Bush contends al-Qaida covets Iraq as a home base

CHARLESTON, S.C. – For the next seven weeks, the commander in chief becomes salesman in chief.

President Bush traveled Tuesday to a military cargo facility here and cited declassified intelligence showing that al-Qaida terrorists want Iraq for a new base of operations. It is one of several arguments he and members of his administration plan to make in advance of a mid-September progress report on his Iraq security plan.

“Al-Qaida in Iraq shares Osama bin Laden’s goal of making Iraq a base for its radical Islamic empire and using it as a safe haven for attacks on America,” Bush told a lunch meeting of troops at Charleston Air Force Base.

Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, is to report by Sept. 15 on Iraq’s progress. In the meantime, the Bush administration will try to convince wavering Republicans, world leaders and other groups that winning the war is possible.

The president visited the Air Force base, where cargo intended for use in Iraq is loaded onto planes, at the request of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a staunch supporter of Bush’s Iraq security plan.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush will talk “a fair amount” about Iraq in the weeks ahead, “because it’s important the American people get a fuller and deeper appreciation of what’s going on.”

Snow said other salesmen would include “the people who are closest to the fighting,” such as Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Petraeus and Crocker have briefed about 200 members of Congress on the war.

In Charleston, Bush mocked critics who say that al-Qaida in Iraq is different from the al-Qaida that attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and is less of a threat to Americans. He said Iraqi terrorists also follow bin Laden and are “cold-blooded killers” who murder innocent people.

“That’s like watching a man walk into a bank with a mask and a gun and saying he’s probably just there to cash a check,” Bush said.

In Washington, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., accused Bush of throwing “straw men” and “red herrings” into the Iraq debate. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said the president is “trying to magnify the presence and impact of al-Qaida in Iraq” to sell his own plan.