lit down Tues&jdfents gather to pray for victims and family members
by dust and st th< se affected by the attacks in New York City and
buildings. is|ington, D.C., at Reed Area.
Consumers feared an increase of gasoline prices after
the attacks. Increases were negligible in Bryan-College
Station Tuesday night.
Sympathetic students posted pleas for prayer around
campus Tuesday to encourage others to join them in the
vigil at Rudder Fountain.
Aggies
react to
tragedy
“The hearts of the entire
Texas A&M family are heavy,
and our prayers are with the
victims of this morning's
tragedies and their loved ones.”
— A&M President Dr. Ray M. Bowen
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New York City woman reacts emotionally to the scene of Manhattan from across the river, while smoke billows upward from the two World Trade Center Towers that were struck by hijacked jetliners Tuesday.
■rted to l
Bush administration confirms Osama bin Laden y al-Qaeda as prime suspects
Diane slants
and Wa
r attack
oitol Hill.tb ||WASHlNGTON (AP) — From the outset, the
o was to hafulprit seemed obvious. Who else but Osama bin
ifying befois-iflen had the means, the organization and the
ion. tried tos anaticism required to pull off the terrorist acts at
on. he World Trade Center and the Pentagon?
is need to re- “ 'And indeed, by late afternoon Tuesday, the Bush
verywherein idministration confirmed that bin Laden and his al-
e safe." shf Qaeda organization were prime suspects,
she and Sr Me is widely regarded as the world’s most dan-
D-Mass., serous man. He is thought to have been behind the
ng was postp;win bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa in
lush and a 199X that claimed the lives of 224 people, including
■ whisked by 12 Americans.
location arr Those numbers pale alongside the anticipated
)use, which ;oll from Tuesday’s attacks on symbols of
but for the American commercial and military might,
i policy ad' Sen. Orrm Hatch, R-Utah, the top Republican
ie basemeni^n Senate Judiciary Committee, said FBI and
ntelligence officials told him the attacks were
er said | well-planned over a number of years, planned
nira at Tk 3 y rea i p ros ant | experts. ... Their belief is, at least
at the ' initially, that this looks like Osama bin Laden’s
tm, also we«« nature; ,
itions.
Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., when asked whether bin
Laden’s group is the likely perpetrator, said, “I
don’t know if there’s any other organization that
had the capability to carry out such a coordinated
series of attacks.”
Bin Laden’s obsessive anti-Americanism has
never been in doubt. “Fm fighting so I can die a
martyr and go to heaven to meet God. Our fight
now is against the Americans,” bin Laden was once
quoted as saying.
He has declared all U.S. citizens to be legitimate
targets of attack. CIA Director George Tenet has
said bin Laden has demonstrated an ability to plan
“multiple attacks with little or no warning.”
His road to international pariah status has been
helped along by his strong organizational skills and
a warchest inherited from the family construction
company.
Born in Saudi Arabia in 1957, bin Laden drew
inspiration from Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1979.
He had dreams of similar revolts in other Muslim
countries.
Less than one year later, the Soviet invasion
and occupation of Afghanistan provided another
turning point. He despised the notion of people
he considered to be infidels controlling a
Muslim country and joined forces with the
Afghan resistance.
Ironically, this commitment put him on the same
side as the United States, which shared bin Laden’s
contempt for the Soviets and spent millions of dol
lars trying to liberate Afghanistan from them.
The Afghanistan experience enabled bin Laden
and the many followers he recruited to hone the
skills they needed for future struggles once the
Soviets were evicted in early 1989.
His disdain for the monarchy in his Saudi home
land turned into outright opposition in 1990 when
the kingdom invited hundreds of thousands of
American and other foreign troops into the country
after the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq.
Saudi Arabia was betraying the faith by
accepting help from Western infidels, bin Laden
believed, and he set about to drive the United
States from the Middle East.
He lived a nomadic existence for several
years, having been deported by a number of
Islamic countries before finding a haven in
Afghanistan. President Bush .said Tuesday the
United States “will make no distinction between
the terrorists who committed these acts and those
who harbor them.”
Operating from damp caves infested with scor
pions and rats, he plotted against the world’s only
superpower. Aside from the 1998 embassy bomb
ings in Africa, he also is believed by U.S. officials
to be responsible for the 1993 attack on the World
Trade Center and last year’s bombing of the USS
Cole in Yemen.
He has proved to be an elusive target.
President Clinton was so eager to liquidate bin
Laden that he ordered more than 70 sea-launched
Tomahawk cruise missiles at his hideaway in
Afghanistan in 1998.
All fell wide of the mark. A $5 million FBI
bounty on his head has yet to produce results.
And despite two rounds of U.N. Security Council
sanctions, the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan refuse
to turn him in.
internal
diverted'
r.
10:29 a.m. ET
Second World
Trade Center
tower collapses
11:04 a.m. ET
UN headquarters
New York evacuated
11:18 a.m. ET
American Airlines
confirms 2 jets
lost, 150 aboard
11:59 a.m. ET
United Airlines
confirms 2
crashes, 110 lost
A&M administrators decide
not to cancel classes Tuesday
By Jon Niven
THE BATTALION
While government agencies around the world were
taking precautions and closing for the day, Texas
A&M, along with other state universities, kept its
doors open.
Administrators met at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday after the ter
rorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.,
and decided that keeping a regular schedule was the
best solution to the tragedies.
William Perry, executive associate provost of A&M,
said the events surrounding the 1999 Aggie Bonfire col
lapse prepared the staff to deal with this situation.
Perry also said that several groups on campus were
quick to act on news of the terrorist attacks.
Dr. J. Malon Southerland, vice president for student
affairs at A&M, said professors may use their own dis
cretion to determine whether to cancel classes.
According to Southerland, approximately 50 A&M stu
dents are interning in Washington, D.C., and New York
City this semester and all have been accounted for.
CHAD MALLAM • THE BATTALION