At first glance, a legitimate criticism of the GAO report:

However, two senior military sources told the newspaper the report was flawed.

"They use the end of July as the data and evidentiary cutoff and therefore are not taking into account any gains in any of the benchmarks that may have become more clear throughout August," one official said.

On closer examination, it turns out that the military simply didn't provide the GAO with the information. As Comptroller General David Walker explained:

Walker said the GAO consulted with the military until Thursday. "We asked for, but did not receive, the information through the end of August," he said. "But we obtained their views for where the situation was . . . as of August 30th."