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Gaining Momentum

Bush lifts sanctions, touts economy as military prepares

By Ellen Yan | Staff Writer

Washington -- President George W. Bush last night lifted military and economic sanctions against India and Pakistan, part of his effort to build a global coalition for the war against terrorism.

Bush said keeping the sanctions in place "would not be in the national security interests of the United States. The sanctions were imposed in 1998 after the two countries tested nuclear weapons.

Pakistan, one of a few countries that has recognized neighboring Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, is particularly crucial to the United States' efforts.

Last week, Pakistan sent a top-level team to Afghanistan to argue the United States' case for turning over terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

At home, Bush turned his attention to the economy, which has suffered from falling stock prices and layoffs in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. The president said in his weekly radio address that the terrorists destroyed a "symbol of American prosperity when two planes hit the World Trade Center, but he also listed some of the nation's strengths: the best-educated work force in the world, scientific research, steady energy prices, factories churning out goods.

"Our economy has had a shock. Yet, for all these challenges, the American economy is fundamentally strong, said Bush, who had focused his speeches since the attacks on bucking up the nation psychologically and vowing to carry out justice.

"Our country's wealth is not contained in glass and steel. It is found in the skill and hard work and entrepreneurship of our people, and those are as strong today as they were two weeks ago, he said at the end of a week that saw the Dow Jones industrial average's biggest point drop ever.

A Zogby poll conducted over four days last week showed that 44 percent of those surveyed Monday said they were afraid the recent attacks would damage the economy; by Thursday, the number had risen to 53 percent.

"Bush surely recognizes that the economic recession generated by the disaster may last longer than the war on terrorism, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Governmental Studies.

On the front against terrorism, Bush spoke for an hour with Russian President Vladimir Putin, their third conversation since the attack, to firm up backing for the expected strike on the accused terrorists, believed to be hiding in Afghanistan.

Putin has said he sees the need to strike back, but urged a thorough investigation first. Russian officials have voiced concern about U.S. retaliatory attacks launched from former Soviet republics near Afghanistan, fearing such attacks may result in terrorism against Russia itself.

From the presidential retreat at Camp David, Bush strategized in a video teleconference with his National Security Council. CIA Director George Tenet, Chief of Staff Andrew Card and top security adviser Condoleezza Rice were at his side.

Bush will soon sign an executive order naming specific terrorists and their affiliations and also freezing their U.S. assets, a White House aide confirmed yesterday.

Meanwhile, a third aircraft carrier fleet, warships and more fighter jets hurried yesterday to join the growing U.S. Navy and Air Force in the Middle East, in anticipation of a land-air assault against terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and a Taliban government there that has refused to turn him in. Almost 5,200 more reservists were activated yesterday, including 263 Air National Guard members from Niagara Falls and Newburgh, bringing the total reservists called up to 10,303.

Turkey signaled readiness to allow the United States to use its airspace, the latest country in the Middle East and Central Asia to pledge support. By lifting the sanctions, Bush paves the way for U.S. troops and strikes to be launched from Pakistan and India.

The Taliban reported that its fighters shot down an unmanned reconnaissance plane yesterday in northern Afghanistan, but the Defense and State departments declined to comment.

The federal government began offering a $25-million reward for information on the suspected terrorists, trying to add to some 150,000 tips the Justice Department has already received. The FBI has compiled a list of 19 suspects in hijackings of four planes used in the attacks.

The reward money is part of $5 billion in emergency spending released Friday by Bush to help victims, beef up security and rebuild. Almost $2.6 billion, the biggest chunk, will go to the Department of Defense to improve intelligence gathering, repair the Pentagon and prepare for retaliation against the terrorists.

The preparations are part of a likely protracted battle against unseen enemies on U.S. soil, said terrorism expert Harvey Kushner, a professor at Long Island University's C.W. Post Campus. One of Bush's next jobs is to prepare Americans for a battle that could last more than a decade, he said, and the president hinted of a long-term approach when he announced in his speech to the nation Thursday that he had created a cabinet-level "homeland defense position.

Kushner predicted more racial profiling of Middle Easterners, a lessening of some civil liberties, and more terrorist strikes in this country.

"If we're naive enough to believe these 19 guys came into the country and did what they had to do and they're gone, that's one thing, he said. "If in fact they're here, then the nasty business of rooting them out will be a protracted effort ... It's not just a mother and a father saying, I'm going to send my kid to a foreign land to be killed,' but it's going to be down and dirty here.