HEADLINE from AUSTRALIA: Bush seeks political gains from terror plot [View All]

[Bluebear]

From correspondents in Crawford

August 11, 2006 12:00

US President George W. Bush seized on a foiled London airline bomb plot today to hammer unnamed critics he accused of having all but forgotten the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Weighed down by the unpopular war in Iraq, Mr Bush and his aides have tried to shift the national political debate from that conflict to the broader and more popular global war on terrorism ahead of November 7 congressional elections.

The London conspiracy is "a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation," the president said on a day trip to Wisconsin. "It is a mistake to believe there is no threat to the United States of America," he said. "We've taken a lot of measures to protect the American people. But obviously we still aren't completely safe."

His remarks came a day after the White House orchestrated an exceptionally aggressive campaign to tar opposition Democrats as weak on terrorism, knowing what Democrats didn't: News of the plot could soon break.

Vice President Dick Cheney and White House spokesman Tony Snow had argued that Democrats wanted to raise what Mr Snow called "a white flag in the war on terror", citing as evidence the defeat of a three-term Democratic senator who backed the Iraq war in his effort to win renomination.

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,20090475-5006506,00.html