Not saying what specifically happened

President Obama and the White House came out aggressively Wednesday against those who have attacked his often-careful use of words to describe the battle against terrorists. The defense came after a week of being battered—mostly by conservatives—for a reluctance to talk about "Islamic terrorism" and a hesitation to label victims as Jewish or Christian.

In his keynote address to the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, the president acknowledged the furor, which has played out largely on the cable news shows, where critics objected to the title of the summit because it did not single out Muslims for blame.

"Leading up to this summit," he said, "there's been a fair amount of debate in the press and among pundits about the words we use to describe and frame this challenge. So I want to be very clear about how I see it."

White House Struggles with the Language of Terrorism