NEW: My Wall Street Journal review of George Tenet’s book, AT THE CENTER OF THE STORM . Read here.

- See my comments on Washington Post coverage of unclassified report release here. - See my additional comments on DOD Inspector General report here.

• The Inspector General report found all the activities to have been lawful and authorized. And refuting Senator Carl Levin (Democrat-Michigan), the Inspector General found that we did not mislead Congress.

• The report also said it was "inappropriate" for my staff to criticize CIA views on the Iraq-al Qaida relationship.

  • Gimble on this point was poorly informed and illogical, arguing that policy officials "undercut" the intelligence community by criticizing it, regardless of whether their critique is valid.

  • If the government accepted Gimble's opinion on this matter, the quality of its intelligence and policy both would suffer.

• Senator Levin selectively publicized the IG report, highlighting the word "inappropriate" and failing to mention the conclusions favorable to my office.

  • He charges falsely that President Bush lied the country into war, and then dishonestly claims that the IG report supports the charge.

  • To make the ungrounded accusation that I "cherry picked" intelligence, Levin cherry picks the IG report.

  • To assert incorrectly that I "manipulated" intelligence, Levin manipulates Gimble's words.

• Gimble's opinion on "inappropriateness" is a pathetically thin reed, but Levin has eagerly whipped the administration with it.

• It is good that the unclassified report is now out.
  • Only a two-page executive summary was published before and it did not spell out the IG's main argument: that criticism of intelligence is itself an intelligence activity appropriate only for intelligence officials and not policy officials.

  • The public can now view the whole argument in all its naked incoherence.

Some of what is available on this site about the IG report: My comments on the April 6 Washington Post article on the release of the unclassified IG report. See my additional comments on DOD Inspector General report here. For a basic explanation of this controversy, see my February 14 Washington Post oped and my February 9 public statement. See Thomas Joscelyn, "Who's Spinning Intel? Captured Iraqi documents tell a different story" on the website of the Weekly Standard, April 14, 2007.

You'll find more on this site, including a collection of factual news reports and editorials,
official documents and other discussions. More information will be added in coming days.