Holt on the Quasi-NIE

Yesterday TWI broke the news of the not-quite-National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq getting delivered to Congress but not getting declassified. But we’ve had no luck getting it, you know, leaked to us. Doesn’t anyone want to break the law in the name of the public interest? Holler at me at sackerman-at-washingtonindependent-dot-com.

However, we’ve got the next best thing. Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence — which received the quasi-NIE yesterday morning — and chair of a new intelligence subcommittee within Appropriations, tells us, “One would hope that an NIE would provide a dispassionate and apolitical intelligence analysis of the issue at hand, and so one might wonder about the timing of this release.”

The quasi-NIE is classified, so Holt wouldn’t get more specific. But if you’re an intelligence official or a Hill staffer, don’t let that stop you! Break the law by e-mailing me the Iraq assessment. We both know it’s only classified because it embarrasses Bush. I’m on AIM as ackermanspencer or G-chat as spencerackerman. The truth will out.