Bush Gets More International Support For U.S. Campaign Against Terrorism
Officials Warn New Attacks Are Possible

By John F. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 17, 2001; Page A01

As signs mounted yesterday that Washington is on an imminent war footing, President Bush said he had notified the leaders of Pakistan, India and Saudi Arabia of his intentions and received "positive" support for a sustained campaign against terrorism. Meanwhile, senior administration officials took to the airwaves to warn Americans about the possibility of a new attack in the days ahead.

Jittery investors in Asia threw stock markets there for significant losses on a day that Wall Street is set to reopen after the longest hiatus since the Depression.

Bush is planning to meet with Pentagon officials today to review military plans. On a day when Americans flocked to church pews seeking solace from the horror of the week just passed, Bush plotted strategy with his top advisers at Camp David.

"This crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take a while," he told reporters after his return to the White House. But, he vowed, "we will rid the world of the evil-doers."

Vice President Cheney, in his first public appearance since Tuesday's attack, went on television with chilling revelations about the first frantic hours of the crisis. He said Bush, at his recommendation, had authorized the Air Force to shoot hijacked airliners out of the sky -- and gave dire warnings about the possibility of more terror ahead.

"There may well be other operations that have been planned and are, in fact, in the works," Cheney told NBC's "Meet the Press." On ABC's "This Week," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld four times cautioned against complacency, saying that the threat has not receded simply because one wave of terrorists hit its targets.

"A terrorist can attack in any time and any place using a variety of different techniques," Rumsfeld said. "It may be an airplane one day, it may be a ship or a subway or a car."

Around the world, in central Asia, there were other signs that a stricken superpower was on the brink of violent reprisal for the wave of four suicide hijackings that has left more than 5,300 dead or missing.

Pakistani officials, whose cooperation has pleased the administration, said they are sending a delegation, possibly today, to warn the ruling Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan that the country faces massive U.S.-led retaliation if its leaders do not assist in the capture of suspect terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. Uzbekistan's government said that it is open to allowing U.S. forces to use Uzbek airspace or territory for an attack across its 80-mile border with Afghanistan.

Even as war clouds darken, today is supposed to be the first day that Americans, however groggily, return to something like a normal routine. The New York Stock Exchange, just blocks from where the World Trade Center's twin towers stood, will be open, after a weekend of tests that showed communications and computer networks are working properly. This will provide a critical opening test of how severely America's already shaky economy, particularly the ailing airline industry, was rocked by the blasts.

Asian markets plunged when they opened today, apparently because investors were anxious about a prolonged war on terrorism. In Tokyo, the Japanese market's main index, the Nikkei, fell 4.88 percent, and the dollar was lower against the yen. Markets in Singapore, Taipei and Wellington were off by more than 4 percent, and those in Sydney and Seoul were down nearly 3 percent.

Major League Baseball's schedule will resume today, as will comedian David Letterman's TV show. And Bush yesterday enjoined Americans to go back to business today, and "work hard like you always do."

The elusive bin Laden, an exiled Saudi multimillionaire who has taken refuge in Afghanistan in recent years, issued a statement yesterday through the Arabic-language television network Al Jazeera, in Qatar, denying involvement. "I would like to assure the world that I did not plan the recent attacks, which seems to have been planned by people for personal reasons," said bin Laden, whose current location is unknown to U.S. authorities.

Administration officials dismissed the denial. Cheney said he had "no doubt that his organization played a significant role in this." But even Cheney cautioned against making bin Laden the sole focus, painting a frightening picture of an enemy with more tentacles, and more hiding places, than many Americans may understand -- a notion with grave implications for any military action that lies ahead.

"It's also important for people to understand that this is a long-term proposition," Cheney said. "It's not like, well, even Desert Storm, where we had a build-up of a few months, four days combat and it was over with. This is going to be the kind of work that will probably take years, because the focus has to be not just on any one individual."

The investigation spread to more states and more communities as authorities tried to penetrate -- and define -- what they believe could be a large network of accomplices. A "material witness" was arrested yesterday in New York. Investigators confirmed they were holding a suspected "high-ranking" associate of bin Laden, who was arrested nearly a month ago in Elk River, Minn., for illegally entering the country. Two other men, arrested in Texas on Wednesday after a flight and a train ride, are being questioned in New York about the box cutters, hair dye and $5,000 in cash they were carrying.

Authorities also are trying to figure out how two other alleged bin Laden associates slipped into the country last month through Los Angeles International Airport -- despite their presence on a government "watch list."

The signs of a nation changing its habits and expectations to meet brutish new realities were everywhere. Administration officials reflected some of this in television appearances, urging that law enforcement and intelligence tactics designed for a more fastidious age need to be loosened.

Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said the Justice Department will appeal to Congress for broader surveillance and wiretapping powers against suspected terrorists or those who may be assisting them. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell told CNN that a 1976 executive order banning assassinations is "under review," and Cheney said intelligence services need more latitude to hire and pay informants with "unsavory" backgrounds.

"If you're going to deal only with sort of officially approved, certified good guys, you're not going to find out what the bad guys are doing," Cheney said. "It is a mean, nasty, dangerous, dirty business out there, and we have to operate in that arena."

Cheney said Bush's decision to authorize the downing of civilian aircraft was "the toughest decision" he had to make so far during the crisis.

"Now, people say, you know, that's a horrendous decision to make," the vice president said. "Well, it is." But he said it would have been "absolutely justified" if U.S. military pilots -- who, as it happened, were not able to reach any of the four hijacked jetliners before they crashed -- could have prevented additional loss of life on the ground.

Even as administration officials urged Americans to return to normal life -- albeit with increased caution -- they acknowledged private nightmares of more havoc in the days ahead. They said they had generalized fears, not specific intelligence.

"Some groups or individuals hate the United States with an intensity we can't imagine," one senior U.S. official said. "They have already demonstrated that the country is vulnerable; if they could show it still is after all the precautions and efforts since Tuesday, they would score big."

Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, who receives classified briefings on the latest intelligence, warned on ABC's "This Week" that "this was not necessarily a single act on Tuesday, but, rather, part of a larger plan."

As if to underscore those fears, authorities in Boston reported several bomb scares yesterday, and the Queen Elizabeth 2 luxury liner was diverted there from its intended destination in New York.

Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta appointed two high-level security rapid-response teams to make recommendations on improving airline and airport security. The teams are to report on specific measures by Oct. 1.

Still, most of the nation's attention seemed aimed at recovering from the tangible horrors of last week, rather than crouching in avoidance at unknowable perils still ahead. The number of missing people in the World Trade Center conflagration declined to 4,957 but New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani said it is increasingly likely that few people, if any, are still alive to rescue.

Elsewhere around the country, many stores reported being sold out of American flags, with none due in for at least a couple weeks, as buyers rushed to put their patriotism on display. And church pews were overflowing, as pastors reported crowds that rivaled those ordinarily seen on Christmas Day. "God Bless America" was sung at many places of worship.

"America will never be the same," said the Rev. Cecil Williams of San Francisco's Glide Memorial Methodist Church. "Never."

Around the world, America's plight was discussed everywhere. On CNN, British Prime Minister Tony Blair forecast a titanic struggle "between the civilized world and fanaticism." In Frosinone, Italy, Pope John Paul II prayed for America and said, "To all the children of this great nation, I direct my heartbroken and shared thoughts."

But the world, particularly Arab nations, is far from unified behind Bush's plan for violent reprisal. Islamic organizations around the Middle East, and Washington-based diplomats from the region, over the weekend were increasingly vocal about their misgivings about a U.S. military campaign. Fashioning a coalition that includes Islamic nations will be a major challenge for U.S. diplomacy in coming days; a dozen ambassadors from Arab nations met at the home of the Saudi ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, to discuss their varying degrees of support for Bush's emerging policy.

Another challenge for Bush will be to strike the right balance between encouraging public vigilance appropriate to the threat without creating a fortress mentality. He dispatched senior adviser Karl Rove to urge Major League Baseball and the National Football League to resume play, a move first reported by Time magazine and confirmed by a senior administration official. In Britain, meanwhile, authorities postponed for a year the famed Ryder Cup golf tournament, which is played every other year and was slated to begin Sept. 28 at England's Belfry course.

At Camp David, Bush rose early, at 5:30 a.m., and went for a run and long walk. Then he visisted a chapel with first lady Laura Bush before beginning a day of meetings and overseas phone calls.