Iraq Conflict Feeds International Terror Threat -CIA
1 hour, 25 minutes ago
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
[Reuters? Hardly a reliable source.]
- Islamic militants waging a deadly insurgency against U.S.-led forces in Iraq (news - web sites) pose an emerging international terrorism threat, CIA (news - web sites) Director Porter Goss said on Wednesday.
[This threat to the US not only existed prior to our 3/20/2003 invasion of Iraq, it was rapidly growing prior to our 3/20/2003 invasion of Iraq. Before we invaded Iraq, the al Qaeda confederation of worldwide terrorist groups fomented the following mass murders of Americans:
1. 10/1983 US Marine Corps Headquarters in Beirut--241 dead Americans;
2. 2/1993 WTC in NYC--6 dead Americans;
3. 11/1995 Saudi National Guard Facility in Riyadh--5 dead Americans;
4. 6/1996 Khobar Towers in Dhahran--19 dead Americans;
5. 8/1998 American Embassy in Nairobi--12 dead Americans;
6. 12/2000 Destroyer Cole in Aden--17 dead Americans;
7. 9/2001 WTC in NYC, Pentagon, Pennsylvania Field--approx. 1500 dead Americans of approximately 3000 dead civilians.
Why would any thinking person conclude that invading al Qaeda at its Afghanistan and Iraq source bases would cause the previous growth of the al Qaeda confederation of worldwide terrorist groups? That previous growth was caused long before we invaded Afganistan and Iraq. That growth's continuation can only be stopped by elimination of al Qaeda bases throughout the world, and the extermination of al Qaeda throughout the world. ]
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 (news - web sites) 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.
[The solution is obvious: we must do everything we can to make sure there are no al Qaeda survivors.]
President Bush (news - web sites), who portrays U.S.-led actions in Iraq as the leading edge of democratic reform in the Middle East, cited Iraqi backing for international terrorism as a reason for the 2003 invasion.
But a top level U.S. inquiry found last year that there had in fact been no collaboration between al Qaeda and Iraq under President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).
[This ignores the obvious collaboration between al Qaeda and Saddam. Al Qaeda controlled bases in Iraq. Neither the Kurds or Saddam's regime ended that control, but at least the Kurds attempted to end that control. Saddam didn't even attempt ending that control despite repeated US demands that Saddam extradite the leaders of those bases.]
Bush critics say the invasion was a distraction from the global war against terrorism declared after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks by al Qaeda on the United States and has stirred up a violent response in Iraq that inflamed further terrorism.
[That's a stupid allegation. The Sept. 11, 2001 attacks by al Qaeda on the United States were in themselves a violent response that was part of an already hotly inflamed terrorism]
"These sentences indicate Goss is very much listening to what his analysts are saying, and not necessarily to what the White House wants to hear," said Kenneth Katzman, terrorism analyst for the Congressional Research Service.
"Zarqawi has sought to bring about the final victory of Islam over the West, and he hopes to establish a safe haven in Iraq from which his group could operate against 'infidel' Western nations and 'apostate' Muslim governments," Goss said.
["Zarqawi has sought to bring about the final victory of Islam over the West, and [hoped] to establish a safe haven in Iraq from which his group could operate against 'infidel' Western nations and 'apostate' Muslim governments," ever since al Qaeda was re-established in Iraq in 2001, after the Kurds defeated them by the end of 1999. It is not a new al Qaeda quest that began with our 3/20/2003 invasion of Iraq. It is not a new phenomenum that began with our killing of al Qaeda in Iraq. It is an old quest and old phenomenum that began when al Qaeda first declared war on Americans in 1996. Al Qaeda made it as plain then as they do now. They want the US to stop limiting their power to establish their allegedly Allah granted right to tyrannical power over the Middle East.]
Presenting the CIA's annual "threat assessment," Goss also said insurgents achieved some of their goals in the Jan. 30 Iraqi elections by keeping Sunni Arab voter turnout low.
[A more than 58% Iraqi voter turnout is not a low voter turnout. I agree the voter turnout in support of establishing an democracy of the Iraqi people's own design would have been much greater were it not for the threat of voter murder by those subversives of democracy in Iraq that included al Qaeda.]
HUGE SPYING LAPSES
A long-time intelligence officer and former chairman of the House of Representatives intelligence committee, Goss took over the CIA last year with a mandate to reform the premier U.S. spy agency after huge lapses in the run-up to the Sept. 11 attacks and the 2003 Iraq invasion.
His predecessor, George Tenet, resigned amid widespread criticism over flawed intelligence about the threat from Iraq that critics say was exaggerated to meet a political agenda.
[What is it, pray tell, about that political agenda that was/is other than what was explicitly claimed was that political agenda. The critics repeatedly say a great deal from their politically inspired hymnal-like agenda. They make it clear as crystal they seek to regain their lost power at the expense of what is in the best interest of our country.]
Goss told the lawmakers that U.S. authorities and their allies had dealt "serious blows" to the al Qaeda network.
"Despite these successes, however, the terrorist threat to the U.S. in the homeland and abroad endures," he said in an assessment that differed little from last year's report.
[Oh my, it's still a work in progress. 
]
Goss was one of several top officials to appear before the Senate committee, which is scrutinizing U.S. intelligence on Iran, North Korea (news - web sites) and other hot spots in hopes of avoiding mistakes committed before the war on Iraq.
FBI (news - web sites) Director Robert Mueller testified al Qaeda remained intent on attacking the United States, likely by using low-tech methods of the kind employed in 2001 when terrorists killed about 3,000 people after hijacking airliners with box-cutters.
Goss said al Qaeda or another group would likely try to eclipse the Sept. 11 attacks by using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons that authorities say could be stolen or purchased from nations such as North Korea.
Officials also warned that North Korea, which declared last week that it had nuclear arms, could soon be ready to test a new long-range nuclear-capable missile which could hit targets across North America.
Private analysts doubt North Korea could pose a direct threat to the U.S. mainland any time soon.
[Private analysts doubt our government officials! Private analysts have proven that they have been so often wrong over the last few years that it is long past time that they begin doubting themselves--the sooner the better.]
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