Congress was to return to work yesterday after an unprecedented shutdown of the US Capitol building, facing bolstered security and vowing to escalate the war on terrorism and remedy deadly intelligence failures.
Lawmakers had fled the marble landmark 24 hours earlier because of unfounded fears that attacks in New York City and at the Pentagon would be repeated on the Capitol dome, they would head back ready to go on the offensive.
The Senate and US House of Representatives planned to pass bipartisan resolution condemning the terrorist strikes and promising retaliation.
"Congress will convene tomorrow and we will speak with one voice to condemn these attacks, to comfort the families, to bring those responsible to justice," Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, declared as he and other lawmakers gathered on the Capitol steps on Tuesday night.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, added, "We will stand together to make sure that those who have brought forth this evil deed will pay the price."
"We are not sure who did this is yet, but we have our suspicions," Hastert declared.
A number of legislators said they suspect Osama bin Laden, an anti-western Saudi Arabian dissident living in exile in Afghanistan.
Lawmakers also ripped into the Central Intelligence Agency and the FBI for failing to prevent the attacks. They said efforts must be improved to detect such pending operations before they are carried out.
"I think the bottom line is that we were basically caught flat-footed, and we lost a lot of people," Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said after talking with CIA Director George Tenet.
"This is a wake-up call for America," said Shelby.
More briefings were planned yesterday for lawmakers, many of whom openly voiced outrage.
Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, called it "a day of disgrace" and said intelligence officials should be fired. "We need to sweep those people clean," he said.
Shortly after the attacks, the Capitol building was completely evacuated for the first time as a precautionary move, police said.
Congressional leaders were taken by helicopter to secured and undisclosed locations while other legislators headed to their area homes or to the guarded office building of the US Capitol Police for briefings on the three attacks.
On Tuesday night, congressional leaders, flanked by scores of fellow lawmakers, regrouped on the steps of the Capitol building to show their resolve and sing "God Bless America."
Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, said: "War has been declared against the United States. We ought to act accordingly."
Democrats and Republicans, who had been battling in recent days over the shrinking budget surplus, vowed to support President George W. Bush and called for the nation to do whatever it takes to identify and punish the terrorists.
Capitol police spokesman Dan Nichols promised extra security at the Capitol, whose glittering dome is a symbol of American democracy. But he added, "Our goal is to return to business as usual as quickly as possible."
Security in the Capitol has been increased in recent years. Yet Congress has remained a fairly open place where lawmakers, school children and tourists wander the same corridors, ride the same subway shuttles, even eat at the same snack bars.
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