Tuesday, September 26, 2006

NIE Games



Bush has declassified some snippets of the leaked NIE report, including this one:

The office of intelligence director John Negroponte released a 3-1/2 page section of the April report "Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States" compiled by the 16 U.S. spy agencies hours after Bush ordered it declassified.

"The Iraq conflict has become the 'cause celebre' for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement," the report said.

"Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight."

If this is good news for the administration, I wonder what on earth might be in the second NIE report on Iraq, the one that is still classified:

Hill sources tell TPMmuckraker that the administration has been sitting on the report, trying to prevent its dissemination before the election, presumably. And it turns out, from what we've heard, that this NIE actually hasn't been given the official "NIE" label because doing that would have required sharing it with various members of Congress.

The President has already said he's releasing "parts" of the April NIE -- which likely means it'll be cleansed of all the important details. But both should be released. The April NIE and this NIE that dare not speak its name too.

Everything seems to have become a game about party-political power. This is not good for the country or the world.