WASHINGTON -- President Bush plans to push for sweeping changes in airport security, including armed officers on almost every flight, as the Justice Department warns that terrorists may be plotting more destruction.
With that in mind, the House voted to divert money from Bush's missile defense program to counterterrorism efforts.
Even as the U.S. military continued to mobilize for a strike at terrorists and a U.S. envoy briefed NATO officials in Brussels, Belgium, the Bush administration sent last-chance overtures toward Afghanistan's Taliban militia.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an Associated Press interview that the Taliban rulers could avert a war with America by turning over Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, the No. 1 suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, and ripping up the al-Qaida terrorism network.
Bush suggested that Afghans rise up against the Taliban.
He talked by telephone Wednesday with Kazakstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who promised to support the United States "with all available means." Nazarbayev has offered his nation's airspace and military bases in the U.S. cause.
Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday he is not sure bin Laden and his group are solely responsible for the attacks.
"I've seen a lot of the evidence that leads to Osama bin Laden but I would not rule out anybody else either because there are so many other terrorist cells and they have had contact with each other," Shelby said on NBC's Today. "A lot of the roads, a lot of the signatures are Osama bin Laden and his group."
In Kabul, demonstrators attacked the abandoned U.S. Embassy compound in the Afghan capital, burning cars and tearing down the U.S. seal. The compound was abandoned in 1988.
Heavy new fighting was reported in northern Afghanistan as an opposition alliance pressed on with its bid to seize territory from fighters of the Taliban.
In neighboring Pakistan, meanwhile, sources said the government has reached broad accord with U.S. officials on a plan for attacks on bases inside Afghanistan.
The increasing pressure on the Taliban comes as federal investigators find more evidence of an international terrorist network which may still be operating.
In New York, emergency crews worked through the night to dismantle a seven-story fragment of metal facade, all that remained standing of the World Trade Center, as the area was declared a crime scene off limits to cameras.
Attorney General John Ashcroft on Tuesday told Congress that terrorists may be planning an attack using a truck carrying hazardous chemicals. Twenty people have been charged with trying to obtain fraudulent licenses to drive tanker trucks, officials said. Some of those arrested in connection with the tanker licenses may have connections to the hijackers, the Justice Department said.
"Terrorism is a clear and present danger to Americans today," Ashcroft told a Senate hearing.
Making the skies seem safer was an immediate concern for the Bush administration and Congress following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, during which hijackers crashed two planes into the World Trade Center, a third into the Pentagon and a fourth in a field in southwestern Pennsylvania. Nearly 7,000 people are dead or missing.
Bush met Tuesday with Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta to discuss airline security measures as lawmakers clamored for action.
A Bush proposal was likely to include giving the federal government a greater role in overseeing private security companies that work in airports. Bush was said to be cool to the idea of arming pilots.
The Federal Aviation Administration was advertising for air marshals - and more than 100,000 people have downloaded the application off the agency's Web site. The administration and Congress want to see armed marshals on most, if not all, flights.
Federal law enforcement officials from other agencies are being quickly trained and pressed into service until the new crop of marshals is hired.
Bush officials also want to replace relatively flimsy, easy to open, cockpit doors with something more sturdy.
The House voted in support of a $343 billion defense bill late Tuesday, boosting money to fight terrorism by $400 million, for a total of about $6 billion.
The Senate has stalled on the issue, unable to reach a vote because of attempts to attach the Bush administration's energy bill and a proposal to let private contractors compete with prison industries for defense contracts.
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, meanwhile, arrived in Brussels, where he planned to present to NATO allies some of the information the United States has collected linking bin Laden to the attacks.
A senior U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity said Wolfowitz would tell the allies there still was much to be learned about how the attacks were planned and who was involved.
A defiant bin Laden fired back a response to the U.S. military buildup in the Middle East and southwestern Asia. "Wherever there are Americans and Jews, they will be targeted," said a statement issued by Naseer Ahmed Mujahed, chief military commander for bin Laden's al-Qaida network.
