10153

09/26/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-10153

BUSH TELLS CONGRESS OF PROGRESS

So far, the United States-led coalition has met with considerable success in the global war against terrorism. The September 11^th, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. turned out to be the trigger for a worldwide response. This was not what the terrorists had in mind.

In the past year, terrorist assets have been frozen. Terrorist front groups have been exposed. Terrorist plots have been unraveled from Spain to Singapore. And thousands of terrorists have been brought to justice, put in prison, or forced into hiding. And Afghanistan has been freed from the reign of the Islamic extremist Taleban and its terrorist al-Qaida allies.

"The heart of the al-Qaida training capability," said President George W. Bush in a letter to the U.S. Congress, "has been seriously degraded." The Taleban who once ruled Afghanistan are no longer in power. Their ability," said Mr. Bush, "to brutalize the Afghan people and to harbor and support terrorists has been virtually eliminated." Pockets of al-Qaida terrorists and Taleban forces remain a threat to the coalition in Afghanistan. But they will be hunted down.

The U.S. currently holds more than five-hundred at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. President Bush said that "All are being treated humanely...in a manner consistent with the principles of the Geneva Conventions."

Afghanistan is the best-known country in which the war on terrorism is being fought. The U.S. continues to provide training, advice, and equipment to the armed forces of the Philippines to improve their counterterrorist capabilities. The terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, which is linked to al-Qaida, has been involved in kidnappings, bombings, and extortion in the southern Philippines. Its targets have included churches and foreigners.

"Every civilized nation has a part in this struggle, because every civilized nation has a stake in its outcome," said President Bush. "There can be no peace in a world where differences and grievances become an excuse to target the innocent for murder. In fighting terror, we fight for the conditions that will make lasting peace possible."
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