Senate 'go-ahead' for Bush

WASHINGTON, SEPT. 14. The U.S. Senate on Friday gave its consent for the President to use force against those responsible for this week's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. It earlier approved $40 billion in emergency aid to help the victims and hunt down the perpetrators of the attacks.

The 96-0 Senate vote on the funds came just hours before the U.S. President, Mr. George W. Bush, accompanied by a contingent of New York lawmakers, left for New York where two hijacked jets rammed into the World Trade Center towers, destroying them. Another commandeered airliner was crashed into the Pentagon.

Senators followed with a 98-0 vote on the second measure that authorised the President to use ``necessary and appropriate force'' in retaliating against the terrorist strikes.

Mr. Bush will also activate up to 50,000 members of the National Guard and Reserve to aid recovery and security efforts. He acted on the recommendation of the Defence Secretary, Mr. Donald H. Rumsfeld, who presented the proposal during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Friday.

Two officials stressed that the call-up was not part of a military mobilisation aimed at the terrorists. Instead, Mr. Rumsfeld wants the troops, the largest number called up since the 1991 Gulf War, to support air patrols over New York and Washington and remain alert elsewhere in the country.

Strike options

Mr. Bush prepared for the call-up as the Pentagon weighed how to eradicate the terrorists who hit New York and Washington, as well as the states and organisations that support them. The military strike options go far beyond the short-term cruise missile assaults of years past in Afghanistan and Sudan and isolated airstrikes against sites in Iraq.

Instead, they involve the potential lengthy use of military forces on the land, at sea and in the air. Options include the covert insertion of elite special forces and long-range bomb strikes from manned aircraft, said senior military and administration officials.

Probe in top gear

At full throttle, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials are trying to identify collaborators in the attacks to ensure they don't strike again. The Justice Department on Friday released the names of the 19 hijackers involved in the attacks. All had West Asian names.

Among them was Mohamed Atta, 33, of Hollywood and Coral Springs, Florida, identified by German authorities as being tied to an Islamic fundamentalist group that planned attacks on American targets. Atta was aboard American Airlines Flight 11 that took off from Boston's Logan Airport and crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center.

On Thursday, airports in New York were abruptly shut and authorities apprehended at least five men being sought for questioning in connection with Tuesday's attacks. Two groups of passengers of West Asian descent who were detained at two New York airports were later determined by the FBI to have no connection to the terrorist attacks, Sen. Joseph Biden, Delaware Democrat and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Friday.

The FBI searched worldwide for possible suspects who had recent flight training, ties to the hijackers or their backers, or attempted to enter the U.S. recently.

Black boxes recovered

Early on Friday, investigators recovered the voice and data recorders from the jet that slammed into the Pentagon. On Thursday, searchers found the flight data recorder from the hijacked plane that went down in Pennsylvania.

Elsewhere, U.S. and Philippine authorities searched a Manila hotel in connection with the investigation. Philippine officials also questioned a Saudi Airlines pilot and refused entry to nine Malaysian men suspected of having undergone terrorist training.

- AP

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Front Page
Next     : Commanders back Musharraf