Wednesday, September 12, 2001

Bush vows to avenge victims
of terrorist hits on Pentagon, World Trade Center Towers
By Sandra Sobieraj, David Crary and Jerry Schwartz
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A grim-faced President Bush mourned the deaths of thousands of Americans in Tuesday’s atrocities and vowed to avenge their killings. “Today, our nation saw evil,” he said.

In his first prime-time Oval Office address, Bush said the United States would retaliate against “those behind these evil acts,” and any country that harbors them.

Bush spoke from the Oval Office just hours after bouncing between Florida and air bases in Louisiana and Nebraska for security reasons. Fighter jets and decoy helicopters accompanied his evening flight to Washington and the White House.

In the most devastating terrorist onslaught ever waged against the United States, hijackers crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center on Tuesday, toppling its twin 110-story towers. The deadly calamity was witnessed on televisions across the world as another plane slammed into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed outside Pittsburgh.

Adm. Robert J. Natter, commander of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, said, “We have been attacked like we haven’t since Pearl Harbor.”

Determining the U.S. death toll could take weeks, but it was expected casualties would be in the thousands. The four airliners alone had 266 people aboard and there were no known survivors. The dead and the doomed plummeted from the skyscrapers, among them a man and woman holding hands.

“Freedom itself was attacked this morning and I assure you freedom will be defended,” said Bush, who was in Florida at the time of the catastrophe. As a security measure, he was shuttled to a Strategic Air Command bunker in Nebraska before leaving for Washington.

“Make no mistake,” he said. “The United States will hunt down and pursue those responsible for these cowardly actions.”

Roger Cooper, chairman of the radio-TV-film department at TCU, said there are many great parts of freedom but it comes with a price.

“I think when you are in an open society you are somewhat susceptible to these things,” Cooper said.

Cooper, an expert in media coverage of crisis and tragedy, said he thinks it will take days, weeks or maybe even months before a resolution is reached.

“This is going to be a long process with the damage of the World Trade Center and the psyche of American people,” Cooper said.

No one took responsibility for the audacious events that rocked the seats of finance and government, but federal authorities identified Osama bin Laden — who has been given asylum by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers — as the prime suspect.

At about 8:45 a.m., a hijacked airliner crashed into the north tower of the trade center, the 25-year-old, glass-and-steel complex that was once the world’s tallest.

The worse was to come. At 9:50 a.m., one tower collapsed, sending debris and dust cascading to the ground. At 10:30 a.m., the other tower crumbled.

Bridges and tunnels were closed to all but pedestrians. Subways were shut down; commuter trains were not running.

Meanwhile, at about 9:30 a.m., an airliner hit the Pentagon — the five-sided headquarters of the American military.

“There was screaming and pandemonium,” said Terry Yonkers, an Air Force civilian employee at work inside the building.

The military boosted security across the country to the highest levels, sending Navy ships to New York City and Washington, D.C., to assist with air defense and medical needs.

A half-hour after the Pentagon attack, a United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757 jetliner en route from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco, crashed about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. A congressman said the hijackers intended to send the plane to crash into Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.

Minutes before the crash, a passenger told an emergency dispatcher in a cell phone call: “We are being hijacked, we are being hijacked!”

Airline officials said the other three planes that crashed were American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 from Boston to Los Angeles, apparently the first to hit the trade center; United Airlines Flight 175, also a Boeing 767 from Boston to Los Angeles, which an eyewitness said was the second to hit the skyscrapers; and American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 en route from Washington-Dulles to Los Angeles that a source said hit the Pentagon.

The Federal Reserve, seeking to provide assurances that the nation’s banking system would be protected, said it would provide additional money to banks if needed.

The Department of Health and Human Services said 7,000 doctors and other health professionals were ready to help if needed.

“We’re at war,” said Gaillard Pinckney, an employee at the Housing and Urban Development office in Columbia, S.C. “We just don’t know with who.”

Felix Novelli, who lives in Southampton, N.Y., was in Nashville with his wife for a World War II reunion. He was trying to fly home to New York when the attacks occurred.

“I feel like going to war again. No mercy,” he said. “This is Dec. 7th happening all over again. We have to come together like in 1941, (and) go after them.”

The attack on Pearl Harbor claimed the lives of 2,390 Americans, most of them servicemen.

With smoke still pouring out of rubble in Washington and New York, Bush said, “These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.”

Bush spoke for less than five minutes from the desk that Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy used before him. Beside the door, a TelePromTer operator fed Bush the words that he and his speechwriters hastened to pen just an hour earlier. He stumbled a couple of times even as he strove to maintain a commanding air.

Bush said the government offices deserted after the bombings Tuesday would open today.

Bush asked the nation to pray for the families of the victims and quoted the Book of Psalms, “And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us spoken through the ages in Psalm 23. ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me.’”

James Mick, senior music education major, said he thought the scripture was the strongest part of Bush’s speech.

“I think it is very profound in moments of crisis when you see leaders of the worlds recognize (the Bible),” Mick said. “It shows a sense of spirituality and belief in God as one nation under God.

Ashley Schwab, junior history major, said she was also encouraged by the scripture Bush quoted and by him asking the nation to pray.

“The only thing I am worried about is I hope the investigations are thorough and we don’t just retaliate because we think someone has done it,” Schwab said.

Cooper said he found Bush’s words firm and reassuring.

“It is such an emotional time for all of us,” Cooper said. “I think such a wide range of emotions come up but I am confident that the U.S. government will have they eyes of a tiger to get this resolved.”

The United States received no warning of the attacks on the Pentagon and New York’s World Trade Center towers, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.

U.S. officials privately said they suspected terrorism Osama bin Laden, protected by Afghan government, was behind the tragedies. The Afghan government has rejected the accusations.

“We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them,” Bush said.

“Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom, came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts,” he said. Thousands of lives were “suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror,” Bush said.

Staff reporter Erin LaMourie contributed to this report.