Key Judgements, Oct. 2002 NIE.

Editor,

"Key Judgments" in the October, 2002, NIE clearly states, in a box labeled "State/INR Alternative View of Iraq's Nuclear Program":

"The Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research (INR) believes that Saddam continues to want nuclear weapons and that available evidence indicates that Baghdad is pursuing at least a limited effort to maintain and acquire nuclear weapons-related capabilities. The activities we have detected do not, however, add up to a compelling case that Iraq is currently pursuing what INR would consider to be an integrated and comprehensive approach to acquire nuclear weapons."

George Bush cherry picked the NIE for judgments supporting his claim that Iraq was pursuing nuclear weapons, and he assiduously withheld judgments that contradicted his claims. This is the behavior of a person determined to mislead a nation into believing his excuses to launch a war. This is not the behavior of a person responsibly weighing all of the evidence in keeping with his solemn duty not to unleash the horrors of war unless doing so is impossible to avoid.