Reply #9: Yes, the one last year that this one contrasts with.

[Igel]

AQ has regrouped, is as strong as it was in 2001. That's one *-admin assessment that got quoted a lot.

Then there was the NIE on Iraq from 8/2006, saying that Anbar was all but lost and it was going to get worse, meanwhile everything else in Iraq was terrible with no improvements in sight. That certainly wasn't upbeat. Well, unless you like the idea of dead Americans and Iraqis, then it was a cause for great joy.

The 2003 NIE (2005? hard to keep all the years straight) dealing with Iran was also not upbeat, the one that said Iran was working on nuclear weapons. The 2006 (2007?) revision, saying with a high degree of certainly that Iran had abandoned its efforts in 2004, was considered upbeat, in spite of it's less confident assertion that Iran hadn't resumed work on how to weaponize enriched uranium.