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precisely how is a president supposed to make intelligence generally available to the public so they can evaluate it? There are two problems with that proposition, even laying aside the fact that it simply isn't done, and no president has ever done it, of either party. (There are good reasons for that.)
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I did not suggest that a president should make intel or raw data generally available to the public....
we are talking about a summary of an NIE. Although Bush had declassified and made public another NIE for political purpose to refute Joe Wilson's charges.
I suggested that Bush should provide a declassified summary to members of Congress that is not misleading like the one the CIA provided (with WH approval) prior to the Oct 02 vote....if you had read what I posted earlier in this discussion:
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Graham and Durbin had been demanding for more than a month that the CIA produce an NIE on the Iraqi threat--a summary of the available intelligence, reflecting the judgment of the entire intelligence community--and toward the end of September, it was delivered. Like Tenet's earlier letter, the classified NIE (provided to the Intel Committees) was balanced in its assessments. Graham called on Tenet to produce a declassified version of the report that could guide members in voting on the resolution. Graham and Durbin both hoped the declassified report would rebut the kinds of overheated claims they were hearing from administration spokespeople. As Durbin tells TNR, "The most frustrating thing I find is when you have credible evidence on the intelligence committee that is directly contradictory to statements made by the administration."
On October 1, 2002, Tenet produced a declassified NIE. But Graham and Durbin were outraged to find that it omitted the qualifications and countervailing evidence that had characterized the classified version and played up the claims that strengthened the administration's case for war. For instance, the intelligence report cited the much-disputed aluminum tubes as evidence that Saddam "remains intent on acquiring" nuclear weapons. And it claimed, "All intelligence experts agree that Iraq is seeking nuclear weapons and that these tubes could be used in a centrifuge enrichment program"--a blatant mischaracterization. Subsequently, the NIE allowed that "some" experts might disagree but insisted that "most" did not, never mentioning that the DOE's expert analysts had determined the tubes were not suitable for a nuclear weapons program. The NIE also said that Iraq had "begun renewed production of chemical warfare agents"--which the DIA report had left pointedly in doubt. Graham demanded that the CIA declassify dissenting portions.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security...630selling.htm
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loquitor.....do you think the declassified NIE summary provided to members of Congress as described above was appropriate or acceptable in order for those members to have the additional information requested in order to make a more informed vote?
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you ("how is a president supposed to make intelligence generally available to the public .....and the idea that raw data should have been released to the public") and
ace ("you folks sit around and think that if you only had access to classified information") are distorting, or just havent understood, what I and others have said.-- (1) that Bush, in his public speeches, should have said in general terms that there was conflicting intel, (2) Bush should not have lied to the public and said he "went to Congress with the same intel he had" and (3) that members of Congess should have been made aware of the conflicting intel (in summary form) prior to being asked to vote to send the country to war.