October 14, 2001 Diary: America Strikes Back

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Letter to anchor contained anthrax
Sunday, October 14, 2001
A threatening letter mailed to Tom Brokaw from New Jersey one week after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks contained the anthrax that infected the NBC news anchor's assistant, authorities said Saturday.

Bush rebuffs Taliban offer as 'non-negotiable'
Sunday, October 14, 2001
(Updated Sunday at 5:48 p.m.) President Bush sternly rejected a Taliban offer to discuss handing over Osama bin Laden to a third country as U.S. jets began a second week of bombing. "They must have not heard. There's no negotiations," the president said Sunday.

Anthrax outbreak of '56 produced current vaccine
Sunday, October 14, 2001
Years before mysterious powders fueled the anthrax anxieties of today, workers in textile plants were exposed to outbreaks from a more natural source: sheep wool and goat hair.

Terrorist ties to Iraq can't be ignored
Sunday, October 14, 2001
By Jim Hoagland
Washington Post Writers Group

Eight years have passed since Abdul Rahman Yasin bade hasty farewell to New York and flew to Baghdad. There he initially passed the time by fielding telephone calls placed by solicitous FBI agents and finding a niche in Saddam Hussein's police state.

Taliban 'paying price,' Bush says of strikes
Sunday, October 14, 2001
Washington — As fear of anthrax and yet more terrorism took a toll on America's nerves, President Bush assured the public Saturday: "We are taking strong precautions." He said terrorists and their Taliban allies, pounded by a seventh day of airstrikes, are "paying a price."

Scares show ease of spreading germs
Sunday, October 14, 2001
While it is difficult to turn anthrax into a weapon of mass destruction, it is quite easy to grow the bacteria in a lab and distribute small quantities piecemeal, even through the mail, experts said Saturday.

Nevada health officials say results from anthrax tests on four people negative
Sunday, October 14, 2001
(Web Posted Sunday at 6:20 p.m.) Four people who may have come into contact with a contaminated letter sent to a Microsoft office have tested negative for anthrax, Nevada health officials said Sunday.

Britain says al Qaida video threat amounts to admission of guilt
Sunday, October 14, 2001
(Web Posted Sunday at 5:56 p.m.) A videotaped threat from Osama bin Laden's al Qaida group amounts to an admission of guilt for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, British officials said Sunday.

Three being treated in New York City after exposed to anthrax
Sunday, October 14, 2001
(Web Posted Sunday at 3:31 p.m.) A police officer and two lab technicians involved in detecting the case of anthrax in an NBC employee are being treated with antibiotics for exposure to the bacteria, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Sunday.

'Jewish pressures' caused rejection of gift, Saudi says
Sunday, October 14, 2001
A Saudi prince has blamed "Jewish pressures" for the rejection of his $10 million donation to a New York relief fund.

Philippine rebels behead two farmers
Sunday, October 14, 2001
A Muslim extremist group with links to Osama bin Laden kidnapped four coconut farmers on a southern island Saturday and beheaded two of them when they tried to escape, police said.

Violence bedevils Arafat
Sunday, October 14, 2001
There is no mourning tent at the Akel family home. Days after Yusuf Akel, an Islamic militant, was shot dead by Palestinian police during student riots, his family refuses the traditional rituals of receiving condolences until those responsible for his death are brought to justice.

Thinking can help control our fear
Sunday, October 14, 2001
By Ellen Goodman
The Boston Globe

I guess my sense of humor has returned — In a bleak sort of way. Last night, I laughed at a slightly battered sign in my neighborhood warning about West Nile virus. At least that anxiety has been reduced to the size of, well, a mosquito, in the wake of the towering catastrophe and its trail of dread.

New world order may be emerging
Sunday, October 14, 2001
By David Broder
Washington Post Writers Group

In every important way but one, this is a different world. The events of Sept. 11 have proved to be transformative, and people are doing things and acting in ways no one could have foreseen.

Charity with strings attached?
Sunday, October 14, 2001
By Leonard Pitts Jr.
Miami Herald

A question for you. What were your intentions when you gave your money? When you wrote that check to the American Red Cross, when you swiped your credit card at that supermarket collection point, when you dropped a $20 into that firefighter's boot at the intersection, what was going through your head?

Author's fortunes rose when World Trade Center's towers came down
Sunday, October 14, 2001
Eric Darton had almost forgotten "Divided We Stand" when two suicide jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers. His book had enjoyed solid reviews and modest sales when it appeared in 1999, then found its way onto remainder tables en route to oblivion.

Mailing anthrax a terrorist act, say U.S. officials
Sunday, October 14, 2001
(Updated Sunday at 12:52 p.m.) U.S. administration officials said Sunday they consider the sending of anthrax through the mail an act of terrorism, but there is no direct evidence now to link the U.S. cases to Osama bin Laden.

Al-Qaida, Taliban remain defiant
Sunday, October 14, 2001
The supreme leader of Afghanistan's Taliban rulers on Saturday rejected an overture from President Bush, saying the movement won't hand over Osama bin Laden to the United States, despite a weeklong U.S.-led air assault.

Misdirected bomb hits Afghan houses
Sunday, October 14, 2001
An American bomb missed its target in Afghanistan by a mile Saturday because a target coordinate was entered incorrectly into its satellite navigation system, a U.S. defense official said.

Arrest made in embassy bombing try
Sunday, October 14, 2001
A man accused in a failed bomb plot against the Vietnamese Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, was arrested in California, the FBI said.

Assessing raids difficult a week into war
Sunday, October 14, 2001
A week ago today — football time in America, 9 p.m. in Kabul — U.S. bombs and missiles began to fall on Afghanistan, some with words of remembrance or indignation scribbled in chalk.

Pentagon plotting operation's next stage
Sunday, October 14, 2001
The Pentagon is planning an extensive range of actions during the next phase of the war in Afghanistan, including covert raids, continued bombing, and large-scale helicopter attacks conducted partly to signal that the U.S. military is engaged on the ground in pursuing terrorists, according to Defense officials and outside military experts.

Militants seek to oust U.S. from Pakistan air base
Sunday, October 14, 2001
(Web Posted Sunday at 9:32 a.m.) Thousands of Islamic militants converged on a southern Pakistani town Sunday, fighting pitched battles with police and paramilitary troops as they surged toward an air base that U.S. personnel are reportedly using.

Malaysian government vows full weight of the law in anthrax probe
Sunday, October 14, 2001
(Web Posted Sunday at 9:20 a.m.) Malaysia's government pledged Sunday to prosecute anyone shown to be behind an anthrax-tainted letter believed sent from the Southeast Asian nation to a Microsoft office in Nevada.

Red Cross says Afghan anthrax laboratory 'improbable'
Sunday, October 14, 2001
(Updated Sunday at 9:15 a.m.) The International Red Cross said Sunday it was 'improbable' — but not impossible — that a laboratory in Afghanistan that made an anthrax vaccine could be adapted by terrorists to create a deadly strain of the virus.

World Briefs
Sunday, October 14, 2001
• LONDON: Report says queen to bestow knighthood on Giuliani
• WASHINGTON: Allied planes attack in Iraq
• BERLIN: 25,000 protest against U.S. strikes on Afghanistan

Briefly
Sunday, October 14, 2001
• California: Flier's spilled confetti brings FBI, emergency crews to plane
• INDIANAPOLIS: US Airways flight diverted when powdery substance found
• NEW YORK: Anthrax tests are negative on envelope sent to newspaper
• Missouri: Scare shuts down Ford plant