USA: President George W Bush vows to use all "elements of national power" to pursue enemies and prevent attack

U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday (September 7, 2006) sought to rally public support for his anti-terror strategy in the face of formidable court challenges. Despite low approval ratings, Bush hopes lawmakers will give him what he wants in the countdown to November's congressional elections, which could hinge on the question of whether his Republican party or their Democratic rivals are most able to guarantee national security. "I will continue to use every element of national power to pursue our enemies and to prevent attacks on the United States of America," Bush told a public policy forum in Atlanta. He spoke a day after announcing that 14 high-profile suspects held by the Central Intelligence Agency, including an al Qaeda leader accused of masterminding Sept. 11, had been transferred to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo. It was Bush's first public admission of the existence of a CIA overseas detention program, though news reports had already revealed many details. Bush used his Atlanta speech to press Congress to authorise new military tribunals to try terrorist suspects and to give its stamp of approval for his administration's domestic eavesdropping program. ""The sooner the Congress authorizes the military commissions I have called for, the sooner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will receive the justice he deserves" Bush said. The administration had launched the programmes after Sept. 11 in a go-it-alone approach that has started to backfire. The Supreme Court in June struck down as unconstitutional the planned military tribunals the administration set up to try terrorist suspects, and Bush now wants Congress to let him create courts very similar to those he originally planned. Bush praised the programme for yielding intelligence from several suspects. Last month, a federal judge in Michigan ordered the Bush administration to stop a domestic wiretap program it says protects Americans from terrorism but which the judge said violated civil rights. The administration has appealed. Bush's focus on terrorism has given him a chance to polish his party's national security credentials two months before congressional elections at a time when Americans are growing weary of the war in Iraq. His Atlanta speech was the fourth in a series of addresses aimed in part at reviving sagging public support for the continuing American military presence in Iraq more than three years after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein. Democrats, threatening Republican control of Congress, hope to make the election a referendum on Bush's Iraq policy, which they say is a failure.

ITN Source | September 8, 2006

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