Interpreting The "New Intelligence" On Iran

Interpreting The “New Intelligence” On Iran

By: Rachel Marsden

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad strikes me as the kind of guy who you’d smile at in the hallway, and he’d start fantasizing about marriage. He already sees the new US intel report as a victory.

According to this ONE report: "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."

Translation: When the US invaded Iran's equally problematic neighbor, Iraq, in 2003, it freaked them out – but we’re pretty sure they’re planning a comeback.

Here’s the litmus test: This week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy hosted Libyan thug Muammar Qaddafi – another guy who was scared straight on the nuke front when Iraq was invaded -- at the Elysee to discuss nuclear energy agreements. Sarkozy is not willing to do the same with Iran, and says their nuclear program has “no civilian explanation”. No kidding.

Personally, I think giving nuclear power to either one of these nuts is like handing a psychotic toddler a pair of scissors. Sure, he could use them to make arts and crafts, but he could also suddenly go Chucky on his friends.

As the left keeps telling us, oil is the source of evil because it causes wars and destroys the environment. I’m all for Islamists like Qaddafi and Ahmadinejad using up all the oil first – you know, so it can’t do any more harm – before we start talking about giving them things that could turn into bombs with a few extra centrifuge spins. If they get stuck, they can always get more oil from their pal and recently failed “President for life” candidate, Hugo Chavez, in Venezuela. The faster we can burn it up, the sooner we’ll all be in a Prius, right?

But as permissive as Sarkozy is willing to be, he refuses to do the same with Ahmadinejad. And if it’s a tossup between trusting the CIA’s one contradictory report, or believing what Sarkozy’s being told by French foreign intelligence – the DGSE – I’ll take the French intel, thanks.

Let’s leave aside for a minute the fact that, according to the Weekly Standard, one of the main authors of this latest report told a Congressional committee only four months ago that Iran was developing nuclear weapons. Consider that the DGSE – widely regarded by the intel community as one of the best intel services in the world – produced NINE reports in the run-up to 9/11, identifying al-Qaeda airline hijackings as threats to the USA. They even pinpointed the exact time frame.

Sarkozy’s intel indicates that Iran is a clear and present threat, and – hey, what do you know -- it matches what Ahmadinejad is saying about wanting to wipe Israel off the map! Even Russian President Vladimir Putin, who’s cashing in on a nuclear reactor deal with Iran, is talking sanctions unless his less buffilicious slob of a little bro opens up to IAEA inspections. The only thing Putin should be setting Mahmoud up with is his stylist.

Mahmoud really needs to spend more time focusing on the important things that could ultimately get him flattened. Instead, he’s busy playing around online, blogging at www.ahmadinejad.ir . He goes off on airport security, American “torture”, and the environment with style and flair that would make Noam Chomsky proud and a raging bull comatose: “The behavior of U.S. government concerning the people of other nations is very ‎supercilious and slighting…Actions such as - fingerprinting the foreign nationals - deterring the other nations ‎cultural, political and scientific elites and sport figures from going to U.S.- destruction ‎of the environment – evasion, prolongation, renege and infringement of different ‎treaties and accords - aggression of other countries territory and depredation of their ‎wealth and recourses - initiation and creation of secret and medieval prisons and death ‎camps with Dark Ages type of tortures - invasion of other countries and slaughtering ‎women and children - not only illustrates the bad records of the U.S. rulers, but also ‎have defaced and ruined the cultural and humane image of the big nation of America ‎more than ever.‎”

He then waxes about spending more than his allotted “fifteen minutes per week” on the blog.

Perhaps Mahmoud should consider obsessing that much over the IAEA. It would at least be a start.