Dumbed-down intelligence - The significance of the leaked U.S. Intel...

[bridgit]

...Estimate is not that it contains any earth-shattering information, but that it underscores a well-known fact that President George W Bush refuses to acknowledge - that Iraq has become the "cause celebre" of global jihadis. Now the report is submerged in a cacophony of political point-scoring, none of which is going to save Iraq or make the US safer. - Ehsan Ahrari

'One of the key recommendations of the 9-11 Report after the attacks on the US in 2001 was that intelligence should be depoliticized. The ongoing controversy related to the leaked National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) reminds everyone that this has not been the case.

President George W Bush has accused his critics of playing politics by "selectively" leaking some of the findings of the NIE because they were "motivated in the run-up to the mid-term elections in November". That is one reason he abruptly authorized his director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, to declassify and publicly issue portions of the report.

The NIE is a highly credible estimate, since its conclusions are developed on the basis of consensus among 16 US intelligence agencies. However, in the election season in the United States, no document, no action or governmental statement is free of politics.'

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/HI29Aa02.html