Bush: U.S. Has Disrupted 10 Al Qaeda Plots

“President Bush said today the United States and its allies have disrupted at least 10 serious plots by the al Qaeda network in the past four years, as he sought to rally the nation against international terrorists and warned foreign governments against supporting them.

In what the White House billed as a major speech, Bush told the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington that of the “10 serious al Qaeda terrorist plots” that he said have been disrupted since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, three involved “al Qaeda plots to attack inside the United States.”

President Bush said today the United States and its allies have disrupted at least 10 serious plots by the al Qaeda network in the past four years, as he sought to rally the nation against international terrorists and warned foreign governments against supporting them.

In what the White House billed as a major speech, Bush told the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington that of the “10 serious al Qaeda terrorist plots” that he said have been disrupted since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, three involved “al Qaeda plots to attack inside the United States.”

In his speech, Bush outlined what he said was a broad strategy by Muslim terrorists to dominate much of the world.

“The militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region, and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia,” he said. “With greater economic and military and political power, the terrorists would be able to advance their stated agenda: to develop weapons of mass destruction, to destroy Israel, to intimidate Europe, to assault the American people, and to blackmail our government into isolation.”

I spent a few minutes surfing various blogs and was somewhat dismayed by the responses to the president’s speech. There is so much anger and distrust of this administration that I am concerned about whether people take the threat of terrorism seriously.

Here is a sample of the comments:

It’s hard to claim credit for the absence of an event.

Booga Booga. Poll numbers going down? Time to bring out the scare tactics.

Meanwhile, Bush remarked that the US has successfully thwarted 10 Al-Qaeda plotted attacks on the US. Not to offend anybody or anything, but am I the only one who wonders if this is actually true, or just a strategy to up support for the war??

Something has got to be done about the divisive attitude and approach so many take in the US. It is not about Red versus Blue state, it is about understanding that we waste so much energy attacking each other. If we could just channel that energy.

BTW, FWIW, I have no doubt that AQ has made multiple attempts to attack the US. If you read OBL’s fatwa you know that he is trying to restore the caliphate. And if you look at the number of incidents that preceded 911 and those worldwide that followed it then it makes sense to me to say that it is likely that they have tried to hit us again.

Time passes and people grow complacent at our own peril.