The officials who say NIE!

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell wants to keep the contents of the next National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, due out sometime this month, a secret. No surprise there.

"Overall, professional life is less complicated if nothing becomes public, and one doesn't have to organize classified assessments always having in the back of one's mind, 'If this is ever leaked, how would it read' " in the news media, a former intelligence analyst said.

Duh. We all learned that one in kindergarten --- it's way easier to get away with stuff you shouldn't be doing when nobody's looking.