When the National Intelligence Estimate announced that, “We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons pro­gram,” it was the lead story ^[1] in the nation’s biggest ^[2] newspapers ^[3]. But following congressional testimony from Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell that only the “least significant ^[4]” parts of Iran’s nuclear program had been halted, the nation’s paper’s either did not ^[5] mention ^[6] Iran’s nuclear threat, or buried it ^[7] deep in the story ^[8].

McConnell’s retreat ^[9] on the NIE’s conclusions validates many of the exact criticisms leveled against the report ^[10]. Specifically McConnell admitted ^[11]:

• “Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons.”
• “Iranian entities are continuing to develop a range of technical capabilities that could be applied to producing nuclear weapons.”
• “Iran continues to deploy ballistic missiles inherently capable of delivering nuclear weapons, and to develop longer-range missiles.”
• “Only an Iranian political decision to abandon a nuclear weapons objective would plausibly keep Iran from eventually producing nuclear weapons.”
• “We judge with moderate confidence Iran probably would be technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon sometime during the 2010-2015 time frame.”

The original distorted NIE conclusions, and the disproportionate share of media coverage it received compared to McConnell’s much needed corrective, underscores the need for the de-politicization of NIEs. Writing in the Wall Street Journal ^[12], former US Representative to the UN John Bolton recommends McConnell: 1) explain how the NIE was distorted, and rewrite it objectively to reflect the status of Iran’s nuclear programs; 2) commit that NIEs will abjure policy bias; 3) reaffirm the existing policy that NIE key judgments should not be made public. Then, stick to it and enforce discipline against leaks.

Quick Hits:

• Gay activists ^[13] plan to introduce a bill in the Maryland General Assembly to ban all civil marriages ^[13]. The legislation would replace the word “marriage” with “valid domestic partnership” in the state’s family law code.
• The price tag on the Senate’s stimulus deficit spending fest ^[14] is now up to $204 billion.
• Iran is angry with India ^[15] for launching an Israeli spy satellite a few weeks ago.
• Defying MoveOn.org, Hillary Clinton has agreed to debate Barack Obama on Fox News ^[16].
• Two Berkeley city councilwomen are trying to rescind a city-approved policy that calls Marines “uninvited and unwelcome intruders” in the city ^[17]. The councilwoman only want to retract the city’s rhetoric; they still want to keep the new anti-Marine policies including an investigation into whether the Marines violate city laws banning discrimination based on sexual orientation; and giving the protest group Code Pink a free weekly parking space and sound permit to protest in front of the Shattuck Avenue recruiting station.