Here’s what the White House just sent out from Tony Snow on the NIE …
Press Gaggle By Tony Snow
September 25, 2006
WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY TONY SNOW: “[O]ne thing that the reports do not say is that war in Iraq has made terrorism worse. And by the way, the DNI will be making public comments later today and he’ll be taking questions in Washington. â¦
“First, the false impression has been created that the NIE focuses solely on Iraq and terrorism. This NIE examines global terrorism in its totality, the morphing of al Qaeda and its affiliates and other jihadist movements. It assesses that a variety of factors, in addition to Iraq, fuel the spread of jihadism, including longstanding social grievances, slowness of the pace of reform, and the use of the Internet. And it also notes that should jihadists be perceived to have failed in Iraq, fewer will be inspired to carry on the fight.
“In short, the news reports contain nothing that the President hasn’t said. There was that one conclusion that you just mentioned, Sheryl, that appeared in I think one sentence of The New York Times report, and two sentences in the LA Times. Those are conclusions from blind sources. Obviously, we’re not going to go into what the classified report does say, but what we did see in the newspapers yesterday, the substance, is precisely what the President has been saying: Al Qaeda â the leadership has been hit hard; it has become more dispersed; that there is more independent activity; that they’re using other means for communication and organization, such as the Internet; that they have an ideology that is directed at the West and at democracies â it’s a totalitarian ideology that tends to unite them.
“And reading the stories I thought, well, yes, I mean, this is what the President has been saying.”
The DNI is Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte. We’ll see what he says.
