Politically, a chance to score points

WASHINGTON -- As security checkpoint lines backed up at airports nationwide and passengers dumped all liquids into oversized trash bins, politicians from both sides of the aisle yesterday sought partisan advantage in the news that British authorities had smashed a terrorist plot to bomb multiple aircraft bound for the United States.

Republicans played up the close ties between British and US investigators and touted their party's policies as the country's best defense against the ongoing threat from Islamic terrorists. Democrats, meanwhile, gave credit to the British alone for disrupting the advanced plot -- and criticized the White House for attacking Iraq instead of tracking down terrorist cells and taking tougher homeland security measures.

The jostling for political points began with President Bush, who flew to Wisconsin for a speech on the economy. Minutes after Air Force One touched down, Bush seized the moment on the tarmac to praise officials ``who gather intelligence and who work to protect the American people," and alluded to his controversial decision to allow the military to wiretap Americans' international calls without court warrants.

``This country is safer than it was prior to 9/11," Bush said. ``We've taken a lot of measures to protect the American people. But obviously, we're still not completely safe, because there are people that still plot and people who want to harm us for what we believe in. . . . And that is why we have given our officials the tools they need to protect our people."

Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas and the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, used the arrests of 24 suspects in London to revive his attacks on leaks about classified US surveillance programs: ``This is the kind of success that our intelligence and law enforcement personnel work hard to achieve -- a success achieved despite damaging leaks and unjustified criticisms of the methods they use to detect and prevent terrorist attacks."

But Democrats countered that the alleged plot to blow up in-flight, trans-Atlantic aircraft, which authorities said was close to fruition, instead showed the folly of Bush administration policies, stretching from what they said was a failure to secure the homeland to inadequate planning of the Iraq war.

Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada and the Senate minority leader, released a ``fact sheet" arguing that the nation is ``less secure under Bush-Republican leadership." He accused Bush of allowing Al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden to slip away in Afghanistan, leaving the nation's borders unsecured, and bogging down the US military in Iraq while Afghanistan worsens and security threats erupt in North Korea and Iran.

``The Iraq war has diverted our focus and more than $300 billion in resources from the war on terrorism and has created a rallying cry for international terrorists," Reid said. ``This latest plot demonstrates the need for the Bush administration and the Congress to change course in Iraq and ensure that we are taking all the steps necessary to protect Americans at home and across the world."

In Connecticut, two days after he narrowly lost the Democratic primary to an antiwar challenger, Senator Joseph I. Lieberman was among the first politicians to release a statement on the foiled terror plot yesterday morning. Lieberman, a Democrat who voted for the war and is now running as an independent to keep his seat, reminded Connecticut that ``we are in a war against a brutal enemy that intends to attack us . . . in the most indiscriminate way."

But political newcomer Ned Lamont, who defeated Lieberman by criticizing the senator's support for the war, countered that the British plot underscores why the United States needs to ``change course," stand up to the Bush administration, and start ``fighting for our security in a rational, serious way."

``We need to focus on our security, on apprehending Osama bin Laden and other terrorist leaders, and on building a credible, effective foreign policy with our allies . . . rather than being bogged down in a war than is harmful to our security," Lamont said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales claimed for the White House a share of the credit for the London arrests, saying that both US and British governments ``worked closely . . . on all aspects of this case" and had been in constant contact ``from the beginning of the investigation."