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Global Outrage After Attacks, Even from "Foes"
PARIS, Sept 11 (News Agencies) - Revulsion at the stunning assault against the United States brought Washington's traditional foes Tuesday together with its closest allies, as world governments vowed to catch the attackers.
As the United States former Cold War enemies Russia and China vowed to help their NATO rivals track down the group behind the world's worst attack, there were also expressions of support from Syria, Libya, Iran, Iraq and Cuba.
After a crisis meeting in Brussels, NATO Secretary General George Robertson called for "the international community and the members of the alliance to unite their forces in fighting the scourge of terrorism."
His call was echoed in Paris, Berlin and London, but also in Moscow, where President Vladimir Putin said the perpetrators "must not go unpunished", and in Beijing, where China's President Jiang Zemin sent a message of sympathy.
After two hijacked planes ploughed into the World Trade Center on New York, destroying its massive twin towers, and a third plane smashed one wing of the Pentagon military headquarters in Washington, capitals around the world put their security services on maximum alert to ward off follow up attacks.
"Make no mistake: The United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts," U.S. President George W. Bush said, as Western capitals signaled they would support a global hunt for the perpetrators.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder branded the attacks "a declaration of war against the entire civilized world. Whoever backs this terror, violates the laws of the civilized world."
In a message to Bush, he said the German people stood by the United States "in these difficult hours".
And as London and Paris put emergency measures in place to protect their own public buildings Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Jacques Chirac sent their own messages of support.
"We in Britain stand shoulder to shoulder with our American friends in this hour of tragedy and we, like them, will not rest until this evil is driven from our world," Blair said.
In a taste of the crackdown to come, Italy's Interior Minister Claudio Scajola warned that the people would have to get used to the idea that they "might lose some of their liberties".
While the support from Western allies was expected, the magnitude of the horror felt at the death toll was reflected in shows of solidarity from countries more normally at loggerheads with Washington.
Cuba, still suffering under U.S. trade sanctions aimed at toppling the leftist regime of President Fidel Castro, condemned the attacks and offered to provide medical and humanitarian aid.
Even Syria, Iran and Libya - who have in the past been accused by Washington of sponsoring "terrorism" - condemned the attacks.
A Syrian statement condemned the "destructive attacks which targeted innocent civilians in the United States" while Libyan leader Moamer Gadhafi offered to send humanitarian aid.
"It is our human duty to stand side-by-side with the American people despite our political conflict," he said.
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, who is regarded as a moderate, condemned the "terrorist attacks ... which have killed a large number of innocent people."
Voices were raised against Washington in parts of the world recently exposed to U.S. bombing.
In Serbia, radical opposition leader Vojislav Seselj said that Washington was "sowing what it had reaped" and in Iraq an official statement described the hijackings as the "fruit" of American crimes.
"The American cowboys are reaping the fruit of their crimes against humanity, and [the attacks] are an affront to American politicians," the commentator said.
Elsewhere, the wave of support will strengthen the hand of the U.S. administration as it mulls how to respond to an unprecedented strike at the very heart of its institutions.
Previous attacks on U.S. targets have triggered military retaliation, including an August 1998 cruise missile strike on the Afghanistan bases of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, who the administration has linked to Tuesday's attacks.
Such unilateral responses have been the past been criticized by some countries, but on Tuesday the signs were that Washington's allies were closing ranks around Bush's tough position.
Blair put Britain on alert and summoned his senior ministers to an emergency security meeting.
"This mass terrorism is the new evil in our world today. It is perpetrated by fanatics who are utterly indifferent to the sanctity of human life," Blair said at a trade union conference in Brighton, southern England.
Describing the attacks as "monstrous", France's President Chirac called an immediate emergency meeting of his cabinet and launched a national emergency security plan designed to protect potential targets.
"The French people as a whole are behind the American people," Chirac said.
European Union foreign ministers would meet in emergency session in Brussels on Wednesday, the European Commission said.
Israel's Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the world must "fight without compromise," Israeli public radio reported.
Israel said it was sending army rescue teams to the United States, including units specialized in rescuing victims trapped in collapsed buildings.
In Stockholm, Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson said the attacks hit all democracies worldwide.
"This is probably the biggest attack on an open democratic society ... That affects not only American society but all democracies," said a visibly shaken Persson. I couldn't believe it was true. For me, this is the kind of thing you see in the movies but didn't think could happen."
Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi said he had "no words to express my emotion and horror."
Pope John Paul II, in a message to Bush, said he was "shocked by the unspeakable horror of today's inhuman terrorist attacks against innocent people," expressing his "closeness in prayer for the [U.S.] nation at this dark and tragic moment."
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