The Scum at the Top
Commentary on the Rats in Washington
Leaked Intelligence Report Rocks Bush Election Stance
Agence France-Presse
© September 24, 2006
US spy agencies dropped a
political bombshell six weeks before national
elections, with the leak of a classified report
concluding that the war in Iraq has spawned a
new wave of Islamic radicalism and increased
the global threat of terrorism.
The intelligence document rocked a central
pillar of the Republican Party's campaign
platform ahead of November elections: that
the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the ouster of
Saddam Hussein made America safer, not weaker.
With opinion polls showing President George W.
Bush's party possibly losing control of both
houses of Congress in the the mid-term polls,
in large part due to unhappiness over the war
in Iraq, the report stating categorically the
opposite will make for painful reading at the
White House.
Bush has argued repeatedly in pre-election
speeches that Iraq is the central front in
the war on terrorism and that demands for a
US troop withdrawal from the country by the
opposition Democrats underscores why the
center-left party should not be trusted with
the nation's security.
"The security of the civilized world depends
on victory in the war on terror, and that
depends on victory in Iraq," Bush said in
one speech on August 31.
Such assertions were looking decidedly shaky
Sunday after The New York Times and The Washington
Post released details of the classified National
Intelligence Estimate, the most comprehensive
assessment yet of the war, based on analyses
of all 16 of America's intelligence agencies.
The report, Trends in Global Terrorism:
implications for the United States, says
"the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism
problem worse," an official familiar with the
document told The Times.
The Washington Post said the report described
the Iraq conflict as the primary recruiting
vehicle for violent Islamic extremists.
While the US has seriously damaged Al-Qaeda
and disrupted its ability to carry out major
operations since the September 11, 2001, attacks
on New York and Washington, it noted, radical
Islamic networks have spread and decentralized.
Democratic leaders were quick to jump on the
report's conclusions as clear evidence of the
failure of Bush's policies.
"This intelligence document should put the
final nail in the coffin for president Bush's
phony argument about the Iraq war," Senator
Edward Kennedy said in a statement Sunday.
"The fact that we need a new direction in
Iraq to really win the war on terror and make
Americans safer could not be clearer or more
urgent -- yet this administration stubbornly
clings to a failed 'stay-the-course' strategy,"
he said.
The White House, while reiterating its traditional
stance of not commenting on classified reports,
said The New York Times story "isn't
representative of the complete document."
"We've always said that the terrorists are
determined. Keeping the pressure on and staying
on the offense is the best way to win the war on
terror," a White House spokesman added.
But the leaked intelligence report is hardly
good news for Bush and the Republicans, coming
on top of a messy revolt by top Republican
senators against a Bush plan for legitimizing
how the US interrogates and prosecutes terrorist
suspects.
The Senate rebels, who included possible
candidates to succeed Bush in 2008, reached a
compromise agreement with the White House late
this week.
But the unseemly row already diverted attention
from Republican efforts to present a unified
front on the issue of national security during
the final stretch of the election campaign.
Republican leaders tried to brush aside the
intelligence document, which they said they
had not yet seen.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist expressed
confidence US voters would not be swayed by
the intelligence report.
"I think the American people, when they read an
article like that ... say, 'Listen, just keep me
safe -- I just want to be safe in Nashville,
Tennessee, I want to be safe in Memphis, New
York City, Washington, DC,' that's what they want."
However, one moderate Republican, Arlen Specter,
told CNN, "The war in Iraq has intensified Islam
fundamentalism and radicalism."
"There is a much more fundamental issue as to
how we respond. And that is, what we do with
the Iraq war itself," he said.
"That's the focal point for inspiring more radical
Islam fundamentalism, and that's a problem that
nobody seems to have an answer to," Specter said.
The Scum at the Top - Home
E-mail: dwagner2@isd.net
©2007 DJW
Last Modified:
Janaury 15, 2007