Bush said he was told of new intelligence on Iran in August 2007 by
National Intelligence director Mike McConnell, responsible for the National
Intelligence Estimate. The president said he was not told details, rather
that the new data would require extensive analysis.
"In August, I think it was Mike McConnell came in and said, we have some
new information," Bush said. "He didn't tell me what the information was. He
did tell me it was going to take a while to analyze."
"Why would you take time to analyze new information?" Bush asked. "One,
you want to make sure it's not disinformation. You want to make sure the
piece of intelligence you have is real. And secondly, they want to make sure
they understand the intelligence they gathered: If they think it's real,
then what does it mean? And it wasn't until last week that I was briefed on
the NIE that is now public."
The unclassified version of NIE, released on Dec. 3, said Iran halted
its nuclear weapons program in 2003. The estimate, meant to reflect the
view of all 16 agencies in the intelligence community, said Teheran was
not believed to have renewed its weapons program since.
"I want to compliment the intelligence community for their good work,"
Bush said. "Right after the failure of intelligence in Iraq, we reformed the
intel community so that there was a lot of serious considerations of NIEs in
a way that would give us confidence. And here's, I think, a very important
product that is a result of the reforms we've put in place."
At the same time, Bush, who acknowledged a reevaluation of Teheran's
capabilities, stressed that NIE's determination has not reduced the threat
of a nuclear Iran. He said Iran could rapidly use its uranium enrichment
capabilities to assemble a nuclear weapon.
The president, who plans to discuss NIE during his visit to Israel in
early 2008, also asserted that Iran developed delivery systems for nuclear
weapons. Bush, who pledged that he would not allow Iran to secretly develop
an atomic bomb, said the intelligence community has been struggling to
acquire data of Iran's nuclear program.
"Frankly, we haven't had a very good presence in Iran since 1979," Bush
said. "And that's why I instructed the intel community to beef up its
intelligence on Iran, so we could have a better sense for what they're
thinking and what they're doing. And this product is a result of
intelligence reform and, more importantly, the good, hard work of our
intelligence community."
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