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White House to Declassify NIE Judgments

By Jeralyn, Section War In Iraq
Posted on Tue Sep 26, 2006 at 12:04:52 PM EST
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In an about-face, President Bush today declared he will declassify the judgments of the NIE.

Once again, there's a leak out of our government, coming right down the stretch in this campaign, you know, to trade confusion in the minds of the American people, in my judgment, is why they leaked it. So I told the DNI to declassify this document. You can read it for yourself. We'll stop all of the speculation, all the politics, about someone saying something about Iraq, you know, somebody trying to confuse the American people about the nature of this enemy. And so John Negroponte, the DNI, is going to declassify the document as quickly as possible, declassify the key judgments for you to read yourself and he'll do so in such a way that he'll be able to protect sources and methods that our intelligence community uses. And then everybody can draw their own conclusions about what the report says. Thank you.

Really? As Glenn Greenwald writes at Salon,

If large and important parts of the NIE can be safely declassified and known by the American public, why were they classified in the first place? And why have they been kept classified since April? Obviously, the NIE is being declassified now only because the White House needs a political defense to the New York Times article reporting that the NIE concluded that the war in Iraq worsened the terrorist threat. But it is really amazing just how transparent the White House is being about the fact that it routinely conceals information as "classified" not because it is secret but because it is politically damaging. What other explanation even theoretically accounts for this behavior?

MSNBC's news article on Bush's action is here.

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    • White House to Declassify NIE Judgments | 33 comments (33 topical)
    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#4)
    by killer on Tue Sep 26, 2006 at 12:46:07 PM EST
    I'll wait to see how much of what the NYT is aware of makes it into the declassified version. Personally, I'm not overly optimistic. The report that Jane Harman has been speaking of is also looming on the horizon.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Sep 26, 2006 at 02:48:18 PM EST
    And so John Negroponte, the DNI, is going to declassify the document as quickly as possible, declassify the key judgments for you...
    In other words, selectivly declassify the portions that are favorable to the Bush administration.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Sep 26, 2006 at 02:48:18 PM EST
    Rep. Harman (D-CA) issued a statement concerning a second NIE not declared as another NIE, and it covers solely Iraq. This is another spin job, and if the stuff that makes it out is as bad as has been reported, one must wonder at what's being redacted for political CYA.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Sep 26, 2006 at 02:48:18 PM EST
    Why not declassify the whole thing instead of just key parts? Let people draw their own conclusions from the whole.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Sep 26, 2006 at 02:48:18 PM EST
    Will the entire document be declassified or will significant portions of the soon-to-be declassified document be redacted? Declassifying the NIE may only create more (and embarrassing) questions for The Bush League. Well, we can only hope.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#7)
    by jimakaPPJ on Tue Sep 26, 2006 at 03:43:14 PM EST
    Well, if the Repubs have decided to declassify it so quickly you can bet your sweet bippy that Rove has mouse trapped the Demos. Congrats.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Sep 26, 2006 at 09:13:03 PM EST
    PPJ, you won't be so cynical as to believe that the WOT is being spun by Mista Rove as a political issue, would you?

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#9)
    by Edger on Tue Sep 26, 2006 at 09:13:03 PM EST
    Declassifying the NIE may only create more (and embarrassing) questions for The Bush League Ever heard the term "redacted"?

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Sep 26, 2006 at 09:13:03 PM EST
    No way in hell the full document will ever be released.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Sep 26, 2006 at 09:13:03 PM EST
    Well, if the bits they declassified are the most favorable ones then America is doomed. Methinks they just dumped this stuff in an attempt to get it behind them, and out of the public eye before November.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#12)
    by Richard Aubrey on Tue Sep 26, 2006 at 09:13:03 PM EST
    Rove can play you guys without getting out of bed.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#13)
    by jimakaPPJ on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 05:02:41 AM EST
    anon - The NIE is six months old. Successful people, and business organiztions pay very little attention to similar documents that are six months old. Managers claiming such a document actually described current business conditions and expected future conditions would rapidly find themselves without a job. I think that making a big toodo over a such a document is nothing but pure partisan politics, serves no useful purpose and harms the country by sending a message to the terrorists that if they just hang on they can win a political victory.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#15)
    by Molly Bloom on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 06:26:45 AM EST
    JimakaPPJ Yep the NIE is 6 months old. What has changed in the last 6 months? Also, are you laying the groundwork for a new Stabbed in the Back! myth with your " harms the country by sending a message to the terrorists that if they just hang on they can win a political victory"? What is harming the country is spending US blood and treasure in the Bush/GOP Fiasco known as Iraq. When you are in a hole, the solution is to stop digging. Mark Twain once wrote "no good comes of a lie" and has he ever been proven right with WMD/"They will greet us a liberators" lines handed out by Bushco.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 07:43:12 AM EST
    PPJ The problem with the "but, it's six months old" d-fence is that things are much worse since last April. Much better to cover Bushes' ass than give the terraists a political victory whatever that could possibly mean.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#16)
    by scarshapedstar on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 07:43:12 AM EST
    Once again, there's a leak out of our government, coming right down the stretch in this campaign, you know, to trade confusion in the minds of the American people, in my judgment, is why they leaked it.
    Talk about "trading confusion". I almost feel bad for people like PPJ who have to pretend that the leader of the free world ought to go around spouting such nonsense. Almost.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#17)
    by Edger on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 09:49:18 AM EST
    The NYT article that broke this story on Sunday stated clearly that:
    "The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee"
    As Jmic said "The problem with the "but, it's six months old" d-fence is that things are much worse since last April.".. and not only much worse, but probably largely much worse because bushco has been, as usual, lying. This time through omission by hiding the contents of this NIE because it's damaging to them. That is called by some trading lives for political gain. It's called murder by many.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#18)
    by Richard Aubrey on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 09:49:18 AM EST
    What's changed in six months? Zarquawi's dead, which cheers normal people. Scar. Can you think of another reason to leak this? Anyway, the whole thing is now out and what you and the NYT and the WaPo said it said is shown to be wrong. Again. Rove, you magnificent bastard!

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#19)
    by scarshapedstar on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 10:12:27 AM EST
    Scar. Can you think of another reason to leak this?
    Actually, I was just snarking about how stupid Bush sounded. But since you asked, you know, for some of us, countering lies with the truth is reason enough. Or do you think we're all dumb enough to believe that the only reason there aren't smoking craters from Peoria to Terre Haute is because of Shock'n'Awe? Because that's what Bush has been claiming for these three godawful years; the terr'ists were seconds from bombing Brooklyn, and then they all bought tickets back to Baghdad so that they could fight us over there instead of over here. Christ. By the way, since the majority of the country believes Iraq has made us less safe, is it even a leak at this point?

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#20)
    by Richard Aubrey on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 10:43:37 AM EST
    Actually, Scar, I don't think most of the commenters hereabouts are dumb. I think they're lying. The entire NIE refutes what you hoped it would say. Which is why, IMO, Rove set you up. He knew you couldn't resist, you and the CIA leakers and the crooked journalists--sorry for being redundant--would lie about what the report said, hoping it would remain classified. But it didn't. How's the Fitzmas plans coming?

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#21)
    by Molly Bloom on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 10:56:51 AM EST
    What's changed in six months? Zarquawi's dead, which cheers normal people. And terrorism is down, the insurgency is defeated, Iraqis are standing up while we are standing down and we are winning? No?? Oh dear! And yes I am cheered as far as it goes, but since it doesn't go very far... its not very cheery. Normal people BTW are willing to face what NIE actually says namely that the war in Iraq worsened the terrorist threat. Bushco Kool Aide drinkers on the other hand...

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#22)
    by Richard Aubrey on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 12:21:16 PM EST
    Molly, Molly, Molly. Calm down. Remember, this is the twenty-first century and we can fact-check your tush. The report didn't say that. Which everybody who reads it knows. I keep telling you people not to say stuff everybody knows or is in a position to find out without trouble is false. Put a bit more effort into putting the rest of us on.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#23)
    by Dadler on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 12:21:16 PM EST
    Richard Aubrey, Here is the reality I can't deny: Bush has released what was leaked. Which means there was NO legitimate reason to keep it from the American people in the first place. It was suppressed because, obviously, it does not make the administration look good at all, and because they feared the political judgement of the free American citizenry whom, we now know, should've had this information months ago. That you can say, as blithely as can be, that the opposite is actually the truth, sigh, then I'm afraid our intellectual gulf is depressingly wide. Don't even know how to bridge it right now. Talk about something else, I guess. Just depressing. Peace, my friend.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#24)
    by Dadler on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 12:54:00 PM EST
    Dem. Jane Harmon is reporting the existence of a second NIE, this one focusing entirely on Iraq. And according to her it's even more bleak in its assessment. And the beat goes on.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#25)
    by Molly Bloom on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 03:16:43 PM EST
    Fact check this (and stop checking out my ass!)
    The clash follows the release of the "key judgments" of an NIE on terrorism done by the U.S. intelligence community last April, which says the Iraq conflict has become "the 'cause célèbre' for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters of the global jihadist movement."

    The conclusion about Iraq has been offered before by U.S. officials, but to include it in an NIE is significant because the NIE is a formal document that represents the consensus opinion of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.

    Its kind of hard for you to get around the key findings, but keep drinking the kool aide (I hear its made with Owslys' secret recipe)

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#26)
    by Sailor on Wed Sep 27, 2006 at 04:37:46 PM EST
    What's changed in six months? Zarquawi's dead
    and iraq is in civi8l war and the taliban is so resurgent in afghanistan that pakistan makes peace with them. Yeah, a lot has changed in 6 months, it's gotten worse. Now just maybe if bush dealt with facts instead of faith he would have reacted to the NIE and changed course. But that's way too much to expect from a misAdministration that couldn't even be bothered to come off vacation when 'Bin Laden Determined to Attack the US.'

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#27)
    by jimakaPPJ on Thu Sep 28, 2006 at 05:57:03 AM EST
    Molly Bloom - The point was, is and will remain, paying attention to six month old information is not a path to success. The situation may be better or worse but it is not what it was six, almost seven, months ago. You can't run a business, war or country like that. Now if the terrorists have become worse....... as compared to what? What is your baseline? Is it your contention that the terrorist would have said, "Look! Uncle Saddan isn't being bothered, so we'll be good boys!" How drool! We tried the criminal justice approach and all we got was increasing attacks that bloomed on 9/11. The fruit of that attack is in their graves. et al - Let us examine why the report was leaked. Did it aid our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan? No. Did it aid the people of Iraq? No. Did it aid the west in general in its fight against radical Moslems? No. Did it aid the Moslems who would just like the radicals to go away? No. Did it hurt the terrorists who are attacking us? No. Now. Given all of the negatives the leaked caused, why was it leaked? If you examine the organization who published the leaked part, it is known to be pro-Democrat and anti-Bush. Pretty simple, eh? edger - Now, tell us again about people dying for political gain. I mean, you brought the subjet up.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#28)
    by Sailor on Thu Sep 28, 2006 at 06:30:31 AM EST
    Perhaps the report was leaked because it showed that the president is still lying about iraq and our continued presence their is harming the country and the world.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#29)
    by Sailor on Thu Sep 28, 2006 at 06:57:08 AM EST
    Have a whiff of the rotting corpse of irony
    Bush: "Isn't that interesting? Somebody's taken it upon themselves to leak classified information for political purposes."
    Bush Authorized Leak to Times, Libby Told Grand Jury
    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#31)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Sep 28, 2006 at 09:49:42 AM EST
    bear in mind, once again, that the "leak" in question was to counteract incorrect information(lies , in the parlance of the left) released by one of the anonymous traitors in the intelligence community.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#32)
    by Edger on Thu Sep 28, 2006 at 09:49:42 AM EST
    ppj: Molly Bloom - The point was, is and will remain, paying attention to six month old information is not a path to success.... You can't run a business, war or country like that. Exactly. Good point. Why, anyone, parrticularly one of your employees, who makes decisions based on past information might end up doing something really stupid. Like invading a country that had never attacked you and could not do so, and lying about something that happened a year and a half earlier to use it as his excuse for doing the inexusable, and then trying to cover his tracks and culpability with his Acme "El Redacto" magic marker so that you can't really be sure of all the things he's fu*ked up on, even though you know in your heart that he's fu*ked up big time and has been playing you for a sucker all along. I have to agree with you on this, much as it pains me to agree with you on anything. You'd sure want to fire any idiot who would try to "a business, war or country like that". The only things stupider than someone doing that would be defending, supporting, or not firing someone doing that. Jim - I have to say I think you're really onto something here. I knew we'd agree on something sooner or later. I just knew it.

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#34)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Sep 28, 2006 at 11:25:55 AM EST
    JimakaPPJ - Yep, Jim. The more I think about what you said there, the more I have to agree with your assessment of this situation and your verdict. You're absolutely right. There's no question in my mind. Your solution is the only thing that can save the country now. I'm with you on this one all the way, Jim. Any idiot who would try to "run a business, war or country like that" has to go... We have to fire the bum, and all of his supporters in the house and the senate, before they completely wreck the country, and maybe take down the world in the process. You're a great leader, Jim. I've got your back on this one, Jim. I'll support you 110% on this one. You see things so clearly, when you go with your gut. I see that now. Ever thought about going into politics? ---edger

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#35)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Thu Sep 28, 2006 at 12:30:11 PM EST
    paying attention to six month old information is not a path to success.... You can't run a business, war or country like that. Look, Jim. I'd really like you to give some serious thought to running and serving. With a platform like that I can pretty much guarantee you 65 - 70% of the vote. The rest we can fix. We'll just call Diebold, they'll take care of the details. It'll be a cakewalk. Shock n' Awe, Jim. The dumb ass bush supporters will never know what hit them. The rest of the country will throw flowers and greet you as a great liberator from the fascist police state they now live under. They'll be toppling statues before you know it. We'll have you sitting in the big chair behind the big desk in no time flat. Absolute power, Jim! Think of it! It'll be the culmination of all your dreams! So much power it'll be no sweat getting the GAO to cough up for a brand new set of toy soldiers and your own personal Risk game! It won't be hard work either. You won't have to do much. You can just sit there behind that huge desk grinning and giggling and redacting NIE's all day long with your own personal presidential El Redacto marker. You replace bush, and I'll replace rove as the brain behind the puppet... I mean throne. We'll be an unbeatable team. We can even write a new constitution, Jim. It's just a god*amn pice of paper anyway. ^^ OO Jim? ---edger

    Re: White House to Declassify NIE Judgments (none / 0) (#33)
    by Edger on Thu Sep 28, 2006 at 12:33:04 PM EST
    Yep, Jim. The more I think about what you said there, the more I have to agree with your assessment of this situation and your verdict. You're absolutely right. There's no question in my mind. Your solution is the only thing that can save the country now. I'm with you on this one all the way, Jim. Any idiot who would try to "a business, war or country like that" has to go... We have to fire the bum, and all of his supporters in the house and the senate, before they completely wreck the country, and maybe take down the world in the process. You're a great leader, Jim. You see things so clearly. Ever thought about going into politics?

    White House to Declassify NIE Judgments | 33 comments (33 topical)