There's Still Time to Rethink Iran
By Ray McGovern
The Miami Herald

Friday 09 March 2007

More than five years have passed since President Bush labeled Iraq, Iran and North Korea the "axis of evil." It is imperative that we try to piece together what role U.S. intelligence played in supporting the "axis" idea and the misguided policies and actions that ensued.

For the "axis of evil" sobriquet morphed into axes for grinding by accomplices like then-CIA Director George Tenet, and the pandering was consequential. Here is the "axis" part of Bush's State of the Union address on Jan. 29, 2002:

"North Korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction.... Iran aggressively pursues these weapons.... The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for over a decade.... States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil ... posing a grave and growing danger.... I will not wait on events ..."

Nor, apparently, wait on good intelligence, either.

It used to be that presidents made decisions based, at least in part, on the judgments of the intelligence community. It was a shock to see that process stood on its head, with the president asserting a "grave and growing danger" and then telling functionaries like Tenet to conjure up the "intelligence" to support his rhetorical flourishes. We are talking about untruths with tragic consequences...
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