Report: Iraq War Made Terror 'Worse'
The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has increased the number of terrorist groups worldwide and "made the overall terrorism problem worse," a U.S. intelligence official said in a secret study.
The assessment of the war's impact on terrorism came in a National Intelligence Estimate that represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government, CBS News learned Sunday.
CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante reports that the intelligence report contained some broad conclusions:
The U.S. presence in Iraq is providing new recruits for militant Islam.
The movement has spread and is now "self-generating."
While inspired by al Qaeda, the radical movement is no longer directly tied to Osama bin Laden.
Because of the Internet, the radical Islamist movement is more connected and no longer isolated.
The details of the Intelligence Estimate were first published in Sunday's New York Times and Washington Post.
Three leading Republicans — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — defended the war in Iraq and said it is vital that U.S. troops stay in the fight.
On CBS's Face The Nation, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. spoke cautiously of the report, saying that while he knew nothing about it, "it's obvious that the difficulties we've experienced in Iraq have certainly emboldened (terrorists) — lack of success always does that."
McCain, a likely candidate for president in 2008, agress with President Bush that the United States needs to stay and prevail in Iraq. "If we fail, then our problems will be much more complicated," he said.
Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. said he had not seen the classified report, which was completed in April, but said Americans understand the United States must continue to fight terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere.
"Either we are going to be fighting this battle, this war overseas, or it's going to be right here in this country," Frist said on ABC's "This Week," echoing an argument that President Bush frequently makes.
"Attacks here at home stopped when we started fighting al Qaeda where they live, rather than responding after they hit," McConnell said in a statement.
Democrats seized on an intelligence assessment that said the Iraq war has increased the terrorist threat, saying it was further evidence that Americans should choose new leadership in the November midterm elections.
Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., said in a statement that the assessment "should put the final nail in the coffin for President Bush's phony argument about the Iraq war."
"How many more independent reports, how many more deaths, how much deeper into civil war will Iraq need to fall for the White House to wake up and change its strategy in Iraq?"
"Unfortunately this report is just confirmation that the Bush administration's stay-the-course approach to the Iraq war has not just made the war more difficult and more deadly for our troops, but has also made the war on terror more dangerous for every American," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, head of the Democratic effort to take control of the House of Representatives in the upcoming national election.
"It's time for a new direction in this country," Emanuel, an Illinois Democrat, said in the statement.
"Press reports say our nation's intelligence services have confirmed that President Bush's repeated missteps in Iraq and his stubborn refusal to change course have made America less safe," said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid. "No election-year White House PR campaign can hide this truth."
A White House spokesman, Blair Jones, said "We don't comment on classified documents" and that the published accounts' "characterization of the NIE is not representative of the complete document."
The White House issued a written rebuttal that argued administration officials have been making some of the same arguments as in the intelligence estimate. A White House strategy booklet released this month described the terrorists as more dispersed and less centralized and still a threat to the United States.
Bush himself said on Sept. 5 that the "terrorist danger remains" and the broader terrorist movement is becoming more spread out and self-directed. He also quoted Osama bin Laden describing Iraq as the central battlefield in the fight against terrorism.
The president has said the United States is safer since the Sept. 11 attacks and that fighting the terrorists in Iraq keeps them from attacking America.
In other developments:
Senior Arab officials have revealed to CBS News that al Qaeda has scaled down its leadership structure in Afghanistan and is poised to shift its main decision making to somewhere in the Middle East, possibly Iraq. "Iraq we know is right now the biggest battleground for such people and I have heard enough on the subject of Iraq working as a magnet for militant groups to go along with the view that some may be heading to Iraq," said one diplomat who also spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Two U.S. Marines with Regimental Combat Team 5, died in fighting in Anbar province west of Baghdad, the military said without releasing any further details. U.S. military authorities reported the deaths of three American soldiers on Saturday.
At least 22 people were killed and double that number injured Sunday in scattered violence around Iraq, including a mortar attack on the Health Ministry followed by a car bombing targeting a police patrol.
Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer said Sunday the defense team will boycott his genocide trial "indefinitely" because of alleged violations by the Iraqi court trying him. "The court committed several violations of the law and we will not just sit there gagged to give it legitimacy," said Khalil al-Dulaimi, who heads the nine-member defense team for the deposed Iraqi leader.
Baghdad police on Sunday raised the confirmed casualty toll in the deadly bombing of a kerosene truck on a crowded street Saturday to 38 killed and 42 injured. A Sunni group claiming responsibility for the attack in Baghdad's Sadr City, a sprawling Shiite slum, said it was in revenge for a Friday attack by a suspected Shiite death squad on Sunni Arab homes and mosques that killed four people in the capital.
Iraq's fractious ethnic and religious parliamentary groups agreed Sunday to open debate on a contentious Shiite-proposed draft legislation that will allow the creation of federal regions in Iraq, politicians from all groups said. The agreement came after a compromise was reached with Sunni Arabs on setting up a parliamentary committee to amend Iraq's constitution, a key demand by the minority.
An al Qaeda-linked group posted a Web video Saturday purporting to show the bodies of two American soldiers being dragged behind a truck, then set on fire in apparent retaliation for the rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman by U.S. troops from the same unit.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The assessment of the war's impact on terrorism came in a National Intelligence Estimate that represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government, CBS News learned Sunday.
CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante reports that the intelligence report contained some broad conclusions:
The details of the Intelligence Estimate were first published in Sunday's New York Times and Washington Post.
Three leading Republicans — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — defended the war in Iraq and said it is vital that U.S. troops stay in the fight.
On CBS's Face The Nation, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. spoke cautiously of the report, saying that while he knew nothing about it, "it's obvious that the difficulties we've experienced in Iraq have certainly emboldened (terrorists) — lack of success always does that."
McCain, a likely candidate for president in 2008, agress with President Bush that the United States needs to stay and prevail in Iraq. "If we fail, then our problems will be much more complicated," he said.
Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. said he had not seen the classified report, which was completed in April, but said Americans understand the United States must continue to fight terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere.
"Either we are going to be fighting this battle, this war overseas, or it's going to be right here in this country," Frist said on ABC's "This Week," echoing an argument that President Bush frequently makes.
"Attacks here at home stopped when we started fighting al Qaeda where they live, rather than responding after they hit," McConnell said in a statement.
Democrats seized on an intelligence assessment that said the Iraq war has increased the terrorist threat, saying it was further evidence that Americans should choose new leadership in the November midterm elections.
Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., said in a statement that the assessment "should put the final nail in the coffin for President Bush's phony argument about the Iraq war."
"How many more independent reports, how many more deaths, how much deeper into civil war will Iraq need to fall for the White House to wake up and change its strategy in Iraq?"
"Unfortunately this report is just confirmation that the Bush administration's stay-the-course approach to the Iraq war has not just made the war more difficult and more deadly for our troops, but has also made the war on terror more dangerous for every American," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, head of the Democratic effort to take control of the House of Representatives in the upcoming national election.
"It's time for a new direction in this country," Emanuel, an Illinois Democrat, said in the statement.
"Press reports say our nation's intelligence services have confirmed that President Bush's repeated missteps in Iraq and his stubborn refusal to change course have made America less safe," said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid. "No election-year White House PR campaign can hide this truth."
A White House spokesman, Blair Jones, said "We don't comment on classified documents" and that the published accounts' "characterization of the NIE is not representative of the complete document."
The White House issued a written rebuttal that argued administration officials have been making some of the same arguments as in the intelligence estimate. A White House strategy booklet released this month described the terrorists as more dispersed and less centralized and still a threat to the United States.
Bush himself said on Sept. 5 that the "terrorist danger remains" and the broader terrorist movement is becoming more spread out and self-directed. He also quoted Osama bin Laden describing Iraq as the central battlefield in the fight against terrorism.
The president has said the United States is safer since the Sept. 11 attacks and that fighting the terrorists in Iraq keeps them from attacking America.
In other developments:
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Once in Iraq, it becomes quickly apparent that Saddam has no WMD. But the troops continue until Saddam is captured.
Now instead of leaving, US troops stay there and foment an insurgency that rapidly gains strength. Bin Laden, no dummy he, still free, encourages the insurgency and sends Al Quada fighters there to help train the insurgents.
The Shiites take advantage of the general melee and start attacking Sunni, and very soon there is civil war.
Now the US troops are caught in the middle of an extremely dangerous situation and not only are they not equipted to handle it, there are not enough of them.
Faced with the rapidly escalating violence, Bush continues with the same policy that started this whole mess to begin with, even though he has been told by countless people that the US presence there is at the root of much of the violence. He refuses to even consider another strategy.
This man is beyond stupid. He is a moron, a bull headed moron.
President Eisenhower
"Communism and fascism or nazism, although poles apart in their intellectual content, are similar in this, that both have emotional appeal to the type of personality that takes pleasure in being submerged in a mass movement and submitting to superior authority."
James A.C. Brown
"But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. ... voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, the Nuremberg Diary
"... to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists ..."
Dec 6, 2001, Attorney General Ashcroft
"I have always felt that truth brings its own peace."
SearingTruth
Fredom Clock - www.searingtruth.com
Could you Bush haters get it together and pick one?