ANOTHER CIA OFFICER ON BUSH'S GWOT

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Transcript for May 8
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7761272/

Guests: Gary Schroen, former senior CIA agent, author;

MR. RUSSERT: Why aren't we doing what you recommend?
MR. SCHROEN: We're--since that was written, I think we've started to pull--there are more Special Forces troops there. We are still shorthanded as far as CIA officers on the ground in those border areas. Again, the demand on personnel, both special operations and military, and CIA in Iraq are huge and it makes staffing there difficult.
MR. RUSSERT: Are you suggesting--do you believe that Iraq is a distraction, a preoccupation, and it is really limiting our ability to capture Osama bin Laden and secure Afghanistan?
MR. SCHROEN: I absolutely do.
MR. SCHROEN: I think, unfortunately, the attack on Iraq has caused, really, a sort of insurgent rebirth. I mean, there are a lot of more terrorists out there now. People are--they don't have to take their orders from bin Laden. They see this as an international jihad. And I think it is difficult to measure. I think we probably at this point are barely holding our own.
MR. RUSSERT: Can we win the war on terror without winning the hearts and minds of the Islamic world?
MR. SCHROEN: No. I don't think we can. Part of the problem is that we are not hated by these people because of who we are, but the policies that we follow in the Middle East: "occupation" of Saudi Arabia, our policies in Iraq prior to the war, our support for Israel and all. These are issues that burn deeply within the Islamic world.