Bush: Islamic radicals seek to spread empire
BY TOM RAUM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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 flag
ging 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 ene
my is still capable of global opera
tions,” Bush said. “Our commitment
is clear: We will not relent until the
organized international terror net
works are exposed and broken, and
their leaders held to account for their
acts of murder."
Bush said Islamic radicals are seek
ing to establish a “radical Islamic em
pire that spans from Spain to Indone
sia” 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 writ
ten from one terrorist leader to anoth
er that they said confirmed adminis
tration assertions that Iraqi insur
gents 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 Endow
ment for Democracy, saying some in
formation remained classified. But in
the evening, the White House re
leased 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 at
tacks on the World Trade Center and
the Pentagon on Sept. 11,2001.
The third was the case of Jose
Padilla, a former Chicago gang mem
ber who converted to Islam and al
legedly plotted with top al-Qaida
commanders to detonate a radioac
tive “dirty bomb” in a U.S. city. Padil
la, 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 2002-0303;
attack ships in the Straits of Hormuz,
a narrow part of the Persian Gulf
where it opens into the Arabian Sea,
in 2002; and attack a tourist site out
side the United States in 2003.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whit
man 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-Qaida 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 Penta
gon is confident it is authentic.
Whitman said the letter demon
strates “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 ex
tend 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 Zar
qawi — who has declared war on
Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority — to
avoid bombing mosques and slaugh
tering hostages so as not to alienate the
masses, Whitman said. He also said
that al-Zawahri asked Zarqawi for
some financial support.
Polls show declining American sup
port 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 tempta
tion 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 argu
ments on the Iraq mission. “The presi
dent went into Iraq under a false prem
ise, 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 be
tween 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 Ameri
can 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 chal
lenge of our new century,” he said.
“Like the ideology of communism,
our new enemy teaches that inno
cent individuals can be sacrificed to
serve a political vision.”
“The militants believe that control
ling one country will rally the Muslim
masses, enabling them to overthrow
all moderate governments in the re
gion, and establish a radical Islamic
empire that spans from Spain to In
donesia,” 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.
IN BRIEF
Confidant Karl Rove gives
additional testimony
WASHINGTON — Presidential
confidant Karl Rove will testify for a
fourth time before the federal grand
jury investigating the leak of a CIA of
ficer’s identity even though prosecu
tors have warned they can no longer
guarantee he will escape indictment,
lawyers said Thursday.
Rove’s offer was accepted by Spe
cial Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in
the last week as the grand jury wraps
up its work and decides whether
Rove, Vice President Cheney’s Chief
of Staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby or
any other presidential aides should
face criminal charges.
Rove’s lawyer said Thursday that
Fitzgerald has assured him that he
has made no decisions yet on charges
and that his client has not received a
so-called target letter, usually the last
step before a grand jury’s indictment.
“I can say categorically that Karl has
not received a target letter from the
special counsel,” attorney Robert
Luskin said. “The special counsel has
confirmed that he has not made any
charging decisions in respect to Karl.”
Outspoken warlord critic
wins in Afghan election
KABUL, Afghanistan — A 27-year
old woman who is a defiant critic of
Afghanistan’s powerful warlords
won one of the first seats declared
Thursday in provisional results from
landmark parliamentary elections, a
key step in the nation’s transition
to democracy.
The U.N.-Afghan election body re
ported “serious” cases of fraud, in
cluding ballot-box stuffing after
election day. It excluded 299 polling
stations from the vote count, but
declared the Sept. 18 poll was
still credible.
President Hamid Karzai and
NATO’s chief diplomat, meanwhile,
expressed confidence that a planned
deployment of 6,000 NATO troops
into volatile southern provinces
would happen next year — a move
that could eventually free up thou
sands of American forces.
Some NATO members, including
France and Germany, are reluctant for
the peacekeeping force, currently de
ployed in the more stable north and
west, to become embroiled in coun
terinsurgency operations against Tal
iban-led rebels in the south, currently
handled by a separate U.S.-led coali
tion. They also objects to plans to put
both missions under NATO command.
Cervical cancer vaccine
tests 100 percent effective
An experimental vaccine to pre
vent the most common forms of cer
vical cancer proved 100 percent effec
tive in a two-year test on more than
10,000 girls and women, drug maker
Merck & Co. says.
Merck is hoping to win Food and
Drug Administration approval for the
vaccine, Gardasil, and put it on the
market as soon as late 2006. It would
be the first vaccine to prevent cervical
cancer, a disease caused almost exclu
sively by a highly common sexually
transmitted virus called the human pa
pilloma virus, or HPV.
Doctors expect the vaccine to be
routinely offered to women — and
men, too, because they can spread
the virus to partners — before they
become sexually active, though the
practice is certain to run into oppo
sition from conservatives and reli
gious groups.
—The Associated Press
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