I The Behrend Beacon
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Penn State Erie.
The Behrend College
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THE BEHREND 4701 College Drive, Erie PA 16563
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FOUNDED IN 1948
Same old tricks with intelligence report on Iran
actively pursuing nuclear weapons the administration sang a
different tune. President Bush quickly seized on the previous,
and now disproven, 2005 NIE to rally support for using an
increasingly belligerent posture towards Iran.
The federal government released its latest National
This is just the latest attempt by the White House to fit
Intelligence Estimate on Iran last week. The unclassified por
intelligence contradicting its stance on international issues to
lion, approximately nine pages long, estimated that Iran
conform to its preconceived notions of the way the world
stopped doing research on the production of nuclear weapons
works; it did the same thing with
in the fall of 2003. According to the
intelligence in Iraq.
report, Iran stopped its "nuclear We assess with high confidence
Maybe now democrats and oth
weapon design and weaponization that until fall 2003, Iranian military ers pushing for a more diplomatic
work and covert uranium conver
sion-related and uranium enrich- entities were working under gov-
approach in opening up Iran could
use this report to justify their
ment-related work." ernment direction to develop stance. This assumption of mine
This contradicts a previous
may be little more than wishful
report from 2005 that estimated nuclear weapons.
thinking because it is not entirely
Iran had been actively pursuing the
clear if congress members read
capability to detonate a nuclear
these reports to base their deci
weapon. Now intelligence officials - National Intelligene Estimate
sions. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D
-admit that certain inaccuracies November 2007 w.v.) the vice-chairman of the
existed in its previous estimation of
Senate Intelligence Committee in
Iran's capability and desire to produce nuclear weapons.
the fall of 2002, said that only six Senators read the NIE
In the days following the releases of the NIE report the
report on the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction by
neoconservative machine went into spin cycle trying to undo
Saddam Hussein before they gave Bush the O.K. to go to war,
the damage caused by the report. This NIE undercuts
perhaps one of the most important actions taken by
the case for attack
'ration. If they had read
House, including
Cheney, have bel 'e noticed some of its
caveats in
to procet in its judg
press conference Iraq's attempt to
itute its nuclear
the release of the
tons program. For
the National Se ,
Advisorimple it stated that the
St(
y, said "It cc elligence community
Hadle
tack(edi persuasive
firms that we \Nei
right to he worrier evidence that
about Iran seeking Baghdad has
to develop nuclear launched a coherent
effort to reconsti
weapons. It tells
tute its nuclear
us that we have
made progress in
By Christopher Brown
Opinion editor
ctnhs3 I 3(0 psu.edu
trying to ensure
that this does not
happen
However. th
statement misses t
point of the n
recent NlE...the
one was corn
wrong about Iran
tion and capability
nuclear weapons
White House assu
intelligence esti ma
It is interesting to see how quick the administra
tion discounts intelligence reports or facts that do not fit into
its plans. Hadley discounted the recent estimate when asked
about it and said, "Iran is one of a handful of the hardest intel
ligence targets going. They are very good at this business of
keeping secrets. - But in 2005. when the NIE said Iran was
Quote of the Week
"Perhaps I made a mistake in the timing of my
proposals, that could be, that we are not polit
ically mature enough."
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on the
defeat of his referendum to change the consti
tution
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- Canceled classes
- PennDOT for clearing roads
- Holiday cookies
- Parental unit care packages
Executive Board
Christopher LaFuria, Editor in Chill
Mike Sharkey. Co -Editor in Chief
Tiffany Flynn. Advertising Manager
Kim Young, Faculty Adviser
the world of interna
tional espionage. Hadley may be correct, it is very difficult to
gain reliable knowledge in Iran, but now if the administration
would admit that when the facts point the other direction,
they cannot have it both ways. Intelligence is not accurate
only when it is politically convenient.
- Power outages
- Flatulence
- Bad snow drivers
- Black ice
[l\fi CJI\I
Editorial Staff
Lenny Smith, News Editor
Matt Schawenbauer, asst. News Editor
Chris Brown, Opinion Editor
Andrew McLachlan. Sports Editor
Matt Waronker. Sports Editor
Scott Muska, Student Life Editor
Ryan P. Gallagher, Student Life Editor
Janet Niedenberger, Head Copy Editor
Mike Sharkey, Humor/Photography Editor
Jennifer Juncosa, Copy Editor
Rachel Reeves. Copy Editor
Evan Koser, Entertainment Editor
Connor Sattely, Entertainment Editor
weapons program. -
Unfortunately they
didn't...and my fel
low classmates
always thought doing
he assigned reading
asn't all that impor-
flaps the bigger point
made with this latest
Ice finding is the fact
ence can be wrong.
gence Estimates are
. Educated guesses at
Where has the Christmas
spirit gone?
By Aeriale Cooksey-Kramer
staff w Titer
aaks I l/1 psu.edu
While at the mall with friends
this weekend. I got the
chance to people-watch, and
being a writer, what better aspect of
life is there while waiting in line to
buy a gift or a pretzel? So while shop
ping and meandering around the busy
mall on Saturday, that's exactly what I
did.
My eyes lingered as a middle-aged
man sat on a bench, his stare as blank
as the non-existent expression on his
face, as a woman held her three-year
old tightly by the hand, not bothering
to look hack to make sure the child's
feet weren't off the ground. I wit
nessed parents in line waiting to get
their kids' picture taken with Santa,
yelling at them to behave and quit call
ing each other names, or else Santa
wouldn't bring them any toys this year.
As I recall those people in the mall
that Saturday morning. I now to see the same patterns as I did at the
know what was missing from our mall: complaints about the snowy
silent encounters. Spirit, or to be more weather, tense arguments between
precise
Christmas Call me a silly optimist , and a spread
and friends,
spirit. The
man sitting but goodness people, ing unhappi
sadly on the ness in gen
bench seemed where has the spirit gone? eral. Talk
about spirit.
As for me, I
The woman hauling her child through
the crowd was grimacing, as if she
couldn't wait to hand the kid off to her
father. The parents standing in line
waiting for that picture with Santa
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Friday, December 7, 2007
were arguing. yelling at their kids'
behavior, not at all joyous to be cele
brating that moment with each other. I
was half-tempted to tell them that next
year. the kids probably won't believe
in Santa anymore and will be too cool
to get their picture taken with him,
anyway. That will be their loss.
Call me a silly optimist, but good
ness people, where has the spirit gone?
We are down to about three weeks
before the glorious holiday; the one
where nowadays, smiles are scarce and
family is becoming such a burden.
The purpose of Christmas is to love,
to share, to smile, to laugh with those
around you. To show an ounce of
friendliness to that person who looks
too sad to smile, to lend a hand to
those in need. So often do we push
people away, arguing, getting under
each other's skin because we can dur
ing this holiday season that it becomes
such a hassle to celebrate. What have
we, as a country, come to?
As I look around this ca
plan to bundle up in my heavy winter
coat and my favorite hat, walk to class
in the blustery winter wind, and I
might even smile at the people passing
me by. I'm not going to complain
about the snow because I'm a
Floridian who's still new to any weath
er below 50 degrees. I'm the kind of
person who wakes up at eight in the
morning, starry-eyed by this white
fluff, and walk to class catching
snowflakes on my tongue. This season
only lasts for a little while, so why not
break out the cafeteria trays while
there is snow to celebrate in, forget
about upcoming finals for an hour, and
laugh with your friends while trying to
dodge the trees on the way down. Be
merry, because there is surely so much
to be merry about.
s, I tend
roommates