President Bush has sought to enlist the international media in a "new line of attack" against terrorism, issuing a "most-wanted" list of 22, and getting an aide to urge caution on TV networks in airing pre-recorded messages from Osama bin Laden.
Meanwhile the New York Times has reported that the US may extend its list of targets of covert and overt action to include terrorists active in the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia where guerrilla groups linked to bin Laden have been particularly active. "The Philippines have become a major operational hub," a senior official is quoted as saying,"and it is a serious concern".
Such groups have been inolved in hostage-taking and attacks on their governments. Hundreds of fighters of the Abu Sayyaf organisation, linked to bin Laden, are battling Philippine forces on the island of Basilan in the south. The organisation has obtained millions of dollars in ransoms for tourists, missionaries and resort workers.
Attacking such groups, rather than states, may be closer to what the US and the British had in mind in their recent letter to the UN warning of the possibility that targets outside Afghanistan would be hit.
ABC TV reported that the build-up of US special forces within striking distance of Afghanistan is now sufficient to make possible substantial ground strikes within the next week.
As usual, however, the President's spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer, refused to be drawn on such operational details.
Mr Bush met the NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson, and paid tribute afterwards to the contribution being made by the organisation, both actual and promised, to the campaign. NATO Awacs (early warning surveillance aircraft) were last night being deployed off the US coast to relieve American planes for duty in the near East.
"Terrorism has a face, and today we expose it for the world to see," he said earlier in a ceremony at the FBI headquarters near Washington unveiling the pictures of 22 of the "most dangerous ... leaders, key supporters, planners and strategists" of the bin Laden organisation. They include the man himself and the two Egyptians believed to be his deputies, Mohammed Atef and Ayman al-Zawahri.
"They have blood on their hands from September 11th and from other acts against America in Kenya, Tanzania and Yemen," the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, said. He also drew attention to a State Department Rewards for Justice programme (www.dssrewards.net) offering bounties of up to $5 million for assistance leading to terrorists' arrests or which helps to forestall attacks. He said the US had already paid out $8 million in capturing important suspects.
Mr Bush's National Security Adviser, Ms Condoleezza Rice, rang executives from the major TV networks yesterday morning to warn of the danger that bin Laden might be sending coded messages to supporters abroad in pre-recorded videos. Mr Fleischer said the conversations were "collegial" in nature, requests rather than demands, and that "the media would decide for itself how to respond to such concerns".
Later CNN issued a statement saying it would no longer air directly such messages from bin Laden, although it would continue to report their substance.
The US has also been applying pressure to the Qatari government to restrain the al-Jazeera TV station.
But the Administration eased up on its insistence that only eight Congressional leaders would receive intelligence briefings. Following a morning meeting between Mr Bush and the bipartisan leadership of both Houses, the White House promised that members of the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees will get the sort of briefings they need to fulfil their roles.
