The United States moved on to a war footing this weekend, with President George W. Bush angrily vowing retaliation for the horrific attacks against New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon he said were likely perpetrated by Osama bin Laden.
Even as efforts continued to recover the bodies of the estimated 5,000 people killed Tuesday when hijackers turned four passenger aircraft into fuel-laden weapons of destruction, Bush met his top security advisors at his Camp David retreat to plot the US military response.
"I will not settle for a token act. Our response must be sweeping, sustained and effective. We have much to do and much to ask of the American people. You will be asked for your patience, for the conflict will not be short," the president said in a radio address Saturday before the meeting.
The US Congress has given the government an extra 40 billion dollars and permission to call up 50,000 reservists to both boost defensive measures and use "all necessary and appropriate force" to respond.
Although no country has been given as a target, strikes by the United States and its allies are almost certain to be conducted in Afghanistan, whose fundamentalist Muslim rulers, the Taliban, have been harboring bin Laden.
Foreigners have already left the country, and neighboring Iran and Pakistan were reportedly closing their borders.
Pakistan has also, under intense US pressure, dropped its support of the Taliban and promised to abide by a series of secret US demands believed to include intelligence assistance in tracking down bin Laden and his network as well as help in strikes against Afghanistan.
Other reports have said the United States wants Pakistan to allow the use of its territory or airspace for attacks on Afghanistan. The Taliban has warned Pakistan it faces war if it does so.
At the Camp David meeting, US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who in 1991 was the top US military commander during the Gulf War, hailed Pakistan's "willingness to assist us in whatever might be required in that part of the world, as we determine who these perpetrators are."
Speaking to reporters, Bush made it clear Powell was talking about bin Laden.
"If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he will be sorely mistaken," he said.
"We will find those who did it. We will smoke them out of their holes, we'll get them running, and we'll bring them to justice," he said.
US officials have taken no notice of a denial from bin Laden that he masterminded the attacks. They believe the Saudi-born dissident was also behind the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa and last year's blast that crippled the warship USS Cole in Yemen.
The investigation into Tuesday's devastation continued, with US Justice Department officials saying 25 people had either been arrested or detained in connection with the attacks.
Two lawmakers who receive intelligence briefings warned that the zone in and around Washington remained a high-risk zone for other attacks.
Congressman Porter Goss, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee told CNN late Saturday that there were "other easy targets, vulnerable targets ... filled with innocent people," while Senator John McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the country still faced "a variety of threats ... including missiles and nuclear weapons and biological and chemical warfare."
America, meantime, began the somber process of burying the dead.
Away from lower Manhattan, federal, state and local dignitaries attended funeral services Saturday for some of the firefighters who are being acclaimed for their acts of heroism in Tuesday's carnage.
Emergency workers have pulled 159 bodies from the rubble of the collapsed World Trade Center, but New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani said more than 4,900 people were still missing. Most are thought to have perished. Another 189 people are missing and presumed dead in the Pentagon, including the 64 people on the plane that smashed into it.
The New York Stock Exchange, home to the biggest stock market in the world and located close to the World Trade Center, was due to reopen for business Monday.
There was a widely held sentiment that the new global uncertainty and fear brought on by the attacks may have pushed the already fragile US economy into recession.
Already, major US airlines have announced they are cutting their flights by 20 percent in the face of diminished demand and costly new security measures.
One airline, Continental, is laying off 12,000 employees, with chief executive Gordon Bethune predicting a total 100,000 will be laid off across the industry. "We are all going to be bankrupt before the end of the year," he warned, despite government plans for a possible multi-billion-dollar bailout.
Faced with what would appear to be a long period of economic volatility and armed conflict, countries around the world have counseled the United States to show restraint.
Allies Britain, France and Germany stressed they stood by the United States but indicated the final decision on whether to participate in a US-led offensive was up to them.
Russia is keen to promote a worldwide effort against "international terrorism" but has been hesitant to loan facilities for US strikes.
And Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a longtime enemy of the United States and the only Arab leader not to have condemned the terror attacks, departed from his customary diatribe against the United States to advise Washington against using force in retaliation.
"The United States needs common sense and not force," Saddam said in an open letter addressed to the West -- WASHINGTON (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
