Smeagol-Gollum
14-01-2005, 23:12
Iraq biggest base for terrorists: CIA
Chaotic post-war Iraq has become the world's biggest training ground for the next generation of "professionalised" terrorists, says a CIA report.
Awash with weapons and politically unstable, Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the country of choice for al-Qaeda and related terrorists to train, the document said.
Iraq provides terrorists with "a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills", said the report by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA director's think tank.
"There is even, under the best scenario, over time, the likelihood that some of the jihadists who are not killed there will, in a sense, go home, wherever home is, and will therefore disperse to various other countries," wrote David Low, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats.
The report, titled Mapping the Global Future, was based on a year-long analysis, including interviews with 1,000 US and foreign experts.
President George Bush has called Iraq the "central front" in the war on terrorism.
But critics argue that the terrorists arrived in Iraq after the US-led invasion.
There is no evidence that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein was ever linked to Osama bin Laden.
According to the report, seen by the Washington Post, hundreds of foreign terrorists flooded into Iraq across its unprotected borders soon after the invasion.
There, they found tonnes of unguarded weapons which they are now using against US troops.
Some of the foreign terrorists have formed loose alliances with Saddam loyalists and other insurgents.
"The al-Qaeda membership that was distinguished by having trained in Afghanistan will gradually dissipate, to be replaced in part by the dispersion of the experienced survivors of the conflict in Iraq," the report says.
It warns that the Iraq conflict had joined a list of other conflicts - including the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate, and independence movements in Chechnya and Kashmir - that had boosted support for radical Islam around the world.
The report also predicts that al-Qaeda will no longer be the top global terror threat by 2020.
Instead, Islamic extremist groups would merge with local separatist movements - and such mergers were already under way.
There would emerge "an eclectic array of groups, cells and individuals that do not need a stationary headquarters".
And they would use the internet as a way of communicating.
"Training materials, targeting guidance, weapons know-how, and fund-raising will become virtual."
© 2005 AAP
COMMENT.
Coming just days after the US has finally admitted that there are no WMDs to be found in Iraq, this can only be interpreted as a scathing attack on Bush and his policies.
Not only has the Iraq invasion cost lives, tarnished America's reputation, failed to find any WMDs, and served as a means of undermining the UN, it now looks likely to have increased the threat from terrorism.
This apart from the fact that the resources used in Iraq could instead have been used to hunt down bin Laden and his adherents. Anybody out there still remember bin Laden? He's the guy that was, and remains, the threat.
Anybody out there still think that holding an election in Iraq will make all the problems go away?
Chaotic post-war Iraq has become the world's biggest training ground for the next generation of "professionalised" terrorists, says a CIA report.
Awash with weapons and politically unstable, Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the country of choice for al-Qaeda and related terrorists to train, the document said.
Iraq provides terrorists with "a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills", said the report by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA director's think tank.
"There is even, under the best scenario, over time, the likelihood that some of the jihadists who are not killed there will, in a sense, go home, wherever home is, and will therefore disperse to various other countries," wrote David Low, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats.
The report, titled Mapping the Global Future, was based on a year-long analysis, including interviews with 1,000 US and foreign experts.
President George Bush has called Iraq the "central front" in the war on terrorism.
But critics argue that the terrorists arrived in Iraq after the US-led invasion.
There is no evidence that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein was ever linked to Osama bin Laden.
According to the report, seen by the Washington Post, hundreds of foreign terrorists flooded into Iraq across its unprotected borders soon after the invasion.
There, they found tonnes of unguarded weapons which they are now using against US troops.
Some of the foreign terrorists have formed loose alliances with Saddam loyalists and other insurgents.
"The al-Qaeda membership that was distinguished by having trained in Afghanistan will gradually dissipate, to be replaced in part by the dispersion of the experienced survivors of the conflict in Iraq," the report says.
It warns that the Iraq conflict had joined a list of other conflicts - including the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate, and independence movements in Chechnya and Kashmir - that had boosted support for radical Islam around the world.
The report also predicts that al-Qaeda will no longer be the top global terror threat by 2020.
Instead, Islamic extremist groups would merge with local separatist movements - and such mergers were already under way.
There would emerge "an eclectic array of groups, cells and individuals that do not need a stationary headquarters".
And they would use the internet as a way of communicating.
"Training materials, targeting guidance, weapons know-how, and fund-raising will become virtual."
© 2005 AAP
COMMENT.
Coming just days after the US has finally admitted that there are no WMDs to be found in Iraq, this can only be interpreted as a scathing attack on Bush and his policies.
Not only has the Iraq invasion cost lives, tarnished America's reputation, failed to find any WMDs, and served as a means of undermining the UN, it now looks likely to have increased the threat from terrorism.
This apart from the fact that the resources used in Iraq could instead have been used to hunt down bin Laden and his adherents. Anybody out there still remember bin Laden? He's the guy that was, and remains, the threat.
Anybody out there still think that holding an election in Iraq will make all the problems go away?