It is deja vu all over again as Cheney tries to muscle intelligence reports to support his version of Iran's nuclear program.

A former CIA intelligence officer who has asked not to be identified told IPS that an official involved in the NIE process says the Iran estimate was ready to be published a year ago but has been delayed because the director of national intelligence wanted a draft reflecting a consensus on key conclusions – particularly on Iran's nuclear program.

The NIE coordinates the judgments of 16 intelligence agencies on a specific country or issue.

There is a split in the intelligence community on how much of a threat the Iranian nuclear program poses, according to the intelligence official's account. Some analysts who are less independent are willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the alarmist view coming from Cheney's office, but others have rejected that view.

The draft NIE first completed a year ago, which had included the dissenting views, was not acceptable to the White House, according to the former intelligence officer. "They refused to come out with a version that had dissenting views in it," he says.

As recently as early October, the official involved in the process was said to be unclear about whether an NIE would be circulated and, if so, what it would say.

Former CIA officer Philip Giraldi provided a similar account, based on his own sources in the intelligence community. He told IPS that intelligence analysts have had to review and rewrite their findings three times, because of pressure from the White House.

"The White House wants a document that it can use as evidence for its Iran policy," says Giraldi. Despite pressures on them to change their dissenting conclusions, however, Giraldi says some analysts have refused to go along with conclusions that they believe are not supported by the evidence.

Well first I would like to say that I am gratified to see that there are some in the CIA who are refusing to buckle under to pressure this time. They have certainly felt shame at how they were bullied into compliance during the buildup to the Iraq invasion and are unwilling to be railroaded again.

I also think that this gives even more validity to Dennis Kucinich's call for Cheney's impeachment. The Republicans may feel that the idea of holding those in the executive office accountable for manipulating intelligence and lying about the need for war, but I can assure them that the American people do not feel the same.