Report attacks 'myth' of foreign fighters (in Iraq)

[sabra]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1576666,00.html

Report attacks 'myth' of foreign fighters

Brian Whitaker and Ewen MacAskill

The Guardian

The US and the Iraqi government have overstated the number of foreign fighters in Iraq, "feeding the myth" that they are the backbone of the insurgency, an American thinktank says in a new report.

Foreign militants - mainly from Algeria, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia - account for less than 10% of the estimated 30,000 insurgents, according to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The report came as President Bush said a pullout of US forces would embolden America's enemies, allowing the Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden "to dominate the Middle East and launch more attacks on America and other free nations".

The report says the presence of foreign fighters is cause for alarm "particularly because they play so large a role in the most violent bombings and in the efforts to provoke a major and intense civil war". The CSIS disputes reports that Saudis account for most of the foreign insurgents and says best estimates suggest Algerians are the largest group (20%), followed by Syrians (18%), Yemenis (17%), Sudanese (15%), Egyptians (13%), Saudis (12%) and those from other states (5%). British intelligence estimate the number of British jihadists at about 100.

[Dover]

1. Hmmm....and what percentage are Brits in wigs dressed like Iraqis?

Or are they not considered 'foreign'? (wink-wink)

Just asking...:shrug:

[ladylibertee]

3. LOL Thank you.Can't really trust anyone anymore these days!

[converted_democrat]

5. LOL!! n/t

[Sven77]

2. polls show alot

iraqi's think US, British, and Isreali are behind the insurgency in Iraq. You dont make money winning the war in a few weeks. Defense contractors make more money losing the war for years and years. Its Rumsfeld's P2OG plan to create civil war in Iraq. They are making bases there and never leaving. As Cheney says, this war could last a lifetime.

[Ben Ceremos]

4. The only foreign fighters

I have evidence of are the American and British sort. (Sorry, forgot about the coalition of the billing.) End the occupation, NOW! Iraq must determine its own course!

[HannibalBarca]

6. If I hear that...

...talking vegetable use the phrase "embolden our enemies" one more timwe I'll kill myself. Any criticism of Der Furher will embolden our enemies including those dam hurricanes.

[Mark E. Smith]

7. Report Attacks "Myth" Of Foreign Fighters (90% Of Insurgents Are Iraqis)

Guardian 9/23/05

The US and the Iraqi government have overstated the number of foreign fighters in Iraq, "feeding the myth" that they are the backbone of the insurgency, an American think-tank says in a new report.

Foreign militants - mainly from Algeria, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia - account for less than 10% of the estimated 30,000 insurgents, according to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The report came as President Bush said a pullout of US forces would embolden America's enemies, allowing the Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden "to dominate the Middle East and launch more attacks on America and other free nations."

The report says the presence of foreign fighters is cause for alarm "particularly because they play so large a role in the most violent bombings and in the efforts to provoke a major and intense civil war." The CSIS disputes reports that Saudis account for most of the foreign insurgents and says best estimates suggest Algerians are the largest group (20%), Yemenis (17%), Sudanese (15%), Egyptians (13%), Saudis (12%) and those from other states (5%). British intelligence estimate the number of British jihadists at about 100.

The CSIS report says: "The vast majority of Saudi militants who have entered Iraq were not terrorist sympathizers before the war; and they were radicalized almost exclusively by the coalition invasion."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5292484-103550,00.html

Rule of thumb: Everything Georgie Bush says is false.

[Gronk Groks]

8. It just proves this IS a native insugency...

...why are we not surprised?

I swear, if shrub said it was night outside I would go to a window to make sure...he is THAT pathological !!!

[mwdem]

9. But didn't we know all along that the insurgents were

freedom fighters in their own country?

[samsingh]

10. another repug lie

[Journeyman]

13. Isn't this like the third or fourth time a report shows the BushCo lie?...

Seems everytime BushCo gives numbers for foreign fighters in the insurgency, a report comes out shortly thereafter -- sometimes by the Pentagon, now here by the CSIS -- that completely contradicts and gives the lie to what BushCo's pushing. This is why when they began pushing their recent numbers I figured all that needed to be done was wait and see. And here we are.

For someone who doesn't have stables on his "ranch," Shrub shovels a lot of horseshit.

[Robeson]

11. What bothers me is that they are all named Zarqawi...

...they seemed to have cloned a lot him.

[thebigidea]

12. I'd love to see how they came up with this "30,000" figure

seems pretty arbitrary to me.

[banana republican]

14. this seems like a Duhhh moment... n/t