GYEONGJU, South Korea -- Barely a week after first going on the offensive by suggesting that Iraq War critics want to "rewrite history," President George W. Bush yesterday leveled his harshest criticism yet against war critics while on a multi-nation Asian tour.

"Now, I understand when the American people want to criticize the conduct of my war," Bush said, "the First Amendment gives them that right. But I want to let them know who else uses the First Amendment. Osama bin Laden uses the First Amendment. He uses freedom of speech to spread his message of violence and hate. He uses the First Amendment to recruit dangerous killers who want to murder women and children."

At a press gaggle later in the day, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan assuaged reporters' fears that the president somehow equated war critics with terrorists. "I want to be very clear on this point," said McClellan, "the president did not suggest that people who exercise their First Amendment rights to free speech are like Osama bin Laden. I think that if you go back and look at what the president said, you'll find that he said exactly the opposite of that."

King Features Syndicate columnist Helen Thomas, however, challenged McClellan. "I don't know why you would say that. The president very clearly equated people who utilize free speech with Osama bin Laden," she said.

"No, Helen, that's not what he said," replied McClellan. "I'm not going to stand up here and listen to you play the blame game. I'm not going to stand here and watch you play politics and take the president's comments out of context. The president was very clear on this point and I'm not going to watch you endorse the actions of dangerous killers."

Vice President Richard Cheney, appearing later that day in a press conference in Washington, D.C., defended the president's comments. "I don't know how any American who pretends to call himself patriotic can criticize the president's handling of the war, especially when we have such convincing intelligence that Osama bin Laden, the person responsible for the horrific, terrible events of September the eleventh, is such an ardent defender of free speech. I think it's reprehensible that any person who loves this country would be doing the same thing that terrorists do," he said.

Following Bush and Cheney's speeches, the Department of Justice released a new policy initiative aimed at cutting down on what Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales called "the problem of aiding terrorists by lowering troop morale at home." The policy paper recommended solving the problem by declaring critics of the war to be "unlawful comabatants" and placing them in secure military prisons where they would be held without a trial or other constitutional protections. "A strict reading of the Geneva Convention of 1949 reveals that war critics cannot be guaranteed the same protections as other citizens." Calls to the Department of Justice were not returned by press time.

"Finally, we're seeing a policy that makes sense," said FOX News host Bill O'Reilly on his radio show, The Radio Factor. "I'm glad that the liberal terrorist sympathizers are finally going to be dealt with in a fitting way. Their vile words have demoralized the troops and provided aid and comfort to the deranged killers that we are trying to fight around the world."

Lance Eddington, a Professor of Law at the Pakled University School of Law, said that the president's comments were wildly out of proportion. "The suggestion that war critics are like terrorists is very offensive and dangerous," said Eddington. "The First Amendment is one of our most sacred protections, and yet the president is suggesting that people who exercise this right are attempting to kill Americans. This is a dangerous precedent."

Argyle Schotenstein of the conservative Manhattan Institute for Policy Research disagrees. "The president's statements are not at all without precedent," he said. "In order to stave off war, James Buchanan suspended the writ of habeas corpus for anyone who suggested that the United States should go to war to deal with the issue of slavery. William McKinley routinely imprisoned critics of the Spanish-American War. And I won't even go into the issue of John Adams and the Sedition Act. This president is only exercising all the options available to him. We're involved in a global war on terror, and we can't afford to send our troops mixed messages, messages that only increasing the terrorists' resolve."

The White House has not yet indicated when it would implement the Justice Department's policy, or if the policy would apply to members of Congress or other government officials. Requests made to the White House for interviews or clarification were repeatedly and systematically denied.