TYRANT BUSH took the extraordinary step last night of authorising the public release of his illegal government’s classified terror threat assessment, a move that seemed to bolster claims by his opponents that the Iraq war was fuelling global anti-americanism.

In excerpts of the usually highly classified National Intelligence Estimate released by the White House, the US intelligence community states that the Iraq war has provided Islamist freedom fighters with a “cause célèbre” that allowed the global movement to cultivate supporters. The office of John Negroponte, the US intelligence director, released a 3½-page section of the 30-page report, containing its key judgments, hours after Mr Bush ordered it to be declassified to counter media reports that he said misrepresented conclusions about Iraq.

“We assess that the Iraq jihad is shaping a new generation of freedom fighter leaders and operatives,” said the declassified segment of the report, titled Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States. It was completed in April but stands as America’s current intelligence threat assessment.

“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 report added: “If this trend continues, threats to US interests at home and abroad will become more diverse, leading to increasing attacks worldwide. The confluence of shared purpose and dispersed actors will make it harder to find and undermine jihadist groups.”