Report Says Iraq Is New Terrorist Training Ground -WP

[Rose Siding]

In a major new study, the CIA’s National Intelligence Council says Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for the next generation of "professionalized" terrorists, officials at the CIA director’s intelligence think-tank said today.

Iraq provides terrorists with "a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills," said David Low, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats. "There is even, under the best scenario, over time, the likelihood that some of the jihadists who are not killed there will, in a sense, go home, wherever home is, and will therefore disperse to various other countries."

Low's comments came during a rare public briefing by the NIC on its report of significant global trends looking out as far as 2020. But within the 119-page report is a startling frank evaluation of Iraq's place as a breeding ground for the new generation of Islamic terrorists, an evaluation that represents a consensus among terrorist experts throughout the world.

The al Qaeda membership "that was distinguished by having trained in Afghanistan will gradually dissipate, to be replaced in part by the dispersion of the experienced survivors of the conflict in Iraq," the report says.

"At the moment," said NIC Chairman Robert L. Hutchings, Iraq "is a magnet for international terrorist activity."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A7460-2005Jan13%20¬Found=true

[dbt]

1. Congratulations to our Dumbass-In-Chief.

Turns out the Worthless Little Fuck was only a couple years ahead of his time when he told us all that Eye-rack was harboring "terrists."

:eyes:
dbt

[justiceischeap]

2. But remember

It's better to fight them over there instead of here.

'Cause we all know that'll stop 'em from comin' here. Let's see, almost all their guard and reservists are in Iraq, yeah, that's where we'll keep the fight. </sarcasm>

[donheld]

32. Yes it is

because if there is colateral damage it kills brown skin people. Over here it might kill precious white skin people. :grr::grr:

[Mike Niendorff]

3. Mission Accomplished.

"Hi, I'm George W. Bush, and I'd like to invade Iraq so that all those 'mujihadeen' we drove out of Afghanistan can have a nice new place to call home. Oh, and I'd like them to be able to practice up by killing American soldiers, too. (ps: we'd also like to skim off several billion dollars for Halliburton and our other crooked friends while we're at it. Thanks.)"


MDN

[Ilsa]

9. "...nice new place to call home..."

The places built by Halliburton with taxpayer money, no doubt.

[shadowknows69]

38. we're the ones training the terrorists

here, have 100,000 ill equipped US troops to practice on. We'll give you a list of convoy routes for you to bomb.

[llmart]

4. Yeah, now all the MSM outlets......

are finally coming out with these articles. They waited until after the election to do it, too.

Well, I hope the idiots who thought W was so wonderful enjoy the blowback. I only hope it doesn't affect those of us who saw this coming.

[Rose Siding]

This is the 2nd huge validation of the anti-Iraq war positions

Still more weight is given to war supporters who are realizing their colossal error (Look! Even Senator Bloody Fang Tiger Slammer knows we screwed up!)

Wisdom is so underrated.

[uppityperson]

5. No WMDs in Iraq but "he wanted them", there are more terrists now

So we were right to invade. See, see, see!

[IndianaGreen]

6. And who is providing that training? The US

The occupation is providing everyone with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn how to fight US forces and defeat our superior technology. I never thought I would see the day where a roadside mine could destroy an Abrams tank, but such tactic was first used against the far more formidable Merkava tank by the Palestinians in Gaza.

Here is a 2002 story about that:

DESTRUCTION OF MERKAVA TANK MIGHT HELP PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI PEACE

PARIS TEL-AVIV 16 Feb. (IPS) As Israeli officers downplayed the destruction of Israel's state-of-the-art Merkava 3 tankby Palestinians, military and explosive experts said the blast had all the "trade-mark" of Lebanese Hezbollah’s experience and techniques and tactics acquired in its 20 years of resistance against Israeli occupation of South Lebanon.

Clearly concerned, Israeli officers said they would continue investigating how the world’s most protected tank had been penetrated so easily.

The Merkava 3, described by the Israeli as one of the world’s safest tanks, was destroyed on Thursday and three of its four crew were killed in the Gaza Strip, when a large bomb was detonated under their tank.

This was the first time since the start of the new Intifida that Palestinians used successfully sophisticated explosive for penetrating the Merkava 3. The last time a crewmember was killed in a Merkava was in southern Lebanon about five-and-a-half years ago, when the tank was hit by an anti-tank missile.

http://www.iran-press-service.com/articles_2002/Feb_2002/merkava_blast_16202.htm

[hollowdweller]

11. Bush is the "education president" for terrorists too. Mission accomplished

[Skittles]

7. I'm sure the Iraqi civilians appreciate that

especially the children. Damn, there's not a thing that incompetent bastard Bush touchs that doesn't turn to SHIT.

[TahitiNut]

8. Could anything be more obvious?

Good grief. It's made-to-order for training guerillas, and it's been obvious from the very beginning. It's better than Beirut, for God's sake - didn't anybody learn anything from the aftermath of anarchy in Lebanon? Didn't anyone learn from the aftermath of the Soviet experience in Afghanistan? These people are too stupid to be allowed running around loose.

[Renew Deal]

12. That's what I was thinking.

They needed a report for this? I could have told them that.

[Cocoa]

10. will serve as the excuse to stay there

fuck all excuses, let the movement begin to pull out now.


http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/01/13/WOOLSEY.TMP&type=printable

Washington -- Sixteen House Democrats led by Rep. Lynn Woolsey of Petaluma called on President Bush on Wednesday to begin the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, just as some administration supporters are starting to question the wisdom of staying the course in the war.

So far, the Bush administration remains publicly unshakable in its position that the elections on Jan. 30 should proceed despite fears about safety for voters in parts of Iraq. The president and other administration officials have said U.S. forces will start withdrawing only once U.S.-trained Iraqi forces can take responsibility for more of the patrolling and the fighting. And even then, the withdrawal would be much more phased than the departure envisioned by the House Democrats in a letter sent Wednesday to the president.

Privately, however, top administration officials are in deliberations about how to proceed in Iraq, where hopes are fading that the elections on Jan. 30 for a national assembly to write a constitution will improve security.

The anti-war Democrats' letter was sent as more voices are being raised across the political spectrum in Washington discussing how the United States can begin to remove its 150,000 troops from a country where almost 1,400 Americans have been killed.

more...

[They_LIHOP]

13. Yet another thing that the Left forewarned...

Could we BE any more RIGHT about how things in Iraq were going to be turning out?

Of course, our friends in the MSM and their sister organization known as right-wing radio, will be all OVER spinning this story in order to make it sound like the report is saying that Iraq WAS such a place BEFORE we took it over, but that NOW, of course, due to the imperial chimpster's 'leadership', it's a whole different ballgame. The terra-ists have no safe haven in Iraq, and are 'on the run'.

IF the MSM even touches the story, you can count on it coming out in such a way that his majesty looks like a hero...

Me, I just gotta say: 'Nice work, Chimpy. This whole Iraq thingy is going exactly according to your brilliantly-conceived and executed strategery. I juat feel so much safer...'

[Monkie]

14. the terrorists - cia, US forces, PMC's, arms manufacturers all training

why test/train on targets when live training on iraqi's gives more realistic data...
nobody cares enough to stop them.

[AndrewJacksonFaction]

15. Why does this story make............

me so DAMN ANGRY!!!! :crazy: :mad:

I mean I knew this, you knew this. But seeing this in print just gets my blood a boiling!!! I think Bush and his cronies need a lobotomy.

[yorkiemommie1]

18. yes we all knew this

but we were ridiculed and reviled and called traitors. we still are, really.

i guess it's hard for the REDS and MSM to think clearly with Bushthink being drummed into their heads all the time.

how is it, i wonder, that half of us managed to avoid swallowing the Bushit?

[ckramer]

16. "Bring IT ON!"

[sandnsea]

17. Terrorists or insurgents?

Honestly, I can never keep up. One week they're insurgents fighting against the Iraqi freedom lovers. When that gets too ugly, they're terrorists again. I think it's all a disinformation campaign to keep Americans confused.

(They're undoubtedly both there, but I haven't seen one article that addresses both at the same time)

[buddysmellgood]

19. Oh My God! We should attack! Can we send in cruise missiles to destroy

their training camps? Do any of the camps happen to be in Fallujah? That would be convenient.

[durablend]

22. Coulter wants to NOOK EM

An added bonus is that we gets to test that nifty homeland security we gots when those turrists come over here to fix our wagons!

WHOO HOO!

:puke:

[buddysmellgood]

26. I wish Ann would stay focused. We can't use nooks cause it would

contaminate the oil. Neutron bomb is the only way to go.

[MadisonProgressive]

20. Remember how the good Doctor

was pummelled when he said that we are not safer after they caught Saddam? Remember John Kerry pointing out time and again that we were creating more terrorists, and the response he got from the BFEE?

And the Corporate-controlled news media has taken us along for the ride!

[dad]

39. -

I clearly remember the piece of shit John Kerry's attacks on Howard Dean after Dean made the comment that we are not safer with Saddam captured. Fuck Kerry... I almost hate him as much as Bush. ...

[MadisonProgressive]

42. ?

Did you vote for Bush then?

[MadisonProgressive]

21. Where are the freepers to defend their Dear Leader?

[shrike]

23. Duh

Like this is a shock to anyone to reads DU.

Like I always say, DUers must be friggin' geniuses. We come out with our opinions, and then they come true.

[StephanieMarie]

24. And how much did we have to pay the CIA

to come up with this stunning conclusion? Like no body could forsee that invading and occupying a muslim country unprovoked would not create a new generation of terrorists there?

[drdtroit]

25. Unbelievably it took a 1,000 analysts to reach a conclusion

that has been championed, not only here, but by any forward thinking person with an ounce of geo-political sense, since well before the invasion. Give me a freakin' break, these are the "adults"????

[Dr Fate]

27. So I guess all of us "Conspiracy Theorists" were right.

This is what all the "wild-eyed Liberals" were saying BEFORE the war.

Once again we were right- and the Democratic establishment and the GOP/media ignored us and continue to do so.

[Barkley]

28. Our occupation is the "magnet for international terrorist activity” not

the entire country of Iraq.

I recall attending a antiwar rally in SF in the fall of 2002 and seeing a woman carrying a placard with OBL dressed as Uncle Sam with index point at it spectator and the inscriptions below it warning:

"I want you... to invade Iraq".

[Redstone]

29. "the opportunity for enhancing technical skills"

directly translates to "opportunity to kill American soldiers."

Which, of course, they wouldn't be able to do if we hadn't sent American soldiers to Iraq, therefor making it possible for the terrorists to get to them.

This is one thing that has buggged me for a while: Saddam, try though he might could not kill one single American until bush conveniently sent a lot of American over there and therefore into Saddam's reach.

Why did bush feel he had to satisfy Saddam's desires?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Redstone

Edited because I mixed up "thereby" and "therefor." I'm slipping.

[TwentyFive]

30. This makes me sick. Tumbleweed is screwing up our country.

Environment.

Civil liberties.

Economy/business.

Social safety net.

Diplomacy/foreign affairs.

Domestic security.

Tumblewees not only manages manages to do the wrong thing....he goes on to do the MOST wrong thing possible. If somebody tried to screw us, they would never have the amount of success Tumbleweed has had.

[Martin Eden]

31. Bush ain't no tumbleweed ...

... he's a post turtle:

70-year-old Texas Rancher got his hand caught in a gate while working cattle. He wrapped the hand in his bandana and drove his pickup to the doctor. While suturing the laceration, the doctor asked the old man about George W. Bush being in the White House.

The old Texan said, "Well, ya know, Bush is a 'Post Turtle.'"

Not knowing what the old man meant, the doctor asked what a Post Turtle was.

The old man looked at him and drawled, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a Post Turtle."

The old man saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain:

"You know he didn't get there by himself, he doesn't belong there, he can't get anything done while he's up there, and you just want to help the poor dumb bastard get down."

[SlowDownFast]

34. LOL, that's great!

best joke i've heard in awhile!

[number6]

33. mission accomplished

:nuke: kaboom,.... feel safer ??

[regularjoe]

35. I wouldn't be too quick to jump on the Iran is bad bandwagon

I read an article (I thought I saved it but I looked and can't find it) a few weeks ago by someone predicting the Bush Administration will shift the attention away from Iraq and towards Iran. It said we will probably start to hear about human rights abuses in Iran more frequently, possibly building up to military involvement. Iran may have more terrorists but let's not go invading every country suspected of having terrorists. (Not that I think anyone has suggested that) Just watch out for the propaganda machine.

regularjoe

[UL_Approved]

36. This is a real possibility

I keep news archives of this type of thing, and I can drag out one if you like. The claims that Iran has nukes, has abuse, and other such pre-Iraq drivel have been pouring out of the White House in the last month or so.

I hope that the Raging Ragweed comes to realize that Iran is a whole new can of worms and that nuclear war could actually come from that nation. This would be a very good candidate for starting the WW III scenario...

[truthisfreedom]

37. bush used the fake Iraq WMDs to create this whole scenario... the point

was to create a world of real terror threat, just like the movies, to give an excuse for perpetual war, where everything is always a crisis and requires immediate and unexamined action, which essentially translates to perpetual emptying of the nation's treasury coffers into the deep pockets of the ultra-rich right-wingers.

[Seabiscuit]

40. Well, Duhhhh.... it took them almost 2 years to figure this out???

[obiwan]

41. Well, "Duh!!!"...

They need college degrees to figure that out? Self-awareness training would be totally wasted on these human rutabagas.

Vocational training for all!

[Botany]

43. That the Iraqis would fight back ......

..... go figure. Little ingrates! look at all we have done for them.

[struggle4progress]

44. kick for the painfully obvious