Defense Department officials announced plans to call several thousand reservists to active duty in the next few days and tens of thousands more in the weeks ahead on the same day that federal officials said they had identified the hijackers of four transcontinental flights and named Osama bin Laden as the target of the U.S. investigation into Tuesday's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The call-up of reservists is the start of what Defense Department officials said would likely mark the start of a much larger military mobilization that will summon tens of thousands of more troops in the weeks ahead.
The initial call-up will focus on reservists with 'specialized skills,' according to a senior military official. He said many of the extra personnel were necessary to support combat air patrols over major metropolitan areas instituted this week. They will fill out the ranks of pilots, aviation maintenance crews and air traffic controllers. The Pentagon has the authorization to call about 40,000 reservists, the official said. President Bush must approve the activation of units beyond that number.
The Pentagon move represents the first significant federal call-up following the attacks and came on a day in which Bush repeatedly spoke of war and vowed to have the United States 'lead the world to victory.'
'We have just seen the first war of the 21st century,' Bush said at one point in the day. Fighting back tears, he added, 'My resolve is steady and strong about winning this war that has been declared on America.'
The activation of reservists will be part of what Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told reporters would be a sustained military campaign, and other military officials said Bush and his advisers appear ready to consider the use of ground troops, particularly special forces.
'One thing that is clear is you don't do it with just a single military strike, no matter how dramatic,' Wolfowitz said. 'We're going to keep after these people and the people who support them until this stops.'
Secretary of State Colin Powell identified bin Laden, who was blamed for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole, as the target of investigations Thursday.
While bin Laden is believed to have planned the attack, the FBI said it has identified at least 18 people as hijackers involved in Tuesday's suicidal assaults. Sixteen of the men have been directly or indirectly linked to the terrorist network run by bin Laden, according to a government source. Five hijackers each commandeered the two flights that originated in Boston and plunged into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, according to FBI Director Robert Mueller. The other two planes, one of which crashed into the Pentagon and the other in Somerset County, Pa., were hijacked by four terrorists each, Mueller said.
Rescue teams continue work
At a news conference late Thursday, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said that 184 bodies had been recovered from the World Trade Center ruins, including 47 whole bodies, and that 35 had been positively identified. He said extensive use of DNA analysis will be necessary to identify many of the victims. Giuliani said 4,763 people were thought to be missing and the city has ordered a total of 11,000 body bags.
During the day, two firefighters who were searching the rubble became trapped in an air pocket and were rescued a few hours later, a fire official said. Early reports wrongly suggested five people had been rescued after 48 hours in the wreckage.
Today Bush plans to visit New York City to observe what he has declared a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance. He will view the ruined World Trade Center towers and, he said, 'thank and hug and cry with' survivors and rescue workers.
Giuliani said several heavily damaged buildings near the World Trade Center had been found to be structurally sound. Nonetheless, some rescue workers scrawled their names and Social Security numbers on their arms and legs as a precaution should they be caught in another building collapse.
At the Pentagon, officials have counted 190 fatalities, including the 64 passengers aboard American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the building.
Airports reopened, some reclosed
More than 200 of the nation's airports were reopened on a limited basis beginning at 10 a.m. CDT Thursday, but some were shut down again just a few hours later after the FBI detained several people, one of whom was carrying fake pilot credentials, at New York's JFK International Airport. An unknown number of men were also detained at LaGuardia Airport, and all three of New York's airports were closed.
Two senior federal officials said that Washington's Reagan National Airport will remain closed indefinitely because of its close proximity to the White House and other government buildings.
'I think it's clear National Airport is not going to be open for a while,' one senior official said. 'It won't be hours. It won't be days.'
Vice President, Congress take precautions
Vice President Cheney and members of Congress also took precautions Thursday. At midday, Cheney was moved to Camp David in the Maryland mountains. White House sources said it was a precautionary measure to ensure the president and vice president were not in the White House at the same time, but the two men plan to be together again this weekend.
In addition, police evacuated the U.S. Capitol because of a bomb scare just after 5 p.m. EDT.
Congress, White House negotiate spending
The White House and Congress agreed to $40 billion in emergency spending late Thursday, according to the Los Angeles Times. Twenty billion dollars would be available for immediate spending at the discretion of the Bush Administration, while the uses of the other $20 billion would be determined after consultation with Congress. At least half of the money must be used to aid victims of the disaster.
Earlier in the day, congressional leaders and administration officials had quibbled over how much control Congress would have over the allocation of the money in the bill. A top Defense Department official said the administration hoped to allocate a significant portion of the emergency funds to the Pentagon, the first step in what is expected to be a broad and long-term increase in military spending.
