Classifying the bad news in Iraq

(Newsweek) "Is Iraq in a civil war? The CIA has developed its own secret guideline for answering that increasingly contentious question. CIA officials offered the definition of "civil war," which remains classified, at a closed-door Capitol Hill briefing."

This LATimes piece discussing all the recent deceptions in Iraq including the 3X understatement of August deaths in Baghdad. (Turns out the numbers behind that lie are classified, too. "Commanders won't release the raw data, saying such specifics could help the enemy.")

(As a footnote of history, James Glantz finds the remnants of Gerald Bull's supergun in an Iraq scrapyard.)