Author Kenneth Timmerman has provided us one more reason to doubt the validity and objectivity of the recently released National Intelligence Estimate. In an interview with Frontpage magazine, Timmerman discusses the efforts by the "Shadow Warriors" within  the CIA and the State Department to sabotage the policies of the Bush Administration.

During the Q and A he discusses Van Vann Diepen-one of the three authors of the National Intelligence Estimate. The story concerns John Bolton's efforts to derail North Korea and Iran's nuclear weapons programs. Bolton, who later became the US Ambassador to the United Nations, at the time conceived and headed the Proliferation Security Initiative. This effort to control WMD was very successful. Among its accomplishments were the interdiction of shipments of  illicit weapons, the disclosure of the Libyan nuclear weapons program, and the unraveling of the A.Q. Khan nuclear weapons bazaar.

Even some of Bolton's critics of his performance at the United Nations give him credit for this important program. However, one of his key underlings-in an act of insubordination-systematically tried to derail Bolton's plan to disable Iran and North Korea's ability to develop WMD. That underling? Van Viepen.  From the Frontpage Q and A:

Here was an open call to insubordination, and, I might add, it was not an isolated incident. We have heard recently from John Bolton confirmation of another story I tell in the book about Vann Van Diepen, one of the authors of the recent Iran NIE. Van Diepen systematically refused to carry out direct orders from Bolton to enforce non-proliferation sanctions against Iran and North Korea , because he disagreed with the policy.