Posted on 10/06/2005 10:44:36 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Thursday the United States and its allies had foiled at least 10 serious plots by the al-Qaida terror network in the last four years, including plans for Sept. 11-like attacks on both U.S. coasts.
In a speech designed to revive flagging public support for the war in Iraq, the president also said the U.S. and its partners have stopped at least five more efforts by al-Qaida to case targets or infiltrate operatives in the United States.
"Because of this steady progress, the enemy is wounded, but the enemy is still capable of global operations," Bush said. "Our commitment is clear: We will not relent until the organized international terror networks are exposed and broken, and their leaders held to account for their acts of murder."
Bush said Islamic radicals are seeking to establish a "radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia" with Iraq serving as the main front. He singled out Iran and Syria as "allies of convenience" for Islamic radicalism.
Pentagon officials released a letter Thursday evening they said was written from one terrorist leader to another that they said confirmed administration assertions that Iraqi insurgents have a detailed plan to force U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and create an Islamic state there.
The White House initially would not give details of the 10 plots that Bush mentioned in his morning speech before the National Endowment for Democracy, saying some information remained classified. But in the evening, the White House released a fact sheet with a brief, and vague, description of each.
Three targets cited were in the United States, including plans to use hijacked airplanes to attack the West Coast in mid-2002 and the East Coast in mid-2003. The White House said at least one planner of the West Coast attack was a key figure behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
The third was the case of Jose Padilla, a former Chicago gang member who converted to Islam and allegedly plotted with top al-Qaida commanders to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a U.S. city. Padilla, whose plot never materialized, was designated an enemy combatant by Bush and is being held without criminal charge at a Navy brig in South Carolina.
The White House said the other seven attacks included plans to:
• Bomb several sites in Britain in mid-2004.
• Attack Westerners at several places in Karachi, Pakistan, in spring 2003.
• Attack Heathrow Airport using hijacked commercial airliners in 2003.
• Carry out a large-scale bombing in Britain in spring 2004.
• Attack ships in the Arabian Gulf in late 2002/2003.
• Attack ships in the Straits of Hormuz, a narrow part of the Persian Gulf where it opens into the Arabian Sea, in 2002.
• Attack a tourist site outside the United States in 2003.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman would only broadly characterize the intercepted letter that the Defense Department released, which he said was written by Osama bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahri to the leader of al-Quaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He would not say where, when or how it was obtained, or who intercepted it, but he said the Pentagon is confident it is authentic.
Whitman said the letter demonstrates "that there is this detailed planning and intent on the part of the insurgents in Iraq to one day control that country and to really try to extend their extremism to neighboring countries. It demonstrates to me they clearly understand the importance and significance of the battle in Iraq right now."
In the letter al-Zawahri urges Zarqawi — who has declared war on Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority — to avoid bombing mosques and slaughtering hostages to avoid alienating the masses, Whitman said. He also said that al-Zawahri asked Zarqawi for some financial support.
Polls show declining American support for the war that has thus far claimed the lives of more than 1,940 members of the U.S. military. Bush's policy faces a crucial test in Iraq's Oct. 15 referendum on a new constitution, a vote that Bush has said terrorists will try to derail.
In remarks clearly aimed at those seeking a withdrawal of U.S. troops, Bush said: "There's always a temptation in the middle of a long struggle to seek the quiet life, to escape the duties and problems of the world and to hope the enemy grows weary of fanaticism and tired of murder."
"We will keep our nerve and we will win that victory," he said.
Democrats challenged Bush's arguments on the Iraq mission. "The president went into Iraq under a false premise, without a plan, and has totally mismanaged our involvement," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "Now he is trying to justify his actions with a series of excuses."
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said Bush "continues to invent a false link between the war in Iraq and the tragedy of Sept. 11." Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Bush "has offered America a false choice, between resolve and retreat."
Bush said Islamic extremists hope to use "the vacuum created by an American retreat" to gain control of Iraq and use it as a base for launching attacks against other countries.
"The murderous ideology of the Islamic radicals is the great challenge of our new century," he said. "Like the ideology of communism, our new enemy teaches that innocent individuals can be sacrificed to serve a political vision."
"The militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region, and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia," Bush asserted.
"Against such an enemy, there's only one effective response: We never back down, never give in and never accept anything less than complete victory," Bush declared.
"We will keep our nerve and we will win that victory," he said.
Democrats challenged Bush's arguments on the Iraq mission. "The president went into Iraq under a false premise, without a plan, and has totally mismanaged our involvement," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "Now he is trying to justify his actions with a series of excuses."
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said Bush "continues to invent a false link between the war in Iraq and the tragedy of Sept. 11." Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Bush "has offered America a false choice, between resolve and retreat."
Kerry, Durbin, Pelosi...
The 3 Stooges (which is an insult to the original 3 Stooges,, but..)
'false' seems to be the talking point to refute President Bush's decision to take on IslamoFascists over there and not here.
Classless, to say the least, imo.
President Bush speaks before the National Endowment for Democracy at the Reagan Building in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2005. Bush said Thursday that Islamic radicals are seeking to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world, and called that a prime reason not to cut and run in Iraq. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Pfffft, he nominated Miers, nothing else matters. (do I really need the sarcasm thingy?)
There is so much more going on in this war. Maybe when we are very old we will learn about it. I think most of what we see is only the tip of the iceberg.
It does seem a lot of folks do have a complacency about them, a sense of false security, perhaps.
If they really knew or were privy to the skinny behind these and other incidents, they might think twice about how tenuous an existence we lead on old terra firma.
Bad news for the MSM...
"I think most of what we see is only the tip of the iceberg."
I agree with that, and sometimes I wonder if the dems see even that tip. Pelosi is a fool.
BTTT
I have never been able to understand the carping idiots who do not realize that much of this war, by necessity, is going on in secret. They mindlessly criticize the president, the vice president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, with no consideration of the fact that any one of them may right now be under grave threat, or may have yesterday skillfully helped foil a plot which could have cost the lives of thousands.
This has become a nation beleagured by completely clueless backseat drivers.
The 24 hour 7 days a week news grinder does nothing but allow for more time for these idiots to spout off and then have it rerun over and over again proving how idiotic they are..
I know there's a silver lining in that but .. it still grates many folks to no end that they just don't shut up and grow up.
G'Nite All!
Which is this president greatest failing. He's leading in private. A country needs a public leader in times of war.
His behind the scenes leadership style and lack of communication with the public is creating a disconnect between the citizens and the warriors as well as being unhelpful in keeping the public focused on what's at stake.
"series of excuses"
Like that we are capturing terrorists in Iraq and they are revealing plots against us that we are foiling. That's all well and good, but that wasn't the reason Bush said we were going to Iraq now, was it.....
Stupid is as Stupid Does.
Pelosi -- Stuck on Stupid before it was Popular.
Put this in you book !
There are many non-American people in the US and in europe who just disappear. They are scooped up and taken away because they are deemed a threat.
There have been hundreds of attacks that have been stopped but we won't learn about them for another 20 years !
Vaporize Damascas for entertainment value. AND so state. Send Iran a memo: "Unconditional surrender works best if you do it while you are still you."
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