October 15, 2001
As Anxiety Grows, Bush Pledges U.S. Will Stay Vigilant
By R. W. APPLE Jr.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 13 — With anxiety about bioterrorism gripping large sections of the United States, President Bush said today, "We are taking strong precautions, we are vigilant, we are determined, the country is alert, and the great power of the American nation will be felt."
But in his weekly radio address, Mr. Bush offered no more specific or detailed reassurances to an ever more jittery American public.
Nor did he provide any new details of the incidents of anthrax exposure in Florida and, most recently, at NBC News in New York, and the arrival of a letter at The New York Times with an unidentified substance, which was turned over to health authorities for testing. The president, who was at Camp David for the weekend, made no comment about the possibility that the incidents might be linked to one another or to the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11.
In his address, the president declared, "I understand that many Americans are feeling uneasy," adding: "The best defense against terrorism is a strong offensive against terrorists. That work continues."
Today, American warplanes and missile-firing ships resumed full- scale attacks on Afghanistan. The Pentagon acknowledged that a 2,000- pound satellite-guided bomb had hit a residential area of the capital, Kabul, as a result of a targeting error, most likely causing civilian casualties.
The bomb was dropped by a Navy F-18 flying off an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, officials said. The Pentagon said in a statement that the United States military was not intentionally striking civilian targets and expressed regret for the loss of life.
As the seventh day of the air assault unfolded with raids on Kabul and Kandahar, Taliban leaders rejected Mr. Bush's offer on Thursday to consider halting the attacks if they handed over Osama bin Laden, promising to fight to their last breath. They also claimed that the airstrikes had killed more than 300 civilians, a claim that was impossible to verify.
Mr. Bush said in his radio address that American military actions had "achieved the goals of the first phase of our campaign."
He continued: "We have disrupted the terrorist network inside Afghanistan. We have weakened the Taliban's military. And we have crippled the Taliban's air defenses. American forces dominate the skies over Afghanistan, and we will use that dominance to make sure terrorists can no longer freely use Afghanistan as a base of operations."
It was evident that a series of events over the last three days — Mr. Bush's repeated appeals to the public to go about their normal lives, the anthrax scare and a general warning from the F.B.I. that new terrorist attacks were imminent — had created a mood of fear and apprehension in the country.
Vice President Dick Cheney said the government had "continuing reporting" to suggest that "the threat level had gone up," but he added that specifics were lacking.
Public officials as well as ordinary citizens complained about getting mixed signals. Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston, for example, said that "contradictory statements from Washington" made it hard for people to know what to do. One thing many were doing was besieging doctors and depleting supplies of antibiotics used against anthrax at stores across the country.
Mr. Cheney, on the "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer," conceded on Friday that "it's bound to be a confusing time for people." Although different departments of government have different responsibilities, he said, "we try to do everything we can to have one coherent message out there." He said the government was "looking for balance and reasonableness," however difficult that is, because it was conscious that terrorists would win if they managed to close down American society.
The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt passed through the Suez Canal today and should be on station in the Arabian Sea within three days. That means that by the middle of next week the United States will have assembled off Pakistan the biggest concentration of naval power since the Persian Gulf war of a decade ago.
In addition to the Theodore Roosevelt, the carriers Enterprise, Carl Vinson and Kitty Hawk will be in the area, with all except the Kitty Hawk carrying their full complements of strike aircraft. The Kitty Hawk is expected to be used as a floating base for helicopters as well as commando units.
A second phase of the allied operation against Afghanistan appears to be rapidly taking shape. After initial reluctance, first Pakistan and then Uzbekistan — one nation directly to the east of Afghanistan, the other directly to the north — have agreed in recent days to the use of some of their air bases for military operations.
More than 1,000 American troops from the Army's 10th Mountain Division have arrived at an Uzbek airfield near the border with Pakistan. They will provide security for American units carrying out search and rescue operations needed once ground combat gets under way.
American marines are expected to go ashore shortly in Pakistan, and British marines, now in Oman, are also expected to move quickly into position.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell is expected to leave on Sunday for Pakistan and India, continuing his coalition-building efforts and, as one State Department official said today, "bringing the Pakistanis up to date on our latest thinking about Afghanistan, including what more they can do to help."
A window for intensified activity appears to be opening as antiterrorist forces come together. Tuesday will bring a new moon to the area, with the kind of darkness with which special forces commanders prefer to cloak their operations. Advanced infra-red and other technology gives allied forces a real edge in night fighting.
In addition, Tuesday opens the last lunar month before the onset of Ramadan, the Muslim holy period when attacks on an Islamic country like Afghanistan would be likely to arouse much more vocal protests in other Islamic countries. For at least the next month, weather in the region should be clear, before the characteristically heavy winter storms.
At the Pentagon on Friday, General Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the bombing campaign was only the beginning of a long war, and he hinted more broadly than he has before that the fight will go beyond airstrikes to include more unconventional warfare by special forces.
"Many of the conventional efforts that you see today are stage-setters for follow-on operations," General Myers said. "Some of those efforts may be visible, but many will not."
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
