WASHINGTON — Seeking to rally flagging public support for the war in Iraq, President Bush said yesterday that the United States and its allies have thwarted at least 10 serious terrorist plots by al-Qaida — three of them on American soil — and have blocked five attempts to case targets or infiltrate the country since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Late yesterday, the White House released a list of what it said were thwarted attacks, including plans for Sept. 11-like attacks on both U.S. coasts.

Hours after Bush's speech, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned that the city's subway system faced a specific terrorist threat, based on intelligence netted during a recent U.S. military raid on a terrorist hideout south of Baghdad.

Bush used his strongest language to date in labeling Iraq as the central battleground in the war on terror and describing efforts by insurgents, Osama bin Laden and others to force the United States out of the Middle East and create a "totalitarian empire" from Spain to Indonesia. He singled out Iran and Syria as "allies of convenience" for Islamic radicalism.

"The terrorists' goal is to overthrow a rising democracy, claim a strategic country as a haven for terror, destabilize the Middle East and strike America and other free nations with ever-increasing violence," the president said. "Our goal is to defeat the terrorists and their allies at the heart of their power, and so we will defeat the enemy in Iraq."

Most of the plots were previously reported in some form; a few were revealed for the first time yesterday. The White House had never before placed a number or compiled a public list of the foiled attempts to follow up the Sept. 11 attacks, but it offered scant information beyond the location and general date of each reported plot — making it difficult to assess how serious or advanced they were or what role the government played in preventing them.

In his speech, Bush cited the numbers of disrupted plots and other activities without giving details, and at first White House spokesmen were unable to document them. After debating how much could be disclosed in response to media inquiries, the White House produced a list last night.

Plots foiled


The 10 al-Qaida plots disrupted since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the White House:

2002: U.S. and partners disrupted a plot to attack ships in the Straits of Hormuz.

2002 and 2003: U.S. and a partner nation disrupted a plot by al-Qaida operatives to attack ships in the Persian Gulf.

Mid-2002: U.S. disrupted plot for West Coast attack using hijacked airplanes. Plotters included at least one Sept. 11 planner.

May 2002: A plot to blow up apartment buildings in the U.S. was disrupted. One of the plotters, Jose Padilla, also discussed the possibility of using a "dirty bomb" in the U.S.

2003: U.S. and another country disrupted a plot to attack a tourist site outside the U.S.

2003: U.S. and several partners disrupted a plot to attack London's Heathrow Airport using hijacked airliners, planned by a "major 9/11 operational figure."

Mid-2003: U.S. and another country disrupted plot for the East Coast using hijacked airplanes.

Spring 2003: U.S. and another country disrupted a plot to attack Westerners in Karachi, Pakistan.

Mid-2004: U.S. and another country disrupted a plot involving urban targets in the United Kingdom and using explosives against a variety of sites.

Spring 2004: U.S. and partners disrupted a plot to conduct large bombings in the United Kingdom.

Infiltrations stymied

The White House also listed what it call five "casings and infiltrations":

2003 and 2004: An individual was asked by al-Qaida to case U.S. government and tourist targets in U.S.

2003 (approximately): An individual was tasked with collecting information on U.S. gas stations for a senior al-Qaida planner.

2003: U.S. arrested and prosecuted Iyman Faris, who contemplated the destruction of the Brooklyn Bridge; Faris pleaded guilty to providing material support to al-Qaida and is now in a federal correctional institution.

2001: Al-Qaida sent an individual to facilitate post-Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. Law-enforcement authorities arrested the individual.

2003: An individual was tasked by an al-Qaida leader with conducting reconnaissance on populated areas in the U.S.

Plot details

The White House said the three plots targeting U.S. territory included the well-known case of José Padilla, who was arrested after he allegedly explored a possible radiological "dirty bomb" attack, and two plans to use hijacked planes to attack the West Coast in mid-2002 and the East Coast in mid-2003. The White House document gave no further details about the timing or targets of the latter two.

Two sources familiar with intelligence information told the Washington Post that the West Coast plot targeted the Library Tower, the tallest building in Los Angeles, and involved Malaysian militants and Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, who was captured in 2003. Previous reports on Mohammed's interrogations said that he had been interested in an attack on the Library Tower as a follow-up to Sept. 11, but not that the government had foiled an attempt in 2002.

The seven foreign plots said to be disrupted by the United States and its partners included plans to strike London's Heathrow Airport using hijacked planes, to hit ships in the Persian Gulf region and the Straits of Hormuz, to attack Westerners in Karachi, Pakistan, and to set off multitarget explosions in Britain.

The five "casings and infiltrations" in the United States involve known cases, such as the capture of Iyman Faris, who was accused of exploring the destruction of the Brooklyn Bridge and ultimately pleaded guilty to providing material support to al-Qaida. Another involved a man sent to scout gas stations in the United States, an apparent reference to Majid Khan, who was reportedly assigned by Mohammed to explore simultaneous bombings of gas stations.

Pentagon officials released a letter last night that Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said was written by bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahri to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of the group calling itself al-Qaida in Iraq. The officials said it confirmed administration assertions that Iraqi insurgents have a detailed plan to force U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and create an Islamic state there.

Whitman would not say where, when or how the letter was obtained, or who intercepted it, but he said the Pentagon is confident it is authentic.

In the letter, al-Zawahri urges Zarqawi — who has declared war on Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority — to avoid bombing mosques and slaughtering hostages so as not to alienate the masses, Whitman said. He also said that al-Zawahri asked Zarqawi for some financial support.

Declining support

Polls show declining American support for the war, which has killed more than 1,940 members of the U.S. military. Bush's policy faces a crucial test in Iraq's Oct. 15 referendum on a new constitution, a vote that Bush has said terrorists will try to derail.

The president also has found support for his handling of the war eroding on Capitol Hill, even among Republicans. Congressional Democrats pounced on Bush's comments as misleading.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said yesterday that in his speech, Bush "continued to falsely assert there is a link between the war in Iraq and the tragedy of Sept. 11, a link that did not and does not exist."

"The truth is, the administration's mishandling of the war in Iraq has made us less safe, and Iraq risks becoming what it was not before the war: a training ground for terrorists."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the president's speech was one in a series he will make to explain his strategy in the war on terror so that Americans can "understand the enemy we face."