Still Seeking Answers

Salon's War Room has more from Paul Pillar (a former CIA official who came out earlier this month accusing the BushCo Dumpling Gang of "cherry picking" intelligence--see the original WaPo article), and this time he's set his sites on the press:

In a short piece for the Nieman Watchdog, the man who coordinated intelligence on the Middle East until last year says the press should press more on both the run-up to the war in Iraq and the narrow focus of the 9/11 Commission. Among the questions Pillar would like to see reporters ask:

• Why was more not done before 9/11 to counter the terrorist threat from al-Qaida in response to the intelligence community's highlighting of that threat -- as reflected in DCI George Tenet's public statements?

• When was the decision to go to war in Iraq made, what beliefs and analysis led to that decision (as distinct from arguments used to muster support for the decision), and where did those beliefs and analysis come from?

• When an intelligence assessment becomes a matter of public knowledge: Who asked for the assessment, why was it requested, and what determined how the questions were framed?