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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (750071)	9/25/2006 4:11:12 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Iraq war fueled Islamic radicals: retired U.S. general Mon Sep 25, 2006 2:13 PM EDT167 ca.today.reuters.com By Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The conduct of the Iraq war fueled Islamic fundamentalism across the globe and created more enemies for the United States, a retired U.S. Army general who served in the conflict said on Monday. The views of retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste appeared to buttress a grim assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies, which concluded the war had inspired Islamist extremists and made the growing militant movement more dangerous. The Iraq conflict, which began in March 2003, made "America arguably less safe now than it was on September 11, 2001," Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq in 2004-5, said in excerpts of remarks released ahead of his appearance at a hearing called by U.S. Senate Democrats. "If we had seriously laid out and considered the full range of requirements for the war in Iraq, we would likely have taken a different course of action that would have maintained a clear focus on our main effort in Afghanistan, not fueled Islamic fundamentalism across the globe, and not created more enemies than there were insurgents," Batiste said. Batiste, who was among retired generals who called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld earlier this year, said the Pentagon chief had refused to acknowledge the potential for insurgency, and forbidden military planners to develop a blueprint for securing Iraq after the war. "At one point, he threatened to fire the next person who talked about the need for a post-war plan," Batiste said. With less than a month until the November elections in which control of Congress is at stake, Democrats seized upon the National Intelligence Estimate to undermine the image fostered by President George W. Bush and Republicans as the party best able to handle terrorism. The classified intelligence document said Iraq had become the main recruiting tool for the Islamic militant movement as well as a training ground for guerrillas, according to current and former intelligence officials familiar with the assessment. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the document. The White House contends that the parts of the NIE assessment that have been reported are not representative of the complete document. "This NIE examines global terrorism and its totality, the morphing of al Qaeda and its affiliates and other jihadist movements," White House spokesman Tony Snow said. "It assesses that a variety of factors, in addition to Iraq, fuels a spread of jihadism, including longstanding social grievances, slowness of the pace of reform and the use of the Internet." "One thing that the reports do not say is that the war in Iraq has made terrorism worse," Snow added. Retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, another of Rumsfeld's critics who testified on Monday, said the defense secretary was trying to fight the war "on the cheap." Eaton was responsible for training the Iraqi military from May 2003 to March 2004 and for rebuilding the Iraqi police force from March to June 2004. A third witness, retired Marine Col. Thomas Hammes, said the administration had failed to buy the best equipment necessary for troops to get the job done. He served in Iraq in 2004, establishing bases for Iraqi armed forces. (Additional reporting by David Morgan and Matt Spetalnick) © Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.

To: Hope Praytochange who wrote (750071)	9/25/2006 4:13:42 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Study of Iraq War and Terror Stirs Strong Political Response September 25, 2006 By PHILIP SHENON and MARK MAZZETTI nytimes.com WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 — Democratic lawmakers, responding to an intelligence report that found that the Iraq war has invigorated Islamic radicalism and worsened the global terrorist threat, said the assessment by American spy agencies demonstrated that the Bush administration needed to devise a new strategy for its handling of the war. Representative Jane Harman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said that while she could not discuss details of the classified National Intelligence Estimate, “Every intelligence analyst I speak to confirms that” the Iraq war had contributed to the increased terrorist threat. “Even capturing the remaining top Al Qaeda leadership isn’t going to prevent copycat cells, and it isn’t going to change a failed policy in Iraq,” Ms. Harman said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “This administration is trying to change the subject. I don’t think voters are going to buy that.” In public comments on Sunday, Republican Congressional leaders did not dispute the accuracy of the reports about the intelligence estimate, although they continued to defend the American presence in Iraq. ”I think it’s obvious that the difficulties we’ve experienced in Iraq have certainly emboldened” terrorist groups, Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, said on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.” “But I would also argue that these people didn’t need any motivation to attack us on Sept. 11,” he said. The intelligence estimate, an assessment by America’s 16 intelligence agencies, found that the war in Iraq, rather than stemming the growth of terrorism, had helped fuel its spread across the globe. The estimate was completed in April, and is the first formal review of global terrorism by the United States since the Iraq war began. More than a dozen government officials and terrorism experts described the estimate to The New York Times, but spoke on condition of anonymity because its contents are classified. Several of the lawmakers who appeared on Sunday talk shows said they had not seen the classified document, whose disclosure comes weeks before the Nov. 7 elections. Intelligence reports from American spy agencies are not circulated widely on Capitol Hill, and Congressional officials said neither the House nor the Senate intelligence committees had been formally briefed on the report. In a statement released Sunday, the White House said the characterization of the report in The New York Times “is not representative of the complete document.” The White House did not release any specifics about the report, citing the fact that it was classified. John D. Negroponte, director of national intelligence, said in a statement on Sunday that conclusions about the Iraq war are only a part of the overall intelligence assessment, and that viewing the report’s conclusions “through the narrow prism of a fraction of judgments distorts the broad framework they create.” “While there is much that remains to be done in the war on terror, we have achieved some notable successes against the global jihadist threat,” he said. The White House also issued three pages of excerpts from recent speeches by President Bush, including remarks about the continuing threats from terrorist groups inspired by Al Qaeda. The House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi of California, said in a statement that news reports about the intelligence estimate were “further proof that the war in Iraq is making it harder for America to fight and win the war on terror.” Her Senate Democratic counterpart, Harry Reid of Nevada, said that “no election-year White House P.R. campaign can hide this truth — it is crystal clear that America’s security demands we change course in Iraq.” Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company