Bush: Military Will Defend Freedom

President Vows We Will Win The War

UPDATED: 10:00 a.m. EDT September 18, 2001

NEW YORK -- President Bush says Osama bin Laden should be brought to justice -- "dead or alive."

During a visit to the Pentagon, President Bush promised that the military will "defend freedom at any cost."

Bush vowed, "We will win the war and there will be costs." He's been meeting with military planners who are preparing call-up orders for 35,000 reservists.

Bush declared, "I want justice." And he added, "There's an old poster out West that said, 'Wanted, dead or alive.'" And his spokesman, Ari Fleischer, says the president has no preference which way it is.

Bush said that the terrorists slit the throat of a woman on an airplane, MSNBC reported.

He said again that Osama bin Laden is the prime suspect in last week's attacks. And Bush said that those who have given him shelter, food or other support are "on notice."

Fleischer says Bush hasn't lifted the executive order barring U.S. attempts at assassination -- an order signed by President Ford 25 years ago. However, the spokesman says the order does not prevent America from acting in self-defense.

Panel Renewing Call For National Anti-Terrorism Strategy

An anti-terrorism panel is renewing its call for a national strategy for preventing attacks.

A three-year-old commission led by Virginia Governor James Gilmore wants the White House to form a national office for dealing with terrorism.

The commission -- which is still finalizing its latest recommendations -- is also looking at how the United States should use the military, enhance its border security, and tap the nation's medical systems during attacks.

The commission was originally scheduled to release its report in December. It's meeting next week to finalize its proposal and set a new release date.

The advisory group has sent two reports to the president and Congress since 1999.

In those reports, the panel said a terrorist attack inside the U.S. was inevitable and would be more lethal than ever before.

Ashcroft: Federal Agents To Fly On Passenger Planes

Attorney General John Ashcroft said federal agents will be flying on passenger planes to help guard against further terror attacks.

The attorney general said law enforcement believes there's a continuing threat because "associates of the hijackers that have ties to terrorist organizations may have a continuing presence in the United States."

Ashcroft has also told the U.S. Marshal's Service to assign more than 300 deputies to assist FBI field offices in the investigation.

Ashcroft said that legislative measures need to be passed to make investigation and prosecution of terrorism more effective.

A new legislative proposal being drafted includes measures on criminal justice, immigration, intelligence gathering and financial infastructure.

Expanded electronic surveillance and search authority are major parts of the proposal.

The measure would allow wiretap authority for individuals; current law only allows for wiretap for phone numbers.

It would also allow one wiretap approval for all jurisdictions working on an investigation, instead of separate wiretap approvals for each area.

Current law makes it easier to prosecute drug trafficking than to prosecute terrorism and those who harbor terrorists, Ashcroft said.

Powell Says Coalition Is 'Coming Together'

On the diplomatic front, the U.S. campaign against Osama bin Laden appears to be gaining some ground.

U.S. officials have been trying to get other countries to support U.S. demands that the Taliban leaders in Afghanistan turn over bin Laden. They also want support for any possible U.S. military move against Afghanistan.

Today, Secretary of State Colin Powell said he's "pleased that the coalition is coming together."

He'd just spoken by phone to the president of Yemen, who he said was very helpful. Powell says other countries recognize that the challenge isn't just one for America.

Pakistan has carried the U.S. demand to the rulers in neighboring Afghanistan.

FAA Grounds Small Aircraft

Fearing more terrorist attacks from the sky, the Federal Aviation Administration has ordered all small aircraft flown without instruments grounded indefinitely, the Associated Press reported.

More than a half-million licensed pilots in the United States don't fly commercial airplanes. Most them are continuing to feel the impact from last week's terrorist attack like few other professions in America.

The FAA continues to keep all planes flown by visual flight rules, also known as VFR, out of the air. Experts say that the action is threatening to bankrupt dozens of operators throughout the country.

The ban includes any pilot or plane not rated to fly by instruments and requires that those who do fly to stay above 3,000 feet. The ban keeps everything from single engine pleasure flights, to business travelers, to crop dusters and planes that spray for mosquitoes grounded.

Small Airports: We Need Government Assistance

Authorities at America's small airports say they need help to beef up security.

The manager at Jamestown, North Dakota's, airport says his airport is tightening its security.

But he says it can't do everything needed without federal help.

He says pilots have told him other small airports are in the same shape.

Search For Terrorist Clues Leads To Maryland

Part of the probe into last week's terror attacks is focusing on Maryland. FBI agents reportedly said that one of the men involved in the suicide hijackings used to live in Prince Georges County, which is near Washington.

They say another suspected hijacker trained at a flight school there. The Washington Post cites sources who said he flew small planes over the Washington area at least three times in the past six weeks while training.

He allegedly was one of the men who crashed an American Airlines passenger jet into the Pentagon on Tuesday.

The Baltimore Sun reported that agents showed photos of the suspects to residents at a sprawling apartment complex in Laurel, Md. It's believed to have been the residence of another suspect.

The FBI also said it wants to question an Islamic cleric who lives at the same apartment complex.

Feds Ask For More Law Enforcement Authority

Congressional leaders say they're pleased with the progress of the investigation into last week's terror attacks.

At least two arrests have been made to keep witnesses in custody, but authorities say they won't disclose any others because of grand jury secrecy rules.

A man detained at Toronto's Pearson International Airport after the attacks has been handed over to the FBI. In Florida, the FBI searched a Delray Beach apartment where two of the suspected hijackers previously lived.

Meanwhile, the Bush Administration is asking Congress for sharper tools to hack away at terrorism. That would include stiffer penalties for those who harbor terrorists and enhanced wiretapping authority. Currently, suspicion of terrorism is not a valid legal reason to get a wiretap.

Traditional 'Weapons Of War' May Not Apply

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the military will have to take a different approach in fighting those responsible for attacks in New York and Washington. Rumsfeld appeared on the Sunday talk shows and suggested that it may be necessary to add to the military's "special operations" forces.

He says the terrorists responsible for Tuesday's attacks are operating "in the shadows" and don't have the type of targets that "weapons of war" can attack.

Rumsfeld and other administration officials haven't said when Bush might order the first strikes against those linked to the attacks.

He also did not mention any countries, although the administration has said it will focus on Afghanistan.

War Games Suggest Next Attacks Could Be Worse

Jumbo jets were the weapons of choice in Tuesday's attacks, but experts say next time it could be microscopic agents that are far more devastating.

Biological and chemical weapons could cause far more deaths than the more than 5,000 feared killed in New York and outside Washington.

Some of these deadly agents could set off an epidemic that would take days or even weeks to detect.

An expert at the Nuclear Threat Initiative think tank says the country "is not adequately prepared for" a potential biological attack.

But skeptics say the worst-case scenario played out in war games "is unlikely" due to the difficulties of spreading highly volatile germ or chemical agents.

Though many say large-scale chemical or biological attacks are unlikely, they say the U.S. should research and stockpile antidotes.

The Taliban called an "urgent" meeting of clerics from throughout the country Sunday. They voiced their support for the Taliban, condemned the U.S. and demanded proof of bin Laden's involvement in the attacks on New York and Washington.

Meanwhile, Tajikistan is ruling out the possibility of launching any reprisal attacks against Afghanistan from its territory.

That word came Sunday from the chief of the foreign ministry's press section.

Earlier this week, the prime minister indicated his government might consider a U.S. request to provide air corridors for strikes on neighboring Afghanistan -- if Russia approved.

But Russia has made it clear it would not approve a Western-led campaign from the former Soviet republic that borders Afghanistan.

FAA Investigates Logan Tower Visitor

Federal authorities are investigating whether a man who toured the control tower at Logan International Airport in Boston three days before last week's terrorists attacks was one of the hijackers.

The Boston Globe reports the man showed a pilot's license and said he had family in Afghanistan. The man reportedly entered the tower unescorted, several hours after four men who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent asked a controller how to gain access to the tower.

The Federal Aviation Administration says it's investigating the man's visit to the tower.

FBI Gives Airlines List Of Names

Security officials at airports across the country are now armed with lists of names to watch out for.

Authorities confirm the FBI has issued confidential advisories that have been distributed by the FAA.

An advisory obtained by the Star Tribune of Minneapolis lists 52 names -- mostly Middle Easterners. Half of the names are listed with Florida addresses -- all but three of them in Vero Beach.

The city has an aviation academy, and it's been a focus of the investigation into last week's terror attacks.

A spokesman for the Air Transport Association in Washington says airlines are expected to run the names through their computer systems -- to see if anyone had purchased a ticket, held a reservation or is anywhere in the airline system.

The security advisory is one of several circulating. The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that it had obtained a similar list with 100 names.

New Yorkers Return To Work

Workers have returned to New York's financial district trying to cope with the horrible memories from last week's terror attacks.

And some workers in lower Manhattan today are keeping an eye on the window -- wondering if they're going to see a plane coming at them.

Jeannette Rosario says that's definitely on her mind. She headed back to her job today at a banking company.

Just blocks away, the rescue work continued at the wreckage of the World Trade Center.

People who work in the Wall Street and World Trade Center areas are going to work by ferry service via Brookyln.

Streets in the area are closed to vehicles and subway service is disrupted. Telephone and electric service remains spotty. The narrow streets of the city's financial district are criss-crossed with heavy utility cables.

One Wall Street worker who usually gets to work in 25 minutes from the city's Upper East Side had to take two buses and a subway today -- and then walk for blocks. He says he wasn't bothered by the two-hour commute.

National guardsmen in camouflage are standing silently on some street corners, holding semi-automatic rifles.

Harvey Grossman, a state Insurance Department employee, emerged from a subway station in lower Manhattan and had to show two forms of identification to walk on the streets.

Then he went through a second checkpoint.

Grossman says that's OK with him.

And there are posters on telephone poles and restaurant windows, placed there by people desperately hoping that a loved one will still be found alive.

President Bush was on hand to greet people as they returned to work at the Old Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C.

The president says the best way to fight terrorism is to not let terrorism intimidate America. And he says despite the trauma of last week's attacks, Americans have jobs to do.

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