larry johnson has an opinion about the empires' annual threat assessment;

If you had any doubts about the incompetence of the US intelligence community, this week’s publication of the Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community should erase them. In general, it is a banal presentation of the usual tropes designed to justify increased military defense spending. This publication is best characterized as drearily commonplace and often predictable. But there are a couple of bright spots, most importantly, the conclusion about Iran’s nuclear program:

We continue to assess Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei has not reauthorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003, though pressure has probably built on him to do so. In the past year, there has been an erosion of a decades-long taboo on discussing nuclear weapons in public that has emboldened nuclear weapons advocates within Iran’s decisionmaking apparatus. Khamenei remains the final decisionmaker over Iran’s nuclear program, to include any decision to develop nuclear weapons.

What’s missing in this assessment? Lots! Absurdly, the intel assessment says nothing about the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty that Russia and Iran signed on 17 January 2025. Surely that is relevant to any assessment of security threats from Russia and Iran. Also missing is any discussion of the Iran-Russia-China annual joint-military exercises. These weak analysts virtually ignore BRICS, giving it only two mentions in the section of the report devoted to Russia:.........more.........