Debunking Iran's Nuclear Program: Another 'Intelligence Failure' -- On the Part of the Press?

[DeepModem Mom]

Editor&Publisher: Debunking Iran's Nuclear Program: Another 'Intelligence Failure' -- On the Part of the Press?
By Greg Mitchell

NEW YORK (December 04, 2007) -- Press reports so far have suggested that the belated release of the National Intelligence Estimate yesterday throwing cold water on oft-repeated claims of a rampant Iranian nuclear weapons program has deeply embarrassed, or at least chastened, public officials and policymakers who have promoted this line for years. Gaining little attention so far: Many in the media have made these same claims, often extravagantly, which promoted (deliberately or not) the tubthumping for striking Iran.

Surely you remember Sen. John McCain's inspired Beach Boys' parody, a YouTube favorite, "Bomb-bomb-bomb, Bomb-bomb Iran"? That was the least of it. You could dance to it and it had a good beat. Not so for so much of the press and punditry surrounding the bomb. Who can forget Norman Podhoretz's call for an immediate attack on Iran, in the pages of the Wall Street Journal last May, as he argued that "the plain and brutal truth is that if Iran is to be prevented from developing a nuclear arsenal, there is no alternative to the actual use of military force -- any more than there was an alternative to force if Hitler was to be stopped in 1938."

As I've warned in this space for years, too many in the media seemed to fail to learn the lessons of the Iraqi WMD intelligence failure -- and White House propaganda effort -- and instead, were repeating it, re: Iran. This time, perhaps, we may have averted war, with little help from most of the media. In this case, it appears, the NIE people managed to resist several months of efforts by the administration to change their assessment. If only they had stiffened their backbones concerning Iraq in 2002.

For the rest of today and this week, media critics will be offering up all sorts of reminders of the near-fatal claims by many in the press relating to Iranian nukes. Sure to get attention are the scare stories in the summer of 2005 after "proof" of an Iranian nuke program somehow surfaced on a certain laptop, proudly unveiled by offiicials and bought by many in the media then as firm evidence (and now debunked, like much of the "proof" of Iraqi WMD provided by defectors a few years back)....

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003680766

[dipsydoodle]

1. I smell a rat here somehwere

It could just be a convenient duck out by the Administration which in some way helps save face - odd as it might sound. In other words a kinda softened policy change but just for time being. Maybe its finally dawned on them that almost complete loss of oil output from the Middle East for some months might not not make attacking Iran such a good idea afterall.

[vincenzoesq]

2. MSM fails us yet again

I haven't seen many references to the PBS broadcast, "Buying the War." It confirms and expands what we already knew. We can't count on the press to dispense truth. If you haven't seen the program, you can watch the video or read the transcript online. It's scary stuff. www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Thanks for the link, vincenzoesq -- and welcome to DU!!!

[vincenzoesq]

4. DU Welcome

Thank you kindly! :-)