Global War on Terror Watch: President Bush Declassifies and Makes Public the National Intelligence Estimate – NIE

President George W. Bush (C) speaks on the economy alongside U.S. Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH) (L) during a factory visit at Meyer Tool Inc. in Cincinnati, September 25, 2006.

Reuters: Bush orders Iraq intelligence report made public

President George W. Bush blasted political opponents on Tuesday for selectively leaking from a secret intelligence assessment on global terrorism and then made public the report’s main conclusion that the Iraq war had become a “cause celebre” for Islamic extremists.

Democrats had seized on leaked portions of the National Intelligence Estimate to criticize the administration’s handling of the Iraq war and members of the U.S. Congress had pressed the White House to declassify the entire document.

At a news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Bush said it was “a bad habit for our government to declassify every time there’s a leak.”

But he said he decided to make it public so “you can read it for yourself” and stop the speculation that he said was aimed at confusing the American public.

“Somebody has taken it upon themselves to leak classified information for political purposes,” Bush said.

So, somebody “LEAKS” the NIE to the New York Times and the NYT true to form publishes snippets to embarass President Bush and the GOP. The intent – to influence the November mid-term elections negatively for the President.

First, the “LEAKER” should be vigorously pursued and prosecuted for disclosing a classified report.

Second, readers should punish the New York Times and other MSM outlets who published the blatantly biased snippets of the NIE, along with commentary.

Lastly, read Michelle Malkin’s SMACK DOWN of the NIE.

Here’s the link to the PDF document of the NIE’s key judgements at the DNI site. If the server is down, we’ve got it here.

Andy Cochran writes: “I wish they could declassify more or, as I wrote on Sunday night, turn the whole report over to an independent body like the 9/11 Commission and let them do it. “

The LEFT and the LEFT MSM attempted a PATHETIC media end-run around the President because they cannot or are afraid to confront his policies directly.

Come on Democrats. What say you about the entire report?

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