…

"Norman Podhoretz, horrified and petrified that the consensus of our intelligence agencies "just dealt a serious blow" to his desire for a new war, unloads what he aptly calls his "dark suspicions" that this is all just a ruse by our dishonest intelligence community "to head off the possibility that the President may order air strikes on the Iranian nuclear installations" [...]

Podhoretz’s predictable attack also underscores one of the most dishonest maneuvers one has seen in some time. It was, of course, Podhoretz, Cheney and their friends who incessantly pressured and manipulated the intelligence community to conclude that Saddam had WMD so that they could start the war they desperately wanted for so long. And now, they use the false conclusions which they foisted on the intelligence community to cast doubt on the credibility of intelligence officials with regard to Iran — as though neoconservative warmongers were the victims of the pre-war intelligence failures rather than the perpetrators. [...]"
From Glenn Greenwald:  http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/12/04/elbaradei/index.html

The language used to talk about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the language used to take the nation to war in Iraq have been so interlaced that polls show they are inextricably linked in the minds of a substantial number of voters.

Other things may be at play, too, but for some voters, terrorists, terrorism, the war in Iraq, 9/11, Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda are all part of the same multi-headed hydra.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Poll_41_of_Americans_believe_Saddam_0624.html
Number of Americans who believe Saddam-9/11 tie rises to 41 percent
Josh Catone
Published: Sunday June 24, 2007

A new Newsweek poll out this weekend exposed "gaps" in America’s knowledge of history and current events.

Perhaps most alarmingly, 41% of Americans answered ‘Yes’ to the question "Do you think Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was directly involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001?"

That total is actually up 5 points since September 2004.

On the  Iran nuclear issue, an uniformed public is/was buying into the Iran threat. But HEU won’t go on a bomb attached to a ballistic missile. A miniturizes implosion device is required. So how is Iran 4% U-235 an imminent threat that hawks in the US and Israel claim?

It’s hard for the American people to listen to all the conflicting information coming from the analysts themselves and take the assessment seriously. How could they? The story doesn’t read like an honest dispute over intelligence analysis but a family squabble between the White House and a CIA that doesn’t much like having this President in charge of it.

This isn’t ‘finished.’ Too many concerns and buts and ifs have been raised.

On the other hand, too many questions have been raised the last couple of days to take it all on face value. It seems to me that experts should take a second look at the NIE and at what Iran is doing.

They did take a second look… and then some.  That’s why it took so long to be released and we’re only finding out about it now.