USA: Afghan President Hamid Karzai says Afghanistan is aware of its problems but needs to work more closely with Pakistan and United States to combat extremism

After a meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, U.S. President George W. Bush confronted the press corps. Bush was immediately asked about media reports of a classified intelligence document which reportedly says Iraq had become the main recruiting tool for the Islamic militant movement. The conclusions of the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) - leaked to two newspapers -- appear to contradict the crux of the argument made by President Bush just two weeks ago -- that the war in Iraq has made the United States safer from terrorism. Bush said that he agreed that the war in Iraq may be used as a recruiting tool for groups like al Qaeda, but said it was wrong to think the war in Iraq was a mistake. "I, of course, read the key judgments on the NIE. I agree with their conclusion that because of our successes against the leadership of al Qaeda, the enemy is becoming more diffuse and independent. I'm not surprised the enemy is exploiting the situation in Iraq and using it as a propaganda tool to try to recruit more people to their -- to their murderous ways. Some people have guessed what's in the report and have concluded that going into Iraq was a mistake. I strongly disagree. I think it's naive. I think it's a mistake for people to believe that going on the offense against people that want to do harm to the American people makes us less safe," Bush said. The President said he would take the rare move of asking John Negroponte, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to declassify the document so that the public could make it's own evaluation. "But once again, there's a leak out of our government, coming right down the stretch in this campaign, -- to create confusion in the minds of the American people, in my judgment, is why they leaked it. And so we're going to -- I told the DNI to declassify this document. You can read it for yourself. We'll stop all the speculation, all the politics about somebody saying something about Iraq, somebody trying to confuse the American people about the nature of this enemy. And so John Negroponte, the DNI, is going to declassify the document as quickly as possible. He'll declassify the key judgments for you to read yourself," Bush said. For his part, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said he was looking forward to dinner later this week with Bush and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf. Karzai said he recognises that Afghanistan still has many serious problems to confront, but added that Pakistan and the United States must work closely together to confront the challenges. "Afghanistan is a country that is emerging out of so many years of war and destruction, and occupation by terrorism and misery that they've brought to us. We lost almost two generations to the lack of education. And those who were educated before that are now older. We know our problems. We have difficulties. But Afghanistan also knows where the problem is -- in extremism, in madrassas preaching hatred, preachers in the name of madrassas preaching hatred. That's what we should do together to stop. The United States, as our ally, is helping both countries. And I think it is very important that we have more dedication and more intense work with sincerity, all of us, to get rid of the problems that we have around the world," Karzai said. Many of Bush's Democratic opponents blame the President for starting the Iraq war to the detriment of efforts in Afghanistan, which U.S. and allied forces invaded after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to topple the Taliban and its al Qaeda supporters. Democrats seeking to overturn Republican control of the U.S. Congress charge the Iraq war is a distraction from the original battle against Islamic militants in Afghanistan.

ITN Source | September 27, 2006

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