Bolton: ‘Pressure’ Is On Israel To Strike Iran Because NIE Made U.S. Attack ‘Highly Unlikely’

[laststeamtrain]

Bolton: ‘Pressure’ Is On Israel To Strike Iran Because NIE Made U.S. Attack ‘Highly Unlikely’

In December, after the new NIE on Iran was released, former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton established himself as one of the top hawks trying to undermine its credibility, going so far as to call for a congressional witch-hunt into anti-Bush “people in the intelligence community.”

<snip>

On Monday, Bolton said that the NIE put “pressure” on Israel to strike Iran because “the likelihood of American use of force has been dramatically reduced”:

“One can say with some assurance that in the next year the use of force by the United States is highly unlikely,” Bolton told AFP on the sidelines of the Herzliya conference on the balance of Israel’s national security.

“That increases the pressure on Israel in that period of time… if it feels Iran is on the verge of acquiring that capability, it brings the decision point home to use force,” he said.

<snip>

Asked about Bolton’s comments today, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice refused to refute him, only saying that Bolton is “a private citizen”:

QUESTION: (Inaudible) on Israel and he basically told us (inaudible) because they said the Bush administration (inaudible).

RICE: John Bolton is a private citizen. He can say what he wants.

<more>

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/22/bolton-israel-iran/

[niyad]

1. KO reported yesterday that yosemite bolton was whining about the "illegally politicized" NIE

and how it wasn't actually done by the intelligence community, but by the state department.

what a worthless POS.

[laststeamtrain]

5. Yeah. I started a thread about it yesterday. He's soooo nutty.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2737007&mesg_id=2737007

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." Isaac Asimov

[TwilightGardener]

3. Somebody's gotta bomb SOMEBODY, goddammit!! People are starting

to notice the shitty economy--World War Three can't start soon enough!

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Yes, that's why Bush and Condi made their little trip.

[mmonk]

6. Kill, kill, kill. That's all these people think about besides money.