U.S. Gaining Many Allies, Bush Asserts

Condemning the Taliban anew, President Bush delivered a progress report Saturday on the war against terrorism, saying that advances are being made “on many fronts.”

In his weekly radio address, broadcast from Camp David, the president also asked Americans for patience but expressed his determination to prevail.

“We did not seek this conflict, but we will win it. America will act deliberately and decisively, and the cause of freedom will prevail,” Bush said. “In recent days, many members of our military have left their homes and families--and begun moving into a place for missions to come.”

Thousands of U.S. military personnel, including reservists, have been deployed to Central Asia and the Persian Gulf region--”ready to answer when their country calls,” Bush said.

As usual, the president gave no details of his war plans, other than saying: “Our weapons are military and diplomatic, financial and legal.”

Also Saturday morning, Bush conducted a 30-minute video conference with his national security team on the status of efforts to retaliate against Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda followers.

The president arrived at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains, on Friday afternoon and is scheduled to return to the White House today.

Bush’s progress report amounted to a review of actions already taken, including freezing the assets of 27 individuals and entities with suspected ties to Bin Laden, the alleged mastermind of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon near Washington.

Bush also reviewed his plan to increase security at the nation’s 420 commercial airports, which includes a “dramatically” increased number of armed sky marshals aboard airplanes and new federal oversight of airport security that he said will produce better-trained personnel and tougher standards for screening passengers and luggage.

Also Saturday, Al Jazeera, an independent Arabic-language television service, reported that three U.S. special operations troops were captured by Afghan security forces. The report immediately was denied by the Taliban government of Afghanistan. The Pentagon, which has refused to confirm or deny reports that there are special troops already in Afghanistan on a reconnaissance mission, refused to comment about the report that some had been captured.

Al Jazeera said it stood by its report.

Meanwhile, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson asserted that the United States is ready to cope with a terrorist attack using biological or chemical agents. “We’re prepared to take care of any contingency, any consequence that develops from any kind of bioterrorism attack,” he said in an interview to be aired tonight on the CBS television program “60 Minutes.”

As an example, he said, his department had moved 50 tons of medical supplies from emergency stockpiles to New York within seven hours of the World Trade Center attacks. In addition, he said, the government maintains a roster of 7,000 doctors and medical assistance teams that can be deployed on short notice.

Asked about preparations for a possible attack using anthrax bacteria, Thompson said the government had enough antibiotics in its stockpile to “treat 2 million people for 60 days”--the prescribed length of time for the medication to be effective.

On the diplomatic front, Bush said in his radio address that “international cooperation is gaining momentum.”

He noted that he had met last week with “the prime ministers of two of America’s closest friends, Canada and Japan,” and added:

“Other countries, from Russia to Indonesia, are giving strong support as the war against terrorism moves forward. America is grateful to the nations that have cut off diplomatic ties with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which is sheltering terrorists.”

Bush and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell are cobbling together an ideologically diverse coalition that has little in common but a fear that the sort of terrorism that struck New York and Virginia could hit them too. Many of the countries already have been subject to attacks by a variety of terrorist groups.

If the crisis does result in overt military action, Washington surely will look first to its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to provide most of the help. NATO already has invoked the “attack against one is an attack against all” provision of its charter, in effect requiring the alliance’s 18 other members to fight next to U.S. forces.

However, the administration also is seeking political--and probably intelligence--assistance from a very broad coalition of nations. Bush and Powell have focused on Muslim countries in an effort to refute the claim by supporters of Bin Laden that the war on terrorism is really a conflict against Islam. Pakistan has offered solid support. Washington’s traditional Arab allies, including Egypt and Jordan, have endorsed Bush’s actions, and U.S. officials say Saudi Arabia has offered wide-ranging support.

In Damascus, Syrian President Bashar Assad met Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi to discuss overtures from Washington to join the coalition. The two countries, long on the State Department’s list of state supporters of terrorism, said action against terrorism should be taken only through the United Nations.

In his radio address, Bush reiterated that America has no quarrel with the Afghan people.

“The United States respects the people of Afghanistan, and we are their largest provider of humanitarian aid. But we condemn the Taliban and welcome the support of other nations in isolating that regime,” Bush said.

Most U.S. assistance to the Afghan people comes from emergency humanitarian aid and is allocated in relatively small amounts as needs arise. For instance, Bush signed an order Friday making available as much as $25 million from an emergency refugee aid fund to help relieve the plight of Afghans fleeing their homes to escape what they expect will be imminent hostilities.

Nevertheless, relief from all sources falls far short of the need, according to nongovernmental aid organizations. The Taliban controls 90% of the country, and it is difficult to distribute food and other supplies because all U.N. and private aid organizations were expelled after the Sept. 11 attacks. A few aid workers have returned, but the distribution of assistance is spotty at best.

Twenty-two years of war, three years of drought and the repressive policies of the Taliban regime have produced famine in much of the country, according to Refugees International, a Washington-based advocacy group.

In a letter to Bush last week, Lionel A. Rosenblatt, president emeritus of the organization, said the United States “has taken action to bolster the international capacity to meet this [humanitarian] crisis, but more is needed.”

As for the freezing of assets of individuals and groups with suspected ties to Bin Laden, Bush said that “many governments and financial institutions around the world are joining in this effort to starve terrorists of funding.” Late Friday, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution requiring all nations to take steps to block funding of terrorist organizations. The resolution is “mandatory” and may be enforced with economic sanctions.

U.S. investigators, meanwhile, are “on the case around the clock--uncovering and pursuing the enemy,” the president said. On Friday, Bush said U.S. agents were “in hot pursuit” of Bin Laden.

Together, the president concluded, “all these actions make clear [that] our war on terror will be much broader than the battlefields and beachheads of the past.”