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Today's Must Read
How are things really going in Iraq? And should the American public know about it?
Next month, The Washington Post reports, the intelligence community will complete a national intelligence estimate on the situation in Iraq. If Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell has his way, the estimate will stay classified.
That's because McConnell is no fan of public debate of intelligence issues. He's said that all this debate about the surveillance bill " means that some Americans are going to die." And he thinks that NIEs should stay secret.
It was a policy that he tried to maintain with regard to the recent NIE on Iran -- which effectively undercut the administration's increasing alarmism about the nuclear threat of Iran by proclaiming that the intelligence community thought that Iran had suspended its nuclear program. McConnell and the administration only begrudgingly agreed to release that NIE, he explained to Lawrence Wright of The New Yorker, due to "the fear that, if we didn't release it, it would leak, and the Administration at that point would be accused of hiding information."
The intel community produced two NIEs last year, one in January (which used the phrase "civil war"), the other in August. Declassified versions of the key findings were released for each. Both sized up the shifting universe of security threats and emphasized the perilous political situation in the country.
This time around, however, things might be different. McConnell decreed in October that NIEs should no longer be released. And:
Intelligence officials said that the National Intelligence Board -- made up of the heads of the 16 intelligence agencies plus McConnell -- will decide whether to release the Iraq judgments once the estimate is completed. But they made clear that they lean toward a return to the traditional practice of keeping such documents secret.
So here's the question. The NIE, which is apparently expected to be issued in April, would most likely be the last word from the intelligence community on the situation in Iraq before the election. Will the administration be able to keep it under wraps? Or will the fear of the report leaking again force it out into the open?
Josh
Zachary
EXCUSE ME:
Obama got his money from Rezko who got his 3.5 million from Auchi:
Where's the media?
-Nadhmi Auchi is an Iraqi-born billionaire who was charged along with Saddam Hussein for conspiring to assassinate Prime minister (president) Abdul Karim Qasim and stood trial in 1959. (Auchi gave fellow Baath Party members machine guns from his home for Saddam Hussein.)
-Auchi protected secret money for Saddam Hussein AND Muammar al-Gadaffi.
(Remember, Obama's Trinity church Pastor Wright went with Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan in 1993 to visit Libyan socialist leader Gadaffi.)
-Auchi also financially backed Saddam Hussein's plan for a pipeline from Iraq to Saudi Arabia.
-Rezko was also a business partner with Nation of Islam Founder's son: Jabir Herbert Muhammad.
Why isn't the media talking about all of Barack Obama's scary friends who have ties to the worst people in history?
*Don't forget William (Bill) Ayers and Bernadine Dorhn of the Weather Underground.
*Obama's cousin Raila Odinga who just became co-President of Kenya this week (after 1,000 people were killed) whom Obama is said to be close to...who signed a secret pact with Muslim jihadists who were to ethnically cleanse people?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/nov/16/iraq.politicalcolumnists
March 7, 2008 10:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
You are excused.....
March 7, 2008 10:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
I never thought about the release of the NIE in that way before . . .
March 7, 2008 11:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
hillary,
I think you posted this in the the wrong place. Your comment has nothing to do with the subject.
March 26, 2008 5:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Doesn't matter, Hillary never reads those things anyway.
March 7, 2008 10:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
Humphf. Trolls and shills (paid or not) should know enough to only put their stufffff on pertinent threads.
March 7, 2008 10:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
Humphf yourself. We might not be in this mess if she had read the NIE back then before voting to enable this war, instead of voting purely on how she thought the politics would play out. That's exceedingly pertinent. The fact that you don't like to think about it is immaterial. That's strictly your problem; whereas the endless war (which will be continued enthusiastically by the President McCain she's helping to elect) is a problem for all of us.
March 7, 2008 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Don't fret about what McConnell wants to do w/the latest NIE. Large portions of it are again on the leakage list of those devoting themselves to keeping BushCo foreign policy "decisions" from damaging this country any further during the run up to the election.
March 7, 2008 11:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
Savannah,
Afew years ago I claimed that Bush's worst enemies weren't the Democrats, but those career employees inside the various federal government departments that will leak info to the media when they see the Bush gang harming the country.
We're fortunate to have people like that.
March 26, 2008 5:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's a hint, Mr. McConnell -- if you don't release an intelligence estimate that radically contradicts administration policy and rhetoric, the problem isn't that you'd be accused of hiding information, the problem is that you'd be hiding information. You and the administration you work for have a long history of lying about intelligence and covering up inconvenient facts, and no one should trust you at this point.
March 7, 2008 11:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Kinda sad that this post will get about a dozen comments, but there are ten times that amount over whether Obama should fire a heretofore unknown advisor.
March 7, 2008 11:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Merle, it's because:
1) Everybody with half a brain knows BushCo lies and covers up- not news.
2) Everybody with half a brain knows the real situation in Iraq- terrible. Not news.
3) It will be leaked anyway, like the Iran NIE. So one way or another, we'll get to see it. If it's an honest job- then see point 2 above.
March 7, 2008 11:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
If everything in Iraq was going as well as the Bush administration says it is, then we would hear the bugles blowing and the band playing!
But since Iraq is not going well, we'll just keep it a "secret."
You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
March 7, 2008 12:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Taking a propagandists word is like watching the end of a meat grinder for the filet mignon to come out.
March 7, 2008 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Comment #1- do you get your news from Jonah Goldberg? He flogged the Bill Ayers connection two weeks ago when he said that liberals don't know how to apologize.
March 7, 2008 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Given this administration's love of photo ops and publicity stunts, one can tell that the news in the upcoming Iraq NIE is not good. If it were, they'd be passing it out to the media as as soon as it's finished.
March 7, 2008 1:25 PM | Reply | Permalink