While Bush, Condi, Kristol, and even
Chris Mathews begin to push the Neo-Cons' case for pre-emptive war with Iran, a House Intelligence Committee staff report released yesterday describes "significant gaps in our knowledge and understanding of the various areas of concern about Iran." The dearth of intelligence is so severe that the report questions the ability of the United States to even engage effectively in talks with Tehran (
Reuters).
It has been reported that the Bush Administration's unmasking of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame significantly endangered US intelligence, national security, and the US' ability to fight nuclear proliferation in the Middle East. Even more damaging is that Plame "was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran" (Raw Story).
As the Bush White House makes its jingoist case to the American people about the desperate need for action against Iran, will the press discuss the administration's outing of Plame and the damage it has done to US intelligence on Iran? The lack of intelligence on Iran is the perfect example of why the frat-brat-in-chief should not have treated the outing of an agent as a fraternity prank, should never have
authorized the leak, and should hold accountable (as he promised) those in his administration involved, from Karl Rove to Dick Cheney.
(x-post at TheNextLeft)