Airport security
tightened

Governors mobilize state militias
to help restore confidence in
domestic air travel

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Staff and wire reports

WASHINGTON >> Governors moved to call up National Guard troops to protect airports in response to President Bush's request today, even while awaiting details on what he wants them to do. Bush introduced steps to throw a federal security blanket over commercial aviation and declared, "We will not surrender our freedom to travel."

Sixteen days after hijackers crashed airliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania countryside, Bush said the government would take charge of airport security and expand the use of federal air marshals on commercial flights. The plan stopped short of having federal workers perform all airport security work.

Hawaii National Guard soldiers, no longer at Honolulu airport after an initial deployment in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, will be returning at some point in concert with the president's directive, said guard spokesman Maj. Chuck Anthony.

Bush predicted flying will again become a way of life in America. The president spoke to 6,000 airline workers at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, where jets from American Airlines and United Airlines -- the carriers hijacked by terrorists Sept. 11 -- were parked nose to nose with an American flag between them. "We're not only united, we're determined," he said.

But the U.S. Conference of Mayors said Bush's plan doesn't go far enough and should include federalizing airport security workers. "We want a federal force that is equal or even better than the ones they have in Israel and Germany and France," said Tom Cochran, the conference's executive director.

He said of the airlines: "We believe they have failed us and we don't have faith, and we do not believe the American people do either."

In an ominous reminder of the potential for more terror, the Pentagon confirmed that two Air Force generals have been authorized to order the military to shoot down any civilian airliner that appears to be threatening U.S. cities.

Bush issued a similar order himself in the hours after hijacked planes attacked American symbols of military might and capitalism Sept. 11.

Under new rules, the generals could order strikes only if there was not enough time for the president to weigh in.

Governors in Michigan, Florida, Ohio, Minnesota and Kentucky were among those responding quickly to Bush's request to mobilize National Guard units at federal expense. Michigan Gov. John Engler was deploying at least 100 personnel. "I personally am not reluctant to fly, but I've talked to many, many people who are," he said. "I believe these measures will be quite successful."

In Kentucky, aides to Gov. Paul Patton sought direction from Washington on how many troops were needed, where to send them and what they would do. "Do we check baggage?" asked Patton's press secretary, Rusty Cheuvront. "We don't know what that means."

In New York City, morning traffic snarled Manhattan arteries as the city introduced mandatory carpooling prompted by the aftermath of the World Trade Center attack.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said U.S. military members injured or killed in the terror attacks will receive Purple Heart medals, which are normally given to soldiers in wartime and have not been awarded for an incident on U.S. soil since World War II.

A new honor, the Secretary of Defense Medal for the Defense of Freedom, will be given to civilian Defense Department workers killed or hurt in the attacks, Rumsfeld said. "These assaults have brought the battlefield home to us," he said. The attack on the Pentagon is believed to have killed 189 people on the ground and in the hijacked airliner that hit the building.

Continuing the parade of world leaders in Washington, Jordan's King Abdullah II met Secretary of State Colin Powell today. Abdullah will see Bush tomorrow. The king is expected to advocate a measured response to the attacks.

Amid the swirl of diplomacy, Jesse Jackson said he was considering whether to accept an invitation from the ruling militia in Afghanistan to take a "peace delegation" to neighboring Pakistan.

Bush advisers quietly urged the civil rights leader not to go and the Taliban said it had not invited him.

One of the government's biggest challenges at home is to make people believe it is safe to fly again. Bush, noting Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta took a United flight to the event in Chicago, said the government's goal is to "get the airplanes flying again all across America."

In another show of support for commercial flying, Bush's father boarded a Continental jet at Boston's Logan Airport for a flight to Houston. "I have every confidence in the airlines," George Bush said. "We have to get back to our lives as Americans." Still, the former president was not an ordinary passenger by any means -- he was escorted in the terminal and plane by his usual Secret Service detail.

In Afghanistan, meanwhile, officials of the ruling Taliban have advised Osama bin Laden of the Afghan clerics' decision that he should leave Afghanistan voluntarily, the Taliban ambassador in Pakistan said today. Ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef said the clerics' decision had been "endorsed" by the Taliban's supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. Zaeef did not say how the message was conveyed nor where bin Laden was hiding. He also did not indicate bin Laden's reaction to the message.

The Taliban leader in turn warned Afghans not to look to the United States for help in challenging his hard-line Islamic rule.