The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Bush's speech, Ridge's appointment, military's plans, bin Laden's whereabouts, more potential attacks, future WTC, Kitzhaber's decision:

• During President Bush's televised speech to a joint session of Congress last night, he "demanded... that Afghanistan's leaders immediately deliver Osama bin Laden and his network and close down every terrorist camp in the country or face military attack by the United States," the New York Times reports.
• CNN.com has a transcript of Bush's speech.
• Bush's speech showed that his task is to define "a sustainable and achievable goal for the military action that most Americans already support," the Los Angeles Times reports.
• Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., and Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., gave a rare bipartisan response following Bush's speech, Reuters reports. EMediaMillWorks transcribed their remarks.
• Bush "dropped a political bombshell on Pennsylvania" by naming Gov. Tom Ridge (R) to a Cabinet-level position to fight terrorism on U.S. soil, the Philadelphia Daily News reports. Ridge will resign as governor Oct. 5 to lead the Office of Homeland Security.
• The speech was "the finest, strongest, clearest, several-times-chill-giving speech of his life," Time.com reports.
• An ABC News/Washington Post overnight poll showed "91 percent of Americans currently support the way Bush has handled last week's" attacks.

• "Congress and the White House agreed early Friday on a $15 billion plan to financially bolster the airline industry," AP reports. Both the House and the Senate are expected to approve the plan today.
• House leaders on Thursday created a subcommittee on terrorism that will be part of the House Intelligence Committee, CongressDailyAM reports.
• "Congressional leaders in both parties made clear yesterday they are in no rush to approve the expanded powers requested by Attorney General John Ashcroft to fight terrorism," the Washington Times reports.
• "Much of the support in Congress" for closing and downsizing military bases "has evaporated following last week's terrorist attacks," the Wall Street Journal reports.
• "House and Senate appropriations leaders from both parties made a proposal to the White House Thursday to wrap up the regular FY02 appropriations process with relative speed and ease -- perhaps by the end of October," CongressDailyAM reports.
• Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday to wait before legislating more tax cuts because it will take several weeks to determine the severity of the economic fallout from the terrorist attacks, USA Today reports.

• "The Pentagon has issued deployment orders to Army units, in addition to the dozens of warplanes already ordered to go to the Persian Gulf region," CNN.com reports.
• Defense officials told the Washington Times on Thursday that "the Pentagon is planning to use thousands of special-operations forces and send additional combat planes to the Persian Gulf region for a variety of possible attacks on terrorists."
• And special-operations forces "have begun moving into countries bordering Afghanistan to begin a covert mission to capture or kill indicted terrorist Osama bin Laden," USA Today reports.
• The United States "is pressing its European allies to agree to a military campaign to topple the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and replace it with an interim administration under United Nations auspices," according to a "secret memo" obtained by the London Guardian.
• "While flying to New York for a memorial service for the British victims of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon," British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday "signalled that he was ready to send British troops into action" against bin Laden's terrorist network, the London Telegraph reports.
• "Operation Infinite Justice" -- the slogan given to the United States' war on terrorism -- will likely be rescinded by the Defense Department because it may offend Muslims, the Washington Times reports.

• "Hours after" Bush's speech, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan said Friday that the Taliban "won't hand over suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden without proof or evidence that he was involved in the U.S. terror attacks," CNN.com reports.
• "Sources in Pakistan" said Friday that bin Laden "silently left Afghanistan for an undisclosed destination" four days ago, Pakistan's News International reports.
• Intelligence officials told the Washington Times on Thursday that bin Laden "is preparing to flee Afghanistan and set up operations in the African nation of Somalia."
• "So many thousands of terrified refugees" from Afghanistan "raced toward the Pakistani border yesterday that security guards hurriedly strung rolls of barbed wire across the border to keep them out," the Christian Science Monitor reports.

• "An internal memo circulated to federal employees Thursday warned that the government has 'credible evidence' more terror attacks are being planned on sensitive targets in the United States," UPI reports. No details were given in the memo.
• Attorney General John Ashcroft yesterday informed Acting Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift (R) and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino (D) "that the government has information that Boston may be targeted for terrorist attack this weekend," the Boston Globe reports.
• Boston officials said "security has been heightened and measures are in place to prevent terrorists from poisoning or disrupting the Boston area's water supply," the Boston Herald reports.

• Seven people "suspected of belonging to extremist Islamic groups have been arrested in France" after "an Algerian man being held in the United Arab Emirates allegedly confessed to planning an attack on the U.S. embassy in Paris," CNN.com reports.
• The FBI arrested a "Kuwaiti liquor store clerk who, authorities believe, engaged in numerous financial transactions with two of the hijackers," the Washington Post reports.
• "Investigators have a canary who is singing about possible New Jersey links to the Twin Towers terror attacks," the New York Post reports. "Accused arms smuggler Diaa B. Mohsen -- an Egyptian who lives in Jersey City -- was interviewed by federal agents last week" about Stinger missiles believed to be "destined for terror kingpin Osama bin Laden."
• Bin Laden "was in contact with Iraqi government agents from his base in Afghanistan in the days leading up to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks," the Washington Times reports.
• "After reviewing radar tapes," investigators believe that "the primary target of terrorists who hijacked an American Airlines flight from Dulles International Airport appears to have been the Pentagon, not the White House or Capitol," the Washington Post reports.
• "Several of those who commandeered jetliners last week apparently assumed the names of other Middle Easterners," and the FBI faced questions yesterday over whether it was "too quick to say it knew who the suicide hijackers were," the Dallas Morning News reports.

• Bush's speech "didn't seem to be having much impact on U.S. investors Friday morning as stock futures indicated another big selloff at the opening bell on Wall Street," CNNfn.com reports.
• Stocks fell again Thursday, and during the past week "the Dow Jones industrial average has lost more than 1200 points, part of the worst 7-day streak ever," USA Today reports.
• A Texas family that is one of the largest shareholders of Disney stock "on Thursday sold a massive 135 million-share block of Walt Disney Co. stock -- about 6 percent of all outstanding shares -- as the entertainment giant's stock hovered close to a six-year low," the Orlando Sentinel reports.

• Southwest Airlines "is considering cutbacks and has halted delivery of aircraft from Boeing Co.," the Wall Street Journal reports.
• Some international airline companies "may have to ground their planes because nervous insurers are canceling war risk cover," BBCNews.com reports.
• "Three of New Hampshire's four representatives in Washington agree that serious consideration should be given to allowing the nation's airlines pilots the option of carrying loaded firearms into their cockpits," the Manchester Union-Leader reports.
• Meanwhile, Amtrak is facing increased demand and will ask the federal government "for about $3 billion in emergency funds during the next 18 months to buy additional passenger cars, improve tracks and electrical systems and boost safety and security," the Wall Street Journal reports.

• New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R) "said the number of missing had soared by more than 900 with the addition of foreign citizens who had not previously been counted," the Chicago Tribune reports. "The total is now 6,333," and "the number of dead rose to 241."
• Giuliani "said there is little chance of finding anyone alive," AP reports. The last survivor was found the day after the crashes.
• "Most buildings near the fallen World Trade Center towers are sound and repairable, structural engineers said yesterday, but five are unsafe for occupancy," Long Island Newsday reports.
• World Trade Center operator Larry Silverstein "has repeatedly vowed to rebuild, but thinks four buildings of about 50 stories each would be more practical than the giant towers destroyed in last week's terrorist attack," the New York Post reports.
• Looting of shops and restaurants in the concourse beneath 5 World Trade Center "appears to have begun soon after the fires in the upper stories of the building were extinguished last week, and continued in a less aggressive fashion through Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning of this week," the New York Times reports. Police are "investigating whether rescue workers were responsible."

• Virginia gubernatorial candidates Mark Warner (D) and Mark Earley (R) this week began "airing patriotic campaign advertising that plays down their race for governor but gently reminds Virginia voters that the election is less than seven weeks away," the Washington Post reports.
• A Richmond Times-Dispatch/NBC12 Poll shows Warner leading Earley by 3 percentage points -- 39 percent to 36 percent -- with 16 percent undecided and 1 percent backing a Libertarian candidate.
• Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) "announced Thursday he will not run against" Sen. Gordon Smith (R) next year, "for the sake of his wife and 3-year-old son, and because he wants to focus on state issues for the last 15 months of his current -- and final -- term," the Salem State News reports.
• With Ridge stepping down for a Bush cabinet position, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Mark Schweiker (R) will be sworn in Oct. 5, Philadelphia Daily News reports. Schweiker "is a 48-year-old former Bucks County commissioner who's been criticized by some as a lightweight, but who now may revisit his decision not to run for a full term in 2002."
• Suffolk, Mass., District Attorney Ralph Martin (R) "announced yesterday he will leave office in January to join a Boston law firm, ending hopes that he would team up with Acting Governor Jane Swift and create what Republicans called a 'dream ticket' for the 2002 election," the Boston Globe reports.

Pundits & Editorials
© National Journal Group Inc.
Friday, Sept. 21, 2001
8:30 a.m. EST

Bush praise, National airport and Virginia's gov race:

• In the New York Times, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi A. Annan contends that U.N. "conventions already provide a legal framework for many of the steps that must be taken to eradicate terrorism."
• E. J. Dionne Jr. writes that there will be a time again for partisan politics: "We have domestic disagreements that should be fought out -- but not now."
• Derrick Z. Jackson contends that "if terrorism out of the Middle East is to stop, America must stop fueling the spiral of violence with its lopsided support of Israel."
• Jim Hoagland asserts that "this crisis begins in the Persian Gulf, and must end there."
• Thomas L. Friedman writes that terrorists "reflect the mood in their home countries more than we might think."
• David S. Broder notes that the United States had heard warnings "over and over again about the threat to the United States from terrorist organizations with vendettas against this country."
• Diana West writes that "Americans must now begin to ask themselves where the onus of prejudice ends and the liberating effects of prudence begin."
• Daniel Henninger observes that it is "clearer to me now that the citizens of the United States know very well where they came from and what, as a people, they wish to remain."
• Ed Koch praises President Bush, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R) and New York Gov. George Pataki (R): "With men like these as our leaders, we shall not only persevere but we shall overcome."
• Deborah Simmons writes that some journalists "talk like girls -- not women and men who cover news."

• The Los Angeles Times writes that Bush "set forth -- in broad language that will have to be fleshed out soon -- daunting military, economic and diplomatic burdens. The strength of Bush's speech is that he made shouldering them seem possible."
• The Wall Street Journal remarks that "with his address to a joint session of Congress last night, there's little doubt that Mr. Bush is growing into his role as a wartime leader."
• The New York Times writes that Bush "accomplished everything he needed to do last night."
• The Boston Globe asks, "Where is the line between crime-fighting laws that add a measure of necessary muscle and clumsy tools that infringe on basic freedoms?"
• The Dallas Morning News writes that Congress should "focus on a few remaining items, do them well and then adjourn."
• The Washington Times writes that "Bush should understand that leaving Reagan airport closed makes cowards of all of us."
• The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes that "the Justice Department and the INS must proceed carefully, and strike the proper balance between security and liberty" in strengthening immigration laws against terrorism.
• The Washington Post urges Virginia's gubernatorial candidates to actively campaign because the "attack and the challenges it poses for the economy -- in Northern Virginia especially -- have made the gubernatorial choice all the more important.
• The Chicago Tribune writes that Americans should keep looking for miracles: "Plenty have occurred these past nine days, even if few have occurred in the places we've been focusing all our hopes."
• The Albuquerque Tribune writes that the "Senate does a terrible injustice to the nation's students and science education if it retains" a bill that questions evolution.