Both Sides in Iraq Debate Seize On New Intelligence Assessment

http://public.cq.com/docs/cqm/cqmidday110-000002552814.html

Both Sides in Iraq Debate Seize On New Intelligence Assessment

Members of Congress were quick to look for partisan advantage Tuesday in a new intelligence report describing a “persistent and evolving” terrorist threat to the United States.

Both parties sought to employ the report as a club in their fight over the Iraq War. Democrats said the report underscored the need to shift U.S. resources from the conflict in Iraq toward fighting al Qaeda and its affiliates worldwide. Republicans said the report underscored the importance of remaining steadfast in Iraq and beyond.

At issue was a declassified summary of a new National Intelligence Estimate — a consensus view of U.S. intelligence agencies — titled “The Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland.”

“The main threat comes from Islamic terrorist groups and cells, especially al Qaeda, driven by their undiminished intent to attack the homeland and a continued effort by these terrorist groups to adapt and improve their capabilities,” the NIE summary said.

The report arrived against the backdrop of a fierce Senate debate over Iraq playing out on the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill (HR 1585). Democrats were holding the Senate in session all night to dramatize their demand for a redeployment and drawdown of U.S. troops.

Republicans, by comparison, called attention to the report’s findings that U.S. efforts have at least partly succeeded in disrupting al Qaeda and that the group’s connections and capabilities in Iraq are being leveraged to foment terrorism more broadly.