America Strikes Back

[Georgia Bard]

Bush Says U.S. Targets Terrorists, Those Who Aid Them (Update3)
By Phil Serafino and Heidi Przybyla
09/12 05:40
http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?ptitle=Top%20World%20News&s1=blk&tp=ad_topright_topworl...

Key Exerpts:

Washington, Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said the U.S. won't distinguish between terrorists and the nations that harbor them after hijacked commercial airliners destroyed the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon.

The U.S. will use the ``full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and bring them to justice,'' Bush said in a speech to the nation from the White House.

A U.S. senator and senior intelligence officials were quoted saying there was evidence linking the attacks to Osama bin Laden, an exiled Saudi Arabian terrorist who issued a threat against the U.S. about a month ago. Bin Laden denied responsibility, according to a Pakistani newspaper.


Terrorism experts said the attack took months or years to plan. Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah, said on CNN he was told in a briefing by the highest levels of the FBI and the intelligence community that ``they've come to the conclusion that this has the signature of Osama bin Laden.''

The U.S. government has ``strong evidence from multiple sources'' that the terrorist attacks are connected to bin Laden, the Washington Post reported this morning, citing unnamed senior officials. One official said the probability that bin Laden is behind the attacks is ``in the high 90s,'' and another said investigators gathered evidence ``strongly suggesting'' bin Laden's organization was involved, the newspaper said.

Abdel Bari Atwan, editor of Al Quds, a London-based, Arabic language Palestinian daily newspaper, said he received warnings in recent weeks from supporters of Bin Laden that an attack against U.S. interests was imminent.

The Boston Herald reported that Massachusetts authorities have identified at least five Arab men as suspects in the attacks. Two of the suspects are brothers who hold passports that can be traced to the United Arab Emirates, the Herald reported, citing an unidentified individual. One was a trained pilot, the paper said.

A car seized in Logan International Airport's parking garage contained Arabic-language flight training manuals, the paper said.

Bin Laden denied involvement in the attacks, the Pakistani newspaper Ausaf reported today, citing a statement by his representative. The statement said bin Laden supported the attacks but wasn't responsible for them.



:=) Gary Swancey