We’ve been wondering whether the public will be seeing the results of the intelligence community’s hard work on assessing the situation in Iraq. Turns out (not surprisingly, no). Spencer is the bearer of bad news:
For weeks, analysts within the 16-agency U.S. intelligence community have been toiling to complete an assessment of the situation in Iraq. This morning, it finally went to the Hill: the Senate and House intelligence committees, and the leadership in both chambers, are the proud owners of an update to the August 23, 2007 National Intelligence Estimate. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee received a briefing on it. But you’ll never see it.According to an administration official with knowledge of the intelligence process, this morning’s intelligence document isn’t itself a National Intelligence Estimate. “It’s not a formal report,” the official said, “it’s more or less an assessment memo, an update to policy makers.”
So does the intelligence community think that the political situation in Iraq is in a hopeless deadlock? That the security gains of the past few months are meaningful and lasting? Well, I guess we’ll just have to take the word of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker when they testify before Congress next week.