A new intelligence report says that U.S. spy agencies believe Iran brought its nuclear weapons program to a halt in 2003. If that judgment is correct, it's hard to place any stock in the Bush administration's rush-to-war stance over Iran's nuclear capabilities.

President Bush said in October that Iran's drive for nuclear weapons could "ignite World War III." Now America's 16 intelligence agencies, which produce the National Intelligence Estimate, say their latest information shows Iran had laid off its nuclear weapons program years before.

At a news conference Tuesday, Mr. Bush said National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell told him in August that there was new information about Iran's weapons program but did not explain it in detail. The president said he received the final report only last week. That raises the fair question of what did the president know when he made his doomsday statement.

With the latest NIE now public, fears that an electorally challenged GOP administration might resort to starting another war to benefit at the polls in 2008 are groundless. That is a cheering prospect. It should also temper the hot rhetoric being thrown around on the campaign trail.

The overall global picture still has some worrisome aspects. The first, which Mr. Bush is using to keep alive his effort to get new sanctions against Iran, is that while the country pursues a peaceful nuclear energy program, the NIE said it still "has the scientific, technical and industrial capabilities to eventually produce nuclear weapons if it decides to do so."

A second is that some dominant elements in Iran are thoroughly destructive, hissing and spitting venom against Israel, supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon and interfering in U.S.-Iraqi affairs, which makes a U.S. withdrawal more complicated. The NIE's judgment that Iran could return to pursuing a weapons program underscores the need for the United States to seek intense diplomatic engagement with Tehran.

A third concern is the screeching shift of gears in U.S. intelligence on Iran. The latest NIE is a reversal of a 2005 assessment which said Iran's rulers were "determined" to develop nuclear weapons despite threats of international sanctions. Americans can only hope that the intelligence agencies have it right now.

As to Mr. Bush raising the specter of World War III over Iran, Americans by now should be used to his attempts to scare them into political actions. Even so, no one should tolerate such behavior in the White House.