Bush speaks on progress

WASHINGTON -- President Bush claimed progress on several fronts in the war on terrorism Monday as he stepped up a covert battle against Afghanistan's terrorist-harboring Taliban militia. The Taliban's days seem numbered, suggested the president of neighboring Pakistan. \n"We're going to bring these people to justice," Bush said of terrorists during an afternoon visit to the headquarters of the federal agency that oversees disaster aid. \nIn New York, nearly three weeks after the attacks leveled the World Trade Center, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani appealed to the world to stand fast against terrorism. \n"The United Nations must hold accountable any country that supports or condones terrorism or you will fail in your primary mission as peacekeepers," Giuliani told General Assembly representatives from more than 150 countries. \nThe U.S. military buildup continued. The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk left its base in Tokyo on Monday to join other U.S. forces being positioned for possible action. \nAs Afghanistan appeared to be preparing for war, Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, suggested that U.S. military action now seemed inevitable. \n"We have conveyed this to the Taliban," Musharraf told the British Broadcasting Corp. \nU.S. officials had been skeptical that the Taliban would hand over Osama bin Laden, whom they view as the chief suspect in the Sept. 11 suicide hijacking attacks in New York and Washington. But they had given Pakistan time to try to persuade the Taliban. \nMusharraf acknowledged Pakistan had nothing to show for its diplomatic campaign. Asked by BBC if the Taliban's days were numbered, he replied: "It appears so." \nBush claimed progress in efforts to track down and neutralize bin Laden and his followers. \n"It's a campaign that must be fought on many fronts, and I'm proud to report that we're making progress on many fronts," the president said in his address at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. \nHe cited hundreds of arrests here and overseas in the investigation, international cooperation and initial success in seizing assets of bin Laden and his al-Qaida organization. \n"The evildoers struck and when they did they aroused a mighty land," Bush said. "We will not be cowed by a few." \nIn other developments Monday: \n--The administration made plans to announce this week the reopening of Washington's Reagan National Airport, the only airport still closed after the attacks. Officials said privately it would reopen under tightened security, including limits on flights and requirements for armed air marshals on those flights. \n--Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said America's armed forces are ready for the war on terrorism. He spoke at a ceremony honoring Army Gen. Henry Shelton, retiring as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Shelton cited "recent evil and barbaric attacks." \nBush said that in the week since he announced a move to freeze assets of bin Laden and 26 other individuals and organizations, some $6 million had been blocked and 50 bank accounts frozen, 30 in this country and 20 overseas. \nHe also noted that some 29,000 American troops have been committed to the anti-terrorism effort. "This is a different kind of war. It's hard to fight a guerrilla war with conventional forces, but our military is ready," Bush said. \nAs part of that effort, Bush approved assistance to groups within Afghanistan that oppose the ruling Taliban militia. \n"The purpose of the mission is to eliminate those who harbor terrorists. ... We will work with a variety of people, all of whom have an interest in establishing an Afghanistan that is peaceful and does not practice terrorism," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. \nThe effort is separate from a United Nations humanitarian program to help Afghans overcome hardships, and from a new U.S. plan to help Afghan refugees who have fled to neighboring Pakistan. A senior White House official said the relief aid to refugees could top $100 million. \nBush also used his speech to announce the arrest over the weekend of a man suspected in a 1986 attack by four gunmen on a plane in Pakistan. The plane was en route from Bombay to New York. In the end, 21 people including two Americans were killed and nearly 200 injured in the assault. \nBush said that while the individual arrested was not linked to the bin Laden organization, "he's an example of the wider war on terrorism and what we intend to do." \nThe White House also announced plans for Bush to travel to New York at midweek to visit schoolchildren, Fleischer said \n"It's been very difficult on children, and the president is very concerned about that," Fleischer said. \nFEMA Director Joe Allbaugh said he will travel separately to New York City on Wednesday. He plans to visit a FEMA field office and address several problems with the cleanup effort at the World Trade Center. \n"This is going to take months, it's going to take three to four months just to get to the ground level," Allbaugh told The Associated Press. "This is going to be better than a year to resolve this debris problem at the sites." \nEarlier, Bush spoke by phone with President Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. \nAs part of the repositioning of U.S. forces, the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk left its base near Tokyo on Monday. Navy spokesman Hidemi Nagao said the carrier was participating in the campaign against terrorists, but declined to elaborate and would not say where it was going.