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Seymour Hersh: Bush Told Olmert of NIE Two Days Before He Was Allegedly First Briefed on It [VIDEO]

Posted by Adam Howard, AlterNet at 5:17 PM on December 4, 2007.


The New Yorker journalist's revelation provides evidence that the Bush administration is misleading about when it first learned that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program.
Seymour Hersh on Iran Revelations, Bush Admin.

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This summary comes from Think Progress

Yesterday, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters that President Bush was first briefed on the National Intelligence Estimate's conclusions on Wednesday, Nov. 28.

But today in an interview with CNN, Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker's Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist, revealed that Bush actually knew about the NIE at least two days earlier and had a "private discussion" about it with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert before the Middle East peace summit in Annapolis, MD, last week:

Israel objects to this report. I'm told that Olmert had a private discussion with Bush about it during Annapolis -- before Annapolis. Bush briefed him about it. The Israelis were very upset about the report. They think we're naive, they don't think we get it right. And so they have a different point of view.

Watch the video to your right.

Bush had two meetings with Olmert -- one on Monday, Nov. 26, and one on Wednesday, Nov. 28. But as Hersh makes clear, Bush discussed the NIE with Olmert at the first meeting before the conference, on Nov. 26 -- two days before Hadley alleged that Bush first was briefed on the report. This revelation provides evidence that the Bush administration is misleading about when it first learned that Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program.

UPDATE: Last night on NBC News, Brian Williams reported, "[D]uring last week's Middle East peace conference where so much of the talk was centered around the Iran threat, US intelligence officials had information indicating they knew better, and the administration said so today."

Digg!

Tagged as: iran, bush, hersh, nuclear weapons, olmert, nie

Adam Howard is the editor of PEEK.


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Israel
Posted by: Unbowed on Dec 4, 2007 8:01 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I want America to be free of this yoke which is Israel. Blind support for a supremely arrogant oddly fascist state has cost us so much, and I for one, don't think the patch of sand worth it by any stretch of the imagination. I have no Axe to grind with Jews. I am sick to death of Israel. Israel was given this patch of land which belonged to someone else. All very nice for them, but the people who were disenfranchised do not want to let them keep it. Go figure. And Israel is our great ally and we give them millions and millions a year for what? Funny how if we did not back them so blindly in all their folly and corruption we would also not need them as an ally in the middle east. We would not be the hated backer the little bully who uses Palestine as its cheep labor pool, and would not be in this war and growing backlash of Islamic Extremist insanity.

The Palestinians are abused mistreated and have few voices to speak for them. It seems they will not be ignored year after unfair year.I hate terrorism. I also see that they resorted to it out of desperation.

I don't think I have heard my country ever say no to Israel. It should have. But it does not. Year after year and on and on. This weight we carry. And for what. So we can have an ally against those who might love us if we were not backing Israel. Funny. Not the ha ha kind.

Sure Israel. Exist. But not on my dime. And not if you are wrong and a war monger. The "sad to say" greedy expansion "grabbing of more and more land" is not smart and certainly is not in our interest"the USA", and we seem to be the big looser in the little game of lets steal the real estate. Just saying. Come on. Take Montana. Be happy. I wish I could give it to you and we could stop this stupid never ending war against the wronged party.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: Israel Posted by: bomec
» RE: Israel Posted by: alternetrose
OMG! You mean Bush lied?
Posted by: UnEasyOne on Dec 4, 2007 8:42 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
What a shock.

Thank heaven for this NIE.

Aren't we lucky that our leading Democratic contender got suckered - again - by the liar-in-chief when she voted to declare the Kuds force a terrorist organization.

Of course, that unprecedented vote when sabers are being rattled daily over Iran's nuclear program had nothing to do with enabling another first strike. That would only be true if we had a president who claimed that his Commander in Chief powers were virtually unlimited.

No problem.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Where to direct your outrage
Posted by: Wexler on Dec 5, 2007 5:09 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If you find this business to be outrageous, and it is, then you need to find the right target for your wrath.

The fact that the Bushies have been holding up the NIE because it contained information unfavorable to their Iran scenario has been available to anyone paying attention for over a year.

That's right, OVER A YEAR.

Now everyone is acting surprised about it and the Bushies are offering up the worst excuse since "The dog ate my homework" and they STILL seem to be getting a free pass.

If we want to prevent this from happening we need to have journalists who are willing to risk it all to nail down the facts and do what seems to be unthinkable.... tell the American people that the Bush Administration is based on a pack of lies. And, here's the proof...

Whose fault is it? Surely some of it belongs to the liars themselves. But they have become accustomed to lying and getting away with it. Not only getting away with it, but having their lies repeated and amplified by a corporation media system that has economic reasons to function as a de facto Ministry of Propaganda for the White House.

If you want this fixed, demand to know why most reporters from the commercial press passed on the opportunity to ask the Bushies about the NIE for over a year. Find that answer, because it's key to the solution.

-Wexler

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Israel, shmisrael
Posted by: thekidde on Dec 5, 2007 8:22 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
the Palestinians have had ample opportunity to have a "state". What I see are a bunch of unemployed, lazy-ass arab Palestinians sitting around on their asses making trouble. Get a fucking job - oh, you don't have anything to make a job with? Why - like too much of the Arab world, the men are supposed to sit around, pray five times a day, and piss and moan about how bad they have it. Fuck them and their sexist, Muslim crap. Get a life - yeah, Israel too. There is no fucking magic dude up in the clouds who is choosing anybody over anybody else. This is it - life is not a dress rehearsal so get on with it and be a human being not some suck up to mythology with assholes who ride to heaven on a horse, part the waters, or "die for all of our sins". What crap.

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» RE: Israel, shmisrael Posted by: Unbowed
» what you see Posted by: Unbowed
» Thanks JG Posted by: Unbowed
» RE: Israel, shmisrael Posted by: Lauren
N.I.E.
Posted by: poppaphil on Dec 5, 2007 12:16 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Who you gonna believe--the N. I. E. or President Bush? Actually, it wouldn't be a great surprise if America goes to war with Iran in order to help out Bush's friends, the Saudis.

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