Posted on 09/26/2006 3:32:17 PM PDT by churchillbuff
A declassified government intelligence report says the war in Iraq has become a "cause celebre" for Islamic extremists, breeding deep resentment of the U.S. that is likely to get worse before it gets better.
In the bleak report, released Tuesday on President Bush's orders, the nation's most veteran analysts conclude that despite serious damage to the leadership of al-Qaida, the threat from Islamic extremists has spread both in numbers and in geographic reach.
"If this trend continues, threats to U.S. interests at home and abroad will become more diverse, leading to increasing attacks worldwide," the document says. "The confluence of shared purpose and dispersed actors will make it harder to find and undermine jihadist groups."
Bush ordered a declassified version of the classified report released after several days of criticism sparked by portions that were leaked. Asked about those Tuesday, Bush said critics who believe the Iraq war has worsened terrorism are naive and mistaken.
The intelligence assessment, completed in April, has stirred a heated election-season argument over the course of U.S. national security in the years following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Bush and his top advisers had said the broad assessment on global terrorism supported their arguments that the world is safer. But more than three pages of stark judgments warning about the spread of terrorism contrasted with the administration's glass-half-full declarations.
The report said:
• The increased role of Iraqis in opposing al-Qaida in Iraq might lead the terror group's veteran foreign fighters to focus their efforts outside the country.
• While Iran and Syria are the most active state sponsors of terror, many other countries will be unable to prevent their resources from being exploited by terrorists.
• The underlying factors that are fueling the spread of the extremist Muslim movement outweigh its vulnerabilities. These factors are entrenched grievances and a slow pace of reform in home countries, rising anti-U.S. sentiment and the Iraq war.
• Groups "of all stripes" will increasingly use the Internet to communicate, train, recruit and obtain support.
The assessment also lays out weaknesses of the movement that analysts say must be exploited if its spread is to be slowed. For instance, they note that extremists want to see the establishment of strict Islamic governments in the Arab world — a development they say would be unpopular with most Muslims.
"Exposing the religious and political straitjacket that is implied by the jihadists' propaganda would help to divide them from the audiences they seek to persuade," the report says.
It also argues that the loss of key leaders — Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — in "rapid succession" would probably cause the group to fracture.
Al-Zarqawi was killed in June, but the top two al-Qaida leaders have remained elusive for years.
Huh? We're trying to fix the "underlying causes" and that's a "cause?" This stuff is utter gibberish.
This has already been blown out of the water. You and AP need to keep up.
The AP really knows how to spin. Are we supposed to trust these people's judgments?
Countering the spread of the jihadist movement will require coordinated multilateral efforts that go well beyond operations to capture or kill terrorist leaders. If democratic reform efforts in Muslim majority nations progress over the next five years, political participation probably would drive a wedge between intransigent extremists and groups willing to use the political process to achieve their local objectives. Nonetheless, attendant reforms and potentially destabilizing transitions will create new opportunities for jihadists to exploit.
In other words, Bush's initiative to bring a pluralist, democratic government to Iraq and democratic reforms in the greater Middle East initiative is our best hope over the long term of dealing with the sources of jihadism.
I'm completely disgusted by the actions of liberals in Congress and the media who are impeding efforts to deal with a very real problem. Is their solution Rangel's? Cut off funding? The Democrats have never met a war they didn't want to lose.
This has already been blown out of the water.
He said it reads like a college term paper.
He suggested that they give him a couple million dollars and he would write a report with more eloquence and it would make more sense then this.
In other words, Bush's initiative to bring a pluralist, democratic government to Iraq and democratic reforms in the greater Middle East initiative is our best hope over the long term of dealing with the sources of jihadism.
Uh huh. Cuz the ragheads just loved the US before the Iraq war, dontcha know. Hey, Abdul! Resent THIS!!!!
This IS a healthy development toward a long term solution.
If the Palis freely choose Hamas as their government, a party that refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist and promotes a policy of a state of war with Israel, then the Palestinian people cannot evade the responsibility for the consequences of Hamas's policies, which eventually presents the Palestinians with a very stark choice: be justifiably militarily crushed by Israel as a result of a policy openly adopted by them, or finally elect a government that will accept a reasonable two-state solution with the support of a majority the Palestinian people and be able to implement it.
The alternative structure, in which a party without majority support of the people (Fatah) is nominally in control and willing to negotiate a two-state solution but does not exert effective control over the Palestinian areas, is not a healthy situation in the long term, and only serves to avoid a stable long-term resolution of the problem.
I hope this doesn't have you totally depressed.
Hm....
What I've seen of the report is not suprising and supports what bin Laden, and President Bush, have said: Iraq is the central front on the war on terror.
Reid shouldn't have said this is the wrong memo or that Bush is "cherry picking." Dingy should have known the MSM would lie for him to cover up the Dim distortion.
Hit a hornets and the hornets get pissed! Wow. What a shock! Do you want a hornets nest outside your door or do you want to get rid of it? What's the big news here?
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