U.S.and Allies ‘Will Not Yield’

President Bush said Monday that the deadly bombings in London “provide a clear window into the evil we face” from terrorists who want democracies to withdraw from the world stage, but that the United States and its allies “will not yield.”

Speaking at the FBI training academy here, the president said terrorists “believe that the world’s democracies are weak, and that by killing innocent civilians they can break our will. They’re mistaken. America will not retreat in the face of terrorists and murderers. And neither will the free world.”

Although his address had been planned before Thursday’s terrorist attacks on London’s public transportation system, which killed more than 50 people and wounded hundreds, the president’s speech took on added significance in the wake of the four bombings.

Bush also used the occasion to call on Congress to renew more than a dozen provisions of the Patriot Act due to expire at year’s end that he said were crucial tools for combating terrorism.

“Our enemy is constantly studying our defenses and adapting its own tactics, so we must constantly strengthen our capabilities,” he said.

The president said the U.S. “has no greater mission than stopping the terrorists from launching new and more deadly attacks,” and he outlined steps that his administration had taken to counter terrorism abroad and strengthen defenses at home.

“We know that there is no such thing as perfect security and that in a free and open society it is impossible to protect against every threat,” he told an auditorium packed with Marines, emergency first responders, and law enforcement and intelligence officials.

“As we saw in London last week, the terrorists need to be right only once. Free nations need to be right 100% of the time,” Bush said.

In what amounted to a Democratic rebuttal, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) criticized Bush for providing what he said was inadequate funding to hire, train and equip first responders and to increase rail and transit security.

“More must be done, and Democrats will fight to ensure that the needed investments will be made,” Reid said.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said the U.S. should have continued the search for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan instead of shifting military resources toward “regime change” in Iraq.

In a statement, Kennedy said Bush “cannot escape responsibility for the fact that this decision to go to war in Iraq has made it even more likely -- not less likely -- that we will fight the terrorists in America.”

Some of the administration’s top intelligence officials sat in the front row as the president spoke. They included John D. Negroponte, director of national intelligence; CIA Director Porter J. Goss; FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III; and Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales.

Gonzales has been at the center of speculation in Washington that he is Bush’s preferred choice to succeed Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court. Bush is said to be weighing a list of candidates, but he did little to discourage such talk when he came face to face with Gonzales while leaving the academy auditorium.

Amid the clicking of news photographers’ camera shutters, the president laughed, put a hand on Gonzales’ shoulder and said: “One way to get in the papers is to stand by Gonzales.”