Battle Breaks Out in Media Over Bleak NIE Iraq Assessment

By: E&P Staff A pitched battle over an intelligence assessment, covered first by The New York Times and then The Washington Post, broke out across the media today. Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig went so far as blame the whole fuss -- over the negative view of the war in Iraq and the war on terror -- on liberal journalists. CNN aired an interview with President Bush in which he declared that one day the Iraq war will look like "just a comma."

The National Intelligence Estimate declared that the war in Iraq has increased Islamic radicalism, worsening the overall terror threat, cutting at the heart of the White House defense of its strategy. The assessment ?should put the final nail in the coffin for President Bush?s phony argument about the Iraq war,? Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) said in a statement.

Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) said that ?my feeling is the war in Iraq has intensified Islamic fundamentalism and radicalism." But the Senate majority leader, Billl Frist, said "we are going to be fighting this battle, this war overseas, or it?s going to be right here in this country.?

The White House quickly issued a statement pointing out that Bush had noted that Osama bin Laden had declared the war in Iraq to be the most ?serious issue today for the whole world.? It said the press report on the document "is not representative of the complete document."

In the CNN interview (recorded earlier this week and aired today), Wolf Blitzer asked about the continuing setbacks in Iraq. Bush, with a slight smile, replied, "Yes, you see -- you see it on TV, and that?s the power of an enemy that is willing to kill innocent people. But there?s also an unbelievable will and resiliency by the Iraqi people -- 12 milion people voted last December. ... I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is -- my point is, there?s a strong will for democracy. ... The unity government is functioning."

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said, "Attacks here at home stopped when we started fighting al-Qaida where they live, rather than responding after they hit."

Sen. John McCain told CBS' "Face the Nation" that if the U.S. were to fail in Iraq, "then our problems will be much more complicated."

But Rep. Jane Harman of California, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, who has actually read the report, said she agreed that the Iraq war had caused the spread of jihadist ideology. "Every intelligence analyst I speak to confirms that," she said on CNN's 'Late Edition.'

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A commentary on the Bush "comma" remark by E&P Editor Greg Mitchell can be found here.