Report: Iraq War Inspiring Terrorists
Declassified Intel Report Calls Iraq War A 'Cause Celebre' For Islamic Extremists
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The Politics Of Terror
In an effort to counter critics who insist the Iraq war has made the country less safe, President Bush released more of a classified intelligence review to try to make his case. Jim Axelrod reports.
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Bush Calls War Critics Naive
CBS News RAW: President Bush says it is naive and a mistake to think that the war with Iraq has worsened terrorism, as a national intelligence estimate concluded.
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Bush Adviser On Terror Threat
Only On The Web: In light of reports that the war in Iraq increased the terror threat, White House homeland security adviser Frances Townsend tells Jim Axelrod that al Qaeda has taken a hit.
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National Intelligence Director John Negroponte insisted the U.S. is at less risk of a terrorist attack than it was before 9/11. (AP)
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President Bush meets with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, Sept. 26, 2006. (AP)
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Iraq Insurgency
More on the militant groups behind the insurgency in Iraq and their motivations.
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The conflict wears on as the nation struggles to rebuild.
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In the bleak report, released Tuesday on President Bush's orders, the nation's most veteran analysts conclude that despite serious damage to the leadership of al Qaeda, the threat from Islamic extremists has spread both in numbers and in geographic reach.
"If this trend continues, threats to U.S. interests at home and abroad will become more diverse, leading to increasing attacks worldwide,' the document says. "The confluence of shared purpose and dispersed actors will make it harder to find and undermine jihadist groups."
The former director of the CIA’s National Counterterrorism Center, John Brennan, told CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric that intelligence community analysts are concerned that the conflict in Iraq is "fueling the fires of Islamic extremism inside Iraq and outside.
"There is just a ready propaganda tool that the Islamic extremists use by showing the footage of the continuation of the struggle inside Iraq," he said.
Mr. Bush ordered a declassified version of the classified report released after several days of criticism sparked by portions that were leaked. Asked about the leaked portions Tuesday, Mr. Bush said critics who believe the Iraq war has worsened terrorism are naive and mistaken.Read the declassified parts of the National Intelligence Estimate report here (.pdf)
Mr. Bush, who is known for aggressively guarding government secrets, took the extraordinary step of declassifying part of the report to prove his point that a selective leak distorted the study, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod.
Mr. Bush also said that the timing shows that the leak was motivated by pure politics, Axelrod adds.
"Here we are coming down the stretch in an election campaign and it's on the front page of your newspapers. Isn't that interesting?" Mr. Bush said at a news conference.
The intelligence assessment, completed in April, has stirred a heated election-season argument over the course of U.S. national security in the years following the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Mr. Bush and his top advisers had said the broad assessment on global terrorism supported their arguments that the world is safer. But more than three pages of stark judgments warning about the spread of terrorism contrasted with the administration's glass-half-full declarations.
The report said:
The assessment also lays out weaknesses of the movement that analysts say must be exploited if its spread is to be slowed. For instance, they note that extremists want to see the establishment of strict Islamic governments in the Arab world — a development they say would be unpopular with most Muslims.
"Exposing the religious and political straitjacket that is implied by the jihadists' propaganda would help to divide them from the audiences they seek to persuade," the report says.
It also argues that the loss of key leaders — Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — in "rapid succession" would probably cause the group to fracture.
Al-Zarqawi was killed in June, but the top two al Qaeda leaders have remained elusive for years.
The declassified summary of the report was only four pages long, Axelrod reports, and Democrats are clamoring to see its entire 30 pages.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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See all 246 Commentsgovt can't protect us on all fronts. We still are, in spite of added security, a very open country. People enter this country illegally every day. We can't stop them all so obviously there will be some bad guys that get in.
We all have to stay vigilant.
They will lie, cheat and steal in the name of energy gains (oil).
They will lie, cheat and steal in the name of economic gains (boosting military spending).
They spit on the Ten Commandments, and will be punished by GOD.
Bush is denying the threat.
Bush is hyping the threat.
Bush is denying the threat.
Bush is hyping the threat.
Bush is denying the threat.
Wow that is suprising that CBS is not telling the whole story from this press conference. I guess there is a reason FOX is #1. Wether or not you think they are conservative or Liberal at least they tell the whole story. If you want the whole story go here.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,215786,00.html
"Bush is hyping the threat.
Bush is denying the threat.
Bush is hyping the threat.
Bush is denying the threat.
Bush is hyping the threat.
Bush is denying the threat."
hmmm, did you go to school 4 years at Berkly to reason like that.
And apparently you and the majority of the NON-MUSLIM world disagree.
Let me try: Bush lied People Died
Did you think I would let you libs just sit around and work yourselves up into a conspiratorial frenzy while Foaming at the mouth with hatred for our president. What do you guys have to say about the words of Praise from the president of Afghanistan?
I am actually curious. You wont find it here, you will have to go to Fox for that (yeah I know the major outlet of the Vast Oil Munger, Muslim Hating, Wal-Mart Loving Right Wing Wack Job Conspiracy).
Stop ShutupMurtha. You're destroying America. You have to stop now. Get help.
CALLING THE BLUFF OF THE UNSCRUPULOUS LIBERAL MEDIA AND THIER POLITICALLY MOTIVATED LEAKS OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION.
DEATH TO THE LIBERAL BIASED MAINSTREAM MEDIA!
CALLING THE BLUFF OF THE UNSCRUPULOUS LIBERAL MEDIA AND THIER POLITICALLY MOTIVATED LEAKS OF CLASSIFIED INFORMATION.
DEATH TO THE LIBERAL BIASED MAINSTREAM MEDIA!
This from the president who was hysterical over "leaks" of information less than a year ago. Lets face it: this administration covers its blunders with the label of "classified" and yet is willing to declassify intelligence for cheap political gain.
Anyone else feel like they are living in the Soviet Union?
Only when Bill Clinton was President.
Liberals are only a hair away from Communists.
Quit being dramatic. I've been to the Soviet Union. It's nothing like the Soviet Union here.
Of course, its not what CBS wanted to hear, so Harry Smith cut him off and made a jab at the President. Typical CBS.
"Liberals are only a hair away from Communists."
that shows a lot of insight and rationality...
Only people with common sense.
But thanks for trying.
Liberals don't have logic to draw from, so you just wouldn't understand.
The leaks are propbably more accurate than anything we will ever see released publicly so long as the GOP is in power.
I mostly trust the regular non political intellengence folks - although with all the recent purges of the CIA and the FBI and other intelligence organizations there are not so many left who are politically aligned with the GOP anymore.
Just one more reason to end this disastrous reign of GOP rule
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