[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23317]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          CONTRADICTING INTELLIGENCE ON IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM

  (Mr. KIRK asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KIRK. The United States revealed a secret underground uranium 
enrichment facility near Qom, Iran. U.S. officials told us they were 
carefully observing it for ``several years.'' But earlier this year, 
the Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, provided written 
congressional testimony that the intelligence community has ``no 
evidence that Iran has yet made a decision to produce highly enriched 
uranium.''
  There is a glaring contradiction between the administration's 
revelation and Blair's testimony. I urge Members to cosign the 
bipartisan Kirk-Berkley letter calling on Director Blair to account for 
contradictory testimony on the growing Iranian threat.
  The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran downplaying the 
threat now appears to be a glaring Intelligence failure. According to 
the Wall Street Journal, the main authors of that NIE, Van Van Diepen, 
Tom Finger, and Ken Brill, should be accountable, too.
  Congress should ensure that key officials get this right, especially 
on Iran.

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