Oh, and don't miss the last page, where the authors compare this assessment with that of 2005. In the left column, the 2005 assessment expresses "high confidence that Iran currently is determined to develop nuclear weapons..." Compare that with the 2007 assessment: "Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program."
In other words, in 2005 our best and brightest were assessing Iran's "state of mind," while this time around, they reported on what they believe the Iranians are actually doing. Why the difference?
I suspect that the 2005 estimate, or at least the published summary (the original of which I've been unable to locate on the ODNI site), was deliberately made as vague as possible in order to give the Bush administration lots of room to carry out an aggessive foreign policy against Iran...which is, of course, exactly what they've been doing.
Lately, however, things have been getting too hot, with U.S. warships having recently been loaded for bear with nuclear warheads and moved into the region. Fearing another disasterous foreign adventure that would further cripple our military (not to mention the Persian population), the brass finally worked up the huevos to push ODNI into getting the 2007 report out the door, with weasel words edited out.
Thanks, fellas. History will look very kindly on you.
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