THE NIE
***updated with my first read***
Here's the link to the PDF document of the NIE's key judgements at the DNI site. If the server is down, we've got it here.
Some of what you didn't read in the NYTimes:
We assess that the Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives; perceived jihadist success there would inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere.The Iraq conflict has become the “cause celebre” for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement. Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.
Andy Cochran writes: "I wish they could declassify more or, as I wrote on Sunday night, turn the whole report over to an independent body like the 9/11 Commission and let them do it. "
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Update: A few of my first thoughts on reading the document...
Putting aside how the outdated portions still refers to Zarqawi in the present tense, the big thing that strikes me about the key judgements is that they reflect a dhimmi, historically ignorant view of jihad more suited for the moonbat Left than our premier intelligence agencies. Check out this paragraph:
Four underlying factors are fueling the spread of the jihadist movement: (1) Entrenched grievances, such as corruption, injustice, and fear of Western domination, leading to anger humiliation, and a sense of powerlessness; (2) the Iraq "jihad;" (3) the slow pace of real and sustained economic, social, and political reforms in many Muslim majority nations; and (4) pervasive anti-US sentiment among most Muslims--all of which jihadists exploit.
Not a word about the 1,400-year-plus history of Islamic hostility to the West or Islamic imperialism from time immemorial or the Koran-inspired war on infidels--long, long before there was a United States and "pervasive anti-US sentiment."
Remember what I said yesterday?
If our intelligence agencies are laboring under the moonbat illusion that Muslim hatred of the infidel West didn't really start bubbling until the year 2003, we are really in deep, deep doo-doo.
Well, it appears we are, in fact, in deep doo-doo.
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Lots of folks writing in about the A(wt)P's biased news coverage of the NIE story. The reporter(s)? Jennifer Loven [and Katherine Shrader].
Jules Crittenden e-mails: "AP story leads with Iraq as 'cause celebre'" but fails to include conclusion/context of the same paragraph [ed. note: see above blockquote]... that they must be stopped in Iraq. The report is presented as negatively as possible, to the point of distortion."
Yup, that's the A(wt)P way.
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Thank you, Andy McCarthy:
Whether we wish to acknowledge it or not, jihadism is attractive to tens of millions of people in what is called the Muslim world. Out of a total population of about 1.3 billion, that may not be a very high percentage (although I daresay it is higher than we like to think). But it is the ideology that attracts recruits. Grievances are just rhetoric. If the bin Ladens did not have Iraq, or the Palestinians, or Lebanon, or Pope Benedict, or cartoons, or flushed Korans, or Dutch movies, or the Crusades, they’d figure out something else to beat the drums over. Or they’d make something up — there being lots of license to improvise when one purports to be executing Allah’s will.It is bad enough when the Muslim charlatans opportunistically use American policies they don’t like for militant propaganda purposes. It is reprehensible when American politicians do it.
Jihadists hate us because they hate us, not because of Iraq.
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Another update: Justin Hart helpfully reorganizes the messy NIE document. Cool!
