September 14,
2001
A Vow to Erase Terrorist Networks — bin Laden Is Singled Out
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and JANE PERLEZ
ASHINGTON, Sept. 13 — The Bush administration today singled out Osama
bin Laden, the Islamic militant who operates from Afghanistan, as a prime
suspect in Tuesday's catastrophic terror attacks and vowed a comprehensive
military campaign to demolish terrorist networks and topple regimes that harbor
them.
....Mr. Bush, facing a stern test that will recast and define his tenure in office, said the campaign against terror "is now the focus of my presidency."
He said he would not neglect domestic concerns. "But now that war has been declared on us, we will lead the world to victory, to victory," he said.
The nascent campaign is being waged on a broad diplomatic front. The administration continued today to try to galvanize an international coalition, its diplomatic and military strategy focused on trying to use Russia and Pakistan in an encircling movement on the north and south of Afghanistan.
Russia has bases in the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and could offer other assets, including intelligence, to the United States for a military assault on Mr. bin Laden in Afghanistan.
The planning and the language used by administration officials was read by military analysts as a sign that Secretary Powell, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is preparing the way for a military force that could ultimately be used to occupy Kabul, the Afghan capital, and overthrow the ruling Taliban.
The Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, while the United States fought a proxy war, using mujahedeen rebels against the Soviet troops, who began to withdraw in 1988.
Now, Russia and the United States appeared to be looking for ways to work together against Mr. bin Laden in Afghanistan.
The deputy secretary of state, Richard L. Armitage, accompanied by a team of Pentagon and National Security Council officials, is scheduled to meet in Moscow next week with the Russian first deputy foreign minister, Vyacheslav Trubnikov. Mr. Armitage will be asking the Russians for their detailed knowledge of Afghanistan as well as for access to the Russian military facilities in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, administration officials said. ....