US intelligence chiefs grim about Iraq's future

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US intelligence chiefs grim about Iraq's future

20 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Top US intelligence officials gave a bleak appraisal Wednesday of Iraq's chances of stemming political and religious strife and so helping the US administration to declare success in the nation.

Thomas Fingar, deputy director of national intelligence, told Congress that US President George W. Bush's "surge" of up to 30,000 more troops into Iraq had done little yet to stem the bloodshed.

He said that "even if violence is diminished, given the current winner-take-all attitude and sectarian animosities infecting the political scene, Iraqi leaders will be hard pressed to achieve sustained political reconciliation."

In prepared testimony to the House of Representatives armed services committee, Fingar said essential public services in Iraq remain "inadequate," oil output is below pre-war levels and electricity supply has fallen.

"With political reconciliation showing few appreciable gains, we have noted that Iraqis increasingly resort to violence," he said.

"The struggle among and within Iraqi communities over national identity and the distribution of power has eclipsed attacks by Iraqis against the coalition forces as the greatest impediment to Iraq's future as a peaceful, democratic and unified state."

Fingar's remarks and similarly downbeat assessments from other senior intelligence officials to the House committee came with Bush under more pressure than ever to start bringing US troops home from Iraq.

A flurry of plans in the Democratic-led Congress, from across the political spectrum, range from an immediate troop exodus, to various blueprints for a withdrawal to start within four months and be completed by early next year.

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