Eight days after terrorists hijacked airliners and slammed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the focus has shifted from shock and anger to talk of reprisals against the man suspected of masterminding the attack, Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.
What world leaders and ordinary people on both sides of the divide were saying Wednesday:
"Germany is ready for risks, including military ones, but not for adventures" -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
"Obviously military cooperation is conceivable, to the extent that we first agree on the aims and methods of any action" -- French President Jacques Chirac after a working dinner with US President George W. Bush.
"We are absolutely of one mind ... in our determination both to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice, and that we set an agenda for the international community to attack the apparatus of mass international terrorism at every single level we can" -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"The response to this attack by terrorists, who are the enemies of all civil governments in all parts of the world, must not come only from the West but from a vast alliance in which all peaceful nations can take part" -- Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi.
"They are trying to finish us on various pretexts. One of their pretexts is Osama bin Laden's presence in Afghanistan" -- Mullah Mohammad Omar, supreme leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia.
"The Pakistan Ulema Council has called for a jihad against America and its allies if they attack Afghanistan. The attack will be an act of terrorism" -- Pakistan's top mainstream religious body Ulema.
"If America drops even one bullet in Afghanistan, God willing, we will wipe out all US facilities and interests here" -- Muhammad Kalono, head of hardline Indonesian Islamic group Laskar Jundullah.
"In light of the security situation, all British nationals should consider whether to leave (Pakistan)" -- British High Commission.
"The embassies are thinning their staff out now when it is not too bad so that it is easier if we have to evacuate later" -- a western diplomat in Islamabad.
"The image projected by some quarters that the Philippines is a haven for international terrorists, especially those linked to Osama bin Laden, is inaccurate" -- President Gloria Arroyo's spokesman, Rigoberto Tiglao.
"All I know is that there was evidence in Europe and the United States that somebody knew something and that they were actually trading on that" -- ABN Amro strategist Darrel Whitten on claims that Osama bin Laden may have profited from the deadly US attacks by speculating on the world's markets.
"We are looking at the possibility that there may have been more than four planes targeted for hijacking, but we are not able at this time to confirm that" -- US Attorney General John Ashcroft.
"It is horror. It is unimaginable" -- Tayo Balogun, a civil servant in Lagos, black Africa's largest city, speaking about the attacks on the US.
"What is so much about America? People are dying here and America has not cared to comment" -- a caller to a private radio station in the west African state of Liberia.
"They have reaped what they sowed. Bin Laden is of the Americans' own making and now they're paying for creating him" -- Algerian lawyer.
"When Algeria cried for help to fight terrorism, the silence from the US was deafening" -- Algierian pharmacist.
"U-S-A, U-S-A" -- fans at an ice hockey match in Washington.
"It was a very emotional moment. You couldn't help but think of the people who were there and who lost their lives trying to help others," New York Yankees slugger Bernie Williams on the first full night of Major League Baseball since the terrorist blitz.
"We regularly make it clear in reports that he is a terrorist, not simply a follower of Islam, and that his brand of Islamicism is not shared by the vast majority of moderate Muslims in the UK and elsewhere" -- a BBC spokesman defending the use of the phrases terrorist and Islamic fundamentalist to describe Osama bin Laden.
"The recent attacks in the United States have resulted in a 10 percent cancellation in the number of tour groups who were due to visit Jordan in October and November" -- Beshara Sawalha, head of the Jordanian association of travel agents and tourism -- PARIS (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
