Iraq war helped spread Bin Laden ideology

Thanks, Bush.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48425-2004Apr3.html?nav=headlines

Spread of Bin Laden Ideology Cited
Iraq Invasion Said To Alter Dynamics Of Local Militants
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 4, 2004; Page A13


The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq has accelerated the spread of Osama bin Laden's anti-Americanism among once local Islamic militant movements, increasing danger to the United States as the al Qaeda network is becoming less able to mount attacks, according to senior intelligence officials at the CIA and State Department.



At the same time, the Sunni Triangle has become a training ground for foreign Islamic jihadists who are slipping into Iraq to join former Saddam Hussein loyalists to test themselves against U.S. and coalition forces, these officials say.

Islamic militant organizations in places such as North Africa and Southeast Asia, which were previously focused on changing their local country leadership, "have been caught by bin Laden's vision, and poisoned by it . . . they will now look at the U.S., Israel and the Saudis as targets," a senior intelligence official said last week. "That is one manifestation of how bin Laden's views are expanding well beyond Iraq," he said.

J. Cofer Black, the State Department coordinator for counterterrorism and a former head of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center, gave the same message to a House International Relations subcommittee last Thursday, saying that bin Laden's "virulent anti-American rhetoric . . . has been picked up by a number of Islamic extremist movements which exist around the globe."

The result, according to the senior intelligence analyst, is that the U.S. war on terrorism after Iraq "may transition from defeating a group to fighting a movement." Black said the spread of bin Laden's ideology "greatly complicates our task in stamping out al Qaeda and poses a threat in its own right for the foreseeable future."

He described "scores" of extremist groups such as Jemaah Islamiah that have "gravitated to al Qaeda in recent years where before such linkages did not exist." In the past, al Qaeda had given other groups training and finances in bin Laden's hope they would see the world in the same anti-American, anti-Israeli, anti-Saudi terms he saw, the senior analyst said.
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But the Bushies are using Iraq as their *base* for CREEP 2004.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm.../ap/20040404/ap_on_go_pr_wh/running_on_iraq_1

AP: Bush Loyalists Pack Iraq Press Office
Sun Apr 4, 1:39 PM ET Add White House - AP to My Yahoo!


By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Inside the marble-floored palace hall that serves as the press office of the U.S.-led coalition, Republican Party operatives lead a team of Americans who promote mostly good news about Iraq (news - web sites).



Dan Senor, a former press secretary for Spencer Abraham (news - web sites), the Michigan Republican who's now Energy Secretary, heads the office packed with former Bush campaign workers, political appointees and ex-Capitol Hill staffers.


One-third of the U.S. civilian workers in the press office have GOP ties, running an enterprise that critics see as an outpost of Bush's re-election effort with Iraq a top concern. Senor and others inside the coalition say they follow strict guidelines that steer clear of politics.


One of the main goals of the Office of Strategic Communications — known as stratcom — is to ensure Americans see the positive side of the Bush administration's invasion, occupation and reconstruction of Iraq, where 600 U.S. soldiers have died and a deadly insurgency thrives.


"Beautification Plan for Baghdad Ready to Begin," one press release in late March said in its headline. Another statement last month cautioned, "The Reality is Nothing Like What You See on Television."


Senor, spokesman for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, said his office is guided by ethical "red lines" that prevent it from crossing into the Bush campaign.


"We have an obligation to communicate with the U.S. Congress and the American people, given that they're spending almost $20 billion in Iraq and have committed over 100,000 U.S. troops here," Senor said in an interview with The Associated Press.


Earlier in his career, after Hebrew University and Harvard Business School, Senor was with the Carlyle Group, an investment firm with Bush family ties and big defense industry holdings. Senor jogged in a Thanksgiving Day race here wearing a "Bush-Cheney 2004" T-shirt.


Known as the Green Room, the press office is inside coalition headquarters in the Republican Palace that used to belong to Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). The palace is in central Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.


The office counts 21 Republicans — 11 of whom have worked inside the Bush administration before their Iraq posting — among its 58 U.S. civilian staffers, according to figures Senor provided.

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