Please Cheney, give us a break. Can't you think of some less violent way to pursue your objectives? Do you really need to stage another 911? rkm -------------------------------------------------------- Original source URL: http://www.hindu.com/2006/08/30/stories/2006083020921800.htm Date:30/08/2006 URL: Cheney won't rule out terror strike "The enemy that struck on 9/11 is weakened and fractured, yet still lethal" "We will not let our guard down" "This is not a war we can win on the defensive" Washington : Warning that another terror strike against the United States cannot be ruled out, Vice-President Dick Cheney has said the recent court ruling to end a terrorism-related telephone tapping programme was ``just dead-wrong.'' Terrorists had successfully carried out attacks in Mumbai, Casablanca, Jakarta, Mombassa, Bali, Riyadh, Baghdad, Istanbul, Madrid, London and Sharm el-Sheikh since the September, 11, 2001, attacks. "Here in the U.S., we have not had another 9/11," he said. "No one can guarantee that we won't be struck again." "But to have come this far without another attack is no accident. We have been protected by sound policy decisions by President [George W. Bush], by decisive action at home and abroad, and by round-the-clock efforts [by] people in armed forces, law enforcement intelligence and Homeland Security," he told a convention of U.S. veterans of foreign wars on Monday. "We have an urgent duty to learn who they are, what they are doing and to stop them before they can act. To this end, in the days following 9/11, the President authorised the National Security Agency to intercept a certain category of terrorist-linked international communications. On occasions you will hear this called a domestic surveillance programme. That's more than a misnomer; it is a flat-out falsehood," he said. "Parameters of the programme are fully consistent with the Constitution, the legal authority of the President and the civil liberties of the people." "The enemy that struck on 9/11 is weakened and fractured, yet still lethal, still desperately trying to hit us again. They hate us, they hate our country, and they hate the liberties for which we stand," Mr. Cheney said. ``This is not a war we can win on the defensive. Either we are serious about this fight or we are not. And the enemies of America need to know we are serious and we will not let down our guard." "The terrorists want to end all American and Western influence in the Middle East. Their goal in that region is to seize control of a country so they have a base from which to launch attacks and to wage war against governments that do not meet their demands.'' ``The terrorists believe that by controlling one country, they will be able to target and overthrow other governments in the region and, ultimately, to establish a totalitarian empire that encompasses a region from Spain, across North Africa, to the Middle East and South Asia, all the way around to Indonesia.'' "They have made clear their ultimate ambitions: to arm themselves with chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons, to destroy Israel, to intimidate all Western countries and to cause mass death in the United States." ‹ PTI © Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu -- -------------------------------------------------------- Escaping the Matrix website http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal website http://cyberjournal.org subscribe cyberjournal list mailto:•••@••.••• Posting archives http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/ Blogs: cyberjournal forum http://cyberjournal-rkm.blogspot.com/ Achieving real democracy http://harmonization.blogspot.com/ for readers of ETM http://matrixreaders.blogspot.com/ Community Empowerment http://empowermentinitiatives.blogspot.com/ Blogger made easy http://quaylargo.com/help/ezblogger.html
