'Grim' US Assessment Coming In Secret Afghanistan Report ("No Plans to Declassify" New NIE)

[sabra]

Source: ABC News

"No Plans to Declassify" New National Intelligence Report for White House


US intelligence analysts are putting the final touches on a secret National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Afghanistan that reportedly describes the situation as "grim", but there are "no plans to declassify" any of it before the election, according to one US official familiar with the process.

Officials say a draft of the classified NIE, representing the key judgments of the US intelligence community's 17 agencies and departments, is being circulated in Washington and a final "coordination meeting" of the agencies involved, under the direction of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is scheduled in the next few weeks.

According to people who have been briefed, the NIE will paint a "grim" picture of the situation in Afghanistan, seven years after the US invaded in an effort to dismantle the al Qaeda network and its Taliban protectors.

...

Perhaps foreshadowing the NIE assessment on Afghanistan, Adm. Mullen told Congress, "absent a broader international and interagency approach to the problems there, it is my professional opinion that no amount of troops in no amount of time can ever achieve all the objectives we seek in Afghanistan."

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5867448

[downindixie]

1. mission accomplished

OOps!

[mzmolly]

2. They want to help McSame with their "international crisis" BS.

:eyes:

[formercia]

3. "no amount of troops in no amount of time"

The Russians and the Brits could have told us that.

For a History major, Junior hasn't learned much.

[kirby]

7. without broader support / help from other countries... n/t

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[Ian David]

5. Heckuva job, Bushies! We're losing TWAT! n/t

[gratuitous]

6. Not to be declassified before the election? Nice . . .

No sense giving the American people the information necessary to make a reasoned judgment about who they should vote for to run the country for the next four years. This story being from ABC, I wonder how hard they'll push to find out what's in the NIE?

And you know damn well that if things were going "swimmingly" in Afghanistan, they'd publish that fucker on every webpage of the internets.

[Dover]

8. Perhaps a problem with the pipeline deal?

Trio sign up for Turkmen gas

By Upstream staff


Representatives of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan signed a framework deal in Islamabad yesterday to buy natural gas from Turkmenistan, Pakistani media reported.

The US-backed deal allows India to join a pact signed in 2002 to begin importing gas from Turkmenistan by 2015, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper said in its online edition.

The agreement, which will require the building of a pipeline projected to cost $7.6 billion, is seen as an alternative to the so-called Peace pipeline plan to bring Iranian gas to India and Pakistan via Afghanistan.

The US is opposed to the Peace pipeline because it hopes to isolate Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.

The newspaper said uncertainty about the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline continued amid ongoing disputes between the partners about transportation fees and tariffs.

The Turkmenistan pipeline will supply 90 million cubic feet of gas per day to the Dauletabad field to Fazilka on the Pakistan-India border.

Under today’s deal, Afghanistan is proposing to tap 5 million cubic metres per day from the pipe during the first two years of operation and 14 MMcm per day thereafter. India and Pakistan will split the remaining capacity.

However, Pakistan and India both reportedly said following the signing that they remained commited to the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline....>

http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article153168.ece


Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Afghanistan_Pipeline#cite_note-upstream1-1