His speech on Thursday coincided with the release of a congressional report critical of the government's failure to prevent the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
While aides said the timing was unrelated, Cheney used the occasion to underscore the administration's post-Sept. 11 commitment to rooting out terrorists and their sponsors worldwide.
"We will not permit outlaw states and terror groups to join forces in a deadly alliance that could threaten the lives of millions of Americans," he said. "We will act and act decisively, before gathering threats can inflict catastrophic harm on the American people."
He warned that "loose and decentralized networks of terrorism are still finding recruits" to plot attacks against Americans. But he cautioned: "No one should doubt the intentions of our nation. One by one, in every corner of the world, we will hunt the terrorists down and destroy them."
Democrats on the Hill were mainly focused on the Sept. 11 report, but some accused Cheney of using the speech to try to divert attention from contentious intelligence issues and near-daily deaths of American soldiers in Iraq.
"He's trying to put the events of recent weeks in Iraq in the broader context of the war on terror because that plays to the president's strengths," said one senior Senate Democratic aide. "Never mind that was not an extension on war on terrorism, but a distraction from it."
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