Nickdfresh
07-06-2005, 09:44 AM
Officials, studies find Iraq is top terror-training ground
By WARREN P. STROBEL
Knight Ridder Newspapers
7/5/2005
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WASHINGTON - Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the prime training ground for foreign terrorists who could travel elsewhere across the globe and wreak havoc, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials and classified studies by the CIA and the State Department.
Of particular concern, the officials and studies say, are the urban combat techniques being learned and used by foreign fighters assaulting U.S. and Iraqi troops. There's already evidence that those tactics are being replicated elsewhere.
Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James T. Conway told a Pentagon briefing last week that remotely detonated bombs known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs - the insurgents' weapon of choice in Iraq - are an increasing threat to U.S. forces trying to stabilize Afghanistan.
The trend is "a little bit troubling," Conway said.
Iraq's emergence as a terrorist training ground appears to challenge President Bush's rationale for invading and overthrowing leader Saddam Hussein in March 2003.
Really? You don't say!
"To complete the mission, we will prevent al-Qaida and other foreign terrorists from turning Iraq into what Afghanistan was under the Taliban, a safe haven from which they could launch attacks on America and our friends," the president said in a nationally televised address last Tuesday.
But Iraq wasn't a source of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism under Saddam and played no role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Critics argue that the U.S. invasion harmed, rather than helped, the war on terror by acting as a magnet and recruiting tool.
"Arguably, it's created new problems that we're going to be dealing with for a long time," said Steven Simon, a senior analyst at RAND Corp. who served at the National Security Council under former President Bill Clinton.
Foreign fighters' growing experience with IEDs, in particular, "is a real problem if you think these guys are going to wind up in the streets of Europe and the Middle East, or even the United States at some point," Simon said.
So, what was the idiot saying about "fighting them over there?"
The classified CIA and State Department assessments were completed in May and deal with what intelligence analysts are calling "bleed out" or "terrorist dispersal" from Iraq to surrounding countries.
The officials who described them did so on condition of anonymity because intelligence matters are involved.
The studies compare Iraq to Afghanistan in the 1980s, when the Soviet invasion drew Muslim fighters known as mujahedeen from around the world. After the Soviet defeat, many of them, including Osama bin Laden, built terrorist networks or fought for Islamic causes outside Afghanistan.
Foreign fighters make up only a fraction of the Iraqi insurgency, perhaps as little as 5 percent. Many are killed or captured, but their numbers are replenished by fresh recruits, who often transit via Syria.
U.S. ally Saudi Arabia is a prime potential destination for experienced fighters returning from Iraq, the study by the State Department's Intelligence and Research bureau concludes, according to officials familiar with its contents.
Yemen is another likely destination.
Saudi citizens are thought to make up the largest contingent of foreign fighters in Iraq, and the Saudi royal family has expressed alarm to the U.S. government over the prospect of battle-scarred militants returning to the oil-rich kingdom.
Other insurgents are believed to come from Syria, Jordan, Yemen, Egypt and elsewhere in North Africa.
Link (http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050705/1051109.asp)
By WARREN P. STROBEL
Knight Ridder Newspapers
7/5/2005
http://manager.albawaba.com/img/new_sys/mediabank/3494_mb_file_d3856.gif
WASHINGTON - Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the prime training ground for foreign terrorists who could travel elsewhere across the globe and wreak havoc, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials and classified studies by the CIA and the State Department.
Of particular concern, the officials and studies say, are the urban combat techniques being learned and used by foreign fighters assaulting U.S. and Iraqi troops. There's already evidence that those tactics are being replicated elsewhere.
Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James T. Conway told a Pentagon briefing last week that remotely detonated bombs known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs - the insurgents' weapon of choice in Iraq - are an increasing threat to U.S. forces trying to stabilize Afghanistan.
The trend is "a little bit troubling," Conway said.
Iraq's emergence as a terrorist training ground appears to challenge President Bush's rationale for invading and overthrowing leader Saddam Hussein in March 2003.
Really? You don't say!
"To complete the mission, we will prevent al-Qaida and other foreign terrorists from turning Iraq into what Afghanistan was under the Taliban, a safe haven from which they could launch attacks on America and our friends," the president said in a nationally televised address last Tuesday.
But Iraq wasn't a source of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism under Saddam and played no role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Critics argue that the U.S. invasion harmed, rather than helped, the war on terror by acting as a magnet and recruiting tool.
"Arguably, it's created new problems that we're going to be dealing with for a long time," said Steven Simon, a senior analyst at RAND Corp. who served at the National Security Council under former President Bill Clinton.
Foreign fighters' growing experience with IEDs, in particular, "is a real problem if you think these guys are going to wind up in the streets of Europe and the Middle East, or even the United States at some point," Simon said.
So, what was the idiot saying about "fighting them over there?"
The classified CIA and State Department assessments were completed in May and deal with what intelligence analysts are calling "bleed out" or "terrorist dispersal" from Iraq to surrounding countries.
The officials who described them did so on condition of anonymity because intelligence matters are involved.
The studies compare Iraq to Afghanistan in the 1980s, when the Soviet invasion drew Muslim fighters known as mujahedeen from around the world. After the Soviet defeat, many of them, including Osama bin Laden, built terrorist networks or fought for Islamic causes outside Afghanistan.
Foreign fighters make up only a fraction of the Iraqi insurgency, perhaps as little as 5 percent. Many are killed or captured, but their numbers are replenished by fresh recruits, who often transit via Syria.
U.S. ally Saudi Arabia is a prime potential destination for experienced fighters returning from Iraq, the study by the State Department's Intelligence and Research bureau concludes, according to officials familiar with its contents.
Yemen is another likely destination.
Saudi citizens are thought to make up the largest contingent of foreign fighters in Iraq, and the Saudi royal family has expressed alarm to the U.S. government over the prospect of battle-scarred militants returning to the oil-rich kingdom.
Other insurgents are believed to come from Syria, Jordan, Yemen, Egypt and elsewhere in North Africa.
Link (http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050705/1051109.asp)