A Matter of Timing

My hunch is that it's no accident that the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran has been released at this time. We mere citizens don't know everything that's going on behind the curtain, but it makes sense to presume that this report, which concludes that Iran has actually slowed its drive for nuclear weapons, is meant to counter forces pushing for war or punitive action against the Islamic Republic. The BBC article mentions a fact already well known, that Vice President Cheney has advocated war, but we don't really know how much influence he has on the President at this point. The report, while it still warns about the Iranians' work with enhanced uranium, is clearly meant to downplay the immediacy of any purported Iranian threat. We'll get a better sense of the struggle that may be going on once the neocon pundits and their legislative fellow travellers begin to comment on the report.