The Earlybird: Today's headlines

Bush, the investigation, the victims, Congress, the airlines and more:

• President Bush on Wednesday "declared the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon 'acts of war'... and asked Congress for enough money to do 'whatever it takes' to address the crisis," the Dallas Morning News reports.
• NationalJournal.com has a transcript of Bush's statement.
• On Wednesday Bush "huddled with" advisers, "visited rescue workers at the Pentagon and began assembling an international coalition to back him up when he strikes back," USA Today reports.
• The administration is now considering "more powerful, sustained attacks that accept greater risk to American forces, and may include bombing attacks by manned aircraft and landing special forces troops on the ground," the New York Times reports.
• "Military officers said the Pentagon has quickly updated options for striking terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, a haven for Saudi exile Osama bin Laden," the Washington Times reports.
• White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Wednesday "that officials had 'real and credible information' that the White House, not the Pentagon, had been the original target of American Airlines Flight 77," and on Tuesday the Secret Service received a call saying, "Air Force One is next," the New York Times reports.
• "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told U.S. troops worldwide Wednesday that 'in the days ahead' they will be added to the long history of American military heroes," AP reports.
• Secretary of State Colin Powell "telephoned world leaders Wednesday in search of support for a coordinated response," and he "called for the establishment of a worldwide coalition, including Muslim countries, to oppose all forms of terrorism," AP reports.
• Pakistan's Business Recorder reports that President General Pervez Musharraf has promised President Bush that Pakistan will provide "unstinted cooperation in the fight against terrorism."
• On Wednesday the Bush administration asked "NATO allies, Russia, China, several Arab countries, and scores of other nations for their help," the Boston Globe reports. And "for the first time in its 52-year history, NATO yesterday invoked an article in its charter that says any attack on a member state is considered an attack against the entire 18-nation alliance."
• "NATO flatly denied a British newspaper report on Thursday that it was drawing up emergency plans for a possible massive strike on Afghanistan," Reuters reports.
• Afghanistan's Taliban government issued a statement that said: "We appeal to the United States not to put Afghanistan into more misery because our people have suffered so much," the New York Times reports.
• Reuters reports that "Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement said on Wednesday any U.S. strikes against the country... would succeed only in sowing hatred in the region."
• Diplomats, aid workers and reporters have begun leaving Afghanistan "amid growing fears the country may be involved in retribution attacks by the U.S.," CNN.com reports.
• America's newspaper columnists and television pundits "are urging the Bush administration to bomb someone -- anyone -- who can be tied to Tuesday's devastating attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon," the Washington Post reports.

• "Three men who were trained as pilots have emerged as the central figures in the hijacking" after federal officials in Boston recovered a car rented by a suspected hijacker and retraced the steps of "a dozen men with Arabic surnames," the Boston Globe reports.
• Attorney General John Ashcroft said Wednesday that "all of the hijackers -- 15 to 21 of them, with three to six aboard each of the four planes -- had been identified from passenger lists," the Baltimore Sun reports. Some of the hijackers had ties to bin Laden.
• One source said officials have "identified teams that totaled as many as 50 infiltrators who supported or carried out the strikes," the Los Angeles Times reports.
• The London Times' home page features the headline: "Taleban: 'Osama under house arrest,'" but a Reuters dispatch says the Taliban has denied that report.
• As many as five men from Florida may have been "involved in the hijackings" and may have learned to fly planes in local flight schools, the Miami Herald reports.
• Police want to question Moataz Al-Hallak, a former spiritual leader of the Islamic Society of Arlington in Texas, in connection with the attacks, the Dallas Morning News reports.
• "An Amtrak train heading to Washington, D.C., was stopped by authorities in Providence on Wednesday, police went on board and passengers were ordered off," AP reports. Three people were taken in for questioning in connection with the attacks.
• And police have "detained one man in the northern German city of Hamburg in connection with" the attacks, AP reports.

• Rescuers are still searching for survivors in New York City, but thousands of people are presumed dead, the New York Times reports. The city already has requested 6,000 body bags.
• Fatalities in New York included hundreds of the city's police and firefighters, the New York Post reports.
• "John O'Neill, the former FBI special agent in charge of tracking down Osama bin Laden, is missing in the rubble of the World Trade Center and presumed dead," the New York Post reports.
• Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Wednesday donated blood for the American victims, the New York Post reports.
• "The few stories that remained of the trade center's south tower collapsed Wednesday afternoon," AP reports. In addition, "there were problems with other 'mini-collapses' among some badly damaged buildings nearby, and when the towers were destroyed, the Marriott World Trade Center hotel fell with them.
• "The huge plume of smoke and grit that spread from the World Trade Center could trigger attacks of asthma, emphysema and other chronic lung diseases even a day or two after people were exposed," AP reports.
• Some major corporations decided to "reach into their pockets -- deeply -- to help the families of the city's fallen police, fire and rescue workers," the New York Post reports. "General Electric's shaken top exec pledged a whopping $10 million in a personal phone call" to New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani yesterday morning.
• Some of the passengers on Flight 93, which crashed in western Pennsylvania, tried "to strike back against the terrorists' unprecedented attack," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
• At the Pentagon, "an estimated 120 military personnel were missing and presumed dead in a collapsed wing," USA Today reports.
• At 8 a.m. this morning, there was an evacuation "from the area of the Pentagon where search and rescue activities has been underway for two days," but it was not clear what the reason for the evacuation was, AP reports.
• First lady Laura Bush visited three hospitalized Pentagon personnel Wednesday, and she "also thanked White House employees who lined up to donate blood," AP reports.
• The Washington Times has a list of resources where people can get or give help.
• The Washington Post lists what Washington residents and workers can expect today, including transportation information and building closings.
• "The new and previous owner[s] of the World Trade Center are bracing for what might become a battle royale over more than $1 billion worth of insurance proceeds," the New York Post reports.

• A bipartisan resolution "vowing U.S. retaliation for the most deadly terror attacks ever on American soil won final congressional approval" early Thursday morning in the 408-0 House vote, "about 12 hours after the Senate also unanimously approved it, 100-0," Reuters reports.
• Legislation authorizing the use of force is being drafted in several forms, CongressDailyAM reports, but there is confusion over how best to proceed.
• Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., urged military strikes against Afghanistan: "I say bomb the hell out of them," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. He said: "If there's collateral damage, so be it. They certainly found our civilians to be expendable."
• Rep. Dan Miller, R-Fla., who flew aboard Air Force One with Bush on Tuesday, said the White House was "95 percent confident it was going to be bin Laden," Reuters reports.

• "Outraged lawmakers responded yesterday to the attacks" with "vows to make war on terrorists and to spend untold billions rebuilding national security and U.S. pride," the Washington Times reports.
• Congress is "moving swiftly to give President Bush as much as $20 billion to respond" to the attack on U.S. soil, USA Today reports. The House votes today on an emergency spending bill, and the legislation is "expected to clear the Senate and be headed for the president's desk by Friday."
• The $20 billion includes "reimbursements to federal, state and local governments for the cost of responding to the attacks, repair of public facilities and transit systems, increased transit security, counterterrorism efforts and new military spending," the Baltimore Sun reports.
• Efforts to finalize a supplemental appropriation have snagged on lawmakers' concerns that Bush's request for funding and authorization to use force are "unduly broad," CongressDailyAM reports.
• Congressional Republicans and Democrats "promised on Wednesday to set aside differences over a planned national missile defense and quickly approve more spending on military and anti-terrorist activities," Reuters reports.
• Spending on "surveillance technology will surge" in the wake of the attacks while the Defense Department, CIA and FBI "will also get more funds to beef up intelligence staffing and unmanned reconnaissance vehicles that might root out potential terrorists before they strike, analysts said," Reuters reports.
• Congressional leaders yesterday "abandoned their fixation on Social Security 'lock boxes' and other budgetary restraints and promised to give President Bush as much money as needed to cope with the emergency," the Washington Post reports. The Senate postponed action on energy legislation, "while House and Senate members said they would delay a negotiating session on Bush's education bill."

• The Federal Aviation Administration announced new, stricter airline guidelines Wednesday, which will include "such measures as placing armed guards at baggage checkpoints, retraining airlines personnel, and removing plastic knives from bagel stands," the Boston Globe reports.
• The FAA will allow airports to reopen at 11 a.m. today, AP reports. However, operations will be slower.
• The FAA "has allowed flights diverted Tuesday to resume flying," but "all other flights are grounded," USA Today reports.
• "Both United Air Lines and American Airlines had security procedures in place at Logan International Airport Tuesday that were specifically designed to prevent suspicious individuals who fit the profile of terrorists from getting on commercial flights," the Boston Globe reports.
• "Whoever was in the cockpits of the two airliners that destroyed the World Trade Center didn't follow secret procedures meant to alert air-traffic controllers to hijackings," the New York Post reports.
• Midway Airlines announced Wednesday that it will shut down immediately, "ending all flights and laying off 1,700 workers, in anticipation of a massive decline in air travel," the Raleigh News and Observer reports.

• The stock market "will be closed Thursday for the third consecutive day, the longest shutdown since World War I," but exchanges are expected to open by Monday, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• Richard Grasso, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, said "the financial district is still in 'recovery phase' and that Wall Street officials don't want to interfere with rescue efforts," USA Today reports.
• Traders on Wall Street are "still dazed by an attack in which they were at ground zero, and burdened with the once unimaginable task of caring for many victims' families and operating without so many valuable and trusted people," the New York Times reports.
• "The Federal Reserve could lower interest rates when U.S. stock markets reopen in an effort to prevent the economy from falling into recession," CNNfn.com reports.
• Stock markets around the world fell yesterday, the Christian Science Monitor reports.
• Europe's equity markets edged up in early trading Thursday, the Financial Times reports. In addition, "the dollar held fairly steady in early European trade."
• "The dollar remained firm against the ruble Wednesday... while [Russian] stocks dropped more than 5 percent," the Moscow Times reports. "The panic that made Muscovites dump dollars on Tuesday was over by Wednesday morning. Exchange rates -- which fell as low as 15 rubles per dollar at some exchanges -- returned to normal."

• Some Arab-American communities in New York have been the target of harassment, the New York Post reports.
• "Anti-Islamic sentiment has turned to violence in pockets across the world following Tuesday's terrorist attacks," the The London Guardian reports. "A Molotov cocktail was thrown at an Arab-American community centre in Chicago, a firebomb was hurled at a mosque in Montreal, and in Australia, aggressors threw stones and bottles at a busload of Muslim schoolchildren."
• Arab-American, Muslim and Sikh leaders "reported sporadic vandalism and assaults against their communities," Salon.com reports. The violence has included gunshots and hate phone messages at mosques, a New York man pointing a gun at a gas station employee and a prison fight in Washington state.
• Rep. David Bonior, D-Mich., "called Wednesday for Americans to fight against the anti-Arab bigotry that has spread across much of the United States since the terror attacks in New York and Washington," Reuters reports.
• A man on an Amtrak train from Boston wearing a green turban was arrested for having a "blade strapped to his chest," the Boston Globe reports. "Nearly six hours after they stopped the train," police released the man, "although they apparently still plan to press weapons charges against him."

• The attorneys general of Missouri and Illinois are "targeting gasoline stations that used motorists' panic after terrorist attacks Tuesday as an excuse to charge up to $5 a gallon," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
• "Drawn by word of mouth and a desire to share anxieties over devastating attacks by a shadowy enemy, scores of people held a candlelight vigil at the White House" yesterday, Reuters reports.
• Many Americans have called for heightened security measures ranging from "the creation of a national identification card, the introduction of scannable passports, and the use of face-recognition scanning software, which allows video cameras to track individuals in large crowds," the Boston Globe reports. But many see the ideas as "dangerous schemes that could eat away freedom and civil liberties."

• World Bank officials want to cancel their Sept. 28-29 meetings in Washington, CongressDailyAM reports.
• National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue "spent much of Wednesday debating whether to cancel this weekend's games," and the NFL "expects to decide by this afternoon," the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports.
• New York Gov. George Pataki (R) and state lawmakers will meet today "to try to determine when voting can resume in the mayor's race -- with city officials saying the earliest they could reopen the primary polls is in two weeks," the New York Post reports. New York law "requires a postponed election to be held again in 20 days, that requirement could easily go out the window."

• The Israeli army "rolled into Jenin and Jericho in the West Bank early today, hours after raiding other West Bank sites," AP reports. Ten Palestinians were killed during fighting yesterday and today.
• "United Nations war crimes prosecutors called yesterday for the immediate arrest of the fugitive Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, saying he has had contacts with Bosnian Serb officials in recent months," Reuters reports.