(CNSNews.com) - With the director of national intelligence releasing a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Monday, intelligence experts said that despite reports of Iran's nuclear program being halted, the country still poses a threat. Democratic presidential candidates, however, used the report to call current policies toward Iran "reckless."

"I still feel strongly that Iran is a danger," said President George W. Bush during a press conference Tuesday. "Nothing has changed in this NIE that says, okay, why don't we just stop worrying about it. Quite the contrary. I think the NIE makes it clear that Iran needs to be taken seriously as a threat to peace. My opinion hasn't changed."

"Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous, and Iran will be dangerous if they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon," said Bush.

"The NIE says that Iran had a hidden, a covert nuclear weapons program. What's to say they couldn't start another covert nuclear weapons program? And the best way to ensure that the world is peaceful in the future is for the international community to continue to work together to say to the Iranians, we're going to isolate you," he added.

In September, the Senate voted to classify the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps' al Quds forces as a terrorist organization - a move that presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) opponents criticized her for supporting.

Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) used the report to again critique Clinton. "The new National Intelligence Estimate shows that George Bush and Dick Cheney's rush to war with Iran is, in fact, a rush to war," he said in a statement.

"The new NIE finds that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that Iran can be dissuaded from pursuing a nuclear weapon through diplomacy. This is exactly the reason that we must avoid radical steps like the Kyl-Lieberman bill declaring Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, which needlessly took us closer to war."

"Enough is enough," said Edwards. "At long last, the spin and the saber-rattling must stop. We must once and for all reject the failed, bellicose, neoconservative foreign policy of the Bush Administration, and get back to the foreign policy I have proposed based on diplomacy, reengagement, and restoring the moral authority of America."

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said, "The NIE on Iran contains some very important findings by the intelligence community. Taken together these findings make a strong case for pursuing robust diplomacy to resolve our differences with Iran and for an end to the reckless talk by the administration and reckless votes by some members of Congress."

Lee Feinstein, Clinton's national security director, however, sidestepped the question of the terrorist designation. "The new declassified key judgments of the Iran NIE expose the latest effort by the Bush administration to distort intelligence to pursue its ideological ends," said Feinstein.

"The assessment of the NIE vindicates the policy Senator Clinton will pursue as President: vigorous American-led diplomacy, close international cooperation, and effective economic pressure, with the prospect of carefully calibrated incentives if Iran addresses our concerns," Feinstein said.

"Neither saber rattling nor unconditional meetings with [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad will stop Iran's nuclear ambitions," Feinstein added.

P.J. Crowley, director of national security at the liberal Center for American Progress, told Cybercast News Service , "We obviously must use the tools that are available to us to influence Iran's behavior. Sanctions are one of the available tools.

"The designation of al Quds and the IRGC as terrorist organizations can put pressure on Iran and can be a lever to influence its behavior," Crowley added.

"The NIE revised determination does not change the fundamental danger, but it does shift the timeline to the right, which allows more time for a resolution," said Crowley.

"The fact that Iran continues to develop a civilian nuclear capability without adequate international monitoring remains a concern. The longer the current trends exist, the shorter the leap from a civilian to military program if Iran makes that choice," Crowley said.

Jim Philips, a research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told Cybercast News Service that the terrorist designation will signal to Iran that "they need to change their behavior if they want to improve relations."

He said the al Quds forces are "integrally involved in the support of terrorism and foreign terrorist groups, and they conduct terrorist operations themselves. The Revolutionary Guards' Quds force has assassinated Iranian opposition leaders in Europe and other places."

"It is an indispensable link in Iran's terrorist operations," he said. "In the long run I think it helps Iran to understand that it can't continue its support of terrorism and expect a 'business as usual' relationship with the United States."

"The key is to ensure that, if Iran indicates a willingness to meaningfully negotiate in the future, we have to be prepared to engage them," noted Crowley. "The Bush administration has not been prepared to seriously engage Iran without preconditions. The next administration will, according to the NIE, have the opportunity to do it a different way."

Make media inquiries or request an interview about this article.



E-mail a comment or news tip to Monisha Bansal