Bush defends domestic security measures: US safer since 9/11

Sep 7, 2006, 16:26 GMT

Washington - US President George W Bush on Thursday defended security measures implemented to protect the US from terrorist attacks, saying that 'America is safer' since September 11, 2001.

'The war on terror is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century, and we're only in the opening stages,' Bush said in a speech in Atlanta, Georgia - the fourth in a series of speeches in the run-up to the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Bush defended a number of domestic initiatives that have caused some controversy over the last five years, including the Patriot Act and the domestic surveillance programme, which allowed authorities to listen to telephone conversations between residents in the US and suspected terrorists abroad.

'The terrorist surveillance programme ... helps protect Americans, so we can learn about threats like the 9/11 plot before it's too late,' Bush said.

The US president also denied that the war in Iraq had diverted resources and time from the central fight against terror, saying it was necessary for the US to be on the offensive as well as on the defensive to protect the country.

'Some say Iraq is a diversion from the war on terror. But the terrorists disagree,' Bush said. 'It is the central battlefield where the war on terror will be decided.'

In a speech Wednesday, Bush revealed that 14 top al-Qaeda suspects had been moved from secret CIA prisons to military detention and would be protected by the Geneva Conventions - for the first time acknowledging the existence of the CIA facilities.

On Thursday Bush renewed his call for Congress to pass legislation allowing for the suspects - including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks - to be tried by military commission.

Despite advances in the struggle, Bush said that terrorist groups had not yet given up on their 'dreams' of striking the US and other countries, citing a number of attacks and plots around the world in recent years.

'Many Americans look at these events and ask the same question: Five years after 9/11, are we safer? The answer is yes, America is safer,' Bush said.

While Bush insisted the administration's measures had strengthened the US ability prevent plots against the country, he acknowledged that 'no one can say for sure that we would have prevented the (September 11) attack.'