Tony Snow Rules Out Release of New NIE Report

By: E&P Staff Don't hold your breath if you are expecting the next National Intellgience Estimate on Iraq to come out before the November elections, as Democrats are demanding. Asked about this at a press briefing today aboard Air Force One, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow ridiculed the idea, saying that intellegience chief John Negroponte won't exactly plan to "pull an all-nighter" to get it out before January.

"You don't pull an all-nighter," SNow said. " It's not like a college term paper that you slap together....And, no, they don't have one on the shelf."

Snow also took issue with a New York Times report by Adam Nagourney suggesting that the uproar over the most recent NIE's negative assessment had knocked the White House "off track," saying this was not "certain."

Here is the relevant excerpt.
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Q On the NIE and on the remarks he's making today, how does the President feel the debate has sort of, perhaps, gone off track and that he needs to reset the button, in a sense?

MR. SNOW: Actually, I'm not sure we agree with Adam Nagourney's analysis on that, that it set things off track. What the NIE does is it focuses attention on the nature of the terrorists, and it does repeat what the President has been saying for the last few weeks about the nature of the threat. So I don't think it's certain it's off track. What he will do is call attention to portions of the NIE that maybe have not received as much attention as he thinks they deserve. But talking about the unpopularity of not only the politics but the methods and the potential governance of terrorists in the Muslim world, and also the stakes of the victory for democracy in Iraq, and what that would mean to the terror movement. And also what -- remind people of what bin Laden has said about its importance to him.

Q Is there any pressure on Negroponte to get the separate NIE specifically on Iraq out before January '07?

MR. SNOW: No, because he just started it a month ago. The idea that the Director of National Intelligence for political reasons is going to rush into completion something that requires significant deliberation is -- let me say, it would be highly unusual. And I think members of the intelligence committees understand that you want good intelligence done the proper way, with proper vetting and proper collaboration, rather than trying to do a rush job.

And the Director made it known to intelligence committees a month ago that they were beginning the report. They know what the time line is, they also know how long it takes to assemble these things. This is -- you don't pull an all-nighter. It's not like a college term paper that you slap together.

Q But did they already get --

MR. SNOW: And, no, they don't have one on the shelf.

Q Did they already get a head start when they were preparing this overall analysis of the war on terror? Isn't there already material that they can start working from?

MR. SNOW: Yes. Look, these guys do intelligence every day. They have plenty of material to work from, but what you also try to do is you look at disparate analyses and data from a wide variety of intelligence sources. And it takes time for people to work through and look at what they're doing. So whether you have a head start, it doesn't mean that you have a -- the material at hand for doing a comprehensive report. And once again, the idea of trying to do intelligence assessments for political deadlines is not what intelligence analysts signed up to do. Their job is to try to put together objective reports for consumers, which would include members of Congress, and to do so in such a way as to reflect the best judgment and information available.