The "key judgements" section of the NIE was declassified today.
Among those judgements:
The Iraq conflict has become the ’cause celebre’ for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement. Shoud jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.
Four underlying factors are fueling the spread of the jihadist movement:
(1) Entrenched grievances, such as corruption, injustice and fear of Western domination, leading to anger, humiliation and a sense of powerlessness;
(2) the Iraq "jihad";
(3) the slow pace of real and sustained economic, social and political reforms in many Muslim majority nations, and;
(4) pervaisve anti-American sentiment among the Muslims.
http://www.dni.gov/press_releases/De..._Judgments.pdf
So Bush, Cheney, RIce knew in April when this NIE was submitted to the White House that the Iraq "jihad" was one of the factors spreading the jihadist movement, yet continue to say otherwise.
Bush:
"To suggest that if we weren't in Iraq we would see a rosier scenario (maybe not), with fewer extremists joining the radical movement (more likely than not), requires us to ignore 20 years of experience,"
Cheney, when asked by Tim Russert if the U.S. involvement in Iraq is creating more terrorists:
"I, I, I can’t buy that".
Rice:
"Now that we're fighting back, of course they are fighting back, too." (if we didnt start the war, would so many jihadist be in Iraq?)
"I find it just extraordinary that the argument is, all right, so they're using the fact they're being challenged in the Middle East and challenged in Iraq to recruit, therefore you've made the war on terrorism worse.
More on the declassified NIE:
Quote:
The war in Iraq has become a "cause celebre" for Islamic extremists, breeding deep resentment of the U.S. that probably will get worse before it gets better, federal intelligence analysts conclude in a report at odds with President Bush's portrayal of a world growing safer.
In the bleak report, declassified and released Tuesday on Bush's orders, the nation's most veteran analysts conclude that despite serious damage to the leadership of al-Qaida, the threat from Islamic extremists has spread both in numbers and in geographic reach.
Bush and his top advisers have said the formerly classified assessment of global terrorism supported their arguments that the world is safer because of the war. But more than three pages of stark judgments warning about the spread of terrorism contrasted with the administration's glass-half-full declarations.
"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."
...
Virtually all assessments of the current situation were bad news. The report's few positive notes were couched in conditional terms, depending on successful completion of difficult tasks ahead for the U.S. and its allies.....
full article: http://apnews.myway.com//article/200...D8KCREQ00.html
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Is it wrong to want our leaders to be honest with the American people on such an important issue, rather than lie, spin or obfuscate when the facts reflect poorly on their performance and policy?