US under pressure to rewrite NIE report on Iran

Policymakers in Israel and the West are pressuring the US into rewriting the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran, which concedes that the country does not seek nuclear weapons.

Quoting American secret agents, The Wall Street Journal revealed Friday that the US intelligence community is under a considerable amount of pressure to repudiate the 2007 NIE assessment, and instead pen a new report, which is more consistent with the policies of Israel and Western powers.

One intelligence official, who was speaking on conditions of anonymity, claimed that the spy community now has more information on Iran's uranium enrichment since two years ago.

"At some point in the near future, our analytic community is going to want to press the reset button on our judgments on intent and weaponization in light of Qom and other information we're receiving," he said.

Some of it "tracks precisely with what we've seen before," while other information "causes us to reassess what we've seen before," the official added.

Another US intelligence official noted that although officials were not "ready to declare the findings invalid," the fact that the previous report only covered the 2003-2007 timeframe, begs the need for a new assessment.

Citing the findings of more than 16 US spy agencies, the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate overturned earlier conclusions on Tehran's nuclear activities of two years ago, asserting with "high confidence" the non-diversion of Iran's nuclear program.

Israeli leaders reacted in shock and anger to the publication of the report, which disputed their long-standing claims of "an Iranian nuclear threat".

Tel Aviv, which reportedly houses an arsenal of 200 nuclear warheads, views Tehran's nuclear program as a mortal threat.

Israeli leaders have repeatedly threatened to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities out of existence, but the release of the report significantly weakened their drive for war.

This is while the Islamic Republic, since its establishment in 1979, has gone to war only once, to defend itself against an Iraqi offensive in 1980, whereas Israel has invaded Lebanon twice, bombed Syria and Iraq, and regularly bombed and attacked Gaza and other Palestinian areas at will.

The Israeli regime has also masterminded a wave of undercover operations and terror plots in numerous countries, including Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, Iran, Switzerland, and the US.