Intel Goes Down the Memory Hole Again

Verbs are important. The Bush administration has gone from saying we "know" something--as in, "we know Saddam has nuclear weapons"--to we "believe" something. Which is fair warning, for a faith-based foreign policy. (No longer a Faith-based one).

Nonetheless, Sunday morning on Fox News Sunday, Joint Chief of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen said he "believes" Iran is moving towards acquiring nuclear weapons. Interrogator Chris Wallace didn't ask him upon what that belief was based. Nor did he ask Mullen whether that belief represented a disagreement with the publicly expressed consensus view of the intelligence community, released last December in a National Intelligence Estimate, that Iran had halted such a program four years ago.

As I recall, the 2002 NIE, the public version of which (minus the privately expressed caveats and dissents) was used to support the push for war in Iraq, was often brandished by media questioners and war supporters to silence those who opposed the invasion. It's no surprise this latest NIE has fallen down the administration's memory hole, but what excuse do those in the media have for sipping the amnesia juice?

Comments

[Michale32086]

The simple fact is this...

Iran IS developing nuclear weapons. The evidence that points to this is as overwhelming as it is conclusive. Even the head of the IAEA (who has NO reason to lie for the USA) concedes that, if Iran were to leave the NNPT, they could have a working nuclear device in as little as 6 months.

Iran simply cannot be allowed to possess nuclear weapons... Even if their overt and continuous threats against Israel would not convince people, Iran's support of terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Hamas should be sufficient cause..

Any action taken to prevent Iran from possessing nuclear weapons is justified in direct correlation to the chances of it's success...

Michale.....

[Durango]

You had better get your information and your sources over to the CIA and NSA ASAP.

Because in their collective judgment, they don't know what you are talking about.

Personally I don't think we need another war based on phony information.

Once in a lifetime is sufficient.

[Huffingtonposter231]

That believe might have something to do with Irans nuclear reactor, Iran spinning up all that uranium to create the stuff of bombs, and Iran saying they could wipe Israel out in a first nuclear strike and survive Israels retaliation?

I mean, really, must we pretend that Iran ISN'T making a nuke when we know they are?

[wordvarc]

.

Heads up!

w's goons are cookin' the intel again....

.

[Michale32086]

It's simply amazing...

You people have an AWESOME track record..

Everyone who disagrees with you is "corrupt" and "stupid"....

Everyone who agrees with you is dead on ballz accurate..

How do ya'all achieve such an awesome track record???

Just in case ya'all missed it, ^^^^^ that was sarcasm....

Michale.....

[Michale32086]

The head of the IAEA has stated that, were Iran to leave the NNPT, they could have a working nuclear device in 6 months...

That's a fact..

Michale.....

[Danny]

Paixa3-- "Give them zero viewership". GIVE THEM ZERO VIEWERSHIP. Turn them off. Don't patronize their advertisers, and that goes for PBS, too.

[davidwparker]

Like, if you have satellite or cable, just watch Freespeech TV (http://freespeechtv.org) or Link TV.

[PhantomAviator]

..

Answer: They are part of the Problem. Tim Russert included.

Didn't you see Brokaw ask Gore that ever-so important question: Why is yer HOUSE so big?"
After everything that has gone down this week, THAT is the burning question which MUST BE ANSWERED!!!


.

[Michale32086]

Considering that Gore is cajoling all Americans to conserve, it's a valid question.

It's amazing that so many people are willing to give Gore a pass on his arrogant "Do as I say, not as I do" attitude...

I read in another commentary how Al Gore is raising $300 million to "increase public awareness"..

Get that?? It's not $300 million towards solving the "problem". It's $300 million to TELL people about the problem...

Do you know how many home solar power systems $300 million would buy?? THIRTY THOUSAND!! With $300 million, Al Gore could equip thirty thousand houses with a solar power system that would completely power the home...

Surely THAT would be more of a plus than making ad agencies, lawyers, lobbyists and (of course) Al Gore rich...

Anyone??? Anyone??? Buehler???

Michale.....

[ApolloSpeaks]

NIE REPORT NOT CREDIBLE

Aren't these the same group of intell agencies that issued reports saying that the Chinese, Indians, Paks and North Koreans didn't have nuclear weapons programs? With good reason this report is treated with widespread skepticism. Yet when taken at face value the report indicated that Iran lied about never having such a program and that they were in violation of the NPT. This shouldn't surprise anyone as Iran is a rogue Islamic state that belives it has the religious right to violate treaties made with infidels.

[Mogamboguru]

Make Israel - which is the actual, owner of a fully fledged nuclear program and over 150 nukes, according to former US-president Jimmy Carter - as well as India and Pakistan - both big business partners of the USA in the Middle-ast - sign, ratify and hedge the NPT, and then come back to teach Iran lessons.

Otherwise: STHU, please.

[ApolloSpeaks]

Why is it then that the Arab Sunni world fears the mullah bomb and not the Zionist bomb? Answer: Isreal is a peaceful democratic status quo power with no designs on its neighbors; while radical nuclear Iran, on the other hand, wants the region and the world.

[Sociologist]

Excellent observation Mr. Shearer. Roger Barrows, Professor of Sociology at the University of York published a fascinating article entitled "Sociological Amnesia In An Age Of Informational Capitalism," (Journal of Information, Communication, and Society Vol 8, Issue 4, December 2005), that delineates the dynamic the your post describes.

[Kassandra]

When this crew treasonously outed Valerie Plame and brought her weapons of mass destruction intelligence operation, Brewster Jennings, down, they purposely lost any coherent intel on what is really happening in the mid-east.

I believe that is why Cheney ended up in the hospital with a heart attack after the NIE came out. He wanted so to attack Iran, he went ballistic (pun intended). That was the original neo-con plan for empire; to attack 6 countries while in office and become a member of OPEC. Being bogged down in Iraq was their biggest ideological mistake. They went in with too few troops, thinking it would be a "cakewalk".

If,when Bush announced "mission accomplished" it really had been, we would have 6 war fronts now instead of two. That is why they are so eager to attack Iran. They feel they have failed, not in winning a war they never wanted to win, but in not destabilizing the entire mid-east so the oil companies could seize everything.

[luziannagirl]

More importantly, perhaps, what excuse do the American People have for considering the Fox network to be NEWS MEDIA?

At best, they are all about entertainment and maximizing revenue.

At worst, they are a thinly veiled right-wing propaganda mouthpiece.

Under no fact- or logic-based assessment would Fox qualify as gatherers and dissemminators of news.

Yet, they keep their FCC broadcast license, and continue to use our commonly owned airwaves to spread their poison. My elderly father continues to vote, and continues to watch Fox continually. Consequently, he thinks current economic problems have been caused by a Democratic Congress's failure to fully cooperate with the Bush Administration, that it was common knowledge that Saddam Hussein was involved with Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, among other many, many misconceptions. He even thought the recent "economic stimulus checks" , which he disagreed with and called "welfare", but cashed anyway, of course, were engineered by free-spending Democrats.

He is still operating under the assumption that if it's on TV , it says it's news, and it's slick, it must be true.

Fox should at least be required to regularly air a disclaimer informing its viewers that its newscasts are not fact-based and objective, and should be primarily viewed not as an accurate and balanced events and information source but as entertainment.

[Durango]

Ahh, if the problem was only contained to Fox and Affiliates.

But the other Broadcast news are almost as bad. It is a matter of degree.

But NBC, CBS, ABC continue to report as FACT that Iran is attempting to obtain Nukes.

Are they corrupt?

Are they stupid?

Are they corruptly stupid?

[Wozzeck]

CNN's Wolf Blitzer is a former AIPAC spokesman, and its 'Chief Political Analyst", William Schneider, is a Fellow at neocon central: The AEI. Coincidence?

[mulegino]

Corrupt, stupid, meretricious, ignorant, sycophantic...all the perjoratives in the dictionary couldn't begin to describe these organizations. We worry so much about the pollution of the physical environment, yet the thickest layer of filth there is is the media's lies and obsfucations, which completely blot out the truth to 90% of the American public.

[frappe]

The media has absolutely no excuse for sipping the "amnesia juice". The problem is that the "amnesia" in this case is a deliberate act and not some accidental or unintended event. We are in desperate need of media reform in this country. For just five corporations to own 80% of our media is criminal and contributes mightily to the media dysfunctionality that we bear witness to so often.

[BobsNotWorking]

The thing that frightens me is that the press so freely engages in flooding our society with subtle opinion rather than simply reporting the news. For example, I couldn't even count the number to times I've heard or read headlines this past weekend such as, "Barack Obama is in the middle east to SHORE UP his foreign policy credentials." Really? Did the Obama campaign state this as the reason for his trip? No. I don't believe they did. However, the press has decided they UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING on a continuous basis, and they report their opinions as factual news. Such characterization is a subjective opinion at best and slanderous at worst. Personally, I believe that Barack Obama has a far more accurate view of foreign policy than all of the Republican leaders and the free press combined. Could it be that Barack Obama has made this trip in order to obtain the opinions of foreign leaders and military commanders regarding their views of current conditions? Just as any other government official might do? Is Senator Hagle on the trip to SHORE UP his foreign policy credentials? This, the current style of journalism, is harming our society and our democracy.

[Durango]

The Propaganda in this nation would make Goebbels jealous.

He was a rank amateur.

[EyeballKid]

Harry implies the obvious by now: that the media are complicit in forming and maintaining the corporate-government narrative on Iran and everything else. There is no independent corporate media. That's now an oxymoron. We know this not from what we believe, but what we can infer from behavior.

[avvocato]

With certain too few exceptions, the corporate media couldn't REPORT anything even a mole on their collective butts.
They are lazy and subject to their bosses concerns about profits.

[jdmccl]

Maybe that's why they are sending their anchors to Iraq with BHo. Whats wrong? Slow day with not Brittany on the loose? The NIE was a wast of our money and only Iran is looking at that document not worth to wipe an arse with. Isreal has the best intelligence. That is what people here really want to hear? I think not. Iran has over 40,000 working centrifuges and that kind of detail was not released with Sadamm but of course the NIE overrides all that because it reinforces our enemy's viewpoint.

[JumboBurrito]

Any backup for your claim that Iran has 40,000 centrifuges? Presumably gas, or otherwise it is irrelevant.