Bush To Declassify Portions Of Leaked National Intelligence Estimate
This is the right thing to do, though I find the bolded statement a bit odd:
President Bush on Tuesday said it is naive and a mistake to think that the war with Iraq has worsened terrorism, disputing a national intelligence assessment by his own administration. He said he was declassifying part of the report.
“Some people have guessed what’s in the report and concluded that going into Iraq was a mistake. I strongly disagree,” Bush said.
I don’t think the President is necessarily disputing the NIE, I think he’s disputing the way the media and his political opponents have characterized the NIE. The President is arguing that the bits of the NIE that the media is describing for the public are not indicative of the overall tone of the report. That certainly doesn’t mean he’s disputing the report as a whole.
