White House rejects speeding new Iraq report

[Ron Burgundy]

AFP - The White House rejected calls for a new intelligence assessment of Iraq to be finished before November 7 US elections in which the unpopular war is expected to be a factor.

The White House rejected calls for a new intelligence assessment of Iraq to be finished before November 7 US elections in which the unpopular war is expected to be a factor.

Opposition Democrats have pressured US Director for National Intelligence John Negroponte to complete the report before the vote, which will decide who controls the US Congress until US President George W. Bush leaves office.

"You want good intelligence done the proper way, with proper vetting and proper collaboration, rather than trying to do a rush job," White House spokesman Tony Snow said as Bush raised campaign cash for his Republicans.

"You don't pull an all-nighter. It's not like a college term paper that you slap together," said Snow, who added that hastening the process would be "highly unusual."

Before the October 2002 US congressional vote giving Bush authority to use force on Iraq, it took less than three weeks for the US intelligence community to complete an National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on the threat allegedly posed by Saddam Hussein.

Democrats have accused Bush of painting an overly optimistic picture of events in Iraq, and say US voters deserve an objective assessment before they go cast ballots in an election dominated by national security issues.

Snow said Wednesday that NIEs "take about a year to do." Bush homeland security adviser Frances Townsend has said that the Iraq report won't be ready until January 2007. Both have denied any politically minded delays.

But the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, in a July 9, 2004 report on pre-war intelligence on Iraq, noted that the official 1994 guidelines for drafting NIEs call for "a 'fast track' of two to three weeks, a 'normal track' of four to eight weeks, and a 'long track' of two months or more."

The report cited a senior US intelligence official as saying that an NIE prepared within 60 days would be considered very fast, and that typically NIEs take three to six months.

It also cited another senior intelligence official as saying that during the 1956 Suez crisis, an NIE was wrapped up "in a few hours."

And the report said that national intelligence officers tasked with assembling NIEs told committee staff that ideally they would like about three months to produce an NIE.

[motivez]

Typical, try to hide the truth about their failures and the resulting spread of Islamic extremism from the American people.

[ballz2wallz]

Typical, democrats try to force the government to perform an unrealistic intelligence assessment in less than a month; as if one can even do a complete and thorough assessment in that amount of time.

[motivez]

Did you even bother to read the article?

[O]fficial 1994 guidelines for drafting NIEs call for "a 'fast track' of two to three weeks, a 'normal track' of four to eight weeks, and a 'long track' of two months or more."

They could get it out in time for the elections with ease, especially considering it's apparently already done (or mostly) and simply hasn't been released to Congress yet.

But rather than a vigorous debate based on the most recent information available, they don't want it out there because it destroys their entire premise for their continued support of current foreign policy.

[ballz2wallz]

Originally Posted by motivez

Did you even bother to read the article?



They could get it out in time for the elections with ease, especially considering it's apparently already done (or mostly) and simply hasn't been released to Congress yet.

But rather than a vigorous debate based on the most recent information available, they don't want it out there because it destroys their entire premise for their continued support of current foreign policy.

You know very well that the 'fast track' is going to be dubbed by pretty much everyone as 'rushed, inaccurate, and incomplete'.