And you didn't ask?

During his press conference today, President Bush actually accused his intelligence chief of keeping him in the dark about the true nature of Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Bush says he did not learn until last week about the latest NIE which concludes that Iran halted efforts to develop a nuclear weapon in 2003, and has not resumed those efforts.

In August, I think it was Mike McConnell came in and said, we have some new information. He didn't tell me what the information was; he did tell me it was going to take a while to analyze. Why would you take time to analyze new information? One, you want to make sure it's not disinformation. You want to make sure the piece of intelligence you have is real. And secondly, they want to make sure they understand the intelligence they gathered: If they think it's real, then what does it mean? And it wasn't until last week that I was briefed on the NIE that is now public.

So, in August, McConnell said to Bush that there was new information about Iraq's supposed nuclear weapons program, and that it required further analysis. McConnell did not tell Bush what this information was... and Bush did not ask.

Meanwhile, that very month, Bush delivered a speech making explicit military threats toward Iran.

George W Bush used his most inflammatory language so far towards Iran's Islamic regime, warning that letting Teheran acquire atomic weapons risked putting the Middle East "under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust".

In a speech to US war veterans designed to shore up support for the unpopular war in Iraq and his policy in the Middle East, he said that Iran posed a danger to the whole world by pursuing nuclear weapons and supporting Islamic extremists in other countries.

"Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust," he said.

The president told the American Legion's annual convention in Reno, Nevada that he had "authorized our military commanders" to confront "Iran's murderous activities".

He added: "We will confront this danger before it is too late".

It is highly disturbing to think that the Director of National Intelligence would keep from the president information that relates specifically to threats of military action against another country. That he would allow the president to continue making such threats in ignorance constitutes malfeasance of the highest order. The consequences of such negligence, up to and including the intitiation of armed hostilities, are self-evident. Mike McConnell should be relieved of his duties immediately.

Unfortunately, there is no solution for President Bush's complete lack of curiosity about "new information" to which McConnel alluded, and about which Bush did not even bother to ask.

Of course, the other possibility is that Bush has known all along that Iran is nowhere close to getting a nuclear weapon; that he knows his warmongering is completely without merit; and that he is just a degenerate liar.

Either way, January 20, 2009, can't get here soon enough.