Quote Originally Posted by Sean Osborne
The problem with this NIE seems to revolve around the fact that its primary composers have a significant political bias against the Bush Administration which was reflected in the document on the whole. As reported by the Wall Street Journal (Opinion Journal) and The Weekly Standard, one of those writers (Tom Fingar) stated exactly the opposite regarding the Iranian nuclear weapons program in July 2007.
And right up front the NIE states, "Tehran’s decision to halt its nuclear weapons program suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005. Our assessment that the program probably was halted primarily in response to international pressure suggests Iran may be more vulnerable to influence on the issue than we judged previously. Translation: we've been wrong in our assessments of intentions for at least two years..

Tom Fingar is an old Army MI guy, and a fellow linguist. I doubt that he permitted his personal political beliefs to contaminate his analysis - especially when that would be reflected in a high-profile national-level product. I'm not saying that there isn't any political twist to the NIE - but it isn't an anti-Bush conspiracy either.