June 25, 2005

Is Iraq becoming 'Terrorism U'?

Link: Is Iraq becoming 'Terrorism U'? - Countdown with Keith Olbermann - MSNBC.com.

A frightening report:

Usually, when one wants to learn a new skill, to hone it to perfection, you have to know where to go. Steven Spielberg wannabes flock to film schools. Would-be Wolfgang Pucks head to the CIA -- the Culinary Institute of America.

Now, another CIA, as in the Central Intelligence Agency, is saying that terrorists in training are taking over Iraq.

Wednesday's third story on MSNBC-TV's 'Countdown' looked at the new "TU" or "Terrorist University." Classified intelligence reports say post-Saddam Iraq is serving as a real-life laboratory for the next generation of jihad, a curriculum so complete that it may be an even more effective training ground than Afghanistan was for al-Qaida. Car bombings are becoming so commonplace that today there were four alone in and around Baghdad on Wednesday and a record 700 bombings against U.S. forces in just the last month.

This form of urban combat may leap across the borders and even across the globe when these students graduate and decide to leave Iraq. Analysts at the CIA are calling it the "class of '05 problem." At the same time, the insurgency itself is getting more sophisticated, changing tactics and making them even more deadly with each new attack.

Posted by Anupam Chander on June 25, 2005 at 06:52 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink