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Politics : View from the Center and Left

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To: Dale Baker who wrote (37787)	5/23/2007 6:50:49 PM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (1) of 541933

Washington Post excerpt today on the big "news"" "The White House has been frequently criticized for a selective release of intelligence aimed at buttressing its political goals, and the comments today triggered a new round of such criticism. Outside intelligence experts described Bush's statement as a self-serving release of warmed-over information, the contours of which have already been known. The U.S. intelligence community has long believed bin Laden and Zarqawi have wanted to export violence from Iraq, but after a big Zarqawi-led bombing in Amman in 2005, there have been no more attacks. Bush did not mention long-held views in the intelligence world that Zarqawi had his own agenda and resisted direction from leading al-Qaeda figures, and that leading al-Qaeda officials were worried that Zarqawi's brutal tactics were alienating the public. "The release of such a non-story at this point serves mostly to buttress the administration's claim that Iraq's problems are the work of outsiders and not a result of the administration's mismanagement of the occupation and internal Iraqi factionalism," said Steve Simon, a Clinton administration counter-terrorism expert now at the Council on Foreign Relations, in a round of statements released by the National Security Network. He said since bin Laden is still at large and is considered key to ongoing operations, one has to ask "why the administration would release sensitive intelligence about its penetration of Al Qaeda's tactical communications." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) issued a statement saying Bush's remarks underscore why a change of course is necessary in Iraq. "Intelligence analysts concluded long ago that Iraq has indeed become a training ground for a new generation of terrorists," he said. "That is exactly why it is so important to change course from the president's failed Iraq strategy to a new strategy that more effectively fights terrorists." Democrats are arguing that the United States reduce its troop strength in Iraq and focus more on battling terrorists."

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