The classified report that wasn't, then was, then wasn't

With Bush's announcement that-- because of more despicable government leaks-- he would be declassifying an April National Intelligence Estimate, the press failed to ask an obvious question: why was it classified in the first place?

Obviously, because the report argues that Iraq has made America less safe and provided an incubator for new terrorists. Which means that the White House was "playing politics" with information that otherwise would've been public (and keep in mind that only part of the report will be declassified, allowing the admin to further pick and choose what the public knows about the war). What would a total hypocrite do? Claim that the move is an effort to prevent everyone else from playing politics with information that wouldn't have been leaked if the White House hadn't been afraid it would hurt Republicans in the election. Surprise, surprise. Enjoy yet another helping of Soviet-style reasoning from Fearless Leader:

"Once again, there's a leak out of our government, coming right down the stretch in this campaign, you know, to trade confusion in the minds of the American people, in my judgment, is why they leaked it. So I told the DNI [director of national intelligence] to declassify this document.

"We'll stop all of the speculation, all the politics, about someone saying something about Iraq, you know, somebody trying to confuse the American people about the nature of this enemy. And so John Negroponte, the DNI, is going to declassify the document as quickly as possible, declassify the key judgments for you to read yourself and he'll do so in such a way that he'll be able to protect sources and methods that our intelligence community uses. And then everybody can draw their own conclusions about what the report says. Thank you."

If large and important parts of the NIE can be safely declassified and known by the American public, why were they classified in the first place? And why have they been kept classified since April? Obviously, the NIE is being declassified now only because the White House needs a political defense to the New York Times article reporting that the NIE concluded that the war in Iraq worsened the terrorist threat. But it is really amazing just how transparent the White House is being about the fact that it routinely conceals information as "classified" not because it is secret but because it is politically damaging.