Philly.com:
Senate Republicans plan to call for a congressional commission to investigate the conclusions of the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran and the specific intelligence that went into it, according to congressional sources.
The move, which would be the first formal challenge to the NIE, comes amid growing backlash from conservatives and neoconservatives unhappy about the assessment that Iran halted a clandestine nuclear weapons program four years ago.
It reflects how quickly the NIE has become politicized, with critics even going after the analysts who wrote it.
Sen. John Ensign (R., Nev.) said he planned to introduce legislation next week to establish a commission modeled on a congressionally mandated group that probed a disputed 1995 intelligence estimate on the emerging missile threat to the United States over the next 15 years.
"Iran is one of the greatest threats in the world today. Getting the intelligence right is absolutely critical, not only on Iran's capability but its intent," he said in an interview.
Ensign's proposal calls for Senate leaders to put an equal number of Republicans and Democrats on a panel to study the NIE and report back in six months.
"There are a lot of people out there who do question [the NIE]. There is a huge difference between the 2005 and 2007 estimates," he said.
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