Questions About Bush's Iran Knowledge

In a news conference yesterday, President Bush was asked about bellicose statements on Iran's nuclear program that he and members of his Administration have made in recent weeks in light of the new National Intelligence Estimate that Iran has suspended its nuclear weapons program in late 2003. The president said that he was not made aware of the findings of the report until last week, and defended his Administration's use of hot rhetoric in describing the danger posed by Iran.

Democrats, led by presidential candidate and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Joe Biden, are finding it difficult to accept Mr. Bush timeline on the development of the new information. Speaking at a Democratic debate yesterday, Biden said the description of events leading up to the NIE's release made by Mr. Bush was "unbelieveable."

Are you telling me a president that's briefed every single morning, who's fixated on Iran, is not told back in August that the tentative conclusion of 16 intelligence agencies in the U.S. government said they had abandoned their effort for a nuclear weapon in '03? I refuse to believe that.

If that's true, he has the most incompetent staff in modern American history, and he's one of the most incompetent presidents in modern American history.

The president said that he was not advised to tone down his rhetoric on Iran, despite knowing that the intelligence agencies were analyzing new information on Iran's nuclear program.

"I was made aware of the NIE last week. In August, I think it was Mike McConnell came in and said, we have some new information. He didn't tell me what the information was; he did tell me it was going to take a while to analyze.[...]And it wasn't until last week that I was briefed on the NIE that is now public.

No, nobody ever told me [to tone down the rhetoric]. Having said -- having laid that out, I still feel strongly that Iran is a danger."

Biden calls the entire incident a "self-inflicted wound" to U.S. national Security.

The leading Democratic presidential candidates also questioned the president's version of how the information was passed through the Administration, but they also seized on the report to question each other. Sen. Hillary Clinton was assailed by her rivals at the NPR radio debate in which Biden made his comments. John Edwards said that Sen. Clinton's vote in favor of a resolution declaring Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization was, "exactly what Bush and Cheney wanted."

"This has to be considered in the context that Senator Clinton has said she agrees with George Bush terminology that we're in a global war on terror, then she voted to declare a military group in Iran a terrorist organization. What possible conclusion can you reach other than we are at war?"

Clinton fired back saying that her vote in favor of the resolution was justified because it has achieved results.

"In fact, having designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, we've actually seen some changes in their behavior. There is absolutely no basis for a rush to war, which I oppose and have opposed for two years."

Sen. Barack Obama chose to confine his remarks to the Bush Administration, saying, "They should have stopped the saber rattling, should have never started it. And they need, now, to aggressively move on the diplomatic front."