On the eve of the second anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, President George Bush is embarking on two days of events in which he will claim progress in bolstering the United States against future attacks.
Traveling by helicopter on Wednesday afternoon to the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, Bush was giving local emergency workers as well as officials from the federal law enforcement agency and the Homeland Security Department an update on efforts to improve homeland security.
Bush’s remarks come three days after he delivered a progress report on his administration’s efforts against terrorism abroad, in which he focused on the war in Iraq and described it as the central battleground of the global war on terror.
Before departing the White House for Quantico, the president was to meet with the prime minister of Kuwait, a key Persian Gulf ally where thousands of American troops are deployed as part of the ongoing Iraq campaign. All told, 40 000 U.S. troops are based in countries like Kuwait that are close to Iraq.
Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah was appointed Prime Minister of Kuwait in July by his brother, Kuwait’s emir, Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah, in a move that raised hopes for reform in the fledgling democracy.
Bush’s homeland security speech also comes amid questions about whether the nation is better prepared now than on the day two years ago when terrorists killed 3 016 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania with four hijacked airplanes.
”The president will talk about what we’ve done to make the homeland more secure,” White House spokesperson Claire Buchan said.
”He’ll also talk about how we need to do more.”
Among the changes Bush was to tout is the creation of the new Homeland Security Department, which combined elements of scores of other federal agencies to improve law enforcement, intelligence, emergency management agencies and air and other transportation safety.
And the president was expected to talk about changes at the FBI, which shifted its focus from prosecuting crimes to trying to prevent terrorist attacks. To help highlight that shift — and improved performance at the FBI — Bush was to tour a new FBI crime lab housed at the Quantico training facility.
The nearly five-month-old lab employs state-of-the-art technology for forensic work ranging from analysing fingerprints to the latest DNA matching.
Wednesday evening, Bush was playing host to a private dinner and a screening of the Academy Award-winning documentary Twin Towers.
The next day, the president takes part in a series of sober appearances: a prayer service at a nearby church, a moment of silence on the White House’s South Lawn at the hour of the first plane’s crash into the World Trade Centre towers in New York, and a visit with US soldiers recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical hospital from wounds suffered in Iraq.
Also on Wednesday morning, Bush would meet briefly in the White House residence with the Dalai Lama. The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, who has campaigned for the cause of a free Tibet since fleeing his land for India in 1959 after a failed revolt against Chinese rule, is on his first tour of the US in more than two years.
The Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for non-violent resistance to the Chinese occupation there. But the Chinese government has criticised US support for the Dalai Lama as unwelcome meddling in the internal affairs of its country.
The president also scheduled a White House meeting with lawmakers attempting to negotiate a final, compromise energy Bill. — Sapa-AP