Bloomberg : Republicans Say Terror Report Shouldn't Alter Goals

Republicans Say Terror Report Shouldn't Alter Goals

By Nadine Elsibai | September 24, 2006

Sept. 24 (Bloomberg) -- A national intelligence assessment that concludes the Iraq war has increased the threat from terrorism shouldn't cause the U.S. to abandon military operations there, leading Senate Republicans said.

Disclosure of the report less than seven weeks before the Nov. 7 congressional elections intensified the political debate over the conflict and threatened to undercut President George W. Bush's argument that toppling Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq made the world safer.

Senators John McCain and Majority Leader Bill Frist said today that increasing Islamic extremism in the world means the U.S. can't afford to cede Iraq, which Bush has called the central front in the war against terrorism.

If the U.S. fails in Iraq, ``then our problems will be much more complicated,'' McCain, of Arizona, said on CBS' ``Face the Nation.'' The battle against terrorism is an ``ideological war'' that isn't confined to a single country or region, he said.

Democrats argued that Iraq has distracted the Bush administration from hunting down al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and other terrorists, and party congressional leaders pointed to the intelligence report to bolster their position.

`Change Course'

The assessment ``should put the final nail in the coffin for President Bush's phony argument about the Iraq war,'' Senator Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a statement released late last night. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said in a separate statement today that the conclusions make ``crystal clear that America's security demands we change course in Iraq.''

The senators were responding to reports in the New York Times and Washington Post that a National Intelligence Estimate completed in April concludes that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has created even greater numbers of Islamic radicals intent on harming the U.S. and that the threat of attack has grown since the Sept. 11 strikes by al-Qaeda.

The Bush administration won't comment ``on classified documents,'' White House spokesman Peter Watkins said. He said the report on the National Intelligence Estimate in the New York Times ``is not representative of the complete document.''

In a series of speeches over the past three weeks, Bush has said the U.S. is safer than it was before the Sept. 11 attacks even as terrorist groups remain a threat. He dismisses critics of his strategy, and cites bin Laden as saying that Iraq is the main battleground.

``Some say Iraq is a diversion from the war on terror,'' Bush said on Sept. 7. ``The terrorists disagree.''

Opinions on War

Bush and his fellow Republicans are facing a public increasingly skeptical about the conflict. In a Sept. 16-19 Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll, 55 percent of adults said the war was not worthwhile and 60 percent said it was diverting resources that could be used to fight terrorism.

McCain and Frist, echoing the president's stance, argued that the terrorists hit the U.S. in 2001 and in previous years, long before the U.S. entered Iraq.

The assessment shows that the war on terror must be won ``wherever it is,'' Frist said on ABC's ``This Week.'' ``If we don't win there, it's going to be fought here in the U.S.'' Frist said he had not seen the classified report.

McCain, who has criticized the administration's tactics in the war, said following through on the U.S. commitment to create a democratic and prosperous Iraq would help combat the spread of terrorism and extremism.

``The benefits of success are enormous, and the consequences of failure are enormous,'' McCain said. ``We all know that things are not going as well as we want'' and it is no surprise that any prospect of a setback ``would encourage the enemy.''

He said the U.S. may need as many as 30,000 more troops in Iraq to quell the violence there and stabilize the country.

Intensified Reaction

Republican Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said on CNN's ``Late Edition'' that the fundamental issue for U.S. officials is to ``try to figure out a sensible response'' to dealing with Islamic fundamentalism because it is ``a culture which is very alien to us.''

Specter said that while he hadn't seen the report he believes ``the war in Iraq has intensified'' Islamic radicalism.

Congress needs to first ``understand accurately what the intelligence is,'' said Democratic Representative Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

The belief that the Iraqi war is making the world less safe is widely held beyond the National Intelligence Estimate so ``the president should not be saying we're turning the corner in Iraq,'' Harman said on CNN's Late Edition.

Frist also said he expects Congress to pass legislation this week that clears the way for suspected terrorists to be tried before military commissions and sets rules for interrogations of detainees.

The legislation is a compromise between the Bush administration and McCain, along with Republican Senators John Warner of Virginia and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. They bucked the president by insisting on limits on interrogation methods and assuring that defendants are told of the evidence against them at any trial.

``I'm confident that some of the abuses that were reportedly committed in the past will be prohibited in the future,'' McCain said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nadine Elsibai in Washington at nelsibai@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: September 24, 2006 16:59 EDT