Washington ? President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney on Wednesday waged a double-barreled assault on critics of the administration’s domestic surveillance and opponents of the Patriot Act as part of an effort to address public skepticism and congressional opposition to tactics in the war on terrorism.

The president appealed for support for the war in Iraq and suggested more troops could be coming home “later this year” while Cheney aggressively defended domestic surveillance in the name of fighting terrorism.

Cheney suggested that if there had been secret wiretapping of suspected terrorists before Sept. 11, 2001, it “might have been able to pick up on two of the hijackers who flew a jet into the Pentagon.”

At the Pentagon on Wednesday, following a private meeting with top war commanders, Bush asserted that terrorists from al-Qaida and its affiliates are fighting to claim Iraq as a permanent “safe haven from which to launch attacks.”

“I’m not making this up,” added Bush, underscoring the urgency of a credibility challenge that the White House faces. It started with the repudiation of pre-war intelligence used to justify the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and has intensified with recent revelations that Bush secretly authorized eavesdropping on suspected terrorists in the U.S. communicating with al-Qaida or its affiliates abroad.

The credibility of the president’s claims will be essential to regaining lost public confidence in the war in Iraq as well as securing congressional willingness to renew the Patriot Act.

“His general believability rating has been going down,” said Andrew Kohut, president of the Washington-based Pew Research Center, whose polling found that fewer than 50 percent of Americans calling Bush “trustworthy” in October. Bush’s 49 percent rating as trustworthy was down from 62 percent in September 2003.

“This is an issue that he has to contend with … restoring confidence that people can take his word for things,” Kohut said Wednesday.

With public approval for the president’s handling of Iraq holding below 40 percent in the latest Gallup Poll, a majority of Americans – 55 percent – have told Gallup that they do not view the war in Iraq as part of the war on terrorism that started after Sept. 11.

Part of Bush’s challenge is regaining his authority with Congress. Amid concerns for protection of civil liberties in the U.S., Congress has extended for only 30 days the Patriot Act that was enacted nearly unanimously after 9-11, authorizing “roving wiretaps” of suspected terrorists.

The administration asserts that the American public cannot afford one day without the Patriot Act, now set to expire on Feb. 3.

“As we get farther away from Sept. 11, 2001, some in Washington are yielding to the temptation to downplay the ongoing threat to our country and to back away from the business at hand,” Cheney said in an address to The Heritage Foundation. “Either we are serious about fighting this war or we are not.”