Global War on Terror Watch: National Intelligence Estimate
Supporters of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein take to the streets during a demonstration in Tikrit, 175 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, September 22, 2006. A newspaper report that a U.S. intelligence analysis said the Iraq war gave rise to a new generation of Islamic radicals and made the overall terrorism problem worse was ‘not representative of the complete document,’ the White House said on Sunday.
AP: Democrats cite report to undermine GOP
Democrats on Sunday seized on an intelligence assessment that said the Iraq war has increased the terrorist threat, saying it was further evidence that Americans should choose new leadership in the November elections.
The Democrats hoped the report would undermine the GOP’s image as the party more capable of handling terrorism as the campaign enters its final six-week stretch.
Well. the Democrats had better dream on….
A partisan attempt to spin the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) is frought with danger.
Sure enough, the White House says that the stories in the Post and the New York Times are “not representative of the complete document.” That’s very likely true, but we can’t know without reading the whole report. And in all likelihood, the reporters who passed on the leakers’ spin don’t know either.
But it’s also true the NIEs have certainly included some major blunders. The 1997 NIE, the last one before the 9/11 attacks on global terrorism, mentioned bin Laden in only three sentences as a “terrorist financier” and didn’t reference al-Qaeda at all. And of course, it was the October 2002 NIE which was a significant factor in the decision to use force against Iraq by famously asserting, “Baghdad has chemical and biological weapons as well as missiles with ranges in excess of UN restrictions; if left unchecked, it probably will have a nuclear weapon during this decade.”
Michelle Malkin debunks the entire “LEAK:”
The NYTimes and WaPo went big yesterday with news of a leaked classified National Intelligence Estimate report, which reportedly claims that the Iraq war is exacerbating Islamic terrorism.
If our intelligence agencies are laboring under the moonbat illusion that Muslim hatred of the infidel West didn’t really start bubbling until the year 2003, we are really in deep, deep doo-doo. Have they not been paying attention over the last year? All it takes is a few cartoons or a dropped Koran or a defiant apostate or a Muslim woman in a bikini or a papal speech quotation to set off The Religion of Perpetual Outrage. Someone order up some copies of Legacy of Jihad and Islamic Imperialism stat.
Ed Morrissey has a good reality check, as do a few of his commenters.
And will the entire NIE ever be released?
NOPE – It is classified……
And the partisan spin by the Democrats is obvious.
Playing politics with national intelligence have the Democrats NO SHAME?
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