It's been reported today that the white house is sitting on a second intel report, specifically about the situation in Iraq, and it is not being called an NIE, probably because that would tend to make it more prominent:
Quote:
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001603.php
BREAKING: Harman Calls for Release of Second Secret Iraq Report
By Justin Rood - September 26, 2006, 12:15 PM
There's a second damning Iraq report floating around the intelligence community.
At least, that's according to Rep. Jane Harman (CA), the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee. At an event this morning, Harman disclosed the existence of a classified intelligence community report that gives a grim assessment of the situation in Iraq, and called for it to be shared with the American public -- before the November elections.
The report has not been shared with Congress, although sources say a draft version may have circulated earlier this summer. It is a separate report from the one revealed by major news outlets Sunday, which is said to conclude that the war in Iraq has made the U.S. less secure from terrorist threats.
"This morning at the National Press Club, Jane Harman did say that there is an [National Intelligence Estimate] on Iraq," her spokesman, Ari Goldberg, confirmed. Golberg said he had not read the report, but believes it may be grim. Sources at the event say the document is not officially an NIE, although it was prepared by the National Intelligence Council, an community-wide intelligence body whose primary function is to prepare NIEs.
Dr. Lawrence Korb, a former senior Defense Department official now with the liberal-progressive Center for American Progress, hasn't seen the report but has discussed it with those who have. "It's a very bleak picture of what's going on in Iraq," he said.......
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The mission is to keep a lid on the "bad" news until after the mid-term elections. The irony, IMO, is that there is nothing that could be reported. that will influence those who still intend to vote for republican candidates, and democrats who advocated "staying the course", in Iraq, from changing who they vote for. To do so, in the minds of these voters, would be to send a signal to the "enemy", that the US is growing "soft" on it's commitment to continuing the GWOT.
update:
Quote:
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001606.php
Transcript: Harman Reveals 2nd Iraq Report
By Justin Rood - September 26, 2006, 2:35 PM
As reported here earlier, here are Rep. Jane Harman's (D-CA) comments this morning about this second secret Iraq report, from CQ Transcriptions:
Quote:
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"I have also learned that there is a [National Intelligence Estimate] on Iraq -- specifically on Iraq -- that has been left in draft form at the National Intelligence Council. That is because some of our leaders don't want us to see it until after the election. It should be clear five years after 9/11 that we need accurate and actionable intelligence -- actionable in real time -- and we need our leaders to read that intelligence and cite it accurately. Sadly, we're doing better on the first piece; we're not doing better on the second piece."
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