NIE: Al Qaeda To Use Iraq As Base For Attack Against US

This is coming from a National Intelligence Estimate. A document the left found immensely important for it’s pre-9/11 warnings and post-invasion analysis of the situation in Iraq. My point being that the left shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss intelligence from a report they’ve previously championed.

WASHINGTON – The terrorist network Al-Qaida will likely leverage its contacts and capabilities in Iraq to mount an attack on U.S. soil, according to a new National Intelligence Estimate on threats to the United States.
The declassified key findings, to be released publicly on Tuesday, were obtained in advance by The Associated Press.
The report lays out a range of dangers – from al-Qaida to Lebanese Hezbollah to non-Muslim radical groups – that pose a “persistent and evolving threat” to the country over the next three years. As expected, however, the findings focus most of their attention on the gravest terror problem: Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.
The report makes clear that al-Qaida in Iraq, which has not yet posed a direct threat to U.S. soil, could become a problem here.
“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 left’s reaction to this will probably be “We’ve done such a horrible job of securing Iraq that terrorists are now going to use the country for attacks against the west.” Something that has actually already happened given that the recent car bombing plots in Great Britain originated with al Qaeda in Iraq.
But while al Qaeda being a threat from Iraq isn’t exactly an endorsement of the job we’ve done in securing the country, it does put lie to the left’s “we need to pull out of Iraq to fight the real war on terror” argument. Because al Qaeda is in Iraq and plotting attacks from there against the west.
Iraq is the real war on terror, and leaving Iraq means disengaging from it.