Huckabee not aware of NIE report on Iran

#1
CSpindizzy

CSpindizzy

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#1
This doesn't bode well for Huck. He now looks great on charm but hollow on substance:

Huckabee not aware of NIE report on Iran


My colleague David Paul Kuhn attended an on-the-record dinner with Mike Huckabee and a group of reporters tonight in Des Moines.

The transcript speaks for itself:
Kuhn: I don’t know to what extent you have been briefed or been able to take a look at the NIE report that came out yesterday ...

Huckabee: I’m sorry?

Kuhn: The NIE report, the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. Have you been briefed or been able to take a look at it —

Huckabee: No.

Kuhn: Have you heard of the finding?

Huckabee: No.

Kuhn then summarized the NIE finding that Iran had stopped work on a clandestine nuclear program four years ago and asked if it “adjusts your view on Iran in any sense."

Kuhn: What is your concern on Iran as of now?

Huckabee: I’ve a serious concern if they were to be able to weaponize nuclear material, and I think we all should, mainly because the statements of Ahmadinejad are certainly not conducive to a peaceful purpose for his having it and the fear that he would in fact weaponize it and use it. (He pauses and thinks) I don’t know where the intelligence is coming from that says they have suspended the program or how credible that is versus the view that they actually are expanding it. … And I’ve heard, the last two weeks, supposed reports that they are accelerating it and it could be having a reactor in a much shorter period of time than originally been thought.

Kuhn: Does the United States face a higher burden of proof on Iran in light of Iraq, in the international community?

Huckabee: Probably so. First time I’ve been asked a question like that. But I think probably so because there is going to be a real anxiety for us to take any type of action without there being some very credible and almost irrefutable intelligence to validate our decision.

Kuhn: And then on the flip side of that. a conservative concern might be, does the United States, might they hedge, might they be timid from taking necessary aggressive action due to the failures of intelligence on Iraq, and our failures in Iraq itself?

Huckabee: I think that’s a possibility as well. And that would be unfortunate if we actually knew we needed to take action but were fearful of doing so because of getting burned in the Iraq situation. That would be a serious challenge for us.​
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#2
#2
That sounded very weak. Granted, he got caught off guard. But he SHOULDN'T have been caught off guard over something like that.

It honestly sounds like he doesn't know what a NIE is, or that it is a compilation of all of our intelligence sources to draw a conclusion about a current threat. The fact that he says "I don't know where this intelligence is coming from ... or how credible that view is," seems to demonstrate a pretty huge lack of knowledge about a NIE.
 
#3
#3
Considering how important this issue is and the fact the NIE has been in the news all week shows his staff is not briefing him properly or he is not educating himself on the most important issues of the day. This does not look good for someone running in a party who foreign policy seems to be the only thing going for them of late.
 
#4
#4
Incredible . . . All he had to do was watch the news or read a newspaper sometime this week and he would have been able to answer the question.
 
#5
#5
GAVol said:
Incredible . . . All he had to do was watch the news or read a newspaper sometime this week and he would have been able to answer the question.
Click to expand...

I wonder if he really even listened to the question .... he would have to know what a National Intelligence Estimate is ... and it didn't see like he did. I hope that he was just caught very off guard.
 
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