Bush defends national security record

updated 10:08 p.m. ET Sept. 5, 2006

WASHINGTON - President Bush used terrorists’ own words Tuesday to battle complacency among Americans about the threat of future attacks, defending his record as the fall campaign season kicks into high gear.

Quoting from letters, Web site statements, audio recordings and videotapes purportedly from terrorists, as well as documents found in various raids, Bush said that despite the absence of a successor on U.S. soil to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the terrorist danger remains potent.

“Bin Laden and his terrorist 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 of other countries that have suffered terrorist attacks. “The question is ‘Will we listen? Will we pay attention to what these evil men say?”’

Bush said that al-Qaida has been weakened, with its leaders finding it harder to operate freely, move money or communicate with operatives. But, he said the terrorist network has adapted to U.S. defenses by increasingly using the Internet to spread propaganda, recruit new terrorists and conduct training. In addition, the movement has become more dispersed, with local cells more self-directed and responsible for more attacks.

The president also said extremists from Islam’s Shiite sect are learning from Sunni extremists, and asserted the danger of the Shiite-controlled nation of Iran. He said Iran is fighting a proxy war with the U.S. and Israel by funding and arming the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

‘America will not bow down’
“Like al-Qaida and the Sunni extremists, the Iranian regime has clear aims. They want to drive America out of the region, to destroy Israel and to dominate the broader Middle East,” Bush said. “America will not bow down to tyrants.”

One document Bush cited was 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 it 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.”

His speech came after the White House released a 23-page booklet called “National Strategy for Combating Terrorism,” which proclaims that the nation has made progress in the war on terrorism but al-Qaida has adjusted to U.S. defenses and “we are not yet safe.”

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