This is a short diary... I apologize but hey, it’s late!
It’s possible that NPR host Diane Rehm scored a direct, debilitating hit on the Bush administration modus operandi in rushing the deployment of the 21, 500 troops to Baghdad and al-Anbar province in western Iraq.
While talking on air with Republican strategist Vin Weber and former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton John Podesta, the longtime NPR host made a startling claim:
Think Progress:
It’s my understanding that the National Intelligence Estimate...is going to suggest that adding troops is the wrong way to go, that it’s not going to improve the situation.
More below:
Ken Silverstein of Harper’s Magazine reported that six-months ago former intelligence czar John Negroponte blocked a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq in spite of pressure from CIA intelligence analysts. The administration insisted it could not complete the NIE, (which presents the current consensus view of the entire intelligence community) despite added pressure from Congress.
More from the article:
Last week, however, an administration intelligence official told senators that the report is still not complete. According to Silverstein, Senate hearing attendees "believe that senior intelligence officials are stalling because an NIE will be bleak enough to present a significant political liability."
House and Senate Intelligence Committee chairmen, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) sent a letter to President Bush yesterday:
"urging prompt completion of a national intelligence estimate (NIE) on Iraq first requested by Congress six months ago."
The full letter is here.
Full transcript of the NPR interview available at Think Progress