President Bush yesterday assured Americans that the United States is doing everything possible to secure the homeland, but warned that terrorists “need to be right only once” to wreak the kind of death and havoc they achieved last week in London.
In a speech to 1,000 FBI officials, Marines and emergency first responders at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., the president said U.S. intelligence agencies have “stopped a number of grave threats to the American people.”
“Since September the 11th, our coalition has disrupted a number of al Qaeda terrorist plots, arrested al Qaeda operatives here to case specific U.S. targets and caught others trying to sneak into our country,” Mr. Bush said.
“Here in America, the FBI has helped break up terrorist cells and financing networks in California, in Oregon, Illinois, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Florida and other states,” he said. “Our nation has no greater mission than stopping the terrorists from launching new and more deadly attacks.”
But Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said the Bush administration is not doing enough to combat terrorism.
“We should take very seriously the lesson learned from the attacks in London: Fighting terrorism overseas is not enough to ensure that terrorists will not strike American soil again,” Mr. Reid said.
“The simple fact is that the Bush administration has refused to make the needed investments to secure American cities and towns,” he said, adding that Democrats “are determined to do everything we can to protect America from terrorism by making the much-needed investments in rail security, protecting chemical plants and fully equipping our first responders.”
Mr. Bush spoke at the FBI Academy as British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the House of Commons that it seems probable that the bus and subway attacks that killed dozens on Thursday in London were carried out by Islamists.
The president said the United States must stay on the offensive in the war on terror.
“Together with our allies, we’re on the offense, and we will stay on the offense. We have damaged the al Qaeda network across the world. We know that there is no such thing as perfect security and that in a free and open society, it is impossible to protect against every threat.”
The president cataloged what he called “extraordinary measures” to defend the United States against terrorist attacks. The efforts include strengthening airport and seaport security and “protecting our nation’s critical infrastructure — our bridges and tunnels, our transportation systems, our nuclear power plants and water-treatment facilities, and the cyber networks that keep our government and our economy running,” he said.
The federal government has more than tripled funding for homeland security since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Mr. Bush cited the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the National Counterterrorism Center as successful efforts to improve intelligence since 2001.
“The terrorists know they can’t defeat us on the battlefield. The only way the terrorists can win is if we lose our nerve. This isn’t going to happen on my watch,” Mr. Bush said.
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