October 26, 2001 Diary: America Strikes Back

Anthrax worries widen
Friday, October 26, 2001
A State Department mail handler lay ill with inhalation anthrax Thursday, and the besieged U.S. Postal Service set up spot checks at facilities nationwide as the bioterror scare widened.
"We still don't know who is responsible," said Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge.

'Foreign' news
Friday, October 26, 2001
J-W Editorials

The idea that sparse foreign news reports in America led to our current crisis does not hold water.
Regularly we hear or read comments from critics of America who tell us that we could have prevented our terrorist problems if we had worked at gaining a better "understanding" of people in foreign lands. That, of course, would have caused us to do things that would prevent people such as Osama bin Laden from hating us and deciding to do us in as a people and nation.

U.S. drills Taliban positions
Friday, October 26, 2001
Warplanes repeatedly struck targets near Kabul's airport, the center, and to the north and west. The assault lasted past midnight and involved at least 10 waves of warplanes. Gunners for the ruling Taliban responded with heavy salvos of anti-aircraft fire.
Bombing to the north of the capital was for control of the strategic Bagram airport — held by the opposition northern alliance but of no use because of Taliban fighters in the hills around it.

New era looks a lot like old Cold War
Friday, October 26, 2001
By David Shribman
Universal Press Syndicate

This week, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell pronounced the end of the post-Cold War era. But what is emerging to take its place may be a frightening new period that looks, feels and smells surprisingly like the Cold War itself.
Indeed, much of the landscape that is becoming evident in this new dawn appears remarkably like the period between 1946 and 1989.

Anti-terror bill in Bush's hands
Friday, October 26, 2001
On a resounding 98-1 vote, the Senate cleared sweeping legislation Thursday to help federal law enforcement officials track down suspected terrorists.
The bill was sent to President Bush, who is expected to sign it into law today, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said.

Financial gurus target terrorists
Friday, October 26, 2001
The government is assembling a team of financial sleuths to cut off terrorists from their lifeblood — money.
Under Operation Green Quest, law enforcement people with financial expertise will investigate how and where terrorists move their money, the Bush administration announced Thursday.

Congress considering ways to safeguard food supply
Friday, October 26, 2001
After attacks from the air and the mail, officials worry the nation's food supply could be next. The government considers potential targets to be fruits and vegetables that people eat raw and cattle that could be infected with fast-spreading foot-and-mouth disease.

Firefighters are profile in courage
Friday, October 26, 2001
By Lenore Skenazy
New York Daily News

How strange to see so many strapping young men sitting in altar-boy silence, all eagerly awaiting induction into a line of work that just killed about one out of every 33 men on the job.

Pilots present list for airline security
Friday, October 26, 2001
Airline pilots have a list of things they say would make planes and airports safer.

Terror watch lists given to airports
Friday, October 26, 2001
The FBI is providing watch lists of suspected terrorists to airlines, and airlines are using wider profiling data to screen passengers, according to federal officials.

Director in charge of Boston airport quits
Friday, October 26, 2001
The director of the embattled agency that runs Logan Airport resigned Thursday, six weeks after two jetliners left Boston and were crashed into the World Trade Center.

Few highly confident about safety
Friday, October 26, 2001
Only one-third of Americans feel highly confident about airport and in-flight safety measures, and many would pay extra or accept more boarding delays to increase security, according to an AAA survey released Thursday.

Bush claims anti-terror law upholds Constitution
Friday, October 26, 2001
(Web Posted Friday at 6:04 p.m.) President Bush signed an anti-terrorism bill Friday that gives police unprecedented ability to search, seize, detain or eavesdrop in their pursuit of possible terrorists. "This government will enforce this law with all the urgency of a nation at war," he said.

Bush signs sweeping anti-terrorism bill into law
Friday, October 26, 2001
(Web Posted Friday at 12:25 p.m.) President Bush on Friday signed a sweeping anti-terrorism bill into law, giving police and intelligence agencies vast new powers to "counter a threat like no other our nation has ever faced."

Britain to send 200 troops into Afghanistan
Friday, October 26, 2001
(Web Posted Friday at 7:14 a.m.) As warplanes struck Afghanistan Friday for the 20th day, plans for a larger ground campaign got a boost - Britain announced it will send 200 commandos to the war on terrorism.

Republicans eager for vote on airport security legislation
Friday, October 26, 2001
House Republicans and administration officials launched a major lobbying and publicity push in favor of their aviation security bill Thursday, hoping to head off the creation of a new federal baggage screening system.

Postal Service explores ways to sanitize mail
Friday, October 26, 2001
The U.S. Postal Service is testing electronic beams to protect the nation's mail from anthrax, and companies that make equipment to sterilize food and medical instruments are scrambling to adapt their products for corporate mailrooms.

Topeka workers screen negative in anthrax test
Friday, October 26, 2001
Early results from tests on a dozen workers screened for anthrax exposure after they complained of flu-like symptoms at a Topeka postal repair center are negative, health officials said Thursday.

Dole urges challenging terrorism
Friday, October 26, 2001
Bob Dole is confident this generation will rise to the challenge and defeat terrorism.

Miscarriage continues a month of tragedy
Friday, October 26, 2001
Sonia Bermudez Morron buried her hope Thursday in a tiny white coffin the size of a box of long-stemmed roses.

Early diagnosis key to beating disease
Friday, October 26, 2001
Medical officials tracking exposure of the inhaled version of the potentially deadly bacteria anthrax said Thursday that the death rate may drop with attention paid to early diagnosis and treatment.

White House concedes missteps in anthrax crisis
Friday, October 26, 2001
After more than a week of assurances that the anthrax in a letter sent to Capitol Hill was just a "common variety" killer, Bush administration officials conceded Thursday that it was manufactured to infect as many people as possible.

Crisis spurs conflicted feelings
Friday, October 26, 2001
By Ellen Goodman
The Boston Globe

It's more than six weeks since Sept. 11 and I'm still trying to figure out why my skin crawls when I hear the word "evil" sprinkled into the rhetoric of war. Why is it that I recoil when enemies are labeled evildoers?
After all, I believe in evil. I don't think that every criminal or terrorist is just an unevolved adult in need of a hug. I don't agree that there are no truly evil people anymore than I believe that there are no truly bad dogs. I have met a few pit bulls in my time.

Another mail handler has inhalation anthrax
Friday, October 26, 2001
(Updated Friday at 12:16 p.m.)President Bush mourned the anthrax-related deaths of two postal service workers and said Friday they had died in the line of duty in a two-front war against terrorists.

Nation briefs
Friday, October 26, 2001
• Clinton's office receives salmonella package
• 'Smart cards' proposed for foreign nationals

6News Video: Reports from around the world
Friday, October 26, 2001
U.S. military attacks are meant to help Afghanistan's Northern Alliance to take strategic locations. Also, the EPA has begun cleaning the first site of the anthrax attacks in Boca Raton, Fl. Finally, winds at the Great Lakes wreak havoc.

6News Video: District Court Clerk's myterious white powder not anthrax
Friday, October 26, 2001
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment announce that a white powder discovered in the Douglas County District Court Clerk's office is not anthrax.

Humanitarian aid
Friday, October 26, 2001

Accepting differences
Friday, October 26, 2001

Scary view
Friday, October 26, 2001