[NYTr] Bush Regimes Has Stepped Up Lies since "Surge" Began

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Think Progress - Sep 8, 2007
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/09/08/crs-al-qaeda/


CRS: Bush Administration Has Intensified False Reporting 
on Al Qaeda Since ‘Surge’ Began

Attempting to drum up public support for the war in Iraq in July,
President Bush referred to al Qaeda 95 times in a single speech,
claiming the war in Iraq has become the central front in the fight
against al Qaeda (AQI):

    There’s also a debate about al Qaeda’s role in Iraq. Some say that
Iraq is not part of the broader war on terror. They complain when I say
that the al Qaeda terrorists we face in Iraq are part of the same enemy
that attacked us on September the 11th. … I say that there will be a
big defeat in Iraq and it will be the defeat of al Qaeda.

Echoing Bush, Gen. David Petraeus also argued that al Qaeda is “public
enemy number one” in Iraq. Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner said AQI was the
“principle threat” to the Iraqi people.

But in a new report, the Congressional Research Service notes that
attacks from al Qaeda are only a small percentage of the violence in
Iraq, criticizing the Bush administration’s statistics and noting that
this false reporting on AQI has increased since Bush’s “surge” began:

    Increasingly in 2007, U.S. commanders have seemed to equate AQ-I
with the insurgency, even though most of the daily attacks are carried
out by Iraqi Sunni insurgents.

Similarly, ret. Gen. James Jones, author of a major report on Iraqi
security forces, acknowledged to Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) this week that
98 percent of violence in Iraq is “Iraqis fighting amongst Iraqis”:

    BAYH: [T]wo percent or fewer of the adversaries that we’re facing
in Iraq and that the Iraqis are facing in Iraq are foreign jihadis or
AQI affiliates, [and] 98 percent or more are Iraqis fighting amongst
Iraqis for the future of Iraq. Is that consistent with your
understanding?

    JONES: I think we would agree with that. Yes.

Washington Monthly reports that the percentage of violence in Iraq that
is sourced to al Qaeda do not correspond to the Bush administration’s
overestimates.

Today, the threat from al Qaeda to the U.S. comes from the terrorist
network’s resurgent presence in Afghanistan and western Pakistan.
Redeployment — not fearmongering — will tackle that threat.