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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/05/AR2006090500312.html?nav=rss_politicsBush Warns Of Enduring Terror Threat
Words of Bin Laden, Allies Show Their Goals, He Says
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 6, 2006; Page A01
President Bush issued a stern warning yesterday about what he called the continuing terrorist threat confronting the nation, using the haunting words of Islamic extremists to support his assertion that they remain determined to attack the United States.
Abandoning his practice of only rarely mentioning al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, Bush repeatedly quoted him and purported terrorist letters, recordings and documents to make his case that terrorists have broad totalitarian ambitions and believe the war in Iraq is a key theater in a wider struggle.
"Iraq is not a distraction in their war against America" but the "central battlefield where this war will be decided," Bush said in an address before the Military Officers Association of America.
Citing the internal communications of terrorists was a dramatic new tactic to advance familiar arguments from Bush in defense of his strategy. The remarks came less than a week before the nation observes the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and two months before midterm elections in which the administration's national strategy and competence promise to be pivotal questions. That debate was underscored by sharp criticism of Bush yesterday by Democratic congressional leaders.
The president's remarks came hours after the White House released its updated plan for combating terrorism. The document describes many successes in the war on terrorism, but warns that the nation faces an evolving threat from small terrorist networks and al-Qaeda, which is as much an ideology as a terrorist network. The document calls the administration's policy of spreading freedom and democracy the best means of countering that threat over the long haul.
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