Nation Wants a New Direction

Perino: "Again, I said he has complete confidence in the intelligence community."

Fred Kaplan writes for Slate: "For the president of the United States to wave away the whole document . . . is gratuitous and self-destructive.

"Then again, such behavior is of a piece with the pattern of relations between President Bush and his intelligence agencies. In September 2004, when he was asked about a pessimistic CIA report on the course of the occupation in Iraq, Bush replied that the agency was 'just guessing.'"

Kaplan sees all sorts of irony in the present situation. "In decades past, the CIA has often lost credibility as a result of its own failures and scandals. Now President Bush is splashing doubt not just on the CIA, but on all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, simply because their judgments are out of synch with his policies."

Then there's the fact that "this NIE is the product of reforms that President Bush himself signed into law -- the creation of a director of national intelligence and various other procedural changes -- designed to keep intelligence analysis free of political interference."

Kaplan writes that Bush's reaction "can't help but demoralize the intelligence community." And it also "reinforces the widespread view that the president views intelligence strictly as a political tool: When it backs up his policies, it's as good as gold; when it doesn't, it's 'just guessing.' This result is that all intelligence is degraded and devalued, at home and abroad."

Bush and the Saudis

Michael Abramowitz writes in The Washington Post: "President Bush on Monday launched a rare round of intensive personal diplomacy with Saudi King Abdullah aimed at winning support for a variety of American objectives such as rebuilding Iraq, pressuring Iran, fighting al-Qaeda and backing the U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

"Some diplomats and experts with close ties to the administration say meeting with Abdullah has been the main purpose of the president's trip to the region. . . .

"Saudi officials have sounded a skeptical note recently about Bush's drive for more diplomatic and financial pressure on Iran, which the president has emphasized almost daily on his swing through the Middle East. . . .

"One reason for the greater Saudi independence, according to former U.S. diplomats and other experts who deal closely with the kingdom, is that the Saudis have begun to doubt American competence and are looking to forge their own relations with rising powers such as China and regional rivals including Iran.' . . .

"While publicly polite, the Saudi king and other leading figures also see the incumbent U.S. president as a disappointment -- certainly compared with his father, George H.W. Bush, a close friend and former oilman who was lionized here for his handling of the Persian Gulf War. By contrast, former officials and others close to the royal family say, Saudi royals believe Bush has handled issues such as Iran, Iraq and Middle East peace ineptly."

Terence Hunt and Anne Gearan write for the Associated Press: "President Bush urged OPEC nations on Tuesday to put more oil on the world market and warned that soaring prices could cause an economic slowdown in the United States.