White House spokesman Jay Carney said today he could not “comment on
intelligence matters or intelligence reports the president may or may not have
received.” Carney made the comments in response to questions about the
existence on a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear
program, as reported by Israeli daily Haaretz and confirmed by Defense Minister
Ehud Barak.
Earlier today, Barak had confirmed Haaretz's report that President Obama
recently received a new NIE on the Iranian nuclear program, which shares
Israel's view that Iran has made significant progress toward military nuclear
capability, bringing the U.S. position on the matter closer to that of Israel
and raising the urgency of the issue. (Haaretz, 9 August).
The fact that we get this news from haaretz (with the white house having no comments) shows how close we maybe to an actual attack.
ReplyDeleteAnytime we see media leaks designed to justify a military action, by definition that makes the military action more imminent.
Jabber,
ReplyDeleteI've seen similar media leaks like this in the past six years or so, and yet none of them has ever materialized into military action. What makes you think this leak is any different than before?
And, oh, by the way, the U.S. has disputed Haaretz's report:
U.S. still believes Iran not on verge of nuclear weapon
So it's safe to say that the U.S. had not changed its stance vis-à-vis Iran.
The markets certainly share that view. Oil is up again...and the losers are you and me...trying to make a living.
ReplyDeleteUsually when such news is leaked it is intended to have one purpose...to affect the markets (in this case oil markets) which have secondary and tertiary impact on economy. Sort of test out the health of the markets and economy by injecting new stimuli.
It also helps the rich stay rich. Primarily, such people would get this information well in advance and by virtue of time, and bypass the insider trading time requirements by investing large sums in a particular industry which will be impacted by political decisions.
Anyway, my point is that we should not mistake this as drums of ware. It is probably not going to happen, especially in time of elections and the fragile state of the world economy.
Exactly. Israelis have been running their mouths about an imminent attack for at least six years. Jabbar as usual does not know what he is talking about.
ReplyDeleteBoth the U.S. and its master, Israel, have been 'longing' of attacking the sovereign state of IRAN long ago for 33 long years since the victory of the Islamic Revolution back in 1979. It is no doubt that IRAN is a regional superpower and the most powerful nation, militarily, in the whole region of the Middle East as has been described and stated by those local, foreign and western military defense experts and analysts, previously and currently. As a matter of fact, IRAN, even without possession of a single nuclear weapon, not only quite strong but instead, is too strong to be taken out, militarily, by any nation or nations of the world even the U.S. itself, not to mention Israel. What cowardly nuclear-armed states of the U.S. and Israel! Could one imagine what if Iran is one of those nuclear-armed states?
ReplyDeletemat sez------" As a matter of fact, IRAN, even without possession of a single nuclear weapon, not only quite strong but instead, is too strong to be taken out, militarily, by any nation or nations of the world even the U.S. itself...."-----
ReplyDeletefools and braying donkeys spouting such sad stupidity as this will see Iran's military, oil fields, power plants and bridges in flames and ashes and declare that Iran won the mother of all victories.
@anon 10.57
ReplyDeleteI agree that the US has no reason to change its policy, however leaks like this, by the Israelis, only serve to prepare the Israeli public and the west for an attack by providing ongoing justifications.
In other words the media Leak partners indicate that Israel is going forward with the attack, but obviously neither of us can know for sure.
As far as the US denying, it really doesn't matter as they would deny anything revealing policy and intelegence secrets if it didn't come from the white house itself.