It seems as if the fat lady will sing herself hoarse before the Bush administration drops its fabulist's narrative on Iran. Its echo chamberlains continue to condemn Iranian complicity in the deaths of American G.I.s in Iraq even though, as historian and journalist Gareth Porter phrases it, "The administration has not come forward with a single piece of concrete evidence to support the claim that the Iranian government has been involved in the training, arming or advising of Iraqi Shiite militias."

Nick Benton, owner/editor of the Falls Church News Press, offers a somewhat different analysis to Huber. Posted permission of Benton.

The rush to explain the genesis and process that led to the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear program, released this week and a major embarrassment to the Bush administration, needs more time to become clear. This development constitutes an intervention of the first degree against an otherwise inevitable cascade toward war.

If an intelligence officer brought me a report that read like the latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, he'd be picking it out of his next morning's constitutional. That NIE was one of the worst compendiums of unsupported summary judgment statements I've ever seen. Good golly; Charles Krauthammer supports his opinions better than that.

Long before it was "popular", John Edwards was calling for a New Strategy for Iran (and the War on Terror in general)

Long before the NIE Report, threw water on the GOP's fiery rhetoric about the looming dangers of Iran, Edwards was saying we must learn the lessons of the Iraq War -- NOT Repeat them in Iran!

I made the sound of one jaw dropping Monday when National Security Adviser Steven Hadley said that the latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iran "suggests that the President has the right strategy."

Joe Biden said it recently about bombing Iran and impeachment. Hell, some loudmouth said it back in February as well. But we can’t afford to wait for the smoking gun about whether we will bomb Iran to be the mushroom cloud over Iran, right?

Jonathan Landay/McClatchy: U.S. intelligence:
Iran apparently halted nuclear weapons drive in 2003
"We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program; we also assess with moderate to high confidence that Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons," said the key judgments of the National Intelligence Estimate titled, "Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities."

Also on site: National Intelligence Estimate: Iran (.pdf); previous articles; extensive Q&A on Iran w/Landay+Stroebel.