President George W. Bush used terrorists' words today to tackle complacency among Americans about the threat of future attack, defending his national security record as the autumn campaign season officially began.
Mr Bush said that, despite the absence of a new attack on US soil similar to the 9/11 attacks the danger of terror remains strong.
"Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them," the President said in Washington before the Military Officers' Association of America and diplomatic representatives from other countries that have dealt with terror.
"The question is 'Will we listen? Will we pay attention to what these evil men say?"'
Quoting extensively from letters, website statements, audio recording and videotapes purportedly from terrorists, as well as from documents reported found in various raids, Mr Bush said Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, homegrown terrorists and other groups have adapted to changing US defences.
For example, Mr Bush referred to "a grisly al-Qaeda manual" found in 2000 by British police during an anti-terrorist raid in London, which included a chapter called "Guidelines for Beating and Killing Hostages".
He also cited what he said was a captured al Qaida document found during a recent raid in Iraq that described plans to take over Iraq's western Anbar province and set up a governing structure to include an education department, a social services department, a justice department and an execution unit.
"The terrorists who attacked us on September 11, 2001, are men without conscience, but they're not madmen," he said.
"They kill in the name of a clear and focused ideology, a set of beliefs that are evil but not insane."
AP