More NIE 'Secrets': Jane Harman Calls for Release of *Second* Secret Iraq Report

[Leigh Meyers <leighcmeyers@xxxxxxxxx>]

...before November's elections.

OTOH, Senatrix Nancy Pelosi wanted all this discussed in secret (closed
session).
Must remember to send hatemail...

BREAKING: Harman Calls for Release of Second Secret Iraq Report

By Justin Rood - September 26, 2006, 12:15 PM
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001603.php

There's a second damning Iraq report floating around the intelligence
community.

At least, that's according to Rep. Jane Harman (CA), the top Democrat on
the House intelligence committee. At an event this morning, Harman
disclosed the existence of a classified intelligence community report
that gives a grim assessment of the situation in Iraq, and called for it
to be shared with the American public -- before the November elections.

The report has not been shared with Congress, although sources say a
draft version may have circulated earlier this summer. It is a separate
report from the one revealed by major news outlets Sunday, which is said
to conclude that the war in Iraq has made the U.S. less secure from
terrorist threats.

"This morning at the National Press Club, Jane Harman did say that there
is an [National Intelligence Estimate] on Iraq," her spokesman, Ari
Goldberg, confirmed. Golberg said he had not read the report, but
believes it may be grim. Sources at the event say the document is not
officially an NIE, although it was prepared by the National Intelligence
Council, an community-wide intelligence body whose primary function is
to prepare NIEs.

Dr. Lawrence Korb, a former senior Defense Department official now with
the liberal-progressive Center for American Progress, hasn't seen the
report but has discussed it with those who have. "It's a very bleak
picture of what's going on in Iraq," he said.

Harman called for the White House to share a classified version of the
report with Congress -- and to release a declassified version of the
document to the American public, prior to the November elections.

Democratic sources on the Hill confirmed that the report has been a
topic of discussion, particularly because of concerns that its release
was being "intentionally slowed" by the administration. Attendees at the
National Press Club event where Harman spoke -- a rollout for a new
Democratic defense/intelligence policy group called the National
Security Network -- characterized Harman saying the reported was
"languishing" under wraps.

In late July, Democratic lawmakers requested the intelligence community
to write a National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, noting that such a
report had not been done in over two years. The Democratic sources say
this NIE was prepared separate from that effort. The NIE Harman is
asking for "sounds a hell of a lot more complete" than the report being
worked on at Congress' request, said one.


Leigh
http://leighm.net/