Bush on defensive over intelligence report

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http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/Bush_on_defensive_over_intelligence_report.html?siteSect=143&sid=7109548&cKey=1159389629000

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An intelligence report showing an upsurge in Islamic militancy put the White House on the defensive on Wednesday in an election-year debate over whether President George W. Bush has made America safer.

Bush ordered the release of parts of the National Intelligence Estimate on Tuesday to try to stamp out a political fire after a leaked portion said the Iraq war had increased Islamic extremism.

But a key judgement in the declassified version that could backfire on Bush said intelligence experts believed activists identifying themselves as jihadists "are increasing in both number and geographic dispersion."

The report, prepared in April, also said the Iraq war had become the "cause celebre" for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement."

The White House has scrambled to try to explain the report, given Bush's September 7 claim that "America is winning the war on terror."