"I believe we are entering a period this summer of increased risk. Summertime seems to be appealing to them."

President Bush's top counterterrorism advisers acknowledged Tuesday that the strategy for fighting Osama bin Laden's leadership of al-Qaida in Pakistan had failed, as the White House released a grim new intelligence assessment that has forced the administration to consider more aggressive measures inside Pakistan.

In identifying the main reasons for al-Qaida's resurgence, intelligence officials and White House aides pointed the finger squarely at a hands-off approach toward the tribal areas by Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who last year brokered a cease-fire with tribal leaders in an attempt to drain support for Islamic extremism in the region.

But American officials make little secret of their skepticism that Musharraf has the capability to be effective in the mountainous territory along the Afghan border, where his troops have been bloodied before by a mix of al-Qaida leaders and tribes that view the territory as their own, not part of Pakistan.

Airport security officers around the nation have been alerted by federal officials to look out for terrorists practicing to carry explosive components onto aircraft, based on four curious seizures at airports since last September.

The unclassified alert was distributed July 20 by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to federal air marshals, its own transportation security officers and other law-enforcement agencies. The seizures at airports in San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore included "wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cellphone components and dense claylike substances," including block cheese, the bulletin said. "The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items raise concern."

"There is no credible, specific threat here," TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe said Tuesday. "Don't panic. We do these things all the time."

The four seizures were described this way:

• San Diego, July 7. A U.S. person checked baggage containing two ice packs covered in duct tape. The ice packs had clay inside them rather than the normal blue gel.

• Milwaukee, June 4. A U.S. person's carry-on baggage contained wire coil wrapped around a possible initiator, an electrical switch, batteries, three tubes and two blocks of cheese. The bulletin said block cheese has a consistency similar to some explosives.

• Houston, Nov. 8, 2006. A U.S. person's checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a 9-volt battery, wires, a block of brown, claylike minerals and pipes.

• Baltimore, Sept. 16, 2006. A couple's checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a block of processed cheese taped to another plastic bag holding a cellphone charger.

"None of you should believe we are winning this war. There is no evidence that we are winning this war."

"We were in charge for six years. I don't think you can look and say that was a great success."

"I believe we need to find leaders who are prepared to tell the truth ... about the failures of the performance of Republicans ... failed bureaucracies ... about how dangerous the world is."

"What I'm trying to start is a new dialogue that is evidence-based. It doesn't start from the right wing, it doesn't start from the left wing."

"... look honestly at the evidence of what isn't working and tell us how to change it."

"We have got to get past this partisan baloney, where I'm not allowed to say anything good about Hillary Clinton because 'I'm not a loyal Republican,' and she's not allowed to say anything good about me, or she's not a 'loyal' Democrat. What a stupid way to run a country."

"We've been engaged in a phony war. The only people who have been taking this seriously are the combat military."

"We have to take this seriously. We used to be a serious country. When we got attacked at Pearl Harbor, we took on Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. We beat all three in less than four years. We're about to enter the seventh year of this phony war against ... [terrorist groups], and we're losing."

"First of all, we have to have a national energy strategy, which basically says to the Saudis, 'We're not going to rely on you,' "