Bush - 'Nation is peaceful but fierce when stirred to anger'

AP Special Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush assured a country wounded by terrorism on Friday that America would meet its "responsibility to history" and "rid the world of evil." He approved the call-up of thousands of reservists, and Congress rushed to post a $40 billion down payment to rebuild and retaliate.

"This nation is peaceful but fierce when stirred to anger," the president said at a prayer service three days after hijackers flew jetliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. "This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way and at an hour of our choosing."

Bush spoke in a city on edge -- and to a nation in mourning for the loss of an estimated 5,000 souls who perished in the attacks. "We will read all these names and linger over them and learn their stories, and many Americans will weep," the president said.

Administration officials have identified Osama bin Laden as the main suspect behind this week's attacks. The FBI released the names of 19 men it said had hijacked four planes in all. One jetliner crashed in rural Pennsylvania, apparently after passengers struggled with the hijackers.

Bush addressed the nationally televised service on a day he declared should be marked by prayer and remembrance. But there was business to attend to, as well.

Rain fell on the wreckage of the Trade Center and on the wounded Pentagon -- where an estimated 190 people died in a similar jetliner attack -- dampening the ruins and the efforts of search crews. "There's no question they're hampered by it," said Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. "At the same time, they're going on, because there is still a strong hope that we'll be able to recover people."

Administration officials said Bush had decided to authorize the call-up of as many as 50,000 members of the National Guard and Reserves. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld opened the Cabinet meeting with a prayer asking for "patience to measure our lust for action, resolve to strengthen our obligation to lead, wisdom to illuminate our pursuit of justice and strength in defense of liberty."

Congress showed its resolve, the Senate voting 96-0 for the money to wage war on terrorism. House passage was delayed only until lawmakers could return to the Capitol from the prayer service at Washington National Cathedral. Congress also moved toward passage of a companion bill to endorse Bush's still-emerging plans for a military response. The bill cleared the Senate 98-0, with a House vote set for Saturday.

Bush and most of his immediate predecessors gathered under the soaring ceiling of the cathedral on what he proclaimed a day of prayer and remembrance. Vice President Dick Cheney alone among the nation's senior political leaders did not attend.

In a symbolic gesture, a Muslim cleric, Imam Muzammil H. Siddiqi, was among the first to speak. The Rev. Billy Graham, his walk slowed by age but his voice strong, said the nation's spirit would not be broken by a "cruel plot." To many of the nation's political and military leaders, past and present, he added, "We're facing a new kind of enemy. We're involved in a new kind of warfare. And we need the spirit of God."

Among those in attendance was Solicitor General Theodore Olson, mourning the loss of his wife, a passenger on one of the doomed jetliners.

Bush spoke poignantly but with resolve. "We are here in the middle hour of our grief," he said. He offered sympathies to the relatives and friends of the victim, then turned his remarks to the nation's future.

"Our responsibility to history is already clear," he said. "To answer these attacks and rid the world of evil."

Later Friday, Bush arranged to visit the site of the attack in New York City.

Recovery was uneven at best.

Authorities hustled Cheney out of Washington, kept the New York stock markets shut another day and slowly -- very slowly -- brought the nation's air traffic system back to life. Information in the hands of the government "suggests we haven't seen the end of this current threat," said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. He cited concerns that terrorists may strike in a different manner now that airport security has been improved.

The body count, meanwhile, was grim and getting grimmer.

Giuliani said 4,763 people were reported missing at the World Trade Center site, where hijackers flew two jetliners fully loaded with fuel into the twin towers Tuesday morning. There were 184 confirmed fatalities.

Authorities said they expected 190 deaths at the Pentagon, where a third plane blew a hole in one side of the nation's five-sided defense nerve center. A fourth hijacked plane crashed in a rural area of Pennsylvania, with 65 aboard.

Early Friday, searchers found the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the jet that crashed into the Pentagon. A day earlier, the data recorder was recovered from the hijacked airliner that crashed in Pennsylvania.

The FAA cleared airports for reopening only after strict new security measures were in place. But even then some airlines didn't fly, others flew shortened schedules. The New York area's three major airports -- Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, N.J. -- were opened and then abruptly shut down as FBI officials searched for several people wanted for questioning in the attacks.

About a dozen people of Middle Eastern descent were detained at New York's Kennedy and LaGuardia airports. But Alan Hoffman, chief of staff to Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said Friday the FBI determined the travelers had no connection to the attacks. Biden told CNN the arrests were based on suspicions of a link, but any connections turned out to be "totally, totally coincidental."

In Washington, Congress was moving with uncommon speed to approve tens of billions of dollars for anti-terrorism and rebuilding, and legislation authorizing military action was likely, as well.

Administration officials said no military response was imminent -- but that didn't prevent officials from discussing it. "I think Osama bin Laden ought to say his prayers," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., shortly after the Bush administration publicly named the Saudi expatriate the main suspect in the attacks.