Woolsey Makes Predictions

Former CIA Director James Woolsey has surfaced recently to declare that it's time to get serious about bombing Iran, and predicting terror attacks on the United States this summer or fall. Woolsey made an appearance on the Newsmax website last week, noting

"I think the threat of a serious attack in the next few months is very real." A terrorist strike with a dirty bomb or with biological weapons was "a real possibility."

And last night, Woolsey popped in to chat with Lou Dobbs, where he made the shocking prediction that

I'm afraid within, well, at worst, a few months; at best, a few years; [the Iranians] could have a bomb.

There were some weird commonalities to these appearances, almost as if Woolsey had prepared remarks. (Both interviews, for example, featured the Woolsey riff that "the Persians invented chess. They're good at it. Their most valuable piece, their 'queen' really, is their nuclear weapons program." Both appearances also feature this: "I agree with John McCain. Force is the worst option except for one. And that is allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.")

While both of these substantive predictions are alarming, they have the benefit of being clear and falsifiable. Like the prediction Woolsey made in 1993 as the Director of Central Intelligence, for instance:

“February 24, 1993: CIA director James Woolsey says that Iran is still 8 to 10 years away from being able to produce its own nuclear weapon, but with assistance from abroad it could become a nuclear power earlier.”

God forbid we're attacked or the Iranians get a bomb--let alone before the end of the year. What would be helpful, though, was if we had a predictions market so that we could put odds on these sorts of predictions and follow up to determine who knows what he's talking about.