From The New York Times, 9/24/06:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/world/middleeast/24terror.html?hp&ex=1159070400&en=003f596f66422cfd&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terror Threat

By MARK MAZZETTI

WASHINGTON --

A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence
agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq
has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the
overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The classified National Intelligence Estimate attributes a more direct
role to the Iraq war in fueling radicalism than that presented either
in recent White House documents or in a report released Wednesday by
the House Intelligence Committee, according to several officials in
Washington involved in preparing the assessment or who have read the
final document.

The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal
appraisal of global terrorism by United States intelligence agencies
since the Iraq war began, and represents a consensus view of the 16
disparate spy services inside government.

Titled "Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United
States,’’ it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in
retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.

An opening section of the report, "Indicators of the Spread of the
Global Jihadist Movement," cites the Iraq war as a reason for the
diffusion of jihad ideology.

The report "says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism
problem worse," said one American intelligence official.

More than a dozen United States government officials and outside
experts were interviewed for this article, and all spoke only on
condition of anonymity because they were discussing a classified
intelligence document.

The officials included employees of several government agencies, and
both supporters and critics of the Bush administration.

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Sobering, eh?

Harry