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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports
America's New War: President Bush Declares Financial War Against Terrorists
Aired September 24, 2001 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush declares a financial war against terrorists, beginning with a freeze of assets.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Money is the lifeblood of terrorist operations. Today we're asking the world to stop payment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: I'll speak with Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill.
As the U.S. mobilizes more of its own forces and works to build a worldwide alliance, an apparent fax from Osama bin Laden calls for resistance to an American-led crusade.
Does bin Laden's network have chemical weapons? What would that mean for American troops and civilians? I'll speak with Senators Richard Shelby and Dick Durbin of the Intelligence Committee.
We'll go to our correspondents at the White House and the Pentagon in Islamabad and with the anti-Taliban forces in northern Afghanistan as America considers its military options.
Good evening to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Thanks for joining us. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting tonight from Washington.
We'll get to my interviews with Treasury Secretary O'Neill and Senators Shelby and Durbin shortly, but first here's a look at some of the latest developments in America's new war.
The union representing most United States airline pilots is pushing Congress to let cockpit crews carry guns. Under the proposal, pilots would get extensive training and become law enforcement officials.
Two men are in federal custody accused of helping two of the suspected hijackers fraudulently get Virginia driver's licenses. One of the men is said to be cooperating with investigators.
New York City officials are clearing the way for relatives of the missing to get death certificates for their loved-ones. Lawyers will work for free to help get the certificates, which are crucial for insurance claims.
And New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is keeping quiet about rumors he might run for a third term. That would require throwing out term limits currently in the city charter. Here in Washington, the United States has opened another front in its war against terrorists, seeking to cut off their money supply.
Let's go live to CNN senior White House Correspondent John King for details.
JOHN KING, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the president tonight sending formal notification to the U.S. Congress that he has deployed U.S. military forces overseas. In that letter, the president saying he is likely to have to deploy more troops in the near future to fight this war on terrorism, but the letter also says it is too soon to predict the scope of military operations or the duration of the deployment.
Now while that deployment continues back here in Washington, as you noted, the government saying today it has fired the first shot in the war on terrorism. The target: money. The weapon: the president's pen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BUSH: Today we have launched a strike on the financial foundation of the global terror network.
KING (voice-over): The president signed an executive order freezing U.S.-held assets of 27 individuals and organizations, including Osama bin Laden, his Al-Qaeda organization, sometimes the Islamic Army, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and the Wafa humanitarian group, and the Al Rashid trust: non-profit groups the White House says are fronts for terrorism. The order to freeze accounts went out to 5,000 banks in the United States first thing Monday. Hours later, the attorney general asked Congress for the power to do more.
JOHN ASHCROFT, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: And we are in our legislation seeking to be able to seize the assets, not just to freeze them. Not just to curtail activities, but to take those assets.
KING: On the home front, the move is largely symbolic, a similar edict by the Clinton administration turned up little, but the Bush administration is providing the list to governments and banks around the world and asking them to follow suit -- or else.
BUSH: It puts the financial world on notice. If you do business with terrorists, if you support or sponsor them, you will not do business with the United States of America.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KING: Now some governments say they first want proof of a bin Laden connection to these attacks. Secretary of State Powell had indicated Sunday that the United States government soon would publish a paper detailing some of the evidence, but he was forced to step back today standing in the shadow of the president after Bush made clear the evidence is classified and he sees no need or reason to release it -- Wolf.
BLITZER: And as far as reaching members of the coalition, are there some plans in the works, John, to try to get some of that evidence at least out to them?
KING: Yes, we are told that if a senior administration officials -- say, for example, the delegation in Pakistan as we speak -- when they meet with those who have committed to this, they are sharing some classified information, we are told, on a case-by-case basis, making the decision as they go which governments can be trusted to know the most, which governments they might tell a little bit less to. But we are told there is some classified information being given away in the briefings to key allies. But in public right now, Secretary Powell saying the administration today would release evidence as it could. That after a stern statement from the president that this evidence is classified and that he thinks releasing it would only help the terrorists.
BLITZER: And John, one of America's closest allies, Canada, today and Prime Minister Jean Chretien was in Washington today. The meeting -- at least on the surface -- seemed to go very well. What was happening behind the scenes?
KING: That public show of support, but Wolf, U.S. officials privately have raised several concerns with the Canadian government. Canada has very loose immigration laws. The United States wants Canada to take a look at those. The United States also saying the Canadian government and law enforcement agencies in its view, in Washington's view, could do a much better job tracking these terrorist cells, and of course a lesson being applied here in the United States as well now -- Wolf.
BLITZER: John King at the White House, thank you very much.
And while the bookkeepers prepare to wage a financial war, Pentagon planners may have the same thing in mind as they draw lists of targets belonging to Afghanistan's Taliban. Meantime the United States is preparing to tell its allies the evidence it has, at least in part, on Osama bin Laden.
Let's go live to CNN military affairs correspondent Jamie McIntyre. First of all, Jamie, what's the latest on military deployments?
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Wolf, for a couple of days we've been talking about a second deployment. It turns out that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld signed that order over the weekend, either late Saturday or early Sunday. Nevertheless, it has gone out for additional deployments of communications specialists, logistics specialists, surveillance/reconnaissance crews, security forces, but probably the hot-button item on the deployment list, according to sources, U.S. special forces being moved to forward bases in the region, either the Persian Gulf or Central Asia. Their exact number, their destination, their mission, still a secret.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECRETARY: The only way we can defend the way of life of America's free people is to not think you can defend against every conceivable terrorist everywhere in the world using any technique. The only way to do it is to carry the effort to them. And when you say to them, it means to the terrorists, the terrorist networks, the people that help them, the people that sponsor them, the people that finance them, and the people who tolerate them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCINTYRE: Meanwhile the Pentagon's No. 2 man, Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, standing in for Rumsfeld at a key NATO meeting coming up. Sources say that he will lay out some of the case against Osama bin Laden as the United Sates continues to try to build support among its NATO allies -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jamie, as you know, there's a lot of opium, illegal, illicit drugs in Afghanistan. I understand the Pentagon is taking some steps to deal specifically with that because that could be a source of funding for the Taliban, and even, of course, Osama bin Laden.
MCINTYRE: Well, the Bush administration's strategy has been to try to get at Osama bin Laden by squeezing those who support him. And Pentagon sources tell us that among the potential targets drawn up by Pentagon planners are drug production facilities in Afghanistan. U.S. officials say that the ruling Taliban gets an estimated $60 million a year from illicit drug trade. In fact, it's their primary source of revenue. Even though the Taliban earlier this year banned the cultivation of poppies and burned some of the fields, U.S. officials say they still have vast stockpiles of illegal narcotics and those facilities that produce those may be targeted. It's all up to President Bush, depending on what he decides to do.
BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre, once again. Thank you very much. And while Afghanistan and the Taliban rulers say Osama bin Laden is, quote, "missing," bin Laden has apparently sent a fax to the Kabul offices of the Qatar-based news channel "Al Jazeera." It reads in part: "We tell our Muslim brothers in Pakistan to use all their means to resist the invasion of the American crusader forces in Pakistan and Afghanistan. I convey to you good news, my beloved brothers, that we are steadfast and struggling to defend our cause following the footsteps of the Prophet."
Earlier, I discussed the latest developments with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. She's in Islamabad.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Christiane, how is this so-called fax from Osama bin Laden being received in Islamabad?
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, up until now senior government officials have told us that they don't really, they don't believe in its authenticity. They say if it was directed to Pakistan, why would it not have been sent to Pakistani news agencies? And also they say that the Taliban has said in the past that they have shut down Osama bin Laden's ability to communicate with the outside world in terms of media interviews, satellite phones, faxes, et cetera.
However, we do know that Osama bin Laden has used the "Al Jazeera" television network that is based in Qatar in the Persian Gulf as a conduit in the past. And basically, it was this fax that was sent from Afghanistan to "Al Jazeera" reporting to be from Osama bin Laden in which he appeared to be trying to fire the first shot in what would be their attempt to win the hearts and minds of Pakistanis: basically, sympathizing with the three Pakistanis, or the three people who were killed in Pakistan last Friday in the anti-American demonstrations in Karachi here.
And basically, this letter is saying that we believe they are the first martyrs in this war against Islam by, quote, "the new Jewish Christian crusader campaign led by the chief crusader Bush under the banner of the cross."
Then it goes on to say, "We tell all our Muslim brothers in Pakistan to use all their means to resist the American crusader forces in Pakistan and Afghanistan."
So you see the, what they're trying to do here. They're basically, if this is genuine, trying to make this appear to be a battle of what they call the Jewish-Christian conspiracy against Islam. Definitely trying to drive a wedge in it.
But of course, there are a lot of inconsistencies. On the one hand, the Taliban appears to be trying to have it both ways. First, today an official here in Islamabad telling us that the leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan wants to ask Osama bin Laden to leave in accordance with this religious edict which came out earlier this week, but that they can't find him. They don't know where he is.
On the other hand, this fax saying that Osama bin Laden is together under the leadership of Mullah Omar, the leader of the Taliban, to wage what they call their holy war. So a lot of inconsistencies here.
Nonetheless, it is a fact that he has used this "Al Jazeera" conduit in the past -- Wolf.
BLITZER: And Christiane, this delegation of U.S. military officials that came into Islamabad over the weekend, what do we know about their mission and what's happening in their discussions with the Pakistani government?
AMANPOUR: Well, I don't know details. They're keeping that very close to the vest, but we do know that one is an Air Force brigadier general, we've been told, and another is a Pentagon director of planning, assistant director of planning in the region. And they are basically the first group that is coming to talk to their Pakistani counterparts about cooperation in a potential military campaign.
We're told that in a few days from now that a State Department delegation will come, although we're told that that delegation hasn't yet been formed yet, so we don't know when that will happen.
In addition, there's been an attempt by the U.S. to give the Pakistanis at this point an economic shot in the arm, and there was a signing ceremony today between the U.S. Ambassador here and the Pakistani finance minister essentially rescheduling some $379 million U.S. dollars' worth of Pakistani debt to the United States. The total Pakistani debt to the United States is $3 billion, but they're trying to give Pakistan a little breathing room at this moment -- Wolf.
BLITZER: And finally, Christiane, you know if the Pakistanis have withdrawn their diplomats from Kabul, but they've stopped short of severing ties. Explain what's going on, on that front.
AMANPOUR: Well, Pakistan now being one of only two, along with Saudi Arabia, that recognizes the Taliban. Pakistan says that it cannot and will not cut its diplomatic ties, because Afghanistan is a land-locked country and there are simply things that need to get through from Pakistan in terms of food and aid and things to the people there, and they are the last conduit.
They have removed their staff because they're citing security concerns, and they say that over the last few days they've been gradually drawing down their staff and now everyone is out of the embassy area there.
BLITZER: Christiane Amanpour in Islamabad. Thank you very much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And there's been fresh fighting between the Taliban and opposition forces. A short while ago, I spoke with CNN's Chris Burns, who's with the anti-Taliban alliance in Northern Afghanistan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Chris, you've tried to move to the front lines over there. How far did you get and what did you see?
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, before I mention that, as we speak there is the rumble of artillery fire and that's more of what we saw during the day. We got to within about 2 kilometers, about a mile and a half, of the front lines -- that being between here and Kabul -- and the pounding continues between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance. The Northern Alliance claiming to have seized three checkpoints of the Taliban overnight, last night, and continuing to try to push ahead, but the Taliban are showing a lot of resistance. We've heard a lot of artillery fire, machine gun fire. In fact, a Taliban jet flew overhead and dropped a bomb not far from where we were watching, and so very, very tense.
That fighting does continue, and this, of course, at the same time that fighting goes on in the North. The Taliban does admit that they now have lost some terrain in an area northwest of Mazar-e- Sharif. That is an important strategic town in the North. And a commander of the Taliban is saying that he has ordered some 300,000 more of his fighters to go to the front lines. That, to any kind of expert, seems to be a very, very farfetched figure.
We also see people fleeing north from Kabul. Some very terrified people, families and so forth saying there's a climate of fear in the capital over there, and that youth are being forced to take up arms. The Taliban is forcing them, shoving Kalashnikovs in their hands and telling them to go to the front lines -- Wolf.
BLITZER: And in your talks with the Northern Alliance, or they call themselves the United Front, are they anticipating a heavy dose of U.S. military support right now?
BURNS: Well, the commanders we talked to in the field, in fact a general who is involved in fighting along the front lines, they say that they will need some kind of American air support if they can really move ahead. The general is not optimistic about taking Kabul before the winter.
Another general says that really he cannot really move at all without that American air support. That, of course, is really up to Washington to decide.
They're not expecting it, but they are hoping for it. They're also, of course, the Northern Alliance is also offering any kind of cooperation with the United States, and that would imply that the bases, the airport outside of Kabul, and the base, former Soviet air base in Bagram -- that's between here and Kabul -- could be open to American forces to base any kind of attacks that they might launch against terrorist positions within Afghanistan -- Wolf.
BLITZER: We heard the foreign minister of the Northern Alliance, Abdullah Abdullah, suggest yesterday that they believe they know the precise, not necessarily the precise, but the approximate location of Osama bin Laden. What are you hearing from individuals there in Northern Afghanistan? Do they know where Osama bin Laden is?
BURNS: From way up here, no. Afghanistan being a nearly Texas- sized country, very difficult for anybody up here in the North to be able to say that. It is really the Northern Alliance officials like Abdullah Abdullah who says that he has contacts on the ground in the South where they believe Osama bin Laden is. This is something that the Northern Alliance says they are in close contact, daily contact, with Washington exchanging intelligence information and that one could assume that would involve that kind of information -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Chris Burns in Northern Afghanistan. Thank you, once again, very much.
And just ahead, behind the scenes on the war against terrorism. We'll speak live with two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee: Republican Richard Shelby and Democrat Dick Durbin. And homeland security, we'll tell you about one of the toughest decisions the president may ever have to make. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back. While the United States is beginning to deploy significant military forces, the war against terrorism may be fought to a large degree in the shadows. Joining me now are two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the vice chairman, Republican Richard Shelby of Alabama, and Democrat Richard Durbin of Illinois.
Senators, thanks for joining us. Senator Shelby, does the United States know where Osama Bin Laden really is?
SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R), ALABAMA: I don't know that they know exactly where he is, but we've been tracking him a long time. Oftentimes, we've been 24-hours behind him or somewhere else. I'm not sure we know exactly where he is at the moment, but I believe at the end of the day we're going to find him.
BLITZER: With all the incredible intelligence-gathering capabilities of this superpower, why is it so hard to find Osama bin Laden?
SHELBY: Well, we were tracking better, according to some of the news reports, until there was a big leak earlier this year as to how we were tracking him. A lot of times after that, (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...
BLITZER: What was that specifically are you referring to?
SHELBY: It was a leak dealing with some of the people saying that we knew where he was, we were tracking him and we were tracking him electronically and so forth. Without comment on the details of the leak, I can just tell you it was a leak that should have never happened.
BLITZER: Are you disappointed, Senator Durbin -- you're a member of the Intelligence Committee -- in the way the U.S. intelligence community has handled this Osama bin Laden problem? He's been around not for a few weeks -- he's been around for many year.
SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: He has, and Wolf, we've had him under indictment, under investigation. We've linked him up with all sorts of terrorism, and I can recall earlier this year -- and Senator Shelby was in the same room -- we had the leaders of these agencies and I asked them point blank the first question you asked Richard Shelby. Why haven't you found this man? And they talked about how tough it is, when you're living in a cave in an unfriendly country and moving around every time there's suspicion. But I think what it gets down to is this: The purpose of the intelligence gathering and the intelligence agencies is to protect us from the kind of disaster we had on September 11th. They have protected us many times in current memory and will continue to, I'm sure, but it broke down and it failed on September 11th. And I think that's what we have to address first.
BLITZER: You were going to add something, Senator.
SHELBY: I believe myself that if we had been as intense on getting him in the last several year, I know there was a lot of effort to do it, but I believe we could have done better. You know, this is hindsight. This is retrospect. If we'd have put all of our resources, all of them dealing with intelligence and everything else, I believe we'd have gotten him. Would this have disrupted the incidents we had two weeks ago? Maybe not, because there's so many other cells, but it would be a strong, strong message to his followers.
BLITZER: Because I know you've been quite critical of the intelligence community and the current CIA director, George Tenet.
SHELBY: I have, but I've also been quite supportive the seven years I've been on the committee: fighting for funds, fighting for programs and so forth. But I believe that part of our oversight responsibility is to look back and see what went wrong, what failed, why it failed, and we will be doing this.
BLITZER: And learn from those mistakes.
SHELBY: Absolutely.
BLITZER: Do you believe, Senator Durbin, that Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda organization were directly responsible for the World Trade Center attack, the attack on the Pentagon, and the hijacking and crash in Pennsylvania?
DURBIN: I do. Based on the evidence I've seen, it links the people we know who are linked to him to the people, the 19 people involved on September 11th. I don't know that we're ever going to have the smoking gun, as they say, but there is enough to convince me that he was the mastermind of this effort.
BLITZER: And you believe that he and his organization acted on their own or was there any state involvement?
DURBIN: I think it's naive to believe that they acted alone. I think it's more likely that they were acting in concert with some other terrorist groups. If not in concert with some nations, certainly with the compliance of some nations that let them continue to exist -- in Afghanistan, for example -- that provided them resources that they needed, critical resources. And these are the things that the president -- I hope the United States -- is determined to go after.
BLITZER: And based on all the information that you've had, Senator Shelby, do you believe, for example, that Iraq had any role whatsoever in working with Osama bin Laden?
SHELBY: I would not rule it out at all. I would not rule out anything because nations that provide sanctuary provide support, directly or indirectly. I think they're all a part of the problem.
BLITZER: As you know, there's been a lot of concern, Senator Durbin, about chemical, biological weapons and a new phase of terrorism against the United States. The former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on this issue earlier today. He was on Capitol Hill. I want you to listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Today all crop-dusters are grounded in the United States. There's a reason for that, and the reason is that the terrorists, the terrorist regimes today, at least three of them have chemical and biological weapons. And two of them are feverishly working to develop nuclear weapons. And we cannot rule out that these weapons will either fall in the hands of the Taliban network or at least some of them, cannot even rule out that some of them may have already fallen in their hands.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Is he right there, Senator Durbin?
DURBIN: From what I've heard he is. And we would be foolish not to assume that. We should assume that those weapons are at their disposal or soon will be. In fact, Osama bin Laden has boasted that because his cause is so right in his own mind he's going to need all of his weapons: biological, chemical weapons and nuclear weapons, as well. He's not been the least bit reticent to say that that's going to be part of his arsenal. Whether it's part of it today, we're not a 100 percent certain, but we'd be foolish not to assume the worst and prepare for it.
SHELBY: I agree with Senator Durbin on that. Chemical weapons, biological weapons are relatively cheap as weapons systems go. They're deliverable. The former prime minister, he was talking about states like Iraq and Iran and maybe Syria and some other countries that have chemical capability, if not weapons. But if they have it and if they're sponsoring, or if they're harboring these people, there will be ways to get it. We have to be on alert. We have to wait and make sure that we're ready, but not wait too long.
BLITZER: You know, in our new CNN and "USA Today"/Gallup poll, Senator Durbin, we asked the American people, "Are you in favor of U.S. military action?" First, involving Afghanistan -- look at these numbers -- 82 percent would favor U.S. military action against Afghanistan, only 13 percent opposed. Not much difference when it comes to Iraq. Seventy-three percent favor military action against Iraq, only 20 percent opposed. Is that, there's a sense that the Bush administration is now working phase one to go after sites in Afghanistan, phase two maybe Iraq and elsewhere. Is that your sense, based on what you're hearing?
DURBIN: I wouldn't say that. I couldn't say that. I do believe that we're focusing on Afghanistan for obvious reasons. We want to go after the terrorists we believe masterminded this, this disaster, this tragedy that we suffered on September the 11th. Beyond that, I wouldn't want to speculate.
I think that the president is rightfully trying to put together a coalition of cooperative nations. We should try to extend that coalition as broadly as we can so that we have as many civilized nations as possible part of it, and clearly, right now, we're focusing on Afghanistan.
BLITZER: Should the U.S. include Iraq in its crosshairs?
SHELBY: Well, I wouldn't rule them out, because we all know the history, our history with them. I put nothing past Saddam Hussein and his cronies. I would not rule them out in any way in this.
BLITZER: But how concerned would you be if you include Iraq, then the coalition, much of the coalition falls apart -- Russia, China, maybe France?
SHELBY: That's what I think Senator Durbin alluded to. He didn't say it specifically, but right now we're trying to put together a coalition that ultimately, even after we do our first business with the terrorists and if we're successful. We've got to go to where they are and to people that are harboring, just like the president said. We need to support the president.
BLITZER: Do you believe, Senator Durbin, this freezing of financial assets involving Osama Bin Laden and his associates -- the president signed an executive order on that today -- is that really going to make any difference?
DURBIN: Well, I'm not sure that it will, but I'm glad the president did it. It's another weapon in our arsenal. We should try everything, involve all the nations of the world who will cooperate with us to go after whatever assets we can identify. But as Osama bin Laden is careful not to disclose his identity, imagine how protective he is of his assets and resources. They are not going to be in a bank account under Al Qaeda. We're going to have to find them through a lot of efforts around the world and some of them we may never get our hands on, but I think the president was right in what he did today.
SHELBY: But it is a tool. It's a tool that we can use. Hopefully, it will bare fruit.
BLITZER: You know, the facts, the so-called "facts," that Osama bin Laden distributed today. Among other things he said this: "We ask God to make us defeat the infidels and the oppressors and to crush the new Jewish-Christian crusader campaign on the land of Pakistan and Afghanistan." What he's clearly trying to do -- if, in fact, this is a legitimate statement from Osama bin Laden -- is to make this a Western attack against Islam.
SHELBY: Obviously, assuming that's what he put out, that's what he's trying to do. I don't believe it's going to work, especially if we can bring in a lot of the states that are going to be subject to terrorism themselves, assassinations against. And look at Mubarak, you know, they've tried to assassinate him.
And it's in their interest to work with us to get rid of these terrorists. They're a threat to their government and stability of their whole region.
BLITZER: And as one columnist pointed out the other today, Charles Krauthammer, the last three times the U.S. was engaged in warfare, in the Persian Gulf, in Kosovo and Bosnia, the U.S. came to the defense of Muslims.
SHELBY: That's right.
BLITZER: Thanks for joining us. Appreciate it very much.
SHELBY: Thank you.
BLITZER: And just ahead: crop dusters sit on the ground because of a federal order. Is there a risk the terrorists could use those planes to launch a chemical or biological weapons attack? Find out what investigators think when we return.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back. We want to update you now on some of the latest developments we're following. President Bush has signed an executive order that will freeze U.S. assets of groups or individuals that support terrorism. Twenty-seven corporations, individuals and groups are immediately affected, including suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden and his organization.
The week starts out strong for Wall Street, as buyers help markets rebound. The Dow closed up 368 points, at 8,603, its fifth- biggest daily point-gain ever. The Nasdaq jumped 76 points to 1,499. Gains were spread out, including airline stocks.
The government invoked a World War II era law which will cut mortgage interest rates for people in the National Guard and reserves who are called to active duty. Ten-thousand guards and reservists have been called up since the September 11th attacks.
Crop dusting aircraft across the United States were again grounded today. This, after the investigation into the terror attacks uncovered information that terrorists may have planned to use crop dusters for an attack using biological or chemical weapons.
CNN national security correspondent Dave Ensor joins us now with more on the risk from these chemical weapons -- David.
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, there's no proof that the fact that these terrorists were looking at these crop duster planes means that they were planning to use them for chemical or biological attack, but the mere possibility is deeply worrying to administration officials.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): The news that the suicide hijackers had looked closely at crop duster planes jangled nerves throughout the nation, including law enforcement.
JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The FBI issued a nationwide alert, based on information they received indicating the possibility of attacks using crop dusting aircraft.
FRANK CILLUFFO, CSIS: There's no need to panic or overreact, but yes, a crop duster can be use to deliver a chemical or a biological weapon.
ENSOR: It would be possible, experts say, but not easy.
MICHAEL MOODIE, CHEMICAL & BIOLOGICAL ARMS CONTROL INSTITUTE: There are a lot of operational considerations, a lot of other technical considerations -- hurdles that a terrorist would have to overcome.
ENSOR: For starters, getting ahold of the biological or chemical agent. The most likely biological agent, anthrax, goes in cow pastures. But making it into a weapon of mass destruction, a fine powder in an aerosol spray, that is high-tech science, beyond the reach so far of anyone but a few governments.
CILLUFFO: This isn't as easy as going in your basement and developing a biological weapon, as some have made it out to be.
ENSOR: Chemical weapons, however, are another matter. A crop duster could theoretically drop chemicals over a football stadium, for example, and kill hundreds before being stopped. U.S. officials say they've seen such poisons tested at this camp in Afghanistan associated with the bin Laden group.
In court testimony, Ahmed Ressam, the Algerian arrested in December, 1999, trying to bring explosives in from Canada, said he had been trained by bin Laden's group in the use of cyanide gas.
CILLUFFO: Osama bin Laden has publicly stated in the past that acquiring weapons of mass destruction is a -- quote -- "religious duty." But the likelihood that he could pull off a catastrophic event is very low.
ENSOR: Very low, because killers like smallpox are tightly held by the U.S. and Russians, and perhaps a few others. And making another kind of biological weapon is probably too hard for terrorists thus far. And low, too, because though Al Qaeda terrorists could produce a chemical weapon, they probably could not kill as many people with it as they already have using hijacked aircraft.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ENSOR: Still, experts say the day when a biological or a chemical or even a nuclear attack by terrorists on U.S. soil occurs may not be that far off. And they're hoping that this wake-up call of September 11th will lead to a lot more effort in law enforcement, intelligence and public health efforts, to make that less likely, to guard against that danger.
BLITZER: And the working assumption I have, David, is that U.S. troops who may be going into Afghanistan -- special operations forces or whomever -- will be prepared for a possible chemical attack.
ENSOR: They're going to have to be, because clearly, this group has experimented with poisonous chemicals in the past at its bases in Afghanistan. They have to be prepared for that possibility. BLITZER: And we all know they went into the Gulf War prepared for that possibility, although presumably, Saddam Hussein didn't use it. Mustard gas, as you remember, as you know, during World War I, which is almost now 100 years ago, killed a lot of troops.
ENSOR: It killed a tremendous number, but remember, that was in the hands of governments. They can produce mass quantities.
These terrorists are believed to only be able to produce a small amount that might be effective in, say, a subway station or a football stadium, but not out there in the open in the mountains of Afghanistan. Not on a big scale.
BLITZER: David Ensor, thank you very much once again. Appreciate it.
And in this new war on terrorism, the United States has a vast arsenal at its disposal. Coming up, we'll hear from President Bush's Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill about some weapons that do not involve missiles, bombs or bullets.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back. As we've been reporting, President Bush today signed an executive order aimed at cutting off the money supply used by terrorists. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill was at that announcement. A short while ago I asked Secretary O'Neill to explain the new initiative.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for joining us. Let's get right to the issue of the freezing of these assets associated with Osama bin Laden and his organization.
As you know, President Clinton tried to do the same thing in 1998 after the bombings of the U.S. embassies in east Africa --didn't seem to have much of an impact. What makes you think your freeze will have more of an impact?
PAUL O'NEILL, TREASURY SECRETARY: The president signed an order today which broadens the authority that existed before, only to the Middle East to a global basis. There have been some other actions taken by the U.N. with their resolutions which hopefully we'll get our Senate to ratify in a few days. And the combination of the expanded powers the president has given, us a much different attitude that we're seeing from other nations around the world toward cooperating.
Our ability now to sanction non-compliers in a way that we've not had before, we think, in combination, will give us an ability to really make a difference in the financial flows that the terrorist organizations have available to them.
BLITZER: I want to play for you and our viewers, Mr. Secretary, a sound bite from what the president said earlier today. He was very forceful on this point. Listen to President Bush. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have developed the international financial equivalent of law enforcement's most wanted list, and it puts the financial world on notice: If you do business with terrorists, if you support or sponsor them, you will not do business with the United States of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Do you have hard assurances, Mr. Secretary, right now that other countries will follow the U.S. lead in freezing these assets?
O'NEILL: Well, we've certainly had representation from countries around the world that they're prepared to act like they never have before, and we're going to put them to the test. The president has said you're either with us or you're not, and people will self identify.
I have a lot of confidence, from the phone calls and the messages I've had from governments around the around the world, particularly both from presidents and prime ministers and from financial ministers. It looks like people are prepared to act like they've never been willing to act before. We're relying on their representations, and if people don't actually follow up, we're going to take the actions that are now available to us under the executive order, to shut down non- compliers, in terms of their doing business with the United States.
BLITZER: Does that include Saudi Arabia?
O'NEILL: It means everyone.
BLITZER: Because the Saudis, as you know ,have allowed some of their citizens to make financial contributions to various groups that U.S. law enforcement regards as front organizations for Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden's group. Will the Saudis clamp down on those financial contributions?
O'NEILL: The president said today, in response a similar question, that everything we've asked the Saudis to do they've done, and I presume they will do the same about these issues.
BLITZER: So if, for some reason, the Saudis don't do it, that would be a major setback in this entire initiative?
O'NEILL: You know, I said early on -- maybe it was just for my own ear -- that I think these terrorist acts are so reprehensible that we can count on what I call presumptive unity. The world is going to be with us. There may be some who elect not to be with us. They will stick out like a sore thumb.
BLITZER: I read the list of the more than two dozen individuals and organizations that are on this freeze list. Are all of these organizations strictly associated with Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden? Because I noticed that none of these organizations associated with other groups the United States regards as terrorist groups, for example, like the Iranian-backed Hezbollah or the Hamas.
O'NEILL: This is what I would characterize, Wolf, as a down payment list. We are going to keep adding names and organizations to this list, and taking enforcement action, in keeping with the president's executive order directed us to do.
BLITZER: So in other words, there could be more organizations?
O'NEILL: Absolutely.
BLITZER: ... down the road. I don't know if you saw the new issue of the "New Yorker." There's a long article in there by Joe Klein, a well-known writer. He writes this about a proposal that was rejected during the Clinton administration about engaging in what was described as cyber-warfare against Osama bin Laden and his financial assets.
Among other things, Klein writes: "Proposals were developed to electronically lock up bank accounts used by bin Laden and others to finance terrorist activities... Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers opposed the financial cyber-warfare of on the ground that it might threaten the stability of the international financial system."
Is it a good idea to bring back that kind of proposal right now?
O'NEILL: You know, the president said that we would look at tools and methods, and we would fashion tools and methods to deal with a war of a kind that we've never seen or participated in before. And he also has said that where there's any danger of exposing sources or causing secondary consequences, we'll be very mindful of those. All of those conditions and cautions apply to this area, and so the direct answer to your question is, no answer, Wolf.
BLITZER: OK, that's a fair answer in this situation. Mr. Secretary, how much money do you believe Osama bin Laden and his operatives have at their disposal right now?
O'NEILL: I don't have any idea, but whatever it is, we're going to try and shut down every penny of it.
BLITZER: On that note, I want to thank you very much. Secretary Paul O'Neill, good to have you on our program.
O'NEILL: Thank you very much.
BLITZER: And when we return: it was once an unimaginable option, but the White House came close to ordering the U.S. military to shoot down a commercial plane the day of the attacks. We'll look at making such a decision and what price.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back. We now know fighter jets were ready to shoot down a commercial plane if necessary on September 11th. That's an order only the president can give. As CNN investigative correspondent Art Harris reports, it's a scenario the White House has looked into before.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ART HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No commander-in- chief ever gave the order to shoot down a U.S. civilian passenger plane, until hijackers raised the threshold of terror.
BUSH: We have taken all appropriate security precautions to protect the American people.
HARRIS: President Bush had mere minutes to make the call. But he knew hijackers had just crashed three civilian airliners into American landmarks. A fourth plane was headed for Washington, D.C. He makes the ultimate executive decision.
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As a last resort, our pilots were authorized to take them out.
HARRIS: This time they didn't have to. The passengers apparently took the crisis into their own hands, and the plane into the ground. Shooting down a passenger jet may sound far-fetched.
(on camera): But CNN has learned that U.S. officials were worried about it five years ago. That's when the FBI, the Secret Service, the Pentagon and other counter-terror experts brainstormed a similar hijack scenario: an airliner heading for the White House or the Pentagon. There was no decision reached about how to handle that sort of surprise attack.
(voice-over): Of all things, it was a 1996 movie, "Executive Decision," that inspired a White House official to come up with a game plan. A source tells CNN that the official wanted to know if a commando could be transferred in midair to a hijacked plane. But according the counter-terror experts, that Hollywood maneuver was "Mission Impossible."
What if another hijacker turns a passenger plane into a suicide mission?
RET. GEN. WESLEY CLARK, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: The answer is painfully clear: If that aircraft has been taken over by people who are determined to use it as a weapon, to do even more damage to cities and kill even more people, then probably you would have to make the hard choice to sacrifice the few to save the many.
HARRIS: But split-second decisions can breed deadly mistakes. Consider 1988: a U.S. Navy ship mistakes an Iranian passenger jet for an aggressor, shoots it down, killing more than 200 on board.
Or this year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't shoot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Terminate.
HARRIS: Peru mistakes a U.S. missionary plane for a drug smuggler, and shoots it down. And what if a hijacked plane that crashed into the Pentagon had been shot down over a populated suburb? Would there have been even more casualties?
Woody Johnson was the FBI agent in charge of preventing terrorism at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
(on camera): What was one of your biggest nightmares?
WOODY JOHNSON, INVESTIGATIVE CONSULTANT: Well, a fear that somebody in a small airplane who was bent on destruction is going to fly into Centennial Park or one of the stadiums, in an attempt to kill a lot of people.
HARRIS (voice-over): It was a bomb that turned out to be his nightmare, not a plane.
And what if the wayward plane was not on a mission of terror?
JOHNSON: What if it's a doctor? What if it (UNINTELLIGIBLE) an he's just flying by, and we have a series of errors here. If I shoot a plane down with Americans onboard, I'd probably be in jail.
HARRIS: Assuming he'd have little time to make that call, Johnson says he asked a White House national security adviser what to do.
JOHNSON: He said, shoot it down. If you've got to do it, shoot it down.
HARRIS (on camera): And your response?
JOHNSON: I want that thing to pass all the way to the president of the United States to tell me to do it. I want a phone conversation with the president, saying, "do it."
HARRIS (voice-over): Since the attacks, the military has more than doubled the number of bases on alert in the U.S. and Canada. The fighters flying over New York and Washington around the clock.
(on camera): It's a new deterrent to terror, once unthinkable: the option to sacrifice innocent civilians, one of the most anguished executive decisions a U.S. president may ever have to make.
Art Harris, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And I'll be right back with a look at the latest developments in "America's New War." Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Before we go, we want to recap some of the latest developments we're following tonight. The investigation into the attacks is much larger than the government first reported. Attorney General John Ashcroft told Congress today 352 people have been taken into custody, and 392 are still being sought. That's twice as many as we were previously told.
The Senate is expected to vote tomorrow on military base closings proposed before the attacks. The Pentagon wants to go ahead with them, citing military efficiency. But some senators say it's not the time to be downsizing.
The Airline Pilot's Association is calling for its members to be armed and trained as law enforcement officials. One ranking senator says it's too soon to tell how Congress might react to the idea.
And New York City and the state are working to expedite death certificates for the more than 6,400 people missing and presumed dead in the World Trade Center bombing. Without a body, you could take up to three years to get a death certificate.
And that's all the time we have tonight. Join me again tomorrow night and every weeknight at our new starting time, 7:00 p.m. Eastern, for a full hour of coverage.
Until then, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. "THE POINT WITH GRETA VAN SUSTEREN" begins right now.
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