WASHINGTON — Undercutting new assertions by President Bush, a top U.S. intelligence official testified Wednesday that Al Qaeda's organization in Iraq is overwhelmingly composed of fighters from that country, and that the terrorist network's ability to operate in Pakistan poses the greater danger to the United States.
The testimony came just one day after Bush forcefully argued that Al Qaeda in Iraq is substantially controlled by foreign operatives, and that most of them would be trying to kill Americans if not for the ongoing war there.
The competing characterizations of Al Qaeda's affiliate in Iraq -- and the extent to which the issue dominated a congressional hearing Wednesday -- again underscored the role of intelligence assessments in shaping the political debate over the war.
Testifying before the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees, Edward Gistaro, the nation's top analyst for transnational threats, said the U.S. intelligence community's "primary concern" is Al Qaeda in South Asia, which he said is "organizing its own plots" against the United States.
Gistaro, who was the principal author of a recent national intelligence study on threats to America, noted that Al Qaeda in Iraq -- or "AQI" as the group is known in U.S. intelligence circles -- has "expressed an interest" in launching attacks against the United States.
But he said that 90% of its members are Iraqis who joined Al Qaeda's organization there following the U.S. invasion. He estimated the group's strength at "several thousand" members and said "the bulk of AQI's resources are focused on the battle inside of Iraq."
Wednesday's hearing took place at a time of increasingly heated debate over the rationale for the continuing conflict and the potential consequences of a U.S. military withdrawal.
Seeking to shore up flagging public support for the war and a recent "surge" of extra troops, the White House has sought to cast the conflict as a fight against Al Qaeda. In recent weeks, Bush has repeatedly drawn connections between the Al Qaeda organization in Iraq and the core of the terrorist network responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.
He has also ratcheted up his argument that pulling out U.S. troops would lead not only to chaos in the country he sought to remake as a democracy but also to a heightened risk of terrorist attacks inside U.S. borders.
