Update 12/11/07 - Daniel Pipes contends NIE Report makes war against Iran more likely. He provides many links. - Victor Davis Hanson says:
Christopher Hitchens has a good piece on the bad CIA ("worse than useless"). Surely our various intelligence organizations are practicing a sort of subversion, whether due to a condescending animus toward George Bush, or to a more generic arrogance that their genius is not appreciated and so they leak and back stab against their betters to ensure someone out there knows just how brilliant they really are. (more . . )
Update 12/6/07 - Victor Davis Hanson poses a series of questions.
Update 12/5/07 - The Wall Street Journal: The CIA's Flip-Flop is Hardly Reassuring. National Review Online Editors express reasons to be skeptical. Powerline explains things about the CIA and intelligence agencies that most of us are unaware of. John Bolton (in one of the most incisive critiques), lists the flaws in the Iran report and concludes:
While the president and others argue that we need to maintain pressure on Iran, this "intelligence" torpedo has all but sunk those efforts, inadequate as they were. Ironically, the NIE opens the way for Iran to achieve its military nuclear ambitions in an essentially unmolested fashion, to the detriment of us all.
Update 12/4/07 - Norman Podhoretz airs some dark suspicions. Michael Ledeen says he's not a believer. Hugh Hewitt characterizes the NIE report: "As though MI6 told Stanley Baldwin in 1933 that fears that Hitler would reoccupy the Ruhr in 1934 were groundless."
** The New York times reports:
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 — A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains frozen, contradicting judgment two years ago that Tehran was working relentlessly toward building a nuclear bomb.
Not everyone takes the report at face value. Take Cliff May, for example, who writes:
. . . the purpose of this NIE [National Intelligence Estimate]is to prevent Bush from using military force during the remainder of his term to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons program.
A friend, formerly at the CIA, tells me that while this NIE
does confirm Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons in 2002 and 2003, its conclusions that as to why it may have stopped the program and why this halt may have continued are debateable and speculation. These KJs [Key Judgments] have too much political spin. This assessment was strongly influenced by two hyper-partisan anti-Bush officials who oversaw it, both former State officials who fought tooth and nail against Bush WMD policies, especially Iran.
Tom Jocelyn at the Weekly Standard also has some questions. Five of them to be exact.