thanks, america!

US 'gave al-Qaeda a training ground'
By Brendan Nicholson
National Security Correspondent
August 25, 2004

The US-led invasion of Iraq was a mistake that has turned the country into a giant recruiting ground for terrorists, according to a former adviser to Bill Clinton.

Daniel Benjamin, a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told a national security conference in Canberra yesterday that he believed the US had wrongly led Australia into the war.

"As an American, I am deeply grateful for Australia's friendship and its support of the United States, but I fear our Government has led you wrong on this one," said Mr Benjamin, who was director of counter-terrorism in the National Security Council during the Clinton presidency.

Mr Benjamin said that while there had been major successes against al-Qaeda, they had been undermined by US Government policies.

"By invading Iraq, we brought the targets to the killers and we set ourselves what is probably an impossible task - proving our goodwill to Iraqis and, by extension, to the Muslim world at a moment when we had to suppress an insurgency.

"We might have taken away al-Qaeda's sanctuary in Afghanistan, but we have provided jihadists with unparalleled training grounds in Iraq," Mr Benjamin said.

He was speaking as Defence Minister Robert Hill told journalists that the world had become a safer place since the war on Iraq. Senator Hill was responding to reports that the Government was warned by its intelligence agencies that taking part in the invasion would put Australia at more risk from terrorism.

Mr Benjamin said the US had played into its most dangerous enemy's hands by unwittingly confirming to many al-Qaeda's claim that "the infidels seek to occupy Muslim lands and destroy Islam".

"We've allowed the war on terror to be characterised as a war against Islam and this has been a major mistake."

Mr Benjamin said he feared the emergence of a jihadist state capable of developing weapons of mass destruction. Two possible candidates were Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which could become unstable in the future.

Most of the economies of the Muslim world were in terrible condition and soaring populations would make matters worse.

Easy access to high-quality education in engineering, chemistry and biology could put considerable destructive power in the hands of what he called "diaspora jihadists".

Al-Qaeda was out to recruit the technologically sophisticated and converts to Islam who could not easily be marked for surveillance.

"In light of the galloping advances in biotechnology in particular, this is a deeply worrying trend. We should never make the mistake of believing that things cannot get worse, that our enemies cannot become more capable and that they will not resort to greater destructiveness given the opportunity."