I've always liked Negroponte too.
What I don't get is that at first he said there was no historical value. Now he says the tapes provide actionable intelligence. That's quite a turnaround.
And certainly there would be a way to translate the tapes and provide a few more releases like the 12 hours given to ABC. At the very least it would be good for the administration to talk about those 12 hours.
Did you hear the former UN official call into the Sean Hannity show a few weeks ago? He translated the 12 hours of tape for ABC and Congress.
When ABC reported that Saddam said that he warned the US there would be a WMD attack but it wouldn't be from Iraq, the translator from the UN said that he actually translated that Saddam said he threatened the US with a WMD attack and we wouldn't be able to trace it to Iraq because he'd use a proxy.
Now THAT would be something the administration should highlight.
Negroponte | Earlier: Analysts from the CIA and the DIA reviewed the translations and found that, while fascinating from a historical perspective, the tapes do not reveal anything that changes their postwar analysis of Iraq's weapons programs.
Negroponte | Later:These documents have provided, and continue to provide, actionable intelligence to ongoing operations. . . . It would be ill-advised to release these materials without careful screening because the material includes sensitive and potentially harmful information.
I do know that all along it has been a policy of this administration not to release similar documents because they claim it might embarrass our allies.
Maybe they're afraid of a ports-type inappropriate reaction.