Truthiness Goes Nucular

The WaPo reports today that Rethuglicans continue to put politics before the truth, issuing a report on Iran's nuclear capabilities that the IAEA calls "outrageous and dishonest". The report, written by a single GOP staffer and released before it could even be voted on by the House intelligence committee, contains claims about Iran's nuclear program that intelligence officials acknowledge cannot be supported.

Privately, several intelligence officials said the committee report included at least a dozen claims that were either demonstrably wrong or impossible to substantiate. Hoekstra's office said the report was reviewed by the office of John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence.

Negroponte's spokesman, John Callahan, said in a statement that his office "reviewed the report and provided its response to the committee on July 24, '06." He did not say whether it had approved or challenged any of the claims about Iran's capabilities.

"This is like prewar Iraq all over again," said David Albright, a former nuclear inspector who is president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. "You have an Iranian nuclear threat that is spun up, using bad information that's cherry-picked and a report that trashes the inspectors."

The committee report, written by a single Republican staffer with a hard-line position on Iran, chastised the CIA and other agencies for not providing evidence to back assertions that Iran is building nuclear weapons.

Wow, talk about the tail wagging the dog.

If anyone has forgotten "the lessons of 9/11," it's Republicans who value political advantage over policy based on solid intelligence. The lack of shame and decency prevailing in the majority party is simply staggering.