The headline should read "Bush To Declassify NIE Document, Tells Press Corp To Read It" but Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai's remarks after the president's announcement strike at the core of the naivist claim that fighting jihadists in Iraq increases the risk of a terrorist attack on the United States.
Do you forget people jumping off the 80th floor [of the World Trade Center]? Who did that and where are they now? That is why we must fight them, kill them. Should we wait for them to come and kill us again?
That's a paraphrase (White House hasn't put up the transcipt yet see 2:26 pm update for link to transcript) but very close to being a quote. Karzai went on to ask if the 1993 attack on the WTC was because of Iraq, if the attack on the USS Cole was because of Iraq?
The best part? Karzai addressed the reporter directly.
Political Pit Bull has video of the joint press conference. Allahpundit too.
Update - 1:34 pm, ET: Blonde Sagacity (love her headline) has more of Karzai's remarks.
Word is that DNI Negroponte will release the NIE document later this afternoon. Keep your eye on the DNI's website and here for discussion.
Also, President Karzai yesterday called on Pakistan president Musharraf to close his country's madrassas.
"Young, poor, unaware, uneducated children from the poorest of families are taken and preached hatred against me, against you, against any other person" in these schools, said Mr. Karzai, who urged Gen. Musharraf to shut down the madrassas and imprison those who teach there.
"Military action in Afghanistan alone is not going to free us of terrorism. Going to the source of terrorism -- where they get trained, motivated, financed and deployed -- is necessary now," he said.
"They are told: 'Go kill yourself in Afghanistan. Commit suicide and kill as many internationals and Afghans as you can, and the instant you are dead you will be in heaven.' To a boy of 7, keep preaching that until he is 14, and you will have a suicide bomber," Mr. Karzai said.
As the blogstress says, "preach it Hamid." Karzai, however, knows it won't happen. Musharraf has no power over the region where the majority of Pakistan's kill-the-great-satan madrassas are.
Update - 2:26 pm, ET The White House has put up the transcript. President Bush's announcement of the NIE declassification and Karzai's history lesson came in response to this question by AP's Jennifer Loven:
PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you. We'll have two questions a side. We'll start with Jennifer Loven.
Q Thank you, sir. Even after hearing that one of the major conclusions of the National Intelligence Estimate in April was that the Iraq war has fueled terror growth around the world, why have you continued to say that the Iraq war has made this country safer?
And to President Karzai, if I might, what do you think of President Musharraf's comments that you need to get to know your own country better when you're talking about where terror threats and the Taliban threat is coming from?
Loven, it turns out, is (must. resist. derogatory. comment) not known for her objectivity.
Update - 5:43 pm ET: Here it is: Declassified Key Judgments of the National Intelligence Estimate Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States dated April 2006
