White House NIE SnowJob

OOPS! Tony Snow can't find his talking point.

If you want to know see torture in action, all you had to do was watch the
White House press gaggle this morning. Tony Snowjob was at his obfuscating best, except for one thing. The press wouldn't let up.

Fox “News” covered it for a while, until they couldn't stand the
visuals…

…which is when I switched over the CNN to get more of Tony's torture.

Now come to find out, the White House is releasing Republican
talking points on the NIE Key Judgments that were released yesterday entitled
“The Rest of the Story”. Puh-leaze, when has George W. Bush or anyone
connected with the Administration ever wanted us to get the full story? EmptyWheel
has more.

Last but not least, let me also say that Tony Snow didn't get the name SnowJob
for nothing. He outright lied this morning when he said there was no NIE on
Iraq. Once again I offer Rep. Harman's letter to Negroponte, but this time in
full. Misinformation is one thing, but as Harman said today on one of the cable
channels, it seems the Republicans goal is to make sure the Iraq NIE doesn't
see the light of day until after the 2006 elections, on which Josh
Marshall agrees. It's déjà vu all over again.

September 27, 2006 The Honorable John Negroponte Director of National Intelligence New Executive Office Building 725 Seventeenth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20511 Dear Director Negroponte: I received your letter of September 26, in which you confirmed that the National Intelligence Council (NIC) is writing a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq. Though you promised that the NIE would be completed “in a timely manner,” senior White House officials have indicated publicly that the report may not be completed until January 2007. This timetable is unacceptable. Sectarian violence, which has reached record levels and continues to grow, is putting our troops – not to mention millions of Iraqis – at grave risk. Furthermore, the proven ineffectiveness of U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces, an absence of effective infrastructure reconstruction, and political crises that threaten the fragile new polity have made it clear that we need a new strategy in Iraq. NIEs have been produced in as little as several weeks, as in the case of the 2002 report on Iraqi WMD. While I understand the desire to be thorough, events in Iraq make it urgent that the Intelligence Community produce this NIE immediately. If your intention is to delay this report until after the November elections, I do not think that is appropriate given that U.S. troops are at risk at this moment. U.S. policymakers need the Intelligence Community’s insights to determine how to defend our troops and our interests in Iraq. I urge you to expedite completion of the NIE and to release it in both classified and publicly releasable unclassified forms. Sincerely, Jane Harman Ranking Member