President George W. Bush, facing the worst crisis of his young presidency, yesterday wrestled with how to respond to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as citizens and politicians threw their weight behind him.
Less than 24 hours after coordinated attacks killed thousands, Bush began a series of meetings at the White House aimed at finding out who was responsible and deciding on a just punishment.
The US has adopted a war footing and will prosecute a "full-scale assault" against the perpetrators of the attacks, Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday.
"The American people made a judgement: we are at war, and they want a comprehensive response; they want us to act as if we are at war, and we're going to do that," Powell told CBS television.
The retired general made the rounds of all the US morning television talk shows and vowed Washington's response to the attacks would take many forms, including military retaliation.
"I certainly hope we can find people that are targetable and we can take action directly against them," he said on ABC television.
"You don't attack America like this and get away with it," the secretary said on NBC television.
Powell is quoted as saying that targeted responses against the authors of the attacks would be only the beginning.
"We've got to respond as if it is a war and we've got to respond in the sense that it isn't going to be solved with a single counterattack against one individual, it's going to be a long-term conflict and it's going to be fought on many fronts," Powell told ABC.
"It is not a war, not just against the United States," he said. "It's a war against civilization, it's a war against all nations that believe in democracy."
Powell made clear that Washington would enlist its friends and allies to help fight the battle.
"Democracy cannot be defeated, but now its going to require all nations who believe in democracy to come out and condemn this kind of activity, to work together, to go after those who perpetrate such activity," he said.
He declined to say who Washington believed was behind the attacks but said evidence being collected was solidifying. US officials have said privately that exiled Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden is the most likely suspect.
Powell repeated earlier assertions that there had been no "specific warning" for the attacks and contested criticism that the US intelligence community had been lax for not having an inkling that terrorists were planning to hijack four large airliners and crash them.
The FBI is using intelligence intercepts, last-minute cell phone calls from jet crash victims and search warrants to assemble early evidence linking the attacks to bin Laden.
One investigative focus was in Florida, where agents sought search warrants amid evidence that suspected sympathizers of the accused terrorist were operating in the area, officials said.
Whatever the case, each detail gathered so far pointed toward a carefully planned plot executed by knife-wielding hijackers to ensure the maximum casualties.
Law enforcement officials said that early evidence suggested the attackers may have studied how to operate large aircraft and targeted transcontinental flights with large fuel supplies to ensure spectacular explosions -- and maximum destruction.
Farewell phone calls from passengers and at least one flight attendant on the four targeted flights described a similar pattern: hijackers working in groups of three to five, wielding knives, in some cases stabbing flight crews as they took control of the cockpit and forced the planes toward their intended targets.
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