U.S. Moves Fast to Form Anti-Terror Coalition

In a diplomatic offensive reminiscent of the 1991 Gulf War, the United States declared Wednesday that it is launching a vigorous campaign to forge an international coalition to fight terrorism.

The immediate goal is to bring to justice the extremists responsible for the worst terrorist attack in history, said Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. The long-term objective is to end the terrorist “scourge” altogether, he said.

NATO gave that effort a major boost Wednesday when it declared in an emergency session that any attack on the United States amounted to an attack on all 19 members of the alliance. The statement by the world’s most powerful military alliance opened the way for assistance and even for a potential role by the armed forces of the member countries.

“We’re building a strong coalition to go after these perpetrators but more broadly to go after terrorism wherever we find it in the world,” Powell announced at a news conference after a morning of White House meetings of top national security officials. “It’s a scourge not only against the United States but against civilization, and it must be brought to an end. This will become a major priority of the administration.”

For all the tough talk, however, the initiative also reflects the administration’s fears after the unprecedented New York and Washington bombings. The State Department announced that more than 50 embassies and diplomatic missions around the world were closed Wednesday. The State Department would not provide specific sites, but no area of the world was exempt.

All 245 U.S. diplomatic posts in 170 countries, many of which are already fortresses because of earlier terrorist attacks, requested additional security from their host governments. That included requests for additional guards and patrols, and for street closures around embassies.

In the months leading up to the Gulf War, former President Bush and Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, persuaded 38 nations on six continents to oppose Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. They included several in the Mideast.

Now Powell and Bush’s son will try to enlist Muslim nations in rallying international support. They began by placing calls Wednesday to the world’s major leaders. American ambassadors at every U.S. mission abroad were dispatched to win commitments of support in a variety of forms.

“We have the right to expect countries to take a position--between being a country that supports peace and freedom or a country that tolerates terrorism. It’s time to say what people are and to take a stand,” said a senior State Department source who asked to remain anonymous because of the investigation’s sensitivity.

Powell said the coalition should include Islamic countries because “Muslim nations have just as much to fear from terrorism that strikes at innocent civilians.” He said he expected to talk to the leaders of the Arab League, Egypt and Jordan by the end of the day, and has met with important Pakistani officials.

The White House called the twin attacks “a wake-up call” that terrorism must be combated in all its forms and in every way. “This presents people with an opportunity to work together now, to move beyond the disputes of the past,” said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

During the investigation, the United States is also asking for help with intelligence information and investigations abroad, not only of suspects but also of the financial trail that makes such operations possible.

Critical to the success of U.S. diplomatic efforts will be selling the controversial idea of holding accountable--and attacking--any country or other organization that has aided, abetted or harbored terrorists, a step the administration has pledged to take.

“We have to make sure that we go after terrorism and get it by its branch and its root,” Powell said.

Under this new approach, all 25 terrorist groups on the State Department list would be more vulnerable to various punitive actions, he added.

This proposal opens up a labyrinthine set of legal, political and moral issues that the United States has not been willing to tackle in earlier terrorist assaults, such as those in the 1980s when Iran was linked with Muslim extremists who bombed the Marine headquarters and two U.S. embassies in Lebanon and seized American hostages in Beirut.

If the United States wins support, possibly in the form of a U.N. resolution, it would provide unprecedented justification for a wide range of punitive actions against governments. But it may prove difficult to win passage because leading nations interpret terrorism differently--and have differing views of specific terrorist groups.

“The parties will take such action as [NATO] deems necessary, including armed force,” NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said at a news conference. “An attack on one is an attack on all.”

The declaration, which invokes Article 5 on allied solidarity in the 1949 NATO charter, was designed for use during the Cold War. But it had never been invoked. In a statement, the NATO allies said each country will assist the United States by taking whatever action it deems necessary “as a consequence of these acts of barbarism.”

The White House welcomed the initiative. “It is highly unusual, if not unprecedented, for NATO to have taken this step,” Fleischer said.

Bush talked to the leaders of China, Russia, Britain and France--the four other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council--as well as those of other European nations, Canada and others. Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and Chinese President Jiang Zemin both pledged cooperation in fighting terrorism, the White House said.

“The president is very heartened as a result of the world reaction and the solidarity that the world is showing at all levels in so many nations toward what has happened,” Fleischer said. “And the president is going to continue to talk to leaders around the world as he builds this coalition.”

In another indication that the United States is focusing on supporters and allies of wealthy Saudi militant Osama bin Laden, who resides in Afghanistan, Powell said the United States is holding high-level meetings with Pakistani officials in Washington and Islamabad to seek their cooperation in the investigation. Pakistan has the closest relations with neighboring Afghanistan and once was the operational base for Bin Laden.

The U.S. also received words of support from Saudi Arabia, whose Washington ambassador promised to assist the investigation.

“Islam clearly rejects terrorism and terrorists,” Prince Bandar ibn Sultan told reporters here. “If it is proved beyond any doubt that those who committed these actions are related to Islam, we cannot deny the presence of some evil people who represent only themselves. . . . Such evil people exist in every religion, nationality, color and race. We do not label Christians as terrorists because of the [Irish Republican Army].”

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Times staff writer Norman Kempster in Washington contributed to this report.