| Bush admin not looking for war with iran { October 2007 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://wamu.org/programs/dr/07/12/05.phphttp://wamu.org/programs/dr/07/12/05.php
Wednesday December 5, 2007
10:00 NIE Report on Iran's Nuclear Program
The latest National Intelligence Estimate concludes Iran halted its nuclear program in 2003, but continues to enrich uranium. We'll look at what this report may mean for U.S. policy towards Iran as President Bush enters his last year in office. Guests
Trita Parsi, President, National Iranian American Council and professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University SAIS.
Jon Wolfsthal, Senior fellow, International Security Program, Center for Strategic & International Studies
Kenneth Pollack, director of research at the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution; author of "The Persian Puzzle: the Conflict between Iran and America;" former director for Persian Gulf Affairs and former director for Near East and South Asian Affairs at the National Security Council; former Iran-Iraq military analyst, Central Intelligence Agency
------------------------------------------------------ 19:43
Kenneth Pollack: Actually the Bush Administration was not looking to go to war with the Iranians, thats really was not where they were headed.
27:10
Jon Wolfsthal: The comment that he made that the director of national intelligence, Mike MCConnell, came to him in August and said we need to delay the NIE for several months because we have some new information that forces us to go back and re-evaluate everything. And he says Mike McConnel didn't tell him what it was. And it appears the the president [Bush] wasn't curious enough to ask what that information was.
30:40
Jon Wolfsthal: The Bush administration can no longer even control the timing of bad news. The White house is very weak compared to where it was five years ago. It doesn't control the intelligence process the way they used to and it doesn't control the news the way they used to.
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