October 16, 2001 Diary: America Strikes Back

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Anthrax scares spread
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
A letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle tested positive for anthrax on Monday as the bioterrorism scare rattling the nation reached the halls of Congress.
The discovery of anthrax in Washington followed earlier instances in Florida, New York and Nevada in which at least 12 people were exposed to spores of the potentially deadly bacteria. Monday night, another case of the disease was announced in New York.

Blasts continue to shake Kabul
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
Huge explosions shook the Afghan capital throughout the day Monday with two more jets reported attacking the northern part of the city early today.
The Monday air strikes sent terrified residents scurrying for shelter, as U.S. jets pounded suspected weapons storage sites in Kabul and across the country.

KC plans attack response
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
By Terry Rombeck

Infectious diseases dispersed by terrorists could hitch a ride with commuters traveling between Lawrence and Kansas City.
That's one of the reasons emergency officials from Lawrence attended a forum Monday to discuss response to biological and chemical terrorism in the metropolitan area.

Travel agents rebound
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
By Mark Fagan

Airlines are cutting staff, grounding flights and reorganizing operations to grapple with a massive slowdown in travel since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
And Harriet Matthews is just trying to keep up.

Muslims must join bin Laden battle
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
By Trudy Rubin
Knight Ridder Newspapers

"We're losing the war of ideas," an Arab-American acquaintance told me.
He meant the war to dissuade Arabs and other Muslims from public or private endorsement of Osama bin Laden's call for jihad against America. No matter how many U.S. officials deliver the message that we aren't warring on Islam, it doesn't seem to resonate with Egyptian, or Indonesian, or Pakistani masses.

Anxiety hits close to home
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
By Mike Belt

The mundane has become frightening for many Lawrence residents as the threat of terrorism inches closer to home.
Since reports of anthrax cases in other parts of the country, law enforcement and emergency officials in Lawrence have been receiving more reports of suspicious substances. Some were simply objects left by someone unseen. Others were delivered by the post office.

Powell arrives in volatile Pakistan
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
Secretary of State Colin's Powell's South Asia visit got off to a rocky start Monday as Indian troops opened fire on Pakistani positions in the Kashmir region just hours after Powell appealed for restraint.
Powell was meeting separately with leaders of Pakistan and India to discuss Kashmir, the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan and the shape of a post-Taliban government that would affect the volatile region.

Bush offers plan to help insurance firms
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
The Bush administration offered up a plan Monday to help insurance companies withstand a future terrorism shock while keeping the government out of the insurance business.
The proposal would split the costs of property claims from future terror attacks between the government and the insurance industry. Taxpayers would pick up 80 percent of the first $20 billion in costs next year and insurers the rest. The government's share of costs would decrease gradually through 2004 and end after that, senior administration officials told reporters.

Violence too real to be funny
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
By Leonard Pitts Jr.
Miami Herald

OK, comedy is back. Now what happens to violence?
That, in essence, is the question the creative community is wrestling with right now. About a week after the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, the nation's humorists began filtering back to work, struggling to understand the rules of funny in an unfunny new world.

U.S. claims four planned attacks foiled
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
U.S. authorities have disrupted at least four attempted terrorist attacks against U.S. facilities overseas in the five weeks since Sept. 11, a government official confirmed Monday.
European police have arrested dozens of suspected terrorists and their associates since last month's hijackings. The foiling of the four attacks is one of the few tangible accomplishments of a sprawling, secretive investigation that has detained about 700 in the United States and swept across the globe, but has not resulted in any criminal charges directly related to the hijackings.

Wing of Senate office building closed for anthrax testing
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
(Updated Tuesday at 3:24 p.m.) Declaring the threat of bioterrorism is no joking matter, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Tuesday those who fake anthrax or other terrorist scares will face federal prosecution. He announced the indictment of one such man in Connecticut.

Afghan gem trader speaks out on war
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
By Dave Ranney

Gary Bowersox knows Afghanistan. For the past 30 years, he's helped the nation's miners figure out where best to search for emeralds, rubies, sapphires and lapis, the blue stone that long ago supplied Cleopatra with eye shadow.

Marines train for Afghanistan in rugged setting of Sierras
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
In rugged mountains that resemble Afghanistan, U.S. Marines are rappelling down 400-foot cliffs, crossing rocky gorges, hiking for miles in the high, thin air, and eating bugs, lizards and wild plants.

Police lines stretched almost to snapping point
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
The thin blue line has become the front line in a nation transformed by terrorism, but police are beset by long hours and frustrated with what many see as a lack of information from the FBI.

Aschroft says anthrax hoaxers to be prosecuted
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
(Updated Tuesday at 2:18 p.m.) Declaring the threat of bioterrorism is no joking matter, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Tuesday those who fake anthrax or other terrorist scares will face federal prosecution. He announced the indictment of one such man in Connecticut.

Military buys exclusive rights to satellite pictures
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
The U.S. military is paying for the exclusive rights to commercial satellite imagery of Afghanistan even though its own satellites are thought to take far better pictures.

Briefly
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
• Job initiative announced
• Giuliani knighted by queen
• Parties abandon Sharon government
• Idle jets parked in desert

Child of ABC employee tests positive for skin form of anthrax
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
(Updated Tuesday at 10:12 a.m.) Investigators took to media mailrooms across New York after learning that an ABC News producer's infant son was diagnosed with anthrax. Hours earlier, the scare moved into the halls of Congress when a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle tested positive for anthrax bacteria.

Arafat pledges support for West in visit to London
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Monday positioned himself as a key ally in the fight against Osama bin Laden's terror network and received strong support from British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the creation of a Palestinian state.

Treasury head draws criticism
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
By Jack Anderson and Douglas Cohn
United Feature Syndicate

Most Americans express confidence in President Bush's national security team. Even ardent Democrats applaud the experienced officials who are leading the campaign against terrorism. The same unqualified praise cannot be found for Bush's economic team. And as the economic numbers worsen as a result of the blow struck by the terrorists, the role of Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill has become the focus of criticism in Washington circles.

ACLU atheists
Tuesday, October 16, 2001

U.S. special forces gunship begins raids over Kabul
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
(Web Posted Tuesday at 6:52 a.m.) A U.S. special-forces gunship went into action Tuesday, raking a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan with heavy machine gun and cannon fire. U.S. jets returned to Kabul, blasting military sites north of the city.

6News Video: Reports around the world
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
Fears of anthrax attacks have spread across the nation. More bombing strikes Kandahar Afghanistan among other cities.

6News Video: Water treatment plants on alert
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
Tina Terry reports on local efforts to protect our water supply in the case of terrorist attacks.