AP Backpedals A Bit

The Associated Press has amended its lead article about the NIE to make it at least appear to be a little more balanced. They still spin it in the most negative light possible, mind you. But they have added that there are things in the report that will strengthen Republican assertions about Iraq.

WASHINGTON - White House release of a previously secret intelligence assessment depicting a growing terrorist threat gives both political parties new ammunition in the election-season fight over the Iraq war.

For Republicans, the excerpts of the document — declassified under orders from President Bush on Tuesday — are more evidence that Iraq is central to the war on terrorism and can't be abandoned without giving jihadists a crucial victory.

For Democrats, the report furthers their argument that the 2003 Iraq invasion has inflamed anti-U.S. sentiments in the Muslim world and left the U.S. less safe.

They do continue with the negative spin, but the funniest thing of all happens at the end of the article. They remind readers who make it al the way to the very end of the piece that NIE documents have been wildly wrong in the past. They never once, to my knowledge, pointed that particular information out when they were shilling the straight Democrat line.

But they can be wrong. A 2002 assessment, for example, concluded that Iraq had continued its development of weapons of mass destruction, held arsenals of chemical and biological weapons and "probably will have a nuclear weapon during this decade." None of those assertions turned out to be true.

The media and the left blogospere are flogging this mightily, but honest people on both sides of the issue need to read the entire portion of the NIE that was released. The most important statement regarding Iraq in the document is this, in my opinion:

We assess that the Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and
operatives; perceived jihadist success there would inspire more fighters to continue the
struggle elsewhere.