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In service of the argument that the invasion of Iraq made Islamist jihadism worse, the unbalanced-by-Bush-Derangement-Syndrome staff of the New York Times prints accounts of another classified document, thus claiming the hat-trick of leaks of national security secrets in time of war.  The Times argues that unnamed "intelligence analysts" from the agencies blasted by Lawrence Wright, Bill Gertz and others for incompetence before and after 9/11 --agencies from within which numerous attempts to undermine the Bush Adminsitration have issued periodically over the past few years-- are certain that the invasion of Iraq made the problem of terrorism worse, not better. 

Powerline's Paul Mirengoff responds responds.

From Wikipedia:

• Paris embassy attack plot foiled.
• October 1: A car bomb explodes near the Jammu and Kashmir state assembly in Srinagar, India killing 35 people and injuring 40 more.
• October 17: Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi is assassinated by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
• Anthrax attacks on the offices the United States Congress and New York State Government offices, and on employees of television networks and tabloid.
• December 13: Terrorist attack on Indian Parliament.
• Jewish Defense League plot to blow up the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, California, foiled.
• December 22: Richard Reid, attempting to destroy American Airlines Flight 63, is subdued by passengers and flight attendants before he could detonate his shoe bomb.

 

[edit]

2002

• Terrorism against Israel in 2002.
• Singapore embassies attack plot foiled.
• January: Kidnapping and murder of journalist Daniel Pearl.
• March 27: A Palestinian suicide bomber kills 30 and injures 140 during Passover festivities in a hotel in Netanya, Israel in the Passover massacre.
• March 31: A Hamas suicide bomber kills 15 and injures over 40 in Haifa, Israel, in the Matza restaurant massacre.
• April 11: A natural gas truck fitted with explosives is driven into a synagogue in Tunisia by an al-Qaeda member, killing 21 and wounding more than 30 in the Ghriba Synagogue Attack.
• May 8: May 8 Bus Attack in Karachi kills 11 Frenchmen and two Pakistanis.
• May 9: A bomb explosion in Kaspiisk in Dagestan kills at least 42 people and injures 130 or more during Victory Day festivities.
• May 13: 12 people are killed in the Jaunpur train crash in India, caused when Islamic extremists cut the rails.
• June 14: Car bomb at US Consulate in Karachi kills 12.
• June 18: A Hamas suicide bomber detonates himself on a bus in Jerusalem in the Patt junction massacre. The attack kills 19 people and wounds over 74.
• July 4: An Egyptian gunman opens fire at an El Al ticket counter in Los Angeles International Airport, killing 2 Israelis before being killed himself.
• September 10: A train derailment in India kills 130 people in the Rafiganj rail disaster. Naxalite terrorism is suspected.
• September 25: Two terrorists belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammed group raid the Akshardham temple complex in Ahmedabad, India killing 30 people and injuring many more.
• October: John Allen Muhammed and Lee Boyd Malvo conduct the Beltway Sniper Attacks, killing 10 people in various locations throughout the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area from October 2 until they are arrested on October 24.
• October 6: Limburg tanker bombing in Yemen.
• October 12: Bali bombing of holidaymakers kills 202 people, mostly Western tourists and local Balinese hospitality staff.
• October 17: Zamboanga bombings in the Philippines kill six and wounds about 150.
• October 18: A bus bomb in Manila kills three people and wounds 22.
• October 19: A car bomb explodes outside a McDonald's Corp. restaurant in Moscow, killing one person and wounding five.
• October 23: Moscow theater hostage crisis begins; 120 hostages and 40 terrorists killed in rescue three days later.
• November 21: Hamas orchestrates the Jerusalem bus 20 massacre. 11 people are killed and over 50 wounded when a suicide bomber detonates on a crowded bus in central Jerusalem.
• November 28: Kenyan hotel bombing.
• December 21: Kurnool train crash, Islamic extremists derail a train and kill 20 people in India.
• December 27: The truck bombing of the Chechen parliament in Grozny kills 83 people.

 

[edit]

2003

One of the compounds hit by the Riyadh Compound Bombings.

• Terrorism against Israel in 2003.
• Suicide attacks in Iraq in 2003.
• February 7: Car bomb kills 36 and injures 150 at the El Nogal social club in Bogotá, Colombia; FARC rebels are blamed.
• March 4: Bomb attack in an airport in Davao kills 21.
• March 5: A Hamas suicide bomber kills 17 people and wounds 53 when he detonates a bomb hidden under his clothing in the Haifa bus 37 massacre.
• March 23: SGT Hasan Akbar, USA, murdered 2 officers and wounded 14 soldiers in a grenade attack at an Army base in Iraq.

I wonder what the NIE says about this timeline, or about the arming of Hezbollah with the rockets and missiles that fell on Israel throughout the summer?  I guess we are to believe that had the United States simply not invaded Iraq, the world would be at peace, the Kashmir, Thailand, Indonesia, the Phillipines and of course Lebanon and the West Bank and Gaza would be far along in their transition to Democracy.

And Iraq as well.  The prisons would have been emptied, Saddam well along on his path to reform, with his sons pursuing new careers and Zarqawi imprisoned,  Oil-for-Food-for-Terrorist subsidies audited and abuses uncovered, and no London bombings or plots.

There is no doubt the New York Times believes this, and the same is true of the Democratic Party leadership.

Which is why every vote for every Congressional Democrat is a vote against victory and a vote for vulnerability.