Signal of dissent from within

Dec.7, 2007

Signal of dissent from within




THE thought would not go away why the 16 US intelligence agencies decided to override all Bush administration objections and released their finding that Iran had suspended a programme to develop nuclear weapons in 2003 and that Tehran is not involved in any activity that suggests that it is currently pursuing nuclear weaponisation.
One of the arguments that are being heard sounds as good as any: There is a strong group within the US intelligence and security establishment, including the military, which opposes the neoconservative effort to use the US to serve Israeli purposes. Members of this group got together and decided to go public with its finding that seriously undermined the administration's claims that Iran's nuclear programme was aimed at developing weapons that it could use against Israel (or at least challenge Israel's nuclear supremacy in the region). That in turn deflated the administration's neo-con influenced drive towards military action against Iran in what would definitely turn out to be yet another imbroglio for the US military.
It is no secret that senior US military commanders are not at all happy with the way things are going in Iraq in a war that they know was launched on deceptive grounds. They do not want to add to the US military's woes by engaging Iran in a military conflict, which could expose tens of thousands of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan for Iranian retaliation. The best they could do to pre-empt such a course of events was to expose the reality that the reason that the administration could cite for action against Iran was not valid anymore.
The same applies to the US intelligence establishment, which was stung by the way the administration handled Iraq intelligence. The manipulation that a special office set up by Vice-President Dick Cheney did with honest intelligence reports in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a slap in the face of the intelligence establishment. Therefore, the seniors in the intelligence agencies decided that it was high time that the American people and the international community knew the truth and to leave no room for the neocons in the administration to twist and turn facts and realities into shapes that suited their purpose and deal yet another humiliating blow to the intelligence establishment.
The US military and intelligence agencies have done the best they thought they could do to set the record straight, Whether it would have the sought-for result is something that remains to be seen. The danger still lurks in the air of the neocons cooking something anew to rebuild "justifications" for military action against Iran, and the US military and intelligence agencies need to remain on constant alert to abort the case.