November 4, 2001 Diary: America Strikes Back

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U.S. inserts more special forces
Sunday, November 4, 2001
(Updated Monday at 1:22 a.m.) The U.S. military inserted more special forces into Afghanistan as top commanders said Sunday the Taliban government is weakening but still controls substantial troops that will take time to thin out and conquer.

Sick special ops soldier rescued
Sunday, November 4, 2001
Stymied by bad weather in an initial failed attempt that left four rescuers injured, U.S. forces plucked a sick special operations serviceman from northern Afghanistan under the cover of darkness Saturday, a Pentagon official said.

U.S. must send its message abroad
Sunday, November 4, 2001
By David Broder
Washington Post Writers Group

For the past month, the United States has been dropping bombs on Afghanistan and losing friends in the Arab world. The news that the U.S.-led coalition is getting serious about that other war — the competition for support of the people in Muslim countries — is as welcome as it is overdue.

Pharmaceuticals step up to help America
Sunday, November 4, 2001
The public enemy used to be cancer. And AIDS. Diabetes and high blood pressure. Even male pattern baldness. Today the enemy is bioterrorism. "The pharmaceutical industry will step up to the mark in any emergency situation," said Tom McKillop, chief executive officer of AstraZeneca PLC, a British pharmaceutical company with its U.S. headquarters in Wilmington, Del.

Calm urged in anthrax crisis
Sunday, November 4, 2001
A suspicious, handwritten envelope delivered to the Treasury Department was isolated for testing Saturday as President Bush praised Americans for their calm amid an anthrax outbreak he called "a second wave of terrorist attacks."

Bin Laden rails against U.N., Arab leaders
Sunday, November 4, 2001
Osama bin Laden turned his ire on the United Nations on Saturday, slamming it as a root of Muslim suffering and scorning Arab leaders as infidels in league with the world body. In a videotaped message, he focused on a Muslim sore spot — the Palestinian crisis, created with Israel's birth in 1948 by U.N. sanction, a theme the Saudi-born fugitive has increasingly sounded as he tries to rally the Islamic world behind his al-Qaida network.

Bargain shoppers flock to auction
Sunday, November 4, 2001
By Mike Belt

Jennifer Lewis found a cheap way Saturday to help furnish her new Lawrence townhouse while also helping others. Lewis, 29, made several trips to her car as she bought items at the Auction for America, which was organized by Law-rence resident Kathy Johnson with help from the Douglas County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Lawrence journalist looks at new normalcy
Sunday, November 4, 2001
By Joel Mathis

Everybody who was alive at the time remembers where they were when they heard about Pearl Harbor, JFK's assassination or the Challenger explosion. Now we also remember where we were the morning of Sept. 11.

KC facility plans anthrax cleanup
Sunday, November 4, 2001
A contractor met with postal officials Saturday to begin planning the cleanup of an anthrax-contaminated mail facility. Cleanup will probably begin late Monday, said Gary Stone, manager of Stamp Fulfillment Services, where anthrax spores were found.

Security concerns raise question: What's next?
Sunday, November 4, 2001
As U.S. officials try to discern the next likely targets of possible terrorist attacks, they are evaluating uncorroborated tips and concrete intelligence, using some basic common sense — and dealing with a whole lot of theories.

America's jobless face tough times
Sunday, November 4, 2001
Perry Esposito didn't need a government report to tell him the jobs are disappearing. The auto mechanic — cut from the payroll at TWA last month even as he was consoling his fiancee, an American Airlines flight attendant also fresh out of work — has already met face-to-face with the new economic reality.

Origami cranes offer wishes for lasting peace
Sunday, November 4, 2001
Well-wishers across the nation have folded thousands of brightly colored peace cranes as a gift to the people of New York and Washington. For many, the origami birds have helped them express their hopes and sorrows in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Action sought on anti-terror rhetoric
Sunday, November 4, 2001
President Bush plans to demand this week that countries act on their claims to be fighting terrorism rather than offering only rhetorical support for his war coalition, administration officials said Saturday.

Are Americans willing to sacrifice?
Sunday, November 4, 2001
By Mark Shields
Creators Syndicate

Truth, or at least accuracy, may well turn out to be the first casualty of this war. In the days following the massacre of American civilians in New York City and the Pentagon, dispatches, with datelines from New Hartford, N.Y., to Daytona Beach, Fla, to Chicago reported almost identical developments :

Media walk tightrope maintaining objectivity
Sunday, November 4, 2001
The tensions facing journalists pulled between their professional standards and the country's surge of patriotism surfaced last week in two incidents. Executives at CNN made it known that their journalists won't be taken for suckers by terrorists. A day later, the president of ABC News apologized for remarks about the American dead at the Pentagon.

Winter compounds hunger problems
Sunday, November 4, 2001
The light dusting of snow that fell early Saturday on the hills above Kabul herald the advent of winter, adding to fears of a humanitarian catastrophe for this beleaguered capital at war. The coming winter is already affecting American military operations in the far north of the mountainous country.

Rumsfeld says Taliban no longer functioning as a government
Sunday, November 4, 2001
(Updated Monday at 1:22 a.m.) Four weeks of U.S. bombing has greatly weakened the Taliban's ability to operate as a government in Afghanistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld claimed Sunday.

Briefly
Sunday, November 4, 2001
• Pakistan: Taliban release journalist
• ABOARD THE USS PELELIU: Harriers used in missions
• NEW YORK: Post worker has anthrax
• NEW YORK: 10 firefighters arraigned

Column disputed
Sunday, November 4, 2001

Defense of Israel
Sunday, November 4, 2001

U.S. defense
Sunday, November 4, 2001