The deputy director of national intelligence for analysis and chairman of the NIC Thomas Fingar gave a preview of the long-delayed NIE on Iraq to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Tuesday. Walter Pincus reports:

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.

More here.

Posted by Laura at January 24, 2007 12:49 AM