Israel Challenges NIE Report On Iran

The Israelis are going to give NIE a run for its money.

Disappointed after failing to make their case on Iran and influence the outcome of the United States's National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released this week, [Israel's] Military Intelligence will present its hard core evidence on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program on Sunday to the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff during a rare visit he will be making to Israel. ...

[Admiral Michael] Mullen's visit to Israel will be exactly a week after the publication of the NIE report that claimed Iran had frozen its nuclear military program in 2003 and has yet to restart it. During his visit, Military Intelligence plans to present him with Israel's evidence that Iran is in fact developing nuclear weapons.

"The report clearly shows that we did not succeed in making our case over the past year in the run-up to this report," a defense official said Thursday. "Mullen's visit is an opportunity to try and fix that." (JPost)

They've got a challenge ahead of them because Mullen is dovish on military action against Iran, according to Time:

[The NIE] meshes with the views of the operational types at the Pentagon, who have steadfastly resisted the march to war led by some Administration hawks. The anti-war group was composed of Defense Secretary Robert Gates; Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs; and Admiral William Fallon, who oversees the U.S. forces that would have had to wage that war.

On the Israelis' side is a superior network of intelligence sources and their recent victorious declassification by bombs of Syria's supposedly nonexistent nuclear program.

Going against them is the perception that Israel will go to any length to defuse the Iranian threat against them annunciated by Mah- I'm in the -moud for Jew blood Ahmadinejad (rhymes with "Mosad swells my glands").

We won't know what intelligence the Israelis share with Mullen, since the Israel military is not leak-prone like our CIA and State Department. But if they've got good dope, we'll know it soon enough from the tenor of the Pentagon's and White House's positions on Iran's nuclear program.