November 27, 2001 Diary: America Strikes Back

Marines push forward
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
U.S. Marine gunships launched their first strike, some Taliban troops fled their last base and President Bush signaled Monday that his anti-terror campaign soon could turn to Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

Our national impatience
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
Journal-World Editorial

The war on terrorism is not something that can be settled in a one-hour television episode. As a U.S. senator, Kansan Bob Dole often remarked about the general impatience of American people in so many categories and how our television offerings tend to heighten our need for instant answers and gratification.

Democrats act like Democrats
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
By David Shribman
The Boston Globe

The Democrats are becoming a political party again. For more than two months, they held their tongues and held their fire. The country was at war, and the last thing the nation needed was a partisan war in the capital.

Bush welcomes aid workers who escaped from Taliban
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
President Bush gave Christian aid workers Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry a White House homecoming Monday, calling them "courageous souls" saved by prayer during three months in an Afghan prison.

American forces aid in battle at Afghan prison
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
(Updated Tuesday at 9:24 a.m.) Northern alliance fighters helped by U.S. special forces claimed Tuesday to have quashed an uprising by captured Taliban after a third day of fierce fighting around a fortress prison.

U.S. identifies 40 Afghan sites for weapons research
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
(Updated Tuesday at 4:17 p.m.) The United States has identified more than 40 sites inside Afghanistan where loyalists to Osama bin Laden may have been conducting research on chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, the U.S. war commander said Tuesday.

Alliance claims to quell prison uprising
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
(Updated Tuesday at 10:47 a.m.) As U.N. talks on the future of Afghanistan began in Germany, anti-Taliban forces claimed to have retaken control Tuesday of a fort where captured Osama bin Laden loyalists staged a three-day prison revolt.

Dumb laws added to books
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
By Cal Thomas
Tribune Media Services

President Bush has encouraged all Americans to return to a normal life and some lawmakers are obeying. They are returning to the practice of passing dumb and outrageous laws.

Official lies have dire consequences
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
By Larry Eichel
The Philadelphia Inquirer

There have been times since this war began when officials have told reporters that they were pushing too hard for information or were revealing too much. Such tensions, inevitable in times like these, are not necessarily a sign the government is engaged in a cover-up or that reporters are out of line.

Bin Laden, followers haven't run out of hiding places
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
Osama bin Laden has no shortage of hiding places — from the thickly forested region west of Kandahar to an impregnable fortress built with U.S. aid during the Afghan war against the Soviets.

U.S. sets conditions for aid
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
Afghan factions can expect no aid for rebuilding their war-ravaged country unless they agree on a broad-based government, a senior U.S. official said Monday on the eve of U.N.-sponsored talks.

Nonprofits short on donations as holidays approach
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
By Matt Merkel-Hess

The surge in giving this fall to Sept. 11 relief efforts has left some nonprofit agencies short on donations for the holidays. The slowdown in the economy also has affected those who give and has not made it any easier on those who need help.

KC area still shows inadequacies in bioterrorism planning, officials say
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
Though the metropolitan area is off to a good start in preparing for a biological or chemical terrorist attack, serious inadequacies still need to be remedied, officials said Monday. U.S. Reps. Dennis Moore and Karen McCarthy discussed attack preparations with area emergency management preparedness and elected officials at the offices of the Mid-American Regional Council.

U.S. seeks extradition of pilot accused of training Sept. 11 hijackers
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
(Web Posted Tuesday at 9:13 a.m.) U.S. authorities formally began proceedings Tuesday to extradite an Algerian pilot accused of training some the hijackers who crashed a jet into the Pentagon on Sept. 11.

Disgusting insult
Tuesday, November 27, 2001