary to his axiom of "Tell the American people what Cheney told that Senator!"

He's the most selfish S.O.B. to head a state in the history of Western culture.

[Libsrule]

Basically what is being said by Darth Cheney and his mob is that TRUTH is the death knell to their policies.

Truth is like Kryptonite to Neo Clowns and those who support them.

Truth is the light that blinds them.

[CAPTAINSKIPPY]

Hey GWB/g*dd*mnW*rthl*ssB*shT*rd, don't forget to stop at the Hague on the way back & tell them what a great peacemaker you are. & To improve your odds for a Peace prize, maybe you can explain why God talks only to you. BTW aren't there provisions to remove delusion and deranged and impaired pResiDunces from office?
Don't believe your own govt resosurces? - you can also resign u chimpbrained M*S*b

[wmbear]

HIS INSTINCTS...

But it doesn't tell him anything!...

[GrandmaM]

The combined consenus of professionals in 16 different agencies, is far more valuable and accurate than ANYTHING the members of the Bush Administration and their minions have to say/

[TLV]

I'd like to point out that once Iran is attacked, the Iranians seeking asylum will come to our shores hoping, just as they did in the late 1970s, to find jobs and homes among us. Will the Bushies who hoped for their destruction be angry that they also want our jobs? You can't have it both ways, guys. Stop the war drums now or shut up when they need our help later.

[Gumby123]

S.F.W. - as if Bush's "views" matter now.

[CaliforniaMike]

Even Bush's bros are deserting him now.

Right-wing Christian columnist Cal Thomas has called Bush's belief in Middle East peace "fantasy."

Does ANYONE still like this guy?

C'mon, trolls. Fess up. The only reason y'all support Bush is because we hate him.

[Honeybun]

Blix, Ritter, Kamel and so many others had opinions that didn't fit your view in the lead up to Iraq and look where we are now. In the instance of Kamel there was documentation that Iraq had destroyed WMD in the early nineties.

The intel on Iraq didn't fit your view so the OSP (Office of Special Plans) was set up in the Pentagon. OSP was set up to stove pipe intel out of the Pentagon and was headed by Feith.

What Iraq submitted to the UN-all 12,000 pages -was intercepted by Condi and redacted to a fraction of what was submitted because that did not fit with your views. Unfortunately no one is every going to ask Condi what was in the 12,000 pages, who helped her, where it was done and where the material the UN delegates did not get is now.

The beat could go on and on. I will close with this-some things never change-the neo-crazies will do Iran and probably Syria just as the neo-cons did Iraq with few if any questions being asked of any of them.

[Dandy12]

Bush's "view" of things, now isn't that a hoot!! One would assume that he was a visionary, and an accurate one! It's like debating Bush's credibility, when there is none to be considered.