US spy agencies have dropped a political bombshell six weeks before national elections, with the leak of a classified report concluding that the war in Iraq has spawned a new wave of Islamic radicalism and increased the global threat of terrorism.
The intelligence document on Sunday rocked a central pillar of the Republican Party’s campaign platform ahead of November elections: that the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the ouster of Saddam Hussein made America safer, not weaker.
Such assertions were looking decidedly shaky Sunday after The New York Times and The Washington Post released details of the classified National Intelligence Estimate, the most comprehensive assessment yet of the war, based on analyses of all 16 of America’s intelligence agencies.
The report, Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States, says “the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse…”
“While the US has seriously damaged Al-Qaeda and disrupted its ability to carry out major operations since the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, it noted, radical Islamic networks have spread and decentralized.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist expressed confidence US voters would not be swayed by the intelligence report.
“I think the American people, when they read an article like that … say, ‘Listen, just keep me safe — I just want to be safe in Nashville, Tennessee, I want to be safe in Memphis, New York City, Washington, DC,’ that’s what they want.”
The White House says the leaked info “isn’t representative of the whole document”. Then, they shouldn’t have any problem with publishing the report for all of us to read and evaluate — after editing the few legitimate security concerns.
Right?
The media won’t touch this, or anything else related to actual strategy, as they would rather us loose this war than risk being called a liberal or a traitor. Mark my words.
–Lee
I mean this is obviously another case of the liberal US Spy agencies pushing their leftist agenda.
(best read dripping with sarcasm)
I don’t get it. Somebody got paid to write a report telling us something we’ve known for a year or so (and some of us before the war started)? I can’t wait until it’s finally announced that a civil war has started over there. That should only be about six months or so late. Assuming it’s reported in the next week or so.
I profited from 9/11. I made about an extra $30,000 due to work contracted out and paid by the government to repair damage caused by the collapse of the Twin Towers. That was a couple of years ago. A coworker of mine commented to me one day this year as we were drinking coffee right in front of the hole that is present ground zero that he wished for an another “9/11” so that he could make some more money. I stayed silent. If it happens, it happens. I never wish for something to happen so that I can please myself from its occurence. Especially death on fellow human beings. However, look at people who have the ability to stage and manipulate current events to ACTUALLY make their wishes come true. Yeah, I know, conspiracy theories. But, what if one actually had the power to make profits from other people’s miseries, would you do it? I couldn’t. Who is benefitting from terrorism today? Bush HAS made terrorism more prevalent. HE HAS SPREAD THE IDEA. Look at this graph:
http://zfacts.com/p/35.html
Look at the billions and billions in profits that the oil companies and the military-industrial companies have made. What if you could make a million dollars for every man that gets shot in combat. Would you hope for more fatalities? Hell, you’re not pulling the trigger, right?
Be careful what you wish for.
The report conclusion is only obvious to those with independent thought.
Lee’s right. No one has the guts in the other party to touch this.
>radical Islamic networks have spread and decentralized.
So Afghanistan was bad too?
It looks like the President might have to declassify another NIE to respond to political attacks.
#1
God bless America.
The media won’t touch this, or anything else related to actual strategy, as they would rather us loose [sic] this war than risk being called a liberal or a traitor. Mark my words
Apparently the Washington Post and the New York Times didn’t get the memo.
Or do they not count as “the media” in your world?
Devils advocate here… sometimes things have to get a lot worse before they can get better. If you start poking the shrubs with a stick the bugs come out where you can smack them.
I’m still waiting to see how the Bush administration spins this one, i wonder what they will say, the report was by liberals, they might have some generals in there pockets to put on display that say “we are winning the war”, maybe they will start giving gas away for free, or they might come out with there own report.
This report is going to kill everything the Bush administations stands for, and it seems to be another component for this perfect storm that is brewing which will allow democrats to take the house and the senate.
Are these the same “Spy Agencies” that said there were WMDs in Iraq?
@12
actually if you actually read the 9/11 commission report you would have learned how basically everyone in the CIA was screaming that there were no WMD’s in iraq but the CIA leadership (Geroge Tenant) and the Bush administration were so focused on Iraq that they basically only listened to intelligence reports that furthered their view of the sitiuation.
Of course you were probably too lazy to read the 9/11 report and acutally try to gain some understanding of the issues so we wind up with your ridiculous statement.
um… has it occured to anyone else…
fill in the blank:
“fighting for peace is like ____ing for virginity”
“situation normal: all ____ed up”
not that arguing about it on some blog is going to help anything
A political bombshell? Anybody with a brain that has kept up with what the American people fondly call “news”, that has the ability to read between the lines and think independently has had this figured for the last few years. Not exactly new news. And it was “leaked”? Timing is, as they say, everything. But who was it leaked to? It’s common knowledge. And Frist thinks that all the American people want is for some authority figure to tell them they are safe. Somebody is really going to get their feelings hurt in November.
Terrorism is way too complicated a problem to even begin to formulate a solution on a blog. I agree that Bush is a twit, but no one can say what response to 911 would have been better, if anything.
Actually #9, no they don’t count, because no one but the geeks (like us) even reads a newspaper any more. Unless it leads the nightly newscast for a week, and is in between the bumps on talk radio, it might as well be a weather report on Mars.
The answer is as obvious as asking if fire burns.
BTW, I would -love- to be wrong. A real debate on strategy would go a long way towards devising some way for all of us to work together and overcome this problem, and at the least it would ensure that we actually had one.
um – and people are suprise about this??!?!? morons….
Most of us already knew this, but now it’s at least official.
The most surprising parts are that:
The agencies are independent enough to come to their own conclusions.
Secondly that the political overseers allowed this to be released to the public.
This could be a sign that there is rebellion in the ranks against the Administration. Can we expect more of the same?
And the counterleaking begins:
http://formerspook.blogspot.com/2006/09/more-of-what-you-wont-read-in-nyt.html
Neolib, the ideological differences between “intelligence” agencies are legion and long-standing. If you want it in the kind of shorthand that satisfies the weakminded (like AB CD — who still hasn’t figured out how to use tinyurl or peer beyond his reactionary web-ring for support) — the CIA is liberal, the FBI is conservative, the NSA is neo-fascist.
Activists who actually confront these ethical cripples on the world stage find the characterization reasonably accurate. It matches the tactics they favor in the field. You can tell a lot about an American government by which agency they favor.
The White House, while reiterating its traditional stance of not commenting on classified reports, said The New York Times story “isn’t representative of the complete document.”
And since when has the White House given us true facts? Well, not in almost 5 ½ years has any truth emanated from the White House.
Hi people! I’m a new member here and I like this forum, I think its a good and a reasonable forum with ejucated people.now let put a term for the word(Terorrism):terrorism is the use of power agains civilians to achive a political goal.this defenotion was constructed by america and great britain in the 1960,s.that means that every action and again every action and everybody body besides his relegion who act such a thing is considered to be a terrorist.now,lets be realistic,no one accepted what happened in 11-9-2001,nor the other actions that happened after it.but to say that terrorism is a muslim property thats absolotley not true.if a muslim did such a thing that doesnt mean that islam is a terrorism relegion.what really i think that when israel killed over 1000 civilians and usa killed in iraq over 1 million civilian,and we all know the 14 years old girl that was raped in a barbarious way and killed with her family,and we all saw what happened in abu greb prison of sicological and physical tourtchment to prisonrs to get information from them.those actions r terrorism…a proffisional terrorism by a state who declares every day that it want to carry democracy to the middle east!!!! by this way????? so before we talk about terrorism lets talk what r the reasons of this terrorism.iam not defending terrorism and their actions no I whould do that but lets be realistic,arent those actions of the usa is the main reason for the so called islamic terrorism???? when holy quran is being dropped in bath and islam is being hemeiliated and prophet mohammad too,do we expect them to just hug us and say hello democracy!!!?? now is that democracy?? thats terrorism.the solution is that Usa and israel should stop lyuing and terrorisming the world.USA always says that iran has a nuclear bomb,and that is a disaster if iran used it,but we all know that the only country and the first country that used nuclear weapons-against civilians- and i repeat:against civilians is USA.i think that USA should disarm it self from nuclear weapons to make the world safer and want to make a nuclear weapon when that happen coz the reason that the countries r racing to build a n uclear weapon is that they r fearing usa ones.thx a lot,my friends 🙂