Calling up thousands of military reservists, President Bush today
indicated the United States will strike hard if and when it determines who
masterminded Tuesday's terrorist attacks that claimed perhaps 5,000 lives.
"Our responsibility to history is already clear: To answer these
attacks and rid the world of evil," the president said in a multi-faith
prayer service at Washington's National Cathedral, attended by four former
presidents and many other dignitaries.
Meanwhile today, the House and Senate voted unanimously to provide $40
billion for anti-terrorism and cleanup efforts. The Senate also voted, 98
to 0, to authorize the president to use "necessary and appropriate force"
in retaliating against the terrorist strikes. House leaders said their
chamber will approve that measure, too, as Congress dropped all outward
signs of partisanship on this "National Day of Prayer and Remembrance."
At the National Cathedral service, Bush mourned Tuesday's victims and
said: "This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This
conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way,
and in an hour, of our choosing."
Despite the strong rhetoric, FBI Director Robert Mueller told
reporters that his agents still have made no arrests connected to Tuesday's
hijackings and crashes of four commercial airliners in New York City,
Pennsylvania and the Pentagon. The FBI is pursuing more than 36,000 leads
and has issued hundreds of subpoenas and more than 30 search warrants in
its nationwide investigation, which several other countries are assisting,
Mueller said.
Among the hundreds at the Washington memorial service were former
presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton,
and former vice president Al Gore. Absent from the gathering was Vice
President Cheney. White House officials said he remained at Camp David
today as a safety precaution meant to keep him and the president from being
under the same roof. The two will be together this weekend, officials said,
and Cheney will appear on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday.
Bush later traveled to New York City to pay his respects to the
4,700 people missing in the destruction of the World Trade Center towers. Using a bullhorn to address rescue workers, the president said: "America today is on bended knee in prayer
for the people whose lives were lost here, for the workers who work here, for the families who mourn."
Someone in the crowd shouted, "George, we can't hear you!" The president
responded, "I can hear you! The rest of the world hears you. And the people
who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.
The White House, meanwhile, said the president had issued his expected
call-up of reservists, who can help in the disaster clean-up operations and
security measures.
Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said the first reservists would be
called up within days. Estimates are: 13,000 in the Air Force, 10,000 in
the Army, 3,000 in the Navy, 7,500 in the Marine Corps and 2,000 in the
Coast Guard.
On Capitol Hill, Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) praised
the Senate's quick action today. "These are different times," he told
colleagues. "And we have got to act decisively. The American people expect
it of us, and they will accept nothing less."
The Associated Press quoted Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, top Democrat on
the House Appropriations Committee, as saying: "It is the down payment on
providing the resources necessary to rebuild this nation." The $40 billion
package was double what the White House originally requested.
In other news from AP, Reuters and Washington Post reporters:
• Investigators early today recovered both black boxes — the flight data
recorder and cockpit voice recorder — from American Airlines Flight 77,
which crashed into the Pentagon Tuesday. Yesterday in western Pennsylvania,
agents found the flight data recorder from United Flight 93, the plane in
which passengers may have fought with hijackers and prevented the plane
from hitting a Washington target.
• Federal officials today said last night's detention of a dozen people at
John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports — which came after agents stormed a
plane and closed the airports — appears to have been an overreaction. A
senior law enforcement official said most of the detained suspects had been
released by early today. Contrary to early reports, the suspects carried no
knives or other weapons.
• A man who attempted to "ram or drive up" the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in
Washington this morning was in custody, detained first by security
personnel at the diplomatic compound and then by the U.S. Secret Service.
• In advance of the planned reopening of U.S. stock markets on Monday,
major securities firms and corporations have reached an extraordinary
agreement to prop up prices by buying shares if a flood of sell orders
threatens to send the markets into a free fall, industry and government
sources said yesterday. Federal securities regulators have made it clear
they will permit these and other market practices that might raise legal
questions in ordinary circumstances, the sources said.
• U.S. space officials said the astronauts aboard the international space
station, 250 miles above Earth, saw dark smoke billowing from New York on
Tuesday.
• Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and his senior military commanders
agreed to meet U.S. demands for cooperation in efforts against Saudi
fugitive Osama Bin Laden, according to senior government officials.
