[DEBATE] : (Fwd) What's terrifying the CIA

[Patrick Bond]

A Closer Reading of the National Intelligence Estimate:
Iraq a Bigger Factor in the Rise of Terror than
Reported. Plus, Anti-Globalization Forces Equated with
Terrorists!

By Matthew Rothschild
<http://progressive.org/mag_wx092706>
September 27, 2006

So it turns out that the National Intelligence Estimate
on terrorism does confirm what we've been saying all
along: that the Iraq War is fueling terrorism.

A lot of the news reports said that the estimate listed
"the Iraq jihad" as one of the "four underlying factors
[that] are fueling the spread of the jihadist movement,"
which is "increasing in both number and geographic
dispersion."

But if you read the relevant declassified passage
closely, you'll see that Iraq plays a role in three of
the four underlying factors.

The first factor is "entrenched grievances." This
includes a sense of "injustice" and "fear of Western
domination, leading to anger, humiliation, and a sense
of powerlessness." The Iraq War certainly has fueled
this fear. It is the very essence of Western domination.
And the round up of thousands of Iraqi men and the
torture at Abu Ghraib reinforced "anger, humiliation,
and a sense of powerlessness."

The second factor is "the Iraq jihad" itself. Bingo.

The third factor is "the slow pace or reforms." That one
doesn't apply.

But the fourth factor is "pervasive anti-U.S. sentiment
among most Muslims." Again, the Iraq War contributes to
this sentiment.

So three of the four factors, identified by our
intelligence communities, relate to the Iraq War.

How Bush can then turn around and say that we wouldn't
"see a rosier scenario, with fewer extremists joining
the radical movement," if we weren't in Iraq is not only
beyond me but beyond his own intelligence experts.

And it's also beyond General Musharraf of Pakistan, who
told Jon Stewart later the same day that the Iraq War
"has led certainly to more extremists and terrorism
around the world."

If you read the declassified portions of the document
printed in the New York Times on September 27, two other
things pop out.

One is the dog that didn't bark, and that is the
omission of any mention of U.S. support for Israel
against the Palestinians. This may be the biggest
entrenched grievance in the Arab and Muslim worlds. It
is a constant supplier of "anti-American sentiment," a
seemingly inexhaustible source of "anger, humiliation,
and a sense of powerlessness." If the National
Intelligence Estimate, in its entirety, omits mention of
this problem, then the United States government is
woefully ill served by the director of national
intelligence. (The estimate was written prior to
Israel's reoccupation of Gaza and Israel's invasion of
Lebanon. Both have provided additional fuel for the
jihadists.)

The other aspect is especially noteworthy--and
alarming--for progressives. And that is the document's
inclusion of "anti-globalization" as a source of
terrorism.

"Anti-U.S. and anti-globalization sentiment is on the
rise and fueling other radical ideologies," the document
states. "This could prompt some leftist, nationalist, or
separatist groups to adopt terrorist methods to attack
U.S. interests."

Those of us who are "leftist" and who belong to the
"anti-globalization" movement are put on notice. We are
now terrorist suspects in the eyes of the U.S.
intelligence community.