W will declassify Inteligence estimate

[mburbank]

I'm very interested to see how this plays out. I'd also like to know what folks make of the last line in this section of the story.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An angry President Bush Tuesday said he would declassify an intelligence document that reportedly finds that the Iraq war increased the terrorist threat to the United States, saying the American people should come to their own conclusions.

The president said the media accounts of the leak was meant to "create confusion in the minds of the American people" and suggested that the report had been leaked for political purposes.

Bush said he has ordered to Director of National Security John Negroponte to declassify the report's key findings during a joint White House press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. (Full story)

"He'll do so in such a way that we'll be able to protect sources and methods ... that our intelligence community uses," Bush said, "and then everybody can draw their own conclusions about what the report says." (Watch U.S. to declassify terror report -- 2:03)

"It will stop all the speculation, all the politics about somebody saying something about Iraq; you know, somebody trying to confuse the American people about the nature of this enemy," Bush said.

Bush said he agreed with the report's conclusions that al Qaeda is becoming more diffuse and decentralized but rejected the interpretation that the Iraq war had made the U.S. less safe.

"This government is going to do whatever it takes to protect this homeland. We're not going to let their excuses stop us from staying on the offense," Bush said.

"The best way to protect America is to defeat these killers overseas so we do not have to face them here at home," Bush said. "We're not going to let lies and propaganda by the enemy dictate how we win this war."