John Negroponte Questioned



John Negroponte, Director of National Intelligence questioned outside Fox studios in Washington, Sunday, September 17, by Sam Husseini.

Husseini: Ambassador, why did your office approve the Fleitz Report on Iran's nuclear program, even though according to the IAEA, the report contained 'erroneous, misleading, and unsubstantiated information' about Iran's nuclear program?

Negroponte: We did not -- of course, as you know, that report was written by a staff member of the House Intelligence Committee, we did not originate it, and we weren't commenting so much on the content, as we were -- we dealt with it from a declassification point of view, what could be published in an unclassified format, so I wouldn't associate us one way or another, we didn't comment one way or another on the conclusions that were drawn by that report.

Husseini: Ambassador, do you know that Israel has nuclear weapons?

Negroponte: I don't want to get into a discussion about Israel's nuclear powers.

Husseini: You can't comment on whether Israel has nuclear powers?

Negroponte takes questions from other journalists and then turns to leave.

Husseini: How can you expect to have any credibility on the Middle East if you can't say whether or not Israel has nuclear weapons?

Negroponte continues walking away.

Husseini: Mr. Ambassador, you are head of national intelligence and you can't say whether Israel has nuclear weapons?

Negroponte's Handler: He answered the question.

Husseini (following Negroponte): No, he didn't answer the question. If he'd answered the question I'd go away. Mr. Ambassador, I just want a simple answer to a simple question. Does, do you know that Israel has nuclear weapons? You've made all these statements about Iran and Iraq and so on. Everybody knows that Israel has nuclear weapons. You're director of national intelligence and you can't say whether Israel has nuclear weapons? It's ridiculous. How can you have any credibility on the Middle East? How can you have any credibility Mr. Ambassador?

Negroponte gets in his car and is driven away.

[originally published at husseini.org on Sep. 19, 2006]