Bush's Eternal Sunshine

"The official identified two 'red lines' that could trigger an Israeli offensive. The first is tied to when Iran's Natanz nuclear facility produces enough highly enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon. . . .

"The second red line is connected to when Iran acquires the SA-20 air defense system it is buying from Russia. The Israelis may want to strike before that system -- which would make an attack much more difficult -- is put in place.

"Some Pentagon officials also worry that Israel may be determined to attack before a new U.S. president, who may be less supportive, is sworn in next January."

Joby Warrick writes in The Washington Post: "A former CIA operative who says he tried to warn the agency about faulty intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs now contends that CIA officials also ignored evidence that Iran had suspended work on a nuclear bomb.

"The onetime undercover agent, who has been barred by the CIA from using his real name, filed a motion in federal court late Friday asking the government to declassify legal documents describing what he says was a deliberate suppression of findings on Iran that were contrary to agency views at the time.

"The former operative alleged in a 2004 lawsuit that the CIA fired him after he repeatedly clashed with senior managers over his attempts to file reports that challenged the conventional wisdom about weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. Key details of his claim have not been made public because they describe events the CIA deems secret.

"'On five occasions he was ordered to either falsify his reporting on WMD in the Near East, or not to file his reports at all,' [his attorney, Roy] Krieger said in an interview."

Detainee Watch

In a redacted, 39-page opinion released yesterday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit explained its order last week reversing a military tribunal's determination that a Chinese detainee was an "enemy combatant."

Del Quentin Wilber and Josh White write in The Washington Post that the panel found that Huzaifa Parhat was determined to be an enemy combatant by a tribunal that relied heavily on questionable evidence in classified documents.

"The opinion could have broad implications for scores of other detainees classified as enemy combatants by Combatant Status Review Tribunals. The opinion is also likely to guide federal judges weighing evidence in up-coming hearings. . . .

"Parhat's tribunal determined that he had not engaged in hostilities against the United States or its allies. But it concluded that he was an enemy combatant because he lived at the Afghan camp, which was allegedly run by the leader of a group tied to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, according to the appellate opinion.

"The tribunal reached that conclusion based on evidence in classified documents that 'do not state (or, in most instances, even describe) the sources or rationales for those statements,' the judges found.