Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 3

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2001 DECATUR, ILLINOIS NATIONWORLD A3 On urity tUfflcuKie mm sec "If you start out defending the homeland with the premise that you're going to defend every high profile, highly vulnerable target you lose, says Donald Hamilton, deputy director of the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, in Oklahoma City. "If you can't fill a yellow legal pad with hard-to-defend targets in 30 minutes, you're not thinking very hard. Oil pipelines, the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, the food supply. you could sink the whole national budget into trying to defend these things very quickly." But this is not to say that Ridge Ridge dig our way to safety from nuclear attack, as we did early in the Reagan administration. "Everybody's going to make it if there are enough shovels to go around.

Dig a hole, cover it with a couple of doors and then throw three feet of dirt on top. It's the dirt that does it," said T.K. Jones, deputy undersecretary of defense, in 1981. In previous incarnations, civil defense was sometimes seen as a joke. The Japanese and Germans never did mount real attacks on our coasts; the Soviets never did lob a nuclear warhead toward the bomb shelters we built during the Cold War.

This time, as Tom Ridge takes office, the threat is real, and obvious. "Before, it was just the policy crowd that paid attention to this," says Mar-tel of the Naval War College. "Now, American society has coalesced around the danger." ARAB-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Affair 'xmm en Pennsylvania's former Gov. Ridge to assume head duties Monday By JERRY SCHWARTZ AP National Writer You are Tom Ridge. Your job is to ensure that our homeland is secure from terrorism.

This is what you must protect: nn-Bn Almost 600,000 jlgil bridges, 170,000 water systems, more than 2,800 power plants, 190,000 miles of interstate pipelines for natural gas, 463 skyscrapers, nearly 20,000 miles of border, airports, stadiums, train tracks, the food supply, schools, industry. More than 285 million people, spread out over 3,717,792 square miles. It 4 Family i I 1 the former Pennsylvania governor who takes charge Monday as the first head of the Office of Homeland Security is on a fool's errand. Experts on terrorism and on domestic security say the new department can accomplish a lot. It can coordinate the agencies already at work against! terrorism; it can focus public attention on what needs to be done.

And most likely, it will lead the way to a less defensive approach to protecting Americans on these shores. This will not be the old idea of civil defense the one that sent New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia running around the country, warning of air raids before World War II; the one that featured an animated creature, Burt the Turtle, telling children to "duck and cover" in the event of nuclear attack in 1950. Nor are we likely to hear instructions on how to V- i I it i A I 1)i G-7 leaders vow global support Boosting economic growth, stopping terror funds pledged WASHINGTON (AP) The world's major industrial powers pledged on Saturday to work together to boost growth in a global economy badly shaken by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and to intensify their Treasury Department: www.ustreas. gov efforts to choke off money flowing to terrorist organizations.

The commitments were made by the finance ministers and central bank presidents of the world's seven wealthiest nations following six hours of discussion in Washington. "We stand united in our committment to vigorously track down and intercept the assets of terrorists and to pursue the individuals and countries suspected of financing terrorists," the Group of Seven nations said in a joint communique. The G-7 nations the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada said they were encouraged by the number of other countries that have agreed to join in the effort to freeze terrorist assets. The G-7 released a one-page action plan mapping out further efforts they will take to boost cooperation among law enforcement agencies. They said the Financial Action Task Force, created more than a decade ago by industrialized countries to coordinate efforts to halt money laundering, would hold a special meeting in Washington on Oct.

29 and 30 to map out a comprehensive strategy to pursue terrorist finances. The group also released a one-page action plan spelling out the efforts that would be made in each country to increase cooperation among nations to better track terrorist funds. "We are well on the way to building an international coalition to disrupt terrorist fundraising," Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill declared. BR -I Tracing Atta's path may yield answers Terrorist's overseas trips investigated WASHINGTON (AP) Two months before flying a jetliner into the World Trade Center, Mohamed Atta went on a European road trip. He flew from Miami to Spain, rented a car and drove 1,190 miles in 12 days, including a brief visit to Switzerland.

Spanish police say Atta's papers were in order and they had no reason to suspect he would emerge as the ringleader in a suicide hijacking plot that killed more than 5,200 people on Sept. 11. Spanish authorities now are trying to determine if Atta met with associates of Osama bin Laden or with members an Algerian terror cell during that trip; or if he avoided passport controls by flying from Barcelona to another European country to meet with organizers of the attacks. Atta's European trip is one of four known overseas visits by suspected hijackers in the months before the attacks. The search overseas is critical because U.S.

law enforcement officials increasingly believe the hijackers received their instructions and financing from masterminds of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network who remained behind in Europe and the Middle East. "It's logical to think that the guys going back and forth were giving updates on the progress they were making so they could get the assets they needed in place," said Rep. Saxby Chambliss, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee's terrorism subcommittee. The movements of the hijackers, as detailed through public records and interviews, suggest there were two distinct groups. Six were leaders who arrived last year, and most had pilot's licenses.

Thirteen others arrived just months before the attacks and provided the muscle to keep passengers on the hijacked planes at bay. Three of the six leaders left the United States for brief trips abroad during the past year, or met with suspected terrorist collaborators just before arriving stateside. And as Sept. 11 approached, the six leaders increasingly crossed paths with each other and the 13 other hijackers. "They needed the older, more mature, more dedicated people who've been around," said Clint Van Zandt, a retired FBI agent.

In May, 2000, Atta and Mar-wan Al-Shehhi, believed to be the pilot of the other flight into the World Trade Center, were in Florida taking flying lessons. In June, they were joined by Ziad Jarrah, who authorities believe took the controls of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. Atta traveled abroad at least twice more. U.S. officials say he met with a suspected Iraqi intelligence agent in Europe in April.

He returned to Spain for 12 days in July. Stateside, Atta met frequently with the other five suspected hijacking leaders. Soon, the six began to be seen more often with the other 13 collaborators. Atta and Al-Shehhi roomed together in Florida and took flight lessons. Atta and Jarrah both got Florida driver's licenses on May 2.

All six leaders were in Las Vegas at various times during the summer. On Aug. 13, Atta, Hanjour and Alhazmi were there at the same time. Each team of hijackers moved closer to their targets as the attack date neared. There's evidence some even flew planes on possible trial runs past the World Trade Center.

On Aug. 1-2, Hanjour, Almi-hdhar and four other hijackers obtained Virginia photo ID cards from a state office in Arlington. By September, many of the hijackers were staying in motels near Washington. On Sept. 10, Atta and another hijacker, Abdulaziz Alo-mari, checked into a motel in Portland, Maine.

The next morning, they flew to Boston, changed planes and boarded American Airlines Flight 11. That jetliner crashed into the World Trade Center. Associated Press HOME LIFE: Roxanne Dworak-EI Filali helps her daughter, Sakeena, 5, with her homework while her husband, Mohammed El Filali, checks his e-mail at their home in Clifton, N.J. The El Filalis, Moroccan Muslims, live upstairs in the same house from Roxanne's parents. Her father is a Ukrainian Jew and her mother a Belgian Catholic who converted to Judaism.

All are Americans. Sept 11 attacks heighten strengths, weaknesses of family's diversity XV I'M yy 2 t. AMERICA "TlESPONDS after she married Jozef. Today, the El Filalis live on the second floor of a two-story house the Dworaks bought a year ago so that they could all live together. The jumble of ethnicity and religion may be unusual, but in some ways, life in this modest Northern New Jersey home mirrors that of the nation as it struggles to balance tolerance and suspicion, prudence and paranoia.

For the most part, religion and politics are not discussed in the home But occasionally, almost inevitably, they come up. Jozef and Elsie are adamant about Israel's right to existence. They believe Israel's claim to Jerusalem stems from the time of Abraham. Mohammed and Roxanne have a different view. Her parents, despite the support they lavish on her and her husband, have limits to their acceptance, Roxanne said.

Northern New Jersey residents have been on edge since the Sept. 11 attack. Several of the hijackers spent time here, and many are worried that more terrorists are still lurking. FBI agents have canvassed the area and questioned dozens of Muslims. The El Filalis have chosen to deal with Muslim and Arab-American backlash head-on.

When people stare, Mohammed El Filali waves back. When people look uncomfortable, both Mohammed and Roxanne move swiftly to dispel fears. They want to see what happens with the American military response, though. Perhaps then there will be a time to bring up their opinions. "It's kind of best at this point to step back until it calms down," she said.

"Talking about Islam with everyone else is extremely easy, except with my parents." They want to be understood, she and Mohammed said, but perhaps that will have to wait. CLIFTON, N.J.(AP) Jozef and Elsie Dworak are adamant. If they were seated on an airplane and a man who looked like an Arab came on board, they would get right off. "Tell me, who wants to die?" said Elsie Dworak, 65, who grew up in Belgium and survived the German invasion there as a child. "You can't go looking for trouble," said her husband, Jozef Dworak, 70, a Ukrainian Jew who lost most of his family in the Holocaust.

"I have to protect myself." But what if the Arab was their son-in-law, Mohammed El Filali, and other passengers refused to fly because of him? They would be furious, the Dworaks said. They are aware of the contradiction. "That's what it's become now," Elsie Dworak said. "That's the predicament we're in." Their daughter, Roxanne Dworak-EI Filali, converted to Islam shortly after she married Mohammed, a Moroccan immigrant just as Elsie, raised a Roman Cathohc, converted to Judaism Wind, rain dampen efforts at World Trade Center site hip. fin 1 ililPiiiilillh .1 ml -'t v4r ft-, Center on Saturday, leaving New York officials to continue the nearly month-old effort to locate nearly 5,000 bodies buried in the rubble.

The Urban Search and Rescue Task Force was the last of 20 Federal Emergency Management Agency teams sent in after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that collapsed the twin towers. Its 62 members took off from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, boarding a plane for California after spending eight days at ground zero. They assisted New York firefighters and working as a rapid response group in the event of structural collapse. No other outside teams are scheduled to go to the site, said Anne-Marie Jensen, task force spokeswoman in Oakland, Calif.

The task force's members are from the Oakland fire department. NEW YORK (AP) Stiff winds buffeted the World Trade Center on Saturday and rain began to fall after workers recovered two more bodies from the site. The bodies were discovered separately in a smoky patch of rubble being excavated by heavy-equipment operators. They were draped with American flags and carried from the site on stretchers by firefighters. The total number of people missing dropped to 4,979 on Saturday, and the number of confirmed dead was 393.

Out of that figure, 335 victims were identified. Just after dawn, drizzle started to fall on the wreckage, prompting rescue workers to don rain suits but easing the acrid smell of burning debris. The last federal rescue crew left the World Trade 1 Associated Press CONTINUING CLEANUP: A rainbow forms over the wreckage of the World Trade Center as firefighters hose debris Saturday in New York. Relief workers recovered two more bodies in areas excavated by heavy-equipment operators..