Sen. Harry Reid and Company have sent a letter to the president asking for a new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. “In order to avoid repeating mistakes made in the run-up to the conflict in Iraq,” they write, “we must have objective intelligence untainted by political considerations and policy preferences.” The latter is, of course, pure garbage but I’d expect nothing less from senators who hope to be in the majority some day. That said, there’s no doubt that the 2002 NIE was deeply flawed in its assessment of Iraq’s wmd programs. But while the 2002 NIE vastly overestimated Iraq’s programs, the one issued prior to the 1991 Gulf War vastly underestimated Saddam’s nuclear program at the very least. On August 11, 1991, the Washington Post reported: