Bush promises justice for terror strikes

Survivors may still be in Trade Center rubble

(CNN) -- America's capital and its largest city Wednesday face the grim tasks of counting the dead, sifting the rubble for survivors and searching for clues after terrorist attacks that left thousands feared dead.

Investigators began piecing together leads early Wednesday as President Bush warned that those behind Tuesday's attacks in New York and Washington would face U.S. justice.

"We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them," Bush said in an Oval Office address Tuesday night. (More on Bush's speech)

Hijackers crashed fuel-laden jetliners Tuesday morning into the symbolic hearts of U.S. economic and military power -- the landmark twin towers of New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. armed forces. A fourth hijacked jet crashed in rural Pennsylvania, its intended target still a mystery.

In addition to the 266 passengers and crew aboard the commercial flights, Bush warned that thousands of others may have died in the attacks. (More on the death toll)

New York authorities said more than 300 firefighters, including Fire Chief Pete Ganci, and 78 police officers were presumed dead when the World Trade Center towers collapsed.

Mayor Rudy Giuliani warned the death toll could be "horrendous," and rescuers were still searching for survivors in rubble-strewn lower Manhattan early Wednesday Giuliani said two people trapped in the World Trade Center's basement had been making cell phone calls to their relatives to give them their locations, and he said others were down there with them. (More on the search for survivors)

"We do know that there are people in the building that are alive, and we are making every effort to get to them," New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said.

Between 100 and 800 people were unaccounted for at the Pentagon late Tuesday, and firefighters were still battling a fire there early Wednesday. (More on the attack on the Pentagon)

But investigators were pursuing leads in the New York area and in Florida late Tuesday.

Authorities took three people into custody late Tuesday in New Jersey after stopping a van on a highway near the George Washington Bridge, Kerik said late Tuesday. No details were immediately available.

And in south Florida, information gleaned from the hijacked planes' passenger lists have led to search warrants that the FBI is in the process of or will soon be executing, a law enforcement source told CNN.

"We're looking at South Florida ties to some of the people we're looking at," the source said.

Tuesday's horror prompted federal officials to order the first-ever grounding of all U.S. air traffic. The Federal Aviation Administration was expected to lift that order at noon Wednesday.

And Wednesday morning, the entrances to three of Washington's most popular tourist attractions -- the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials and the Washington Monument -- were closed off to vehicles. There was no word early Wednesday on whether pedestrian traffic would be restricted as well.

Recovery efforts

In New York, Giuliani said bulldozers have been brought in to help clear away the rubble to make rescue efforts easier.

"Ongoing fires and damaged buildings could hamper rescue efforts, but those efforts were continuing overnight," he said.

Among those feared dead when the damaged twin towers collapsed Tuesday were Fire Chief Ganci, who had spent more than 30 years with the department; Deputy Fire Commissioner William Feehan, a 40-year veteran; Special Operations chief Ray Downey, who led city firefighters sent to aid in the aftermath of 1995's Oklahoma City bombing; and the Rev. Michael Judge, a Fire Department chaplain.

In his address to the nation, Bush said, "These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat." But, he said, they have failed.

"Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America," he said. "These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve."

Top national security officials met at the White House late Tuesday night, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

U.S. suspicion quickly fell on Osama bin Laden, the fundamentalist Islamic militant suspected of planning other attacks on Americans, including the bombing of the destroyer USS Cole in Yemen last year and the 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. (More on the investigation)

U.S. intelligence officials told CNN, "There are good indications that persons linked to Osama bin Laden may be responsible for these attacks." Other U.S. officials said that while the focus is on bin Laden, they have not ruled out other suspects.

Afghanistan, believed to be the home of bin Laden, denied that the wealthy Saudi exile was connected to the attacks. Asked if bin Laden was a suspect, Rumsfeld said, "It's not the time for discussions like that."

266 feared dead aboard jets

American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday. The Boeing 767 carried 81 passengers and 11 crew members en route from Boston to Los Angeles.

About 15 minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175, also en route from Boston to Los Angeles, crashed into the south tower. Also a 767, it carried 56 passengers and nine crew members.

The south tower exploded into flames and collapsed about an hour later. The north tower crumbled to the ground less than 30 minutes after its companion.

Another building, 7 World Trade Center, collapsed Tuesday afternoon. It had been burning since shortly after the planes struck the twin towers.

In Washington, meanwhile, American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon about 9:40 a.m., collapsing part of an outer wall of the world's largest office building and setting a fire that burned into Wednesday morning. The Boeing 757 was en route from Washington's Dulles Airport to Los Angeles with a crew of six and 58 passengers.

The fourth aircraft, United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco, crashed in a wooded area near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Police said there were no survivors. There were 38 passengers, five flight attendants and two pilots aboard.

No survivors of any of those aircraft have been found, and a U.S. official told CNN there was no indication that any plane crew member punched in the transponder code that indicates a hijacking in progress.

Senior administration officials told members of Congress that they believe the airliner that crashed in Pennsylvania was headed for another government target, possibly the White House, the Capitol or the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, government sources told CNN. It is unclear how that plan may have been thwarted.

Hijackers armed with knives

Although officials said the attacks appeared to have been well planned and executed, a passenger on the plane that hit the Pentagon said in a cell phone call to her husband that the terrorists were armed with knives and box cutters. The passenger was Barbara Olson, a CNN commentator and wife of Solicitor General Theodore Olson.

In a briefing to members of Congress, Ashcroft said the hijackers were working in groups of three to five members.

Although the city of Washington declared a state of emergency, and parts of the building were still burning early Wednesday, Rumsfeld said, "The Pentagon is functioning. It will be in business tomorrow."

The U.S. military went on full alert after the attacks. Two aircraft carriers left the U.S. Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia, in response to the attacks to provide upgraded air defense for New York and Washington.

Several members of Congress referred to the attacks as an act of war, and called for retaliation.

"We're going to find out who did this, and we're going after the bastards," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.

Hours after Tuesday's U.S. attacks, bomb explosions rocked the perimeter of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. But officials there and in Washington said the attacks were carried out by the opposition to the ruling Taliban, and were not a U.S. retaliatory strike.

-- CNN Correspondents John King, Susan Candiotti, Jonathan Karl, Nic Robertson and CNN.com writer Matt Smith contributed to this report.