Bush distorting al-Qaeda links, critics assert

[Flabbergasted]

Bush distorting al-Qaeda links, critics assert
New York Times Posted online: Saturday, July 14, 2007 at 0000 hrs


BAGHDAD, July 13: In rebuffing calls to bring troops home from Iraq, President Bush on Thursday employed a stark and ominous defence. “The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq,” he said, “were the ones who attacked us in America on September 11, and that’s why what happens in Iraq matters to the security here at home.”

It is an argument Bush has been making in the past few months, as the challenges to the continuation of the war have grown. On Thursday alone, he referred at least 30 times to al-Qaeda or its presence in Iraq.

But his references to al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia, and his assertions that it is the same group that attacked the US in 2001, have greatly oversimplified the nature of the insurgency in Iraq and its relationship with the Qaeda leadership. There is no question that the group is one of the most dangerous in Iraq. But Bush’s critics argue that he has overstated the Qaeda connection in an attempt to exploit the same kinds of post-Sept. 11 emotions that helped him win support for the invasion in the first place.

Al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia did not exist before the September 11 attacks. The Sunni group thrived as a magnet for recruiting and a force for violence largely because of the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, which brought an American occupying force of more than 100,000 troops to the heart of the Middle East, and led to a Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad.

The American military and American intelligence agencies characterise al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia as a ruthless, mostly foreign-led group that is responsible for a disproportionately large share of the suicide car bomb attacks that have stoked sectarian violence. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior American commander in Iraq, said in an interview that he considered the group to be “the principal short-term threat to Iraq”.

But while American intelligence agencies have pointed to links between leaders of al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia and the top leadership of the broader Qaeda group, the militant group is in many respects an Iraqi phenomenon. They believe the membership of the group is overwhelmingly Iraqi. Its financing is derived largely indigenously from kidnappings and other criminal activities. And many of its most ardent foes are close at home, namely the Shiite militias and the Iranians who are deemed to support them.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/204861.html

[rfranklin]

1. No, George, it was your Saudi pals who attacked us on 9/11...

Probably with Dick Cheney's assent. Oh yea, and your Pakistani friends lent a helping hand as well.

[Throwing Stones]

2. In other breaking news, researchers have concluded that bears shit in the woods

[GeorgeGist]

3. Wow the NYT is slow ...

to notice the obvious.