Bush Names Army General To NSC Post On Terrorism
Downing Wrote Key 1996 Study

By Mike Allen and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, September 30, 2001; Page A03

President Bush plans to name a retired Army general to a new counterterrorism post, and declared yesterday that his war preparations are gaining momentum but are unlikely to produce quick results.

Bush has asked retired Army Gen. Wayne Downing, a career specialist in counterterrorism, to join the staff of the National Security Council as assistant to the president and national director for combating terrorism, officials said.

Downing wrote a scathing 1996 study of security lapses by U.S. commanders in the Middle East after a bomb in June 1996 killed 19 members of the Air Force in a barracks in Saudi Arabia called Khobar Towers. The report criticized the entire military chain of command from the Air Force wing commander up to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and concluded that the U.S. government should stop regarding terrorism as an intermittent problem and instead begin treating it as "undeclared war against the United States."

As investigators into the attacks worked through the weekend, a government official said the FBI has divided its targets into three groups of perpetrators: those who arranged the financing, those who planned the logistics of weaponry and access to planes, and those who carried out the attacks.

Bush spent the weekend at Camp David and met by a secure video link with his National Security Council. He planned to take a break by watching last night's football game between the University of Texas and Texas Tech.

The president used his weekly radio address to give a progress report on what he called "a different kind of war, which we will wage aggressively and methodically to disrupt and destroy terrorist activity."

"We did not seek this conflict, but we will win it," he said.

Officials said Bush's message was designed both to begin the process of prolonging the patience of citizens at home, and to assure allies and potential allies that the United States plans a sustained effort and will not be deterred even if frustrating setbacks occur.

"This war will be fought wherever terrorists hide, or run, or plan," Bush said. "Some victories will be won outside of public view, in tragedies avoided and threats eliminated. Other victories will be clear to all. Our weapons are military and diplomatic, financial and legal. And in this struggle, our greatest advantages are the patience and resolve of the American people."

Bush said the U.S. government respects the people of Afghanistan. "But we condemn the Taliban, and welcome the support of other nations in isolating that regime," he said.

The National Security Council and the State Department have prepared a 10-paragraph "Afghanistan Declaratory Policy" that says the international community "must devote itself to stabilizing Afghanistan."

"The Taliban do not represent the Afghan people, who never elected or chose the Taliban faction," the memo says. "We do not want to choose who rules Afghanistan, but we will assist those who seek a peaceful, economically developing Afghanistan free of terrorism."

Listing the progress he has made, Bush said in his radio address that troops are being sent around the globe so they will be "ready to answer when their country calls."

"International cooperation is gaining momentum," Bush added, mentioning meetings this week with leaders of Canada and Japan and promises of support from Russia and Indonesia. He then pointed to what the administration is calling the first shot in the war: his order freezing U.S. assets of 27 individuals and groups accused of funding terrorists.

Democrats offered support, not a rebuttal, in their radio address. Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, who took office in July, said, "The Democratic Party stands 100 percent behind President Bush as he prepares the appropriate military response."

Downing, the new counterterrorism official, is a former commander of Special Forces troops in combat in Panama and the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and later was chief of the Special Operations Command. The NSC already has a counterterrorism adviser, but an administration official said Downing will be part of "an increased focus and more division of responsibility." The upcoming appointment was first reported by U.S. News and World Report.

In another effort to build the administration's expertise in preparation for war, officials say retired Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, former chief of the Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, is expected to join the State Department as an adviser for the current operation.

Also yesterday, former president Bill Clinton and former senator Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.), who ran against each other in 1996, held a news conference at Georgetown University to announce a drive to raise $100 million for the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund, which will offer scholarships to children and spouses of people killed or disabled in the Sept. 11 attacks.

"There's not any politics or partisanship in an effort like this," Dole said. "We're both Americans. We both love our country."

Clinton said: "I have stood in those lines at the crisis center and talked to the victims' families. And some of the people who will benefit from this are even not yet born, because the young women who lost their husbands are pregnant now." Information is available at www.familiesoffreedom.org.

Jesse L. Jackson yesterday abandoned his plan to go to Afghanistan as a mediator, but said he instead will send a letter asking for Osama bin Laden and other terrorists to be turned over to an international court. Jackson said he was deterred by the failure of a delegation from Pakistan to make progress with the Taliban.

Jackson denied he had initiated contact with the regime that controls most of Afghanistan. He said Afghan officials had called him and sent two letters. "I would not have known how to contact them," he said. "I couldn't call 1-800-TALIBAN."