As expected, Bush released the key findings of the NIE and guess what--the Democrats were lying to the American public again.

What a surprise.

Harry Reid is trying to cover his butt by demanding that the rest of the NIE be release--knowing full well it won't because the Republican administration actually cares about the war on terror and would prefer that the bad guys don't find out how we know what we know. I'd be disgusted, but its like changing diapers--its never pleasant, but you get used to it.

You can find the CIA pdf here

This is what was leaked:

Although we cannot measure the extent of the spread with precision, a large body of all-source reporting indicates that activists identifying themselves as jihadists, although a small percentage of Muslims, are increasing in both number and geographic dispersion..

Note it says jihadist--not al Qaeda. This does not, as I imagine some of the left infer, mean that the "jihadist" is a bomber, it refers to anyone expressing an overt sympathy to Jihadism, including by rhetoric alone.

This is what the Crats didn't want you to see:

Greater pluralism and more responsive political systems in Muslim majority nations would alleviate some of the grievances jihadists exploit. Over time, such progress, together with sustained, multifaceted programs targeting the vulnerabilities of the jihadist movement and continued pressure on al-Qa’ida, could erode support for the jihadists.

..which of course has been characteristic of the Bush plan. There are two key elements to damaging the ideological appeal of Jihadism--failure of Jihadist enterprises and alternatives to extremism, meaning of course economic opportunity. Not surprisingly, the Democrat's plan, or rather "plans" insures that Jihadism would be emboldened by our leaving Iraq and create significantly more jihadis by ensuring that Iraq goes back to starving. More importantly though, we know that failed states are sought-after bases for al Qaeda to conduct training and launch terror projects. The fantastic wealth of explosives, firearms and ammunition lying around all over Iraq are a bonanza al Qaeda would dearly love to get its hands on.

So can we expect that the obdurate Democrat far left is taking this NIE seriously? Do they view it as authoritive? Will they accept its key findings? Like this one?

The Iraq conflict has become the “cause celebre” for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement. Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.

My guess? Not a chance.

Four underlying factors are fueling the spread of the jihadist movement: (1) Entrenched grievances, such as corruption, injustice, and fear of Western domination, leading to anger, humiliation, and a sense of powerlessness; (2) the Iraq “jihad;” (3) the slow pace of real and sustained economic, social, and political reforms in many Muslim majority nations; and (4) pervasive anti-US sentiment among most Muslims—; all of which jihadists exploit.

So how do you deal with problems with corruption, injustice, anger, humiliation and sense of powerlessness? How did we deal with it? That's right--democracy. So when you hear that Bush has no plan, you know its a damn lie.

What I found really interesting was this paragraph

Anti-US and anti-globalization sentiment is on the rise and fueling other radical ideologies. This could prompt some leftist, nationalist, or separatist groups to adopt terrorist methods to attack US interests. The radicalization process is occurring more quickly, more widely, and more anonymously in the Internet age, raising the likelihood of surprise attacks by unknown groups whose members and supporters may be difficult to pinpoint.

We judge that groups of all stripes will increasingly use the Internet to communicate, propagandize, recruit, train, and obtain logistical and financial support.

This is the dark side of a process that has been quite evident since the early nineties--the internet brings people together along very narrow lines of interest. No matter how esoteric your hobby is, the internet serves to create a global community almost instanteously. There is however a bright spot in this--the internet also makes it possible to track the activities of the cyber-jihadis and in most cases identify them as well. Its a key vunerability because there is simply no good alternative to the internet to form these virtual communities in the first place. Vigilance by law enforcement has a good chance to keep this part of the jihadis community off-balance and eventually deter jihadis wannabes from even making the attempt.

Nothing in the NIE is particularly surprising, unless you've been living in a fishbowl, which is probably a pretty fair description of much of the anti-Iraq-war constituency in this country. Facts are never interesting to ideologues.