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Who is Paul Pillar? By Michelle Malkin   ·   September 27, 2006 11:14 AM Drip, drip, drip? In its original report leaking details of the National Intelligence Estimate on the Iraq war, the New York Times relied on anonymous, unnamed leakers to spin its contents and embarrass the White House. Today, the Times includes comments from some named sources. Pay attention to this one: What was most remarkable about the intelligence estimate, several experts said, was the unremarkable nature of its conclusions. “At one level it is unsurprising stuff,’’ said Paul Pillar, who was the national intelligence officer for the...

National Intelligence Estimates are bland documents that represent the lowest-common-denominator judgment of more than a dozen intelligence agencies. We doubt they're very useful for policy makers, and they certainly aren't suitable for use as political cudgels in a national election... True, the NIE says post-Saddam Iraq has become a "cause celebre" for jihadists. But that's merely stating the obvious. Any U.S. intervention in the Mideast was going to provoke an extremist response. The more important statement in that same bullet point is: "Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be...

THOUGH IT undermined some of his rhetoric, President Bush was right to declassify and release the intelligence community's most recent estimate of global terrorism. The three-page summary of "key judgments," originally delivered to the White House in April, provides a clear, reasoned and sobering account of the state of the Islamic extremist threat five years after Sept. 11, 2001. Its release ought to deepen rather than inflame the debate in Washington -- if only because the assessment is far superior to that being retailed to the country by the president or by most Democrats. The bad news in the report...

We assess that the Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives; perceived jihadist success there would inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere. • The Iraq conflict has become the “cause celebre” for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement. Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight. We assess that the underlying factors fueling the spread of the movement outweigh its vulnerabilities and are...

Author's note: Michelle Malkin pointed out the link to this post on Stop the New York Times.org on her blog todayThe declassified key finding of the NIE and the editors at the New York Times agree: we must stay in Iraq. "The current situation will get worse if American forces leave [Iraq]." – the editors of the NY Times, 9/27/06, in their editorial The Fine Art of Declassification "Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight." – Declassified Key Judgments of the National Intelligence...

YOU WOULD think that a consensus report from all 16 U.S. intelligence services concluding that he has blown the "war on terror" would be a really big deal to the president. But that assumes that George W. Bush values intelligence. Clearly, he does not. So the news that a 2006 National Intelligence Estimate concludes the threat of terror against the United States has increased since 9/11, largely thanks to his irrational invasion of Iraq, has not disturbed Bush's branded "what, me worry'' countenance. Instead, predictably, the administration's response to the leaked conclusions of the shared assessments of both civilian and...

WASHINGTON - The White House refused Wednesday to release in full a previously secret intelligence assessment that depicts a growing terrorist threat and has fueled the election-season fight over the Iraq war. Press secretary Tony Snow said releasing the full report, portions of which President Bush declassified on Tuesday, would jeopardize the lives of agents who gathered the information. It would also risk the nation's ability to work with foreign governments and to keep secret its U.S. intelligence-gathering methods, Snow said, and "compromise the independence of people doing intelligence analysis." "If they think their work is constantly going to be...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As political debate churned over an intelligence report released Tuesday, a top Democrat called for the release of a second, new National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq that she says "paints a grim picture." The White House denied a charge by Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, that another intelligence report is being kept in draft form so that its contents won't be public until the midterm elections in November are over.

The media is terrible at reading comprehension, as has been proven time and time again. From the erroneous reporting on the NSA’s Terrorist Surveillance Program (were they wrongly claimed the NSA was bypassing the NSA when in fact NSA leads were for the first time being used to identify and monitor possible terrorists in the USA via FISA warrants) to the GITMO abuse claims, our ‘reporters’ cannot read and understand what they have read. Whether it is lack of skill or partisan blinders is irrelevant. It is beyond them. I see this all the time when the media tries to...

WorldNews.com,Thu 28 Sep 2006 Email this story to a friend Print this story Text of Declassified Intelligence Estimate US Director of National Intelligence. United States-led counterterrorism efforts have seriously damaged the leadership of al-Qaida and disrupted its operations; however, we judge that al-Qaida will continue to pose the greatest threat to the homeland and U.S. interests abroad by a single terrorist organization. We also assess that the global jihadist movement, which includes al-Qaida, affiliated and independent terrorist groups and emerging networks and cells, is spreading and adapting to counterterrorism efforts. -- Although we cannot measure the extent of the spread...

Posted by Dan Riehl on September 26, 2006 - 22:22. Rather than offer a reasoned analysis of a National Intelligence Estimate declassified by the Bush administration today, the AP selected only the most negative aspects of the report for inclusion in their story. WASHINGTON - The war in Iraq has become a "cause celebre" for Islamic extremists, breeding deep resentment of the U.S. that probably will get worse before it gets better, federal intelligence analysts conclude in a report at odds with  President Bush's portrayal of a world growing safer. In the bleak report, declassified and released Tuesday on Bush's orders, the nation's...

Another day, another New York Times publication of classified information.  Another election cycle, another strategic intelligence-community leak transparently designed to affect the outcome.  Another coincidence of Iraq and al Qaeda terrorism, another simplistic Democratic claim of causation between Iraq and al Qaeda terrorism (but, naturally, never a concession of connection between Iraq and al Qaeda terrorism). On Sunday, the Times disclosed a selectively leaked snippet from the new National Intelligence Estimate which evidently suggests that Bush administration policy — in particular, the war in Iraq — has increased Islamic radicalism.  As night follows day, prominent Democrats were ready to pounce...

On a day when much of the capital's attention was focused on leaked excerpts of an intelligence estimate report that suggested the Iraq war was creating more jihadists, the military quietly released an intercepted letter from Al Qaeda complaining that the terrorist organization was losing ground in Iraq. The letter, found in the headquarters of Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, after he was killed on June 7, was sent to Zarqawi by a senior Al Qaeda leader who signs his name simply "Atiyah." He complains that Al Qaeda is weak both in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region and in...

by Mark Finkelstein September 27, 2006 - 08:05 "Good morning, this is Harry Smith reporting from London today, June 10th, 1940. With Luftwaffe pilots now brazenly carrying out daylight bombing raids on London, it's clear that Britain's war against Nazism is a failure." Judging by his take on Iraq, that's presumably how Harry would have reported matters had he been around during the dark days of WWII. Fortunately, Churchill was there: "Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and...

Highlights in a new NIE just released to the President Yesterday indicated that the sentiments of cut and run from Iraq and conspiracy theories perpetuated by the American political left in the U.S. have emboldened terror organizations around the globe and have directly made America less safe since 911. Additionally, intelligence sources indicated that there is a direct correlation in the number of U.S. Servicemens deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan and the constant undermining of the Presidents efforts specifically related to comments of the actions of our troops by the U.S. Congressmen John Murtha and the Senator John Kerry. Although...

White House release of a previously secret intelligence assessment depicting a growing terrorist threat gives both political parties new ammunition in the election-season fight over the Iraq war. For Republicans, the excerpts of the document - declassified under orders from President Bush on Tuesday - are more evidence that Iraq is central to the war on terrorism and can't be abandoned without giving jihadists a crucial victory. For Democrats, the report furthers their argument that the 2003 Iraq invasion has inflamed anti-U.S. sentiments in the Muslim world and left the U.S. less safe. In a bleak National Intelligence Estimate, the...

there is a second NIE just on Iraq!!!! Rat Jane Harmon is trying to get that one released. Norah and Chrissy were almost frothing at the mouth they were so excited. I guess since this NIE is not what they wanted, they will now be on the lookout for a new one. Funny how they move on when the facts are presented to them.

President Bush today said it is naive and a mistake to think that the war in Iraq has worsened terrorism, as a key portion of a national intelligence assessment suggests. "Some people have guessed what's in the report and concluded that going into Iraq was a mistake. I strongly disagree," Mr. Bush said during a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He asserted that portions of the classified report were leaked for political purposes, referring to the Nov. 7 midterm elections. Mr. Bush announced that he had instructed National Intelligence Director John D. Negroponte to declassify those parts...

President Bush and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan held a press conference in the White House East Room today. First Lady Laura Bush spoke at fundraisers for Republican congressional candidate Joy Padgett in Granville, Ohio and for Ray Meier in Utica, N.Y. Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice met with Indonesian Vice President Muhammad Yusuf Kalla at the White House. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld arrived at Mother Teresa airport in Tirana. He will take part at the meeting of defense ministers of southeast Europe that will be held on September 27 in Albania. Enjoy your Tuesday...

A declassified government intelligence report says the war in Iraq has become a "cause celebre" for Islamic extremists, breeding deep resentment of the U.S. that is likely to get worse before it gets better. In the bleak report, released Tuesday on President Bush's orders, the nation's most veteran analysts conclude that despite serious damage to the leadership of al-Qaida, the threat from Islamic extremists has spread both in numbers and in geographic reach. "If this trend continues, threats to U.S. interests at home and abroad will become more diverse, leading to increasing attacks worldwide," the document says. "The confluence of...