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A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.

The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,’’ it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.

An opening section of the report, “Indicators of the Spread of the Global Jihadist Movement,” cites the Iraq war as a reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology.

The report “says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” said one American intelligence official.

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“New jihadist networks and cells, sometimes united by little more than their anti-Western agendas, are increasingly likely to emerge,” said Gen. Michael V. Hayden, during a speech in San Antonio in April, the month that the new estimate was completed. “If this trend continues, threats to the U.S. at home and abroad will become more diverse and that could lead to increasing attacks worldwide,” said the general, who was then Mr. Negroponte’s top deputy and is now director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

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This quote pisses me off to no end. I had no idea this was about 'anti-Western agendas. I could have sworn this was about being terrorized, killed, maimed and living amidst a no longer existent infrastructure. Leave it to the MSM in America (and Canada for that matter) to ignore the US government's part in fueling all the anti-American sentiment because my guess is, it has shit to do with the Western world and a whole lot to do with Bush and American imperialism. The media needs to be fired and given new jobs on Fox news. That way the truth need ever be an issue.

ETA Link: Spy report linking Iraq invasion to more terrorism causes pre-election furor

excerpt:
The U.S. army is stretched so thin by Iraq that it's extending the combat tours of thousands of soldiers beyond the promised 12 months for the second time since August. Defence officials are also considering sending in National Guard troops.

[ 26 September 2006: Message edited by: Boom Boom ]

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The number of potential official torture victims is rising: 35,000 Iraqis are held in prisons, 13,000 by the US and the rest by the Iraqi authorities. There is a 28 per cent increase since the end of June.

While torture is routine in US and Iraqi security facilities, what happens to civilians kidnapped by sectarian militiamen is horrific. Every day dozens of mangled bodies -- beaten, burnt, bones broken, limbs holed by electric drills and eyes gouged out -- are being collected on rubbish dumps and in the streets of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities and towns.

Iraqi civilians are being seized in their homes, on the streets, at work and in hospitals, and even at the morgue when they go to fetch bodies of murdered relatives. Doctors and other professionals are threatened and killed. People attacked in the street are left to die by bystanders afraid to offer assistance. Drivers are snatched along with their cars which are fitted with bombs detonated when their owners are set free and drive away into traffic.

Such atrocities did not happen even during the darkest days of the ousted Baathist regime.

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For example, when Khrushchev told the Communist Party that Stalin had committed vast numbers of crimes, he did it is a secret speech, to high party members only.

It was an important moment, because up to that point, Communist Parties worldwide had denied any and all allegations.

After, they stopped.

In this case, Bush and Co. were arguing even last week that "America is safer" because there had been no new attacks on the US since 9-11.

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The doubts of respondents about Canada's chances in Afghanistan paled in comparison to their downright dismissal of the overall U.S.-led war on terror.

Almost three-quarters said the Bush administration had made the world more dangerous, 76 per cent said American policy had contributed to a rise in terrorism, and 68 per cent predicted the U.S. will eventually abandon Iraq without success.

[snip]

74 per cent of respondents said Bush has made the world a more dangerous place, while just 15 per cent said he has made it safer.

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It is as if the Bushes and Blairs do not live on this planet any more. As my colleague Patrick Cockburn wrote recently, the enraging thing about Blair's constant optimism is that, to prove it all a pack of lies, a journalist has to have his throat cut amid the anarchy which Blair says does not exist. The Americans cannot protect themselves in Iraq, let alone the Iraqis, and the British have twice nearly been defeated in battles with the Taliban, and the Israeli army - counting it as part of the "West" for a moment - were soundly thrashed when they crossed the border to fight the Hizbollah, losing 40 men in 36 hours. Yet still Blair delayed a ceasefire in Lebanon. And still - be certain of this - when the fire strikes us again, in London or New York or wherever, Blair and Bush will say that the attack has nothing to do with the Middle East, that Britain's enemies hate "our values" or our "way of life".

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