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© St. Petersburg Times, published October 2, 2001
Reagan National Airport to reopen
WASHINGTON -- President Bush on Monday authorized Reagan National Airport to resume limited flights under the tightest security of any airport in the country, allowing the last major U.S. airport closed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to reopen within days, White House officials said.
Bush plans to announce the new security package for National today, officials said, according to the Washington Post.
The plan will likely include posting armed marshals on all flights, using new technology to ensure that the planes are in friendly hands and limiting the number of commercial pilots able to use the airport, according to Virginia members of Congress who met with administration aides, the Post said.
Passengers arriving for flights from the airport or departing from other airports for National will be subject to more screening than other air travelers.
They will have to pass through multiple security checkpoints and baggage-match procedures, said the Post report.
Spokesmen for the airlines said it would take up to several days to position crews and airplanes and revise scheduled operations once Bush announces his decision.
WASHINGTON -- President Bush cited progress on antiterrorism efforts, ranging from frozen accounts to international pledges of support to the capture of a man who had just finished serving time for an unrelated hijacking.
"Slowly but surely, the results are coming in," Bush said.
The president made a trip Monday to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and listed some fruits of the administration's intense focus on terrorism.
Authorities have blocked $6-million in bank accounts linked to terrorist activity, Bush said, and have frozen 50 accounts, 30 of them in the United States.
Bush said he had gotten 46 pledges of support from groups ranging from NATO to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. He said a global web of shared intelligence is gradually yielding identities and hiding places of al-Qaida members. One hundred fifty people have been detained, and Bush promised more arrests.
He held up as an example the weekend arrest of Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini, who had been jailed in Pakistan since the hijacking of a Pan Am flight there on Sept. 5, 1986. Safarini and five other people were charged in the 1991 indictment with 126 counts.
Bush said even though Safarini is not affiliated with al-Qaida, he illustrates the long reach of the antiterrorism campaign.
CAPE CANAVERAL -- NASA's security will be improved before the next space shuttle launch in November, and the liftoff will be safe from possible terrorist attack, a space-experienced senator said Monday.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said he would be comfortable flying aboard Endeavour in late November, if he was on the crew.
"We will be very secure," he promised.
Nelson, who flew in space as a congressman in 1986, made the comments after a 2 1/2-hour meeting with the leaders of Kennedy Space Center and neighboring Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
He said the men discussed in great detail security for Endeavour's launch on Nov. 29; the shuttle will carry up three new residents for the international space station.
"I am convinced that they are doing everything humanly possible to have the adequate amount of security for the next launch," Nelson said.
Nelson said he will help NASA find the money for the extra security. The money should come from federal emergency funds rather than out of "an already very tight NASA budget," he said.
NASA refuses to divulge security measures at the space center in the wake of the attacks.
GROUND ZERO FLAG: The American flag raised by firefighters amid the rubble of the World Trade Center -- which reminded many of a famous World War II photo taken at Iwo Jima -- is now aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt.
New York Gov. George Pataki and New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani signed the flag and gave it to Adm. Robert J. Natter, the Atlantic Fleet commander. In addition to the signatures, the inscription on the flag reads: "Fire Dep New York (FDNY) -- Division I -- World Trade Center, September 11, 2001, New York City, USA."
The Navy will return the flag when the battle group returns.
NEW PATRIOTISM STAMP: A postage stamp reflecting the surge of patriotism in the wake of the terrorist attacks will be unveiled today by the Postal Service.