World | USA
Bush warns of Al Qaida plan for 'Caliphate' based in Iraq
US President George W. Bush vowed on Tuesday to prevent Al Qaida from setting up a violent, radical Islamic empire based in Iraq, which he said was Osama Bin Laden's ultimate goal.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:00 September 6, 2006
- Image Credit: AP
- President Bush pauses during remarks on the global war on terror to the Military Officers Association of America on Tuesday, in Washington.
Washington: US President George W. Bush vowed on Tuesday to prevent Al Qaida from setting up a violent, radical Islamic empire based in Iraq, which he said was Osama Bin Laden's ultimate goal.
Bush said Al Qaida's vision was to create a "unified totalitarian Islamic state that can confront and eventually destroy the free world."
Bin Laden has declared Iraq "the capital of the caliphate," said Bush, who has often faced criticism for trying to tie Iraq into the broader "war on terrorism.
Addressing the Military Officers Association of America, Bush said Islamic radicals would like to obtain nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction in order to "blackmail the free world and spread their ideologies of hate."
"If we retreat from Iraq, if we don't uphold our duty to support those who are desirous to live in liberty 50 years from now, history will look back on our time with unforgiving clarity and demand to know why we did not act," Bush said.
"I'm not going to allow this to happen and no future American president can allow it either," he said.
Bush quoted extensively from Bin Laden's videotaped messages and writings, comparing him to 20th century dictators like Russia's Vladimir Lenin and Germany's Adolf Hitler.
"We know what the terrorists intend to do because they've told us - and we need to take their words seriously," Bush said in a speech liberally laced with quotes from Bin Laden,architect of the September 11 attacks five years ago which killed around 3,000 people.
He cited in particular a letter from Bin Laden to the former Taliban ruler, Mullah Omar, that coalition forces found in Afghanistan in 2002.
Bin Laden wrote that Al Qaida should launch a media campaign to tell Americans "their government would bring them more losses, in finances and in casualties," and that they arebeing sacrificed for big investors, "especially the Jews."
Massachusetts Democratic Senator John Kerry, the losing presidential candidate in 2004, responded that if Bush had killed Bin Laden in late 2001, "he wouldn't have to quote this barbarian's words today."
As he sought to bolster support ahead of November elections, Bush also released a White House national strategy for combating terrorism that said Americans are safer five years after the attacks but "we are not yet safe."
Delaware Democratic Senator Joe Biden said release of the new report showed that even the White House now acknowledged its previous strategy had failed.
"The president has squandered the opportunity to unite the country and the world, instead he has divided both," he said.
White House officials denied Bush's speech and the report were driven by election politics.
Series of speeches
Bush's speech was the second in a series linked to next week's anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
Later, the White House said Bush was extending for one-year the national emergency he declared following the September 11 terrorist attacks because the "terrorist threat continues" and measures adopted to deal with that emergency must remain in effect.
Bush planned a third speech Wednesday from the White House, laying out his plan to change the law so that detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, can be tried for crimes before military commissions.
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