I'm honored once again to be with the supporters of the National Endowment for Democracy. Since the day President Ronald Reagan set out the vision for this Endowment, the world has seen the swiftest advance of democratic institutions in history... we aided the rise of new democracies on the ruins of tyranny...And all the cost and sacrifice of that struggle has been worth it, because, from Latin America to Europe to Asia, we've gained the peace that freedom brings. ...In this new century, freedom is once again assaulted by enemies determined to roll back generations of democratic progress. Once again, we're responding to a global campaign of fear with a global campaign of freedom. And once again, we will see freedom's victory... I appreciate Carl Gershman. I want to welcome former Congressman Dick Gephardt, who is a board member of the National Endowment for Democracy. It's good to see you, Dick. And I appreciate Chris Cox, who is the Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and a board member for the National Endowment of Democracy, for being here... I appreciate the Secretary of State, Condi Rice, who has joined us -- alongside her, Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld. Thank you all for being here. I'm proud, as well, that the newly sworn-in Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the first Marine ever to hold that position, is with us today -- General Peter Pace. (Applause.) I thank the members of the Diplomatic Corps who are here, as well...

Recently our country observed the fourth anniversary of a great evil,..We will confront this mortal danger to all humanity. We will not tire, or rest, until the war on terror is won..The images and experience of September the 11th are unique for Americans. Yet the evil of that morning has reappeared on other days, in other places -- in Mombasa, and Casablanca, and Riyadh, and Jakarta, and Istanbul, and Madrid, and Beslan, and Taba, and Netanya, and Baghdad, and elsewhere. In the past few months, we've seen a new terror offensive with attacks on London, and Sharm el-Sheikh, and a deadly bombing in Bali once again. All these separate images of destruction and suffering that we see on the news can seem like random and isolated acts of madness; innocent men and women and children have died simply because they boarded the wrong train, or worked in the wrong building, or checked into the wrong hotel. Yet while the killers choose their victims indiscriminately, their attacks serve a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs and goals that are evil, but not insane.Some call this evil Islamic radicalism;..This form of radicalism exploits Islam to serve a violent, political vision: the establishment, by terrorism and subversion and insurgency, of a totalitarian empire that denies all political and religious freedom. These extremists distort the idea of jihad into a call for terrorist murder against Christians and Jews and Hindus -- and also against Muslims...Many militants are part of global, borderless terrorist organizations like al Qaeda, which ...conducts dramatic and brutal operations like September the 11th. Other militants are paramilitary insurgencies and separatist movements in places like Somalia, and the Philippines, and Pakistan, and Chechnya, and Kashmir, and Algeria. Still others spring up in local cells, inspired by Islamic radicalism, but not centrally directed. Islamic radicalism is more like a loose network with many branches than an army under a single command...

We know the vision of the radicals because they've openly stated it -- these extremists want to end American and Western influence in the broader Middle East, because we stand for democracy and peace... Al Qaeda's leader...bin Laden, has called on Muslims to [drive] the infidels out of their lands...They hit us, and expect us to run. They want us to repeat the sad history of Beirut in 1983, and Mogadishu in 1993 ...

Second, the militant network wants to use the vacuum created by an American retreat to gain control of a country, a base from which to launch attacks and conduct their war against non-radical Muslim governments. Over the past few decades, radicals have specifically targeted Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, and Jordan for potential takeover...The terrorists regard Iraq as the central front in their war against humanity. And we must recognize Iraq as the central front in our war on terror. ...

Third, the militants believe that controlling one country will rally the Muslim masses, enabling them to overthrow all moderate governments in the region, and establish a radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia. [and] to develop weapons of mass destruction, to destroy Israel, to intimidate Europe, to assault the American people, and to blackmail our government into isolation.

they are fanatical and extreme -- Zarqawi has vowed, "We will either achieve victory over the human race or we will pass to the eternal life."...recruits can now access online training libraries to learn how to build a roadside bomb, or fire a rocket-propelled grenade -- and this further spreads the threat of violence, even within peaceful democratic societies. ...Islamic radicalism [has] been sheltered by authoritarian regimes, allies of convenience like Syria and Iran, that share the goal of hurting America and moderate Muslim governments, ... These radicals depend on front operations, such as corrupted charities, which direct money to terrorist activity. They're strengthened by those who aggressively fund the spread of radical, intolerant versions of Islam ...we were not in Iraq on September the 11th, 2001 -- and al Qaeda attacked us anyway. The hatred of the radicals existed before Iraq was an issue,...We're facing a radical ideology with inalterable objectives: to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world. No...act of appeasement would change or limit their plans for murder. ...They target nations whose behavior they believe they can change through violence. Against such an enemy, there is only one effective response: We will...never accept anything less than complete victory....The murderous ideology of the Islamic radicals is the great challenge of our new century...Islamic radicalism is elitist, led by a self-appointed vanguard that presumes to speak for the Muslim masses. Bin Laden says his own role is to tell Muslims, quote, "what is good for them and what is not."...Like the ideology of communism, our new enemy teaches...cold-blooded contempt for human life. We've seen it in the murders of Daniel Pearl, Nicholas Berg, and Margaret Hassan,...the killer of Theo Van Gogh turned to the victim's grieving mother and said, "I do not feel your pain"....When...hospital workers are killed caring for the wounded, this is murder, pure and simple -- the total rejection of... morality ...Under their rule, they have banned books, and desecrated historical monuments, and brutalized women. ...Like the ideology of communism, our new enemy is dismissive of free peoples, claiming that men and women who live in liberty are weak and decadent. Zarqawi has said that Americans are, quote, "the most cowardly of God's creatures." But let's be clear: It is cowardice that...cuts the throat of a bound captive,... Defeating a broad and adaptive network requires patience...and strong partners ...we're disrupting militant conspiracies,...

First, we're determined to prevent the attacks of terrorist networks before they occur... We're acting, along with the governments from many countries, to destroy the terrorist networks and incapacitate their leaders. Together, we've killed or captured nearly all of those directly responsible for the September the 11th attacks; as well as some of bin Laden's most senior deputies; al Qaeda managers and operatives in more than 24 countries; the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing, who was chief of al Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf; the mastermind of the Jakarta and the first Bali bombings; a senior Zarqawi terrorist planner, who was planning attacks in Turkey; and many of al Qaeda's senior leaders in Saudi Arabia. ...

Overall, the United States and our partners have disrupted at least ten serious al Qaeda terrorist plots since September the 11th, including three al Qaeda plots to attack inside the United States...We will not relent until the organized international terror networks are exposed and broken, and their leaders held to account for their acts of murder....

Second, we're determined to deny weapons of mass destruction to outlaw regimes, and to their terrorist allies ...The United States, ...has exposed and disrupted a major black-market operation in nuclear technology led by A.Q. Khan. ... America and our partners in the Proliferation Security Initiative have stopped more than a dozen shipments of suspected weapons technology, including equipment for Iran's ballistic missile program. ...

Third, we're determined to deny radical groups the support and sanctuary of outlaw regimes. State sponsors like Syria and Iran have a long history of collaboration with terrorists, .... The United States makes no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who support and harbor them...

Fourth, we're determined to deny the militants control of any nation, which they would use as a home base and a launching pad for terror. For this reason, we're fighting...the regime remnants and terrorists in Iraq. The terrorist goal is to overthrow a rising democracy, claim a strategic country as a haven for terror, ...and so we will defeat the enemy in Iraq....we're aiding the rise of an elected government that unites the Iraqi people against extremism and violence. ...With every...funeral of a child, it becomes more clear that the extremists are ...murderers...In contrast, the elected leaders of Iraq are proving to be strong and steadfast. By any standard or precedent of history, Iraq has made incredible political progress -- from tyranny, to liberation, to national elections, ...Today there are more than 80 Iraqi army battalions fighting the insurgency ...In fact, democratic federalism is the best hope for unifying a diverse population...Some observers also claim that America would be better off...leaving Iraq now. This is a dangerous illusion...Would the United States and other free nations be more safe, or less safe, with Zarqawi and bin Laden in control of Iraq...?... This enemy considers every retreat of the civilized world as an invitation to greater violence....The fifth element of our strategy in the war on terror is to deny the militants future recruits by replacing hatred and resentment with democracy and hope across the broader Middle East...we know that the dissidents of today will be the democratic leaders of tomorrow.... Everywhere we have engaged the fight against extremism, Muslim allies have stood up and joined the fight, These brave citizens know the stakes -- the survival of their own liberty...Throughout history, tyrants and would-be tyrants have always claimed that murder is justified to serve their grand vision...that regimented societies are strong and pure...that free men and women are weak and decadent... the defense of freedom is worth our sacrifice.

above extracted from http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/10/20051006-3.html which was approx 4700 words in length, he red it in 40 minutes.

After his father died, bin Laden inherited what was once estimated to be a fortune of US$300 million although more recent estimates put his holdings at about US$25 million.

By 1984 he had established an organization named Maktab al-Khadamat (MAK) (Office of Order in English), which funneled money, arms and Muslim fighters from around the world into the Afghan war.

By 1988, bin Laden had split from the MAK and established a new militant group, later dubbed al-Qaeda by the U.S. government, which included many of the more militant MAK members he had met in Afghanistan. The Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989 and bin Laden was lauded as a mujahideen hero in Saudi Arabia

Assisted by donations funneled through business and charitable fronts such as Benevolence International established by his brother-in-law, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, bin Laden established a new base for mujahideen operations in Sudan to disseminate Islamist philosophy and recruit operatives in Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and the United States.

He took credit for "inspiring" what he calls the "blessed attacks" of September 11th in several public statements.

Although "al-Qaeda" is the name of the organization used in popular culture, the organization rarely uses the name to refer to itself. In formal communications Bin Laden has called the organization the International Front for Jihad against the Jews and Crusaders

He spoke against the Saudi government during the Gulf War for harboring American troops on Saudi soil and was exiled from Saudi Arabia with the renunciation of his Saudi citizenship

al-Qaeda members are ethnically diverse and are connected by their radical version of Islam.

On February 23, 1998, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri of Egyptian Islamic Jihad issued a fatwa under the banner of the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders saying that "to kill Americans and their allies, civilians, and military is an individual duty of every Muslim who is able."

In the weeks before the United States invaded, the Taliban twice offered to turn over bin Laden to a neutral country for trial if the United States would provide evidence of bin Laden's complicity in the attacks. The Americans, however, refused, and soon thereafter invaded Afghanistan and, together with the Afghan Northern Alliance, deposed the Taliban government.

In the US 911 Commission Report it is estimated that al-Qaeda requires 30,000,000 USD / year to conduct its operation.

While an estimated 100,000 Islamist militants are said to have received instruction in Al Qaeda camps since its inception, the group is believed to retain only a small number of militants under direct orders. Estimates seldom peg its manpower higher than 20,000 world wide.

According to the controversial BBC documentary The Power of Nightmares, al-Qaeda is so weakly linked together that it is hard to say it exists apart from Osama bin Laden and a small clique of close associates.

During the Gulf War, the organization's interests became split between outrage with the intervention of the United Nations in the region and hatred of Saddam Hussein's secular government, as well as expression of concern for the suffering that Islamic people in Iraq were undergoing.

Bin Laden referred, in his speeches and recorded/written announcements, to Hussein (and the Baathists) as evil, a demon or devil worshipper, calling for his overthrow by the people of Iraq. Organizations such as Ansar al-Islam would be founded in Kurdish northern Iraq with the encouragement of Osama bin Laden.

Ansar al-Islam -- a radical, Taliban-like terrorist organization -- was established by radicalised Muslim Kurdish fighters who had fought against the Russians in Afghanistan. In presenting the case for the invasion or Iraq to the United Nations the then Secretary of State Colin Powell cited Ansar al-Islam as one of the missing links between Osama bin Laden and Saddam. This viewpoint has been dismissed by most commentators as Ansar al-Islam has a long history of violent actions against the Baathist regime. Indeed the organisation has received support from both Iran and Syria as it offered the dual attraction of providing an irritant to Saddam as well as a buttress against the aspirations of the larger secular Kurdish organisations for a wider

Ayman al-Zawahiri (Arabic: ايمن الظواهري) (born June 19, 1951) is a prominent member of the al-Qaeda group and formerly the head of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad paramilitary organization.