Israel Says NIE Report May Cause War
A number of Syrian tanks left behind at an Israeli anti-tank ditch on the Golan during the Yom Kippur War.
JERUSALEM — Israel’s public security minister warned Saturday that a U.S. intelligence report that said Iran is no longer developing nuclear arms could lead to a regional war that would threaten the Jewish state.
In his remarks — Israel’s harshest criticism yet of the U.S. report — Avi Dichter said the assessment also cast doubt on American intelligence in general, including information about Palestinian security forces’ crackdown on militant groups. The Palestinian action is required as part of a U.S.-backed renewal of peace talks with Israel this month.
Dichter cautioned that a refusal to recognize Iran’s intentions to build weapons of mass destruction could lead to armed conflict in the Middle East.
He compared the possibility of such fighting to a surprise attack on Israel in 1973 by its Arab neighbors, which came to be known in Israel for the Yom Kippur Jewish holy day on which it began.
“The American misconception concerning Iran’s nuclear weapons is liable to lead to a regional Yom Kippur where Israel will be among the countries that are threatened,” Dichter said in a speech in a suburb south of Tel Aviv, according to his spokesman, Mati Gil. “Something went wrong in the American blueprint for analyzing the severity of the Iranian nuclear threat.”
Dichter didn’t elaborate on the potential scenario but seemed to imply that a world that let its guard down regarding Iran would be more vulnerable to attack by the Islamic regime.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had disputed the U.S. intelligence assessment this month, saying that Iran continues its efforts to obtain components necessary to produce nuclear weapons. Tehran still poses a major threat to the West and the world must stop it, Olmert said.
Israel has for years been warning that Iran is working on nuclear weapons and backed the United States in its international efforts to exert pressure on Iran to stop the program. Israel considers Iran a significant threat because of its nuclear ambitions, its long-range missile program and repeated calls by its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for the disappearance of Israel.
Iran says its nuclear program is for purely peaceful purposes.
Israel will work to change the American intelligence agencies’ view of Iran, said Dichter, a former chief of Israel’s Shin Bet secret service agency.
“A misconception by the world’s leading superpower is not just an internal American occurrence,” Dichter said.
Any future faulty U.S. intelligence on the actions of Palestinian security forces could damage peace efforts, Dichter said.
“Those same (intelligence) arms in the U.S. are apt to make a mistake and declare that the Palestinians have fulfilled their commitments, which would carry with it very serious consequences from Israel’s vantage point,” Dichter said.
(FOX)
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The Carter/Clinton legacy lives on.
December 15th, 2007 at 4:34 pmright on Egfrow,they will deny Iran is building a nuke till it goes off somewhere here in the states then they will blame Bush.Spineless Bastards
December 15th, 2007 at 5:03 pmIsraeli’s have this one pegged.
December 15th, 2007 at 5:05 pmSeems the US intel missed this one, or if they called it, running it thru State Dept/Bureaucrat/politicians it came out to suit certain worldly agendas by political embeds.
I’ll bet on the Israelis, since they have the most to loose.
Im so angry. I hate all these Iran-loving losers.
December 15th, 2007 at 5:07 pmI said it when that farce came out. The fools, trying to ensure we couldn’t go to war with Iran, instead guaranteed it.
The mullahs now think we will watch and do nothing until one of our cities is obliterated. They’ll go full speed ahead on their enrichment program. All the sanctions in the world won’t stop them. Only the credible threat of force could have, and they don’t think we have the stones to drop the hammer.
The only way to prevent the deaths of millions is to hit Iran. Hard. At the very least, thousands will die. But that won’t matter to the scum who leaked this. Even if New York ceases to exist, they’ll piously say their intentions were good and wash their hands of the blood of millions.
December 15th, 2007 at 5:34 pm“………..a nuke till it goes off somewhere here in the states then they will blame Bush.”
If it happens and I survive, I promise to hunt down every surrenderchicken D’rat and Clinton leftover for their guts.
Aw shit, make it every politician.
December 15th, 2007 at 6:17 pmOh, goodie! I was hoping that damned NIE Report wouldn’t ruin a good time for us “war liking” Republicans (See: Nancy Pelosi)…
“Liberalism always generates the opposite of its intention …” Jim Quinn, Pittsburgh, Pa.
December 15th, 2007 at 6:28 pmGet your guns folks, the war is coming…
December 15th, 2007 at 7:49 pmIran never does ANYTHING “purely for peaceful purposes”. To imagine that enriching uranium is an exception is hilarious.
December 15th, 2007 at 9:28 pmThen, again, maybe it’s reverse psychology. This might be what Eurabia needs to get a fire lit under their asses. “Hey, we’re on our own, we can’t rely on the United States to come running to our rescue a third time”.
December 16th, 2007 at 1:54 amJohn,
hehe, don’t take your dream for granted
The threats here are more expected as blind terrorist attacks from AQ
when Iranian terrorist attacks occured, it was always precisely targeted, for a precise goal, (ie. the Paris attacks in the eighties : it was to push France to pay-back their participation in the Eurodif society) and as Iran is in its mentality a trading nation, they won’t destroy countries who can supply them with good money banknotes (oil paid in euros)
That doesn’t mean we don’t have to watch them, and prepare to conter harshly, even with a bellicism spirit, their volonty of nationalism expensionism
December 16th, 2007 at 3:08 amYet again the dems failure to face reality and put forth their good intentions have created another mess. They will never leanr even if they where to succeed in tearing this country apart.
December 16th, 2007 at 4:38 amI said it before and I’ll say it again. The NIE report is political feces. All you have here is a couple of State Dept weenies with an ax to grind against GW. It is poorly written and concludes nothing.
The whole report has been shot-down by every western intel agency because the report is a jive-ass piece of shit.
The Israelis and anyone else in-the-know are well aware that the Iraniac nuke program has been moved to a more secure location and buried deep underground.
The work goes on. The time to strike that program is getting near. Who will have the testicular membrane to do the job? Us or the IDF?
If you see any large transfers of 15-ton penetrator bombs to the IDF anytime soon, that’ll be the signal that the IDF has been given the task.
Of course that would presuppose that Ohmert wakes up from his delluded Oz-like existence and decides to get real for a change.
December 16th, 2007 at 7:19 amExposure to the TRUTH # 1,986,349,227,669,472 about lefties that nobody will listen to:
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Their ginned up report will just cost more lives in their quest for “Peace in our time.”
December 16th, 2007 at 8:48 am