Bush to Seek Nation's Support Tonight; First Warplanes Head to Targeted Area
Battle Called 'A War of Will and Mind'

By Steven Mufson and Alan Sipress
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 20, 2001; Page A01

President Bush will seek to rally domestic support for a battle on terrorism in a televised speech to Congress at 9 p.m. today in which he is expected to detail the threat posed by alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden while seeking to reassure an anxious public.

Bush aides said the president will describe efforts the administration will make to stimulate the economy, stabilize the airline industry, improve airline safety and head off future attacks. But national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said he will also underscore the potential sacrifices that will be necessary in "a very long campaign" that could be as much "a war of will and mind" as of armies and beachheads.

After meeting with congressional leaders yesterday, Bush said he would use his second speech to Congress since becoming president to "urge our fellow Americans to go back to work and to work hard." But he said he would also emphasize that "we must be on alert" while the government works hard to "run down every lead, every opportunity to find someone who would want to hurt any American."

Bush and senior administration officials spent another day lining up international support for military, financial and economic actions that the president said would be designed to locate terrorist leaders, "get them out of their caves, get them moving, cut off their finances." Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri and the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Germany and Russia were in Washington for consultations.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said that "in combating international terrorism, no means can be excluded, including the use of force." But he said Russia had not discussed with the Bush administration any specific military actions.

Ivanov told Secretary of State Colin L. Powell that Russia would not object if the United States sought to enlist former Soviet republics in Central Asia for the campaign against bin Laden despite some recent opposition from leaders in Moscow, according to a senior State Department official. Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan could provide important bases and logistical support for any military campaign in neighboring Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage met with Russian officials in Moscow to discuss joint efforts and intelligence-sharing against Afghanistan's Taliban regime, which has harbored bin Laden for five years. Ivanov said the two countries had already exchanged information.

On other diplomatic fronts, the administration sought to bolster support from India and Pakistan and took steps designed to combat money-laundering by terrorist organizations. The action against terrorist financial transactions came as U.S. financial regulators and market officials confirmed they are looking into the possibility that the groups that launched last week's attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center sought to profit from their crimes by placing bets against stocks they knew would drop as a result of the attacks.

Cementing Pakistan's cooperation in the campaign against bin Laden is a key goal of U.S. policymakers, and to that end, the State Department is considering easing sanctions on the Islamabad government. The House will hold a classified hearing on the subject today and meet with senators tomorrow.

Although Bush has not yet made a decision, administration officials favor waiving three sets of sanctions imposed on Pakistan because of its development and testing of nuclear weapons. U.S. officials support at the same time lifting sanctions placed on India in 1998 after its nuclear weapons tests.

The Bush administration was already moving toward easing the restrictions on Pakistan and India this fall, but a senior administration official said the process assumed an "added urgency" after U.S. officials began charting a response to the terrorist attacks last week.

"It's a no-brainer," a State Department official said. "It's pretty obvious. If we want Pakistan to help us, they're going to have to have certain things."

Bush yesterday praised Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, for taking a "bold position" by agreeing to assist the United States in efforts to strike at bin Laden. Although many officials doubt Pakistan's determination to follow through on its promises, Bush said, "We'll give the president a chance to perform."

A formal decision on lifting sanctions on Pakistan will come after Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman consults key members of Congress, including those serving on intelligence and international affairs committees, and reports to the White House and Powell.

Once the sanctions are lifted, Pakistan would be allowed to buy weapons and other military equipment from U.S. companies. That would help address Pakistan's need to obtain spare parts for its arsenal, much of which is American-made. Before the restrictions were tightened in 1998 after Pakistan tested nuclear weapons, Islamabad bought $40 million to $80 million of U.S. equipment each year, according to the State Department.

A presidential waiver of a law enacted by Congress to punish countries that contributed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons would also allow the United States to support aid to Pakistan from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

But Pakistan would still be subject to yet another set of sanctions, triggered when Musharraf ousted Nawaz Sharif, the democratically elected president, in 1999. The Foreign Assistance Act includes restrictions on economic aid to Pakistan and U.S. government financing of its military purchases. State Department and congressional officials expect those sanctions to remain in place until Pakistan holds new elections, scheduled for next year.

Administration and congressional officials continue to express concerns about Pakistan's involvement in weapons proliferation, but Capitol Hill sources say the calculations change significantly after the terrorist attacks. "We're expecting an imminent waiving of sanctions," a House staffer said.

"This is a campaign in which nations will contribute in a variety of ways," Bush said. "Some nations will be willing to join in a very overt way. Other nations will be willing to join by sharing information."

Meetings with foreign leaders will continue today when British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrives at the White House. One after another yesterday, the visitors expressed their solidarity with the United States.

"We share the pain, and we also share the burden now in fighting against this terrible danger," said German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who met with both Bush and Powell yesterday. "We do not rule out any option."

After a helicopter tour yesterday of the World Trade Center site with New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, French President Jacques Chirac declared that France would "not stand aside" from the United States in its struggle. "Today, it was New York that was tragically struck," Chirac told reporters at the United Nations. "But tomorrow it may be Paris, Berlin or London."

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Faisal vowed to help in ridding the world of "the scourge of terrorism," and sources said that on Monday, Saudi Arabia delivered background reports requested by the FBI. But while he said the United States and its allies should "identify the guilty and pursue them mercilessly," he also cautioned that "it is not vengeance that the world wants. It is justice."

Some American conservatives fretted that the administration's eagerness to assemble a coalition might dampen its appetite for military action. The Project for the New American Century, a conservative group, sent Bush a letter urging him to make the removal of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein part of the campaign against terrorism.

"Failure to undertake such an effort will constitute an early and perhaps decisive surrender in the war on international terrorism," said the letter, which was signed by commentators William Kristol and Robert Kagan, as well as William Bennett and Richard Perle, head of Bush's advisory defense policy board.

Staff writer Mike Allen and special correspondent Colum Lynch at the United Nations contributed to this report.