The President has been disowning the Iran NIE in private. Now he appears to have taken his objections public, in a roundtable with reporters today in Saudi Arabia.
Bush was asked about the substance of his discussions with King Abdullah:
THE PRESIDENT: . . . We did spend time on Iran. The interesting issue on Iran is the effect of the NIE. And I went over the NIE with him.
I assured him that our intelligence services came to an independent judgment. I reminded him of what I said at my press conference when we got involved with that story: they were a threat, they are a threat, and they will be a threat if we don’t work together to stop their enrichment. So we spent a fair amount of time on Iran. I have spent a fair amount of time on Iran in every stop.
…
Q Just a couple quick follow ups on Iran. On the NIE, did you — were you, in effect, distancing yourself from the conclusions of the NIE, and these guys —
THE PRESIDENT: No, I was making it clear it was an independent judgment, because what they basically came to the conclusion of, is that he’s trying — you know, this is a way to make sure that all options aren’t on the table. So I defended our intelligence services, but made it clear that they’re an independent agency; that they come to conclusions separate from what I may or may not want.
I suppose he stops short of outright disowning the NIE in those comments. But the NIE is clearly getting in the way of him reassuring the nervous Saudis that his Iran policy has not changed. What a nuisance.
