Iraq May Be Prime Place for Training of Militants, C.I.A. Report Concludes

[RedEarth]

WASHINGTON, June 21 - A new classified assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency says Iraq may prove to be an even more effective training ground for Islamic extremists than Afghanistan was in Al Qaeda's early days, because it is serving as a real-world laboratory for urban combat.

The assessment, completed last month and circulated among government agencies, was described in recent days by several Congressional and intelligence officials. The officials said it made clear that the war was likely to produce a dangerous legacy by dispersing to other countries Iraqi and foreign combatants more adept and better organized than they were before the conflict.

Congressional and intelligence officials who described the assessment called it a thorough examination that included extensive discussion of the areas that might be particularly prone to infiltration by combatants from Iraq, either Iraqis or foreigners.

They said the assessment had argued that Iraq, since the American invasion of 2003, had in many ways assumed the role played by Afghanistan during the rise of Al Qaeda during the 1980's and 1990's, as a magnet and a proving ground for Islamic extremists from Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries.

The officials said the report spelled out how the urban nature of the war in Iraq was helping combatants learn how to carry out assassinations, kidnappings, car bombings and other kinds of attacks that were never a staple of the fighting in Afghanistan during the anti-Soviet campaigns of the 1980's. It was during that conflict, primarily rural and conventional, that the United States provided arms to Osama bin Laden and other militants, who later formed Al Qaeda.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/22/international/middleeast/22intel.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print

[Rose Siding]

1. But Tom said it's just like Houston!

Where's the CIA's assessment of Houston?

[maddezmom]

12. hehe

:hi:

[K8-EEE]

2. But...But...We Went In There To TAKE OUT THE TER'RIST CAMPS...

that weren't there but now they are?

YEAH....MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

[MisterP]

13. (actually, the Pentagon cancelled the Air Force's plans to bomb

Zarqawi's Ansar al-Islam camps in the Northern No-Fly Zone THREE TIMES in '02 so--get this--we could say Saddam was harboring terrorists. Don't tell anyone else)

[K8-EEE]

15. shhh!!! Your Secret Is Safe With The BushCo Media In Charge....

We won't hear a thing about it. Did you know that Chelsea Clinton was CBR -- Conceived By Rape? Now THAT'S newsworthy....

:bounce:

[ckramer]

3. Iraq: a killing ground for both sides

What a shame.

Is it fair to say that Bush has wronged Saddam?

[acmavm]

4. That's our crack intelligence people for ya. It's dawned on them that it

just might be possible that learning out to fight back just might be good training for people who rightfully hold a grudge and want to pay us back.

[NNN0LHI]

5. Bet there are some hellashis bomb makers being taught the trade there n/t

[havocmom]

6. With so many witnesses to US policy of aggression, destruction, torture

there is plenty to harden the resolve of those who want to fight us.

Thanks, neocons, you fucked Iraq, the US troops, the rest of the US population and made the world seriously LESS SAFE. But ya get your pieces of silver, so it's all OK by you guys, huh?

Osama bin Laden wanted Saddam out of Iraq. PNAC jumped through his hoop like a trained dog.

Support the troops by getting decent leadership. Dump the Chump Chimp

[liberal N proud]

7. And I thought they were better off without Saddam

What happened in Utopia!

[The Night Owl]

8. In other words, the US is training terrorists to be more effective.

Way to go, Bush. Idiot.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. Print journalists doing their job here -- TV "journalists," shape up!

All I'm seeing on TV is the rescued Boy Scout, which is great news -- but how much coverage does it merit???

[libodem]

10. God, help my sarcastic attitude

how embittered and disdainful I feel. What did they think was going to happen? oh yeah, the people were going to run out and lay flowers at our feet...turns out the flowers are just to cover roadside bombs.....under our our under-armored hummers. What a scam, what a cover-up, what unmitigated deception, what utter stupidity, why can't they be exposed and stopped and punished....I want all their f-in' oil profits returned to the national treasury f-wads

[Doctor_J]

11. Mission Accomplished!

So look back to the back-invasion predictions, and see who said this would happen. Then trust them for what's going to happen next.

[Hobarticus]

14. Did Haliburton get the contract for Al Queda's cafeterias, too?

Just wonderin'.

[sabra]

16. CIA says Iraq is now a terrorist training ground

<<SNIP>>
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22675120.htm

CIA says Iraq is now a terrorist training ground

WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) - The CIA believes the Iraq insurgency poses an international threat and may produce better-trained Islamic terrorists than the 1980s Afghanistan war that gave rise to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, a U.S. counterterrorism official said on Wednesday.

A classified report from the U.S. spy agency says Iraqi and foreign fighters are developing a broad range of deadly skills, from car bombings and assassinations to tightly coordinated conventional attacks on police and military targets, the official said.

Once the insurgency ends, Islamic militants are likely to disperse as highly organized battle-hardened combatants capable of operating throughout the Arab-speaking world and in other regions including Europe.

Fighters leaving Iraq would primarily pose a challenge for their countries of origin including Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

<</SNIP>>

[bullimiami]

17. thanks to the stellar planning and genius of bushco.

[Hosnon]

18. Wonderful...just wonderful - Takes a real assclown to turn a

stable country into a terrorist breeding ground in three years.

[JDPriestly]

19. Is this the same CIA that fixed the evidence

to get us into Iraq in the first place? As if we can trust anything they say. They apparently missed the changes that were going on in Eastern Europe prior to the fall of the Berlin wall. They did not protect us from 9/11. They are completely useless, and now they come up with this. They are not an intelligence agency. They are a propaganda tool. Consider the source when reading information they publish.

[drdtroit]

20. No shit!

You mean Iraq has become exactly what we told them it would, 3 years ago?
Are there any adults left in the GOP (Greedy Old Plutocrats)?

[Kipling]

33. Well, you don't get kids as evil as that.

[Oversea Visitor]

21. So much double talk

If they training this guys in Iraq and they getting better than those in Afghanistan then all the US soldiers in Iraq is in deep trouble
Remember Russia gave up on the war.

Dear me mission accomplish we just train a damn good army of fighter better than the one that defeated Russia. Ok turning a corner here for the big showdown.

Oops Chimp just told of the CIA I look all over my office even under my desk and carpet Dont see any Iraq fighters Therefore you must be wrong. Replace him please This CIA guys not doing his job.

DDR CHIMP DDR BIG TIME

[jsamuel]

22. thanks bush

:sarcasm:

[Oversea Visitor]

23. OK CIA

say we got well train fighter to destabalise the whole of middle east and europe.
Also say once the insurgency end. When and how please. Or was he saying once US get booted out of Iraq or once US withdraw.
Of course he dare not say US also will be targeted.

[Oversea Visitor]

24. Are you reading all this

you elected representatives of the people of America.
Time to stop the trainwreck.
It wont get better it will get worse. Planes and Tanks wont help you.
Only ground troops expose in this kind of war and lot and lots of
American soldiers wll be killed.
How many deaths is enough 1750??? 2000?? 3000??? 10,000. how about a 100,000 Oh rest assure it get there.
Just close you eyes refuse to accept reality.

[DS1]

25. How long before we use our own WMD against Iraq, after invading it

because we said they owned WMD?

[Canuckistanian]

26. Duhhhh....

Them CIAs, they real smart, like streetcar.

[Seabiscuit]

29. Well, Double Duhhhh....

Since Saddam had no terrorist ties in 2002 or 2003, Bushco couldn't gather international support for Amurka's invasion and occupation of Iraq.

So Bushco created a haven for "terrorists" in Iraq and now seeks, through its new CIA chief to try create a new argument for support of its occupation by claiming dem "terrorists" in Iraq now pose a real threat to other countries.

To Buscho, the end always justifies the means.

[ernstbass]

27. Now there's a surprise!

[RethugAssKicker]

28. of course

doesn't take anyone official to tell me that.... We go in there and kill their mothers, brothers, fathers, uncles, sisters, sons, daughters...etc..etc... Don't you think this will create a backlash of freedom fighters, or as the RW nuts call "terrorists"?

[RebelOne]

30. The CIA is just now realizing this? n/t

[CBHagman]

31. Is that the "mission accomplished" part of this?

Is this what Frank Luntz was talking about when he told members of the GOP to say it was better to fight the terrorists in Iraq than stateside?

What incompetence, what mendacity, what a bunch of screw-ups.

[Kipling]

32. The CIA are 4 years behind DU.

Really makes me confident in the future for humanity, that.
How much money goes to the CIA? How much goes to DU?

[karlrschneider]

34. No shit...imagine how much they'd have saved if they'd just asked us!

:eyes: :grr:

[donkeyotay]

39. Official price tag of garbage intell: $40 Billion/ year

I'm willing to split it with the whole focus group.

:)

[bushisanidiot]

35. Great!! Good job, president DUMBASS!!! You've singlehandidly created

thousands of more terrorists who want to attack america than ever before in history.

gawd.. could that moron have done a WORSE job of running the country?????

i don't think so..

[Raiden]

36. Good job there, Bush...

:sarcasm:

[killbotfactory]

37. More proof that neoconservatives are fucking delusional morons

and should be stripped of any and all political power.

[VolcanoJen]

38. Gotta love the "no duh" CIA!

:eyes:

[strizi64]

40. Mission Accomplished

[SlipperySlope]

41. Well, duh.

[Massachusetts]

42. You Crazy American people...hahahahahah

[Halliburton]

43. Wha?

Must be that faulty intelligence. Porter Goss will take care of it.

[daleo]

44. Bush cares about advanced scientific research

He created a "real-world laboratory for urban combat".

[Doomy]

45. Bush created

the hate.

[Parche]

46. CIA

They should know, they are the ones training those so called
insurgants

[Nostradamus]

47. we have always been at war with eastasia

a new generation of terrorists is urgently needed to keep up the spectre of "the threat"

[OKNancy]

48. Kick

[Pirate Smile]

49. NYT: Iraq May Be Prime Place for Training of Militants, C.I.A. Report ...

Iraq May Be Prime Place for Training of Militants, C.I.A. Report Concludes

WASHINGTON, June 21 - A new classified assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency says Iraq may prove to be an even more effective training ground for Islamic extremists than Afghanistan was in Al Qaeda's early days, because it is serving as a real-world laboratory for militants to improve their skills in urban combat.

The intelligence assessment, completed last month and circulated among government agencies, was described in recent days by several Congressional and intelligence officials. The officials said it made clear the view that the war in Iraq was likely to produce a dangerous legacy, by dispersing to other countries Iraqi and foreign combatants more adept and better organized than they were before the conflict.

Congressional and intelligence officials who described the new assessment called it a detailed and thorough examination that included extensive discussion of the areas around the world that might be particularly prone to infiltration by combatants from Iraq, either Iraqis or foreigners.

They said the assessment had argued that Iraq, since the American invasion of 2003, had in many ways assumed the role played by Afghanistan during the rise of Al Qaeda during the 1980's and 1990's, as a magnet and a proving ground for Islamic extremists from Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/22/international/middleeast/22intel.html

Confirms all the arguments that Iraq would make us LESS safe, not more.

[fishnfla]

50. " The Class of '05" The gift that keeps on killing

I posted on this earlier. This will be shrubs everlasting legacy. The next 9/11 is being bred right now in Iraq.

edit: this article doesnt state: the CIA is referring to this new breed of highly trained terrorists as 'the class of '05'

[Schema Thing]

51. Why does the CIA hate America?

...and didn't Wes Clark and others tell 'em this would happen?

[Pirate Smile]

52. kick

[bobgreenboston2]

53. WMDs?

Ye Ye Sure - prime place for WMDs too right?

[struggle4progress]

54. "no shit sherlock" kick

[VegasWolf]

55. Yes, and the redneck mullet-head freepers think Bush is keeping us safe.n

[Freedomfried]

56. CIA says Iraq is now a terrorist training ground

June 23 05


This has been the top story all this morning on CNN's world broadcast:


WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) - The CIA believes the Iraq insurgency poses an international threat and may produce better-trained Islamic terrorists than the 1980s Afghanistan war that gave rise to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, officials said on Wednesday.

A classified report from the U.S. spy agency says Iraqi and foreign fighters are developing a broad range of skills, from car bombings and assassinations to coordinated conventional attacks on police and military targets, officials said.

snip>

"You have everything from bombings and assassinations to more or less conventional attacks," the counterterrorism official said.

"The urban warfare experience, for people facing fairly tight police and military activity at close quarters, should enable them to operate in a wider range of settings."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N22703390.htm

[saigon68]

57. "BRING EM ON" shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

As he urged NegroPonte to kill more "Rag-Heads".

[nadinbrzezinski]

58. the new "politically correct " term is

sand niggers... sadly I ain't shitting you.

:-(

[saigon68]

61. Heard that

It "the term" was used in desert storm by the army.

actually the "WHITE TROOPS" in the ARMY.

LOL

[nadinbrzezinski]

66. I know

I almost pounded on one Marine the other day... he came back from the area oh 24 hours before... I spent instead three hours doing the debrief the Marines should do... and pointed to him this is not a term that will win him friends and admirers stateside...

I also encouraged him to contact Op Truth... boy he had some good (painful) stories to tell

Suffice it to say, it is going well for the good guys and they are getting ahem despereate taht they are not getting the gear they need, but oh Blackwell they do

[BlueEyedSon]

59. In that case, I guess we'll have to stay and police it.....

:puke:

[paineinthearse]

60. I heard this on BBC radio a few hours ago.

Glad it was picked up by CNN.

Is this CNN's international or national wing?

[ngGale]

62. My first thought was - they are trying to sell a generational war...

basis to keep Iraq and all other venture's going. Yes, we are breeding terrorist, thanks to the Iraq war. IMO, we will be at war for the next fifteen blooming years with somebody.:grr:

[Carolab]

64. Yes, it is all quite deliberate. The mayhem feeds the war racket.

How obvious--and unoriginal.

Grandpappy Prescott knew it and knew it well and passed it on down the line.

[Skittles]

63. YES.....NO ONE COULD HAVE PREDICTED *THAT* LITTLE DEVELOPMENT

OMG, THE FREAKING INCOMPETENCE.....IT STILL BLOWS MY MIND THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO VOTED FOR THAT FRAUD BUSH *AGAIN*

[EFerrari]

65. Skittles, I don't think it's incompetence. I firmly believe the

Cabal is taking care of the things that are important to them. With a few calculated risks at the margins.

It only looks like incompetence if you believe they care about our casualties or civilian deaths or rebuilding an Iraqi infrastructure or stuff like that. None of which they need to care about except in a very limited way. . . .

[Skittles]

73. NAH

they thought the ends would justify the means - those stupid, incompetent bastards really thought all the Iraqi people would welcome them with open arms and flowers.

[Melodybe]

67. But I thought we were in the final throws of the invasion

now the CIA says that the whole country is a training ground for more insurgents.

Who says the neo-cons are out of touch with reality?

[emanymton]

68. Don't Know ...Beleive It = Laugh, Don't Believe It= Laugh ...

Two things really stand out here, "Is this the same CIA that shrub blames for faulty intelligence that got USA in the mess in the first place?" and "USA annexed/invaded/occuppied Iraq so there would be no more terrorist camps in Iraq."

Given USA controls all of Iraq, how can terrorist camps exist without USA complicity? Wasn't complicity of Taliban government support for terrorist camps, the reason USA attacked Afgannonstan?

I'd laugh except this is too serious.

[thecrow]

69. Well, DUH......!!!!!!

I cringe every time I see an Iraqi child weeping as he stares at the bombed out home where he used to live with his family, who are now lying dead in the heap.
Not only for his pain...
I know he will grow up HATING the US and it's so sad on both sides.

BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!!!

[powwowdancer]

70. 'New militant threat' from Iraq

The insurgency in Iraq is creating a new type of Islamic militant who could go on to destabilise other countries, a leaked CIA report says.

The classified document says Iraqi and foreign fighters are developing a broad range of skills, from car bombings and assassinations to co-ordinated attacks.

The Full Story

[acmavm]

71. Practice makes perfect. And Lord knows they're getting enough

practice.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

72. Ya think?? n/t

[Seabiscuit]

74. Bushco emptied some small Al Queda bases in Afghanistan only to

create one humongous Al Queda base in Iraq. Nice going, dumbya.