MSNBC
September 13, 2001
http://www.msnbc.com/news/627028_asp.htm

Sept. 13 — President Bush, Congress and the Pentagon on Thursday pledged a sustained military campaign against terrorists, beginning with Osama bin Laden, who U.S. officials said they had determined was directly responsible for the terrorist strikes in New York and Washington.

U.S. GOVERNMENT SOURCES told NBC News’ Jim Miklaszewski on Thursday evening that based on “overwhelming” evidence, the Bush administration had concluded that the al-Qaeda organization run by bin Laden had executed the breathtaking operation in which U.S. jetliners were hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

NBC’s Norah O’Donnell reported that a sustained military attack on bin Laden, the exiled Saudi millionaire who has vowed to destroy the United States, would likely include air, land and sea forces. Two aircraft carriers are in the Arabian Peninsula region, each carrying 75 bombers capable of launching long-range missiles.

The Washington Post reported on its Web site that the Pentagon planned to call several thousand reservists to active duty in the next few days. Defense officials told the Post that the activation would likely mark the start of a much larger military mobilization in the wake of Tuesday’s terrorist strikes.

Bush informed lawmakers that military aircraft were patrolling the skies over Washington and seven other cities, according to Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia’s delegate to Congress.

Earlier Thursday, Bush told reporters that allies around the world had vowed to help him “whip terrorism.”

The Associated Press quoted government officials as saying the Bush administration was pressuring Pakistan to close its borders and allow U.S. jets to fly over its airspace.

Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani military ruler whose government has been accused of backing Afghanistan’s Taliban movement, pledged full cooperation Thursday in the general fight against terrorism and dispatched a delegation to Afghanistan for talks with Taliban leaders.

India’s external affairs minister, Jaswant Singh, told The Times of India newspaper that India would provide logistical help or a staging ground for a U.S. military operation.

© 2001 MSNBC

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