Bush defends national security record
In campaign season speech, president says terrorist threat still potent
President Bush called Osama Bin Laden and his allies "evil men" in a speech Tuesday urging Americans to stay alert for future terrorist attacks.
Sept. 5: President Bush will make another speech Tuesday in a series focused on the global war on terror. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports.
Today show
Updated: 14 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - President Bush used terrorists’ own words Tuesday to battle complacency among Americans about the threat of future attack, defending his national security record as the fall campaign season kicks into high gear.
Bush said that despite the absence of a successor on U.S. soil to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the terrorist danger remains potent.
“(Osama) Bin Laden and his terrorist’s allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them,” the president said before the Military Officers Association of America and diplomatic representatives from other countries that have suffered terrorist attacks. “The question is ‘Will we listen? Will we pay attention to what these evil men say?”’
Story continues below ↓
Quoting extensively from letters, Web site statements, audio recording and videotapes purportedly from terrorists, as well as documents found in various raids, Bush said that al-Qaida, homegrown terrorists and other groups have adapted to changing U.S. defenses.
For example, Bush cited what he called “a grisly al-Qaida manual” found in 2000 by British police during an anti-terrorist raid in London, which included a chapter called “Guidelines for Beating and Killing Hostages.”
He also cited what he said was a captured al-Qaida document found during a recent raid in Iraq. He said the document described plans to take over Iraq’s western Anbar province and set up a governing structure including an education department, a social services department, a justice department, and an execution unit.
“The terrorists who attacked us on September the 11th, 2001, are men without conscience, but they’re not madmen,” he said. “They kill in the name of a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs that are evil but not insane.”
Ahead of the speech, the White House on Tuesday released an updated counterterrorism strategy.
“The United States and our partners continue to pursue a significantly degraded but still dangerous al-Qaida network. Yet the enemy we face today in the war on terror is not the same enemy we faced on Sept. 11,” said the 23-page terrorism strategy update. “Our effective counterterrorist efforts in part have forced the terrorists to evolve and modify their ways of doing business.”
Two months before the midterm elections, the report was the White House’s latest attempt to highlight national security, an issue that has helped Republicans in past campaigns. Democrats were releasing their own assessment.
The White House also rejected Democrats’ calls for replacing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. “It’s not going to happen,” presidential spokesman Tony Snow said. “Creating Don Rumsfeld as a bogeyman may make for good politics but would make for very lousy strategy at this time.”
Democrats released their own study, saying it shows the country is less secure today than before Bush took office. Citing research done by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, the report said the number of al-Qaida members has jumped from 20,000 in 2001 to 50,000 today. It also charged that average weekly attacks in Iraq have jumped from almost 200 in spring 2004 to more than 600 this year, using numbers provided by the liberal-oriented Brookings Institution think tank.
“All the speeches in the world won’t change what’s going on in Iraq,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.
“The truth is the president’s policies have not worked and have not made us safer,” said Sen. Thomas R. Carper, D-Del.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14678251/
Be afraid, vote based on fear not rational belife or belife in the American Constitution...
In campaign season speech, president says terrorist threat still potent
President Bush called Osama Bin Laden and his allies "evil men" in a speech Tuesday urging Americans to stay alert for future terrorist attacks.
Sept. 5: President Bush will make another speech Tuesday in a series focused on the global war on terror. NBC's Kelly O'Donnell reports.
Today show
Updated: 14 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - President Bush used terrorists’ own words Tuesday to battle complacency among Americans about the threat of future attack, defending his national security record as the fall campaign season kicks into high gear.
Bush said that despite the absence of a successor on U.S. soil to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the terrorist danger remains potent.
“(Osama) Bin Laden and his terrorist’s allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them,” the president said before the Military Officers Association of America and diplomatic representatives from other countries that have suffered terrorist attacks. “The question is ‘Will we listen? Will we pay attention to what these evil men say?”’
Story continues below ↓
Quoting extensively from letters, Web site statements, audio recording and videotapes purportedly from terrorists, as well as documents found in various raids, Bush said that al-Qaida, homegrown terrorists and other groups have adapted to changing U.S. defenses.
For example, Bush cited what he called “a grisly al-Qaida manual” found in 2000 by British police during an anti-terrorist raid in London, which included a chapter called “Guidelines for Beating and Killing Hostages.”
He also cited what he said was a captured al-Qaida document found during a recent raid in Iraq. He said the document described plans to take over Iraq’s western Anbar province and set up a governing structure including an education department, a social services department, a justice department, and an execution unit.
“The terrorists who attacked us on September the 11th, 2001, are men without conscience, but they’re not madmen,” he said. “They kill in the name of a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs that are evil but not insane.”
Ahead of the speech, the White House on Tuesday released an updated counterterrorism strategy.
“The United States and our partners continue to pursue a significantly degraded but still dangerous al-Qaida network. Yet the enemy we face today in the war on terror is not the same enemy we faced on Sept. 11,” said the 23-page terrorism strategy update. “Our effective counterterrorist efforts in part have forced the terrorists to evolve and modify their ways of doing business.”
Two months before the midterm elections, the report was the White House’s latest attempt to highlight national security, an issue that has helped Republicans in past campaigns. Democrats were releasing their own assessment.
The White House also rejected Democrats’ calls for replacing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. “It’s not going to happen,” presidential spokesman Tony Snow said. “Creating Don Rumsfeld as a bogeyman may make for good politics but would make for very lousy strategy at this time.”
Democrats released their own study, saying it shows the country is less secure today than before Bush took office. Citing research done by the nonpartisan, nonprofit Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, the report said the number of al-Qaida members has jumped from 20,000 in 2001 to 50,000 today. It also charged that average weekly attacks in Iraq have jumped from almost 200 in spring 2004 to more than 600 this year, using numbers provided by the liberal-oriented Brookings Institution think tank.
“All the speeches in the world won’t change what’s going on in Iraq,” said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.
“The truth is the president’s policies have not worked and have not made us safer,” said Sen. Thomas R. Carper, D-Del.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14678251/
Be afraid, vote based on fear not rational belife or belife in the American Constitution...