Bush Stresses Terror Threat and Urges Support for Iraq War

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 - President Bush used some of his toughest language today to assert that the war in Iraq was vital to a crucial struggle against terrorists who he said intended to build a "totalitarian empire" of global reach.

He said that the United States and its partners had disrupted at least 10 serious Al Qaeda plots in recent years - including three in the United States - and had blocked five attempts to case targets or infiltrate the country.

At the White House, the president's chief spokesman, Scott McClellan, said that "off the top of my head," he thought the president was referring to the arrests of an American citizen, Jose Padilla, in Chicago in 2002, and a Pakistani immigrant, Iyman Faris, in Ohio, in 2003.

Mr. Padilla is accused of conspiring with Al Qaeda to commit various terrorist acts inside the United States. Mr. Faris was accused of planning with Al Qaeda to bomb the Brooklyn Bridge and a shopping mall in Columbus, Ohio, near his home.