Al Qaeda training ground shifts to Iraq - U.N. panel

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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The al Qaeda terror network has capitalized on the insurgency in Iraq by creating a new training ground to replace the bases it lost in Afghanistan in 2001, a U.N. expert panel said on Monday.

The chaos in Iraq will thereby likely increase the danger of future terrorist attacks considerably, the panel said in its latest status report to the U.N. Security Council on al Qaeda and Afghanistan's former Taliban leaders.

The expert panel said al Qaeda's most notable success, next to surviving, has been the agreement it forged with Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, now the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.

That alliance has benefited both sides, enabling al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to claim involvement in an issue at the focus of world attention and enabling Zarqawi to attract new recruits, it said.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/9/20/worldupdates/2005-09-20T013228Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_-216684-1&sec=Worldupdates

[ECH1969]

1. Guess who managed to make the world less safe

from terrorists.

If the dems can't use that in the 2006 election they don't deserve to win.