http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Mar2006/20060310_4450.htmlBush: Al Qaeda Still Biggest Threat Facing United States Today
WASHINGTON, March 10, 2006 – Al Qaeda is still the biggest short-term threat facing the United States, President Bush said here today, adding that North Korea and Iran pose equal security threats to the U.S.
"They would like to attack us again," Bush said of al Qaeda at the National Newspaper Association's Government Affairs Conference. "I think about al Qaeda and their potential to attack all the time."
The president also recalled his "axis of evil" remark in his 2002 State of the Union Address, in which he said North Korea, Iraq and Iran were threats to the United States. "I did that because I'm concerned about totalitarian governments that are not transparent, that have stated their intentions to develop nuclear weapons," he said of the speech.
The U.S. invaded Iraq the following year, deposing dictator Saddam Hussein. Today Bush said the remaining two countries in the axis of evil, Iran and North Korea, are roughly equal in terms of the security threat they pose. "Any time there's a nontransparent regime without a free press to hold people to account, it creates unpredictability in the world," he said.