Report: Iraq War Made Terror 'Worse'

Terrorism Has Spread Since U.S. Invasion, National Intelligence Estimate Finds

(CBS/AP)  While threats came in a blizzard around the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — a series of sophisticated videos from al Qaeda's No. 2 warning that the group is still vital and plans to strike — U.S. intelligence agencies and many private security analysts doubt that al Qaeda or its elusive leader, Osama bin Laden, still maintain much if any operational control over far-flung terror cells.

They see no sign of a direct al Qaeda hand in a flurry of recent attacks, such as the assault on the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, Syria or the fatal shooting of a British tourist in Jordan. And a recent French intelligence report that bin Laden may have died last month of typhoid fever merely highlights the uncertainty the West now has about any role he plays in the terror network.

All that means those frightening videos may have been just that —designed to frighten the West and inspire followers — with little real punch behind them.

Bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are now "less like generals and more like talking heads, disseminating their violent ideology via satellite television in hopes of inspiring others to do their bidding," says Eben Kaplan of the Council on Foreign Relations think tank in New York.

Not everyone agrees with that controversial idea. There also are ominous signs in Afghanistan that al Qaeda is trying to make an operational comeback as attacks, especially suicide missions, against U.S. and coalition forces increase.

Some experts also fear the absence of a major, Sept. 11-style attack simply means that al Qaeda is taking its time to plan a next spectacular strike.

Yet, five years after the attacks on the World Trade Center, many analysts believe the day-to-day threat from al Qaeda itself has dropped.

Paradoxically, however, the threat from Islamic extremist terrorists overall may have grown — and become broader, more diverse and more complex, and thus harder to combat.

"The absence of a formal, single organizational structure has contributed to making the fight against this brand of terrorism more elusive and difficult," the British think-tank Chatham House said in a report this month as the videos were airing.

After the U.S. and its allies ousted the Taliban in 2001, al Qaeda apparently transformed itself into an ideological movement of self-sustaining cells that operate with little or no central direction, many analysts and intelligence officials believe. That makes them difficult to track — until they strike or make a mistake that leads the authorities to them.

[drgoodwin12]

The iraq war made terrorism worse read the washington post story it is more in depth than cbs and get out and vote plus For everyone that is against Bush because he deliberately mislead us into war in Iraq,go online and contribute $10,25 or any amount of money you can afford to the Democratic Party and do so before the elections.There are good republican senators like Specter and Warner however in order for this country to change course we have to change it's leadership first.It's crunch time for the elections and in order to restore this country we need new leadership in the house and senate.

[saveaworld]

Do you really think that just because you are now more aware of terrorism that that means it has increased? There has always been terrorism. Muslim Jihad has existed for hundreds of years. They are right now in the process of infiltrating and taking over dozens of countries. We have to fight it.

[trailsntrees]

azman80 said it correctly and hit it right on the dot. works done in iraq and the troops need their rest too. the other guy here is right also, we need to donate money to the democrats now and hope this bad group of people can finally leave the world alone.

[drgoodwin12]

For everyone that is against Bush because he deliberately mislead us into war in Iraq,go online and contribute $10,25 or any amount of money you can afford to the Democratic Party and do so before the elections.There are good republican senators like Specter and Warner however in order for this country to change course we have to change it's leadership first.It's crunch time for the elections and in order to restore this country we need new leadership in the house and senate.

[clestes-2009]

So first Bush and co invade Afganistan to go after Bin Laden. Then, right when Bin Laden is being cornered, he calls the troops off to invade Iraq, a country that had no Al Quada ties, but supposedly had WMD.

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.

[drgoodwin12]

For everyone that is against Bush because he deliberately mislead us into war in Iraq,go online and contribute $10,25 or any amount of money you can afford to the Democratic Party and do so before the elections.There are good republican senators like Specter and Warner however in order for this country to change course we have to change it's leadership first.It's crunch time for the elections and in order to restore this country we need new leadership in the house and senate.

[searingtruth]

"Any who act as if freedom's defenses are to be found in suppression and suspicion and fear confess a doctrine that is alien to America."
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

[drgoodwin12]

SearingTruth and ANGRYliberal should marry and have kids,they could name the Dweezil Bush and Moon Laura.They could take wonderful imaginative journeys to the land Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.They could run as a team for president and V.P. with so much anger and imagination they could lead our country back to the stone ages while they listen to Captain Beefheart. Maybe MH could marry them or join them in their marriage.

[ronniehm]

Bush has made us less safe. Bush is exaggerating the threat.

Could you Bush haters get it together and pick one?

[drgoodwin12]

Here is an interesting story to read http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/09/dozens_of_forei.html ,yes Bush has made us safer?

[rsoxfan1123]

So this intelligence report has confirmed what common sense dictated from the beginning- going into Iraq was poking a stick into the hornet's nest that is the Middle East. It took 16 various intelligence services to figure this out?

[ronniehm]

To the elegantly named annabanana, who thinks there weren't any insurgents in Iraq before we got there: Of course there were; they just weren't called insurgents. Saddam called them employees. They were killing Iraqis then, and they're killing Iraqis now. Who do you think is angry that we removed Saddam? The Kurds? The Shiites?

Did you read the little piece about how the terrorists are kidnapping Iraqis and putting bombs in their cars before they set them free? They can't even find enough people who want to blow themselves up anymore. They've started a draft. They're running out of suicide bombers. They're running out of money. We're not creating terrorists; we're killing terrorists. The idiots who sympathize with the terrorists are the ones creating them.

[searingtruth]

"Republicans are in a unique historical position. They are the first group of people raised on this land, who call themselves Americans, that openly proclaim the virtues of torture, secret prisons, extrajudicial abduction, universal surveillance, and dictatorial government."
SearingTruth

"Who would say freedom is not free, with the price being freedom itself."
SearingTruth

"The Constitution fails to defend itself, enduring only in the rare hearts of those who would uphold it."
SearingTruth

"When everything is secret, everything is legal."
SearingTruth

"Who would submit accusation in permanence of guilt."
SearingTruth

"Law without justice is simply tyranny."
SearingTruth

"Innocence is muted by cruel withdrawal of voice."
SearingTruth

"War crimes must be punished."
SearingTruth

"It is time to stop appeasing the Christian-Fascist dictatorship of George W. Bush and his henchmen."
SearingTruth

[patriotic9]

Gslinger3
Then what do you make of separation of church and state described very clearly in the constitution.People are not good or bad.Their actions are either good or bad.Our ancestors brought blacks from Africa and how those poor innocent Blacks slaves were treated,the whole world knows that.How the poor innocent Native Americans were treated we also know that.Should we repeat all those actions comitted by our ancestors.Those actions of our ancestors didn't make us the greatest nation on earth.We should only follow those actions of our ancestors which are good.It is the great constitution of United States which makes us greatest nation,which guarantees rights to all the citizens irrespective of their racial back ground.From whom we got independence,"THE BRITISH".Were those britons HINDUS,MOSLEMS,BUDHIST,etc.No they were all christians like most of the Americans are.Then why do people claim that foundation of our country is based on christianity.If we assume this claim to be right,then what about the separation of church and state,is our constitution based on lies and hypocracy?

[annabanana-1]

The elegantly named "fartknocker" (below) claims that "all wars make insurgents more active". I would like to point out to Mr. knocker that there WEREN'T ANY insurgents in Iraq until we invaded and created them.

And, contrary to what Bush's apologists are spouting today, the longer we stay in Iraq, the more terrorists we will have to contend with. This feckless adventure isn't just creating terrorists in Iraq, it's creating them throughout the Muslim world. I sincerely hope that people here at home will check out the demographic breakdown of the world's major religions before claiming that we can "wipe them off the face of the Earth"...

[gslinger3]

patriotic9

You also would be well served to read the history books about your own country and learn for yourself just how much belief in the almighty had, and has an influence on the forming of our great nation. Most likly your own ancestors were strong beleivers in God. So when you say that God has no place in our government, you are actually denying the very essance of how our country came to be, and may I add, how we became to great country that we are, in spite of the non beleivers such as you!

[cathaleen]

If this is true, why aren't the terrorists going after non-muslims non-military people. It seems that the only people beside the soldiers that are being killed are other muslims. I think that we are once again making excuses for the terrorists
- oh it's our fault they are getting worse - but haven't they alway been this way. Let's get out of that 60's frame of mind of blaming ourselves for the evil that happens in the world.
When people commit these heinous acts - blame the people who commit them. There is not always a reaons for evil. We don't see the relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq or relatives of 9/11 going around bombing mosques and setting off ieds. Maybe we should not have gone into IRAQ but we're there now - so let's support our troops
and pray they come home soon.

[newsjeff-2009]

My second comment for today is very simple: Enforce illegal immigration and border patrol laws and do not allow U.S.Corporations and companies to hire illegal immigrants or smuggle illegal immigrants in. This will make America safer since that was how Bin Laden and his followers got into America in the first place. Laxed border patrol laws and illegal immigration laws that were either non-existent or not enforced. I cannot feel sorry for U.S. employers and U.S. companies complaining about a lack of immigrant laborers or immigrant workers. It is just plain old fashioned greed or coroporate greed to want people to work for less that $5 or $6 per hour these days. Yes I know minimum wage is higher in many states than $5.15, but with the case of the rich getting richer in the past several years as studies have shown, anyone working in America deserves some decent wages and benefits and even if minimum wage was $8 or $10 per hour nationally that is nothing compared to what even small business owners earn every year from their businesses. I live in a town with lots of "small business owners" and I know how they live, and I know that they could pay a higher minimum wage to all their workers if they had to. I have no sympathy for companies wanting workers for less than $5 or $8 per hour.

[newsjeff-2009]

First of all I could careless about whether Clinton got a ******* while in the White House or not. I could careless is Bush got one or not. The president and the former president's personal life is not an issue dealing with the "war on terror". I believed that if America had followed the example of former president Harry S. Truman dropping a few bombs on Japan it would have helped or ended the war on terror by now. If America had dropped a few bombs on Bin Laden's hideouts in Afghanistan after Sept.11,2001 it would have gotten rid of Bin Laden and his followers. Innocent civilians could have been ordered to evacuate or leave the country. I get tired of anti-war people saying that the atomic bomb dropping killed innocent people, well what about the American innocent victims of Pear Harbor, Hawaii or the innocent American victims in New York on 9-110-2001. If people want to call me racist or prejudice that is fine, I am not a KKK member and I don't were a white hood or sheet nor do I support the group, but I lost a great-uncle who was killed in the war America had with the Japanese who attacked Pear Harbor, HI. My grandfather was hit by an army truck and suffered a severe leg injury due to his platoon navigating without headlights to avoid detection from Japanse soliders. I look at it this way: America did not attack Japan many years ago, America did not attack Iraq,Afghanistan or any other country around the time 9-11-2001 occured, Bin Laden and his followers attacked us.

[Syndicate]

Wasn't their a report that said saddam had weapons of mass destruction? Islam is a weak religion It cannot survive the eventual assault of free speach. This is why musslims erupt into violance when anyone critizes their religion or draws pictures of their prophet. Isalm cannot survive in a modern world. This is why they fight so hard to ban all things modern. I look forward to the day when jews christians and muslims no longer exist. I just hope they don't turn into Scientologist.