I guess Porter Goss hasn’t quite figured out how to stop embarrassing leaks that make his boss look bad.
A classified cable sent by the Central Intelligence Agency’s station chief in Baghdad has warned that the situation in Iraq is deteriorating and may not rebound any time soon, according to government officials.
The cable, sent late last month as the officer ended a yearlong tour, presented a bleak assessment on matters of politics, economics and security, the officials said. They said its basic conclusions had been echoed in briefings presented by a senior C.I.A. official who recently visited Iraq.
Granted, the CIA reports found some progress within Iraq’s political structure, but as the NYT reported, the agency nevertheless concluded that “the security situation was likely to get worse, including more violence and sectarian clashes.” None of this is consistent with the White House message of optimism in the face of failure.
The fun part should be watching the White House’s reaction to these latest CIA reports. In September, when portions of the CIA’s National Intelligence Estimate were leaked, Bush looked more ridiculous than usual in dismissing its warnings as “guess” work.
Now the CIA has offered another bleak assessment. Far from unreliable conjecture, this new end-of-tour report was drafted by an officer who is highly regarded within the CIA and who, as station chief in Baghdad, has been the top American intelligence official in Iraq since December 2003.
So, how will Bush tell us that his “darn good intelligence” should be ignored this time?