Excerpts of Secret Intelligence Report Released

09/26/2006

Document Says That Invasion of Iraq Has Fueled Terrorism

By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 27, 2006

The Bush administration released portions of a classified intelligence estimate yesterday that says the global jihadist movement is growing and being fueled by the war in Iraq even as it becomes more decentralized, making it harder to identify potential terrorists and prevent future attacks.

The war in Iraq has become a “cause celebre” for jihadists, breeding resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and drawing new adherents to the movement, the assessment says. The growth in the number of potential terrorists is also being fed by corruption, slow-moving political reform in many Muslim countries and “pervasive” anti-American sentiment, according to the report.

The document, which reflects the collective judgment of the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies, asserts that the jihadist movement is potentially limited by its ultra-conservative view of Islam and could be slowed by democratic reforms in the Muslim world. In addition, it says that if jihadists are perceived to be defeated in Iraq “fewer fighters would be inspired to carry on the fight.” Still, terrorists with experience constructing roadside bombs and other deadly devices in Iraq “are a potential source” of leadership for attacks elsewhere, the report says.

President Bush took the extraordinary step of releasing portions of the classified report, which was completed in April, to counter assertions made after information from document was leaked to media outlets over the weekend. Reports based on those leaks said the report blames the war in Iraq for worsening the global terrorist threat—an interpretation that the administration calls a distortion of its contents.

Speaking at a White House news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Bush angrily called the leak a political act that aims to affect the upcoming congressional elections. “Somebody has taken it upon themselves to leak classified information for political purposes,” he said.

The president added that it is naive to think that terrorism would be any less pervasive if the U.S. had not invaded Iraq, repeating his oft-made point that extremists attacked American interests around the world long before the start of the war.

“My judgment is, if we weren’t in Iraq, they’d find some other excuse, because they have ambitions,” Bush said. “They kill in order to achieve their objectives. “ Bush said he reluctantly ordered the release of the National Intelligence Estimate so people can form their own conclusions about its assessments. “You can read it for yourself,” he said. “We’ll stop all the speculation, all the politics about somebody saying something about Iraq, somebody trying to confuse the American people about the nature of this enemy.”

Disclosure of parts of the document, which represents the U.S. intelligence community’s first formal assessment of terrorist threats since the US. invaded Iraq in 2003, did nothing to quell the partisan storm that has been brewing since the first stories about it surfaced.

Democrats have seized on the document to bolster their contention that the war in Iraq has been a debacle that has hindered the broader war on terror, even as the administration calls Iraq the central front in a global struggle.

For the third straight day, Democrats sought to draw attention to the issue with press conferences and political maneuvers. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) moved to put the House into secret session to discuss the intelligence estimate, but the motion was defeated along party lines.

“With such a devastating and authoritative analysis of the Bush Administration’s failures in Iraq, the President and the Republican-controlled Congress now have a choice to make,” Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid, said of the report. “Will they stubbornly follow a failed stay the course strategy that America’s intelligence community has concluded makes America less safe, or will they finally admit their mistakes and change course?

Democrats also challenged the White House to release the full report, a move they called necessary for people to draw accurate conclusions about its contents. “The American people deserve the full story, not those parts of it that the Bush Administration selects,” said Sen Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.). “President Bush should declassify the entire NIE as the Republican Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee has suggested so the American people can read the plain facts for themselves.”