Posted on 09/11/2001 9:27:24 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
WASHINGTON -- U.S. officials have begun piecing together a case linking Osama bin Laden to the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.They're being aided by an intercept of communications between his supporters and harrowing cell phone calls from victims aboard the jetliners before they crashed on Tuesday.
Law enforcement sources say that authorities are focusing some of their efforts on possible bin Laden supporters in Florida based on the identification of a suspected hijacker on one of the manifests of the four jets that crashed.
The sources say that the FBI is preparing to search locations in Broward County in south Florida and Daytona Beach in central Florida.
The officials say that the locations had links to the suspected bin Laden supporter on the jet manifest.
The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee says U.S. intelligence intercepted communications between bin Laden supporters discussing the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.
Sen. Orrin Hatch declined to be more specific during an interview with The Associated Press.
Estimated 800 Dead At Pentagon
An estimated 800 people were killed when a hijacked airliner rammed the Pentagon Tuesday.
Despite the continuing search for victims, the Pentagon will reopen Wednesday.
Search crews are combing the rubble of the Pentagon and the World Trade Center for possible survivors. New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani says that there are still people alive in the Trade Center.
New York police say they've received calls from people trapped in the rubble of the World Trade towers.
Giuliani says the number of dead will be "in the thousands." Some 200 firefighters who had rushed to the scene are feared to be among the victims.
President Bush, speaking from the Oval Office in a nationally broadcast address, promised to commit the full resources of the nation's intelligence and law enforcement communities to find the terrorists and bring them to justice.
Bush said that "these acts were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat...they have failed."
He said that "terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings but did not shake our foundation of America."
"America was targeted for attack because we are the brightest beacon for freedom in the world." Bush said that the attacks, carried out with hijacked planes, ended "thousands of lives" through what he called "evil, despicable acts of terror."
He said U.S. authorities won't distinguish between those who committed the acts and those who harbor those individuals.
Bush said that Federal agencies will be opening up for essential personnel tonight, and will be fully operational tomorrow.
Victims Give Clues To Attack Investigators trying to piece together the events aboard four hijacked planes have help from some of the doomed passengers.
Officials say that at least one person aboard each plane made a cell phone call before the plane crashed.
The callers indicated 3-5 hijackers armed with knives had taken control of each jet.
Author and commentator Barbara Olson, the wife of U-S Solicitor General Theodore Olson, told her husband armed hijackers had forced passengers to the rear of the jet before it crashed into the Pentagon.
And a man aboard a plane that hit one of the World Trade Center towers called his father, telling him a flight attendant had been stabbed.
A flight attendant aboard the jet that hit the other tower told emergency officials her co-workers had been stabbed.
A flight attendant aboard the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania called her husband in Florida before crashing. Officials aren't commenting on that call.
The plane crashed about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, after making a U-turn toward Washington.
A senior administration official said that the plane that crashed near Pittsburgh was viewed at the time as a potential threat to the White House and was a major reason for the evacuation of the presidential mansion shortly before the plane crashed.
It was not known whether the White House, or perhaps Camp David in the Maryland mountains near the Pennsylvania border, was indeed the target.
Hundreds Of Firefighters Feared Dead As many as half of the first 400 firefighters who reached the scene of the World Trade Center attack today are now presumed dead.
That estimate comes from a vice president with the New York City firefighters union.
Officials are saying that "hundreds of police and firefighters are missing" after the buildings collapsed while emergency workers were trying to evacuate survivors.
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Armey, earlier said it was classified and I'm thinking they shot it down as defense. Good move.
This is reference to the plane over Pennsylvania, I assume? Dod you have a source for the Armey quote?
Not on the internet - I watched him say it live on televison this evening, from Washington D.C. and before the singing.
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