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America gets back to business
Monday, Sept. 17, 2001
 
• Background on Osama bin Laden
• Photos of suspected hijackers

Video:
• Sept. 12: Bush speaks to nation from Cabinet Room
• Sept. 13: Bush warns of 'new kind of war'
• Sept. 14: Bush visits workers at Ground Zero
• Sept. 14: Day of Remembrance at National Cathedral
Damon Winter / Dallas Morning News
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, center, flanked by NYSE chairman Dick Grasso, left, and NY Governor George Pataki at the opening of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, September 17, 2001.
By CHRISTOPHER NEWTON
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush greeted White House workers as they returned to their jobs Monday and sought to reassure Americans elsewhere that they can safely go back to their routines. "The best way to fight terrorism is to not let terrorism intimidate America,'' he said.

Americans were getting back to business and baseball Monday, cheered on by leaders who pledged a swift comeback against the terrorists they are vowing to crush. "We're going to stick our thumb in the eye of the murderers,'' Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said from the New York Stock Exchange as markets readied for work.

In the heart of Afghanistan's Taliban territory, Pakistani officials pressed their diplomacy, demanding the turnover of Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the attacks on the United States. Taliban leaders said earlier they would not surrender him.

U.S. officials are threatening to unleash America's full wrath if bin Laden is not given up.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the war on terrorism is not motivated by a sense of retribution. "This is not a question of punishment or retaliation,'' he said on ABC's "Good Morning America.'' "This is self-defense.''

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the hosed-off New York Stock Exchange just blocks from the ruins of the World Trade Center was reopening for the first time since the attacks Tuesday - its opening bell in midmorning a loud statement of life going on. Officials were mindful of the potential for panic among investors.

"Our markets will rise, our economy is strong,'' stock exchange Chairman Richard Grasso said. "The human factor will be restored.''

O'Neill said: "We're going to show the world resilience.''

President Bush and his officials drew a sharp line between nations that are allies and those that may become foes as conflict draws nearer following the airborne attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The diplomatic pressure on Afghanistan came as Bush urged Americans to go back to work and get on with their lives.

"Just like the farmers and ranchers and business owners and factory workers have a job to do, my administration has a job to do,'' the president said as returned to the White House Sunday afternoon. "We will rid the world of the evildoers. We will call together freedom-loving people to fight terrorism.''

The Mercantile Exchange was also reopening Monday, as were City Hall and other government buildings and courthouses in New York.

"We think we're ready for it,'' Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Sunday. "Some of it obviously ... is trial and error.'' Investors anxiously awaited the markets' reopening.

Baseball was returning Monday night with a flurry of U.S. flags adorning players' caps and uniforms. "God Bless America'' was set to replace "Take Me Out to the Ball Game'' as the traditional crowd sing-along during the seventh-inning stretch.

As Americans sought to move forward, the investigation into the terrorist attacks continued.

Authorities arrested a second man as a witness in connection with the plot. They have detained 25 people in the investigation for possible immigration violations.

Many of the men have links to bin Laden, according to U.S. officials. On Sunday, bin Laden denied having anything to do with the attacks.

Bush shrugged off the denial and said, "No question, he is the prime suspect. No question about that.''

Hope of finding survivors in the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center was dying.

By Sunday, 180 were confirmed dead in New York; the number of missing was 5,097. In the Pentagon attack, 188 were believed dead.

Federal emergency workers at both sites were trying to balance the need to move quickly through the rubble with their duty to pluck out any evidence they came across.

The U.S. warnings to Afghanistan intensified Sunday as the administration zeroed in on bin Laden and the Taliban.

"The government of Afghanistan has to understand that we believe they have, indeed, been harboring a man who committed and whose organization committed this most egregious act,'' Vice President Dick Cheney said on NBC's "Meet the Press.''

"They have to understand, and others like them around the world have to understand, that if you provided sanctuary to terrorists, you face the full wrath of the United States of America.''

Secretary of State Colin Powell used the same "full wrath'' language in his TV appearances. Powell said the Taliban faces a straightforward choice: Deliver bin Laden or face near-certain retaliation.

Meanwhile, the United States turned to Pakistan as a potential ally in hunting down bin Laden. Pakistan sent senior officials to neighboring Afghanistan to warn the Taliban that it faces a massive assault if it does not hand over the fugitive, a top Pakistani official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Bin Laden, an exiled Saudi, has been indicted in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in east Africa and linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

The administration also pressed for more tools to combat terrorists at home and abroad.

Stressing the need for swift action, Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller consulted with congressional leaders by phone and in person at FBI headquarters.

"We need ... to elevate the penalties for those who would harbor or assist terrorists to at least the same level as the penalties for those who would harbor, assist those who have been involved in espionage,'' Ashcroft said from Camp David, Md. People who harbor terrorists now face five-year prison terms.

The government was setting up a task force of experts to report back by Oct. 1 on ways to increase airport and airplane security, particularly the security of cockpits. He also said all oil and natural gas pipeline operators had been directed "to take steps to implement security measures.''

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