"President George W. Bush argued forcefully today that an Al Qaeda-affiliated group in Iraq is linked tightly to the central Al Qaeda leadership, and that for American forces to leave Iraq without defeating the terror group would be "dangerous for the world and disastrous for America."

"He made the remarks at Charleston Air Force Base in South Carolina, at a time of fierce debate in Washington over Iraq policy.  Last week a major intelligence report concluded that the international Al Qaeda organization of Osama bin Laden had successfully regrouped, probably in rugged northwest Pakistan, and that it is once again as strong as it was before the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"In a half-hour speech clearly aimed at his Democratic critics, Mr. Bush said that those who argued that the affiliated group, called Al Qaeda in Iraq or AQI, was a local group with local objectives, and not a serious threat to Americans at home, were seriously misinformed."

President Bush sought anew on Tuesday to draw connections between the Iraqi group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and the terrorist network responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, and he sharply criticized those who contend that the groups are independent of each other.

At a time when Mr. Bush is trying to beat back calls for withdrawal from Iraq, the speech at Charleston Air Force Base reflected concern at the White House over criticism that he is focusing on the wrong terrorist threat.

Mr. Bush chose to speak in the city where Democrats held their nationally televised presidential debate on Monday, a forum at which the question was not whether to stay in Iraq but how to go about leaving. . . .

Al Qaeda in Iraq was founded by a Jordanian terrorist, not an Iraqi.  His name was Abu Musab al Zarqawi.  Before 9/11, he ran a terrorist camp in Afghanistan.  He was not yet a member of al Qaida, but our intelligence community reports that he had longstanding relations with senior al Qaida leaders, that he had met with Osama bin Laden and his chief deputy, Zawahiri.

In 2001, Coalition forces destroyed Zarqawi's Afghan training camp, and he fled the country and he went to Iraq, where he set up operations with terrorist associates long before the arrival of coalition forces.  In the violence and instability following Saddam's fall, Zarqawi was able to expand dramatically the size, scope, and lethality of his operation.  In 2004, Zarqawi and his terrorist group formally joined al Qaida, pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden, and he promised to "follow his orders in jihad."

Soon after, bin Laden publicly declared that Zarqawi was the "Prince of Al Qaida in Iraq" -- and instructed terrorists in Iraq to "listen to him and obey him."  It's hard to argue that al Qaida in Iraq is separate from bin Laden's al Qaida, when the leader of al Qaida in Iraq took an oath of allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

According to our intelligence community, the Zarqawi-bin Laden merger gave al Qaida in Iraq -- quote -- "prestige among potential recruits and financiers."  The merger also gave al Qaida's senior leadership -- quote -- "a foothold in Iraq to extend its geographic presence ... to plot external operations ... and to tout the centrality of the jihad in Iraq to solicit direct monetary support elsewhere." . . . .  

Zarqawi was killed by U.S. forces in June 2006.  He was replaced by another foreigner -- an Egyptian named Abu Ayyub al-Masri.  His ties to the al Qaida senior leadership are deep and longstanding.  He has collaborated with Zawahiri for more than two decades.  And before 9/11, he spent time with al Qaida in Afghanistan where he taught classes indoctrinating others in al Qaida's radical ideology.

After Abu Ayyub took over al Qaida's Iraqi operations last year, Osama bin Laden sent a terrorist leader named Abd al-Hadi al Iraqi to help him. According to our intelligence community, this man was a senior advisor to bin Laden, who served as his top commander in Afghanistan.  Abd al-Hadi never made it to Iraq.  He was captured, and was recently transferred to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.  The fact that bin Laden risked sending one of his most valued commanders to Iraq shows the importance he places on success of al Qaida's Iraqi operations.

According to our intelligence community, many of al Qaida in Iraq's other senior leaders are also foreign terrorists.  They include a Syrian who is al Qaida in Iraq's emir in Baghdad, a Saudi who is al Qaida in Iraq's top spiritual and legal advisor, an Egyptian who fought in Afghanistan in the 1990s and who has met with Osama bin Laden, a Tunisian who we believe plays a key role in managing foreign fighters.  Last month in Iraq, we killed a senior al Qaida facilitator named Mehmet Yilmaz, a Turkish national who fought with al Qaida in Afghanistan, and met with September the 11th mastermind Khalid Shaikh Muhammad, and other senior al Qaida leaders.

A few weeks ago, we captured a senior al Qaida in Iraq leader named Mashadani.  Now, this terrorist is an Iraqi.  In fact, he was the highest ranking Iraqi in the organization.  Here's what he said, here's what he told us:  The foreign leaders of Al Qaida in Iraq went to extraordinary lengths to promote the fiction that al Qaida in Iraq is an Iraqi-led operation.  He says al Qaida even created a figurehead whom they named Omar al-Baghdadi.  The purpose was to make Iraqi fighters believe they were following the orders of an Iraqi instead of a foreigner.  Yet once in custody, Mashadani revealed that al-Baghdadi is only an actor.  He confirmed our intelligence that foreigners are at the top echelons of al Qaida in Iraq -- they are the leaders -- and that foreign leaders make most of the operational decisions, not Iraqis.

Foreign terrorists also account for most of the suicide bombings in Iraq. Our military estimates that between 80 and 90 percent of suicide attacks in Iraq are carried out by foreign-born al Qaida terrorists.  It's true that today most of al Qaida in Iraq's rank and file fighters and some of its leadership are Iraqi.  But to focus exclusively on this single fact is to ignore the larger truth:  Al Qaida in Iraq is a group founded by foreign terrorists, led largely by foreign terrorists, and loyal to a foreign terrorist leader -- Osama bin Laden.  They know they're al Qaida.  The Iraqi people know they are al Qaida.  People across the Muslim world know they are al Qaida.  And there's a good reason they are called al Qaida in Iraq:  They are al Qaida ... in ... Iraq.

In his speech, Mr. Bush did not try to debunk the fact - repeated by [Senator Harry] Reid - that Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia did not exist until the United States invasion in 2003 and has flourished afterward.

Some note that al Qaida in Iraq did not exist until the U.S. invasion -- and argue that it is a problem of our own making.  The argument follows the flawed logic that terrorism is caused by American actions.  Iraq is not the reason that the terrorists are at war with us.  We were not in Iraq when the terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993.  We were not in Iraq when they attacked our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.  We were not in Iraq when they attacked the USS Cole in 2000.  And we were not in Iraq on September the 11th, 2001.

. . . The al Qaida terrorists now blowing themselves up in Iraq are . . . part of a network that has murdered men, women, and children in London and Madrid; slaughtered fellow Muslims in Istanbul and Casablanca, Riyadh, Jakarta, and elsewhere around the world.  If we were not fighting these al Qaida extremists and terrorists in Iraq, they would not be leading productive lives of service and charity.

Mr. Bush referred throughout his speech to what his aides said was newly declassified intelligence in his effort to link Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and the central Qaeda leadership that is believed to be operating from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.  Although the aides said the intelligence was declassified, White House and intelligence officials declined to provide any detail on the reports Mr. Bush cited.