Study Faults Bush's Emphasis On Daily Intelligence Brief

[Bravo Zulu]

Under President George W. Bush, the President's Daily Brief -- the highly classified intelligence paper delivered each morning to the White House -- rose to "an unprecedented level of importance," with negative consequences for the intelligence community, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution.

These included "skewing intelligence production away from deeper research and arms-length analysis" and driving analysts to choose "the latest, attention-grabbing clandestine reports from the field," says the study, released Tuesday, called "The U.S. Intelligence Community and Foreign Policy: Getting Analysis Right."

Since under Bush there was an emphasis on shorter lengths on PDBs, (the August 2001 item called "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US" was 1 1/2 pages long), the writing required sharper definition, the study said, sometimes more than justified. It also encouraged the use of "hyperbolic language in order to make the item 'sexy' enough for inclusion in the PDB," according to the study.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/14/AR2009091403358.html

[PBS Poll-435]

1. GASP! Almost 2 pages?

It must be analyzed and redacted!

How long does it take for someone to read the F'n thing and create and choreograph a puppet show for W to understand the breadth of the topic?

[leveymg]

2. Almost all the briefs were considerably longer than what the public saw of the 08/06/01 PDB

The problem wasn't that Bush was dependent on Tenet or the PDBs, it was that Bush made the fateful decision to refuse to roll-up the 9/11 attack cells that had Tenet running around with his "hair on fire". Tenet tried on several occasions that summer to talk Dubya and Condi into issuing the arrest order, but Bush refused. He talked to Bush on at least a dozen occasions in the month before 9/11, even suddently flying down to Crawford in mid-August. Tenet then committed perjury before the 9/11 Commission to cover up that fact. The CIA needs to finally open up and connect the dots for the public.

[sce56]

3. Bush and Intelligence in the same paragraph that is a oxymoron like Military Intelligence! n/t