Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
January 24, 2007
Pg. 4
By Walter Pincus, Washington Post Staff Writer
The draft of a new National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq says it will be "very difficult" but "not impossible" for the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to succeed in providing better governance in that war-ravaged country, a top intelligence official told a Senate committee yesterday.
"Security is an impediment," said Thomas Fingar, the deputy director of national intelligence for analysis and chairman of the National Intelligence Council. Fingar gave the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence a rare preview of what the classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) will say when it is completed at the end of the month.
"Gains in stability could open a window for gains in reconciliation among and between sectarian groups and could open the possibilities for a moderate coalition that could permit better government," Fingar said in response to a question written by Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) and read by Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), which sought the intelligence community's judgments as reflected in the NIE.
"It will be very difficult for the Maliki government to do this," Fingar said, "but he [Maliki] does not wish to fail or to preside over the disintegration of Iraq." Fingar added that in the NIE, there are "a lot of conditional statements, but it is not impossible."
Fingar had earlier been asked by several senators about the time it had taken to complete the NIE, which Congress requested in legislation that passed the Senate last August. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) raised the issue, saying that under the present timetable, Congress will vote on resolutions questioning President Bush sending additional troops to Iraq without seeing the forthcoming NIE. "Intelligence has got to be available in a timely way," Wyden said.
He said that in 2002, the administration pushed out an NIE on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in three weeks. But Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) noted that the result was a flawed document. "We learned the hard way in 2002" to wait for an NIE to be prepared in a timely fashion, Bond said.
Fingar explained that the time for completing the NIE dragged out because the number of highly skilled Iraq analysts is small and they often are called on by the White House and military for quick analyses and assessments. Asked by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) whether the president or vice president had input in the NIE timing or content, Fingar said they did not. The panel's hearing was primarily directed at the workings of the restructuring of the intelligence community under the 2004 legislation that established the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
January 24, 2007
Pg. 4
By Walter Pincus, Washington Post Staff Writer
The draft of a new National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq says it will be "very difficult" but "not impossible" for the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to succeed in providing better governance in that war-ravaged country, a top intelligence official told a Senate committee yesterday.
"Security is an impediment," said Thomas Fingar, the deputy director of national intelligence for analysis and chairman of the National Intelligence Council. Fingar gave the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence a rare preview of what the classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) will say when it is completed at the end of the month.
"Gains in stability could open a window for gains in reconciliation among and between sectarian groups and could open the possibilities for a moderate coalition that could permit better government," Fingar said in response to a question written by Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) and read by Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), which sought the intelligence community's judgments as reflected in the NIE.
"It will be very difficult for the Maliki government to do this," Fingar said, "but he [Maliki] does not wish to fail or to preside over the disintegration of Iraq." Fingar added that in the NIE, there are "a lot of conditional statements, but it is not impossible."
Fingar had earlier been asked by several senators about the time it had taken to complete the NIE, which Congress requested in legislation that passed the Senate last August. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) raised the issue, saying that under the present timetable, Congress will vote on resolutions questioning President Bush sending additional troops to Iraq without seeing the forthcoming NIE. "Intelligence has got to be available in a timely way," Wyden said.
He said that in 2002, the administration pushed out an NIE on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction in three weeks. But Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.) noted that the result was a flawed document. "We learned the hard way in 2002" to wait for an NIE to be prepared in a timely fashion, Bond said.
Fingar explained that the time for completing the NIE dragged out because the number of highly skilled Iraq analysts is small and they often are called on by the White House and military for quick analyses and assessments. Asked by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) whether the president or vice president had input in the NIE timing or content, Fingar said they did not. The panel's hearing was primarily directed at the workings of the restructuring of the intelligence community under the 2004 legislation that established the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.