Following the link from Hugh Hewitt’s blog I was stunned to read the following over at The Politico:

To the surprise of the Bush administration, the House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously Wednesday night to allow all 435 House members to see the classified version of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq sent to the White House last week. The report is classified in part because it contains information about sources and methods used in intelligence-gathering.

The document will provide fuel for a House debate, scheduled to begin Tuesday, on a resolution of disapproval of President Bush’s plan to boost U.S. troop strength in Iraq. Remarkably, each House member will be given five minutes to speak.

“[A]ll 435 House members”? What the bloody-blazes are they thinking? Well, obviously not very-damn much.

In announcing the vote to allow all members access to the classified portion of the NIE, the committee said those examining it “will be required to review the document in the Committee’s secure offices in the Capitol and sign a secrecy oath.” The members will not be allowed to leave with notes, congressional sources said.

Guess they don’t expect any up and coming Sandy Bergers in this crowd. So, instead of working from notes, they’ll have to leak from “memory”. That’s comforting.

The decision raised fears among some Republicans that members not used to dealing with classified information might play fast and loose with what they saw.

Ya think? How many anti-war Lefty loons are in the House anyways? I know that there must be plenty of them from out here in La-La Land, and the San Fran contingent must be a real stellar bunch of patriots — wanting nothing but the best for our men and women in service. Not!

Hugh puts it like this in a memo to our intelligence resources in Iraq:

(…) Of course we have always assumed the classified versions of the NIE would be well protected, so in the past we have been expansive in the discussions to assure we wouldn’t get blamed for cherry-picking again. Hard luck, I know. I can’t tell you what’s in there, but someone in Congress almost certainly will. Keep in mind some of these folks were never a threat to win the spelling bee.

If you had thought of coming over our way, we’d still like to have you on our side, which is the side that remains opposed to blowing up innocents with car bombs. But we have to retract our pledges to you of secrecy and concern for your life and the lives of your families. There’s a new gang in charge of the Congress, and even thoughthey can’t be expected to know the difference between Sunni and Shia as that would involve reading, we are also now certain they can’t be expected to give a lick about your lives.

Utterly pathetic! You get what you vote for . . . (db)

Technorati Tags: NIE Report, House of Representatives, National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq

This entry was posted on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 10:16 am and is filed under A Post 9/11 World, Congress, Iraq War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.  |   Print This Post  |   Email This Post

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