Between the Lines of the Iraq Intelligence Estimate

The unclassified summary of the latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq was released late Friday, Feb. 2, the time of day the Bush administration has often used to release bad news. The stories about the NIE in the next day's papers reported the summary's strongest language, but the entire document disappeared from the news. Outlook asked Mark M. Lowenthal, a former vice chairman for evaluation of the National Intelligence Council, which writes NIEs, to guide readers through the document. Lowenthal, now retired after a 31-year career as an intelligence officer, has annotated the NIE in the comments alongside the text. His purpose was neither to endorse nor criticize the document, but to explain how intelligence professionals use the English language.