US: The White House has refused to declassify the full text of a secret intelligence assessment that says the war in Iraq has become a cause célèbre for Islamist terrorists and warns that the threat to the United States could get worse.
President George Bush released part of the National Intelligence Estimate this week after media leaks highlighted some of its more sombre findings.
Democrats demanded that the full text should be published, but White House spokesman Tony Snow said that such a move could endanger intelligence agents and compromise the independence of intelligence analysts.
"If they think their work is constantly going to be released to the public, they are going to pull their punches," he said.
The report says that "jihadists" are increasing both in number and geographical dispersion and that, if the trend continues, the number of attacks will increase.
"We assess that the Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of terrorist leaders and operatives; perceived jihadist success there would inspire more fighters to continue the struggle elsewhere. The Iraq conflict has become the cause célèbre for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement."
The assessment, based on information from all 16 US intelligence agencies, predicts that a failed insurgency in Iraq could discourage Islamist terrorist recruits.
The White House sought yesterday to emphasise the report's more positive findings, but Democrats said the full report was needed before the public could judge its implications.
"The American people deserve the full story, not those parts of it that the Bush administration selects," said Senator Edward Kennedy.
Senator Joe Biden, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said Mr Bush had allowed Iraq to become a training ground for terrorists and that voters were worried as they approached November's mid-term elections.
"On election day, that morning, if there's still the carnage in the streets of Iraq, then it will be clear that they have concluded that this administration's policy has failed and there will be a political price for it," he said.
Congress is today expected to approve a Bill that would allow Mr Bush to detain, interrogate and try suspected terrorists before military tribunals. The Senate will consider five amendments, but the Bill - which would suspend habeas corpus rights for terrorist suspects, while allowing coerced confessions - is expected to pass in its present form.
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter has proposed an amendment to give detainees the right to challenge their imprisonment in the courts and Mr Kennedy wants to restrict the admissibility of evidence gained through coercion.
Swift passage of the Bill will allow Mr Bush to sign it this weekend, so the first terrorist suspects could go on trial before November's elections. Mr Bush wanted Congress to pass a Bill authorising the surveillance of international phone calls without a warrant, but divisions between Republicans and Democrats on the issue are too great to be bridged before Congress goes into recess at the end of this week.