Wednesday, September 19, 2001 3:35:36 PM
Operation Infinite Justice" has begun.
Pentagon Orders Deployment of Aircraft
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55476-2001Sep19.html
By Charles Babington
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 19, 2001; 3:17 PM
The Pentagon today ordered combat and supply planes to begin moving to the Persian Gulf area, a sign that the nation may be moving closer to armed reprisals for last week's deadly terrorist attacks, a senior defense official told the Associated Press.
The aircraft will be preceded by teams of Air Force air controllers who will coordinate refueling of the fighters and bombers as they deploy from the United States to bases in the Gulf region, the official said.
The order, signed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, involved no troop movements.
Meanwhile today, stocks resumed the steep dive that began on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial average had lost more than 400 points by midafternoon, although it recovered slightly with less than an hour left in the trading day.
At the White House, President Bush -- who drew decidedly mixed reviews for his first forays into diplomatic and international affairs earlier this year -- continued an ambitious and complex drive to unite dozens of nations into a solid front against terrorism. After hosting France's president last night, Bush today met with the president of Indonesia (the world's most populous Islamic nation), and was scheduled to meet with the foreign ministers of Russia and Germany. Tomorrow he will welcome British Prime Minister Tony Blair to the White House.
Bush is pressing nations on every continent to back U.S. plans -- admittedly vague for now -- to root out the terrorists who planned and supported last week's devastating attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. While leaders of virtually every nation, including traditional foes such as Iran, have condemned last week's attacks and terrorism in general, the U.S. drive for a broad coalition gives them new leverage to press the Bush administration for concessions.
As a result, Bush faces a crazy quilt of requests, if not outright demands, from many of the nations he hopes to forge into a common front against terrorism. Speaking with reporters as he greeted Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri today, Bush acknowledged that some nations will embrace the coalition more enthusiastically than others.
"This is a campaign in which nations will contribute in a variety of ways," he said. "Some nations will be willing to join in a very overt way. Other nations will be willing to join by sharing information." The coalition's goal, he said, is to locate terrorist leaders, "get them out of their caves, get them moving, cut off their finances."
As for the current investigation, Bush said: "We're on the case. We're gathering as much evidence as we possibly can to be able to make our case to the world about all countries and their willingness to harbor or not harbor terrorists."
Examples of the challenges the president faces:
The Middle East
• Several Arab and Islamic nations want the Bush administration to show more sympathy for Palestinians in their long-running conflict with Israel. These efforts, however, will face stiff resistance from many Jewish Americans and other advocates of America's traditionally strong support of Israel. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Colin Powell implored Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon not to squander an opportunity to renew cooperation with the Palestinians, who have declared a cease-fire in their conflict with Israel.
Pakistan
• U.S. forces will need to base some of their operations in Pakistan if they launch attacks on Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Pakistan, an Islamic nation bordering Afghanistan, has signalled a willingness to cooperate. In return, however, the Pakistanis want the United States to end a decade of economic sanctions, to ease the nation's debt load and to lessen its tilt toward India, Pakistan's key rival.
In a televised speech to his nation today, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf defended his decision to work with the Americans. The U.S.-led effort to capture suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden does not target Islam or the people of Afghanistan, Musharraf said.
Russia
• Russia has deep concerns about Bush's advocacy of a national missile defense system. President Vladimir Putin now has a stronger bargaining position from which to press his objections.
China
• China is linking its support for a U.S.-led anti-terrorism campaign to its own goals of fighting separatist movements in Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang province.
Three Men Arrested in Detroit
Meanwhile on the domestic front, federal agents have arrested three men in Detroit who were allegedly found with false identification papers and notes on an American base in Turkey and a Jordanian airport, Detroit newspapers reported today.
The three men, from Algeria and Morocco, were arrested early Tuesday while the FBI was searching for a fourth man believed to have links to suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. The men, two of whom previously worked for an airline meal service at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, were formally charged Tuesday with possession of false identification papers, including passports, Social Security cards and visas, according to an affidavit obtained by the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press.
Elsewhere, according to reports from the AP, Reuters and the Washington Post:
• On Capitol Hill, some lawmakers urged rapid action to aid the nation's airline industry, stricken by layoffs, reduced schedules and the prospects of bankruptcy in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks. "We have to get this done as soon as possible or we will not have an air transportation system," House Transportation Committee chairman Don Young (R-Alaska), said at the opening of a hearing on the industry's economic viability.
• In Colorado, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said U.S. fighter jets were only eight minutes away from one of the hijacked airliners when it crashed into the World Trade Center last week, the Associated Press reported. Two other military jets were 12 minutes away when an airliner hit the Pentagon, according to NORAD's official timeline. Bush had not authorized military pilots to shoot down any civilian planes until after the crash at the Pentagon, and military officials have questioned what fighters would have been able to do even if they had been in time. Nonetheless, the NORAD timeline quantifies how close they were to the scene of the Sept. 11 hijackings.
• In New York, the city's police commissioner said Wednesday hopes were dimming "each minute" of finding survivors in the rubble of the World Trade Center. A full week has passed since the last victim was pulled alive from the wreckage.
:=) Gary Swancey
Pentagon Orders Deployment of Aircraft
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55476-2001Sep19.html
By Charles Babington
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 19, 2001; 3:17 PM
The Pentagon today ordered combat and supply planes to begin moving to the Persian Gulf area, a sign that the nation may be moving closer to armed reprisals for last week's deadly terrorist attacks, a senior defense official told the Associated Press.
The aircraft will be preceded by teams of Air Force air controllers who will coordinate refueling of the fighters and bombers as they deploy from the United States to bases in the Gulf region, the official said.
The order, signed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, involved no troop movements.
Meanwhile today, stocks resumed the steep dive that began on Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial average had lost more than 400 points by midafternoon, although it recovered slightly with less than an hour left in the trading day.
At the White House, President Bush -- who drew decidedly mixed reviews for his first forays into diplomatic and international affairs earlier this year -- continued an ambitious and complex drive to unite dozens of nations into a solid front against terrorism. After hosting France's president last night, Bush today met with the president of Indonesia (the world's most populous Islamic nation), and was scheduled to meet with the foreign ministers of Russia and Germany. Tomorrow he will welcome British Prime Minister Tony Blair to the White House.
Bush is pressing nations on every continent to back U.S. plans -- admittedly vague for now -- to root out the terrorists who planned and supported last week's devastating attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. While leaders of virtually every nation, including traditional foes such as Iran, have condemned last week's attacks and terrorism in general, the U.S. drive for a broad coalition gives them new leverage to press the Bush administration for concessions.
As a result, Bush faces a crazy quilt of requests, if not outright demands, from many of the nations he hopes to forge into a common front against terrorism. Speaking with reporters as he greeted Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri today, Bush acknowledged that some nations will embrace the coalition more enthusiastically than others.
"This is a campaign in which nations will contribute in a variety of ways," he said. "Some nations will be willing to join in a very overt way. Other nations will be willing to join by sharing information." The coalition's goal, he said, is to locate terrorist leaders, "get them out of their caves, get them moving, cut off their finances."
As for the current investigation, Bush said: "We're on the case. We're gathering as much evidence as we possibly can to be able to make our case to the world about all countries and their willingness to harbor or not harbor terrorists."
Examples of the challenges the president faces:
The Middle East
• Several Arab and Islamic nations want the Bush administration to show more sympathy for Palestinians in their long-running conflict with Israel. These efforts, however, will face stiff resistance from many Jewish Americans and other advocates of America's traditionally strong support of Israel. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Colin Powell implored Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon not to squander an opportunity to renew cooperation with the Palestinians, who have declared a cease-fire in their conflict with Israel.
Pakistan
• U.S. forces will need to base some of their operations in Pakistan if they launch attacks on Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Pakistan, an Islamic nation bordering Afghanistan, has signalled a willingness to cooperate. In return, however, the Pakistanis want the United States to end a decade of economic sanctions, to ease the nation's debt load and to lessen its tilt toward India, Pakistan's key rival.
In a televised speech to his nation today, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf defended his decision to work with the Americans. The U.S.-led effort to capture suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden does not target Islam or the people of Afghanistan, Musharraf said.
Russia
• Russia has deep concerns about Bush's advocacy of a national missile defense system. President Vladimir Putin now has a stronger bargaining position from which to press his objections.
China
• China is linking its support for a U.S.-led anti-terrorism campaign to its own goals of fighting separatist movements in Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang province.
Three Men Arrested in Detroit
Meanwhile on the domestic front, federal agents have arrested three men in Detroit who were allegedly found with false identification papers and notes on an American base in Turkey and a Jordanian airport, Detroit newspapers reported today.
The three men, from Algeria and Morocco, were arrested early Tuesday while the FBI was searching for a fourth man believed to have links to suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. The men, two of whom previously worked for an airline meal service at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, were formally charged Tuesday with possession of false identification papers, including passports, Social Security cards and visas, according to an affidavit obtained by the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press.
Elsewhere, according to reports from the AP, Reuters and the Washington Post:
• On Capitol Hill, some lawmakers urged rapid action to aid the nation's airline industry, stricken by layoffs, reduced schedules and the prospects of bankruptcy in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks. "We have to get this done as soon as possible or we will not have an air transportation system," House Transportation Committee chairman Don Young (R-Alaska), said at the opening of a hearing on the industry's economic viability.
• In Colorado, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said U.S. fighter jets were only eight minutes away from one of the hijacked airliners when it crashed into the World Trade Center last week, the Associated Press reported. Two other military jets were 12 minutes away when an airliner hit the Pentagon, according to NORAD's official timeline. Bush had not authorized military pilots to shoot down any civilian planes until after the crash at the Pentagon, and military officials have questioned what fighters would have been able to do even if they had been in time. Nonetheless, the NORAD timeline quantifies how close they were to the scene of the Sept. 11 hijackings.
• In New York, the city's police commissioner said Wednesday hopes were dimming "each minute" of finding survivors in the rubble of the World Trade Center. A full week has passed since the last victim was pulled alive from the wreckage.
:=) Gary Swancey
:=) Gary Swancey
Join the InvestorsHub Community
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
