***updated…liveblogging***

Ahmadinejad threatens President Bush, via Drudge.

Buzz in Washington as the White House readies for a Bush speech in the next hour. Networks being asked to break in for live statement. “Significant news” expected between 1:30pm - 1:45pm Eastern.

Hot Air will have it covered.

***

Here we go. Not Iran-related. Speaking on value of intelligence-gathering from suspected terrorist detainees. Announces legislation to create process to try suspected terrorists as war criminals:

1:45pm Eastern. Rough transcription…

The attacks of Sept. 11 horrified our nation.

Who attacked us? What did they want? And what else were they planning?

My administration faced immediate challenges. We had to respond to the attack on our country. We had to wage an unprecedented war against an enemy unlike any we had fought before.

Nearly five years have passed since those initial days of shock and sadness.

As a recently foiled plot in London shows, the terrorists are still active. They’re still trying to attack our people.

[Praises people working in homeland security.]

Another reason the terrorists have not yet succeeded is because we have changed our policies…The terrorists who declared war on America belong to no nation, wear no uniform. They operate in the shadows of society.

In this new war, the most important source of information on where they are hiding, what they are planning, is the terrorists themselves…

This is intelligence that can not be found any other place. To win the war on terror, we must be able to detain, question, and when appropriate, prosecute terrorists here in American and on battlefields around the world.

[Talks about operatives held in secret. Combatants held at Gitmo]

These aren’t common criminals or bystanders accidentally swept up on the battlefield…At Gitmo, suspected bomb-makers, terrorist trainers, recruiters, and facilitators, and potential suicide bombers.

They are in custody so they will not murder our people.

In addition to the terrorists held at Gitmo, a small number…held and questioned outside the US in a separate program operated by the CIA.

These include key architects of 9/11, USS Cole, African embassy bombings, and other attacks.

These are dangerous men with unparalleled knowledge of attacks.

1:55pm Eastern.

Questioning these detainees has given us information that has helped save lives…I’m going to share some of this information:

Abu Zubaydah.

Sr. terrorist leader and trusted associate of Osama bin Laden. He disclosed KSM.

Vital piece of the puzzle…He stopped talking. Clear he had received training on how to resist interrogation. New, lawful techniques used. Tough, safe, lawful, and necessary. Provided key info on operatives. Identified KSM accomplice in 9/11 attacks: Ramzi bin al Shibh.

KSM captured. Provided info on Majid Khan. Led to info on Hambali, “Asia’s bin Laden.”

Led to Zhuber (sp?). Led to capture of Hambali.

KSM provided info on efforts to produce anthrax, biological weapons. Unraveled plot to hijack plans into Heathrow, attack on Pakistan.

This intel has helped us connect the dots and stop attacks before they occur. Invaluable to America and our allies.

…I want to be clear: The US does not torture. I have not authorized and I will not authorize it.

2:09pm Eastern. Bush is talking about the Hamdan case — Osama’s suspected bodyguard who sued over military commissions. SCOTUS upheld commishes needed to be explicitly authorized by Congress.

So, today I’m sending Congress legislation to specifically authorize the creation of military commissions to try terrorists for war crimes.

KSM, Zubaydah, bin al Shibh, and 11 others have been transferred to Gitmo [applause].

(Allah Pundit called it here.)

***

2:30pm Eastern. Lots of readers and fellow bloggers are asking: That’s it?!

Rusty at Jawa Report tries to untangle the reporting on the exact status of the new Gitmo guests.

Mario Loyola’s take at The Corner:

The President just pulled one of the best maneuvers of his entire presidency. By transferring most major Al Qaeda terrorists to Guantanamo, and simultaneously sending Congress a bill to rescue the Military Commissions from the Supreme Court’s ruling Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the President spectacularly ambushed the Democrats on terrain they fondly thought their own. Now Democrats who oppose (and who have vociferously opposed) the Military Commissions will in effect be opposing the prosecution of the terrorists who planned and launched the attacks of September 11 for war crimes.

And if that were not enough, the President also frontally attacked the Hamdan ruling’s potentially chilling effect on CIA extraordinary interrogation techniques, by arguing that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions is too vague, and asking Congress to define clearly the criminal law limiting the scope of permissible interrogation.

Taken as a whole, the President’s maneuver today turned the political tables completely around. He stole the terms of debate from the Democrats, and rewrote them, all in a single speech. It will be delightful to watch in coming days and hours as bewildered Democrats try to understand what just hit them, and then sort through the rubble of their anti-Bush national security strategy to see what, if anything, remains.

Mitch McConnell has introduced the bill. Jonathan Karl at ABC News characterizes the Bush announcement as a “reversal.”

***

FYI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s Summary of the High Value Terrorist Detainee Program is available here (pdf).

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