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Bush: Portions of Intelligence Document To Be Declassified


President Bush says portions of a leaked U.S. intelligence document about the war in Iraq and terrorism will be declassified as soon as possible.

Mr. Bush said on Tuesday he agreed with conclusions in the National Intelligence Estimate that successes against al-Qaida have led the terrorists to become more spread out and independent.

Published reports Sunday of the classified study said U.S. intelligence concluded that the Iraq war has spawned a new generation of Islamic terrorists and increased the threat of global terrorism.

Mr. Bush, who was speaking at a news conference with visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai, alleged that the document was leaked for political purposes weeks before November's mid-term elections.

He also rejected any suggestion that the war in Iraq was a mistake. He said that terrorists were active and terror acts against the United States occurred before the war, including those of September 11th, 2001.

Also today, opposition Democrats in the House of Representatives failed in a bid for a rare closed session to discuss the classified intelligence analysis.

Late Monday, the top U.S. intelligence official said the risk of another terrorist attack against this country is lower than it was five years ago, but admitted the war in Iraq is producing "a new generation of terrorist leaders."

John Negroponte supervises the United States' 16 intelligence agencies. He spoke in Washington at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
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