THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all
very much for such a warm welcome. I first want to thank
Craig and Michelle for their love and compassion for their friends, and
for being such great representatives of an incredibly important
industry for America's future.
I want to thank all the airline employees
who are here, from all the airlines around America. I want
to thank you for your dedication, for your concern, and for being such
great patriots for this great country. (Applause.)
Besides you all, I'm keeping pretty good
company today. First, I'm pleased to introduce the Secretary
of Transportation Norm Mineta. I want you to know that Norm
took a United flight. (Applause.) And he said the
flight was just perfect. (Applause.) I appreciate
Norm's hard work and concern about our mutual goal, and that's to get
the airplanes flying again all across America. (Applause.)
I'm proud to be on the stage with your
Governor, and with his honor, the
Mayor. (Applause.) The Mayor said he's going to
buy me lunch today. (Laughter.) I like my cheeseburger
medium. (Laughter.)
I appreciate so very much Jane Garvey,
from the FAA, being here. Thank you for coming. (Applause.)
I'm really proud of the attitude in
Washington, D.C. right now. Traveling with me today were Republicans
and Democrats, but make no mistake about it, they're first and foremost
patriotic Americans. (Applause.)
The state of Illinois has produced a good
man and a good speaker, and that's Denny Hastert. Thank you,
Denny, for being here. (Applause.) Also traveling
is Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, who has been a joy to work with as we
do what's right for America. (Applause.) I
appreciate Senator Dick Durbin for being with us today, and I want to
thank you coming, Dick. (Applause.) Henry Hyde, of the
great state of Illinois. (Applause.) Mark Kirk of
Illinois. (Applause.) Jerry Weller of
Illinois. (Applause.)
We've got quite a crowd traveling today,
all of whom -- all of whom are here to say as clearly as we can to the
American public, get on the airlines, get about the business of
America. (Applause.)
That's got a nice ring to it, doesn't
it? (Applause.) I want to thank not only the
employees, the people that make the airlines go, but I want to thank
the chief executive officers from American Airlines and United
Airlines, as well as old Herb Kelleher from Southwest Airlines --
(applause) -- Jim Goodwin and Don Carty --
(applause.) George Mikelsons of American Trans Air is here,
as well. Thank you all for coming, and thank all your
employees for being here. I know this will make
Representative Gephardt feel good -- there's a lot of folks from TWA
here. (Applause.)
I'm so honored to be here. I
think it's interesting that on one side, we see American; on the other
side, it says United. (Applause.) Because that's
what we are -- America is united. (Applause.) We
are united. We are united in bringing justice to those folks
who did the evil deed on September 11th. (Applause.)
We're not only united, we're
determined. We're determined to find those terrorists who
tried to affect our way of life. We're determined to find
them, and to bring them to justice. And we
will. (Applause.)
But our determination goes beyond the
immediate and the short-term. This is a nation that's determined to
defend freedom from any terrorist, anyplace in the
world. This is a determined nation, and we're a strong
nation. We're a nation based upon fabulous values.
We're also a nation that is adjusting to a
new type of war. This isn't a conventional war that we're
waging. Ours is a campaign that will have to reflect the new
enemy. There's no longer islands to conquer or beachheads to
storm. We face a brand of evil, the likes of which we
haven't seen in a long time in the world. These are people
who strike and hide, people who know no borders, people who are --
people who depend upon others. And make no mistake about it,
the new war is not only against the evildoers, themselves; the new war
is against those who harbor them and finance them and feed
them. (Applause.)
We will need patience and determination in
order to succeed. We must understand that sometimes we will
see our resources deployed, and sometimes we won't. But we
will use every resource at our disposal.
We will use the military might of the
United States. We will use our intelligence-gathering
capacity of the United States. We will use every diplomatic
means of the United States. We will disrupt their financial
networks. We will do everything we can to achieve our
objective, which is to rout out and destroy global
terrorism. (Applause.)
Americans understand we fight not a
religion; ours is not a campaign against the Muslim
faith. Ours is a campaign against
evil. (Applause.)
And there is a broad coalition of nations
that understand what's at stake that have come rallying to our
side. And I want to thank the nations of the world that have
stood side-by-side with our country to defend freedom. It's
heartening to know that we stand not alone in the world. It's a
coalition that will require different efforts from different
countries. Some countries may want to participate in one
way, but not in another. All we ask is that you
participate. All we ask is that you use the same amount of
effort the United States will to win this war against freedom, to win
this battle against global terrorism.
This coalition will exist to achieve the
mission, and I can assure you our mission will not change to fit any
coalition's. America will stand strong. Others
will tire and weary; I understand that. But not our
nation. Others will get -- (applause.) Others
will second-guess, but not our nation. Others will become
impatient, but not this great nation. We will stand firm,
and stand strong until we've achieved our mission. We hope everybody
follows, but we're marching on. We're marching on to do
what's right. (Applause.)
This great nation will not only deploy
resources overseas, but we will work at home, as well, to fight
terrorism and to win this war. I had the honor of announcing
an Office of Homeland Security the other night in front of
Congress. My good friend, the Governor of Pennsylvania, has
agreed to leave his office early to serve the nation, to coordinate
activities to make sure that anybody who wants to harm America will
have a hard time doing so; to make sure that we're strong at home as we
are abroad; to make sure our resources are deployed effectively.
We have thousands of FBI agents working
today to chase down any lead, to look at any hint, to make sure America
is as secure as can possibly be.
And we must stand against terror by going
back to work. Everybody here who showed up for work, at this
important industry, is making a clear statement that terrorism will not
stand, that the evildoers will not be able to terrorize America and our
work force and our people. (Applause.)
America understands -- America understands
that these have been incredibly tense days for the people who work in
the airline industry -- difficult times for stewardesses and captains
and baggage handlers and people who are running the
desks. America knows that, and we appreciate -- we
appreciate your steadfast willingness to fight terror in your own way.
You stand against terror by flying the airplanes, and by maintaining
them. You stand against terror by loading a bag or serving a
passenger. And by doing so, you're expressing a firm
national commitment that's so important, that we will not
surrender our freedom to travel; that we will not surrender our
freedoms in America; that while you may think you have struck our soul,
you haven't touched it; that we are too strong a nation to be carried
down by terrorist activity. (Applause.)
When they struck, they wanted to create an
atmosphere of fear. And one of the great goals of this
nation's war is to restore public confidence in the airline
industry. It's to tell the traveling public: Get
on board. Do your business around the country. Fly and
enjoy America's great destination spots. Get down to Disney
World in Florida. Take your families and enjoy life, the way
we want it to be enjoyed.
And we've got a role, the government's got
a role. Not only do you have a role to play, which you're
playing in such fine fashion, but the government has a role to play, as
well. We've got a significant responsibility to deal with
this emergency in a strong and bold way. And we are doing
so.
The first action we took was when
Republicans and Democrats alike came together and put together a
package to provide stability for the airline industry. We
approved -- (applause.) It was the first part of an economic
recovery package. We understand when we get our airlines up
and running, it's going to affect so much of our
economy. And so we jointly approved $15 billion of monies
available to provide not only relief for airlines, but loan guarantees
for airlines, to make sure our airlines are strong and healthy in the
aftermath of this national emergency. (Applause.)
And I want to thank the Speaker and Leader
Gephardt for taking the lead. They showed folks that
Washington can work in concert and in a constructive
way. But there's more to do. We must address the
issue of airline safety in a constructive, smart way. For
the sake of every passenger, every crew member and every pilot, we are
going to make our airline security stronger and more reliable.
Last week I reserved $3 billion in funding
to achieve this goal. And today I want to outline some of
our plans to do just that. First, I will work with Congress
to put the federal government in charge of passenger and bag screening,
and all safety inspections. (Applause.) We will
make our standards tougher and better and consistent all around the
country. (Applause.)
I understand it takes time for legislation
to work through the halls of Congress, and you need to understand that,
too. And so, to make sure we improve security right now, the
federal government will pay for governors to call up National Guard and
place guardsmen at inspection stations in
airports. (Applause.)
Some airports already meet high standards,
and you all know that. But for those airports that need
help, we will work with the governors to provide security measures --
visible security measures -- so the traveling public will know that we
are serious about airline safety in America. (Applause.)
Secondly, we are going to dramatically
increase the number of federal air marshals on our
airplanes. (Applause.) When Americans fly, there
need to be more highly-skilled and fully-equipped officers of law
flying alongside them. Now, these marshals, of course, will
wear plainclothes; they're going to be -- they'll be like
any other passenger. But Americans will know that there's
more of them. And our crews will know there's more of
them. And the terrorists will know there's more of them.
(Applause.)
And third, we will set aside $500 million
in new funding for aircraft security. Grants will go to
airlines for enhanced cockpit protection. (Applause.) We
look forward to working with the pilots and airlines to fortify doors
and provide stronger locks, so our pilots will always be in command of
the airplanes. (Applause.)
We will invest in new technology for
aircraft security, with grants to develop transponders that cannot be
switched off from the cockpit; video monitors in the cockpit to alert
pilots to trouble in the cabin -- (applause) -- and we will look at all
kinds of technologies to make sure that our airlines are safe -- and
for example, including technology to enable controllers to take over
distressed aircraft and land it by remote
control. (Applause.)
With all these actions, we're returning
America's airlines back to the American people. We're making
a strong statement that together -- together -- the government and the
private sector will make flying a way of life again in America.
The American people must know that my
administration is confident. Tomorrow nine Cabinet members will board
U.S. airlines to fly around our country to do their
jobs. (Applause.) And so will thousands of other citizens,
from all walks of life, will board aircraft. And these are
good things for our nation, because this nation will not live in
fear. We have awakened to a new danger, but our resolve is
great and the spirit of America is incredibly
strong. (Applause.)
AUDIENCE: USA! USA! USA!
THE PRESIDENT: The attacks on
America were intended to break our spirit. But the evildoers
failed. It's a fabulous land; we're lucky to live in
it. It's a land -- (applause.) They have stirred
a mighty nation to action, and the world is seeing what we're made out
of. The world sees our resolves and is willing to
follow. The world sees our commitment to freedom, as it
impressed. The world sees our compassion toward one another,
as neighbor helps neighbor; as neighbor grieves with neighbor; as
people from all across our country want to hold the families who have
been dangered -- who have been hurt in their arms.
The world sees a nation at prayer --
Christian, Jew and Muslim, alike -- praying for strength to an almighty
and merciful God. The world is beginning to see the best of
this great land. The world is beginning to understand why we
all treasure America so much -- our values, our freedom and the
strength of the American character.
No, they thought they attacked America and
hurt us. We are stronger than ever, and we will prove it to
the world.
Thank you all for
coming. (Applause.) God bless America.
(Applause.) And now it is my honor to introduce the Speaker
of the House of Representatives, Illinois' own, Denny Hastert.
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