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Us Threatend To Bomb Pakistan Back To The Stone Age


Pierre the Great

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Sorry Rev, but it seems that even USA security agencies support my opinion...gee, they must be wrong too :P

Iraq war worsens threat of terror, spy agencies say

PAUL KORING

From Monday's Globe and Mail

WASHINGTON — The U.S.-led war in Iraq has enflamed the Muslim world, spawned a new generation of jihadists and fuelled terrorism rather than throttling it, according to elements of a highly classified intelligence report leaked Sunday.

The White House said the leaked and partial accounts failed to reflect the main thrust of the document, a National Intelligence Estimate drawn from 16 American spy agencies. But officials didn't deny the import of what was published.

"The Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse," one intelligence official was quoted as saying by The New York Times, which published some of the broad conclusions of the still-secret report, "Trends in Global Terrorism."

U.S. President George W. Bush has vigorously defended his decision to attack Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein, despite the subsequent absence of the outlawed chemical, biological and nuclear weapons that underpinned the original justification for waging war.

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Yeah...we were all getting along SOOOO well before that...if...

Is anyone really suprised about this. Bush lied to the world...

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Throughout the subsequent insurgency and worsening sectarian strife, Mr. Bush has insisted that the war and occupation were justified and vital as the "central front" in the "war on global terrorism."

Democrats have grown increasingly critical of the President's policies in Iraq. The House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi of California, said that news reports about the intelligence estimate are "further proof that the war in Iraq is making it harder for America to fight and win the war on terror."

Her Senate Democratic counterpart, Harry Reid of Nevada, said "no election-year White House P.R. campaign can hide this truth -- it is crystal clear that America's security demands we change course in Iraq."

However, Democrats are loathe to make Iraq and the struggle against Islamic extremism the pivotal issue in this fall's election campaign. Despite Mr. Bush's low approval ratings and the increasing majority of Americans voicing doubts about Iraq, the party cannot agree on a coherent alternative policy.

Yesterday, some Republicans used the report to shore up the President's insistence that quitting Iraq would be a huge mistake, even as they decried the leak.

"There's nothing secret in our nation's capital," lamented Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, a staunch backer of Mr. Bush's "stay the course" policy.

"The benefits of success [in Iraq] are enormous, and the consequences of failure are enormous," Mr. McCain said, adding that the slower-than-hoped-for pace of success in Iraq may be encouraging the terrorists.

According to The Times, the assessment concludes that self-generating Islamic extremist cells are proliferating around the world -- possibly inspired by al-Qaeda but not directly linked to the organization. The report says the long, bloody war in Iraq, coupled with reports of U.S. atrocities and allegations of torture and ill-treatment at Guantanamo Bay and other prisons, has fomented Islamic radicalism.

Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, one of the few who questioned the need to attack Iraq before the invasion, said the report "should put the final nail in the coffin for President Bush's phony argument about the Iraq war."

In a rare attack on Mr. Bush's handling of the conflict since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, former president Bill Clinton rejected accusations that he failed to chase down Osama bin Laden. Rather, he said in interviews yesterday, it was Mr. Bush who "did nothing" for eight months after taking office.

A National Intelligence Estimate is considered the premier product of all of the myriad spy agencies. One completed before the Iraq war concluded that Mr. Hussein was hiding and developing outlawed weapons of mass destruction. It proved to be wrong.

The latest report on the trend in Islamic extremism was apparently completed in April. Richard Holbrooke, formerly Mr. Clinton's ambassador to the United Nations, said it confirms what many have said for a long time -- that Iraq wasn't originally where the terrorists were.

"The 9/11 terrorists didn't come from Iraq, but Iraq has become a breeding ground for terrorists. It's increased anti-Americanism around the world. It's contributed to other crises. It's strengthened Iran," he said.

With a report from New York Times

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