Juan Cole on the National Intelligence Estimate

The real scandal is that the NIE was classified at all. This is the best judgment of the 16 intelligence units of the US government. Even senators and congressmen had been denied access to it by the secrecy-obsessed Bush administration. How can our democratic system work if the legislature cannot get access to such key documents? And, why shouldn't the whole public have seen this estimate? Doesn't terrorism affect us all?
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In fact, it is not enough that the key judgments have been declassified. They should do the whole thing.

Absolutely. Secrecy is the deadly enemy of democracy, one that Bush uses all the time. What we don't know is definitely hurting us.

Bob Harris has more.