Bush: Iran Is Still a Threat

President Bush insisted today that Iran is still a threat, despite a new NIE report released yesterday concluding that the country shut down its nuclear weapons program in 2003. "Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous, Iran will be dangerous," he said in a news conference. The report should be read as a warning, he said: Iran had the program, halted the program, and could restart the program, the AP reports.

Resisting reporters' suggestions that the new assessment undermines his aggressive rhetoric about Iranian threats to world peace, the president declared that ''nothing's changed.'' He said the report would not prompt him to take US military action against Tehran off the table. ''The best diplomacy—effective diplomacy—is one in which all options are on the table,'' he said. The president also chided congressional Democrats for their failure to pass a military spending bill. (More George W. Bush stories.)