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

To: pompsander who wrote (763701)	7/21/2007 8:00:26 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

Re: "...and a new regional rivalry pitting the Islamic Republic of Iran and its allies, including Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas, against Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan." Ah... the scales begin to fall from their eyes! (Though they need to define the Shia/Sunni rivalry a bit more broadly even then that --- Pakistan gets added to the Saudi/Sunni side... and Iran and India both will continue exerting whatever influence they have in an effort to keep Afghanistan from falling back into Pakistan's orbit. In that one regard at least their goals should be congruent with ours....) Re: "...[N.I.E.] released this week, suggests that Al Qaeda in Iraq is now among the most significant threats to the security of the American homeland." Believe the Times author is mucho confused here. The N.I.E. DID NOT say that. (In fact, it said that 'al Qaeda in Iraq' was too busy fighting the Shiite government in Iraq, to have any bandwidth left for out-of-region activity, that it was focused on Iraq.) What it did say though was that the global headquarters of al Qaeda in Pakistan's 'tribal regions' was responsible for the planning of several of the most recent terrorist strikes in the West, and was actively planning for more strikes on the West, including strikes in the US. I wonder --- did the author of this piece actually NOT READ the N.I.E.? (Or is he engaging in a bit of administration-inspired misdirection propaganda?)

To: pompsander who wrote (763701)	7/21/2007 9:00:05 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 769670

TPMtv: The New Al Qaeda Bamboozle youtube.com

To: pompsander who wrote (763701)	7/22/2007 11:47:23 AM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Al Qaeda's ability to recruit a growing number of such recruits is directly related to the Bush administration's largest strategic blunder in its war on terrorism: the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. The April 2006 NIE found that the Iraq conflict had become "a cause célèbre" for jihadists. This week's report emphasizes the point still further, stating that "[the] association with [Al Qaeda in Iraq] helps Al Qaeda energize the broader Sunni extremist community, raise resources, and to recruit and indoctrinate operatives, including for Homeland attacks." On the Bush administration's watch Al Qaeda has become able to operate with increasing impunity in the tribal provinces of western Pakistan along the Afghan border. It was in such a region, North Waziristan, that U.S. intelligence sources say last summer's Al Qaeda plot to explode ten American airliners over U.S. cities was planned, an operation timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of 9/11. What is particularly sobering about the new NIE is that it indicates that Al Qaeda may start to use Iraq, a veritable laboratory for urban warfare, as a launching pad for attacks on the United States. Bush has made a mess of everything, increased terrorist activity, spent the country into bankruptcy and has left our borders unprotected while leaving the doors to illegal immigration wide open. tnr.com