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Iraq war is breeding a new generation of professional terrorists
The Guardian ^ | Janurary 15 2005 | Suzanne Goldenberg

Posted on 01/15/2005 11:19:30 AM PST by Darko

Iraq war is breeding a new generation of professional terrorists


TOPICS: War on Terror
KEYWORDS: terrorism; waronterror
Iraq war is breeding a new generation of professional terrorists, warns CIA report

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington Saturday January 15, 2005 The Guardian

The chaos of Iraq is giving rise to a new generation of "professional" terrorists who will eventually replace al-Qaida as a global threat, according to a CIA thinktank. A report by the National Intelligence Council says the war in Iraq has provided a training and recruitment ground for Islamist militants, much as Afghanistan did for the founding generation of al-Qaida during the war against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s. As new terror organisations emerge on the world stage, al-Qaida will splinter into regional separatist groups, says the report, which forecasts global trends over the next 15 years. "Iraq and other possible conflicts in the future could provide recruitment, training grounds, technical skills and language proficiency for a new class of terrorists who are 'professionalised' and for whom political violence becomes an end in itself," the report says. It gives warning that veterans of the conflict in Iraq could disperse around the world, exporting their deadly expertise. Specifically, the report warns that the US faces an increasing risk of an attack involving biological agents, such as anthrax, and that an emerging and more sophisticated generation of terrorists could also use chemical weapons. The bleak forecast undermines one of the Bush administration's central justifications for invading Iraq: that it was necessary to curb terrorism; that the country was a central front in the "war on terror"; and that the deposed Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, had links to al-Qaida's chief, Osama bin Laden. Instead, the report describes how hundreds of foreign terrorists entered Iraq after the US invasion, and how the insurgency against American forces was viewed by radical Muslims as a war against a foreign occupier, akin to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Terrorists also took advantage of postwar chaos, porous borders and a country awash with weapons. But unlike the rise of al-Qaida in Afghanistan, the emerging terrorists do not require a geographical base, and are expected to rely increasingly on the internet. "While taking advantage of sanctuaries around the world to train, terrorists will not need a stationary headquarters to plan and carry out operations," the report says. "Training materials, targeting guidance, weapons knowhow and fundraising will increasingly be virtual." The terrorists now recruited and trained in Iraq will eventually become the successor generation to al-Qaida, it predicts. "Al-Qaida membership that was distinguished by having trained in Afghanistan will gradually dissipate, to be replaced in part by the dispersion of the experienced survivors of the conflict in Iraq." The 119-page report was based on analysis from more than 1,000 US and foreign observers, and is designed to help the White House track world trends up to 2020. • Staff Sergeant Cardenas Alban was sentenced at a court martial yesterday to a year in jail for the murder of a severely wounded Iraqi teenager in a Baghdad slum district during a Shi'ite uprising last year, the US military said.

1 posted on 01/15/2005 11:19:32 AM PST by Darko
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To: Darko

I'm thinking Syria, Palestine and Iran are much better nations to train terrorists in.


2 posted on 01/15/2005 11:20:39 AM PST by TheDon (The Democratic Party is the party of TREASON)
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To: Darko

I dont trust anything printed in THE GUARDIAN


3 posted on 01/15/2005 11:27:24 AM PST by Grendel9
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To: Darko

And a new generation of dead ones.


4 posted on 01/15/2005 11:29:08 AM PST by expatpat
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To: Darko

"Staff Sergeant Cardenas Alban was sentenced at a court martial yesterday to a year in jail for the murder of a severely wounded Iraqi teenager in a Baghdad slum district during a Shi'ite uprising last year, the US military said"

Crap. He should have been awarded a medal and promoted for killing a terrorist.


5 posted on 01/15/2005 11:30:38 AM PST by 7.62 x 51mm (• veni • vidi • vino • visa • "I came, I saw, I drank wine, I shopped")
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To: expatpat

It should read:

Iraq war is breeding a new generation of (Dead) professional terrorists, warns CIA report


6 posted on 01/15/2005 11:30:42 AM PST by americanbychoice2
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To: Darko

Nothing printed by The Guardian has any credibility.


7 posted on 01/15/2005 11:33:47 AM PST by Bahbah
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To: Darko

The Iraq war is also breeding a new generation of battle-hardened U.S. soldiers. And you can count on our military coming up with plenty of new tactics and weapons by which to deal with these "new terrorists."


8 posted on 01/15/2005 11:34:36 AM PST by SamAdams76
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To: americanbychoice2; expatpat

I had my clever remark all set to go, and then I discovered it had been used twice already. Oh, well. Great minds thing alike. I guess some of them think more slowly than others.


9 posted on 01/15/2005 11:37:54 AM PST by Gil4 (Home is where the Air Force sends me!)
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To: Darko

I've been seeing this a lot lately. The Left is trying to get their propaganda points in before the Iraq election. I think they fear it will be a success, and Iraq will evolve quickly into a sort of boring place with a government and legislature, beset by the predictable occasional violence. They have ALWAYS been afraid our Iraq policy would succeed. It's typical that, as the election approaches, both the Left and the terrorists get more strident. They have a whole lot in common.


10 posted on 01/15/2005 11:39:53 AM PST by JennysCool (QuarkXPress has caused an error in QuarkXPress. QuarkXPress will now close.)
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To: Darko
Terrorists aren't the problem- we can legally kill them and it gives us something to do.

It's all these stinking no-survival-instinct liberals we can't do anything about (and are even protecting.)

11 posted on 01/15/2005 11:40:05 AM PST by piasa (Attitude Adjustments Offered Here Free of Charge)
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To: Darko

This means the terrorists are losing and badly. Things tend to be the opposite of what the CIA says.


12 posted on 01/15/2005 11:42:53 AM PST by Paul_Denton
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To: Darko
Forget The Guardian; the stuff straight from the horse's mouth (the 2020 NIC report

http://www.cia.gov/nic/NIC_globaltrend2020_s3.html#page78

is... laughable!

This is poor comedy masquerading as analysis.

13 posted on 01/15/2005 11:44:21 AM PST by March I up
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To: Darko

what they fail to say is that terrorists are using up logistics and finances to fight in iraq...and the fighters that survive..sure are more battlehardned..but most guerilla fighters die there.


14 posted on 01/15/2005 11:49:20 AM PST by Alex Marko
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To: Darko

And the terrorists have a new generation of "professional" propaganda spewing rags like the Guardian.


15 posted on 01/15/2005 11:49:59 AM PST by CAP811 (One man can change the world with a bullet in the right place)
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To: Alex Marko

The CIA is probably using reverse psychology on them...urging them to fight a way more advanced US army.


16 posted on 01/15/2005 11:50:23 AM PST by Alex Marko
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To: JennysCool
Excellent points.

All that the terrorists in Iraq are accomplishing is to train and motivate an Iraqi anti-terrorist force.

17 posted on 01/15/2005 12:13:31 PM PST by mrsmith
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To: CAP811

Nah, the Guardian has been spewing for quite a few years bfore 9/11.


18 posted on 01/15/2005 12:31:05 PM PST by expatpat
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