The Bush administration sat on information before the last election. Looks like they are at it again.

Controlling information controls people.

A secret US intelligence report which says the political and military situation in Afghanistan is "grim" will be withheld from the public until after the election, a new report says.

Intelligence officials are finishing up the National Intelligence Estimate on Aghanistan, according to ABC's Brian Ross, "but there are 'no plans to declassify' any of it before the election," an official said.

Keeping the intelligence report under wraps would likely help Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). McCain has focused on what he sees as the success of the Iraq "surge," in which the US added troops to lessen violence. Attention to problems in Afghanistan would put the spotlight on President Bush's failures, which might rub off on the Republican presidential nominee.

"According to people who have been briefed, the NIE will paint a 'grim' picture of the situation in Afghanistan, seven years after the US invaded in an effort to dismantle the al Qaeda network and its Taliban protectors," Ross writes.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen told Congress last week the US is struggling to retain control.

"I'm not convinced we're winning it in Afghanistan," he said, adding, "we're running out of time."

"Absent a broader international and interagency approach to the problems there, it is my professional opinion that no amount of troops in no amount of time can ever achieve all the objectives we seek in Afghanistan," he said.

This aligns with the opinions of commanders on the ground. According to a report in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, the US military expects the Taliban to launch a "winter offensive," which would mean a spike in violence in an area that has, at least for the recent past, been more quiet.

"I do think there will be an increase in violence by the enemy in order to maintain a general sense of insecurity," Brig. Gen. Mark Milley, deputy commander of the U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan, told the paper. "The winter fighting season this year will be more violent than in previous years."

A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Vanee Vines, told Ross "it is not the [National Intelligence Director]'s policy to publicly comment on national intelligence products that may or may not be in production."

National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell has said that he doesn't believe intelligence estimates should be made public, though several have recently been released, including one that detailed the US intelligence community's position on Iran's nuclear program.

The National Intelligence Estimate reflects the consensus view of 17 government agencies.

"Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary."
- George Orwell, 1984

Oh please...

Fox reported on that and still drops an update from time to time.

I also saw something on the lower screen ticker about it on CNN...

I watched a CSPAN report to congress by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs on that subject also. He sure did not seem reluctant to address the issue and I believe he used the word 'grim' several times.

George Orwell has some spiffy quotes...

but even so, he was still a writer of fiction

I got a millon of them.....

he was a social commentator and reporter as well...sometimes the best way to get people to pay attention is to teach them with stories...why do you think FAUX News is so popular....

I wonder how many would be dictators are using George Orwell as a blueprint to controlling their population.

The man was quite brilliant fiction or not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h27HRNm_r4U&feature=related

you think it is bad now just wait till they start using the patriot act

do you know the passing on of information (news is information) you might be a terrorist thus open to the terrorist consequences

google patriot act of 2001

and no the reform of 2003 was not passed thus 2001 is still in force

The patriot act is illegal. Althogh Ron Paul is fighting it like crazy, the government has no right or place to exercise this bill. That my friends is a tell tale sign of tyranny.

yes it is but you do not see the supreme court stricking it down do you

and what about the terrorist bill that clinton signed

Hey, as long as they dont take our guns away...