Washington | Tuesday
US authorities are now on their highest state of alert as Americans battened down for possible terrorist reprisals for the military offensive launched in Afghanistan.
Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the alert as US forces struck at Kabul’s Taliban regime for a second day and Washington served notice it might take its war on terrorism to other countries as well.
In contrast, British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said the air strikes are likely to last ”a matter of days rather than weeks”.
On Sunday, British forces joined the US in striking Afghan military targets across the country.
Asked how long air strikes were likely to last, Hoon told BBC’s Newsnight: ”I anticipate that it is more likely to be a matter of days rather than weeks.
”That’s the present intention. Obviously it just depends on how successful those attacks are and indeed on whether we find further targets to address, but for the moment that is the anticipation.”
In the US, some 18 000 law enforcement agencies and 27 000 corporate security services have been notified of the alert, Ashcroft told a news conference.
All sensitive industries and infrastructure were under special watch with particular attention given to nuclear, chemical and petrochemical facilities, Ashcroft said.
Other key sectors included telecommunications, power generation and distribution, banking and finance, oil and gas, information technology, water services and railways, he said.
Since the September 11 assaults on New York and Washington, officials have warned the threat of a new strike was high, particularly if the United States pursued its anti-terrorist campaign.
But the administration has shown no sign of relenting in its drive to bring Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network to justice for last month’s nightmare that left some 5 500 people dead or missing.
For the second day, US forces rained bombs and missiles on Afghan airfields, air defences, communications and terrorist camps for the Taliban’s refusal to surrender bin Laden.
In a letter to the UN Security Council, the United States invoked the right of self-defence to justify its military riposte in Afghanistan. It also raised the possibility of broadening its campaign.
”We may find that our self-defence requires further actions with respect to other organisations and other states,” the letter said.
US Public backing for the raids in Afghanistan was overwhelming.
Polls showed that 90% or more of Americans agreed with the attacks and approved of the way President George W Bush was handling the crisis.
But tempering support was the recognition the United States could be embarking on a long, costly and dangerous undertaking.
US officials have warned the public here to be ready for a drawn-out affair in the bid to stamp out terrorism through military, diplomatic and financial action.
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Monday the campaign ”will likely be sustained for a period of years. … It is not simple. It is not neat. There is no silver bullet.”
A survey conducted by CNN, USA Today and Gallup showed 46% of Americans expected the operations to last a year or longer. Eight out of 10 believed new terrorist attacks on US soil would result.
A Washington Post/ABC News survey showed that more than 80% of those interviewed expected a long war and more than half said the US action increased the risk of further terrorism in the United States.
With nerves on edge across the country, officials stepped up security measures to head off another disaster such as the kamikaze attacks by hijacked airliners ploughing into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Bush swore in former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, a close friend, to head the new Office of Homeland Security. ”We face new threats, and therefore, we need new defences for our country,” the president said.
Ridge, who will seek to coordinate the anti-terror efforts of more than 40 government agencies and meld federal, state and municipal strategies, made it clear the country had a lot of work to do.
”There may be gaps in the system. The job of the Office of Homeland Security will be to identify those gaps and work to close them,” he said. ”The size and scope of this challenge are immense.”
One subject of mounting speculation is the possibility of an attack with chemical or biological weapons. Fears were not calmed Monday with the discovery of a second case of deadly anthrax in Florida.
Health officials in the southern state reported that a man had been discovered infected with the disease just days after a colleague at his newspaper job died from the deadly bacteria.
Ashcroft said the Federal Bureau of Investigation was taking the case ”very seriously” and added that he could not rule out the possibility of a bioterrorist attack.
”We have not ruled out anything at this time,” Ashcroft told reporters. ”We regard this as an investigation that could become a criminal investigation.” – Sapa-AFP