Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 1

50C WSTW rt NO. IU CHICAGO TRIBUNE WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001 A o' Hijacked jets destroy World Trade Center, hit Pentagon Thousands feared dead in nation's worst terrorist attack t. 1 i jj. 'iv I X. III hi -in i in -mml'K- ma i.

v. -v I1 A By Charles M. Madigan Tribune staff reporter A pall of smoke, dust and sadness settled over lower Manhattan at nightfall Tuesday as rescue workers, police and firefighters pressed their desperate search for survivors of the worst terrorist attack in United States history, a coordinated airborne assault that destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center and left a portion of the Pentagon outside Washington in smoking ruins. In New York alone, it was feared the death toll could reach the thousands. Officials said at least 300 firefighters and 78 police officers were missing and presumed dead.

Upward of 50,000 people worked in the 110-story World Trade Center towers, reduced by explosions and fire to ruins within hours of the initial attack. The number of dead at the Pentagon was unknown but officials feared the toll would be high. Speaking Tuesday evening from the White House, President Bush evoked a biblical message in saying the U.S. was walking "through the valley of the shadow of death" but still feared no evil. He described the attack as a mass murder that had ended the lives of thousands of people, and he called on the nation to remember the victims in prayers.

Amid reports that investigators were focusing their attention on renegade Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, believed to be in Afghanistan, Bush promised that all the government's resources would be used to find and punish the perpetrators of the attack. "These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat, but they have failed," Bush said. "Our country is strong. Terrorist acts can shake the foundation of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. "The search is under way for those who are responsible for these evil attacks.

We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed those attacks and those who harbored them." The assault struck at the heart of America's commercial, military and government infrastructure, stopping the nation in its tracks and stripping away any sense that the U.S. was somehow protected from the brutal political violence and terrorism that have bloodied life in so many other parts of the world. It disrupted the nation's financial networks, sent millions of workers in a panicked rush from BUSH'S ADDRESS AP photo by Doug Mills Tuesday's events have "filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger," President Bush tells the nation in a TV address. President promises to avenge lost lives By Bob Kemper Washington Bureau WASHINGTON Seeking to console a grieving nation, Presi dent Bush said Tuesday that al though terrorists had succeed ed in targeting symbols of U.S military and financial might, they had not diminished the na tion's spirit and would not es cape American justice. "The pictures of airplanes fly ing into buildings, fires burn ing, huge structures collapsing have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger," Bush said in a televised address from the Oval Office nearly 12 hours after attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and Pentagon in Washington began.

"These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed," said Bush, for whom Tuesday's ca lamity marked the supreme challenge of a young presidency. Noting that government buildings and financial institutions vacated during the attacks Would reopen Wednesday, Bush laid, "America was targeted for attack because we are the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world, and no one will keep that light from shining." The president vowed revenge on the terrorists, who by late Tuesday had not been identi fied. And he made it clear that no nation associated with the acts would be spared America's wrath. Perhaps not since President Franklin Roosevelt declared the bombing of Pearl Harbor a "date that will live in infamy" has an American president faced a moment such as the one Bush confronted Tuesday.

President Ronald Reagan helped America cope with the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. President Bill Clinton saw the country through the Oklahoma City bombing. But those events, as calamitous as they were, did not have the deep PLEASE SEE BUSH, PAGE 20 To our readers In order to provide expanded coverage of Tuesdas historic events, the Tribune has altered its publishing schedule. In this morning's edition, you will not find Woman News, Good Eating, Working or all of the dally Tempo features. Woman News and Good Eating will be delivered in Thursdays edition.

An index ap rw -l w. i 1 1 tv. And over Washington, Air Force jets were flying cover. "We started getting complacent in the post-Cold War world. We believed in an invincible America," said Douglas Brin-kley, a noted historian and University of New Orleans professor.

But such beliefs were shattered Tuesday. The death toll was unknown but undoubtedly catastrophic. PLEASE SEE FEAR, PAGE 18 1 the base of the destroyed World Trade Center after the attack in New Reuterj photo by Peter Morgan York early Tuesday. IN NEW YORK Stunned residents face lingering horror their offices to their homes and PLEASE SEE ATTACK, BACK PAGE sealed, its transit system in disarray and its people dazed by the carnage. The stunned residents struggled to cope with an apparent terrorist attack that Giuliani called "one of the most heinous acts, certainly, in world history." Nieka Burnett, 34, who witnessed the disaster on her way to work, said: "This is something that's going to live with me for the rest of my life.

I could never forget this day. Never." Burnett normally cuts through the World Trade Center to get to her job at the nearby New York Mercantile Exchange. "If I was just a few minutes PLEASE SEE NEW YORK, PAGE 12 7 a ft a oe 0 nnnA4 Dust rises amid wreckage near THE NATION REACTS Feeling of invincibility suddenly shattered By Patrick T. Reardon Tribune staff reporter On Tuesday, America the invincible became America the vulnerable. Skyscrapers fell in New York.

Smoke billowed from the Pentagon. The Secret Service evacuated the White House. And an America that, of late, had worried most about a declining stock market and rising gasoline prices was suddenly confronted by death and destruction on an unprecedented scale from terrorism within its borders. "I don't think I will ever feel as safe as I did at 7:45 this morning," said Rev. John Cusick of Old St.

Patrick's Church in the West Loop rrea. AP photo by Danny Wilcox Frazler Megan Elise McFarlane and others watch the news in Iowa City. City begins long process of dealing with carnage By Lisa Anderson and Stevenson Swanson Tribune national correspondents NEW YORK The hell that broke loose here Tuesday morning is far from over. Sirens blared in an otherwise eerily quiet Manhattan as rescue workers continued attempts Tuesday night to find the hundreds, if not thousands, of victims feared dead or trapped alive in the shattered, still smoldering remains of the World Trade Center. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said officials had received cell phone calls from survivors in the rubble.

The city's tunnels wrire Lee Ciaccio of Schaumburg said, "My question is: When's the next one?" It was the plot of scores of B-movies and political thrillers, in a flash, suddenly coming to life. Members of Congress, government leaders and the first lady were whisked out of the capital to undisclosed "secure locations," while President Bush took up his station at the headquarters of the Strategic Command in Nebraska. pears on Page 2..