WASHINGTON – The White House expressed concern Sunday about recent indications of a heightened terrorist threat and said it points to a greater need to promote the benefits of democracy.
“It’s a source of concern. And we’re responding to it,” said Stephen Hadley, President Bush’s national security adviser. “It’s a good reminder that the struggle against terrorism is going to be with us for a long time.”
“We need to also, at the same time, engage in the battle of ideas, the president talking about the vision of democracy versus a vision of despair,” Hadley added.
A new U.S. intelligence assessment being released to Congress this week is expected to say that al-Qaida is stepping up its efforts to sneak terrorist operatives into the United States and has acquired most of the capabilities it needs to strike here.
A new al-Qaida videotape posted Sunday on a militant Web site featured a short, undated clip of a weary-looking Osama bin Laden praising martyrdom. Also, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff last week said he had a “gut feeling” that the nation faced a higher risk of attack this summer.
The National Intelligence Estimate is expected to point in particular to al-Qaida’s growing ability to use its base along the Pakistan-Afghan border to launch and inspire attacks.
Hadley said Sunday he was troubled by suicide bombings over the weekend in Pakistan as well as reports that militants in the Afghan border region were pulling out of a peace pact with Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
“We have seen in the northwest territories in Pakistan, Taliban pooling, planning and training,” Hadley said.
A suicide bomber blew himself up at a police recruitment center close to Pakistan’s volatile tribal region Sunday, killing at least 26 people, injuring nearly 60 others and bringing the death toll in weekend attacks in the frontier zone to more than 70.
Adding to the likelihood of a prolonged period of strife for Pakistan, militants in North Waziristan, one of the tribal areas, announced Sunday that they were annulling a 10-month-old cease-fire accord with the government.
The turmoil has heightened speculation that Musharraf, who also is the chief of Pakistan’s military, might choose to cite the growing threat posed by militants as a justification for declaring a state of emergency and putting off elections scheduled for later this year.
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