Committees of Correspondence

Wednesday, 27 September 2006

Listen To The Scary Theme Music Playing!
It is surprising these days, considering the negative slant the Mainstream Media seems to delight in to read something about the War in the MidEast that is welcome.

As War Over Leak Grips Washington, Al Qaeda Quails

By ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
September 27, 2006

WASHINGTON ? On a day when much of the capital's attention was focused on leaked excerpts of an
intelligence estimate report that suggested the Iraq war was creating more jihadists, the military
quietly released an intercepted letter from Al Qaeda complaining that the terrorist organization
was losing ground in Iraq.

The letter, found in the headquarters of Al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, after he
was killed on June 7, was sent to Zarqawi by a senior Al Qaeda leader who signs his name simply
"Atiyah." He complains that Al Qaeda is weak both in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region and in
Iraq.

A former jihadist who fought in Algeria in the 1990s, Atiyah appears from the text to be speaking
for Al Qaeda's Shura Council ? the group's decision-making panel chaired by Osama bin Laden. In
the letter, he sharply criticizes Zarqawi's leadership, saying he alienated key allies necessary
for the implementation of jihad in Iraq.

"Know that we, like all the Mujahidin, are still weak," he wrote in the letter dated December 11,
2005. "We are in the stage of weakness and a state of paucity. We have not yet reached a level of
stability. We have no alternative but to not squander any element of the foundations of strength,
or any helper or supporter."

This does tally with some of the manifestos issued by Abu Musab Zarqawi, before his quite timely end.

This is the English translation of a document found in Abu Musab al-Zarqawi?s safe house. It was provided by the Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie.

The situation and conditions of the resistance in Iraq have reached a point that requires a review of the events and of the work being done inside Iraq. Such a study is needed in order to show the best means to accomplish the required goals, especially that the forces of the National Guard have succeeded in forming an enormous shield protecting the American forces and have reduced substantially the losses that were solely suffered by the American forces. This is in addition to the role, played by the Shi?a (the leadership and masses) by supporting the occupation, working to defeat the resistance and by informing on its elements.

As an overall picture, time has been an element in affecting negatively the forces of the occupying countries, due to the losses they sustain economically in human lives, which are increasing with time. However, here in Iraq, time is now beginning to be of service to the American forces and harmful to the resistance for the following reasons:

1. By allowing the American forces to form the forces of the National Guard, to reinforce them and enable them to undertake military operations against the resistance.

2. By undertaking massive arrest operations, invading regions that have an impact on the resistance, and hence causing the resistance to lose many of its elements.

3. By undertaking a media campaign against the resistance resulting in weakening its influence inside the country and presenting its work as harmful to the population rather than being beneficial to the population.

4. By tightening the resistance?s financial outlets, restricting its moral options and by confiscating its ammunition and weapons.

5. By creating a big division among the ranks of the resistance and jeopardizing its attack operations, it has weakened its influence and internal support of its elements, thus resulting in a decline of the resistance?s assaults.

6. By allowing an increase in the number of countries and elements supporting the occupation or at least allowing to become neutral in their stand toward us in contrast to their previous stand or refusal of the occupation.

7. By taking advantage of the resistance?s mistakes and magnifying them in order to misinform.

Truth be told we are more accustomed to News like this.
Sobering Conclusions On Why Jihad Has Spread

By Karen DeYoung and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, September 27, 2006; Page A21

In announcing yesterday that he would release the key judgments of a controversial National
Intelligence Estimate, President Bush said he agreed with the document's conclusion "that because
of our successes against the leadership of al-Qaeda, the enemy is becoming more diffuse and
independent."

But the estimate itself posits no such cause and effect. Instead, while it notes that
counterterrorism efforts have seriously damaged and disrupted al-Qaeda's leadership, it describes
the spreading "global jihadist movement" as fueled largely by forces that al-Qaeda exploits but is
not actively directing. They include Iraq, corrupt and unjust governments in Muslim-majority
countries, and "pervasive anti-U.S. sentiment among most Muslims."

The overall estimate is bleak, with minor notes of optimism. It depicts a movement that is likely
to grow more quickly than the West's ability to counter it over the next five years, as the Iraq
war continues to breed "deep resentment" throughout the Muslim world, shaping a new generation of
terrorist leaders and cultivating new supporters for their ideology.

In describing Iraq as "the 'cause celebre' for jihadists," the document judges that real and
perceived insurgent successes there will "inspire more fighters to continue the struggle
elsewhere," while losses would have the opposite effect. It predicts that the elimination of
al-Qaeda leaders, particularly Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who
was killed after the estimate was completed in April, would probably leave that organization
splintered into disparate groups that "for at least a time, pose a less serious threat to U.S.
interests" than the current al-Qaeda structure.

Yes they like bleak news, the revel in terms like quagmire. Shows how little they know or they will admit, to advance their own political agendas.

In Southern Sudan, almost 3 million Black African Pagan Animist and Christian peasants have been slaughtered. The government has termed it Jihad. In Dafur another half million dead in Algeria hundreds of thousand brutally murdered for not submitting to Sharia. Now that is what bleak looks like. Do they know? Do they even care?

So a small selected filtered portion of the National Intelligence Estimate has been leaked. As a result a more complete version has been declassified, I hope they choke on it.

Political' Leaks of Paper Led to Decision, Bush Says

By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 27, 2006; Page A01

The Bush administration yesterday released portions of a classified intelligence estimate that
says the global jihadist movement is growing and being fueled by the war in Iraq even as it
becomes more decentralized, making it harder to identify potential terrorists and prevent attacks.

The war in Iraq has become a "cause celebre" for jihadists, breeding resentment of U.S.
involvement in the Muslim world and drawing new adherents to the movement, the assessment says.
The growth in the number of potential terrorists is also being fed by corruption, slow-moving
political reform in many Muslim countries and "pervasive" anti-American sentiment, according to
the report.

President Bush said he ordered the partial release of the newly leaked intelligence report to
"stop all the speculation, all the politics about somebody saying something about Iraq." (By
Gerald Herbert -- Associated Press)
VIDEO | During a press conference Tuesday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, President Bush said
it is a mistake to think that the war with Iraq has worsened terrorism, disputing a national
intelligence assessment compiled in April.

The jihadist movement is potentially limited by its ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam and
could be slowed by democratic reforms in the Muslim world, says the document, which reflects the
collective judgment of the nation's 16 intelligence agencies. In addition, it asserts that if
jihadists are perceived to be defeated in Iraq, "fewer fighters would be inspired to carry on the
fight."

Still, terrorists with experience constructing roadside bombs and other deadly devices in Iraq
"are a potential source" of leadership in attacks elsewhere, the report says

So why don't we see for our selves what the National Intelligence Estimate says?

Key Declassified Intelligence Judgments (pdf)

Because all we will get from the Media is something like this