'Mighty Giant' Vows War, Pakistan Meets Taliban...
Monday September 17 5:37 AM ET
By Peter Millership
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The White House vowed retaliation by a ``mighty giant'' awakened by the world's worst terror acts as investors held their breath on Monday to see how Wall Street would react to the attacks that reduced the World Trade Center to smoking ruins.
The Bush administration pledged to avenge the devastating attacks by hijacked airliners that plowed into the trade center's twin towers and the Pentagon (news - web sites) near Washington, but warned the fight could be hard and long. The White House said Islamic zealot Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) was the prime suspect.
Those who attacked the United States ``made a terrible mistake ... they have roused a mighty giant,'' President Bush (news - web sites) told reporters in Washington.
``It's time for us to win the first war of the 21st century so our children and grandchildren can live peacefully.''
U.S. law enforcement agencies hunted for the network behind the attacks which left more than 5,000 dead or missing and destroyed the World Trade Center -- a symbol of American prosperity -- and dealt a heavy blow to the heart of U.S. military power.
As part of the strategy, the White House is considering lifting an executive order banning U.S. involvement in overseas assassinations and Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) said the CIA (news - web sites) may once again be allowed to recruit agents to conduct ``the mean, nasty, dirty, dangerous business'' of spying on extremists.
While Washington rattled its saber, a delegation from Pakistan took the first steps to head off a military crisis by meeting with neighboring Afghanistan (news - web sites) on Monday to press the ruling Taliban to hand over bin Laden, who has lived for years in the Islamic nation.
Speaking as the delegation arrived in Afghanistan, Pakistan's Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said Taliban leaders should consider the consequences of not cooperating with the United States.
``The delegation is motivating and advising (Taliban leader) Mullah Omar and the Taliban leadership that they should consider the pros and cons of not cooperating with America and others on matters of terrorism because if Afghanistan does not do the logical, balanced attitude in this regard it will be a problem for Afghanistan and its people,'' he said.
Witnesses said on Monday that Taliban officials were fleeing Kabul amid expectations of U.S. attacks. Officials and their families were heading for the countryside but it was not clear if this was under instruction from their leader.
As Bush rallied a global coalition for war against the ''barbarians'' who staged the attacks, the president heard encouraging sounds of support from European allies but also heard some notes of caution.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, pointing the finger at bin Laden and saying he must be stopped, made a grim comparison. ``For many people of my generation or older this is perhaps potentially the most frightening situation since the Cuban missile crisis in the early 1960s,'' he told BBC radio.
ON WALL STREET, GRIEF MATCHED BY RESOLVE
The cost of the attacks will be colossal and with investors holding their breath for Wall Street to open, the government signaled it was ready to provide economic props to try and keep the United States from sliding deeper into a downturn.
The grief of mourning Wall Street financiers was matched by their resolve to get back to business as usual.
Just three blocks southeast of where the towers collapsed, a giant U.S. flag fluttered above the entrance to the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites) ready for the thousands of people expected to return on Monday morning for the opening bell.
``You're damn right the firm is going to come back,'' said David Komansky, chairman and chief executive of America's powerful brokerage Merrill Lynch and Co. ``This place did not get to be what it is by having a bunch of pussycats here.''
The NYSE, the world's largest stock exchange, has been closed, along with other New York financial markets, since Tuesday, the longest shutdown since the Great Depression.
In a symbolically charged ceremony, representatives of New York's police and fire departments will ring the NYSE's opening bell at 9:33 a.m. EDT after two minutes of silence to honor the victims and the singing of ``God Bless America.''
Asian shares fell overnight in pre-Wall Street nervousness that saw Japan's Nikkei share index fall five percent to a 17-year low of 9,504.41 points. The Eurotop 300 index of top European blue chips, fell 2.5 percent to October 1998's low.
Concerted efforts by the U.S. market watchdog, the Federal Reserve (news - web sites), high-profile financial figures and leading companies could cushion Wall Street from any massive, opening sell-off.
``I would be very surprised if the Federal Reserve did not cut interest rates before the opening of the ... exchanges,'' said David Brown, chief European economist at Bear Stearns.
``I have great faith in the resiliency of the economy,'' Bush said. ``The markets open tomorrow ... We'll show the world.''
CHILLING SEARCH, POIGNANT MOMENTS
Rescue workers labored for a seventh day over the ruins of the towers in the heart of New York's financial district, but prospects dimmed that any of the nearly 4,957 people now listed as missing in the concrete and steel sarcophagus survived.
In a chilling discovery, the body of a male air crew member was found bound hand and foot, a police source said. Earlier, the body of a flight attendant was found with her hands bound.
Away from the site, thousands of posters of those missing covered bus shelters, telephone booths and subway walls.
One, poignant in its simplicity, read: ``Have you seen my Daddy? Jason Jacobs.'' It carried a telephone number and a photograph of a smiling toddler playing with her father.
In the most recent count, 190 people were confirmed dead, including 37 firefighters and rescue workers.
Across New York, mourners struggling to make sense of the carnage packed churches for memorial services and flocked to firehouses to pay tribute to ``New York's Bravest.''
More than 300 firefighters and emergency service workers are among the missing. ``The worst part is when you come across bunker gear, and you know you've got a firefighter. It's horrendous,'' firefighter Joseph Tustin said.
In Tuesday's attacks two hijacked airliners struck the World Trade Center, another the Pentagon and a fourth crashed into a Pennsylvania field.
As more details emerged of the nightmarish day, Cheney said Bush had made the ``horrendous'' decision to shoot down civilian airliners if they threatened the Capitol or the White House.
MASSIVE HUNT, BIN LADEN PRIME SUSPECT
The FBI (news - web sites) has 4,000 agents tracking 40,000 leads.
U.S. officials said on Sunday that two more ``material witnesses'' had been taken into custody, joining two others already detained.
A further 25 people were taken into custody on alleged immigration violations and were being questioned, and the FBI was seeking more than 100 others for questioning.
Investigators hoped the arrests and detentions would eventually lead them to the man the White House said with growing conviction was their prime suspect -- Osama bin Laden.
Bin Laden, a 44-year-old multimillionaire militant, denied in a statement that he conducted the attacks, saying that Afghanistan would not permit it. He is believed to be responsible for previous attacks on the U.S. in retribution for ''desecration'' by U.S. troops during the 1990-91 Gulf crisis.
Cheney was not buying bin Laden's denial. ``We are quite confident ... that he is in fact the prime suspect,'' he said.
Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) and other officials stressed that there were more people and groups involved than just bin Laden.
A small advance took place on the diplomatic front when Pakistan's military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, pledged full cooperation with the United States.
Powell expressed cautious optimism that condemnations by Iran and Syria of Tuesday's attacks could open the door to cooperation with two unlikely allies.
Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites), however, said Israel would not make concessions to the Palestinians to help U.S. efforts to recruit Arab and Islamic nations in an anti-terror alliance.
In Kabul, the spiritual leader of the Taliban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, called an urgent council of Islamic clerics to discuss the defense of his increasingly isolated nation. |
