Parts of Iraq war and terrorism report to be declassified

WASHINGTON -- President Bush today said it is naive and a mistake to think that the war with Iraq has worsened terrorism, as a portion of a national intelligence assessment by his own administration suggests. He said he was declassifying part of the report.

"Some people have guessed what's in the report and concluded that going into Iraq was a mistake. I strongly disagree," Bush said.

He asserted that portions of the classified report that had been leaked were done so for political purposes, referring to the Nov. 7 midterm elections.

Bush announced that he had instructed National Intelligence Director John Negroponte to declassify those parts of the report that don't compromise national security or intelligence-gathering methods.

Portions of the document that have been leaked suggest that the threat of terrorism has grown worse since the Sept. 11 terror attacks and the war in Afghanistan, due in part to the war in Iraq.

Read the rest at the LA Times

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