The New Terrorist Assessment, Plus Some Code Pink Thrown In

The new NIE has been released and I doubt much of it will surprise anyone.  Although this description from the MSM is telling:

"Of note," the analysts said, "we assess that al-Qaida will probably seek to leverage the contacts and capabilities of al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI), its most visible and capable affiliate and the only one known to have expressed a desire to attack the homeland."

The analysts also found that al-Qaida’s association with its Iraqi affiliate helps the group to energize the broader Sunni Muslim extremist community, raise resources and recruit and indoctrinate operatives — "including for homeland attacks."

"Most visible and CAPABLE affiliate with a desire to attack the US directly."

Knowing this, the Democrats still want to pull out and allow them to take over Iraq.  Amazing.

Then there is this bit about AQ holding high level meetings inside Iran with their knowledge:

One of two known Al Qaeda leadership councils meets regularly in eastern Iran, where the American intelligence community believes dozens of senior Al Qaeda leaders have reconstituted a good part of the terror conglomerate’s senior leadership structure.

That is a consensus judgment from a final working draft of a new National Intelligence Estimate, titled "The Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland," on the organization that attacked the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The estimate, which represents the opinion of America’s intelligence agencies, is now finished, and unclassified conclusions will be shared today with the public. …

In the estimate’s chapter on Al Qaeda’s replenished senior leadership, three American intelligence sources said, there is a discussion of the eastern Iran-based Shura Majlis, a kind of consensus-building organization of top Al Qaeda figures that meets regularly to make policy and plan attacks. The New York Sun first reported in October that one of the Shura Majlis for Al Qaeda meets in the federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan, one of the areas the Pakistani army this week re-engaged after a yearlong cease-fire. Both Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, participate in those meetings.

The other Shura Majlis is believed to meet in eastern Iran in the network established after Al Qaeda was driven from Afghanistan in 2001.

Which means that Iran could very well be held responsible for allowing these leadership meetings to occur. 

Couple other notes in the NIE:

• Al-Qaida’s likely to continue to focus on high-profile political, economic and infrastructure targets to cause mass casualties, visually dramatic destruction, economic aftershocks and fear. "The group is proficient with conventional small arms and improvised explosive devices and is innovative in creating new capabilities and overcoming security obstacles."
• The group will continue to seek weapons of mass destruction — chemical, biological or nuclear material — and "would not hesitate to use them."
• Lebanese Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim extremist group that has conducted anti-American attacks overseas, may be more likely to consider attacking here, especially if it believes the United States is directly threatening the group or its main sponsor, Iran.
• Non-Muslim terrorist groups probably will attack here in the next several years, although on a smaller scale. The judgments don’t name any specific groups, but the FBI often warns of violent environmental groups, such as Earth Liberation Front, and others.

If we do decide to take action against Iran based on the the many multitude of reasons I have written about in the past then Hezbollah may very well attempt to attack us inside our borders.  Then the last point on non-Muslim groups is interesting, and if a strong Republican takes the White House I see this as unlikely.  They have seen how we respond to terrorist attacks and it wouldn’t be good for them if they were that ignorant.  BUT, if a Democrat gets in…..look out.  Everyone knows the Democrats will do everything they can to appease the terrorist groups.

On that same note do you think Rep. Waxman will try to investigate himself?

A New York Times best-selling author says members of the supposed "peace movement" delivered hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and supplies to terrorists engaged in a bloody street battle against United States Marines in Iraq.

The latest book by Lt. Col. Robert "Buzz" Patterson (U.S. Air Force-Ret.) is called War Crimes: The Left’s Campaign to Destroy Our Military and Lose the War on Terror. In the book, he claims that two anti-war groups — "United for Peace & Justice" and "CODEPINK: Women for Peace" — literally gave aid and comfort to terrorists when they delivered $600,000 in cash and supplies they claim was humanitarian aid to civilians.

According to Patterson, Congressman Henry Waxman (D-California) facilitated the transaction for CODEPINK by signing a letter allowing them to get the cash and supplies into Fallujah.

"Here is an American Congressman …. Here are American citizens who belong to these organizations," says Patterson. "They travel to Iraq and they are materially supporting, they are aiding and abetting the enemy that is killing American Marines. If that’s not treason, nothing is."

Patterson says that is not the only treacherous thing these groups have done. "When the Iraq war first started, CODEPINK and Medea Benjamin went to Baghdad and opened an office designed to try to encourage American soldiers to desert, go AWOL, and not fight the war," he explains. "Again, that’s aiding and abetting the enemy."

I’m not holding my breath.

Curt

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