Bush plays al-Qaida card

Facing eroding support for his Iraq policy, even among Republicans, President Bush on June 28 called al-Qaida "the main enemy" in Iraq, an assertion rejected by his administration's senior intelligence analysts. The reference, in a major speech at the Naval War College that referred to al-Qaida at least 27 times, seemed calculated to use lingering outrage over the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to bolster support for the current buildup of US troops in Iraq, despite evidence that sending more troops hasn't reduced the violence or sped Iraqi government action on key issues. Bush called" al-Qaida in Iraq" the perpetrator of the worst violence racking that country and said it was the same group that had carried out the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington. "Al-Qaida is the main enemy for Shia, Sunni and Kurds alike," Bush asserted. "Al-Qaida's responsible for the most sensational killings in Iraq. They're responsible for the sensational killings on US soil." US military and intelligence officials, however, say that Iraqis with ties to al-Qaida are only a small fraction of the threat to US troops. The group known as "al-Qaida in Iraq" didn't exist before the US-led invasion in 2003, didn't pledge its loyalty to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden until October 2004 and isn't controlled by bin Laden or his top aides. "The only way they think they can rally people is by blaming al-Qaida," said Vincent Cannistraro, a former chief of the CIA's Counter-Terrorism Center who's critical of the administration's strategy. US intelligence agencies and military commanders say the Sunni-Shiite conflict is the greatest source of violence and insecurity in Iraq. In his speech, Bush made other questionable assertions. He claimed that US troops were fighting "block by block" in Baqouba, a city northeast of Baghdad, as part of an offensive to clear out al-Qaida fighters. But Gen. Raymond Odierno, the US ground commander in Iraq, said earlier this month that 80 percent of the insurgents US troops expected to encounter in Baqouba had fled before the operation began, including much of the insurgent leadership. There was little heavy fighting. Bush also categorically blamed al-Qaida for the Feb. 22, 2006, bombing of the Askariya mosque, a sacred Shiite shrine in Samarra whose destruction accelerated sectarian bloodshed. But no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and US officials say there's no proof that "al-Qaida in Iraq" was responsible. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on June 29 that the US has no "hard evidence" that "al Qaida in Iraq" was responsible for the bombing. It "seems to me that that's probably an analytical conclusion. I'm not sure whether they have a lot of hard evidence about it," Gates told reporters at the Pentagon.