Studies: Most foreign fighters didn't wage terror before Iraq war

[leftchick]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/3269420

WASHINGTON - New investigations by the Saudi Arabian government and an Israeli think tank — both of which painstakingly analyzed the backgrounds and motivations of hundreds of foreigners entering Iraq to fight the United States — have found that the vast majority of them are not former terrorists and became radicalized by the war.

The studies cast serious doubt on President Bush's claim that those responsible for some of the worst violence are terrorists who seized on the opportunity to make Iraq the "central front" in a battle against the United States.

"The terrorists know that the outcome in Iraq will leave them emboldened or defeated," Bush said in a nationally televised address last month. "So they are waging a campaign of murder and destruction."

However, interrogations of nearly 300 Saudis captured trying to sneak into Iraq and case studies of more than three dozen others who blew themselves up in suicide attacks show that most were heeding calls to drive infidels out of Arab land, according to a study by Saudi investigator Nawaf Obaid.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. KICKED AND NOMINATED.... finally, the truth.

[teach1st]

2. Published in the Boston Commie Globe...

...and claims to study motivation, a soft area. That's how the Bush supporters will spin it.

[LynnTheDem]

3. Rightwingnuts MUST agree with these studies OR they're ANTI-SEMITES

Heh. :D

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Geez.... do ya think the royals made any sort of indication that

their families would be "well taken care of" should anything happen to them?

[lvx35]

5. Bush's strategy: Maximize the enemy.

He should have just given Osama Bin Laden a country, so we could ahve somewhere to nuke if he attacks again...Oh wait...He did.

[marmar]

6. Which proves...

That the Iraq war was the greatest terrorist recruitment tool in the history of the world.

[progressoid]

7. Gosh Beaver, do ya think our government could be tellin us fibs?

[Mandate My Ass]

8. The Saudis and Israelis came up with this?

Strange bedfellows indeed. Bush is sinking and his staunch allies are offering him a lead flotation device.

[angryxyouth]

12. Strange Bedfellows is right. That's the best part of the story.

Saudis and Israelis agreeing about these facts. I can't wait to hear Scotty refute this.

[K-W]

18. How are two US client nations strange bedfellows?

This war is being fought partially to secure Isreali leverage and for the security of the House of Saud.

[Mandate My Ass]

20. Saudi Arabia has said repeatedly that they think

Israeli attacks on Palestine are terrorist in nature and that Israel should withdraw from the occupied territories. They have supported Palestine almost unconditionally and often financially in their ongoing conflicts with Israel. They've participated in all the Arab/Israel conflicts, IIRC. Although the US maintains a close relationship with both countries, the countries goals are at odds with each other but the balance is maintained because both benefit from American support.

It seems odd that they've "buried the hatchet" in order to stick it to Bush.

[K-W]

21. They havent buried the hatchet.

The House of Saud has to stay in power. It does so with military support from the US, and by keeping its largely fundementalist population happy.

Thus is is perfectly predictable that it would come out strongly against Isreal over the Palistinian issue and equally predictable that since both Isreal and the house of Saud rely on US military support that they would both be deeply interested in the facts on the ground in Iraq, particularly the nature of militant Islamicists that would like to remove both Isreal and the House of Saud from power.

[bcbarrett]

9. All I have to say is...

DUH!

Junior was warned by people who know Arab history and culture that is exactly what would happen and I'm sure they counted on it happening. After all it makes political sense to keep the "war on terra" going as long as possible because of the misguided impression Republicans are somehow better equipped to keep us secure. They're manufacturing enemies to keep themselves in power.

[leesa]

10. Woah! The other BIG PNAC players are letting BushCo rot?

Will they spill the beans on 9-11?

[Warren Stupidity]

11. New excuse for Iraq war:

By invading Iraq we are generating lots of new recruits for terrorists so that we can have a perpetual war on terror so we can line the pockets of our war profiteer cronies, force our fascist policies on a gullible public, and run as the war party forever and ever.

We have always been at war with eastasia.

[drfresh]

13. Someone amplify this..

I'd like to see Democrats banging this drum over and over.

[oxbow]

14. begin my emailing it to others

randi rhodes, [e-mail], [e-mail], other forums besides DU. Without a free press, things are gonna be strictly grassroots for awhile.

[Judi Lynn]

15. It's a relief to see this published in the Houston Chronicle.

From the article:

The Israel study says: "Only a few were involved in past Islamic insurgencies in Afghanistan, Bosnia, or Chechnya."

Wouldn't it be wonderful if our media finally became shamed into covering the goddamned NEWS?

We can only live so long on information about entertainment figures and shark bites while the _Bush criminals steal the world and murder everyone who tries to prevent it.

[leftchick]

22. a relief indeed Judi Lynn

I hope this is a HUGE crack in the damn of infotainment news in ameriKa. We Need Change NOW!

[K-W]

16. self delete

mispost

[K-W]

17. So the people who would overthrow the house of saud are dying in Iraq.

Bush wasnt lying at all about setting a trap.

The US army is cleaning up the threat of nationalism in Saudi Arabia. Instead of becoming outraged about the tyranny of the Saudi Monarchy, they become outraged at the US occupations.

[Igel]

19. Why does the Chronicle seem to think that it's worth *not*

naming the Israeli think tank?

Think tanks usually publish their papers and reports online, and it's frequently worth looking at who they are, the biases they bring to their research, and how they collected their data.

Anonymous think tanks are just that: anonymous sources. One doesn't use them when there's no reason for it.

[r0x0r Mc0wnage]

23. How did an Israeli think tank come by that information?

Are we sending prisoners to be interrogated by private (mercenary) "think tanks" in Israel?

Are there detectives on the ground in Iraq viewing security tapes and picking up tooth fragments of suicide bombers to start their case study?

Or does our own intelligence data "somehow" make it into their hands?



Does this prove that we are leaving prisoners in the care of known torturers in Saudi Arabia?

[Buford Pusser]

24. Studies: War radicalized most foreign fighters in Iraq (CSM)

posted July 18, 2005 at 12:00 p.m.

Studies: War radicalized most foreign fighters in Iraq

Saudi and Israeli studies show that most foreign fighters were not terrorists before Iraq war.

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

Two new studies, one by the Saudi government and one by an Israeli think tank, which "painstakingly analyzed the backgrounds and motivations of hundreds of foreigners entering Iraq to fight the United States" have found that most foreign fighters in Iraq were not terrorists before the Iraq war, but were "radicalized by the war itself." The Boston Globe reported on Sunday that the studies "cast doubt" on claims by President Bush that terrorists have "seized on the opportunity to make Iraq the 'central front' in a battle against the United States."

More: http://csmonitor.com/2005/0718/dailyUpdate.html

[Village Idiot]

25. People FAIL TO REALIZE:

According to USA Today:

(http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0706iraq-fighters06.html),

"...foreign fighters account for less than 2% of the 5,700 prisoners held in Iraq."

The majority of the INSURGENTS in Iraq are FREEDOM FIGHTERS, fighting an UNJUST AND ILLEGAL OCCUPATION FORCE.

This is NOT A WAR AGAINST TERRA!!!

Purely and simply, this is a WAR FOR OIL.