Once again the truth of the intelligence reporting of the Bush Administration has been put to some scrutiny. The United States has backed away from its claims that Tehran is intent on building nuclear bombs. The new NIE report has brought into question the reasoning for the administrations assertion that Iran has been trying to develop a nuclear weapon.

The Bush administration had been informed by intelligence officials several months ago that there was to be an upcoming reassessment of the Iran nuclear program intelligence. Even the with that knowledge the administration continued to push for strengthened sanctions and possible targeted air strikes to curtail the Iranians nuclear capabilities. Mr. Bush even stated that stopping Iran now from obtaining a nuclear weapon would be like staving off WW III. Bush's National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said the president made comments like those "because he was describing the threat as the intelligence community itself had been describing the threat both publicly and in their briefings to him."

With the new report stating, “We do not know whether it currently intends to develop nuclear weapons," is it really the Middle East intelligence that we should have been questioning. There seems to be a strong case to be made that it has been the intelligence of the civilians in charge that really was at question. This administration went to war with Iraq based on their flawed assessment of this kind of intelligence. Their Middle East policy has been nothing short of a complete disaster. It is now time for the American people to get behind congress in whatever tactic it chooses to force a change in policy.

The civilian leaders like Secretary Rice and her Deputy Secretary John Negroponte are still at the helm. Mr. Negroponte as the nations first National Intelligence Director reported to congress in January that the administrations assessment at the time was Tehran is determined to develop nuclear weapons. These are the same people that saw a nuclear program and weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Remember Secretary Rice and Vice President Cheney’s mushroom cloud warnings.