November 19, 2001 Diary: America Strikes Back

Toning it down
Monday, November 19, 2001
J-W Editorials

President Bush would do well to avoid so many references to "evil-doers."
President George W. Bush has risen to the challenge of leadership in our current crisis in outstanding fashion. He enjoys record highs in public approval of his role as president and commander in chief of our nation's armed forces.

Factional divisions already showing in Afghan cities
Monday, November 19, 2001
Less than a week after the Taliban were driven from Kabul, 3,000 Shiite Muslim fighters are poised outside, demanding a share of power. Major cities are now warlords' fiefdoms, and the idea of a broad-based government is being challenged by hastily multiplying posters of factional leaders.
While the United Nations is trying to organize a power-sharing conference, it must move quickly or Afghanistan could suffer the same anarchy and division that paved the way for the Taliban's rise in the last decade.

Taliban offer to yield territory
Monday, November 19, 2001
The Taliban offered on Sunday to surrender their last northern stronghold if Arab and other foreign fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden in the city are spared, an anti-Taliban commander said. The northern alliance, meanwhile, agreed to a conference on neutral ground to plan a multiethnic government.
The offer to surrender Kunduz came after U.S. bombers unleashed their heaviest strikes so far on the city. Warplanes were also reported in action near the Taliban southern stronghold of Kandahar and areas of eastern Afghanistan where bin Laden is believed to maintain camps and hide-outs.

Bush signs compromise aviation security bill
Monday, November 19, 2001
(Web Posted Monday at 11:24 a.m.) President Bush signed legislation Monday to put the nation's airport baggage screeners on the federal payroll, part of an effort to enhance airline safety and reassure passengers the skies are safe 10 weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Poll finds concern about future bioterroism attacks
Monday, November 19, 2001
Three-fifths of Americans say they would want a smallpox vaccination if it were widely available, according to an Associated Press poll that suggests continued nervousness about bioterrorism.
About half of the respondents say they are concerned about the threat of a smallpox attack and think last month's anthrax attacks are the beginning of an extended campaign, according to the poll conducted for The AP by ICR of Media, Pa.

U.S. economy needs attitude adjustment
Monday, November 19, 2001
By George Will
Washington Post Writers Group

During the Second World War, one of the many posters exhorting Americans to aid the war effort with small exertions and privations showed a hand pouring fat from a frying pan, and read: "Save waste fats for explosives. Take them to your meat dealer." And Americans gathered almost 85,000 tons of fat in 1944 alone. Rationing allowed weekly portions of eight ounces of sugar per person, four ounces of butter and enough coffee for one cup a day. Forty percent of the vegetables consumed in America were raised in "victory gardens" in back yards, parks, etc.

Alliance, U.S. hit Kunduz defenses
Monday, November 19, 2001
(Updated Monday at 4:05 p.m.) The northern alliance tightened its siege on the last Taliban bastion in the north, Kunduz, where foreign fighters loyal to Osama bin Laden reportedly were preventing a Taliban surrender. Four international journalists were feared dead after gunmen ambushed their convoy in eastern Afghanistan.

Knowledge won't end hatred
Monday, November 19, 2001
By Leonard Pitts Jr.
Miami Herald

Laura Beth Kulbacki knows how to end the threat of terrorism.

U.N. presses Afghan factions to set up interim government
Monday, November 19, 2001
(Updated Monday at 9:07 a.m.) With no government in Afghanistan for the past week, the United Nations was pressing Monday for the disparate Afghan factions to quickly convene at a neutral site — possibly in Europe — to create an interim government.

Taliban departure creates void in law enforcement
Monday, November 19, 2001
Afghan employees manned the flimsy gates of a U.N. food warehouse Sunday, terrified that the armed liberators of Jalalabad would loot their stores in a tense post-Taliban climate.

Afghan Television returns to air
Monday, November 19, 2001
The transmitter was destroyed by an American air strike, and the Taliban burned the most objectionable videos in the station library, but Afghan Television returned to the air Sunday night, five years after it was switched off by the repressive Taliban regime.

Military mission in Afghanistan far from over
Monday, November 19, 2001
With U.S. bombs still falling, the Taliban regime cracking and Afghan opposition forces rising, Bush administration officials say chances of finding Osama bin Laden are improving.

Briefly
Monday, November 19, 2001
• Senate buildings to reopen
• Several states tightening rules for driver's licenses
• Germ warfare treaty reviewed
• Airport clears concourse after security breach

Terrorism isn't airlines' only nightmare
Monday, November 19, 2001
By Patty Fisher
San Jose Mercury News

It wasn't terrorism, folks, just an accident. That's supposed to be good news?

Bush's secret court: disturbing justice
Monday, November 19, 2001
By Jonathan Turley
Special to the Los Angeles Times

There was a time when soldiers in war would be summarily executed after "drumhead" trials. These were modest affairs, often occurring on a battlefield with a commander using an overturned battle drum as a "bench."

Reporter witnessed historic fall of Kabul
Monday, November 19, 2001
Editor's Note: Kathy Gannon, Associated Press bureau chief in Pakistan, has been covering Afghanistan since 1988. For more than two weeks during the U.S. bombing campaign, she and AP photographer Dimitri Messinis were the only Western correspondents in Kabul. Here is her report.