Nailing it down

Associated Press:

U.S. intelligence agencies have identified several
guerrilla groups, including one whose name calls for Saddam Hussein's
return, that they now believe are behind much of the anti-U.S. violence
in Iraq.
The top general in the region, Gen. John Abizaid, estimated Thursday
that insurgent fighters in Iraq total no more than 5,000, and he said the largest and most dangerous groups are Saddam loyalists.

The Guardian:

The White House yesterday drew up emergency plans to
accelerate the transfer of power in Iraq after being shown a
devastating CIA report warning that the guerrilla war was in danger of
escalating out of US control. The report, an "appraisal of situation"
commissioned by the CIA director, George Tenet, and written by the CIA
station chief in Baghdad, said that the insurgency was gaining ground
among the population, and already numbers in the tens of thousands. One
military intelligence assessment now estimates the insurgents' strength at 50,000.
Analysts cautioned that such a figure was speculative, but it does
indicate a deep-rooted revolt on a far greater scale than the Pentagon
had led the administration to believe. An intelligence source in
Washington familiar with the CIA report described it as a "bleak
assessment that the resistance is broad, strong and getting stronger".
"It says we are going to lose the situation unless there is a rapid and
dramatic change of course," the source said.

Incompetent optimism or cynical anti-Americanism?

Posted by flow Frazao on November 13, 2003 at 09:11 PM | Permalink