The Philadelphia Inquirer 9-12-2001

The Philadelphia Inquirer

© 2001, Philadelphia Newspapers, Inc.Call 215-665-1234 or 1-800-222-2765 for home delivery.

By Ralph VigodaINQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A series of near-precision assaultsshattered two symbols of America’smilitary and financial power yester-day, killing untold numbers of people,halting Americans’ daily routine, andforever destroying a nation’s feelingthat it can’t happen here.

Within minutes at the start of theworkday, uniden-tified terroristshijacked twocommercial jetsand plungedthem into thetwin towers ofNew York’s World Trade Center —reducing the 110-story landmarks torubble and sending some workersleaping out windows — then crashed athird jet into the Pentagon outsideWashington. A fourth hijacked plane,possibly also diverted toward theWashington area, crashed in SomersetCounty in Western Pennsylvania.

The terrorists’ audacity wasmatched by the stunning coordinationof their operation — all four planeshad left three airports within 12 min-utes of one another — and expertsscrambled to start investigating howthey had bypassed security and pulledit off. U.S. officials said they had hadno reports that the attacks were immi-nent and can expect questions aboutthe breakdown in intelligence.

The carnage seemed destined tostand as the worst attack on civiliansin U.S. history. The death toll — whichcould take days, even weeks, toemerge — was likely to be far morecatastrophic than the 2,400 killed near-ly 60 years ago in the surprise bomb-ing at Pearl Harbor.

Emergency workers at the WorldTrade Center site in Lower Manhattanfaced a gruesome, blazing scene.

“There were bodies everywhere,body parts everywhere,” said AngeloOtchy, a National Guardsman from

See ATTACK on A14

Bush vowsjustice willbe sweeping

By Alfred LubranoINQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Life changed fast and forever yes-terday morning, when an unseen ter-rorist hand guided two planes into thetwin towers of the World Trade Cen-ter, collapsing the symbols of NewYork City’s commercial and culturalgreatness.

Now there is smoke where thereonce was steel, shocked silence wherea self-assured populace once ranAmerica’s most dynamic city.

Casualties were expected to be inthe thousands, as the attack rockedwhat amounts to two vertical cities.

By nightfall, an unsettling quiet per-meated Lower Manhattan from Soho,to Chinatown, to Greenwich Village.

Two inches of white ash had snowedonto the streets, muffling noise like ablizzard, giving a savage day a surrealend.

“It’s like Pompeii,” a Battery ParkCity doorman said, as though only an

See CITY on A8

By Matthew P. Blanchardand Kayce T. Ataiyero

INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF

Victor Saracini was a self-made man,working his way up from Navy pilot toUnited Airlines captain, and settlingwith his wife and two daughters in anaffluent Bucks County community.

His life ended yesterday. Saracini,51, was commander of the second com-mercial jet to crash into the WorldTrade Center while a disbelieving

world watched live on television.Lower Makefield resident Saracini

was among the first of what will likelybe hundreds and perhaps thousandsof victims, including 266 passengersand crew aboard four hijackedflights, to be identified in the daysand weeks to come.

“Pray for them,” said Saracini’s fa-ther-in-law, Bernard G. Hildebrand.“Pray for them all.”

Across the nation, people withfriends and family working in the fi-nancial nerve center of Lower Manhat-tan, at the Pentagon, or travelingcross-country for business spent yes-

See PILOT on A17

27 pagesof coverageinside

U.S. ATTACKEDHijacked Planes Destroy Trade Towers,Hit Pentagon; Thousands Feared Dead

PAUL HAWTHORNE / Associated PressPedestrians run from the World Trade Center area as the first of the twin towerscollapses. All tunnels and bridges into Manhattan were closed yesterday.

SPENCER PLATT / Getty ImagesFire and smoke engulf the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City after commercial jetliners hit the building. Both towers collapsed shortly after.

In seconds,a confidentN.Y. is shaken

Magnitude of tragedyunfolds in lost livesOne of the victims was a pilotfrom Bucks County. “Pray forthem,” his father-in-law said.

173d Year, No. 104 C75 cents in some locations

outside the metropolitan areaW E D N E S D A Y , S E P T E M B E R 1 2 , 2 0 0 1 www.philly.com 5 0 C E N T S

InsidePlane crash in Pa. investigatedAuthorities are looking intowhether the United Airlines flightwas linked to the crashes in NewYork and Washington. A3.

Reacting to the attackAround the country, city hallsand schools closed. Americanslined up to donate blood. Manyadmitted they felt unsafe A4.

Why us? Experts offer answersFor traditional cultures aroundthe world, the U.S. is a threat totheir way of life. For some, thatjustifies wide-scale violence. A4.

The view from the MideastIsraelis and some Arabssympathized with victims; otherssaid U.S. arrogance brought onthe attack. A6.

The second Pearl Harbor?Hardly, Trudy Rubin writes. Thistime, the perpetrator won’t showhis face. A7.

Early guesses point to bin LadenThe prime suspect is the fugitiveSaudi Arabian terrorist believedto be in Afghanistan. A7.

Northeast transit in lockdownFor hours after the attacks,modes of transportation were outof commission. A10.

Bodies ‘all over the place’New York rescue crews move tofind survivors and recover thedead. A10.

Trying to get word throughWith phone lines jammed, anxietyrose for people trying to contactloved ones in Manhattan. A11.

Remembering the 1993 attackWhen terrorists set off a bomb atthe World Trade Center sevenyears ago, it was the worst eventsome people could imagine. A12.

A symbol falls under attackThe World Trade Center meantstrength. The surprise: Thetowers could fall. A13.

For Bush, a roundabout routeAs a precaution, the Presidentwas taken to Louisiana andNebraska before returning toWashington. A16.

The President’s remarksGeorge Bush addresses thenation, saying: “The search isunder way for those who arebehind these evil acts.” A16.

Crews likely disabled firstExperts suspect terroristsoverpowered pilots and flew thejets themselves to pull off theattacks. A18.

A monumental test for BushThe plane crashes in New Yorkand Washington shattered thecomplacency that had settledover the presidency. A19.

The economic falloutThe damage to markets is likelyto be huge and widespread, buthow long it will last remains aquestion. A19.

The electronic town squareTelevision offered Americans anopportunity to witness and grieveas never before. A20.

The information kept flowingDespite the unprecedentednumber of calls and loss of someequipment in New York, therewere no serious problems withtelecommunications. A21.

Needed now: Prayer and unityAs they grieve, angry Americansmust not let ideals become thenext victim. Editorial, A26.

A nightmare come to lifeAmericans’ sense of how they fitinto the world has been changedforever, columnist Larry Eichelwrites. A27.

Looking into the face of atrocityIn reacting, what kind of nationdo we want to be? columnist JaneEisner asks. A28.

Teams everywhere take time-outPlay at every level, from the prosto high schools, is on hold whileplayers and coaches cope. Sports

BRO

OKL

EYRD

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GEORGE WASHINGTON

MEMORIAL PKWY.

Location of plane crash

Potomac

River

Anacosti

a River

Washington

Channel

WhiteHouse

LincolnMemorial

ArlingtonNationalCemetery

South ParkingEntrance

HeliportEntrance

Corridor OneEntrance

RiverEntrance

MallEntrance

JeffersonMemorial

WashingtonMonument

U.S.Capitol

RonaldReagan

WashingtonNationalAirport

MapArea

D.C. METRO AREA

DullesInternational

Airport

7

27

27

267

110

95

95

66

66

495

395

395

295

MILES

0 10

N

1

T. RooseveltMemorial

Bridge

ArlingtonMemorial

Bridge

George Mason/Rochambeau Bridge

Arland D. Willams Jr.

Bridge

RooseveltIsland

SOURCE: Inquirer Research AARON STECKELBERG / Inquirer Staff Artist

CONSTITUTION AVE.

INDEPENDENCE AVE.

PENNSYLVANIA AVE.

MASSACHUSETTS AVE.NEW YORK AVE.Pentagon Attacked

About 9:45 a.m., American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 en route from Dulles International Airport to Los Angeles, was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon.

Utter disbelief at the Pentagon“You think you’re safe … youcan’t imagine it … here,” oneworker said of viewing theN.Y. raid. Then it happened.

By James KuhnhennINQUIRER WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON — Glenn Flood, aPentagon press officer, heard a loudthump.

“I thought it was people moving fur-niture,” he said.

From nearby roads, stunned com-muters immediately could see the realhorror as a commercial airliner, flyinglow and fast from the west, slammedinto the Pentagon, striking the fourth,fifth and sixth corridors of a buildingthat is the symbol of U.S. might.

Witnesses said two blasts sent asmoky “fog” through the Pentagon’shallways, and Defense Departmentemployees fled the building.

“We came out, and everyone was run-ning,” said a Pentagon employee whodeclined to give his name. “You thinkyou’re safe … just to see what happenedat the World Trade Center … and youcan’t imagine it happening here, and be-fore you can get it out of your mouth, Ifelt the impact into the building.”

Last night, firefighters were stillbattling the blaze, and officials werenot sure how many people might bedead or injured inside.

The area hit by the aircraft was un-der renovation, and thus some officesmight not have been occupied, offi-cials said. Overall, 24,000 people workin the Pentagon.

“If we’re lucky … it would havebeen more lightly populated than nor-mal,” said Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, aPentagon spokesman who talked to re-porters at a gasoline station acrossthe street from the building.

Within 30 minutes of the planecrash at the Pentagon, officials beganevacuating major government build-ings, from the White House to the Cap-itol to the State Department.

Congressional leaders were sent toa secure government facility 75 mileswest of Washington. They returned inthe evening, and the House and Sen-ate each planned to convene at 10 a.m.today to pass resolutions condemningthe attacks. They then will recess un-til tomorrow morning, when normalbusiness resumes.

As evening fell on the capital, about150 lawmakers from both the Senateand the House of Representatives gath-ered on the east steps of the Capitol.

“When America suffers and whenpeople perpetrate acts against this coun-try, we as a Congress and as a govern-ment stand united,” House Speaker J.Dennis Hastert (R., Ill.) said. Then, asthe House and Senate leaders were leav-ing, the members broke into “GodBless America.” There were tears inthe eyes of many members.

“We haven’t seen such destructionon our ground since the Civil War,”historian David McCullough said ashe emerged from George WashingtonUniversity Hospital, where he hadgone to donate blood.

By noon, yellow police tape outlinedsecurity perimeters around the WhiteHouse and the Capitol. The buildingswithin were vacant; the streets emp-ty. The silence was broken only by thepersistent wail of sirens.

At key intersections near the WhiteHouse, Secret Service officers

watched warily, perching their shot-guns against their hips or cradling au-tomatic weapons.

Roads leading out of the nation’scapital quickly became clogged withcommuters as the government senthome all nonessential workers. In-bound lanes on bridges leading intoWashington were closed. Workerstraveling out of the city over the Poto-mac River could see the plumes ofsmoke still rising from the Pentagon.

Outside the Capitol, Rep. DavidDreier (R., Calif.) examined his prear-ranged schedule for the day. It includ-ed a White House barbecue last night.

“It all seems so irrelevant now,” hesaid.

“Folks, this whole area has beenshut down,” a National Parks policeofficer yelled as people approachedthe Capitol. “Go to the Metro [sub-way], and go home!”

Police also cordoned off Union Sta-

tion, two blocks from the Capitol, andAmtrak officials discontinued servicein and out of Washington.

District of Columbia Mayor Antho-ny Williams declared a state of emer-gency in the city, and hospitals in theregion were put on “maximum alert.”Early reports said at least 40 peoplehad been admitted to area hospitalswith a variety of injuries.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R., Iowa)walked somberly outside a Senate of-fice building, noting that U.S. counter-terrorism officials had quashed a sus-pected millennium-celebration bombattack against Seattle’s landmarkSpace Needle.

“You can get kind of smug and sayyou have a pretty good intelligenceoperation,” Grassley said. “I don’twant to pass judgment. This just rais-es questions.”

Sen. Sam Brownback (R., Kan.)slipped into St. Joseph’s CatholicChurch on Capitol Hill during noonMass for a moment of reflection andprayer. “We’ll be operating differentlyafter today…,” he said.

James Kuhnhenn’s e-mail address [email protected].

This article includes information fromInquirer wire services.

¢ There is no Businesssection today becausefinancial markets did notopen after the terrorist attackin New York. The Foodsection was held out of thepaper, and the local newssections were combined, sothat we could focus morefully on coverage of thishistoric event.

¢ There is no defense plan to thwarta suicide strike on the capital. A5.

To Our Readers

“Freedom itself was attacked this morning, and I assure youfreedom will be defended. Make no mistake.”

— President Bush

A D A Y O F T E R R O R

TOM HORAN / Associated PressA helicopter flies over the burning Pentagon. Glenn Flood, a Pentagon press officer, said the noise from the impact of the plane sounded like furniture being moved.

SCOTT S. HAMRICK / Inquirer Suburban StaffThe plane that crashed into the Pentagon ripped through the fourth, fifth and sixthcorridors of the building. The area hit was being renovated, officials said.

A2 C THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Wednesday, September 12, 2001

New York City

The Pentagon

Stonycreek

Baltimore

N.Y.

N.J.

DEL.

MD.W. VA.

VA.

PA.

OHIO

ONTARIO

Lake Erie MASS.

CONN.

Washington

Boston

Washington-Dulles Intl.Airport

Philadelphia

Pittsburgh

Cleveland

Buffalo

Harrisburg

United Airlines Flight 93(departs 8:01 a.m.)

American Airlines Flight 77(departs 8:10 a.m.)

American Airlines Flight 11 (departs 7:59 a.m.)

United Airlines Flight 175

(departs 7:58 a.m.)

Albany

NewarkNewark

Timeline of a NationUnder Attack

Newark

8:27a.m.

9:39a.m.

8:59a.m.

7:58 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 175 departs Boston for Los Angeles.

7:59 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 11 leaves Boston for Los Angeles.

8:01 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93 flies out of Newark, N.J., for San Francisco.

8:10 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77 leaves Washington-Dulles International Airport for Los Angeles.

8:45 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 11 slams into the One World Trade Center, the north tower.

9:03 a.m.: A second plane, crashes into Two World Trade Center, the south tower. The plane is presumed to be United Flight 175.

9:05 a.m.: President Bush, reading with children in a class in Sarasota, Fla., is told about the attack by Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr.

9:18 a.m.: The FAA shuts down all New York-area airports.

9:20 a.m.: President Bush, from Sarasota, makes a statement promising to hunt down those responsible for the attack.

9:21 a.m.: Bridges and tunnels leading into New York City are closed.

9:25 a.m.: The FAA issues a first-ever national groundstop of all civil air flights.

9:45 a.m.: A third plane — American Airlines Flight 77 — crashes into the western side of the five-story Pentagon building, hitting between the first and second floors.

9:48 a.m.: The U.S. Capitol is evacuated.

9:55 a.m.: Bush leaves Sarasota.

9:58 a.m.: A passenger, locked in a bathroom aboard the hijacked United Flight 93, uses his cell phone to call an emergency dispatcher in Westmoreland County, Pa., telling him, “We are being hijacked. We are being hijacked.” The man told dispatchers the plane “was going down.”

10 a.m.: The south tower of the World Trade Center — the building hit by the second plane — collapses.

10:05 a.m.: The White House is evacuated.

10:10 a.m.: A large section of the Pentagon collapses.

10:10 a.m.: United Flight 93 crashes into a wooded area in Somerset County in western Pennsylvania, 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

10:25 a.m.: Incoming transatlantic flights are diverted to Canada.

10:29 a.m.: The World Trade Center’s north tower — the building hit by the first plane — collapses.

10 a.m.-11:30 a.m.: Evacuation of government buildings around the country and closing of national landmarks, monuments and attractions.

New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani calls for the evacuation of lower Manhattan.

Medical personnel make urgent pleas for blood for New York City and Washington.

New York City issues a call for police and fire help.

11:18 a.m.: American Airlines confirms that two of its planes are missing.

11:59 a.m.: United Airlines confirms

that two of its planes have crashed.

Noon: The President arrives aboard Air Force One at Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport, La. Laura Bush was taken to an undisclosed bunker near Washington. Vice President Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice go to a secure place in the White House.

Noon: U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico are partially closed.

1 p.m.: Bush goes on TV from Louisiana and vows to punish the attackers. “Freedom itself was attacked this morning and I assure you freedom will be defended,” Bush says.

1:30 p.m.: Bush leaves Barksdale Air Force Base for Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska for a teleconference with his National Security Council.

2:51 p.m.: The Navy dispatches missile destroyers and other equipment to New York and Washington.

3 p.m.: Bush arrives at Offutt Air Force Base.

5:20 p.m.: Seven World Trade Center collapses. The evacuated 47-story building was damaged when the tower above it collapsed.

6 p.m. Explosions begin north of the Afghan capital of Kabul, but American officials say the United States was not responsible.

6:56 p.m.: Bush arrives in Washington from Nebraska.

8:30 p.m.: In an address to the nation, Bush condemns the attacks as “despicable evil” and says that those responsible would reap the justice of a great country.

SOURCES: Flight Explorer.com; Inquirer research; wire reports JOHN DUCHNESKIE / Inquirer Staff Artist

Contact with American Airlines Flight 77 was lost at 8:56 a.m. The plane later crashed into the Pentagon.

Where planescrashed

Departure citiesBy Thomas Fitzgeraldand Diane Mastrull

INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

STONYCREEK, Pa. — A United Air-lines jet crashed here yesterday short-ly after 10 a.m. about 80 miles south-east of Pittsburgh after an emergencydispatcher picked up a call from a pan-icked passenger who shouted: “Weare being hijacked!”

The Boeing 757 had 38 passen-gers, two pilots and five flight atten-dants on board.

The FBI said it was reviewingtapes of the 911 call.

“At this point, we’re not preparedto say it was an act of terrorism,though it appears to be that,” FBIagent Wells Morrison said.

An investigation will continue to-day into the link between the crashof United Flight 93 and the two actsof apparent terrorism that de-stroyed the World Trade Center anddamaged the Pentagon.

Another passenger on the plane,Tom Burnett of Pleasanton, Calif.,also made a phone call, the San JoseMercury News reported. Burnett, thefather of three children, called hiswife, Deena, and indicated that he andother passengers were about to at-tempt to overpower the hijackers.

Burnett told his wife that somebodyon the plane had been stabbed, saidFather Frank Colacicco of St. Isi-dore’s Church in Danville, Calif.

“We’re all gonna die, but three of usare going to do something,” Burnetttold his wife, according to Colacicco.He added, “I love you, honey,” beforethe call ended.

Though the FBI did not confirm theterrorism link, members of Congresswere speculating freely.

Rep. James Moran (D., Va.) told theAssociated Press after a MarineCorps briefing in Washington thatFlight 93 apparently was intended forCamp David, the presidential retreatin the mountains of Maryland. Thecrash site was 85 miles northwest ofCamp David.

Later, during a conference call withreporters gathered at the Johnstownairport, Rep. John P. Murtha (D., Pa.),in whose district United Flight 93went down, disputed that notion. Hesuggested the plane was bound for oth-er targets.

Gov. Ridge flew over the crash sitein Stonycreek Township, SomersetCounty, yesterday.

“It’s a despicable, unconscionable,immoral act,” he said of the attackon the airplane’s crew and passen-gers.

“There is no rational explanationfor this because we don’t resolve ourdifferences this way in our country,”he said.

Ridge declared the site a disasterarea, which will speed federal andstate assistance in recovering vic-tims’ remains and cleaning up thesite.

Officials from the National Trans-portation Safety Board, the FBI, andthe Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco andFirearms, along with local police,combed through scorched fields andwoods littered with plane debris andbodies trying to determine whatbrought down the airplane.

About 100 state police troopershad roped off an area about fivemiles in radius around the crashsite. Reporters were bused to anarea less than a half-mile from thecrash site, passing fields of golden-rod and corn that had abruptlyturned to charred ruin.

The crash site was unmistakable: agouge eight to 10 feet deep in a hill-side, with shards of metal glitteringfrom within.

Farther down the hill were heavywoods where police believe most ofthe plane and the bodies came torest. Trees there were still smolder-ing by mid-afternoon, with paperand plastic bags hanging frombranches.

“The biggest piece I saw was aboutone foot in diameter,” said state po-lice Trooper Tom Spallone, describ-ing wreckage he had found in thewoods.

Coroners from around the statewere at the site, a former strip mine,to help identify the dead. They did notexpect to be able to start their workuntil today.

Flight 93, which took off fromNewark, N.J., bound for San Fran-cisco, at 8:01 a.m., crashed while un-der orders to land as part of a na-tionwide shutdown of commercialair traffic. The order, cancelling de-parting flights and directing allplanes in the air to land at the near-est airport, followed the crash oftwo planes into the World Trade Cen-ter in New York City and a thirdinto part of the Pentagon outside ofWashington.

John Hugya, administrative assis-tant to Murtha, said the plane flewpast Pittsburgh to Cleveland, and thenturned back east and flew briefly be-fore crashing. As it did, a passengerwas calling for help.

“We are being hijacked; we are be-ing hijacked,” Glenn Cramer, a su-pervisor at the Westmoreland Coun-ty dispatch center, read from a tran-script of the call, received at 9:58a.m. The passenger, a man, said hewas locked in a bathroom on theflight.

Stressing that the call was not aprank, the passenger reported hear-ing an explosion, seeing smoke andfeeling that the plane “was goingdown,” Cramer said.

Then, he said, “we lost contact withhim.”

Diane Mastrull’s e-mail address [email protected].

Crash in Pa.: ‘We are being hijacked!’A panicked passenger made a phone call before the planewent down south of Pittsburgh. The FBI is probing links.

LAURENCE KESTERSON / Inquirer Suburban StaffPennsylvania State Trooper Jeff Lewis stands guard over the scene of the plane crash in Stonycreek, Pa. Investigators were surveying the damage and searching the debris yesterday.

“I don’t think there are enough words in the English language … to describe the range of emotions that I as aPennsylvanian feel after witnessing what may be the most brutal act of terrorism in American history.”

— Gov. Ridge


* C A3THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRERWednesday, September 12, 2001

Lotteries

By Tom InfieldINQUIRER STAFF WRITER

College students at Notre Damewere advised to stay in their dorms.Disneyland was closed. Army Reserv-ists were called to their armory in Ab-erdeen, S.D. Everywhere, Americanslined up to donate blood.

The United States reacted yester-day as a nation under attack.

“We’re at war, we’re absolutely atwar. This is 21st-century war,” saidU.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, a DelawareCounty Republican, speaking fromWashington.

“It’s the most god-awful wake-upcall we’ve ever had,” said Sen. JosephR. Biden Jr., a Delaware Democrat.

The month and day — 9-11 —seemed all too appropriate.

In communities around the country,the closings of many schools, the dec-larations of local emergency, theheightened security at power plants,the interruption of mail delivery insome areas — it reminded older Amer-icans of the futility, the frustrationthat had followed Pearl Harbor nearly60 years ago.

In Nashville, a World War II veter-an attending a reunion of sailors fromthe USS Intrepid aircraft carrier,said: “I feel like going to war again.”

A New Yorker with friends whowork at the World Trade Center said:“We have to come together like ’41 —go after them.”

˘ Feelings about them grew angrieras the day unfolded. ˘

“Find out whoever did it and wipe’em off the map,” said constructionworker Lonnie Sullivan, 27, in Braden-ton, Fla., a few miles from the schoolwhere President Bush had cut short amorning visit.

“We find them and we take themout,” agreed Bradenton bail bonds-man Dan Evans, 52. “That’s the onlyway we can stop this stuff.” In Den-ver, where emergency officials hud-dled in a bombproof bunker, cityspokesman Andrew Hudson said: “Idon’t think there’s any place in Ameri-ca right now that’s not at risk.”

Surely, some of the reaction wasoverblown. Surely, most Americanswere hardly at risk. But who couldknow what would happen next? Theneed to react in some way, any way,was overwhelming.

State and city officials closed cityhalls and courts, kept police officersand firefighters on overtime, andurged companies to let their employ-ees leave early.

In Chicago, the John Hancock Cen-ter and other buildings were shut with-in an hour of the New York disaster.In Los Angeles, police erected barri-cades to prevent cars from parkingnear major buildings. Across the coun-try, workers in high-rises were amongthe first sent home.

Almost everywhere in America,phone lines jammed as people tried toreach loved ones, even in places athousand miles from the attacks.

Parents ached to hold their childrenclose.

“I’m very afraid. I don’t feel safe,”said Charlin Sims, taking a cigarettebreak outside her office in downtownColumbus, Ohio. “I want to hug myson.”

In Kansas City, Mo., a woman in anavy dress walked outside of One Kan-sas City Place, her face ashen. She

started crying, alone. Her sister, shesaid, was inside the Pentagon andcould not be reached.

Strangers gave the woman a hug.Above them towered Missouri’s tall-est building.

“If they’re going to hit somewherein the Midwest, it could be here,” Tra-cie Mitchell said. “It makes you un-easy. It’s scary.”

College students, often far fromhome for the first time in their lives,felt particularly vulnerable.

At Howard University in Washing-ton, a 10-minute subway ride from thePentagon, students were ordered at10:45 a.m. to stay in their dorms.

A mood of uncertainty — and somefear — pervaded the campus, saidLisa Wade, a freshman from Chelten-ham Township, Montgomery County.

“Many students on my floor are ac-tually packing up, and their parents

are coming to take them home,” saidWade, who was in the university book-store when a TV monitor first showedthe Pentagon being hit.

Another student on her dorm floorin the Harriet Tubman Quadrangle,she said, was desperately trying tofind out the condition of her brotherand uncle, who she believed to havebeen in New York’s World Trade Cen-ter when it was attacked.

“Students are having trouble callingout,” Wade said.

At 11 a.m., about 600 miles fromWashington and 700 miles from NewYork, University of Notre Dame offi-cials in South Bend, Ind., canceledclasses and urged students and facul-ty to remain on campus and pray.

The Rev. Edward Malloy, theschool’s president, said counselorswould help students struggling withtheir emotions.

Students at Kansas State Universityin Manhattan, Kan., skipped class togather at television sets, sometimeswith professors’ blessings.

“It seems ridiculous that I wouldstand in front of my class talkingabout Plato when something this im-portant is going on,” said Laurie Bag-by, a political science professor.

Any large public gathering seemeda risk. Broadway stages went dark.Major league baseball postponed itsgames. A ceremony to introduce thenew lights at the Jefferson Memorialwas canceled.

Two sentences in a statement fromthe Union of American Hebrew Congre-gations captured the national mood.

“After today,” said Rabbi Eric H.Yoffie, the union’s president, “we knowthat our lives in America will never bethe same. In ways large and small, ourworld has irreparably changed.”

Tom Infield’s e-mail address [email protected].

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RYAN DONNELL / Dallas Morning NewsAt Southern Methodist University in Dallas, students Becca Panoff (facing away)and Stacey Sanchez hug after a noon prayer meeting for the terrorism victims.

By Mark BowdenINQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The late Colombian cocaine kingpinPablo Escobar, one of the most violentterrorists of modern times, put it suc-cinctly.

“Terrorism is the atom bomb forthe poor,” he said, referring to thosewho are enemies of the wealthy na-tions of the world.

The coordinated attacks on theWorld Trade Center and the Pentagonyesterday lacked the destructive po-tential of a nuclear weapon, but theimpact was tantamount to one.

Americans, finding it hard to fath-om the determined hatred that woulddrive anyone to carefully plan andexecute such acts, are asking: Whyus?

“The World Trade Center is a sym-bol of American capitalism, and fromthe point of view of probable terror-ists, a symbol of American deca-dence,” said Jim Hedtke, chairman ofthe history and political science de-partment at Cabrini College.

“The victims in theplanes and the buildingswere not the real targetsof the attack. The intend-ed victims were you andme.”

Most speculation aboutthe attacks concerned theMiddle East, where disaf-fected Arab groups havelong blamed the UnitedStates for their plight. Inthe case of Palestinian ex-tremists, America is the prime sup-port for the state of Israel. In the caseof Iraq, the United States led the coali-tion that drove Saddam Hussein’s forc-es from Kuwait, and which daily en-forces punishing sanctions — includ-ing bombing missions that have killedcivilians in recent days.

“America bears responsibility forits actions and clear support of aggres-sive nations like Israel,” said AsemMussafar, a psychology graduate stu-dent in the West Bank town of Ramal-lah. “I hope America will understandthis message today.”

The message goes beyond the obvi-ous political ones. More traditionalcultures are deeply threatened by therapid worldwide spread of Americanculture, which includes everythingfrom cinema, television, clothing, andfast food to basic values such as de-mocracy, individual freedom, person-al rights, and a strictly secular state.

“To some extent, America is beingmade a victim of its own success,”said Ahmad Chalabi, a member of theIraqi National Congress, an organiza-tion of Iraqi expatriates opposed tothe regime of Hussein.

Chalabi believes that the threatAmerica poses to more traditional cul-tures strikes in their homes.

“America has a huge appeal toyoung people all over the world,” hesaid. “They want more and more free-dom. They want to dress like Ameri-cans, talk like Americans. And societ-ies that lack a credible, equally attrac-tive alternative feel like their world isbeing undermined by this power theycannot stop.”

So America becomes, as the lateAyatollah Khomeni called it, “TheGreat Satan.”

“You don’t need to be a rocket scien-tist to understand the roots of suchhatred,” said an Iranian graduate stu-dent who asked not to be named. “Ithink the closest analogy is to a slaverevolt. Slave revolts are always espe-cially bloody, violent affairs becausethe slaves seek to exact retributionfrom their masters. For decades now,civilians in Arab countries are beingkilled all the time, and the worlddoesn’t react with outrage. So a kindof primitive, biblical logic takes over.An eye for an eye.”

That could explain the celebrationsin some parts of the West Bank andGaza yesterday.

“What’s happening in America is anatural punishment for its continu-ous aggression on the weak and poorpeople in the world,” said AbdullahShami, a senior political leader forthe Islamic Jihad in Gaza City. “TheFBI, the CIA and all the military

could not prevent whathappened today.”

“What is being attackedis our democracy and ourway of life,” said GeorgeJoulwon, a retired U.S.Army general and formerSupreme Allied Command-er of NATO, who actuallysaw the hijacked commer-cial plane crash into thePentagon yesterday. “Ispent 22 years of my ca-

reer living outside of this country, soI see it maybe better than most. Ourway of life doesn’t exist in most partsof the world, and that fosters admira-tion, but it also fosters resentmentand anger.”

Retired U.S. Army Gen. WayneDowning, who served as commanderin chief of the Special Operations Com-mand, said that yesterday’s attacks“had not gone unpredicted.”

“No one could have foreseen theprecise tactics employed, but thoseof us in the special operations commu-nity have been warning about thisgrowing threat for years,” he said. “Alot of solutions have been proposed,too, but they were all rejected, dis-missed as too extreme, or too danger-ous. So what we end up with is some-thing 10 times as bad as Pearl Har-bor.”

“We’ve been very fortunate in theU.S. to have avoided such an attack upuntil now, considering how easy it isto access our civilian infrastructure,which is not protected in a democrat-ic, free society,” said Steve Cimbala, aprofessor of political science at Penn-sylvania State University. “There area lot of targets, and it would be impos-sible to protect them all.”

So such a highly visible attack suc-ceeds by making all of America feelvulnerable.

“It is that sense of vulnerability,powerlessness and anger that the ter-rorists are hoping to instill,” the Irani-an student said. “They are saying,‘This is how we feel.’ ”

“They are expecting side effectslike fear, panic, and national paralysisto set in,” Cimbala said.

Mark Bowden’s e-mail address [email protected].

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Attack reverberatesaround the nationMany Americans expressed fear as buildings closed.

ROBERT LUCKEY JR. / Associated PressIn Greenwich, Conn., Sergio Paniaqua cries as he listens to the news of terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in NewYork. A woman in Ohio said: “I’m very afraid. I don’t feel safe,” a thought shared by many amid yesterday’s events.

CHRISTOPHER ANDERSON / Associated PressTaylor Wickstrom takes a flag from hismother, Kari Kallio, during a rally inRiverfront Park in Spokane, Wash.Many said the terror was an act of war.

“[Such an attack] takes a logistics operation … that is second to none.Only a very small handful of terror groups is on that list.”

– Chris Yates, an aviation expert at Jane's Transport magazine.


Terrorists strikesymbols of U.S.culture, capitalism

The attackslacked thedestructiveforce of anuclear bomb.The impact wasequal to one.

A4 C THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER A B C D E F G H I Wednesday, September 12, 2001

By Steve GoldsteinINQUIRER WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON — The most brazenattack on the United States since PearlHarbor yesterday struck at a target inthe heart of the nation’s capital.

How was this possible?How could a hijacked airliner fly

through Washington air space andcrash into the Pentagon, the five-sid-ed symbol of American militarymight? Even an hour after the firstplane struck the World Trade Center,how could the nerve center of the na-tion’s defense system remain so ex-posed?

The simple, if tragic, answer is thatthere is no air defense program de-signed to thwart a suicide strike by anaircraft on the main governmentalcore of Washington.

Until September 1994, when a Mary-land truck driver with a history ofmental illness flew a stolen Cessnatwo-seater onto the White Housegrounds, killing himself, there was noplan to defend against such an inci-dent. Now, according to experts andinformed governmental officials, Se-cret Service agents have access toshoulder-fired ground-to-air missilesthat can be fired from the roof of theExecutive Mansion.

Shortly before the Cessna incident,author Tom Clancy published a noveltitled Debt of Honor, in which a venge-ful Japanese pilot flies a 747 at theU.S. Capitol.

Air defense around Washington is pro-vided mainly by fighter planes from An-drews Air Force base near the Mary-land-District border. The D.C. Air Na-tional Guard is also based there and isequipped with F-16 fighter planes, a Na-tional Guard spokesman said.

But those planes only took to the skiesover Washington in the aftermath of yes-terday’s devastating attack.

The Pentagon presented a target ofopportunity because it lies directly inthe flight path to nearby Ronald Re-agan National Airport.

“They did not target the WhiteHouse, or the Capitol,” said a formerofficial with the National SecurityCouncil who asked not to be identi-fied. “You can fly right over the Penta-

gon. You can fly 150 feet over the 14thStreet Bridge [over the Potomac Riv-er] or take out the bridge. There’s noway to stop this.”

The idea of using missiles to knockdown enemy planes around Washing-ton “went out of vogue” in the 1950s,according to Dale B. Oderman, a re-tired Air Force colonel and a profes-sor of aviation technology at PurdueUniversity.

“It’s a huge expense, and the ques-tion has always been: What targets doyou protect?” Oderman said. “It’s nota question that was even being asked

until today.”But many questions will likely be

asked in the coming weeks andmonths, as Congress assesses whatsteps it must take to protect the capi-tal and whether anti-terrorism strate-gy has been misguided.

Although the federal government hasspent tens of millions of dollars in thepast decade on so-called “homeland-de-fense” programs designed to thwart ter-rorist attacks, the programs have beenheavily focused on the use of chemicaland biological weapons, which are con-sidered to be highly effective in causing

panic and mass casualties.That thinking may have expired yes-

terday.“The terrorists caused thousands of

casualties not with chemical, biologi-cal or nuclear agents, but with avia-tion fuel,” said Joseph Cirincione, anexpert on weapons of mass destruc-tion with the Carnegie Endowment forInternational Peace. “No one had an-ticipated or predicted attacks on thescale, and with the coordination of theexplosions in New York and Washing-ton. But experts had warned of thepossibility for years, particularly af-ter the first attack on the World TradeCenter [in 1993] came soclose to collapsing thebuilding with convention-al truck bombs.

“This should be a trans-forming event in the wayAmerica evaluates its na-tional security threats,”Cirincione said.

In fact, on Monday, Sen-ate Foreign Relations Com-mittee Chairman JosephR. Biden Jr. (D., Del.) pre-saged the attack in a scathing critiqueof the Bush administration’s plans fora national missile defense system.

“We will have diverted all that mon-ey to address the least likely threatwhile the real threats come into thiscountry in the hold of a ship, or thebelly of a plane, or are smuggled intoa city in the middle of the night in avial in a backpack,” Biden said.

Some terrorism experts depictedyesterday’s attacks as a catastrophicintelligence failure, despite huge ef-forts by the CIA and other U.S. gov-ernment agencies to track the move-ments of terrorist leaders such as Osa-ma bin Laden and eavesdrop on theirconversations.

“How nothing could have beenpicked up is beyond me,” said Ken-neth Katzman, a terrorism expert atthe Congressional Research Service.

Robert Blitzer, a veteran former

counterterrorism chief with the FBIwho is now working for a private inter-national security firm, said that de-fending against kamikaze air attackson Washington is extremely difficult.

“If someone in an aircraft — particu-larly a jet aircraft — is intent on crash-ing into a building, there’s little youcan do to prevent it,” Blitzer said.“You have all those planes comingdown the river, what does it take [fora pilot] to divert? Even if it was theWhite House, what would prevent asuicidal terrorist from taking a sharpleft on his approach into National.

“It’s sad but true, but we live in afree society,” Blitzer said.

Experts who consultwith the federal govern-ment on anti-terroriststrategies said the kindsof measures needed to pro-vide protection againstsuch air attacks might beinconsistent with a demo-cratic society.

“If you want the totalityof security and protection,then you need the institu-

tion of totalitarian measures, like mar-tial law,” said one consultant who saidhis government contract mandated an-onymity. “In America, you can paythe price for freedom of movement.”

The consultant, who assisted thegovernment in preparing a securityplan for George W. Bush’s inaugura-tion earlier this year said it required aspecial declaration from the FederalAviation Administration to close theairspace near the U.S. Capitol just be-fore the noon swearing-in Jan. 20.

“This is a worst-case scenario thatno one ever thought would happen —and it’s happened,” the consultantsaid.

Inquirer wire services contributed to thisarticle.

Steve Goldstein’s e-mail address [email protected].

Washington is an unprotected targetHow is it possible an airattack could be made on thePentagon? Simple. There’snothing in place to stop it.

I am a man of words at a loss forwords to describe how I feel aboutthis new Day of Infamy.

Disbelief, horror, disgust, fear. Allof them will do, but none of them willdo. They are too pallid, too weak.

Like the soldiers who liber-ated the concentration campsafter World War II, many ofus are driven to silence. Theenormity of the evil demandsit. It suffocates the spirit; itstills the tongue.

Can these awful events be aproduct of the human mind?They seem more the provinceof the devil. The work of mon-sters.

How else to explain the ele-gant coldness of the plan:four airliners hijacked, two toram the twin towers of the WorldTrade Center in Manhattan; a third totake dead aim at the Pentagon; afourth to destroy the White House orthe Capitol, but — mercifully

— crashing before it reaches its tar-get.

Waking up to a glorious Septemberday, we watch the horror unfold, liveon television. The crash of the airlin-ers, the collapse of the two towers, the

volcanic plumes of dust, therising flames, the wail of ahundred sirens. Death every-where.

Comparisons with Dec. 7,1941, are inevitable but inex-act.

Both involved carefullyplanned, meticulously execut-ed surprise attacks by for-eign forces. But the Japanesepilots who attacked Pearl Har-bor had military targets andmilitary goals. Their aim wasto cripple the U.S. fleet until

Japan could conquer what it wanted inthe Far East. Of the nearly 2,500Americans killed in Hawaii that day,all but a handful were sailors or sol-diers.

The aim of yesterday’s attacks waspure terror. The perpetrators wantedto bring this nation to its knees — notphysically, but surely psychological-ly. They succeeded.

Unlike 60 years ago, most of the tar-gets were civilians. It was a slaughterof innocents.

At this juncture, no one dares guesswhat the death count could be. Youand I know, somewhere inside, that itwill be in the thousands.

Will it exceed D-Day, with its 6,600Americans killed?

The Korean War, with its 33,000Americans dead in combat?

My heart is too sick to guess. Butsurely, Sept. 11 will go down as theday with the largest loss of life in U.S.history. By the time the last funeral isheld, there will be few Americans un-touched by the injuries or deaths. Aparent, a spouse, a relative, a friend, acousin, an old roommate, a businessassociate.

Everyone will know someone who

knew someone who was hurt or died.We will have perverse proof of the sixdegrees of separation.

Like Pearl Harbor, people will re-member for years where they werewhen they heard.

I was at the kitchen table, tapping atmy computer. My wife yelled downfrom her upstairs office, urgency inher voice: You’d better turn on the TVnow. I did, just in time to see the sec-ond plane hit the Trade Center. A fire-ball, followed by dense smoke.

Horror happens in real time thesedays. In 1941, it was hours beforeAmericans heard of the attack, weeksbefore there were newsreel accounts.

My first reaction? Fear that thiscould be the first of many attacks,perhaps in a number of cities. Fear,not for myself, but for our children,recently departed for school.

Everyone felt that clutch of fear.That was the intent of the attacks.

They could have been staged at mid-night and had great effect. Instead,

the attackers waited until the build-ings were at their most crowded. Thisenemy wanted an astonishing bodycount. Objective achieved.

Once the shock wears off, inevita-bly, the nation will rise up angry. Af-ter all, this is an act of war. But, bywhom?

There was no doubt in 1941. Thoseplanes were emblazoned with the Ris-ing Sun. Whom do we declare war ontoday? A hundred terrorists, in a doz-en different cities?

Our enemy fades in the shadows,out of reach of justice or revenge.

And that leaves us with our fears —that it could happen again, maybe clos-er to home.

This is the punishment that terror-ism exacts upon civilization.

This is the lasting evil of the eventsof Sept. 11.

Tom Ferrick’s e-mail address [email protected].

SCOTT S. HAMRICK / Inquirer Suburban StaffA Metropolitan Police helicopter hovers over a field west of the Pentagon. People injured when a hijacked airliner crashed into the building yesterday were beingevacuated from the site. The Pentagon presented a target of opportunity because it lies directly in the flight path to nearby Ronald Reagan National Airport.

JUD McCREHIN / Associated PressFlames and smoke pour from the Pentagon. Of the coordinated attacks, Joseph Cirincione, an expert on weapons of massdestruction, said: “This should be a transforming event in the way America evaluates its national security threats.”

Experts agreethat there islittle that canbe done topreventkamikaze-typeair attacks.

Anonymous villains and civilian targets add to the evil

“[The perpetrators were] terrorists who do not believe in democracy, people who believe that with thedestruction of buildings, with the murder of people, they can somehow achieve a political purpose.”

— Secretary of State Colin L. Powell


C A5THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRERWednesday, September 12, 2001

By Larry KingINQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Even before all the missing planeshad crashed and killed, the specula-tion began: Who could have done it?

In this devastating instance, thequestion seems as much one of meansas of conscience.

The suicide hijackings were so well-planned and synchronized — and theirtargets so symbolic of Americanwealth and power — that some ex-perts suspect the attack had to bestate-sponsored terrorism.

“The coordination necessary tohave four planes hijacked suggestsnot only an organization, but one thathas a lot of money and a significantnumber of people,” said MichaelRadu, an instructor and senior fellowwith the Foreign Policy Research In-stitute in Philadelphia. “And that, inturn, suggests some sort of state in-volvement.”

Radu and others caution that, untilhard evidence appears, they only canoffer educated guesswork.

“A lot of people made this kind ofspeculation when Oklahoma City hap-pened,” Radu said, “andthey were all wrong.”

Still, the chief suspectclearly is Osama bin Lad-en, the fugitive Saudi Ara-bian terrorist now be-lieved to be in Afghani-stan.

“Bin Laden is the lead-ing candidate,” said a se-nior intelligence officialwho requested anonymity.“There’s nothing hard, buthe’s one of a very few peo-ple who would want to do this and whoalso has access to the tools and thekind of people you need to do this.”

Bin Laden has the planning, organi-zation and skills to commit such anact, not to mention a long-standing en-mity for this country, said MarthaCrenshaw, a professor of governmentat Wesleyan University who has stud-ied political terrorism extensively. “Itpoints not to an ad hoc, spur-of-the-mo-ment, newly emergent group, but onewith some heft and ability, not justsomeone who recently developedsome antipathy for the United States.”

That, plus bin Laden’s link to the1993 terrorist bombing of the WorldTrade Center, singles him out, Cren-shaw said.

The United States already suspectsbin Laden of plotting the bombings oftwo U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998that killed 224 people and the attacklast year on the USS Cole in Yementhat killed 17 American sailors.

According to an Arab journalistwith access to him, bin Laden warnedlast month that he and his followerswould punish U.S. support of Israelwith an unprecedented attack.

“It is most likely the work of Islam-ic fundamentalists,” said Abdel-BariAtwan, editor of an Arabic-languageweekly news magazine in London.“Osama bin Laden warned threeweeks ago that he would attack Ameri-can interests in an unprecedented at-tack, a very big one.”

If bin Laden is responsible for theattack, Michael Swetnam, a formerU.S. intelligence official, said Presi-dent Bush must respond forcefully, ifnecessary invading Afghanistanwhere he’s hiding and seizing him.

“If there’s ever an act of war, this isan act of war,” Swetnam said. “We’repast the point where we talk about[responding with a handful of] cruisemissiles.”

In the aftermath of yesterday’sbombings, senior intelligence offi-cials began sifting through the moun-tains of information that Americanspies and satellites have been collect-ing on bin Laden and his loose-knitorganization, often called al Qaeda, or“the base” — surveillance photos, tran-scripts of phone calls, reports fromCIA agents.

What they found is deeply trou-bling: Since May, there had been nu-merous warnings that bin Laden oranother terrorist leader was prepar-ing a major campaign against Ameri-cans, but all the intelligence suggest-ed that any attacks would come over-seas.

But fingering bin Laden definitivelyand determining how to strike backmay not be easy, according to counter-terrorism experts.

For instance, U.S. investigators sus-pected almost from the start that binLaden was responsible for the Coleattack, but nearly a year later theyare still trying to prove their case.

Bin Laden’s organization is not atightly run terrorism group, but a

loose network of sympa-thizers with cells in doz-ens of countries, from thePhilippines to North Afri-ca to Central Asia. Manypass through trainingcamps in Afghanistan.

Some experts said yes-terday’s attacks could nothave been the work of binLaden alone.

“I don’t think he has theinfrastructure, by him-self, to do this,” Radu said.

Who might have joined him? “Ithink the most obvious candidate isIraq,” Radu said. “The government ofIran, I don’t think, is that irrational.And I don’t think the Taliban has themoney.”

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban move-ment was among those condemningthe attack yesterday. But few werebuying its claim that bin Laden couldnot have been at least partly responsi-ble.

“What happened in the UnitedStates was not a job of ordinary peo-ple,” a Taliban spokesman said. “…This could have been the act of eitherinternal enemies of the United Statesor its major rivals. Osama cannot dothis.”

Crenshaw, among others, disagrees.“I think he could bring it off him-

self,” she said. “That’s not to say thata foreign state could not do it, but Iwould say that this took more skilland time than money and false docu-ments and things like that.”

There is also the possible elementof unfinished business: the 1993 tradecenter bombing that killed six, fallingfar short of yesterday’s carnage.

“There were no foreign govern-ments involved” in the earlier attack,Crenshaw said. “Not that they wereparticularly skilled in that instance,but it is conceivable that they mighthave said, ‘We will do a better job of itnext time.’ ”

The Pentagon and the trade centerwere targeted, Radu suggested, be-cause there are no better symbols ofAmerican economic and military dom-inance.

Larry King’s e-mail address [email protected].

The Inquirer Washington Bureau andInquirer wire services contributed to thisarticle.

“A lot of peoplemade this kindof speculationwhen OklahomaCity happened…”Michael Radu,foreign policy fellow

America has the best military in theworld, but we weren’t prepared forthe kind of war that was unleashed onus yesterday.

Our armed services are geared upto fight two simultaneous wars. ThePentagon is focused on retooling themilitary for high-tech battles and de-fense against long-range missiles. But— as we learned to our horror — theyhave paid far too little attention to thelow-tech terrorist threat.

The warnings were out there.Last December, a high-level report

by the National Intelligence Councilwarned: “The main threats to U.S. ter-ritory over the coming 15 years willlikely come from terrorists and otheradversaries using low-tech wartools.”

The council calls this “asymmetricwarfare.” In other words, a weakerfoe tries to circumvent U.S. militarystrengths by exploiting U.S. weakness-es. The enemy takes advantage of anopen society that allows people tomove freely, including those bent onterror, and uses easily available mate-rials to attack highly symbolic sites.

But our intelligence and counterin-telligence agencies obviously didn’tput sufficient resources into meetingthis challenge. They had no inkling ofa staggering plot that involved fourhijackings, and must have had a largesupport network within our borders.“This exceeds in scope anything theintelligence community anticipated,”former presidential national securityadviser Samuel R. Berger said.

“No one expected there was a groupwith this level of capability that couldlaunch this kind of coordinated at-tacks,” the noted terrorism expert An-thony Cordesman added.

Yet a string of low-tech terrorist at-tacks against Americans during the’90s had already shown how asymmet-ric warfare can hurt the world’s mostpowerful nation.8 In 1993, a loose group of Islamicradicals exploded a truck bomb in aparking lot under the World TradeCenter towers, causing huge damagebut mercifully few casualties. Hadthe truck been placed more strategi-cally near support columns, the tow-ers would have collapsed back then.8 In 1995, Timothy McVeigh carriedout the Oklahoma City bombing with atruck bomb.8 In 1996, a truck bomb was used toattack a U.S. military barracks in Sau-di Arabia.8 In 1998, radical Islamic terroristslinked to the international terror lead-er Osama bin Laden simultaneouslyexploded bombs at two U.S. embas-sies in east Africa.8 In 1999, a routine check at theU.S.-Canadian border caught an Alge-rian terrorist with a car full of bombmaterial, who then unraveled an Alge-rian network that aimed to bomb theLos Angeles airport. This galvanizedU.S. and European agencies to roundup other members of the Algeriangroup in Europe and India whoplanned to attack other U.S. targetsand who were also believed to have

ties to bin Laden.8 In 2000, a small boat crammed withexplosives and two suicide pilotsrammed the destroyer USS Cole at aport stop in Yemen, killing 17 sailors,an unprecedented attack on a U.S. mil-itary vessel. American officials be-lieve, but cannot prove, that this at-tack was also linked to bin Laden’snetwork.

The existence of the Algerian net-work reportedly caught U.S. intelli-gence unawares. Ditto, the bombingof the Cole and yesterday’s outrages.

Why, we must ask? Why?Some will say the terrorist threat

has changed, and is harder to unravel.It no longer revolves primarilyaround tightly knit terror groups withpolitical objectives, backed by statessuch as the Soviet Union, East Germa-ny, Syria, Iraq and Iran. When terrorwas state-backed, pressure could beexerted on those states.

The new brand of terrorism is moredecentralized, involving individualmalcontents — such as McVeigh — orloose networks of radical Islamistswho see America as the Great Satan.Primary among these is the loose net-work loyal to the elusive bin Laden,who hides out in a remote region ofAfghanistan, a wild, broken countryseemingly impervious to U.S. pres-sure and sanctions.

Such groups are hard to penetratewith agents; we lack the languageskills and the right kind of manpower.And satellite intelligence can’t substi-tute for human intelligence.

As for bin Laden, the chief suspectin yesterday’s outrages, he is hard toreach. He is protected by the fanatical-ly pure Islamic regime of the AfghanTaliban regime and its leader, MullahOmar. We bombed his Afghan basesin retaliation for the embassy attacksbut failed to take him out.

No one knows for sure whether binLaden ordered yesterday’s attacks.But Abdel-Bari Atwan, the editor ofthe London-based Arab newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, said he received infor-mation three weeks ago that bin Lad-

en “would attack American interestsin an unprecedented attack.”

Other signs point to bin Laden: thesophistication of the attack; the numberof suicide bombers involved; and thefervent denials of his hosts, the Tali-ban, that he or they had anything to dowith this outrage. Another possible signof bin Laden involvement: Just days be-fore the World Trade Center bombings,the most prominent Afghan opponentof the Taliban was apparently killed bytwo suicide bombers.

“I think the assassination and theWorld Trade [Center bombing] are in-terconnected,” I was told by a well-in-formed Pakistani source. “Havingdone [the Taliban] this huge favor, binLaden has carte blanche from them todo the other” — yesterday’s terroristattacks — without losing his safe ha-ven in Afghanistan. “His fingerprintsare all over the place,” the Pakistanisource said.

If so, the U.S. government mustmake him pay. This would require aconcerted political and military ef-fort by the United States, in coordina-tion with its allies, to eliminate binLaden. If there is strong evidenceagainst him, any country that aids orshelters him should be considered atwar with the United States. But who-ever committed this monstrous at-tack, it is a belated, terrible warningthat asymmetric warfare is a muchbigger threat than our governmentpreviously imagined. The next bandof terrorists could arrive with poisongas.

Fighting back will require a seriousreorganization of our counterterrorismeffort at the presidential level. It re-quires a national debate over how tomesh security with our civic freedoms.It also requires a presidential focus onmore immediate concerns than high-tech space wars of the future.

Thousands of people died becausewe underestimated the low-tech dan-ger to our way of life.

Trudy Rubin’s e-mail address [email protected]

“This mass terrorism is the new evil in our world today.It is perpetrated by fanatics who are utterly indifferent to the sanctity of human life.”

— British Prime Minister Tony Blair

Associated PressAlthough Osama bin Laden apparently has the resources for yesterday’s strike,the Taliban in Afghanistan, where he is thought to live, condemned the attack.

Not enough attention paidto low-tech terrorist threat

DOUG MILLS / Associated PressAir Force One sits on the tarmac under tight security after President Bush arrivedto address the nation about the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.

PAUL HELLSTERN / Daily OklahomanThe north side of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was missing after a truck bomb exploded in 1995.The explosion gouged a nine-story hole in the office building. It was one in a string of low-tech terrorist attacks in the ’90s.

Worldview Trudy Rubin


Early guessworkpoints to elusiveOsama bin Laden


GULNARA SAMIOLAVA / Associated PressAn emergency worker helps a woman injured in the attack. “You cannot believethe devastation,” one nurse said of the scene at the World Trade Center.

A burnt-gunpowder, acrid smellfilled the air, and workers who wereevacuated from the towers and near-by buildings covered their faces withhandkerchiefs. A restaurateur nearthe World Trade Center tore up hislinen tablecloths and handed them topeople as they passed by.

With cars and buses restricted fromLower Manhattan, the streets werefilled with stunned pedestrians, trudg-ing in pin-striped suits, wearing blankand vacant expressions.

Caked in soot and dust, peoplemoved stiffly like zombies from a hor-ror movie, vainly trying to raise some-body, anybody, on cellular phonesthat were rendered useless, witnessessaid. Massage therapist Maura Hur-ley, among the throng of people walk-ing from the tower, said a woman sud-denly ran up to her and exclaimed, “Idon’t know you, but I feel like I needto hold onto somebody for a minute.”

Strangers tried to find comfortand assurance. People in buildingsfar from the towers streamed ontothe street, seeking a kind of solaceamong neighbors they normally ig-nored.

Visitors from politically troubledcountries shook their heads. TerryMcComish, a tourist from NorthernIreland, was shaken. “Being fromBelfast,” he said, “we’ve seen a fewthings blow up, but nothing likethis.”

Yoram Landskroner, a visiting pro-fessor from Israel who lives acrossthe street from the World Trade Cen-ter, fled with his wife when his walls

shook. “We came here thinking itwould be safe,” he said, after scram-bling over a wall and climbing a fencewith his wife, Dinah, to get on a boatto Jersey City, across the Hudson Riv-er from the towers.

Tugboats, ferries, water taxis andpolice boats bobbed in the lightchop, as officials evacuated thesouthern tip of the island. Hundredsof people clambered aboard, manyof them, Landskroner noted, from ariverbank walkway near the Holo-caust Museum.

Among the passengers was MonicaWatt, the mother of a 5-year-oldnamed Amanda who was in a wheel-chair. Standing directly under TowerOne with her son, William, 2, andAmanda, Watt feared they would beburied in debris. Suddenly, a strangerpicked up Amanda, still in her chair,and ran with her toward a boat.

Watt got on board, joining a flotil-la that looked to one old-timer likethe evacuation of Dunkirk, France,during World War II.

In Liberty State Park in JerseyCity, people stumbled off the boats,describing their escape from Man-hattan, their eyes rimmed in red.Hundreds of ambulances from allover New Jersey awaited victims.

Nearby, Datek Online Service, aJersey City Internet company,opened its lobby to several hospi-tals, which set up receiving sites forthe injured.

As more and more people gath-ered in New Jersey, Staten Islandcommodities trader Eric Wernerwas on the verge of tears, worrying

about his wife, Donna, who works ina building near the World Trade Cen-ter. “I have no way of finding out ifshe’s OK,” he said with despair.

The attack had a sickening echofor Werner, who had worked nearthe towers in February 1993, whenterrorists bombed the buildings.New Yorkers such as Werner whohad lived through this before, think-ing they had seen the worst of ter-rorism, were left yesterday to re-think their definition of atrocity.

As Werner spoke, F-16 fighterplanes roared overhead, and warshipssteamed by, a show of might and astartling contrast to the expensiveyachts and occasional dolphins nor-mally found in the busy river.

Hospitals in Manhattan wereflooded with New Yorkers who want-ed to help by donating blood. At St.Vincent’s hospital in Greenwich Vil-lage, the closest major hospital tothe scene, officials turned awaywould-be donors because so manyhad already turned up.

Ultimately, many people were leftseething with anger, feeling rageagainst an unknown enemy for anunconscionable act.

“I feel violated,” said RaymondSmith, a Hoboken artist who wassketching a picture of the darkcloud sitting where the World TradeCenter used to be.

“I feel raped. I feel humiliated.This is just shameful what theydid.”

Alfred Lubrano’s e-mail address [email protected].

CITY from A8

ERNESTO MORA / Associated PressThe streets of New York were filled with people whose faces fully registered the shock, horror and sadness felt by people around the world watching the burning skyscrapers on television.

An unimaginable attackshakes a city’s foundation

“I saw people getting their heads split open. I saw people getting their backs crushed.Never in my life have I seen anything like this.”

— Brian Kelly, banker who works in the World Financial Center



By Helen O’NeillASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — As night fell, thecity moved past the nightmarishscenes of people on fire jumping frombuildings and braced itself for morepain: picking through the rubble forthe dead and the injured.

Crews began heading into groundzero of the terrorist attack to searchfor survivors and recover bodies. Thedowntown area was cordoned off anda huge rescue effort was under way.Gov. George Pataki mobilized the Na-tional Guard to help, and hundreds ofvolunteers and medical workers con-verged on triage centers, offering ser-vices and blood.

One man caught under the rubbleused his cell phone to reach familymembers in Pennsylvania with a pleafor help.

“She received a call from him say-

ing he was still trapped under theWorld Trade Center. He gave specificdirections and said he was there alongwith two New York City sergeants,”said Brian Jones, 911 coordinator inAllegheny County. He would not givetheir names, but said the message waspassed to New York authorities.

Angelo Otchy, 26, a private with theNew Jersey National Guard from Ma-plewood, mobilized to work in the rub-ble. “There were bodies everywhere,body parts everywhere,” he said. “Imust have come across a thousandbody parts. I seen a woman’s head inthe street.”

“We’re just trying to pull peopleout,” he said. “We used shovels, any-thing. We heard people saying: ‘Help!Help! Help!’ ”

Otchy, a mortgage banker in Wood-bridge, said rubble was piled as highas four stories. There were chairs and

desks everywhere. “We just dug anddug trying to get people out,” he said.

He arrived about 2 p.m. and workeduntil 7 p.m. He said he and anotherNew Jersey Guardsman came acrossfour people who were alive, a womanand three men who all suffered seri-ous burns and were evacuated by am-bulances.

Paramedics waiting to be sent intothe rubble were told that “once thesmoke clears, it’s going to be massivebodies,” said Brian Stark, an ex-Navyparamedic who volunteered to help. Hesaid the paramedics had been told that“hundreds of police and firefightersare missing” from the ranks of thosesent in to respond to the initial crash.

“I hope we get patients,” said medi-cal student Eddie Campbell, whorushed to help at one of the centers.“But they’re not coming out. They’rein there,” he said, pointing down the

street to where the World Trade Cen-ter once stood.

Emergency Medical Service workerLouis Garcia said initial reports indicat-ed bodies were buried beneath the twofeet of soot on streets around the twintowers. Garcia, a 15-year veteran, saidbodies “are all over the place.”

Eight hours after the catastrophe be-gan, hundreds of firefighters sat onthe West Side Highway or leanedagainst their rigs, waiting for ordersto go into the leveled skyscrapers andsearch for what they feared would behundreds of bodies, including manycolleagues.

“This is going to hurt,” said JackGerber, a 43-year-old Brooklyn fire-fighter. “A lot of guys got killed to-day.”

He said that after the first buildingcollapsed, surviving firefighterspassed cell phones around to tell their

loved ones they were alive.Barbara Kalvig hurried with a car

full of colleagues from the New YorkVeterinarians Hospital to lend a handat a triage center opened up by thecity’s Board of Health.

“We closed the hospital and broughta bunch of doctors and nurses,”Kalvig said. “We just drove as far aswe could.”

Hundreds of volunteers with medi-cal, military or nursing experienceformed ad-hoc crews to accept blooddonations and take care of minor inju-ries as truckloads of medical suppliesflooded in.

Nearby, a construction crew hauledplywood to the emergency teams to beused as makeshift stretchers for res-cue crews.

Inquirer staff writer Mark Fazlollahcontributed to this article.

“I was too angry to just sit there and watch TV.I needed to do something, so that’s why I’m here.”

— Steve Forslund, 41, of Ludlow, Mass., who was waiting in line to donate blood

For hours after terror attacks,Northeast travel meant troubleAir and rail lines halted; highway traffic barely moved. Trainsare now running, but flights won’t resume until at least noon.

As smoke clears, the rescue and recovery phase begins


By Jere DownsINQUIRER STAFF WRITER

For five hours after terrorists at-tacked the World Trade Center, virtu-ally every form of transportation inthe Northeast went into lockdown.

By midafternoon yesterday, howev-er, the region was on the move again,if at a frustratingly slow pace.

The Federal Aviation Administra-tion has suspended all air traffic overthe continental U.S. until at least noontoday. But Amtrak service betweenWashington and New Haven, whichhad been halted shortly after 11 a.m.,resumed at 2 p.m.

A half-dozen lines in SEPTA’s Re-gional Rail system, running between30th Street Station and the westernsuburbs, had been shut down in con-junction with the Amtrak closure. Butat 3 p.m., they were back on schedule.

After the plane crashes, the New Jer-sey Turnpike was closed south of New-ark. It reopened by 4:30 p.m., althoughthe wall-to-wall traffic barely movedand still was barred from Hudson Riv-er crossings into Manhattan, such asthe Holland and Lincoln Tunnels.

They weren’t as lucky as legions ofother commuters who, dismissed ear-ly from work and school, alreadywere home.

At 2:30 p.m., Center City Philadelphiawas eerily quiet, the streets empty ofcars that, just hours earlier, had con-verged in gridlock in an effort to getout. Instead of the usual tumult, the airwas filled with the national anthem, is-suing from a old blue sedan going weston JFK Boulevard at 15th Street.

“Anything could happen,” said Phila-

delphia Highway Patrol Sgt. Jeff Zier-nicki. “People want to get home withtheir loved ones where they feel se-cure.”

Many found the going tough.On Pennsylvania highways such as

I-80, huge flashing message signswarned New York-bound drivers: “Ma-jor incident. Stay alert for multipleclosings. Avoid New York City.”Those headed south on I-95 weregreeted with signs saying simply:“Avoid Washington.”

Nationwide, an estimated 1.74 mil-lion air passengers — the averageweekday volume — were forced tochange plans.

Grant Scanlen, 32, was on a flightfrom Chicago to Newark when the pi-lot announced that a plane hadcrashed into the World Trade Center.Looking out his window about 9 a.m.,Scanlen recalled, “We were watchingthe first tower and I saw this big or-ange flash.”

He had just witnessed the secondplane strike.

Sipping a drink at Lamberti’s bar atPhiladelphia International Airport, towhich his flight was diverted, Scanlensaid he would not fly home.

“My wife is freaking out,” he said.“I’m driving back.”

At the Airport Marriott, strandedpassengers scrambled for rooms yes-terday. By midmorning, the 419-roomhotel was booked. Hotel workers setup coffee pots, televisions and tablesin a nearby room for those withoutlodging.

“We’re trying to accommodate peo-ple as best we can,” said Bob Jones,

the general manager.Jeffrey St. Amour, a partner at

PriceWaterhouseCoopers L.L.P.,boarded Amtrak’s crowded 8:56 a.m.Acela train at 30th Street Station.About 15 minutes outside Newark, itstopped.

“They said it was some mechanicalproblem” that could be fixed in a fewminutes, he said. But the train didn’tbudge.

“We looked out the window,” St.Amour said. “We watched the firstbuilding collapse.”

When the train reached Newark,passengers were told to get off. St.Amour tried to book a hotel roomthere but could find no vacancies. Sohe took a train to Trenton – and a $120cab ride back to Philadelphia.

Before SEPTA’s Regional Rail linesreturned to service yesterday after-noon, Suburban Station was jammedwith people perplexed amid a bank oftelevision screens reading: “Servicesuspended. Please seek other meansof transportation.”

Liz Lashley, 37, and CynthiaJohnson, 48, knew they were in for along haul home to Delaware. Dis-missed early from their jobs at CenterCity insurance companies, the womencould not take the usual R2 train. Sothey figured out a circuitous route viathe Market-Frankford El to 69thStreet Terminal and then, by bus, toMarcus Hook, where Johnson hadparked her car.

“I'm relieved,” said Lashley, thoughthe trip was the least of her worries.

Her employer, Reliance Insurance,was based on the 91st floor of theWorld Trade Center.

Jere Downs’ e-mail address [email protected].

GERALD S. WILLIAMS / Inquirer Staff PhotographerPhiladelphia commuters dismissed early from work and school clogged Center City intersections like this one at 16th and Vine Streets. The trouble was temporary; by 2:30 p.m., the streets were nearly empty.

VICKI VALERIO / Inquirer Staff PhotographerSuburban Station was a mob scene shortly before noon yesterday, after Amtrakhalted service and SEPTA shut down a half-dozen regional rail lines.


By Eils Lotozoand David Patrick Stearns


Area residents concerned about thesafety of friends and family in Man-hattan spent anxious hours trying tocontact them yesterday.

With land-line circuits jammed andcell phones mostly out in Manhattan,frustrated callers got busy signals, re-corded messages or, often, nothing atall.

It took a half-hour for PhiladelphianMichele McPhee to reach her hus-band, Keith, who was in New York onbusiness and staying at a hotel nearTimes Square. “It wouldn’t even ringat first,” said McPhee.

WXPN-FM (88.5) deejay Jonny Meis-ter got his brother Ken, who worksnear the World Trade Center, on hisfirst attempt but had no luck subse-quently. “He thought the best thingwas to stay in his building,” said Meis-ter. “But that was before the towerscollapsed. I haven’t been able to gethim since.”

Beatrice Obiesie of East Oak Lane,a flight attendant who heard about thedisaster while attending classes atCommunity College of Philadelphia,borrowed a cell phone from a womanon the street to try to reach her familyin New York. “I’m afraid,” she said. “Itried like 20 times, but I couldn’t getthrough.”

In some cases, New Yorkers hadmore success dialing out. Ginny LaMaina of Chalfont spent 40 terrifiedminutes trying to contact her daugh-ter Jenna, with no luck. Finally, Jen-na, whose brokerage firm had movedfrom the 52d floor of the World Trade

Center to a nearby building a fewweeks ago, got through to La Maina,after standing in a long line at a payphone to place a collect call.

“She said it was horrible,” said LaMaina. “At that point, she had stoppedtrying to get to her office.”

Cyndi Breslow, who works at UBSPaine Webber in Jersey City, directlyacross the river from the World TradeCenter, watched in horror as the tow-ers came crashing down. She was un-able to reach her husband, Stuart, whoworks on the 40th floor of one of thebuildings. But he was able to contacther by e-mail with a borrowed wire-less device as he was evacuated. Lat-er, Stuart Breslow asked a strangerwho was talking on a pay phone tohave the man’s wife call CyndiBreslow and tell her he was all right.

Helen Krystopa’s son Chris, a bro-ker in New York, called his father inRoxborough just before the towerscollapsed and casualties began to pileup. But for the next several hours,Krystopa, who lives in Lansdale, andher ex-husband tried to reach Chriswith no success. Feelings of helpless-ness grew as she watched the grimscenes on television. Then, just be-fore 1 p.m, the worry turned to rejoic-ing.

Chris’ girlfriend had gotten word tothe family that he was safe, and thathis company was putting him up in ahotel.

“I am just enormously relieved,”said Krystopa, in tears. “It’s an over-whelming kind of day.”

Eils Lotozo’s e-mail address [email protected].

To donate blood, call the RedCross at 1-800-448-3543.

¢

People who wish to donate mon-ey to the National Disaster ReliefFund can do so in three ways.They can visit the Web site www.redcross-philly.org; they cansend a check to the Red Cross at23d and Chestnut Streets, Phila-delphia 19103; or they can call1-800-4357-669.

¢For information on passengers

on United Airlines Flights 93 and175, call 1-800-932-8555; for pas-sengers on American AirlinesFl ights 11 and 77, cal l1-800-245-0999.

¢

The Pennsylvania Medical Soci-ety is compiling a list of doctorswho would be willing to assistemergency medical crews inNew York and Washington, D.C.Physicians can volunteer by con-tacting the state Medical Societyat 1-800-228-7823; 1-800-556-7850;or 717-558-7750, Ext. 7467. Thesociety can also be reached bye-mail at [email protected].

¢

A blood drive is being plannedjointly by the Arab American As-sociation of Philadelphia and theArab American Community ofGreater Philadelphia. ContactMarwan Kreidie at 215-625-3732or 215-313-0189.

¢South Jersey residents looking

to offer or get help in a range ofareas can call Contact of Burling-ton County at 856-234-8888.

¢

The World Trade Public Ser-vants Emergency Fund is accept-ing donations to benefit familiesof public-safety officers killed orinjured during the World TradeCenter attack. Mail donations toFederal Drug Agents Founda-tion, 888 Seventh Ave., NewYork, N.Y. 10106.

¢The September 11th Fund was

created by the United Way andthe New York Community Trustto receive financial donations.Those wishing to contribute maysend donations in care of UnitedWay of New York City, 2 ParkAve., New York, N.Y. 10016. Do-nors may specify the community(New York City, Washington,D.C., or other affected areas)where they would like their con-tributions directed. Contribu-tions are also being accepted onthe United Way of New YorkCity’s Web site at www.uwnyc.org.

¢Registered nurses who wish to

volunteer may call the Pennsylva-nia Nurses Association at1-800-568-4762. Emergency medi-cal technicians should contact lo-cal ambulance services for infor-mation on how to volunteer.

How togive blood,aid victimsof attacks

Towers represented the financial might of AmericaThe World Trade Center prospered with the stock marketboom. Its prominence made it a tempting target for terrorists.

Agonizing over loved ones in N.Y.For many from the Philadelphia area, anxious hours passed as they tried to get calls through.

DIANE BONDAREFF / Associated PressPeople flee the scene near the World Trade Center after the disaster. Some in New York had to wait in long lines to use pay phones to check in with relatives.

SUZANNE PLUNKETT / Associated PressAfter the catastrophe, people struggle to deal with the cloud of smoke, ash anddebris that lingered in the air for hours yesterday in New York.

“I’m here on holiday. Being from Belfast, we’ve seen a few things blow up there,but nothing like this.”

— Terry McComish, 32, a tourist standing at the water’s edge in Hoboken, N.J.


By Joseph N. DiStefanoand Harold BrubakerINQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

The destruction of the World TradeCenter towers was an attack on Ameri-can capitalism at its frantic heart.

“The World Trade Center is a sym-bol of America’s financial might.That’s probably why they wanted toget it — whoever they are,” said GaryHindes, a Delaware investor whowatched the towers “go down like anelevator” from his office in midtownManhattan.

The 110-story towers were “proba-bly the symbol of capitalism in theworld. Maybe the New York Stock Ex-change would rival it, but it wouldn’tmake as great a target,” said AndrewSterge, chief executive officer of oneof the New York Stock Exchange’s big-gest trading firms, BNP Cooper Neff.

“Americans were very secure. Theydidn’t have to be so risk-averse be-cause America was safe. Everyonefelt safe and safer. This makes every-one question that assumption. People

will become more risk averse. Itcouldn’t have come at a worse time”than the current economic slump,Sterge said.

Nearly vacant when they opened asthe world’s tallest buildings in the ear-ly 1970s, the World Trade Center tow-ers prospered amid the stock-marketboom of the last two decades. An esti-mated 40,000 to 50,000 people workedin the nine-million-square-foot towersand neighboring low-rise buildings inthe complex.

The first of two hijacked airlinersflew into the north tower yesterday asRobert G. Scott, president of MorganStanley Dean Witter & Co., the multi-national investment giant, was deliver-ing a speech to a group of economistsin the ground-floor Marriott Hotelballroom in the south tower.

“The building shook all the way tothe ground floor. The lights flickered,and immediately everybody left theroom,” said David Kotok, a Vinelandmoney manager attending the speech.Kotok fled into the street as col-

leagues sought their families in theMarriott Hotel, which occupied thelower 20 stories of the south tower.

Morgan Stanley was the biggest em-ployer at the center, with 3,500 finan-cial advisers, stockbrokers and clerksemployed on 25 floors. The companysaid it did not know how many hadbeen killed and injured, and did notreturn a call about Scott’s fate.

Other big investment firms such asKeefe, Bruyette & Woods and CantorFitzgerald & Co., the nation’s leadinggovernment bond trader, and insurersincluding Aon Corp. had extensive of-fices on the upper floors of the com-plex where many workers may nothave survived.

But at least two major Trade Centertenants, Oppenheimer mutual fundsand the law firm of Brown & Wood,said they believed that all their work-ers had survived.

More than 300 tenants were locatedin the two towers, according to thebuildings’ owner, the Port Authorityof New York and New Jersey, anothermajor tenant.

The towers weren’t the only build-ings crippled. “When a building getshit that hard it gets a certain sway toit, like a hurricane. Or an atomic

bomb. Everything near it got dam-aged — Lehman Brothers, AmericanExpress, Merrill Lynch and GoldmanSachs,” all of which have their head-quarters in the neighborhood adjoin-ing the towers, said Albert “Moose”Greenfield 3d, a third-generation Phil-adelphia high-rise developer andformer Goldman Sachs bond trader.

The New York and Nasdaq stockmarkets, which were not damaged inthe blast, agreed to shut their doorsthrough at least today, despite callsfrom some such as former Securitiesand Exchange Commissioner ArthurLevitt to keep the markets open indefiance of the attackers.

Observers worried that the cost ofthe damage will cripple the strugglingU.S. insurance business, which is al-ready having a tough time payingclaims.

Firms were less concerned aboutdamage to the U.S. financial pay-ments system, since banking, insur-ance and investment companies rou-tinely record transactions on backupsystems located far from their NewYork offices.

Indeed, while shredded paperrecords blanketed lower Manhattanalong with biting smoke, glass and

metal shards, big financial corpora-tions were tapping alternative datacenters around the nation in an at-tempt to keep global payment sys-tems afloat.

Five minutes after the first planehit, SunGard Data Systems Inc., ofWayne, set up a crisis center to enablestricken companies to activate back-up data and transaction-processingcenters for six big U.S. financial com-panies that suffered major damage inthe attack.

By 5 p.m. the company had put to-gether six disaster-recovery centers(compared with 26 after HurricaneFloyd in 1999), but at least 44 othercompanies have reported problemsand many expect to set up centers to-morrow or later this week, said JimSimmons, head of SunGard’s businesscontinuity and Internet servicesgroup.

The financial system wasn’t perma-nently crippled, Simmons said:“What’s really horrific is how the en-tire nation has stopped because of thetragic loss of life.”

Joseph N. DiStefano can be reached at215-854-5957 [email protected].


New Jersey. “We’re just trying to pullpeople out. We used shovels, any-thing. We heard people saying, ‘Help!Help! Help!’ ”

Some people were alive in the de-bris and were making cell-phonecalls, New York Mayor RudolphGiuliani said last night, but workerscontinued to be hampered by flamesfrom the wrecked buildings.

“When we get the final number [offatalities], it will be more than we canbear,” Giuliani said.

Between 40,000 and 50,000 peopleworked at the World Trade Centercomplex, 20,000 of them in the towers;an additional 90,000 visited on an aver-age day. At the Pentagon, officialstold one congressman that the build-ing appeared to have sustained about100 casualties. The four hijackedflights — two from American Air-lines, two from United — carried 266people in all.

President Bush, preceded by astring of cabinet officers and congres-sional leaders, took to the airwaveslast night to try to calm the nation andvow justice for the perpetrators. Heput U.S. military forces around theworld on an alert of the highest level.

“We will make no distinction betweenthe terrorists who committed these actsand those who harbor them,” Bush de-clared in a televised address from theWhite House, where he had returnedlate in the day after taking a circuitousroute from Florida to Louisiana and Ne-braska for security reasons.

No groups claimed responsibility.Afghanistan’s hard-line Taliban rul-ers condemned the attacks and reject-ed U.S. officials’ suggestions that ter-rorist mastermind Osama bin Ladenmight be behind them.

The United States says bin Laden,who is believed to be hiding in Afghani-stan, has organized and financed numer-ous terrorist operations. Sen. Orrin G.Hatch (R., Utah), the top Republican onthe Senate Judiciary Committee, saidU.S. intelligence had intercepted com-munications between bin Laden support-ers discussing the attacks.

Explosions were heard early todaynear the airport in Afghanistan’s capi-tal of Kabul, but the United States de-

nied involvement. One U.S. officialsaid the fighting appeared to havebeen rocket attacks by rebels.

Army Gen. Henry Shelton, chair-man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,would not talk publicly about possibleU.S. military retaliation.

“I have no intention of discussingwhat comes next, but, make no mistake,our armed forces are ready,” he said.

As the panic and chaos unfolded inNew York and Washington, the nationwent on high alert, and normally bus-tling centers of activity emptied out.Federal agencies, schools, malls, land-marks and tourist sites, including In-dependence Hall, shut down. All U.S.financial markets closed through to-day, with an announcement expectedtoday when they will reopen.

The Federal Aviation Administra-tion grounded all commercial flightsuntil at least noon today. Most cultur-al and sporting events, including ma-jor-league baseball games, were can-celed or postponed.

The U.S. Atlantic Fleet dispatchedaircraft carriers to Washington andNew York to provide air defenses forthe nation’s political and financial cap-itals. It also sent guided-missile cruis-ers and destroyers, capable of thwart-ing air attacks, and amphibious ships,equipped with medical facilities, toNew York. Officials tightened the bor-ders with Mexico and Canada.

The city of New York — its mayoralprimary promptly canceled — waslargely sealed off, with tunnels andbridges into Manhattan closed andpublic transit, including Amtrak andGreyhound service, frozen for mostof the day. Bush declared a major di-saster there.

Bracing for the worst, federalhealth officials activated for the firsttime a full-blown nationwide medicalemergency disaster plan aimed atidentifying dead victims and caringfor survivors.

Officials in New York said that 265firefighters had been killed, and that78 police officers were missing.

Tommy G. Thompson, secretary ofthe U.S. Department of Health and Hu-man Services, said emergency teamsof medical and mortuary workers, to-taling more than 300 people, were be-ing dispatched to New York and Wash-ington to assist local workers. Emer-gency medical supplies were also be-ing shipped to New York.

Eighty federal medical-disasterteams throughout the country alsowere ready to help, as were thousandsof health workers in the private sec-tor, Thompson said. He said his de-partment was working with the Feder-al Emergency Management Agencyand local health officials to assessmedical needs and would provide addi-tional personnel as needed.

Bush was taking part in a readinglesson in an elementary school in Sara-sota, Fla., yesterday morning when anadviser whispered the news into hisear. He called the terrorists cowards.

“Freedom itself was attacked thismorning, and I assure you freedomwill be defended,” Bush said.

His wife, Laura, and their 19-year-old twin daughters were moved to se-cure locations, as were Vice PresidentCheney, House Speaker J. Dennis Has-tert (R., Ill.) — third in line to thepresidency — and other top govern-ment officials, including members ofthe Supreme Court.

“We’re at war. We’re absolutely atwar. This is 21st-century war,” Rep.Curt Weldon (R., Pa.) said from Wash-ington.

In Philadelphia, schools closed inthe morning, and the city was put onemergency status shortly before 10a.m. All buildings in Independence Na-tional Historical Park were closed,parking was banned in the blocks sur-rounding the Liberty Bell and Inde-pendence Hall, and federal buildingsand business towers were evacuated.The state Capitol in Harrisburg alsowas evacuated, but the Statehouseand state offices in Trenton remainedopen.

When the New York towers crum-pled, permanently altering the famedcity skyline, clouds of dust and ashblew hundreds of feet into the air in ascene that many witnesses likened toan exploding volcano.

The devastation was visible fromspace.

“As we went over Maine, we couldsee New York City and the smokefrom the fires,” Frank Culbertson,commander of the InternationalSpace Station, said on NASA televi-sion from the station.

Those who were in and around thetowers described a horrific scene.

“The smoke was completely engulf-ing me,” said Peter Fink, 41, a lawyerfrom Long Island who was just out-side. “It was so thick, so dark, soblack, you literally couldn’t see as faras the tip of your nose. It was like

someone had duct-taped your eyesshut. … I was worried about smokeinhalation, about dying of smoke inha-lation. I figured I didn’t have too long,40 seconds maybe.”

“You could see people jumping outof the windows … jumping out fromthe highest floors,” added Megan Cum-mins, 23, a Wall Street trader. “Thedebris was falling, too, and you couldsee the debris sort of floating. But thepeople weren’t floating.”

A physician at St. Vincent’s MedicalCenter in Greenwich Village, themain triage center for the disaster,said last night that 327 victims — in-cluding 57 police and firefighters —had been brought in, and that threehad died. Sixty-two were in criticalcondition.

Makeshift field hospitals and triagecenters were also established in Low-er Manhattan, at a sports complex onthe city’s Lower West Side, and inNew Jersey.

Giuliani declared a state of emer-

gency in the city, closing off the areafrom 14th Street south to all but resi-dents and emergency and rescue per-sonnel. He said violators would be ar-rested and prosecuted.

All four of the hijacked planes hadtaken off from East Coast airports —two from Boston, one from Newark,and one from Dulles, outside Washing-ton — about 8 a.m., all heavy with fuelfor intended trips to California.Spokesmen at American and United,the country’s biggest carriers, con-firmed that each had lost two planes.

The first jet, American’s Flight 11from Boston to Los Angeles, crashedinto the north tower of the WorldTrade Center about 8:45 a.m., startinga fire. The second tower was prompt-ly ordered evacuated. But 18 minuteslater, while news programs werebroadcasting live from the scene,United Flight 175 from Boston to LosAngeles appeared in the sky, slam-ming into the second tower in a crashof fire and filling the streets with

smoke and ash.“At first, everyone thought the first

one was a bomb,” said Dean Stamos,who owns a financial company onWall Street. “So we were sort of watch-ing from the office window, and wecould see this other plane come in,right-side up. The second plane, it sortof twisted so it was flying on one side,and then it crashed right in to the oth-er tower.

“There were probably thousands ofus. We all went to the South StreetSeaport, and we were just standingthere. These planes were flying byoverhead, and everyone was just star-ing up because we didn’t know whatthey were. Everybody was sort of run-ning all sorts of ways, trying to getaway, but they didn’t even know whatthey were trying to get away from.”

Subsequent explosions collapsedeach tower within 90 minutes. Later inthe day, a 47-story building in the com-plex, long evacuated, also collapsed.

ATTACK from A1

See ATTACK on A15

CARMEN TAYLOR / Associated PressA jetliner is lined up on one of the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan. Within 90 minutes of being struck by theplanes, both towers had collapsed under the strain of subsequent explosions.

RICHARD DREW / Associated PressA person falls from the World TradeCenter’s north tower. Eighteenminutes after that tower was hit by anairplane yesterday morning, a jetslammed into the south tower.

Thousands are feared killed ...

“I just saw my two towers fall. I’m devastated beyond belief.In many respects this is significantly worse than Pearl Harbor,

and we don’t know who the enemy is.”– Lewis Eisenberg, chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the World Trade Center



Shortly after the planes crashedinto the towers, American Flight 77from Dulles to Los Angeles slammedinto a side of the Pentagon.

Near the Pentagon, Michael Walter,a television correspondent for USA To-day Live, was stuck in traffic. He gotout of his car to see what the problemwas, he said, and looked up to see aplane perhaps only 20 feet over hishead. “When I saw it, I said, ‘Oh myGod! Oh my God! Oh my God! I can’tbelieve this. I was going into a state ofshock,” he said.

Shortly after, he heard a small ex-plosion, which Pentagon officials saidwere propane tanks exploding nearthe building.

“You felt more than you heard,”said Navy Cdr. Tom Rawson, a missileanalyst. “First a shake, then a bang,then a boom, boom, and you knew itwasn’t normal.”

As rescue crews struggled to freepeople and firefighters battles thespreading flames, a section of the Pen-tagon, built during World War II, col-lapsed about 10:10 a.m.

Virtually all federal agencies inWashington were evacuat-ed by midmorning.

About 10 a.m., just be-fore the last plane wentdown in Pennsylvania, anemergency dispatcher re-ceived a cell-phone callfrom a man who said hewas a passenger locked ina bathroom aboard UnitedFlight 93 from Newark toSan Francisco. The man re-peatedly said the call wasnot a hoax, said dispatchsupervisor Glenn Cramer in neighbor-ing Westmoreland County.

“We are being hijacked! We are be-ing hijacked!” the man said, accord-ing to a transcript of the call.

The man told dispatchers that theplane “was going down. He heardsome sort of explosion and sawwhite smoke coming from the planeand we lost contact with him,” Cram-er said.

Others who called from doomedplanes reported that they were callingon hijackers’ orders, and said that cab-ins had been taken over by attackerswith knives and sharp instrumentsand that flight attendants had beenstabbed.

One passenger on the flight thatstruck the Pentagon was Barbara Ol-son, a frequent CNN commentatorand the wife of Bush’s solicitor gener-al, Theodore Olson.

Lauren Grandcolas called her hus-band, Jack, from one of the Unitedjets, telling him: “We have been hi-

jacked. They are being kind. I loveyou,” the Washington Post reported.

In New York, where the twin towersheld equipment and antennas thattransmit millions of calls daily, phonelines became jammed as news of theattack filtered out, making it all butimpossible for people to determine iffriends, workers and family memberswere safe.

In the West Bank city of Nablus yes-terday, thousands of Palestinianspoured into the streets to celebrate,chanting “God is great” and distribut-ing candy to passers-by, even as theirleader, Yasir Arafat, told reporters inGaza that he abhorred the catastro-phe.

“We completely con-demn this. … We werecompletely shocked. It’sunbelievable, unbeliev-able, unbelievable,” hesaid.

“This is perhaps themost audacious terroristattack that’s ever takenplace in the world,” saidChris Yates, an aviationexpert at Jane’s Transportmagazine. “It takes a logis-tics operation from the ter-

ror group involved that is second tonone. Only a very small handful ofterror groups is on that list.”

The Taliban’s foreign minister,Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, said inKabul: “We have tried our best in thepast and we are willing in the futureto assure the United States in anykind of way we can that Osama is notinvolved in these kinds of activi-ties.”

However, terrorism expert Har-vey Kushner of Long Island Universi-ty said he believed bin Laden wasthe only person “who could pull thisoff.”

“When you think of the coordinationthis took, it’s historic,” he said. “Whenyou think of the measures that willhave to be put into place to ratchet upsecurity in the United States, it’s mon-umental.”

Ralph Vigoda’s e-mail address [email protected].

ATTACK from A14

Attorney General John Ashcroftasked that anyone withinformation about yesterday’sterrorist attacks contact the FBIvia a Web site —www.ifccfbi.gov — or call1-866-483-5137.

“The World Trade Center is a symbol of American capitalism, and from the point of view of probableterrorists, a symbol of American decadence. The victims in the planes and the buildings

were not the real targets of the attack. The intended victims were you and me.”— Jim Hedtke, chairman, political science department, Cabrini College, who teaches a course on terrorism

Passengers onthe jets, usingcell phones,reported thathijackers hadstabbed flightattendants withsharp weapons.

AMY SANCETTA / Associated PressPedestrians flee the World Trade Center area as the south tower falls. Later, a third building in the complex also collapsed.

BETH A. KEISER / Associated PressFor the first time in 29 years, the sun sets behind a New York skyline that does not include the World Trade Center towers. Their destruction leaves the Empire State Building (right) as the city’s tallest.

Contacting the FBI

... in assaults by 4 hijacked jets



Bush returns to reassure the countryHe spent most of the dayon military bases to giveofficials time to assess thedanger at the White House.

DOUG MILLS / Associated PressWhite House chief of staff Andrew H. Card Jr. tells President Bush about the New York attack during Bush’s visit to Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla.

By Ron HutchesonINQUIRER WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON — President Bushreturned to the Oval Office to reas-sure a shaken nation last night afterspending most of the day secluded onmilitary bases.

Bush, who was on a trip to Floridawhen terrorists struck, arrived inWashington nearly 10 hours later, af-ter a series of secretive flights toheavily guarded Air Force bases inthe middle of the country. Reporterstraveling with him on Air Force Onewere instructed to keep his move-ments secret until the informationwas cleared for release.

Bush stopped first at Barksdale AirForce Base in Louisiana, then went toa secure command center at OffuttAir Force Base in Nebraska, headquar-ters for the Strategic Air Command.White House spokesman Ari Fleischersaid the extraordinary precautionswere intended to give security offi-cials time to assess the danger at theWhite House.

“The Secret Service, of course, wasanalyzing the information that camein … and taking a very careful look atwhat was fact and what was fiction,”Fleischer said.

While Bush was away, Vice Presi-dent Cheney, national security advis-er Condoleezza Rice and other top ad-ministration officials monitored devel-opments from a secure command cen-ter at the White House. Defense Secre-tary Donald Rumsfeld was at the Pen-tagon when a plane crashed into it andstayed on as thousands of employeeswere evacuated and part of the build-ing burned.

The streets around the White Houseremained closed to traffic and underguard as Bush addressed the nation lastnight, but the president promised a re-turn to more normal conditions today.

“The functions of our governmentcontinue without interruption. … Ourfinancial institutions remain strong,and the American economy will beopen for business as well,” he said,speaking from the desk once used byJohn F. Kennedy.

First lady Laura Bush was on Capi-tol Hill preparing for her appearancebefore a Senate committee when wordof the attacks reached Congress.

“Parents need to reassure their chil-dren everywhere in our country thatthey’re safe,” she said before beingwhisked away by Secret Serviceagents. “Our hearts and our prayersgo out to the victims of this act ofterrorism.”

The couple’s 19-year-old twin daugh-ters, Barbara and Jenna, also were tak-en to secure locations.

Bush learned that a plane hadslammed into the World Trade Centerminutes before his scheduled appear-ance at Booker Elementary School inSarasota, Fla. The president initiallyseemed relaxed as he joined about 16sixth-grade students for a reading les-son. His mood altered visibly momentslater, when White House chief of staffAndrew Card leaned over and whis-pered the news that another plane hadcrashed into the New York landmark.Bush nodded and his face tensed. Afterreceiving a more complete briefing in aholding room, he announced his inten-tion to return to Washington.

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is a dif-ficult moment for America. I, unfortu-nately, will be going back to Washing-ton,” he said. Echoing a phrase hisfather used near the start of the Per-sian Gulf War, Bush added, “Terror-ism against our nation will not stand.”

He apparently changed his mindabout his travel plans a short time later,after a third plane crashed, this timeinto the Pentagon. After a hasty takeoffin Florida, Air Force One and its escort

of fighter jets traveled east toward theAtlantic Ocean, then north towardWashington, then west to Barksdale AirForce Base in Louisiana.

At the White House, Bush’s aides re-acted to the initial reports of a terror-ist attack by researching then-Presi-dent Clinton’s response to the April 19,1995, bombing at the federal buildingin Oklahoma City. The work was inter-rupted when Secret Service agents or-dered the White House evacuated.

That precaution underscored thekey difference between yesterday’sterrorism and the 1995 bombing. The1995 attack occurred miles away fromthe White House, and Clinton made apoint of conducting business as usualdespite the heightened security. Yes-terday, White House aides could see aplume of smoke from the burning Pen-tagon as they evacuated the building.

The closest historical precedent forthe chaotic events might be the White

House evacuation during the War of1812, when first lady Dolley Madisonfled an invasion by marauding Britishtroops. President James Madison hadleft ahead of her to join U.S. soldiersat the front line.

“America has stood down enemiesbefore, and we will do so this time,”Bush said last night.

Ron Hutcheson’s e-mail address [email protected].

REUTERS

WASHINGTON — The text of Presi-dent Bush’s speech to the nation lastnight:

Today, our fellow citizens, our wayof life, our very freedom came underattack in a series of deliberate anddeadly terrorist acts. The victimswere in airplanes or in their offices.Secretaries, businessmen and women,military and federal workers. Momsand dads. Friends and neighbors.

Thousands of lives were suddenlyended by evil, despicable acts of ter-ror.

The pictures of airplanes flying intobuildings, fires burning, huge struc-tures collapsing, have filled us withdisbelief, terrible sadness, and a qui-et, unyielding anger.

These acts of mass murder were in-tended to frighten our nation into cha-os and retreat. But they have failed.Our country is strong. A great peoplehas been moved to defend a great na-tion.

Terrorist attacks can shake thefoundations of our biggest buildings,but they cannot touch the foundationof America. These acts shatter steel,but they cannot dent the steel of Amer-

ican resolve.America was targeted for attack be-

cause we’re the brightest beacon forfreedom and opportunity in the world.And no one will keep that light fromshining.

Today, our nation saw evil, the veryworst of human nature, and we re-sponded with the best of America,with the daring of our rescue work-ers, with the caring for strangers andneighbors who came to give blood andhelp in any way they could.

Immediately following the first at-tack, I implemented our government’semergency-response plans. Our mili-tary is powerful, and it’s prepared.Our emergency teams are working inNew York City and Washington, D.C.,to help with local rescue efforts.

Our first priority is to get help tothose who have been injured and totake every precaution to protect ourcitizens at home and around the worldfrom further attacks.

The functions of our governmentcontinue without interruption. Feder-al agencies in Washington, which hadto be evacuated today, are reopeningfor essential personnel tonight andwill be open for business tomorrow.

Our financial institutions remainstrong, and the American economywill be open for business as well.

The search is under way for thosewho are behind these evil acts. I’vedirected the full resources for our in-telligence and law-enforcement com-

munities to find those responsible andbring them to justice. We will makeno distinction between the terroristswho committed these acts and thosewho harbor them.

I appreciate so very much the mem-bers of Congress who have joined me

in strongly condemning these attacks.And on behalf of the American peo-ple, I thank the many world leaderswho have called to offer their condo-lences and assistance.

America and our friends and alliesjoin with all those who want peace andsecurity in the world, and we standtogether to win the war against terror-ism.

Tonight I ask for your prayers forall those who grieve, for the childrenwhose worlds have been shattered,for all whose sense of safety and secu-rity has been threatened. And I praythey will be comforted by a powergreater than any of us spoken throughthe ages in Psalm 23: “Even though Iwalk through the valley of the shadowof death, I fear no evil, for you arewith me.”

This is a day when all Americansfrom every walk of life unite in ourresolve for justice and peace. Ameri-ca has stood down enemies before,and we will do so this time.

None of us will ever forget this day,yet we go forward to defend freedomand all that is good and just in our world.

Thank you. Good night, and Godbless America.

“Terrorist acts can shake the foundation of our biggest buildings,but they cannot touch the foundation of America.”

— President Bush


President assures the nation: ‘Our country is strong’

CHUCK KENNEDY / Knight Ridder TribunePresident Bush makes his televised address from Washington.


terday frantically checking on thesafety of loved ones.

Sometimes, the news was bad. Sara-cini was among 65 people on boardFlight 175 who perished when itslammed into the 110-story tower ofthe World Trade Center.

His flight was one of the four com-mercial jetliners to crash yesterdayafter being hijacked. All those onboard were presumed dead.

The names of only about 20 victimshad been made public last night, withrelatives providing the information toreporters. Family members in Massa-chusetts confirmed that John Ogonows-ki, 50, was the pilot of American Air-lines Flight 11, the first flight to hit theWorld Trade Center.

His flight departed Boston at 7:59a.m. yesterday, one minute after Sara-cini’s flight was scheduled to depart.Ogonowski’s copilot, Tom McGuin-ness, a father of two from Ports-mouth, N.H., also died.

Among the handful of others identi-fied as slain was David Angell, 54, ex-ecutive producer of the hit TV showFrasier. Angell was killed along withhis wife, Lynn, as the couple flewhome to Los Angeles on American Air-lines Flight 11 after a vacation in NewEngland.

Killed on another airliner was Bar-bara Olson, 45, the wife of U.S. Solici-tor General Theodore Olson, who ar-gued President Bush’s election appealbefore the Supreme Court. BarbaraOlson, a frequent political commenta-tor on CNN, had used her cell phone tocall her husband twice from aboardAmerican Flight 77 out of Dulles air-port to tell him that hijackers had tak-en over her flight.

Her plane crashed into the Pentagonat 9:45 a.m., 42 minutes after Saracini’sjet struck the World Trade Center.

Those slain on the ground may in-clude scores of rescuers, includingfirefighters and police killed by thecollapse of the World Trade Center’stwo towers.

Mike Carter, vice president of NewYork City’s firefighters union, esti-mated that half of the 400 firefighterswho first reached the scene may bedead. “We have entire companies thatare just missing,” he said. “We’re go-ing to have to bury a lot of people.”

While the national death toll re-mains unknown, New York City May-or Rudolph Giuliani predicted the fi-nal tally would be “horrendous.”

In New York, Giuliani said, at least2,100 people had been hurt, with 750of those hospitalized.

“The number of casualties will bemore than any of us can bear, ulti-mately,” Giuliani said.

In Washington, authorities said at

least 100 people were dead or injuredafter a jet crashed into the Pentagon,collapsing at least four floors. “We’restill taking bodies out of this build-ing,” Secretary of Defense Donald H.Rumsfeld said last night.

The 266 presumed killed aboard thefour airliners in itself would be great-er than the 168 slain in the 1995 Okla-homa City bombing.

Airline executives said it could bedays before a complete list of passen-gers and crew is made public.

While the careful task of checkingflight tickets with other informationpresents difficulties, digging bodiesout of rubble and identifying them islikely to be a far more arduous andtime-consuming task.

In Palm Harbor, a retirement com-munity off Florida’s gulf coast, theHildebrands were just another couplewatching the horror on television yes-terday morning until they learnedthat Saracini, their son-in-law, wasamong the dead.

Saracini had been flying commer-cial jets for about 16 years when hetook off at 7:58 a.m. from Boston on aflight to Los Angeles, they said.

Barely an hour later, the Boeing 767

appeared on television screens, showingthe burning North Tower at the WorldTrade Center, and flew into the SouthTower. The fiery spectacle was re-played throughout the day on television.

In Lower Makefield, Saracini left be-hind his wife, Ellen, and two daughtersin the Pennsbury School District, one inmiddle school, the other in elementaryschool. Last night, police barred report-ers from approaching the couple’shome on a cul-de-sac.

Frank Lyons, a fellow United pilot,served as a family spokesman.“They’re in shock,” he said. “They’rein total shock. I think at this pointprayers are the only things that canbe offered.”

In Florida, Saracini’s in-laws, Berna-dette and Bernard Hildebrand,grieved at their sudden loss.

The couple said Saracini was thekind of pilot who would protect hispassengers at all cost.

“The terrorists took control. That’show they work,” said Bernard Hilde-brand, a retired Navy pilot. “I can’tstand anyone saying a pilot wouldcrash. He never would. I believe hewas dead by the time they hit.”

Last night, Bernadette Hildebrand

cried as the couple remembered theman who had married their daughter.

“He was a beautiful husband and abeautiful man,” Bernard G. Hilde-brand said.

“Just ask God to care for his wife,”

Bernadette Hildebrand said, as sheand her husband prepared to leave foran evening church service.

Matthew P. Blanchard’s e-mail address [email protected].

PILOT from A1

Associated PressAl Marchand, according to hismother-in-law, was working as a flightattendant aboard United Airlines Flight175, out of Boston, which crashed intothe South Tower of the World TradeCenter.

“I’m going to have to go home and look out my atrium window and not see the World Trade Center.I’m worried because this isn’t it. Someone started a war today.”

— Dany Jones, 42, handing out water to people trying to make their way to Weehawken Ferry in Hoboken, N.J.


ROBERT SHEEHAN / Associated PressJim Ogonowski, brother of American Airlines pilot John Ogonowski, of Dracut,Mass., holds a photo of his brother. John Ogonowski was at the controls whenFlight 11, the first flight to hit the World Trade Center, left Boston yesterday.

DAMON HIGGINS / Palm Beach PostCee Cee Lyles, a United Airlines flight attendant, is seen with her sons, Jerome(left) and Jevon, in this undated family photo. Authorities say Lyles called herhusband, Lorne Lyles, a police officer in Fort Myers, Fla., on a cell phone fromUnited Flight 93 shortly before it crashed about 80 miles outside Pittsburgh.

Barbara Olson frequently appeared as apolitical commentator on CNN. Shecalled her husband, U.S. SolicitorGeneral Theodore Olson, twice fromaboard the doomed American AirlinesFlight 77 that hit the Pentagon.

ERIC GAY / Associated PressAurora Norton (center) prays at San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, Texas. Norton, who said her niece worked at the Pentagon, was attending a special Mass recited yesterday after the attacks.

Reflecting on lives that were cut short


By Josh Goldstein,Martha Woodall and Jeff Gelles


The economic impact of yesterday’sterrorist attacks is likely to be mas-sive and widespread, economists said.

A key question, they said, is howlong the economic damage will last.

The uncertainty created by the at-tacks could tip the U.S. economy,which has been in a year-long downturn, into reces-sion. It may push up theprices of goods and servic-es. And it could derail apossible recovery ofworld financial markets.

Markets around thecountry closed after the at-tacks. Investors aroundthe world reacted quickly,selling off stocks and driv-ing the prices of gold and the Swissfranc sharply higher as individualsand institutions sought financial ha-vens. Gold and Swiss francs are tradi-tionally regarded as stable places toput money in times of crisis.

In early trading today in Tokyo,stocks plunged and the dollar was sharp-ly lower against the yen. The bench-mark 225-issue Nikkei stock averageended the morning session down 519.24points, or 5.04 percent, at 9,773.71points, below 10,000 for the first timesince August 1984.

The dollar was trading at 119.42yen, down 2.30 yen from late Tuesdayin Tokyo but slightly above its lateNew York level of 119.38 yen Tues-day.

The New York Stock Exchange saidyesterday that U.S. financial marketswould not resume trading today.

“For the short run, it looksextraordinarily bad,” said Jeremy J.Siegel, a finance professor at the Whar-ton School of the University of Pennsyl-vania. “The uncertainty in the shortrun about what this means will playhavoc with financial markets.”

And he expects the economic reper-cussions to linger.

“There is no question this is goingto slow consumer spending,” Siegelsaid. “Travel … and tourism will besharply curtailed.”

At times of crisis such as this, theeconomy can often become unsettledwith a decline in consumer confi-dence and productivity.

George Tsetsekos, deanof Drexel University’sbusiness school, said theattack increased the pros-pects of a recession.

“Any hope of a short-term recovery is now inquestion,” Tsetsekos said.“The impact will be feltacross the board.”

Others cautioned that itwas too soon to predict a

long-term impact.“The immediate reaction to this is

going to be bad,” said Bruce B. Rader,an assistant professor of finance atTemple University. “The question is,‘What will happen in a week or so,’and that depends on the response ofthe U.S. government.”

“Over the long run, everything willsmooth out,” he said. “Like people, themarkets are resilient.”

Stephen S. Golub, professor of eco-nomics at Swarthmore College, saidthe financial impact of the attacksmay be short-lived.

“Sure, there will be some damage,but unless a war breaks out or some-thing, it should not have a long-termeffect,” Golub said yesterday morning.“If there is some sort of global panicabout this, it would be very dangerous,but I suspect it will stop short of that.”

Mark Zandi, chief economist atEconomy.com, the West Chester con-sulting firm, said he feared that thecrisis could tip a weak economy into atailspin, much the way the PersianGulf war helped cause the last reces-sion.

“It poses a substantial risk to aneconomy that is already very fragile,”Zandi said.

He said the most immediate effectswould be on travel, communications,and the financial system.

“The more significant economicquestion is just how businesses andconsumers will respond. Will they re-trench further in their investmentand spending as a result of somethinglike this?” he asked.

Zandi said he was concerned, too,about the effect of the attacks on theUnited States’ position at the pinnacleof the world economy.

“One of the factors that has benefitedour economy significantly over the lastdecade is that we are the safe haven. Weare the Triple-A global credit. And ifthat view is tarnished by these events,then that also could be a weight on oureconomy just at the wrong time.”

Wars and international crises havetypically been blamed for disrupting fi-nancial markets, but their economic ef-fects have varied widely, according toan account published during the Per-sian Gulf war by Edward Kerschner,now chief global strategist at UBS Pain-eWebber Inc.

The Dow Jones industrial averagedeclined just two-tenths of a percentthe day Iraq invaded Kuwait in August1990, but dropped 15 percent in thenext three weeks, Kerschner noted.

The Japanese bombing of Pearl Har-bor Dec. 7, 1941, brought the marketdown an immediate 2.9 percent. TheCuban missile crisis in October 1962caused an immediate drop of less than1 percent, but that grew to 2.7 percentthe next day.

On the other hand, within a week ofthe Cuban missile crisis, the stockmarket’s reaction had turned positive,and within a month, an explosive rallywas under way, Kerschner said.

But yesterday’s attacks have al-ready left the world’s markets reel-ing, shaking investors, money manag-

ers and market overseers.Stocks and the U.S. dollar plunged

around the world yesterday as inves-tors sought a haven in bonds.

European markets fell sharply. Brit-ain’s FTSE 100 index of leadingshares plunged 287.7 points, or 5.7 per-cent, to 4,746.0 – its biggest daily fallin points since Oct. 19, 1987. Investorssold transport, banking and drugstocks and piled into oil shares asBrent crude-oil prices spiked.

London Brent Blend futures hit$31.05 a barrel, their highest levelsince December, before closing at$29, up $1.55 on the day. Energy pric-es usually go up whenever there is apercieved threat to the flow of oilfrom the Middle East.

Wharton’s Siegel said that thoughthe price of oil rose yesterday, he be-lieved that the cost of oil and gasolinewould fall soon because a drop in trav-el and tourism would curtail demand.

In the United States, the Federal Re-serve tried to reassure people that thenation’s banking system would be pro-tected. In an unusual public state-ment, the central bank said it stoodready to provide additional money tobanks if needed.

“The Federal Reserve System is

open and operating. The discount win-dow is available to meet liquidityneeds,” the Fed said in the two-sen-tence statement.

The promise to supply additionalmoney to the banking system was sim-ilar to a pledge that the Fed issued themorning after the October 1987 stockmarket crash.

But the effect of yesterday’s at-tacks clearly extends beyond anythreat to the stock markets.

“This has destroyed a very expen-sive asset in lower Manhattan,” Radersaid. “We are talking about billions ofdollars, and that is not even talkingabout the cost in lives. These are high-ly skilled people, and that has an eco-nomic effect. It is so beyond the com-prehension of everybody that it is vir-tually impossible to contemplate thereaction.”

The last time the New York StockExchange was closed for two succes-sive days was in 1945, when it shut tocelebrate the end of World War II.

Josh Goldstein’s e-mail address [email protected].

This article contains information fromInquirer wire services.

A new president suddenly faces ultimate testSafety is utmost in the mindsof Americans looking toGeorge W. Bush for answersand leadership.

CHRIS O’MEARA / Associated PressPresident Bush makes a statement while in Sarasota, Fla. A presidential historian called yesterday’s attacks “… a perfectstrike against what it means to be an American. And this will require, from Bush, an incredible balancing act.”

TED S. WARREN / Associated PressBrenda Jackson-Gray, a flagger with A&L Construction on the Chicago Skyway,expresses her feelings with a sign made from lipstick and plastic foam.

By Dick PolmanINQUIRER STAFF WRITER

This morning, George W. Bush be-gins the first full day of his new presi-dency, because yesterday terroristsblasted his old one to rubble.

Forget the tax cut, and the inspira-tional speeches on values he was plan-ning to give this fall. Forget his abid-ing interest in improving children’sliteracy. Forget the whole domesticagenda, because, in the sobering

months ahead, this presi-dent, a novice at foreignpolicy, will be judged by

the American people on how well heanswers this question:

Can he make us feel safe again?Few of Bush’s predecessors ever

faced such a daunting challenge.Pearl Harbor shocked the nation, butAmericans knew in an instant who theenemy was — and where to find him.The Cuban missile crisis brought us tothe brink of war, but, in the end, JohnF. Kennedy was dealing with a worldleader who did not view suicide as ahigher calling.

Americans always back their presi-dent when a crisis hits; even JimmyCarter posted high poll ratings at thestart of the Iranian hostage standoff.And Bush struck the predictablechords last night when he said, “Theseacts shattered steel, but they cannotdent the steel of America’s resolve.”

But Bush has been pulled into themurkiest waters of foreign policy, aplace where slogans such as “compas-sionate conservatism” have no mean-ing. Americans will turn to him forreassurance; many will demand ven-geance. The challenges that await himwould test even the most seasoned na-tional leader.

Allan Lichtman, a presidential histo-rian who fled the U.S. Capitol buildingwhen the Pentagon was hit, said yes-terday: “The terrorists attacked oursafety, our economy, and our sense ofmobility — a perfect strike againstwhat it means to be an American. Andthis will require, from Bush, an incred-ible balancing act.

“He has to be resolute, but not pre-cipitous. Americans like to believe inquick-fix remedies, but he can’t sim-ply give in to people who have bloodin their eyes. He has to somehow re-spond to what is, in effect, warfareagainst the United States, but he can’tturn us into a garrison state that poi-sons what is good about our liberties.”

This also is a president who, as acandidate, assured journalists that ifhe didn’t know much about a foreigntopic, he would simply ask his advis-ers. But, Lichtman said: “He has tocommunicate effectively with the peo-ple, in the weeks ahead, and his advis-ers can’t do that for him. Only a presi-dent is supposed to have a mysticalbond with the people. He has to get itfrom within himself.”

Stephen Hess, an aide in the Eisen-

hower and Nixon administrations,said yesterday: “Bush has to show agreater presence, the situation re-quires it, and until now, he didn’tseem prepared to do that. That wasdeliberate, actually, out of a convic-tion that Bill Clinton was in every-body’s face too often.

“But now he needs to step up, be-cause this is a nation that had alwaysfelt protected by oceans east andwest, and friendly nations north and

south. Now we realize how easy it isfor professionals to pierce that ‘ar-mor.’ And what will he do about that,in the long run?”

That question will dominate our poli-tics after the rubble has been re-moved and the deaths have been tabu-lated. As California political analystBruce Cain said yesterday: “That goesright to the top of the list, and dwarfseverything else. That’s where thescrutiny of Bush will really get in-

tense.“From now on, everybody will be-

come obsessed with terrorism, andthe politicians will respond to that.People will demand heightened securi-ty. They’ll demand more money forbeefed-up intelligence services. Allthis money has to come from the fed-eral budget. Will Bush dip into theSocial Security surplus” — as he hint-ed last month, when he said that sucha move would be justified by war or arecession?

Analysts cite other complicating is-sues. Would a public demand for moreantiterrorist measures diminish politi-cal support for Bush’s outer-spacemissile-shield proposal — an expen-sive project that would do nothing tocombat the kinds of horrors inflictedupon the nation yesterday? Is thereenough money to do both?

And while all that is happening,Bush will be expected to fashion somekind of acceptable response to attack-ers who are not easily deterred byAmerican force. Assuming he findsthe attackers.

His predecessors often struggledfor the right response. Ronald Re-agan, generally lauded today as astrong foreign-policy president,bombed five targets in Libya, includ-ing Moammar Gadhafi’s palace, afterconcluding in 1986 that Libya hadbacked the bombing of a Berlin night-club frequented by GIs. Yet in 1982,after terrorists killed 239 Marines inBeirut, Reagan didn’t hit back. He re-sponded by withdrawing all U.S. forc-es from Lebanon.

Bush’s response to this attack onAmerican soil has to be strong enoughto satisfy angry citizens — and partic-ularly the conservatives within his Re-publican base. They have been com-plaining for months that Bush hasbeen stingy with money for defense,that he has been too easy on YasirArafat, and that he coddled the Chi-nese after they knocked a U.S. surveil-lance plane out of the sky.

Yesterday, some conservative com-mentators demanded that Bush go af-ter the countries that harbor terror-ists, and Bush responded in his TVaddress last night, saying he would“make no distinction” between the at-tackers and their hosts. Assuming hefinds the hosts.

But the danger for Bush, Lichtmansaid, “is that a president who wants tofocus on domestic issues could getdragged into a new kind of intractablewar. A similar thing happened to Lyn-don Johnson. He wanted to be a greatdomestic president — and he got Viet-nam.”

Dick Polman’s e-mail address [email protected].

Analysis

Attacks pose a ‘substantial risk’to an already troubled economy

“For the shortrun, it looksextraordinarilybad.”Jeremy J. Siegel,Wharton Schoolfinance professor

“We are talking about billions of dollars, and that is not even talking about the cost in lives. … It is so beyondthe comprehension of everybody that it is virtually impossible to contemplate the reaction.”

— Bruce B. Rader, an assistant professor of finance at Temple University



E.J. FLYNN/ Associated PressOn the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, Brian McNight (left) and Charles Melton,both of Los Angeles, watch a billboard projection of President Bush speaking.

Yesterday’s events prompted thefiercely competitive networks to dosomething they don’t like to do —share.

At the suggestion of 60 Minutes cre-ator Don Hewitt, the broadcast andcable news networks agreed yester-day morning to share all video gath-ered from the day’s devastating airattacks on the World Trade Center inNew York and the Pentagon in Wash-ington.

Such network cooperation isbelieved to be unprecedentedon a breaking news story.

“There are times you justhave to waive some of yourcompetitive vigor and dowhat’s right for the Americanpeople,” said Eason Jordan,CNN’s president, newsgather-ing.

“We are in every battle towin, and win big, but given theextraordinary, unprecedent-ed, horrific nature of what hap-pened today, we’re putting itaside, to a degree.”

Also put aside, refreshingly, werethe predictable calls from networkpublicists crowing about beating ri-vals to the air by a minute or two.

On this day, at least, it was all aboutthe story.

Virtually every anchor, correspon-dent, producer and technician fromevery network from every bureauaround the world rushed to cover theworst attack on the United Statessince Pearl Harbor.

For the first time since the Oklaho-ma City bombing in April 1995, theBig Three (ABC, CBS and NBC) imme-diately went to continuous live cover-age. No commercials. They planned tostay with the story “for the foresee-able future.”

NBC News employees at the net-work’s world headquarters in NewYork City’s Rockefeller Center contin-ued working, even after the rest ofthe 65-plus-story building had beenevacuated.

The Three Horsemen — ABC’s Pe-ter Jennings, CBS’s Dan Rather, andNBC’s Tom Brokaw — all put in morethan 12 hours on the air, as did MS-NBC’s Brian Williams, Fox NewsChannel’s Shepard Smith, and CNN’sAaron Brown.

CNN, as usual, took full advantageof its worldwide bureaus by broadcast-ing videophone pictures last night ofexplosions in Kabul, Afghanistan. Ter-rorism suspect Osama bin Laden is

thought to be in that country.“We’re very competitive with corre-

spondents, with news reporting, withon-air talent,” said CNN’s Jordan.

It was also the first test under firefor new CNN chief Walter Isaacson;Brown, the network’s new signatureanchor; and new morning host PaulaZahn, a Fox News star less than aweek ago.

Thanks to the brave new world ofvertical integration, networksshared their coverage withtheir corporate cousins.

ABC’s reports ran on ESPNand ESPN2 (both owned byDisney); CBS’s on VH1 andUPN (Viacom); CNN’s on allof AOL Time Warner’s domes-tic and international net-works, including TNT, TBS,and Turner Classic Movies.

Several network correspon-dents covering the story at theWorld Trade Center in Man-hattan barely escaped seriousinjury, or even death.

MSNBC’s Ashleigh Banfield andher crew broke down the door of abuilding to escape falling debris. CN-BC’s Ron Insana ran and hid in aparked car when the second tower col-lapsed.

CBS’s Carol Marin said she thoughtshe was about to be killed by an ap-proaching fireball when a nearby fire-fighter grabbed her, threw heragainst a wall, and protected her withhis body.

Banfield, Insana and Marin were allcovered in ash and clearly shakenwhile relating their stories on the air.

Fox News Channel producer Dan Co-hen, trained as an emergency medicaltechnician, dashed to the scene andtreated victims, then had to run forhis life as the towers crumbled. Hemanaged to do two phone reports.

Like the correspondents, executiveswere also unnerved.

“We are in uncharted territoryhere,” CNN’s Jordan said. “Nothingremotely similar to the situation wefind ourselves in today has happenedbefore. I hope to God it doesn’t again.”

On a more mundane note, the 53dannual prime-time Emmy Awards,scheduled for Sunday night in L.A. onCBS, were postponed indefinitely “outof respect for the victims and theirfamilies,” said the National Academyof Television Arts and Sciences.

Gail Shister’s e-mail address [email protected].

By Carrie RickeyINQUIRER MOVIE CRITIC

Hearts stopped. The Earth stoodstill. And Manhattan’s tallest towerscollapsed in a billow of steel and ash.Just like the movies, witnesses said.

If only.Because afterward the

lights didn’t come up. Wedidn’t leave the multiplexwith that giddy adrenalinehigh and the certainty thatit couldn’t happen here.This time, the adrenalinesoured in our veins andacid seared our guts.

As we watched theWorld Trade Center build-ings crumple, first one,then the other, there wasnone of the visceral thrill we got fromseeing the Washington Monument va-porize in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers.

No breathtaking spectacle like themoney shot in Independence Day,when the White House is zapped byaliens.

It wasn’t a movie set where the “ca-sualties” get up, dust themselves off,and go to the commissary for lunch.And there was no last scene in whichthe hero reassures us that mankind’sfundamental decency can vanquishany evil.

In The Day the Earth Stood Still, the1951 classic in which a spaceshipfrom another planet lands on theWashington Mall, an alien so dignifiedhe could be a BBC anchor delivers ananti-nuclear-weapons sermon that re-affirms the brotherhood of man.

In The War of the Worlds (1953), we

can see the wires on those stingrayspaceships that demolish entire Cali-fornia towns.

And in Black Sunday (1977), theBlack September terrorists who hi-jack the Goodyear blimp and plan to

crash it into the SuperBowl crowd are foiled be-fore the kickoff by FBIand Israeli antiterroristforces.

How naive those moviesseemed yesterday.

I mentally rewound im-ages from these films as Iwatched the horrific kalei-doscope of ambulancesand gridlock and grief onCNN.

Just like the movies, Ithought despite myself. Specifically,just like a 1998 film, The Siege. That’sthe one in which Arab terrorists tar-get New York buses, FBI headquar-ters, and a packed Broadway theater.

In response, martial law is imposedand the government indiscriminatelyrounds up Arab Americans, interninginnocent citizens in concentrationcamps.

As terrorist violence is met withconstitutional terrorism, a dignifiedFBI officer played by Denzel Washing-ton observes that our enemies won’tneed to destroy our liberties if we de-stroy them ourselves.

At least in the movies, there’s thecomfort of a hero, the solace of sus-pended belief, the soothing voice ofreason. Just like the movies? If only.

Carrie Rickey’s e-mail address [email protected].

At first, the second Boeing 767looked like a housefly. Then came thefiery flash.

What followed was like one of thosedemolition “events.” An old factory orpublic housing project that falls oncue, sending smoke and debris inplumes, graceful as a Fourth of Julyfirework, as gawkers ooh and aah.

There were no oohs and aahs yester-day. Television showed video of thecrashes and subsequent collapse ofthe twin towers of the World TradeCenter in an endless loop. But the ter-ror came home in the day’s most com-pelling shot, of people running direct-

ly at the camera, afearful herd that com-mandeered an entireManhattan street.

Television, our usual-ly pleasant friend,piled up the most hor-rific live images it hasever shown. First ahole in a skyscraper.Then a plane crashinginto a second skyscrap-er. Then wreckage atthe Pentagon. Then

the twin towers collapsing. Yet it wasall an empty shock until it got a hu-man face.

The ghostly financiers, gray fromhead to toe with ash covering their$1,000 suits. The firefighters and po-lice struggling to help victims, or flee-ing from those terrible speedingclouds themselves. “It’s a war. We’vebeen attacked,” said one in that dis-tinctive New Yorkese. “It’s like WorldWar II. This is World War III.”

Still without a personality, despitethe inevitable droning heads thatfilled the screen with speculation asthe day progressed, the disaster final-ly elicited tears when Jim Ogonowskicame out of his Massachusetts farm-house to talk about his brother, John.

He went to St. Stanislaus School inLowell. He flew 22 years for AmericanAirlines. And he was piloting Flight 11out of Boston yesterday before it washijacked and slammed into the northtower of the World Trade Center.

“I keep looking at the cornfield behindme,” said Ogonowski, “hoping that mybrother comes walking on out.”

Television becomes the old townsquare when crisis hits, the place wegather. Even MTV stopped rockingyesterday — eventually — to coverthe carnage. So did VH1, the shoppingchannels, the Food Network.

EWTN — the Eternal Word Televi-sion Network — did its bit, presentingAdoration of the Blessed Sacramentfor Bombing Victims and for Peaceand other inspirational segments.

No medium is better suited for com-munion, spiritual or otherwise. Wegather to share the crisis. And we

know that if anything happens, wordwill be instantaneous.

That’s also one of TV’s biggest weak-nesses. For a brief time in the earlyevening, viewers thought the UnitedStates had gone to war with Afghani-stan.

The medium’s other failing is whathappens when there isn’t any news.That’s when the tap-dancing begins.An FBI guy is allowed to inflame thepopulace with his bellicose views.CBS’s Fouad Ajami, always primedwith Arab insight, gets to aphorize:“The Taliban would like to hunt withhounds and run with the fox.”

Local TV news folk, human like therest of us, are swept up in hyperbole.Channel 3’s Ukee Washington actuallysaid, “Fear, mass chaos and mass hys-teria is gripping our nation.”

The usual thing is to congratulatethis news team for quick work, bashthat anchor for cornpone analogies.

But this time there was no amusementin citing Fox News for being forced touse exclusive pictures from archene-my CNN or Dan Rather for pompous-ly quoting Thomas Paine, but placingthe colonial patriot in 1894.

There was no aesthetic appreciationto be had in Channel 6’s great shotsfrom Liberty Island or the devastat-ing ground-zero video that ABC putup last evening.

Because this was no housefly thevideo chillingly revealed. Nor was it aflamboyant attorney pontificatingabout a glove that didn’t fit, or theleader of the free world engaging in asyntactic study of what is is.

It was an airliner, filled with terri-fied passengers, slicing surgicallyinto a skyscraper, changing our worldforever.

Jonathan Storm’s e-mail address [email protected].

Amid the attacks,TV news operationssuspend hostilitiesThe cooperative effort was believed to be a first. One CNNexecutive said it was “what’s right for the American people.”

CHRIS LANDSBERGER / Associated PressSue Moormann watches news about the terrorist attacks. She was at a TV and appliance store in Enid, Okla., yesterday.

SCOTT S. HAMRICK / Inquirer Suburban StaffReporters gather in a gas station parking lot near the damaged Pentagon for a briefing by officials.

Evoking Hollywood films— but without the escape

Movies hadimaginedsomethinglike this.Their horrorsproved tobe poorimitations.

Commentary

“It was like the movie Die Hard. All the windows exploded out,and there was a ring of fire around the buildings.”

— Judson Weaver, operations manager at Deutsche Bank, whose office faces the south tower of the World Trade Center


The most horrific images,replayed in an endless loopThe nightmarish pictureskept coming, all day and onall channels, and they did notget any easier to deal with.


Arab Americans fearful of backlashThough no Arabs had beenblamed for yesterday’sattacks, community leaderswere on the alert for trouble.

JOHN COSTELLO / Inquirer Staff PhotographerThis mosque at 45th and Walnutwas closed to outsiders yesterday.

By L. Stuart Ditzenand Monica Yant Kinney


In Center City Philadelphia, notlong after terrorists attacked Wash-ington and New York, sirens wailed,government, businesses and schoolsclosed, and traffic went into gridlockas a stunned populace reacted in fearand shock.

By noon, Center City was reminis-cent of the movie Independence Day,with cars crawling along cloggedstreets and expressway ramps in ahigh-stress push to get home. Down-town was a cacophony of horns, policewhistles and sirens. Elevated parkingdecks and street-level garagescleared out, as workers left for home.

In communities throughout the re-gion, the scene was similar: Schoolsclosed or were put on heightened secu-rity; courthouses and public buildingsshut down; emergency communica-tions centers were put into operation.

In Haddon Township, Camden Coun-ty, school officials were especiallyconcerned because school buildingswere in the direct flight path of Phila-delphia International Airport. Policeofficers manned every door. After-noon kindergarten and all afternoonactivities were canceled.

In Philadelphia, extra contingentsof police, firefighters and medicswere put on alert while city, state andfederal offices were closed and work-ers were sent home. Police wereplaced on 12-hour shifts.

In Chester County, the Coroner’s Of-fice was preparing to send medical ex-aminers to New York, Washington orthe Pittsburgh area to identify bodies.

Amid the morning exodus, WilliamDevlin, head of the Urban FamilyCouncil, led about a dozen people inan impromptu prayer meeting shortlyafter noon next to the Clothespin, at15th and Market Streets.

“As soon as we heard the news inour office, we figured this would bethe natural place to gather people topray,” Devlin said. “At a time likethis, people don’t know what to do. Wefigured this would be a positive venueto gather people together to pray.”

Many who idled slowly along CenterCity’s narrow streets soon found them-selves in late-morning traffic jams onthe Schuylkill Expressway, Interstate95, City Avenue, and other major ar-teries.

Thousands of commuter-rail riderswere delayed or forced to find othermeans of transportation after Amtraksuspended service on its Northeastrail line between Boston and Washing-ton. Several SEPTA commuter linesthat use Amtrak tracks, including thebusy Paoli trains, also were requiredto suspend service.

Mayor Street convened a rare pressconference, flanked by Police Com-missioner John F. Timoney, Fire Com-missioner Harold Hairston, and CityCouncil President Anna Verna.

He said that he had implemented thecity’s emergency plan and that “all rea-sonable precautions” were being takento guard against a terrorist attack.

Street termed the attacks in NewYork and Washington “cowardly, shame-ful and deadly acts,” and called for calmand urged prayers for the victims.

“We are asking all Philadelphiansand people who live in our region toremain calm, vigilant and prayerful,”a somber Street said.

By midafternoon, the city had large-ly emptied of traffic. Commuter lineswere running again, but the normally

bustling subway concourse below CityHall was like a ghost town.

Independence Hall was closed. Tour-ists were ushered out of the LibertyBell pavilion in midtour. And otherparks in the region, from ValleyForge to Washington’s Crossing, wereclosed. City schools, public and pri-vate, let out early.

The U.S. Courthouse and federal of-fice buildings were evacuated, spillingat least 3,000 employees and hundredsof jurors onto the sidewalks at Sixthand Market Streets about 10:20 a.m.

Judge Harvey B. Bartle 3d was inthe middle of taking a guilty pleawhen he was ordered to leave thecourthouse, which he did promptly,leaving his briefcase behind.

“We forget in this country how vul-nerable we are,” Bartle said, standingon the sidewalk. “But anybody can dothis if they’re willing to sacrifice theirlife.”

All city civil and criminal courtswere closed. Common Pleas CourtPresident Judge Frederica Massiah-Jackson said she met with the mayorin his office at 10:30 a.m. and therewas “a sense of tremendous anxiety.”

Many Center City businesses, partic-ularly those in high-rise buildings,also closed. By noon most major em-ployers in Philadelphia either closedtheir offices or allowed workers to gohome early, said Charles Pizzi, presi-dent of the Greater PhiladelphiaChamber of Commerce.

“Lots of businesses [are closing] be-cause of the major distraction as wellas being prudent — especially business-es located in high-rises,” Pizzi said.

Even the little-used ferry betweenPenn’s Landing and the Camden water-front was shut down as a security pre-caution.

At Philadelphia International Air-port, security was tightened, and allaircraft — including 99 commercialflights — were grounded on orders ofthe Federal Aviation Administration.

In Harrisburg, Gov. Ridge orderedthe Capitol evacuated and closed.State and capitol police were placedon high alert. All state employees, ex-cept essential workers such as prisonpersonnel, police and PennDot work-ers, were sent home.

The Pennsylvania Emergency Man-agement Agency ordered all countiesin the state to open their emergencyoperations centers.

The Pennsylvania National Guardwas placed on alert.

In New Jersey, a state of emergen-cy was declared. State offices in New-ark were closed, but the Statehouseand other state offices in Trenton re-mained open.

At 8 p.m., the mayor addressed thecity in a televised speech in which hecompared yesterday’s attacks to PearlHarbor, said that the city has sentsearch-and-rescue personnel to helpNew York and Washington and is prepar-ing to send more, and urged: “The mostimportant thing we could do is pull to-gether as a community to help each oth-er cope with this terrible disaster.”

After night fell, Center City Phila-delphia appeared to be in mourning.Few people were on city sidewalks.About half the restaurants and shopsthat would usually be open on a warmevening were closed. RittenhouseSquare and other gathering spotswere largely empty. And U.S. flagswere at half-staff.

L. Stuart Ditzen’s e-mail address [email protected].

By Thomas GinsbergINQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Marwan Kreidie’s first thought af-ter yesterday’s attacks was revulsion.His second was fear, for himself andother Arab Americans.

“We’ve had a lot of problems withpeople taking it out on Arab Ameri-cans,” Kreidie, president of the ArabAmerican Association of Philadelphia,recalled of previous terrorist acts.“People had been harassed and beat-en, so we’re worried this will happenhere.”

While condemning the attacks onthe World Trade Center and the Penta-gon, mainstream American Muslimand Arab leaders nationally and local-ly were palpably edgy that they mightbecome targets of a backlash — eventhough no Muslim or Arab group hadbeen blamed.

The Council on American-IslamicRelations, a Washington-based advoca-cy group, urged any Muslims whowear Islamic attire to “consider stay-ing out of public areas for the immedi-ate future.”

Rumors of minor confrontationsand threats already had spread acrossthe region yesterday, though therewere no confirmed reports of seriousproblems.

In Philadelphia, Police Commission-er John F. Timoney met with Arab

and Muslim community representa-tives, promising extra police presenceat mosques and other areas. A policecruiser was parked in front of thecity’s largest mosque, Al-Aqsa, in Ger-mantown.

In other cities nationwide, Arab andMuslim community leaders also metwith authorities to discuss protection,said James Zogby, director of theArab American Institute, a Washing-ton-based group that fights discrimi-nation against Arabs and Muslims.

There are an estimated three mil-lion Arabs, who are not all Muslim, inthe country. There are about six mil-lion to seven million Muslims, who arenot all Arab. Across the region, localleaders estimate there are 25,000 Ar-abs and 100,000 Muslims.

In the days after the April 19, 1995,Oklahoma City bombing, Zogby said“a couple of hundred” Arab Ameri-cans were harassed or attacked. InPhiladelphia, an Arab family was as-saulted in the Frankford section, Krei-die said.

“Just like white people shouldn’t beblamed for Oklahoma City, weshouldn’t be blamed for this,” Kreidiesaid.

Zogby said the perpetrators shouldbe “damned to hell. … At the sametime, unfortunately, we’ll have to lookover our shoulders to see who’s point-ing at our backs.”

Omar Dimachkie, Philadelphia-based president of the Association ofIslamic Charitable Projects of NorthAmerica, an educational philanthro-py, said yesterday’s attacks, if carriedout by a Muslim group, harm Islam.

“This is not what Islam calls for.This does not serve Islam or Muslimsworldwide,” Dimachkie said.

A coalition of U.S. Muslim groups,the American Muslim Political Coordi-nation Council, said it “utterly con-demns what are apparently viciousand cowardly acts of terrorismagainst innocent civilians.”

In a statement, the Council ofMosques and Islamic Organizations ofNew Jersey called the attacks “a crim-inal sin in Islam” and offered to helpapprehend those responsible.

Thomas Ginsberg’s e-mail address [email protected].

By Ken DilanianINQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Paul Brown, who survived the Japa-nese attack on Pearl Harbor, thoughtnothing would affect him as deeplyever again. Then came yesterday.

“I feel more shocked today,” saidBrown, 81, of Southampton, BucksCounty.

“I’m despondent, bewildered andconfused.”

Brown spoke for many in the Phila-delphia region yesterday as people re-flected on the most destructive as-sault on the United States in its histo-ry.

As most workaday business groundto a halt, emotions fluctuated fromworry to anger.

Many, including Brown, said theywanted the United States to strike outmilitarily at those responsible.

Stewart Miller of Queen Villagesaid he suspected Saudi dissident Osa-ma bin Laden, who is believed to beliving in Afghanistan.

“As far as I’m concerned, if Afghani-stan won’t surrender him, we’d be jus-tified in using a nuclear weapon andblasting the bastards,” the 72-year-oldretiree said.

“I think we’re at war,” agreed Don-na Bishel, 25, a medical assistant atUniversity of Pennsylvania MedicalCenter. “I think we should go afterhim wherever he’s at.”

Karen Ellis, 26, who just moved toPhiladelphia from Boston, disagreed.

“I think they have to handle every-thing with kid gloves now. These ter-rorists don’t care about living,” shesaid.

Workers and visitors streaming outof Center City office towers at mid-day looked numb. Before being senthome, as high-rise buildings wereclosed, many had been following thestory in their offices on television andthe Internet.

“I’m scared. I’m scared for every-body,” said a weeping Sheila Bul-locks of Havertown, after leavingher job at the State Office Buildingat Broad and Spring Garden Streets.“All I know is I want to go home andhug my baby.”

Angus Cater, a British insurance ex-ecutive who was pitching his wares inPhiladelphia, said he had been sched-uled to attend a meeting on the 100thfloor of one of the Trade Center tow-ers this morning.

“This is going to change the perspec-tive of America,” he said. “You havebeen very benign toward the outsideworld. You are at war now — withthese animals.”

James Gaddy had been power-wash-ing the outside of the office buildingat 22d and Market when he saw peo-ple evacuating the building.

“I thought there was a fire drill,” hesaid. “They said, ‘didn’t you hear?’

“This is terrible. Horrible. I hopePresident Bush will do somethingabout it. I’m totally messed up aboutthis.” he said.

As the city’s downtown emptied,Alex Weigel, a computer-security spe-cialist for Cigna, was sitting at the

Clothespin sculpture across from CityHall, typing on his laptop. He hadbeen evacuated from Cigna’s officeson the 29th floor of Two LibertyPlace, and was waiting for his wife topick him up, since his train to Dela-ware wasn’t running.

“My initial reaction is shock and hor-ror, but I’m also not surprised,” hesaid. “I’ve always felt that this kind ofthing was more of a threat than arogue missile. … It’s time to go to waragainst terrorism.”

The tragic events brought people to-gether.

During an all-campus outdoor as-sembly at Muhlenberg College in Be-thlehem, student body president EliasSaratovsky led the group in thePledge of Allegiance.

On the Vanguard campus in Malv-ern, Chester County, employees gath-ered around televisions. “Everyone

went pale,” Vanguard executiveGreg Agle said. “There was dead si-lence and everyone was walkingaround dazed. It was pretty disgust-ing.”

Near the Liberty Bell, MarilynErickson of Anacortes, Wash., saidshe, her husband and another couplehad been at the top of the World TradeCenter on Friday. Ascending the eleva-tor, she thought of the 1993 terroristbombing there and grew uneasy, shesaid.

They heard about yesterday’s at-tack from a park ranger while theywere inside Independence Hall about10:15.

“We’re sick, sick!” she said. “I can’tbelieve it.”

She began to sob.

Ken Dilanian’s e-mail address [email protected].

“I feel more shocked” than at Pearl Harbor, a veteran said.

Stunned, angry reactions in area

“People are confused. The natural reaction is anger, is hatred. People are asking: Where is the Loving God?This evil is done by men and reflects an absence of God, a turning [of] their back on Him.”

— Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua

Across the region,a day of tension,gridlock and prayerEarly closings at schools and businesses caused traffic jams.Officials took extra security measures and called for calm.

GERALD S. WILLIAMS / Inquirer Staff PhotographerVehicles clog Vine Street in Center City. Business closings made for an earlyrush-hour yesterday as commuters spilled out of buildings and headed home.

MICHAEL S. WIRTZ / Inquirer Staff PhotographerPesha Ramo cries as she watches video of the World Trade Center attack ona television outside Channel 3 studios at Fifth and Market Streets. Ramo, fromBrooklyn, said she was concerned about family and friends in New York.



By Henry J. HolcombINQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The scene in Center City yesterdaymorning looked and felt like a war-time evacuation.

The city’s major office towers beganclosing shortly before 11 a.m. With imag-es of the collapsing World Trade Centerseared in their minds, thousands of peo-ple appeared desperate to get awayfrom the tall buildings.

“I feel very upset … like I’m wait-ing to wake up from a bad dream,”said Terri Doring, an assistant withthe Cozen & O’Connor law firm, as sherushed to meet her sister.

“I’ve got so many friends and fami-ly in D.C. and New York,” said a dis-tressed young man dashing up 16thStreet from the GlaxoSmithKlinebuilding.

By 11:15 a.m., there was gridlock.Impatient drivers blocked intersec-tions. Horns honked.

Suburban Station was chaotic. Peo-ple going in bumped into people try-ing to get out — because many region-al rail lines weren’t running.

Scores of employers throughout theregion shut down operations, sayingtheir employees should be with their

families.Some employees left work when

bosses told them they could go. Oth-ers didn’t wait.

“I just left. I need to get home to bewith my daughter,” a woman cried.

Joe Weiszer, of the city’s Frank-ford section, had just been seatedon a jury when officials told every-one to leave the Criminal JusticeCenter.

“I knew terrorism would come toAmerica soon, with all the fanatics thereare,” he was starting to say, standing inthe shadow of Liberty Place, the city’ssignature office tower.

Then a man shouted: “This is thelast place to be right now.” A firetruck passed, siren wailing.

“I’ve got to go home to see mywife,” Weiszer said, turning away.

A few didn’t leave right away.Barry Robinson was attending a

computer class in the Centre Squareregional headquarters of TenetHealth Care System.

“At first we tried to continue, butthings kept getting worse. Wecouldn’t focus,” Robinson said.

Eric Koci, who repairs office ma-chines for Cannon ABS, was working

on the ninth floor of the PhiladelphiaCatholic Archdiocese office buildingwhen he heard the news.

“Things got quiet and emotional. …We banded together for prayer. Con-sidering it was the archdiocese office,it wasn’t hard to find a priest,” hesaid.

On the streets outside, there was an

air of panic as people tried to callloved ones on cell phones, often un-able to get through.

Amid the turmoil, the EpiscopalChurch of the Holy Trinity, on Ritten-house Square at the edge of the finan-cial district, hastily printed a sign in-viting people inside for prayer. Somecame to deal with grief, others to pray

for loved ones in New York and Wash-ington.

“From damnation, deliver us OLord,” the Rev. Terence C. Roper readfrom a hymnal. “Grant us wisdom.Grant us courage.”

Henry J. Holcomb’s e-mail address [email protected].

By Stephan SalisburyINQUIRER STAFF WRITER

After the calamitous attacks on theWorld Trade Center yesterday, localand federal officials moved to in-crease security at the Liberty Belland other regional monuments and toclose many of the area’s historic andpublic buildings.

At 10:30 a.m., less than two hoursafter the first of two jetliners crashedinto the trade center, National ParkService officials closed down Indepen-dence National Historical Park, usher-ing visitors from the Liberty Bell pa-vilion, Independence Hall, and otherpark buildings.

At a City Hall news conferenceshortly afterward, a somber MayorStreet directed that public buildingsclose at noon, and that the city’s “mon-uments and landmark buildings” beprotected by “additional securitythroughout the day.”

Law-enforcement authorities re-ceived at least one threat of a bombat the Liberty Bell pavilion. At 11:20a.m., the police bomb squad arrivedat the small building, which frontsMarket Street between Fifth andSixth Streets, and searched the inte-rior and surrounding park with abomb-sniffing dog. No bomb wasfound.

Dozens of city and park service po-lice were deployed along MarketStreet and around the park, and metalcrowd-control barriers ringed thenorth end of the bell pavilion.

Phil Sheridan, spokesman for Inde-pendence National Historical Park,said the decision to close the park wasmade in consultation with the region-al office of the park service, whichhas authority over all 80 or so parksand sites in the northeastern sectionof the country.

All those sites were closed after theattacks yesterday, according to KathyDilonardo, public information officerfor the park service’s northeastern re-gion. A decision regarding when toreopen was to be made late yesterdayin Washington, she said.

Construction on the National Consti-tution Center north of Arch Street be-tween Fifth and Sixth Streets was halt-ed after the attacks in New York andon the Pentagon in Washington, andworkers were sent home. The Gate-way Visitor Center construction atSixth and Market was also halted.

“Because of the Liberty Bell andIndependence Hall, we thought it wasprudent to close,” Sheridan said.

Park service officials said no deci-sion had been made yesterday aboutwhen to reopen any of the parks. Sucha decision will be made by park ser-vice officials in Washington, Sheridansaid.

The city’s other major historic sitesand cultural institutions also shutdown yesterday.

The Philadelphia Museum of Artclosed at noon — in response toStreet’s directive — but officialsthere said they anticipated being open

today.“We have normal security in place,”

said Charles Croce, museum spokes-man. “Our protection services peopleconstantly review our policies, and

we consider them to be adequate.”Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine

Arts, at Broad and Cherry Streets,closed shortly after opening yester-day morning. Hilary Pitts, a spokes-

woman for the academy, said it wouldbe open today.

Other public historic sites, includ-ing the Betsy Ross House, the Fair-mount Park historic houses, and the

Rodin Museum closed around noonyesterday. City Hall closed and addi-tional police were deployed through-out the historic building.

Officials at the Kimmel Center forthe Performing Arts, which is nearingcompletion at Broad and SpruceStreets, said they had beefed up secu-rity there yesterday, and at the Acade-my of Music, Broad and LocustStreets, which is now managed by thecenter.

“We have instituted security 24/7 atboth sites,” said John Fernandez, thearts center’s director of operations.

Construction was halted at theKimmel Center late yesterday morn-ing, as was painting and cleaning atthe academy, where the PhiladelphiaOrchestra’s season is to open in aweek.

Security was already a focus at theKimmel before yesterday’s disasters,officials said. The center, with its pub-lic courtyard and dramatic glass arch,will be accessible to the public asmuch as 18 hours a day after it opensin December.

“We already had a security plan inplace; it was something we budgetedfor,” Fernandez said. “We have securi-ty trained to look for anything out ofthe ordinary.”

Stephan Salisbury’s e-mail address [email protected].

“I feel very upset …like I’m waiting to wake up from a bad dream.”

— Terri Doring, an assistant with the Cozen & O’Connor law firm in Center City

People flee Center Cityfor comforts of home —early and in drovesScores of businesses closed. Workers left, eager to avoid tallbuildings. “This is the last place to be right now,” a man said.

JOAN FAIRMAN KANES / Inquirer Suburban StaffBranch manager Steven E. Schwartz keeps an eye on news reports. He was the only broker left in the Morgan Stanley DeanWitter office in Bala Cynwyd at midday, in case clients called. Morgan Stanley had offices in the World Trade Center.


In Philadelphia, caution over public places and landmarksMayor Street closed City Halland other public buildings.Park officials turned awayvisitors at the Liberty Bell.

TOM GRALISH / Inquirer Staff PhotographerAs one of many security measures taken in Philadelphia after yesterday morning’s attacks, National Park Service officers close down the Liberty Bell Pavilion. Officersalso escorted visitors from Independence Hall and other park buildings. Law-enforcement authorities received at least one threat of a bomb at the Liberty BellPavilion. At 11:20 a.m., the police bomb squad arrived and searched the interior and the park with a bomb-sniffing dog. No bomb was found.

BONNIE WELLER / Inquirer Staff PhotographerMotorists traveling north on I-95 in Philadelphia are alerted to closures in the city. National Park Service officials said nodecision had been made yesterday about when to reopen the 80 or so parks and sites in the Northeast that were closed.


Peace of mind falls victim to mayhemYesterday’s attacks, bothrelentless and ferocious, arelikely to leave many peopledepressed and anxious.

MATT MOYERS / Associated PressFirefighters, their ranks thinned by casualties, gather at the base of the destroyed twin towers of the World Trade Center.

By Stacey Burling,Marie McCullough

and Marian UhlmanINQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

Psychologically, yesterday’s terroristattacks were a watershed event likelyto leave many Americans feelingafraid, unsure of their government andvengeful, trauma experts said.

Not since Pearl Harbor have peoplein this country felt so vulnerable, sohelpless, so horribly surprised.

“This is the big one, bigger than any-thing, because of where it occurred andthe extent of it,” said Frank Farley, aTemple University psychologist and apast president of the American Psycho-logical Association.

“There is no baseline of comparison.”Several experts agreed that yester-

day’s attacks were worse than the infa-mous assault during another beautifulmorning 60 years ago, a bombing thattargeted a Hawaiian military base dur-ing a time of world war. And they wereworse than the 1995 attack in OklahomaCity, a domestic act of terrorism thatforeshadowed yesterday’s events butlacked their scope.

The victims of the multipronged on-slaught were civilians working in big-city buildings that are the very sym-bols of American commerce and mili-tary might. They were passengers oncommercial jetliners that were hi-jacked and used as weapons.

They could have been anybody. Andthere were so many people who werehurt, or might have been hurt, or hadflown on those airplanes, or knewsomeone who was married to someonewho once worked in lower Manhattan— or just visited New York or Wash-ington — that the ripple effects couldpersonally touch many thousands.

There will be enormous fear and un-certainty, Farley said, precisely thegoals of a terrorist attack. People willbe left with the feeling that such acalamity could happen to them — andthey will be questioning whether “weare losing control.”

“People are going to be very unhap-py in America,” Farley added. “Andthey will vent it upward. They willsay: ‘What’s going on? How could thishappen in America?’ And a lot of politi-cians are going to start scrambling.”

“It’s the monumentalness of this. It’ssomething that actually touches at theheart of people all over the UnitedStates,” said Elna Yadin, a psycholo-gist at the University of Pennsylva-nia’s Center for the Treatment andStudy of Anxiety. “It was somethingthat no one had ever thought possible.”

An Israeli citizen who has lived inthis country 26 years, Yadin said onedifficult thing about yesterday’s at-tacks was that no one was sure whenthey would be over. A plane crash, asecond crash, an attack on the Penta-gon, a fourth plane down.

“You’re sort of prepared to dealwith one and then you hear about an-other and then another,” Yadin said.

While Americans’ first reaction wasshock and horror, it will take monthsfor people to sort out the full emotion-al, financial and political fallout, ex-perts said. They worried that peoplewould vent their anger — a naturalreaction — on innocent people whoshare no more than their nationalityor their religion with the perceivedterrorists.

“The problem is that people try tomake a clear enemy oftentimes,” said

Teri Elliott, a psychologist who worksin the University of South Dakota’sDisaster Mental Health Institute. “Asa society and as individuals, if we’renot able to find a cause for an event,we can’t get over our fear because wedon’t know where it’s coming from.”

“They always say the first thingthat’s lost in a crisis in commonsense,” said Ellin Bloch, a psycholo-gist and trauma expert at Alliant Inter-national University in Los Angeles.

Bessel van der Kolk, a psychiatristat Boston University who has workedon the West Bank and other interna-tional trouble spots, believes Americahas had its share of defining traumas.

He pointed to the successive assassi-nations of John F. Kennedy (1963), theRev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.(1968), and Robert F. Kennedy (1968),which coincided with political and ra-cial unrest.

“We started to break apart,” he said.“Those years were very disruptive toour sense of well-being. I’m verymuch reminded of that right now.”

But there’s another point of view.“I think we’ve had a feeling of invul-

nerability for half a century,” saidMary de Young, a sociologist and trau-ma specialist at Grand Valley State Uni-versity in Michigan. “Even Pearl Har-bor was not on our home shores. We’ve

watched bombings and terrorism in theMideast and in Africa from a distance.We’ve had little doses [of collectivetrauma] with the Oklahoma City bomb-ing and the [1993] World Trade Centerbombing, but nothing on this scale.”

Experts say the impact of collectivetrauma can help build — or break —people’s faith in their government andsocial systems.

Although no government can reallyguarantee security, leaders must con-vince citizens that all precautionshave been taken.

“You have to live under the illusionthat you can protect yourself,” vander Kolk said. “People psychological-

ly cannot tolerate the idea that theycan’t protect themselves.”

While the attacks will obviously bemost stressful for people who wereinjured or knew victims, virtually ev-eryone could find a connection to yes-terday’s events.

“We are all victims,” said Ken Mang-es, a Cincinnati psychologist who spe-cializes in trauma. “Whoever it was,the terrorists used our libertiesagainst ourselves.”

Merely witnessing the events ontelevision — and then seeing them re-broadcast endlessly — could beenough to cause posttraumatic stressdisorder for some Americans who hadno direct connection to the attacks.

“Some people might have troublesleeping, or they might have night-mares and flashbacks,” said James M.Thompson, deputy medical director ofthe American Psychiatric Association.

“Some people,” Thompson contin-ued, “might get excessively angry orexcessively fearful. Some peoplecould actually get clinically de-pressed — and use drugs and alcoholto numb the pain.”

Psychologists said most people yes-terday were doing what felt right tothem — talking to their friends andfamily, checking in with the peoplewho matter to them. It wouldn’t beunusual to feel anxiety or fear afteran event like this. If it continues forseveral weeks, though, they mightwant to seek professional help.

Yadin, who has experienced terror-ism in Israel, said people were react-ing in normal, understandable ways.Once they get past the disbelief,they’ll try to understand what hap-pened and that will be difficult.

Terrorism, Yadin said, “feels for-eign. They don’t understand it. Howcould anybody steer a plane into abuilding to make a point? To under-stand, I think that’s what most peopleare trying to do right now.”

Stacey Burling’s e-mail address [email protected].

Contributing to The Inquirer’scoverage of the terroristbombings of the World TradeCenter and the Pentagon werestaff writers Tom Avril, CleaBenson, Kathy Bocella, BarbaraBoyer, Cynthia Burton, RoseCiotta, Angela Couloumbis,Peter Dobrin, Jere Downs,Melissa Dribben, SusanFitzGerald, Jeff Gammage,Thomas J. Gibbons Jr., ThomGuarnieri, Kathy Hacker, KristinHolmes, Annette John-Hall, LiniS. Kadaba, Eugene Kiely,Monica Yant Kinney, DianeMastrull, Craig McCoy, MichaelMills, Tom Moon, Bill Ordine,James O’Neill, Suzette Parmley,Melanie Scott, Howard Shapiro,Joseph A. Slobodzian, SusanSnyder, Edward J. Sozanski,Tom Turcol, Elisa Ung, FawnVrazo and Anthony R. Wood.Members of the Inquirersuburban staff also contributedto the coverage, includingKayce Ataiyero, Erica Bennett,Matthew Blanchard, AliciaCaldwell, Adam Cataldo,Stephanie Doster, Lee Drutman,Steve Esack, Margie Fishman,Maureen Fitzgerald, JonathanGelb, Kristen A. Graham,Wendy Ginsberg, Mary-AnneJanco, Joann Klimkiewicz,Cynthia J. McGroarty, ZlatiMeyer, Bob O’Neil, ValerieReed, Mark Stroh, Jacqueline L.Urgo, Will Van Sant, JakeWagman, BenjaminWallace-Wells, Susan Weidenerand Kelly Wolfe.

The American PsychiatricAssociation offers thesesuggestions for people whofind themselves encounteringa disaster:¢ Keep in mind that, while aparticular disaster is highlyvisible, it is an isolated eventin a nation of nearly 300 millionpeople.¢ Act on facts, not fear orspeculation.¢ Keep informed.¢ If you feel anxious, angry ordepressed, you’re not alone.Talk to friends, family orcolleagues who may beexperiencing the same feelings.

For more informationThe American PsychologicalAssociation offers other help fordealing with traumatic eventsonline. Go to: www.helping.apa.org/therapy/traumaticstress.html.

We’ve dealt with tragedy before, indistant war and domestic crisis. Weknow how to recognize it, to somehowmuster the strength and creativity toconfront its awful aftermath.

For in tragedy there is some rela-tion between deed and fate, a Shakes-pearean narrative that stumbles to-ward resolution — or at least a teach-able moment. Tragedy offers us aglimpse of a cosmic balance sheet.

Yesterday was not mere tragedy.Yesterday was pure atrocity.

Atrocity never makes sense. Thereis nothing to be learned, no way todraw up a balance sheet because theprice paid can never be compensated.

What lesson is there in so manydeaths, in national icons blown to rub-ble, in the silence of fallen towers?

“People have an absolute necessityto rediscover meaning,” says MichaelBerenbaum, a Holocaust scholar andhead of the Berenbaum Group, basedin Los Angeles. “We try to salvagesomething from the ashes to makesure there’s not only ashes. We take

painful memories of atrocity and turnthem into tragedy. But this, this isjust atrocity.”

So, after the grief and anger andgut-wrenching bewilderment at yes-terday’s attacks on the nation, the realtest will be our response. Not just ourmilitary, over-there response, but alsothe challenge this terrible new worldpresents to us as Americans.

We know already that today will nev-er be what it could have been. Butwhat about tomorrow? What kind ofnation do we want to be?

“I hope that this will reaffirm inAmerica why we’re not terrorists,”says Alan Wolfe, director of the Cen-ter for Religion and American PublicLife at Boston College. “We have anopen society; it’s the best thing wehave. We have a society of mobility. Itwould be terrible if we draw moreinto ourselves.

“It’s part of our lives to go out intothe world. We can’t stop that. The onlything we can do is to go out fearfully,or go out hopefully.”

There are choices here. Terrorismand the blind fear that it generatestemporarily rob us of the belief inchoice. It is randomness at its mostterrifying.

But that, of course, is just what theterrorist ordered.

Jim Wallis, head of the progressiveChristian group Call to Renewal,heard people talking yesterday on thestreets of Washington about closingoff the borders. Stopping immigra-tion. Putting up fences. It’s only hu-man to react in such a way — at first.

But he cautions: “If we become fear-ful, enclosed, intolerant, we are indeedgiving them a victory. This will changethe way we view the world, but there’sa moral question here. Who’s in thecommunity, and who’s not? Do we be-come a more fearful society, a nationof security fences, or do we find someother way to be together?”

A bizarre unity has been forged bythese attacks; they have brought thenation together more powerfully thananything since the first Kennedy as-

sassination. Yesterday, Americans in-tuitively followed the rituals of mourn-ing and consolation — workaday lifeshut down, families and friendschecked on one another, congrega-tions gathered in houses of worship.

Yesterday, people were especiallygenerous with one another. Berenbaumwas sitting in a Washington-bound air-plane in Los Angeles when the passen-gers were told that the flight was can-celed. “There was not one word of com-plaint,” he marveled. “The importanceof whatever people were flying to Wash-ington for simply evaporated.”

There’s comfort in these collective rit-uals, the beginning of a healthy re-sponse to diabolical events. Now, in theshadow of fear and terror, the challengewill be to maintain the optimism, open-ness and tolerance at the center of theAmerican soul.

Jane Eisner’s column usually appears onSundays and Thursdays. Her e-mailaddress is [email protected].

A response that denies terrorists a victoryJane Eisner American Rhythms

Staff Coverage

“We are asking all Philadelphians and people who live in our regionto remain calm, vigilant and prayerful.”

— Mayor Street


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The Philadelphia Inquirer 9-12-2001