Sept. 13
***The United States moved to a battle footing Thursday as Congress met to approve funding and military action against terrorists. While an emotional president vowed to win the first war of the 21st century, the Pentagon geared up for a sustained military campaign against Osama bin Laden, who U.S. officials said they had determined was directly responsible for Tuesday’s terrorist strikes in New York and Washington.

***Stating publicly what many terrorism experts have been saying privately, Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday became the first senior Bush administration official to indicate that the United States believes terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden was involved in Tuesday’s attacks. Meanwhile, Attorney General John Ashcroft said investigators believe they have identified all 18 hijackers who took over the four U.S. airliners used as weapons in the devastating assault, but a senior U.S. official warned NBC News that other would-be martyrs could still be at large.

***Hanssen May Have Revealed Presidential Survival Plans
FBI spy Robert Hanssen may have given to the Russians thousands of pages detailing survival plans for the president and the U.S. government in the event of an attack on the United States. The new revelations help explain why President Bush did not hurry back to Washington.

***WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 - Three black boxes - two from the plane that crashed into the Pentagon and one from the plane that crashed in western Pennsylvania - have been analyzed by the National Transportation Safety Board and given to the FBI, sources told NBC News Friday.

However, officials at the National Transportation and Safety Board said Friday that the voice data recorder from American Airlines Flight 77, which hit the Pentagon, was so badly damaged that they did not believe it would yield any usable data.

Sept. 14
***NEW YORK - The dark, evening air will be alight around the world Friday with the flickering flames of candles, thanks to a grassroots campaign that relied on e-mails and fliers to spread word of the event.

A small number of commercial flights were in the air Friday, three days after terrorist attacks paralyzed the nation's air traffic.

***NEW YORK - While many firms with offices inside the World Trade Center's twin towers were able to locate their employees, tragedy struck bond trading powerhouse Cantor Fitzgerald after Tuesday's terrorist attacks.

***Cantor's offices, which held 1,000 employees, were on floors 101 and 103 through 105 in the center's 110-story north tower. In a tearful television interview, Cantor Fitzgerald Chief Executive Howard Lutnick said Thursday that he was unaware of anyone who escaped from their World Trade Center offices.

Lutnick said he wasn't in the office on Tuesday because he was bringing his son to his first day of kindergarten.

The 57-year-old partnership accounted for more than 25 percent of the $3 trillion U.S. government bond business on any given day.

Sept. 15

He warned bin Laden cannot "hide from the United States." And he told U.S. troops to get ready to retaliate for America's worst terrorist attack, stating for the first time the need for Americans to make sacrifices.

"I will not settle for a token act. Our response must be sweeping, sustained and effective," the president declared in his weekly radio address to the nation. "We have much to do and much to ask of the American people.

"You will be asked for your patience, for the conflict will not be short. You will be asked for resolve, because the conflict will not be easy. You will be asked for your strength because the course to victory may be long," he said.

Bush had additional words for terrorists during his meeting with his foreign policy teams at a Marine-guarded Camp David. "We will find this who did it, we'll smoke them out of their holes," Bush said. "We'll get them running and we'll bring them to justice. There is a desire by the American people to not seek only revenge, but to win a war against barbaric behavior."

The president also directed his threat towards sponsors of terrorists: America, he said, will "deal with those who harbor them and feed them and house them."

The president has called up to 50,000 members of the National Guard and military reserves to serve on active duty; the House and Senate approved $40 billion to snuff out terrorism; and Secretary of State Colin Powell warned the Taliban that if they don't distinguish their activities from those of bin Laden, the U.S. will not separate them from him when retaliating.

Congress also passed a resolution authorizing Bush to "use all necessary and appropriate force" in retaliation for the attacks against the United States. The resolution won unanimous support in the Senate first; it passed 420-1 in the House.

Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee of California was the lone dissenting vote. Lee said that use of military force won't stop future acts of terrorism.

***Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia stepped up their threats on Saturday, promising to wage war on any nation aiding a U.S. assault on their country.

"If any regional or neighboring country helps the United States attack us it would spark extraordinary dangers ... It would draw us into a reprisal war," said Abdul Salam Zaeef, the ruling Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan.

The comments came as Pakistani sources confirmed they had agreed to a full list of U.S. demands for a possible attack on neighboring Afghanistan, including a multinational force to be based within its borders.

Sept. 16
***After days of heartbreak in the shadow of terrorism, Americans went to church Sunday, seeking comfort in the prayers and hymns of worship.

***Pakistan will be giving the Taliban militia who rule Afghanistan an ultimatum: Hand over Usama bin Laden or else.

A group of top Pakistani delegates will travel to the Taliban's headquarters in the southwest Afghan city of Kandahar Monday, a senior Pakistani official said on condition of anonymity. It will deliver a simple message: either give up bin Laden, the leading suspect in the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, or risk massive retaliation by an international coalition.

The source did not say whether the Taliban would be given a deadline to comply.

Bin Laden has denied any connection to the attacks, though he has praised them. On Sunday, he reiterated his denial in a statement read by Qatar's al-Jazeera satellite television channel.

"I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation," read the al-Jazeera announcer from the statement.

Meanwhile, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Sunday ordered Taliban assets in Pakistani banks frozen. Also frozen were the personal accounts of current and former Taliban ministers, as well as those of 300 other Afghans associated with the Taliban.

Bin Laden, the exiled Saudi millionaire already indicted in the United States on charges of masterminding the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998, has been living in Afghanistan since 1996. The Taliban have steadfastly refused to hand him over despite two rounds of U.N. sanctions that have cut off funds to the national airline and isolated Taliban leaders.

The Taliban say bin Laden is a guest. The Taliban's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, has said in the past that delivering bin Laden to non-Muslims would be akin to betraying a tenet of Islam.

On Sunday, the Taliban called an "urgent" meeting of clerics from throughout Afghanistan. At that meeting the clerics voiced their support for the regime, condemned the United States and demanded proof of bin Laden's involvement in the airborne attacks on the World Trade Center's twin towers and the Pentagon.

The devoutly religious Taliban, or "students" in Arabic, arose from the religious schools of southwestern Afghanistan and quickly took over much of the war-scarred country in 1998. Despite their extremist interpretations of Islamic law, or sharia, the Taliban's reputation for brutal honesty won them grudging support from a population weary of 20 years of chaotic rule by rapacious warlords.

*** Polls released this weekend show that a majority of Americans stand behind Bush's pledge to retaliate against Usama Bin Laden or any other terrorists behind Tuesday's attacks in Washington and New York.