On the National Intelligience Estimate

A letter sent on September 26, 2006:

Dear Tom,

As I was reading more about the NIE report this morning, I came across Karen DeYoung's article and noticed that you contributed to it. I cannot express how disappointed I am in the cherry-picking of facts that are detrimental to the administration and the war against radical Islamists without acknowledgement or discussion of progress that is being made or the centrality of Iraq in the war on terrorism.

As a simple mom-of-a-soldier, I am not so eloquent or precise in my language. So, I will point you to a post that I read. It is supposedly from a former intelligence employee. http://formerspook.blogspot.com/2006/09/more-of-what-you-wont-read-in-nyt.html. While I cannot verify whether or not his former employment claims are true, he does make some good points about the stories that have been written about the NIE report. I'm wondering if, as a contributor to this controversy, you have a reply.

Tom, I'm out on the East coast again this week for work and spending some time, too, with my son and his family. Early yesterday morning, my son and his wife slipped out of the house, while we slept, to go and say good-bye to another unit of New Hampshire National Guardsmen as they left for Iraq. Some of these men are on their second deployment there. There is no whining, no constant harping on President Bush and the hopelessness of the fight we are in - even from a young man who has a rather different world-view than his right-of-center mom. He understands the seriousness of the fight and that wishing will not make it go away.

It would be interesting to read a report by the usual cadre of Washington Post reporters that presents a serious presentation of the threat of radical Islam and what the root causes are - other than "It's Bush's fault." Because we know, Tom, that it was not President Bush that killed Danny Pearl, my former co-worker Bob Jeck on PanAm flight 103, or the 3000 innocents who died on 9/11/2001.

Blessings,
Sharon