Iraq Conflict Feeds International Terror Threat -CIA

[Placebo]

Islamic militants waging a deadly insurgency against U.S.-led forces in Iraq pose an emerging international terrorism threat, CIA Director Porter Goss said on Wednesday.

In his first public appearance as U.S. spymaster, Goss described Iraqi insurgents, including al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as part of a Sunni militant movement inspired by Osama bin Laden and intent on attacking Americans.

"The Iraq conflict, while not a cause of extremism, has become a cause for extremists," Goss told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

"Those jihadists who survive will leave Iraq experienced in and focused on acts of urban terrorism. They represent a potential pool of contacts to build transnational terrorist cells, groups and networks in Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other countries," he said.

More...

[BrainRants]

1. Nuh Duh!

Where have these morons been?

edit: grammar

[Emboldened Chimp]

2. So, Smirky is with the terrorists?

Perish the thought!

[ixion]

3. yes, well, DUH!

there are many of us here at DU that could have told them that BEFORE tens of thousands of people were needlessly and pointlessly slaughtered in the name of freedom.

[saigon68]

17. WE DID TELL THEM THAT !!!!!

Look in the archives at the Predictions some of us made.

We called this cluster fuck ---- Iraq-Nam ---- well ahead of 'SHOCK and AWE" in Feb 2003

[ixion]

18. yep...I remember that

'cause I was one of them. ;-)

[teryang]

4. Thank god we have a director of intelligence or we might have

...missed this great insight.

[radfringe]

16. Thank God -- we're safer because of bush*

yeah....right

think back a few months to the talking-head and bushbot blather -- we must be safer because we haven't been attacked (lately).....

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Really Porter? You don't say....

Gee didn't we liberal idiots PREDICT this oh before the shooting started?

Imagine that and we don't get paid the big bucks either....

Poor Porter, by the way, that tie is a tad too dark Porter

[twaddler01]

6. No! Really?

Wow. I am surprised! </sarcasm>

[mutus_frutex]

7. Talk about cognitive dissonance!!!

On one hand you have this administration saying that is better to to have all those terrorists concentrated in one point. On the other you have these clowns telling the obvious.

Oh boy... how can people be so DENSE?

[Califooyah Operative]

8. the point is we got the CIA to admit it. nt

[malaise]

9. Isn't an Osama tape

overdue?

[BattyDem]

11. You can count on it

How is it possible that Osama, a man on the running and living in caves, makes more videos than Springsteen? :eyes:

[BattyDem]

10. We can file this one under ...

"No Shit, Sherlock!"

[rodeodance]

12. many have tried to tell BushCo that for 2 years--now will Porter Coss et

all make a difference?

[Straight Shooter]

13. "Inspired by Osama bin Laden"

Ahem. How about inspired by the nitwit in the Oval Office and his dumb-as-rocks followers?

[I Wonder]

14. "Iraq Conflict Feeds International Terror Threat -CIA"

What happened to the Asia Times article about possible covert funding of insurgent/resistance/terrorist groups?
I Wonder

[LynnTheDem]

15. Gee, no one coulda predicted such a thing...

Brent Scowcroft, one of the Republican Party’s most respected foreign policy advisors, and national security adviser under President Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush:

Don't Attack Saddam It would undermine our antiterror efforts

"Our pre-eminent security priority--underscored repeatedly by the president--is the war on terrorism. An attack on Iraq at this time would seriously jeopardize, if not destroy, the global counterterrorist campaign we have undertaken."

http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:YUfMJg4DASMJ:www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html%3Fid%3D110002133+Don%27t+Attack+Saddam+It+would+undermine+our+antiterror+efforts&hl=en

James Webb, former Sec. of Navy under Ronald Reagan, Decorated Marine Veteran:

"Do we really want to occupy Iraq for the next 30 years? …In Japan, American occupation forces quickly became 50,000 friends. In Iraq, they would quickly become 50,000 terrorist targets…. Nations such as China can only view the prospect of an American military consumed for the next generation by the turmoil of the Middle East as a glorious windfall."

http://www.sftt.org/article09302002a.html

Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, former Head of Central Command for U.S.:

"It's pretty interesting that all the generals see it the same way, and all the others who have never fired a shot, and are hot to go to war, see it another… We are about to do something that will ignite a fuse in this region that we will rue the day we ever started."

Hawks in the Bush administration may be making deadly miscalculations on Iraq, says Gen. Anthony Zinni, Bush's Middle East envoy.

"I'm not sure which planet they live on"

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/10/17/zinni

Republican Dissent on Iraq"
Full page ad in Wall Street Journal by major GOP contributors:

"Mr. President, …The candidate we supported in 2000 promised a more humble nation in our dealings with the world. We gave him our votes and our campaign contributions. That candidate was you. We feel betrayed. We want our money back. We want our country back…. A Billion Bitter enemies will rise out of this war."
- Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2003

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/001444.html

And the INCREASED THREAT thanks to BUSH has been known for quite a long while. But bush supporters LIKE being LESS SAFE:

Worldwide terrorism-related deaths on the rise
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5889435%20 /

US Losing the War on Terror in Iraq; The invasion of Iraq has increased, not decreased. the threat of terrorist attack
http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article2629.html

Occupation Made World Less Safe, Pro-War Institute Says
http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/terrorwar/analysis/2004/0526iissreport.htm

Iraq Invasion Hurt War on Terror
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0719-10.htm

Musharraf: World more dangerous because of Iraq War
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/9/25/03544/7945

Blix Says Iraq War May Have Worsened Terror Threat
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0319-02.htm

Poll: Aussies, Brits, Italians say Iraq war increased terrorism
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1576/5027215.html

Iraq intervention increased threat of terrorism
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/archive/scoop/stories/c7/9d/200409100845.68f9c878.html

UK Government; Iraq war 'increased terror threat'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3451239.stm

Iraq war has swollen ranks of al Qaeda
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1063717,00.html

US State Department Corrects Report to Show Rise in Terrorism
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5264512 /