Best defense

Looks like the White House has wasted no time in launching a counter-offensive to combat efforts to find out the truth about Iran's supposed efforts to build nuclear weapons. A former high-ranking U.S. diplomat reportedly told a magazine yesterday that the revised National Intelligence Estimate issued Monday that indicated Iran had stopped its nuclear arms program four years ago was politically motivated. "This is politics disguised as intelligence," White House insider John Bolton told the German magazine Der Spiegel in an interview to be published next week, according to the Reuters international news service. Bolton, who along with President Bush has been outspoken about the alleged Iranian threat, said U.S. intelligence agencies were trying to influence policy by not providing up-to-date information about Tehran's intentions. Deputy Director of National Intelligence Donald Kerr defended the revised report, saying the assessment was "objective." Bush has threatened force to block Iran's nuclear pursuits, and Bolton has criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency for saying it could not find proof that Iran was trying to build a nuclear bomb. Then again, the reputation of U.S. intelligence agencies has yet to recover from their incorrect assessment that Iraq possessed nuclear weapons, which was used to justify the Iraq war.