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Washington - The Democratic chairman of the Senate intelligence committee said on Monday he is concerned President George W. Bush could act against Iran despite uncertainties about Tehran's intentions in the Middle East.
Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia, in an interview with Reuters, also said he believes Japan could become a nuclear armed nation within the next six years in response to North Korea's test of a nuclear weapon and an aggressive military buildup by China.
The 69-year-old lawmaker, one of a handful in Congress to be briefed on the most highly sensitive intelligence, said any U.S. attack on Iran would make little sense given how stretched American forces have become in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I can't imagine, given the condition and the amplitude or lack of amplitude of our troops, that we would undertake such a mission," Rockefeller said.
"But I can't completely cast that out of my mind because I don't know how the president makes decisions," he added. "Go back to how it was he got us into Iraq."
Rockefeller said his committee will complete the second phase of its investigation of prewar Iraq intelligence as early as this summer. He believes it will show how U.S. policymakers ignored intelligence that undercut their case for war with Saddam Hussein.
Amid more combative Bush rhetoric toward Iran in recent months, Rockefeller said Bush still shows no sign of paying attention to opposing points of view during bipartisan meetings at the White House.
"I don't know where his thinking is," the senator said. "We all kind of say the same thing and it doesn't seem to make any difference."
He said Bush's advisers are not always ready to express conflicting points of view to the president.
"It's extraordinary to me the way people of long and distinguished careers in the military or in government, when they get into the Cabinet Room, suddenly lose their voice," Rockefeller said.
"People don't say what's really on their mind. And if they do, they don't think they're paid a lot of attention to."
Rockefeller doubts that Bush and his advisers understand much about Tehran's intentions in the Middle East, despite evidence of Iranian involvement in Iraq and western accusations that Iran is seeking to build nuclear arms.
"How could they understand Iran? If, per chance, we don't have a lot of assets there, then how do you really come to understand it?" Rockefeller said. "We don't understand them."
He said the presentation of U.S. intelligence to policymakers has improved since 2003, when the Bush administration based its case for the Iraq invasion on reports about weapons of mass destruction that later proved faulty.
"I think it's gotten more focused, more self-confident, less susceptible to pressure," he said.
"The integrity of the intelligence process has improved, but that doesn't help us in Iran. That doesn't help us in North Korea. That doesn't help us in place where it's very hard to have assets, to have reporting."
Japan could be preparing to abandon its long-held ban on nuclear weapons in the aftermath of Pyongyang's October 9 nuclear test.
"I know them (the Japanese). I suspect they're going to get a bomb in five or six years and could get one much more quickly," Rockefeller said.
"It's in response to their general situation with China, with North Korea."
Up to now, East Asia has avoided a nuclear arms race in large part because of security assurances given to Japan and South Korea by the U.S. nuclear umbrella.
"We have them protected. But if you're one of their leaders, how certain can you be of that," Rockefeller said.
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