WH on Incomplete Iraq Report: Where’s the Fire?“This is — you don’t pull an all-nighter. It’s not like a college term paper that you slap together,” White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters today, trying to brush off nagging questions about why it’s taking so damn long for the administration to assemble an intelligence report on the situation in Iraq.
Snow incorrectly noted that the Director of National Intelligence “just started [the report] a month ago.” In fact, DNI John Negroponte announced his effort on Aug. 4, exactly eight weeks from tomorrow. That’s an awfully long month, isn’t it?
He also batted away the notion that “the Director of National Intelligence for political reasons is going to rush into completion something that requires significant deliberation.”
Snow did not explain why the White House believed that “political reasons” are apparently the only reason one might accelerate such a review. With Iraq mired in bloody sectarian violence and poised precipitously on the brink of collapse, some might think an immediate focus on reversing the situation would be cause for getting on that study pronto.
Snow conceded that various intelligence agencies have closely studied the unfolding situation in Iraq, but claimed that they disagree widely on their conclusions. “They have plenty of material to work from, but what you also try to do is you look at disparate analyses and data from a wide variety of intelligence sources,” said Snow. “And it takes time for people to work through and look at what they’re doing.”
However, a new story in Newsweek contradicts Snow. “In secret papers and briefings over the last 18 months, intelligence professionals have repeatedly portrayed a bleak picture in which disorder in Iraq appears to be growing rather than receding,” write Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff. Doesn’t sound like much disagreement there.
Read the exchange, after the jump.
Here’s the exchange between Tony Snow and reporters on the Iraq NIE:
Q Is there any pressure on Negroponte to get the separate NIE specifically on Iraq out before January ’07?
MR. SNOW: No, because he just started it a month ago. The idea that the Director of National Intelligence for political reasons is going to rush into completion something that requires significant deliberation is — let me say, it would be highly unusual. And I think members of the intelligence committees understand that you want good intelligence done the proper way, with proper vetting and proper collaboration, rather than trying to do a rush job.
And the Director made it known to intelligence committees a month ago that they were beginning the report. They know what the time line is, they also know how long it takes to assemble these things. This is — you don’t pull an all-nighter. It’s not like a college term paper that you slap together.
Q But did they already get —
MR. SNOW: And, no, they don’t have one on the shelf.
Q Did they already get a head start when they were preparing this overall analysis of the war on terror? Isn’t there already material that they can start working from?
MR. SNOW: Yes. Look, these guys do intelligence every day. They have plenty of material to work from, but what you also try to do is you look at disparate analyses and data from a wide variety of intelligence sources. And it takes time for people to work through and look at what they’re doing. So whether you have a head start, it doesn’t mean that you have a — the material at hand for doing a comprehensive report. And once again, the idea of trying to do intelligence assessments for political deadlines is not what intelligence analysts signed up to do. Their job is to try to put together objective reports for consumers, which would include members of Congress, and to do so in such a way as to reflect the best judgment and information available.
