This is an article from the NYT. My Blog was from an AP article by Nedra Pickler:

September 24, 2006
Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terrorism Threat
By MARK MAZZETTI
WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 — A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the final document.

The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled “Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States,’’ it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.

An opening section of the report, “Indicators of the Spread of the Global Jihadist Movement,” cites the Iraq war as a reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology.

The report “says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” said one American intelligence official.

More than a dozen United States government officials and outside experts were interviewed for this article, and all spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a classified intelligence document. The officials included employees of several government agencies, and both supporters and critics of the Bush administration. All of those interviewed had either seen the final version of the document or participated in the creation of earlier drafts. These officials discussed some of the document’s general conclusions but not details, which remain highly classified.

Officials with knowledge of the intelligence estimate said it avoided specific judgments about the likelihood that terrorists would once again strike on United States soil. The relationship between the Iraq war and terrorism, and the question of whether the United States is safer, have been subjects of persistent debate since the war began in 2003.

National Intelligence Estimates are the most authoritative documents that the intelligence community produces on a specific national security issue, and are approved by John D. Negroponte, director of national intelligence. Their conclusions are based on analysis of raw intelligence collected by all of the spy agencies.

Analysts began working on the estimate in 2004, but it was not finalized until this year. Part of the reason was that some government officials were unhappy with the structure and focus of earlier versions of the document, according to officials involved in the discussion.

Previous drafts described actions by the United States government that were determined to have stoked the jihad movement, like the indefinite detention of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay and the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, and some policy makers argued that the intelligence estimate should be more focused on specific steps to mitigate the terror threat. It is unclear whether the final draft of the intelligence estimate criticizes individual policies of the United States, but intelligence officials involved in preparing the document said its conclusions were not softened or massaged for political purposes.

Frederick Jones, a White House spokesman, said the White House “played no role in drafting or reviewing the judgments expressed in the National Intelligence Estimate on terrorism.” The estimate’s judgments confirm some predictions of a National Intelligence Council report completed in January 2003, two months before the Iraq invasion. That report stated that the approaching war had the potential to increase support for political Islam worldwide and could increase support for some terrorist objectives.

Documents released by the White House timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks emphasized the successes that the United States had made in dismantling the top tier of Al Qaeda.

“Since the Sept. 11 attacks, America and its allies are safer, but we are not yet safe,” concludes one, a report titled “9/11 Five Years Later: Success and Challenges.” “We have done much to degrade Al Qaeda and its affiliates and to undercut the perceived legitimacy of terrorism.”

That document makes only passing mention of the impact the Iraq war has had on the global jihad movement. “The ongoing fight for freedom in Iraq has been twisted by terrorist propaganda as a rallying cry,” it states.

The report mentions the possibility that Islamic militants who fought in Iraq could return to their home countries, “exacerbating domestic conflicts or fomenting radical ideologies.”

On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee released a more ominous report about the terrorist threat. That assessment, based entirely on unclassified documents, details a growing jihad movement and says, “Al Qaeda leaders wait patiently for the right opportunity to attack.”

The new National Intelligence Estimate was overseen by David B. Low, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats, who commissioned it in 2004 after he took up his post at the National Intelligence Council. Mr. Low declined to be interviewed for this article.

The estimate concludes that the radical Islamic movement has expanded from a core of Qaeda operatives and affiliated groups to include a new class of “self-generating” cells inspired by Al Qaeda’s leadership but without any direct connection to Osama bin Laden or his top lieutenants.

It also examines how the Internet has helped spread jihadist ideology, and how cyberspace has become a haven for terrorist operatives who no longer have geographical refuges in countries like Afghanistan.

In early 2005, the National Intelligence Council released a study concluding that Iraq had become the primary training ground for the next generation of terrorists, and that veterans of the Iraq war might ultimately overtake Al Qaeda’s current leadership in the constellation of the global jihad leadership.

But the new intelligence estimate is the first report since the war began to present a comprehensive picture about the trends in global terrorism.

In recent months, some senior American intelligence officials have offered glimpses into the estimate’s conclusions in public speeches.

“New jihadist networks and cells, sometimes united by little more than their anti-Western agendas, are increasingly likely to emerge,” said Gen. Michael V. Hayden, during a speech in San Antonio in April, the month that the new estimate was completed. “If this trend continues, threats to the U.S. at home and abroad will become more diverse and that could lead to increasing attacks worldwide,” said the general, who was then Mr. Negroponte’s top deputy and is now director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

For more than two years, there has been tension between the Bush administration and American spy agencies over the violence in Iraq and the prospects for a stable democracy in the country. Some intelligence officials have said the White House has consistently presented a more optimistic picture of the situation in Iraq than justified by intelligence reports from the field.

Spy agencies usually produce several national intelligence estimates each year on a variety of subjects. The most controversial of these in recent years was an October 2002 document assessing Iraq’s illicit weapons programs. Several government investigations have discredited that report, and the intelligence community is overhauling how it analyzes data, largely as a result of those investigations.

The broad judgments of the new intelligence estimate are consistent with assessments of global terrorist threats by American allies and independent terrorism experts.

The panel investigating the London terrorist bombings of July 2005 reported in May that the leaders of Britain’s domestic and international intelligence services, MI5 and MI6, “emphasized to the committee the growing scale of the Islamist terrorist threat.”

More recently, the Council on Global Terrorism, an independent research group of respected terrorism experts, assigned a grade of “D+” to United States efforts over the past five years to combat Islamic extremism. The council concluded that “there is every sign that radicalization in the Muslim world is spreading rather than shrinking.”

I asked for the intelligence report, not the NYT version. As usual you don't have the actual facts, just what the NYT reports to you. You, Congress, or the NYT's knows what the entire intelligence report says, but that doesn't stop you from your usual anti-American claims.

That fact now REQUIRES a major change in our policy. To “stay the course” that has failed is not acceptable!

And why don't you help your democrat buddies come up with a plan?

...and the reason that the terrorist attacks against the US stopped after 9/11 is...

 

(waiting)

Draginol

Because we have done a lot better job defending the U.S. It has nothing to do with the Iraq war. The underlying reasons for the attacks have not been reduced and the National Intelligence Estimate says just that. The CIA estimate as to the number of Al Qaeda members growing from 20,000 in 2001 to 50,000 today is another example of how the Bush policies are not solving the problem but making it WORSE by increasing the number of terrorists that would attempt another 9/11. As the number of terrorists that are willing to attack us grown so does the difficulty of defending our country.

Bush has ignored the National Intelligence Estimate and continues to feed us a line of BS that his attack on Iraq has made us safer. The exact opposite is what is the conclusion of our 16 intelligence agencies.

The CIA estimated that Saddam had WMD's too. Do you still believe that?

Bush has ignored the National Intelligence Estimate and continues to feed us a line of BS that his attack on Iraq has made us safer. The exact opposite is what is the conclusion of our 16 intelligence agencies.

That's pretty amazing considering you have never seen the intelligence report.

The first comment by ParaTed2K is entirely inappropriate in a list of replies to what is essentially a serious post.

But it was 1)good for giggles, and 2)a lashing out at someone who really, really sounds like a man beating the shit out of an extremely dead and decomposing horse. Do I like Bush? No, I think he's a total tool, and definitely not very high on my list of "effective US presidents". But the col. gets so damned old. The same thing, just rehashed on a weekly basis. I'm surprised he hasn't grown tired of the rant. We all have.

Bush is doing the same thing with this Intelligence report that he did with reports prior to march 2003 that said the nuclear program of Saddam was NOT active. Bush and Cheney disregarded that Intelligence and told us about the mushroom clouds that we risked if we did not remove Saddam. These was good Intel prior to our attack that said the Bio WMD program of Saddam was also suspect. The only issue were there was agreement was that Saddam most likely has some ARTILLERY SHELLS FILLED WITH GAS. That is the ONLY WMD we ever located in Iraq.

This means the total information about the dangers that exist in this world are NOT being used to develop our policies. Iraq is an example of how that harms our security!

I notice you keep avoiding the question. Have you read the entire intelligence report? If you have not you need to admit that, and stop speaking as though you have.

Bush and Cheney disregarded that Intelligence and told us about the mushroom clouds that we risked if we did not remove Saddam.

And don't forget the democrats that said Saddam was a threat, and had WMD's. You always seem to leave them out even though they voted for the war.

IslandDog

I have read the two articles by AP and NYT. I do not have a copy of the classified report. The reports in the NYT and AP are accurate and Bush has not refuted them. They attack the fact they were released. I want to know is WHY Bush has ignored these reports and tells us things that are 100% out of sink with the Intel he has been presented?

The Total Intel prior to March 2003 said Saddam did not have a current nuclear program and doubted he had a current Bio WMD Program. Bush ignored that Intel. It is not that the Intel was wrong it was that Bush selectively used only those elements that supported his plan to invade Iraq!

The reports in the NYT and AP are accurate...

And you know this how? Because it agrees with your twisted little broken record Bush hate-fest? You haven't read the actual report so you don't have any way of knowing whether the news reports are accurate or not, you're just seizing yet another opportunity to spout your hate Bush bullshit as usual.

I have read the two articles by AP and NYT. I do not have a copy of the classified report[/B]. The [B]reports in the NYT and AP are accurate and Bush has not refuted them.

Only someone like you, an obsessive Bush hater, can make sense of that statement.

This has nothing to do with what I think of Bush. The report does exist and does state as reported in the NYT and AP that the Iraq war has made the threat worse. Members of congress will insure the facts come out. The reality that you and the other Bush supporters will not accept is that Bush and Cheney IGNORE ANYTHING that shows what they are doing are wrong.

This will not go away and in time the actual text of the Intelligence Summery will be released or an unclassified version will be available.

The NYT Articles quotes sections from the report that was released by officials WHO HAVE READ THE REPORT.

I have read the two articles by AP and NYT. I do not have a copy of the classified report. The reports in the NYT and AP are accurate and Bush has not refuted them. They attack the fact they were released. I want to know is WHY Bush has ignored these reports and tells us things that are 100% out of sink with the Intel he has been presented?

Then you have absolutely "NO IDEA" what it really says!!!!

The reality that you and the other Bush supporters will not accept is that Bush and Cheney IGNORE ANYTHING that shows what they are doing are wrong.

I don't ignore it, I gladly accept it. Because if ignoring people like you make them wrong, then go ahead. The NYT is known to be very anti-Bush/anti-American, so I will take anything they report as likely as I take the bs you post.

You take excerpts from the NYT's and proclaim that you know EVERYTHING the report said. That is typical for people like you.