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National Intelligence Estimate
White House Claims The NIE Doesn’t Show The ‘War in Iraq Has Made Terrorism Worse’

In April, the nation’s spy agencies produced a National Intelligence Estimate. Here’s the New York Times report:
A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies [16 seperate agencies to be exact] has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks…The report says that "the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” said one American intelligence official.
Here’s what the White House said about the report in today’s press gaggle:

QUESTION: Tony, does the President have any reaction to the reports in yesterday’s newspapers about the intelligence estimate, suggesting that the war in Iraq had, in fact, spawned new terror cells and made…
WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY TONY SNOW: I think it’s important — one thing that the reports do not say is that war in Iraq has made terrorism worse.

Clearly, they can’t both be right. Snow, for his part, appears to contradict himself a few moments later:
SNOW: This NIE examines global terrorism in its totality, the morphing of Al Qaida and its affiliates and other jihadist movements. It assesses that a variety of factors, in addition to Iraq, fuel the spread of jihadism, including longstanding social grievances, slowness of the pace of reform, and the use of the Internet.

One way to clear all this up: make the NIE public. Talks are underway by republican members on whether to do this or not.

Wallace v. Clinton (A Don King Promotion)?
Yesterday on Fox News Sunday, former President Bill Clinton vigorously defended his efforts to capture and kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Host Chris Wallace attempted to accuse Clinton of having given aid and comfort to bin Laden by withdrawing from Somalia six months after the downing of a Black Hawk in 1993, an incident which -- as Clinton noted -- had no connection to bin Laden. Clinton set the record straight on the numerous times his administration tried to kill bin Laden. "That’s the difference in me and some, including all the right wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try and they didn’t...I tried. So I tried and failed. When I failed, I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clarke."

Clinton pressed Wallace on why he had never asked the Bush administration why it demoted Clarke. Wallace claimed “we asked” and shot back, “Do you ever watch Fox News Sunday, sir?" In fact, a Progress Report analysis found that, since 2001, Wallace has interviewed the top national security officials from the Bush administration — Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Hadley — 42 times. According to a Lexis-Nexis database search, he never asked any of them why Clarke was demoted, nor did he ask why they failed to respond to the USS Cole attack. Days after it was revealed that President Bush had received a President's Daily Brief that said "Bin Laden Determined to Strike U.S.," Wallace did not bring it up in an interview with former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Also in the interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace [click here to see video], former President Bill Clinton noted that the political right, which now accuses him of not doing enough to stem the al Qaeda terrorist threat, criticized his 1998 missile strikes in Afghanistan as “wag the dog.”

Clinton said: The people on my political right who say I didn’t do enough spent the whole time I was president saying, Why is he so obsessed with bin Laden? That was wag the dog when he tried to kill him. [originating from a 1997 movie, Wag the Dog was a phrase used by the right to suggest Clinton’s airstrikes were driven by ulterior motives in an effort to distract the public.]

Some examples below:
Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-NV):
“‘Look at the movie Wag the Dog. I think this has all the elements of that movie,’ Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said. ‘Our reaction to the embassy bombings should be based on sound credible evidence, not a knee-jerk reaction to try to direct public attention away from his personal problems.’” [Ottawa Citizen, 8/21/98]
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA):
“There’s an obvious issue which will be raised internationally about the response here as to whether there is any diversionary motive involved. … I have deliberated consciously any references to Ms. Monica Lewinsky, but when you ask the question in very blunt terms, the president’s current problems have to be on the minds of many people.” [CNN, 8/20/98]
Former Sen. John Ashcroft (R-MO):
“‘We support the president out of a sense of duty whenever he deploys military forces, but we’re not sure - were these forces sent at this time because he needed to divert our attention from his personal problems?‘ Ashcroft said during the taping of a TV program in Manchester, N.H.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 8/21/98]
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX):
“I’m very supportive of the strike that has happened, but I will tell you that the timing is very questionable. This was the day that Monica Lewinsky has gone back to the grand jury, evidently enraged. Certainly that information will be overshadowed.” [Dallas Morning News, 8/21/98]

Other Items:
In another amazing announcement within a week, Wal-Mart is going green. The discount retailer has launched an “aggressive program to encourage ’sustainability’ of the world’s fisheries, forests and farmlands, to slash energy use and reduce waste, [and] to push its 60,000 suppliers to produce goods that don’t harm the environment.” Scott Burns of the World Wildlife Fund said, “They’re sending a very powerful signal that already is having effects on the way people produce products for them.”

In an “unprecedented” move, Army chief of staff Peter Schoomaker signaled his dismay over the Army’s lack of funding by withholding a required 2008 budget plan from Pentagon leaders last month. Without significant troop withdrawals from Iraq, the Army does not believe it can maintain its current level of activity without billions in additional funding.

Much is left undone with only one week to go before Congress recesses for the November elections. At best, it appears that just 2 of the 11 required spending bills will pass, and not one has been approved so far, forcing a stopgap measure to keep the federal government open. No budget was enacted.” Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) said, “We have not accomplished what we need to accomplish.”

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) indicated that he vigorously disagrees with the “compromise” bill on military tribunals struck last week. He took issue with a provision that would limit legal counsel and a day in court to only those detainees selected by the Pentagon for prosecution.

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) yesterday named several specific techniques — extreme sleep deprivation, forced hypothermia, and waterboarding — that he says would be banned under his “compromise” bill on detainee policy. Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) said McCain’s disclosure “helps the terrorists.”

International:
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf said former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage threatened to bomb Pakistan “back to the stone age” if it did not cooperate with the U.S. after 9/11. “I think it was a very rude remark,” Musharraf said.

Iraq moved a step closer to federalism as its parliament agreed Sunday “to consider amending the constitution and debate a bill establishing a federal state.”

From The Right:
Kathleen Parker writes that George Bush owes Hugo Chavez a thank-you note. The Venezuelan president's goofy performance at the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday made Bush look like Winston Churchill. Read all about it here in: The Axis of Oil and Nuts

From the Left:
The Democratic Policy Committee will hold a hearing today on the planning and conduct of the Iraq war, taking the testimony of retired generals who have criticized Rumsfeld. Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton is expected to assess Rumsfeld as “incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically.” Despite his numerous failures, Rumsfeld is expected to soon become the longest-serving Secretary of Defense.

Thought To Ponder:
A national black conservative group is running a radio advertisement accusing Democrats of starting the Ku Klux Klan and saying the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican, a claim challenged by civil-rights researchers.

(Sources: The Star, AP, NYTimes, Whitehouse Press Briefing, TownHall, FOXNews, IMDB, ThinkProgress, USAToday, WashingtonPost, NewsMax, LATimes, CNN)