WASHINGTON - Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Thursday accused President Bush of telling "an artful and important lie" soon after the Sept. 11 attacks to set the stage for war on Iraq.

Full Text of Gore Speech: Democracy Itself is in Grave Danger

"Beginning very soon after the attacks of 9/11, President Bush made a decision to start mentioning Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein in the same breath in a cynical mantra designed to fuse them together as one in the public's mind," Gore said in a speech at Georgetown University Law Center.

Gore, a Democrat who lost to Bush in a White House race ultimately decided by the Supreme Court despite winning the popular vote in 2000, cited the recent report by the Sept. 11 commission saying no credible evidence existed of a link between the Iraqi leader and bin Laden.

He said Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney continue to argue for a connection between bin Laden's al Qaeda network and the deposed Iraqi regime because it supports their push for war in Iraq and justifies "some of the new power they've picked up from the Congress and the courts" since the 2001 hijack attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

"As a result, President Bush is now intentionally misleading the American people," Gore said. "Indeed, Bush's consistent and careful artifice is itself evidence that he knew full well that he was telling an artful and important lie -- visibly circumnavigating the truth over and over again as if he had practiced how to avoid encountering the truth."

In an hour-long address punctuated by polite laughter and applause, Gore also accused the Bush administration of working closely "with a network of 'rapid response' digital Brown Shirts who work to pressure reporters and their editors for 'undermining support for our troops."'

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