Romney warns of theocracy danger

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Venturing into foreign policy, Governor Mitt Romney yesterday told a largely Republican audience that Islamic terrorists ''want to bring down our government" and ''want to put in place a huge theocracy."

''We're under attack, as you know, militarily," Romney told about 150 people gathered at an exclusive Raleigh country club. ''They're not just intent on blowing up a little bomb here and there at a shopping mall, awful as that would be. They want to bring down our government, bring down our entire economy. They want to put in place a huge theocracy."

''Thank heavens we have a president of the United States who recognizes this for what it is and has declared war on it, and thank heavens we have a military that consists of the strongest and bravest and most able men and women in the world," Romney said.

The Raleigh luncheon was the first of two fund-raisers yesterday for the Foundation for NC Future -- a nonprofit advocacy group set up by a well-to-do Charlotte-area Republican state senator, Robert Pittenger. The second event was held in Charlotte later yesterday afternoon.

Asked later by a Globe reporter about his remarks, Romney said he was referring to Islamic terrorists.

''Obviously, this is an extreme fundamentalist perspective," he responded. ''It's certainly not shared by the people of Islam generally, but is shared by some radical few."

Then he was asked if he felt Islamic terrorists want to take over the United States. Romney said: ''No. No. No."

''I don't have any foreign intelligence that's any different than what you read in the various journals and so forth," the governor said. ''Among the various reports I've read -- and I think President Bush has described -- that there are some who wish to bring down the Western-leaning governments and put in a more fundamentalist, religious leadership. But that's not something I'm something I'm expert in."

Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's communications director, said last night that the governor had made an assertion in earlier speeches that terrorists were seeking a broad based ''theocracy." Those remarks have not been widely reported, however.

Fehrnstrom also pointed to an account earlier this month from the New York Times describing a letter obtained by the US forces in Iraq that was written by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-ranking leader of Al Qaeda.

According to the Times, the letter outlined a four-stage battle plan, beginning with the American military's expulsion, followed by the creation of a militant Islamic caliphate in Iraq and then in Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. The final step, the Times reported, quoted unnamed US officials, would be a battle against Israel.

Romney, who has yet to announce whether he will seek the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, drew criticism from some Muslims and civil liberties advocates last month when he raised the prospect of wiretapping mosques and conducting surveillance of foreign students.

Yesterday's trip was billed as an effort by Romney to tout his budget expertise. His much discussed potential as a 2008 presidential candidate drew some of North Carolina's leading Republicans -- including former governor Jim Martin; US Representative Sue Myrick of Charlotte, and half-a-dozen Republican state legislators.

In Raleigh, Romney took credit for trimming what he said was Massachusetts' $3 billion budget deficit and turning it into a $472 million surplus a year later and a $1.2 billion surplus in the last fiscal year. He said he trimmed the bureaucracy by consolidating state agencies such as the Health and Human Services Department that had 16 agencies when he arrived and now has four.

He also said that he reorganized the state's judicial system by adopting regional courts -- and not building new facilities unless some of the state's 112 courthouses were consolidated.

Romney said that his administration had eliminated more government jobs ''in Massachusetts than any other state in America."

He added that he has cut salary increases for state workers -- stressing that most of them are unionized -- to 2 percent. He said state worker health insurance premium costs went from 15 percent to 25 percent. In North Carolina, a right-to-work state where it is illegal for state government workers to organize in unions, there were no raises for state workers during a budget crisis in 2001 and 2002, and raises averaged about 2 percent last year and 2 percent in the coming year.

Through the cost cutting and budget balancing, Romney said he avoided cutting education.

Romney said he had come to North Carolina at the invitation of Pittenger, who appears to be laying the groundwork for a run for governor in 2008. Romney is vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

''I want to see Republican leadership on the state level," Romney said.

North Carolina's governor, Mike Easley, is a Democrat serving his second term. Romney took direct aim at Easley, who in an effort to deal with a major budget shortfall, pushed increases in the state's sales and income taxes through the Legislature.

''The problem with raising taxes, particularly in a state that has a history of being known as 'Taxachusetts,' is you scare away employers and you also put a bigger burden on working families," Romney said. ''It just kills jobs to raise taxes."