And is there a follow-up question?

Four days ago, George W. Bush's National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley snuck another one by that somnolent lap dog known as "the working press."

The topic was the recent National Intelligence Estimate which found that Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons policy back in 2003, a finding which significantly undercuts the administration's heated rhetoric about the supposed threat of Iranian mushroom clouds. (Recall that the NIE is a consensus document of the nation's 16 intelligence agencies.)

At a press briefing during Bush's current Middle East trip, Hadley forcefully mouthed the White House line, saying that Bush believes that "Iran was a threat before the NIE, was a threat on the day the NIE was issued, and continues to be a threat after the NIE has been issued."

Put simply, the NIE didn't change Bush's perceptions one iota.

Do you see the teensy-weensy little logical problem here? If so, you're doing better than the press corpse, because the ladies and gentlemen of the 4th Estate totally dropped the ball. Again.

What the administration is really saying is that George W. Bush assumes he knows better than all the intelligence personnel in all of our intelligence agencies, that his gut is a better source of information than the multi-billion dollar intelligence community America has painfully developed.

Okay, so how does he know? Is he withholding information from the CIA, DIA, NSA, et al.? Or does he just know? Maybe a little bird told him? Or one of his neocon buddies, the same sorts of folks who got Iraq so terribly wrong? Or is he just blowing air, figuring that if he repeats a lie often enough, we'll believe it?

Or at least the press will. Again.

Don't confuse Bush with facts; his mind is already made up.

Note: this was originally posted on ketches, yaks & hawks 14 January 2008