16 US security agencies agree with the obvious…

As, of course, does the UK Joint Intelligence Committee, MI5, Chatham House, and well, lets be honest, everyone. The remaining question is why the Labour Party tolerates its leader smearing it with the mud of increasingly incredible denial.

From The Telegraph

The war in Iraq has boosted Islamist terrorism and the threat to the West has increased since the September 11 attacks, according to leaks from a report by America’s intelligence agencies.

In the latest blow to President George W Bush’s and Tony Blair’s justification for the war, the National Intelligence Estimate has concluded that it has fuelled radicalism and spawned a new generation of terrorists.

The report, a collation of work from America’s 16 spy agencies, is the first official survey of US intelligence on global terrorism since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Summaries of the study, leaked to the New York Times yesterday, were seized on by critics of the war who have long argued that it is an effective recruiting sergeant for Islamist terrorists.

A spokesman for the White House, which has persistently argued that the world is a safer place because of the war, would only say that the leaks did not give a balanced account of the report.

Called Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States, the estimate argues that Islamic radicalism has spread across the world and diversified, according to the leak.

An early chapter ‘ Indicators of the Spread of the Global Jihadist Movement ‘ highlights the Iraq war as a prime cause for the spread of the ideology of jihad.

The 30-page estimate cites the “centrality” of the US-led invasion and the ensuing insurgency as the inspiration for Islamist terror networks across the world.

“It’s a very candid assessment,” one intelligence official told the Washington Post. “It’s stating the obvious.”

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