WASHINGTON — Declassified portions of a high-level intelligence report released Tuesday describe the war in Iraq as a major catalyst for Islamic radicalism around the world, while also citing other causes for the expanding terrorist threat.
President Bush took the highly unusual step of releasing key findings of the classified intelligence study in an attempt to blunt a growing furor in Washington over news reports this week in which intelligence officials described sections of the document that indicate the war in Iraq has made the terrorism problem worse. The White House said the initial news stories about the National Intelligence Estimate, a report offering a consensus view of U.S. intelligence agencies, did not represent the whole document.
But the release of its principal findings appeared likely to fuel the election-season debate over the impact of the war in Iraq, and provided scant support for the president's position that the U.S. occupation of the country has made America safer.
At a White House news conference, Bush lashed out at what he suggested was a politically motivated leak of the report's conclusions, and at critics who have cited the intelligence estimate to question his administration's course in Iraq and argue that the drawn-out conflict is adding to the danger of terrorism.
"Some people have, you know, guessed what's in the report and have concluded that going into Iraq was a mistake," Bush said, appearing alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "I strongly disagree. I think it's naive. I think it's a mistake for people to believe that going on the offense against people that want to do harm to the American people makes us less safe."
The section released by the White House does not include an explicit conclusion that the war in Iraq has increased the terrorist threat to Americans. But the thrust of the report's "key judgments" is that the terrorist danger is morphing and growing and that the Iraq war is a major contributing force in that trend.
"We assess that the Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives," reads one of the main conclusions of the report.
"The Iraq conflict has become the 'cause celebre' for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement."
