President Bush signed legislation yesterday to improve US defences against smallpox, anthrax and other lethal germ agents, warning that al-Qaeda operatives were "still lurking around" and could try to attack next with biological weapons.
"We're under attack. That's the way it is," Mr Bush said, two days after US authorities announced they had a suspected al-Qaeda operative in custody for allegedly plotting a radioactive "dirty bomb" attack in the United States.
"These people, you know, these killers, they're still lurking around," Mr Bush said, increasing pressure on legislators to swiftly approve plans for a vast homeland security department that would oversee the nation's domestic defences.
The law is a response to last year's anthrax attacks, which killed five people but turned out almost certainly not to be the work of al-Qaeda.
The new bioterrorism measures will expand stockpiles of smallpox vaccines and other drugs to protect Americans against what Mr Bush called "potentially the most dangerous weapons in the world.
"The law will also increase the federal government's supplies of potassium iodide, which could help those exposed to radiation from a terrorist attack or an accident at a nuclear power plant.
"Terrorists groups seek biological weapons. We know some rogue states already have them," Mr Bush said at a Rose Garden signing ceremony. "It's important that we confront these real threats to our country and prepare for future emergencies."
Mr Bush did not mention Iraq by name. In the past, he has accused Iraq of developing weapons of mass destruction and sponsoring terrorism, prompting speculation that the US might initiate military action against Baghdad.
Mr Bush has vowed to stop groups like al-Qaeda, which Washington blames for the September 11th attacks, from teaming up with Iran, Iraq or North Korea, which he has called an "axis of evil" seeking biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.
"These people are the kind of people that . . . try to find a soft spot around the world and burrow in and plot and plan. And we're just going to have to enforce the doctrine, either you're with us or against us. You join the coalition of freedom or you're on the other side of the fence," Mr Bush told a newly created Homeland Security Advisory Council, which held its first meeting yesterday. The council includes the former FBI and CIA director, Mr William Webster, and the former defence secretary and CIA director, Mr James Schlesinger.
The White House spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, defended Mr Bush's decision to keep the FBI and the CIA out of the proposed homeland security overhaul.
"The president thinks . . . the most effective way to gather intelligence, to gather raw information is to have the CIA do what it currently does in its mission as an independent part of the government," Mr Fleischer said.
The US appears to have told key European allies little or nothing about the man held for a month on suspicion of plotting a radioactive "dirty bomb" until it announced his arrest on Monday, European diplomats said.
While some European governments voiced understanding for the secrecy, some diplomats privately contrasted the apparent lack of information-sharing with Washington's calls for closer international co-operation in a global war on terrorism.
In another development in the US, a federal judge yesterday blocked Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man charged in the September 11th attacks, from seeing secret information on US airport and aircraft security procedures.
US District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema issued an order forbidding Moussaoui's defence team from giving him or even speaking about the sensitive aviation information they received about each of the four flights hijacked on September 11th. - (Reuters)
Lara Marlowe adds from Paris:
French authorities yesterday arrested five people suspected of helping Mr Richard Reid, the British "shoe-bomber" who attempted to blow up a flight from Paris to Miami on December 22nd, 2001.
Mr Reid spent two weeks in Paris before boarding the American Airlines flight. He was restrained by crew and passengers when he tried to light explosives in his shoe. Four of the men arrested yesterday are French. One is Pakistani. All live in Val-Fourré, an immigrant slum in Mantes-la-Jolie, west of Paris. The suspects were identified following the detention and questioning of seven Pakistanis in April.