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NIE authors accused of partisan politics
By Jon Ward
December 7, 2007
Several current and former high-level government officials familiar with the authors of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran described the report as a politically motivated document written by anti-Bush former State Department officials, who opposed sanctioning foreign governments and businesses.
A Republican senator plans to introduce a bill next week that would create a commission of policy experts to examine whether the new report on Iran is accurate, a spokesman said today.
"Let's make sure this new report is right," said Tory Mazzola, spokesman for Sen. John Ensign, Arizona Republican.
Mr. Ensign's proposal will be joined by "a small group of bipartisan senators" and is motivated by a belief that intelligence reports such as the NIE are "becoming very politicized."
FISHWRAP: 11:50 a.m. White House stands by scrutinized intel report
The bill would create a commission of three Democrats and three Republicans, who would then bring in policy experts to examine the NIE and the broader scope of U.S. intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program.
The report released this week said Iran once had a covert nuclear weapons program, but shut it down in 2003.
The authors' aim is to undercut the White House effort to increase pressure for sanctions on Iran and to argue that Iran dropped its nuclear-weapons program in 2003 because of diplomatic efforts in which the authors had participated, the officials said.
"One has to look at the agendas of the primary movers of this report, to judge how much it can really be banked on," said David Wurmser, a former Middle East adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, who has worked with the report authors.
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