Rumsfeld pledges to ‘drain the swamps’ of terrorists

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Tuesday vowed the U.S. military would undertake "a very broad-based" military campaign against terrorists and the nations who harbor them in response to last week's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But Rumsfeld warned that with numerous terrorist groups operating in as many as 60 countries, military operations would not be quick or easy. "Our adversaries are not one or two terrorist leaders, or even a single terrorist organization or network. It's a broad-based band of individuals and organizations," Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon. The new adversaries are difficult to target, Rumsfeld said, because they do not have assets such as tanks or gunships. But, he says, the organizations receive support and sanctuary from nations that do offer such weapons. "The terrorists do not operate in a vacuum. They do not live in Antarctica," said Rumsfeld, vowing to "drain the swamps" where terrorists live. Rumsfeld also said Defense personnel were dealing "in a very professional way" with heightened security measures, including the use of bomb-sniffing dogs and tightened parking restrictions that have caused massive traffic delays for workers going to the Pentagon. He said the Pentagon would work to eliminate traffic jams and get back to normal, but would not do so at the cost of vigilance against potential threats. The death toll for Defense personnel from last week's hijacking increased by one to 125 victims Tuesday, following the death of an Army civilian who had been hospitalized following the attack. Eight others still remain hospitalized, five in critical condition. Additionally, 64 people aboard the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Pentagon were killed. Thus far, 113 bodies have been removed from the Pentagon, with the remains of 17 identified.