October 2, 2001 Diary: America Responds

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Patriotic painting alerts drivers
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
By Mike Belt

Joe Skeeba hopes the American flag and the unbreakable spirit of patriotism that protects this country also will protect his storage building from misdirected motorists.
That's why he recently painted a 10-foot by 20-foot flag on the outside wall of his two-story building, located along the west side of a sharp curve on U.S. Highway 59.

Bush to arm Taliban foes
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
Stymied in its drive to collar Osama bin Laden, the Bush administration is undertaking a concerted new effort to strengthen forces opposed to Taliban rulers harboring him in Afghanistan.
The quiet drive was authorized by President Bush and could engage Russia in providing weapons to anti-Taliban forces, a senior administration official told The Associated Press on Monday.

Investors waiting to hear from Federal Reserve
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
Wall Street took a respite Monday after two weeks of volatile trading, dipping lower as investors absorbed an unsurprising purchasing managers' report and awaited today's Federal Reserve meeting on interest rates.
Analysts attributed the muted reaction to investors' acceptance that the economy will stay weak for a while, as well as their hesitance to make any big moves until more is known about the U.S. response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Moore tours trade center remains
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
By Matt Merkel-Hess

In a hard hat and safety glasses, Kansas Rep. Dennis Moore toured the smoldering remains of the World Trade Center Monday with about 120 members of Congress. "The sensation at the site was just overwhelming," he said. "It was the visual as well as the sound and smell."

Giuliani offers strong remarks to United Nations
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
The General Assembly kicked off a weeklong discussion of counterterrorism on Monday with a finger-wagging speech by New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.
Stepping onto the stage of the world body, which his city hosts, Giuliani stressed that the recent attacks against the United States violated the United Nations' founding principals of protecting world peace and that the member states have a moral obligation to act.

Afghan people aren't U.S. enemy
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
By Trudy Rubin
Philadelphia Inquirer

President Bush says that America's war on terrorism is not aimed at the Afghan people.
But our military preparations are stoking a massive humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where a quarter of the population was already facing starvation before Sept. 11. The war scare has forced international aid agencies to withdraw their staffs, intensifying the food crisis. The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) fears that up to 1.5 million Afghans may soon flee to neighboring countries to find food or avoid bombs.

Bin Laden manual holds volumes of terror
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
Poison gas. Explosives. Hand-to-hand combat. Knives. And religious exhortations. The 11-volume "Manual of Afghan Jihad," or holy war, makes chilling reading — a how-to guide to what it calls the "basic rules of sabotage and destruction."

Federal police needed in airports
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
By Larry Eichel
Knight Ridder Newspapers

Now we know what Tom Ridge's first challenge ought to be when he leaves Harrisburg, Pa., this Friday to become the nation's first chief of homeland security.
It's to convince his new boss that the key to making people feel secure about commercial air travel — and to enhance actual security as well — is to establish a federal airport police force to take over the critical job of screening passengers and luggage.

Hijack suspects apparently had money left over
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
Federal investigators have discovered that Mohamed Atta, the suicide hijacker believed to have piloted the first jetliner into the World Trade Center, wired several thousand dollars to a top associate of Osama bin Laden three days before the deadly attack.

Security hinders Fort Riley access
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
New security rules that restrict nearly all civilian access to defense installations have left Junction City taxi companies reeling and caused disruptions for travelers trying to get from Fort Riley to airports in other cities.
Owners of the A-One Cab Co. and Bell Taxi Transportation Inc. say their business has been cut in half since the restrictions were imposed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

School officials rethink travel plans
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
Students at the High School for the Creative and Performing Arts are still selling candy bars to raise money for a trip to Italy next spring, but whether they ever get there is another question.

New York City offers $1 billion in bonds to pay immediate bills from trade center catastrophe
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
(Web Posted Monday at 4:21 p.m.) New York City offered $1 billion in bonds for sale Monday to start paying for the aftermath of a terrorist attack Mayor Rudolph Giuliani branded "maniacal" during an address to the United Nations.

Europe arrests reveal plots on U.S. interests
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
Anti-terrorism judges were questioning a key suspect at the center of a plot to attack the U.S. Embassy in Paris while additional arrests were made elsewhere in Europe and the Middle East on Monday.

German laws hamper investigation
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
German intelligence intercepted phone calls by celebrating followers of Osama bin Laden, providing a crucial link in the international investigation of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Minnesota workers call strike patriotic
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
Up to 28,000 Minnesota state employees went on strike Monday, brushing off suggestions that the walkout was ill-timed in light of the terrorist attacks and sagging economy. Minnesota's two largest unions of state employees walked out over pay and benefits in the first such strike in 20 years.

Pakistan president predicts Taliban's end
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
All but giving up on efforts to mediate the standoff over Osama bin Laden, Pakistan's president said Monday that a U.S. military strike against Afghanistan appears likely, and the Taliban's days are probably numbered.

Trial lawyers' advice: Hold off on lawsuits
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
As they begin to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives, some of the thousands left injured or bereaved by the terror attacks are beginning to consult attorneys about how to gain some small measure of compensation for their loss.

National Airport to reopen
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
President Bush will authorize reopening Reagan National Airport outside Washington with new security measures, allowing a limited number of flights at the only commercial airport left dark since the Sept. 11 hijackings, administration officials said Monday.

Refugees tell of hunger, terror
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
Some Afghans who fled in recent days say Taliban authorities are dragging young men off to the army and desperately trying to prop up collapsing economies in crippled cities. Some told of sons and husbands shot without explanation by Taliban militiamen in a growing mood of fear and confusion. Many said only poverty, illness and age prevent a greater exodus.

N.Y. offers $1 billion in bonds to pay immediate WTC bills
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
New York City offered $1 billion in bonds for sale Monday to start paying for the aftermath of a terrorist attack Mayor Rudolph Giuliani branded "maniacal" during an address to the United Nations.

Mexicans without new IDs turned back at borders
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
About 2 million Mexicans failed to convert their border-crossing cards into new high-tech IDs by the Oct. 1 deadline, and hundreds were turned back Monday when they tried to get into the United States.

Giuliani's speech at the U.N.
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
The following is the text of the speech, as delivered Monday, by New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani at the United Nations General Assembly's Special Session on Terrorism.

Rumsfeld to visit Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt, Uzbekistan
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
(Web Posted Tuesday at 6:25 p.m.) Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday he will visit four key supporters of the U.S. war against terrorism.

Pentagon releases new report on defense
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
America's military must make defense of U.S. territory its primary mission and sharpen its ability to counter surprise attacks, a Pentagon study says. Every four years the military publishes a study of strategy and force structure known as the Quadrennial Defense Review.

Bush cites progress against terrorism
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
President Bush claimed progress on several fronts in the war on terrorism Monday as he stepped up a covert battle against Afghanistan's terrorist-harboring Taliban militia. The Taliban's days seem numbered, suggested the president of neighboring Pakistan.

Tolerance for all
Tuesday, October 2, 2001

U.S. shouldn't be fooled twice
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
By Cal Thomas
Tribune Media Services

You know the old saying, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." How does that apply in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 act of war against our country?

Fed cuts key interest rate by half-point
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
(Updated Tuesday at 6:26 p.m.) The Federal Reserve cut a key interest rate by one-half percentage point Tuesday, pushing it to the lowest level since John F. Kennedy was president in a struggle to offset economic shocks from the terrorist attacks.

Reagan National Airport to reopen with tight security
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
(Updated Tuesday at 6:20 p.m.) President Bush announced that Reagan National Airport, closed since the terror attacks on the United States three weeks ago, would reopen Thursday under tight security.

City to provide urns to families of trade center victims
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
(Updated Tuesday at 6:20 p.m.) The families of the more than 5,000 victims of the World Trade Center attack will each receive a wooden urn with dirt from the mass graveyard, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Tuesday as the first death certificates for the missing were issued.

Bush effort toward Mideast peace on hold
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
(Updated Tuesday at 6:21 p.m.) President Bush said Tuesday the idea of a Palestinian state has always been part of the peace process "so long as the right to an Israeli state is respected." The Sept. 11 attacks on the United States sidetracked an initiative by the Bush administration to launch Israel and the Palestinians into a new peacemaking process that only now is beginning to take shape again, a senior U.S. official said Monday night.

Task force submits airline security report
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
(Updated Tuesday at 6:27 p.m.) Airlines should begin installing stronger cockpit doors within 30 days and pilots, flight attendants and other crew members should get new security training within six months, a Transportation Department task force is recommending.

Nation Briefs
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
• Washington: Patriotism stamp unveiled
• Washington, D.C.: Sallie Mae to forgive loans of spouses of attack victims
• Washington, D.C.: Smallpox vaccine rushed
• Washington, D.C.: 'Snitch' visas approved

6Newsreport: T-shirts are being sold to help raise funds
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
Firefighters and Sherrif's Department deputies sell t-shirts to help raise funds for the victims of the September 11 attacks.

6Newsreport: Congressman Moore visits site of the WTC attacks
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
Politicians including Congressman Dennis Moore went to examine the site of the terrorist attacks in New York City.

6News report: KU Blood drive going well
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
KU's Points for Pints blood drive will continue for several days.

6News report: Reports from around the world
Tuesday, October 2, 2001
In NYC's Central Park, many remember victims of the terrorist attacks. NATO troops disarm Albanian rebels in Macedonia. Finally, opium exports from Afghanistan have slowed.