Veteran Intelligence Professionals For Sanity - August 2010 Memo

August 2010 Memo

On August 3, 2010, VIPS publicly released another "MEMORANDUM FOR: The President" warning the administration that their analysis suggests that Israel is likely to unilaterally attack Iran "as early as this month." It cited two reasons for this conclusion:

Firstly, Israel fears that western intelligence assessments over Iran's nuclear program will change soon and Israel will lose its "justification" for an attack. U.S. intelligence has been trying for some time to update the National Intelligence Estimate of November 2007 on Iran's nuclear program. It says that Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and as of mid 2007 has not restarted it. The group says Israel would like to strike soon, preemptively, before the new assessment reaffirms that Iran has not restarted its nuclear weapons program. Secondly, with the recent announcement by the U.S. that talks will resume with Iran next month regarding Iran's controversial uranium enrichment program, the group tells Obama: "incentives build in Tel-Aviv for the Israelis to attack before any such agreement can be reached."

The memorandum was also signed by the VIPS Steering Group including Ray Close, Philip Giraldi, Larry Johnson, W. Patrick Lang, Raymond McGovern, Coleen Rowley, and Ann Wright.