White House: No Comment on New NIE on Iran

White House spokesman Jay Carney said today he could not “comment on intelligence matters or intelligence reports the president may or may not have received.” Carney made the comments in response to questions about the existence on a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran’s nuclear program, as reported by Israeli daily Haaretz and confirmed by Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

Earlier today, Barak had confirmed Haaretz's report that President Obama recently received a new NIE on the Iranian nuclear program, which shares Israel's view that Iran has made significant progress toward military nuclear capability, bringing the U.S. position on the matter closer to that of Israel and raising the urgency of the issue. (Haaretz, 9 August).

Ehud Barak Says U.S. Has New Intelligence on Iran in Line with Israel's

Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak “confirmed” a report published by Haaretz that the U.S. has new intelligence that changes the American assessment of the imminent danger represented by Iran's nuclear program, bringing its views closer to those held by Israel. Haaretz published Barak’s comments today.

"As far as we know it brings the American assessment much closer to ours ... it makes the Iranian issue even more urgent and (shows it is) less clear and certain that we will know everything in time about their steady progress toward military nuclear capability," Barak said. (CBS News, 9 August)

(Please see a related post below)