Use of this site indicates your agreement to the Terms of Service (updated 08/09/2001).

Bush puts government on highest alert
President vows that U.S. will track down terrorists

By Tom Raum / Associated Press

Doug Mills / Associated Press President Bush watches television as he talks on the phone with New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani and Gov. George Pataki aboard Air Force One during a flight following a statement about the two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center. Text of president's remarks    The texts of President Bush's remarks Tuesday following attacks on U.S. installations:    At Barksdale Air Force Base, La., Tuesday afternoon:    Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and freedom will be defended.    I want to reassure the American people that the full resources of the federal government are working to assist local authorities to save lives and to help the victims of these attacks.    Make no mistake: The United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts. I've been in regular contact with the vice president, secretary of defense, the national security team and my Cabinet. We have taken all appropriate security precautions to protect the American people. Our military at home and around the world is on high-alert status and we have taken the necessary security precautions to continue the functions of your government. We have been in touch with the leaders of Congress and with world leaders to assure them that we will do whatever is necessary to protect America and Americans.    I ask the American people to join me in saying a thanks for all the folks who have been fighting hard to rescue our fellow citizens and to join me in saying a prayer for the victims and their families.    The resolve of our great nation is being tested. But make no mistake: We will show the world that we will pass this test. God bless.    In Sarasota, Fla., Tuesday morning, before attacks spread to Washington:    Ladies and gentlemen, this is a difficult moment for America. I unfortunately will be going back to Washington after my remarks. Secretary Rod Paige and the lieutenant governor will take the podium and discuss education.    I do want to thank the folks here at the Booker Elementary School for their hospitality.    Today we've had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country. I have spoken to the vice president, to the governor of New York, to the director of the FBI, and I've ordered that the full resources of the federal government go to help the victims and their families and to conduct a full-scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act.    Terrorism against our nation will not stand.    And now if you join me in a moment of silence.    May God bless the victims, their families and America. Thank you very much. Comment on this story Send this story to a friend Get Home Delivery

   WASHINGTON -- President Bush put a stunned federal government on the highest alert as officials scrambled to protect the nation's leaders and calm Americans after Tuesday's deadly terrorist attacks.
   From the security of a military base in Louisiana, Bush vowed to "hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly attacks" that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and severely damaged the Pentagon.
   Administration officials and members of Congress said they suspected fugitive terrorist Osama bin Laden, who has been sheltered in Afghanistan, in the attacks. Afghanistan's hardline Taliban rulers rejected such suggestions.
   Bush planned a Tuesday evening address to the nation.
   Shortly after hijacked airliners plowed into the two landmarks, symbols of American commerce and military might, U.S. security officials acted quickly to put the president, Vice President Dick Cheney, and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, out of harm's way.
   Hastert is next in the line of presidential succession after Cheney.
   Hastert and other top leaders of Congress were taken to the safety of a secure government facility 75 miles west of Washington.
   In a joint statement the House and Senate leaders said, "We are outraged at this cowardly attack on the people of the United States."
   The government ordered all civilian air traffic ceased until noon Wednesday, at the earliest, after directing all planes in the air to land after the attacks.
   Roads leading out of the nation's capital quickly became clogged with commuters as the government sent home all non-essential workers. Inbound lanes on bridges leading into Washington were closed. Workers traveling out of the city over the Potomac River could see dark plumes of smoke still rising from the Pentagon.
   Dead and wounded at the Pentagon topped 100. The plane had 58 passengers and six crew members, all presumed dead.
   "The president is in a secure location. He is in continuous communication with the vice president and key members of his Cabinet," White House Counselor Karen Hughes told a midafternoon briefing at the Justice Department.
   "While some federal buildings have been evacuated for security reasons and to protect our workers, your federal government continues to function effectively," she said.
   The White House, a few blocks away, had been evacuated, as had other top federal buildings, including the Capitol, the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency.
   Bush, who was in Sarasota, Fla., promoting his education program at the time of the attacks, flew aboard Air Force One to military bases in Louisiana and Nebraska before getting the green light from the Secret Service and heading back to Washington late Tuesday.
   He took part in telephone conferences with his national security team during the day, and called New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani from his plane.
   Cheney remained in a nearly deserted White House, in a secure basement bunker, with a handful of other top aides, including National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.
   Black-uniformed Secret Service agents with machine guns patrolled the White House grounds. Fighter jets circled over the city.
   Bush ordered the nation's military to "high-alert status."
   Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, in his Pentagon office when a jetliner blasted a gaping hole in the west side of the building, rushed through Pentagon corridors to the scene and helped injured coworkers before seeking the security of a basement command center.
   The plane took out a huge section of one of the Pentagon's five sides. By midafternoon, intense fires still burned inside the Pentagon, sending up plumes of black acrid smoke and hampering rescue efforts.
   Secretary of State Colin Powell cut short a trip to South America to return to the capital. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was returning from a banking conference in Switzerland. Officials in Washington issued a statement that the Fed was ready to provide more money if necessary to protect the U.S. economy.
   Speaking at a hastily called news briefing at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, Bush blamed the terrorist attacks on "a faceless coward."
   "Make no mistake: The United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts," Bush said.
   "The resolve of our great nation is being tested. ... We will show the world that we will pass this test," he added.
   At the first reports of attacks on New York's World Trade Center, Bush told his Sarasota school audience that "we've had a national tragedy" and said he had to hurry back to Washington.
   However, he first went to the air base in Louisiana, then to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, headquarters of the U.S. Strategic Command. Military fighter jets escorted the presidential aircraft.
   The United States had received no advance warning of the attacks, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said aboard Air Force One. For now, Bush was concerned about the victims, not any judgment of U.S. intelligence, he said.
   "First things first. ... There will come an appropriate time to do all appropriate look-backs," Fleischer said.
   Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he had discussed the attacks with top FBI and intelligence officials.
   "This apparently was well-planned over a number of years, planned by real pros and experts," Hatch said. "Their belief is, at least initially, that this looks like Osama bin Laden's signature."
   One administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said authorities had received a fax during the morning from unknown individuals representing themselves as being part of bin Laden's group.
   In addition, officials reported a threat was telephoned into a congressional office during the morning, triggering the evacuation of the Capitol.
   Several lawmakers compared the attacks to the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War II.
   "You've got to stay calm in situations like this," said Sen. John Warner, R-Va., senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and one of those on the sidewalk outside the Capitol.
   The tragedy reached inside the Justice Department, where Solicitor General Theodore Olson learned his wife was aboard the American Airlines jetliner that crashed into the Pentagon.
   Barbara Olson, a former congressional staffer and Republican activist, was headed to Los Angeles and called her husband as her plane was being hijacked, officials said.
   Meanwhile, responding to criticism of the intelligence community for failing to predict the attacks, CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said, "The CIA has worked diligently and relentlessly to try to counter terrorism."
   "Our resources are being devoted to determining who was responsible for these horrendous attacks, and it doesn't serve any useful purpose in light of that to respond to such criticism," Mansfield said.