Harman Blasts NIE Release Timeline as "Unacceptable"

[RedEarth]

Harman Blasts NIE Release Timeline as "Unacceptable"
By Justin Rood - September 27, 2006, 12:19 PM
It's starting to look like Rep. Jane Harman's (D-CA) second "secret" Iraq report is one that has been long promised by the Bush administration's top security official.

A quick recap: Amid the ruckus stirred up by reports of a secret report on Iraq and its impact on U.S. counterterrorism efforts, Harman announced yesterday morning that the Bush administration was withholding a second classified report, this one about the state of Iraq.

An ongoing effort to produce a National Intelligence Estimate -- a conclusive report from the entire intelligence community -- on Iraq has been extensively reported. Following an article by Ken Silverstein at Harpers.org in late July about the lack of an up-to-date intel assessment of the country, Democratic lawmakers slipped a provision into a bill that required Negroponte to produce an NIE on Iraq.

On Aug. 4, Negroponte announced he was ordering the report to be produced.

It appears this is the report Harman was talking about. Yesterday evening, White House adviser Fran Townsend acknowledged Harman's request by saying Negroponte had ordered the report in August, implying the two were the same. The report would take several months, she said, and would likely not be ready until January. In a letter today, Harman responded to Townsend's comments to say the timeline was unacceptable.

The entirety of Harman's letter after the jump

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001613.php