WASHINGTON — President Bush, promising that "justice will be done" to the authors of last week's attacks on New York and the Pentagon, ordered Afghanistan's Islamic government Thursday to hand over every terrorist within its borders--or face destruction.
Asking Americans to steel themselves for a long and costly "war on terror," Bush told a joint session of Congress: "Freedom and fear are at war. . . . Our nation--this generation--will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this effort by our efforts and by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail."
Bush said the evidence gathered by U.S. investigators "all points to" the Al Qaeda organization led by Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden as the perpetrator of the suicide hijackings that killed an estimated 6,566 people on Sept. 11.
For the first time, he listed the specific demands that the United States is making of Afghanistan's radical Taliban regime, which has provided Bin Laden his base of operations and formed a close alliance with his group:
* "Deliver to United States authorities all the leaders of Al Qaeda who hide in your land."
* "Release all foreign nationals--including American citizens--you have unjustly imprisoned." Two Americans are among eight foreign aid workers imprisoned in Afghanistan charged with preaching Christian beliefs to Muslims.
* "Close immediately and permanently every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan and hand over every terrorist, and every person in their support structure, to appropriate authorities."
* "Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps, so we can make sure they are no longer operating."
Those demands go far beyond any concessions that the Taliban have agreed to consider and seem unlikely to draw a positive response. On Thursday, Afghanistan's Islamic leaders asked their government to "persuade" Bin Laden to leave the country, but U.S. officials said that was not enough.
"These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion," Bush said bluntly. "The Taliban must act and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate."
The president also said he will create a new Cabinet-level position, the Office of Homeland Security, to oversee domestic defenses against terrorism. He said he will name Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, a longtime Republican ally, as its first chief.
Bush's 34-minute speech was more than another rallying cry to a nation both grieving and angry over the attacks. More important, it was his first extended description of how he wants to conduct the war he has proposed.
He asked Americans to be both fierce and patient, and to expect casualties in the field. At the same time, he suggested that the campaign against terrorism might include more secret intelligence operations and dogged law enforcement work than conventional military battles.
"We will direct every resource at our command--every means of diplomacy, every tool of intelligence, every instrument of law enforcement, every financial influence and every necessary weapon of war--to the disruption and defeat of the global terror network," he said.
"Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have seen. It may include dramatic strikes, visible on television, and covert operations, secret even in success. We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or rest."
Bush did not give any clue how soon military action against Al Qaeda or the Taliban might begin if they do not meet his demands.
Nor did he offer detailed or concrete evidence against Bin Laden. Instead, he said simply: "Al Qaeda is to terror what the mafia is to crime."
In the nine days since the attacks, Bush has made a series of increasingly assertive statements vowing a U.S.-led "war on terrorism" around the globe.
But until Thursday evening, he had not been precise about how the United States would wage the war: whether it would focus principally on Osama bin Laden or aim at terrorists of every stripe, and whether the United States would move quickly to attack countries it considers sponsors of terrorism, like Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Iran.
The president did not give complete answers to all of those questions in his speech, but he offered more clarity than before.
He said the United States would extend its war on terrorism beyond Al Qaeda to "every terrorist group of global reach"--making a distinction between guerrilla organizations that fight only within their own homelands and those that seek victims in other countries.
And he warned other countries that aid terrorists that they now have a stark choice to make: "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime."
