ON a SUnday afternoon WH issues repsponse to Irag intell Report:

[rodeodance]

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/25/dems.iraq.ap/

....A White House spokesman, Blair Jones, said, "We don't comment on classified documents." But he said the published accounts' "characterization of the NIE is not representative of the complete document."

In a statement issued Sunday afternoon, Bush's national intelligence director, John Negroponte, said, "What we have said, time and again, is that while there is much that remains to be done in the war on terror, we have achieved some notable successes against the global jihadist threat."

He added, "The conclusions of the intelligence community are designed to be comprehensive and viewing them through the narrow prism of a fraction of judgments distorts the broad framework they create." (Watch how Democrats, Republicans differ on what report means -- 1:31)

The White House issued a written rebuttal that argued administration officials have been making some of the same arguments as in the intelligence estimate. A White House strategy booklet released this month described the terrorists as more dispersed and less centralized and still a threat to the United States.

[EnviroBat]

1. "We don't comment on classified documents."

Until we've had sufficient time to change them to suit our needs...

[rodeodance]

2. and it looks like Dms are using is in their stomp talks.

In congressional races across the country, Democratic candidates used the report to attack their opponents and tie them to Bush's faltering strategy. In New York, for example, Democratic challenger Kirsten Gillibrand pointed to the report and said GOP Rep. John Sweeney "has supported President Bush 100 percent of the time on Iraq, refusing to ask tough questions or push for honest answers."

"Now is the time for a new direction, and real accountability and oversight," she said, then called for U.S. forces to be moved out of Iraq within six months to a year.

[maddezmom]

3. Anti-U.S. Feelings Came Before Iraq, White House's Peter Watkins

Terror analysis rejected, Anti-U.S. Feelings Came Before Iraq, White House
~snip~

Peter Watkins, a White House spokesman, declined to talk specifically about the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), a classified analysis that represents a consensus perspective of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.

The highly classified report, delivered to policy-makers in April, is the first of its kind since the start of the Iraq war in March 2003. In it, the agencies concluded that the war has only worsened the U.S. effort to defeat global terrorism. They said that the war is spreading radicalism from Iraq throughout the Middle East and that the longer it continues, the more likely it is that it will provide fresh training grounds for future terrorist plots.

But the White House view, according to Watkins, is that much of the radical fundamentalists' deep anger at the United States and Israel goes back generations and cannot be linked to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.

``Their hatred for freedom and liberty did not develop overnight,'' Watkins said. ``Those seeds were planted decades ago.''

He said the administration has sought in Iraq to root out hotbeds of terrorism before they grow. ``Instead of waiting while they plot and plan attacks to kill innocent Americans, the United States has taken the initiative to fight back,'' Watkins said.

more: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/nation/15602832.htm?source=rss