Petraeus "Softened" the NIE? A sharp eyed D.C. national security observer notes:

This paragraph was buried in Karen DeYoung's piece in the WaPo this am...

"The NIE, requested by the White House Iraq coordinator, Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, in preparation for the testimony, met with resistance from U.S. military officials in Baghdad, according to a senior U.S. military intelligence officer there. Presented with a draft of the conclusions, Petraeus succeeded in having the security judgments softened to reflect improvements in recent months, the official said."

...This seems fishy to me. I dropped a line to a few folks who have written NIE's before and they said it wouldn't be unusual for someone on the ground to have a chance to review the NIE prior to release, but that seems different then "softening".

(Posted with permission).

Thoughts?

Posted by Laura at August 28, 2007 10:24 AM