That’s what I was once told to say when I didn’t know.  I re-learned that lesson as a young lawyer: if a judge asks you a question, and you don’t know the answer, admit that you don’t know the answer.  That is how you maintain your credibility.

Sadly, the Bush Administration didn’t do that with respect to WMDs in Iraq.  But perhaps — just perhaps — they have learned how to say "we don’t know".

That’s why this is important (from today’s New York Times):

Data Is Lacking on Iran’s Arms, U.S. Panel Says

By DOUGLAS JEHL and ERIC SCHMITT

ASHINGTON, March 8 – A commission due to report to President Bush this month will describe American intelligence on Iran as inadequate to allow firm judgments about Iran’s weapons programs, according to people who have been briefed on the panel’s work.

The report comes as intelligence agencies prepare a new formal assessment on Iran, and follows a 14-month review by the panel, which Mr. Bush ordered last year to assess the quality of overall intelligence about the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

The Bush administration has been issuing increasingly sharp warnings about what it says are Iran’s efforts to build nuclear weapons. The warnings have been met with firm denials in Tehran, which says its nuclear program is intended purely for civilian purposes.

The most complete recent statement by American agencies about Iran and its weapons, in an unclassified report sent to Congress in November by Porter J. Goss, director of central intelligence, said Iran continued "to vigorously pursue indigenous programs to produce nuclear, chemical and biological weapons."

As they say, read the whole thing.

And Mr. President, say it with me: We.  Don’t.  Know.