(本页第17页，共20页) And though everyone wanted to be prudent, there weren't a lot of suspects to round up. 尽管每个人都想谨慎一些，但是并没有多少嫌疑人可供抓捕。
Palestinian terror groups are experienced at suicide missions, but have never attempted an operation this large. 巴勒斯坦的恐怖组织在自杀式袭击任务上是很有经验的，但却从未尝试过如此大规模的行动。
Groups with links to the Iranian government took down the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia in 1996, killing 19, but that target was a long way from the U.S. 1996年，跟伊朗政府有关联的一些组织炸塌了沙特阿拉伯的卡巴塔，造成19人死亡，但是那个目标地离美国本土很远．
Libya has lost its taste for terror, most experts believe, and Iraq's Saddam Hussein has always favored loud, brutish force over quiet finesse. 大多数专家认为，利比亚已经对恐怖活动失去了兴趣，而且伊拉克的萨达姆·侯赛因总是青睐声势浩大的野蛮的军事力量胜过悄无声息的计谋．
Besides, no group other than Osama bin Laden's loose knit network of operatives in dozens of countries worldwide has ever shown the will, wallet or gall to attack the U.S. before. 而且，在此之前，除了奥萨姆·本·拉登控制的散布于全球几十个国家的、关系松散的间谍网外，尚无任何组织显示出这样的意愿、资金或胆量去攻击美国。
Bin Laden is responsible for the attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. 本·拉登策划了袭击美国驻肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚大使馆的事件。
Three weeks ago, he told an Arab journalist he would mount an unprecedented attack on the U.S. 三周前，他告诉一位阿拉伯记者，他打算对美国发动一起前所未有的袭击。
"This was well funded and well planned," said Senator Pat Roberts, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “这次是资金准备充足并且经过精心策划的，”参议院情报委员会的帕特·罗伯茨议员这样说道。
"It took a lot of planning. The weather had to be just so on the East Coast. They used sophisticated tactics where they hijacked planes, killed the crew, and they had to have aviators or navigators who knew what they were doing." “这次做了很多筹划工作。东海岸的天气状况要刚刚好。他们对如何劫持飞机，杀死机组人员进行了周密的计划部署，甚至包括必须有知道他们在做什么的飞行员或领航员。”
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage gathered his senior aides in the State Department's seventh-floor secure facility shortly after 9 a.m. Tuesday for a videoconference with the Administration's top national security aides.
星期二早上九点后不久，国务卿理查德·亚姆力特把他的高级助手们召集到（美国）国务院七楼的安全部门，与国家行政院的高层安保人员举行了一次视频会议。
National Security Adviser Rice and her top counterterrorism coordinator Richard Clark were on one screen, with FBI Director Mueller and his senior aides, the CIA's counterterrorism director, and FAA officials on others. 国家安全顾问赖斯和协助她的反恐高层联络官理查德·克拉克出席了视频会议，与会的还有：联邦调查局局长缪勒和他的高级助手，中央情报局反恐负责人，联邦航空局官员等等。
Vice President Cheney was supposed to be in on the teleconference, but the Secret Service had already spirited him off to a safehouse. 副总统车尼本应出席这次视频会议，但是财政部特勤处早已将他秘密送往一个安全藏身处。
"We knew we were in trouble," says one official who was present. "We've got suicide attacks here." “我们知道自己当时身处困境，”一位在场的官员称，“我们在这里已经碰到过自杀式袭击了。”
Rice stayed silent as the meeting progressed; Clark did most of the talking.
在整个会议进程中，赖斯一直都保持沉默，多数是克拉克在发言。
Finally at around 9:45 a.m. at the meeting, aides behind Mueller started murmuring and whispering into his ear. 最后，会议在上午9点3刻左右，穆勒的助手开始在他身后对他耳语了些什么。 Mueller interrupted everyone. 穆勒打断了会议。
"The Pentagon has been hit by an airplane," the FBI chief announced. All the State Department officials turned their heads to Armitage, who was running the building in Powell's absence. 这位联邦调查局的首长宣布，“五角大楼被一架飞机击中。”所有的官员们都转头看向阿米塔吉，他是鲍威尔不在的时候国防部的负责人。
"Let's increase security outside the building," said calmly, seeming unperturbed, Armitage. 阿米塔吉看上去丝毫未受惊忧，镇定地说，“我们要加强楼外的保安措施。”
Another aide piped up. "We probably need to think about getting the hell out of here," he said. 另一名助手尖声道，“我们可能需要想办法离开这个该死的地方。”
Armitage decided to evacuate, and an alternate command center was set up at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Va. 阿米塔吉决定撤离出去，并在弗吉尼亚州阿林顿的美国外事学院另设一个指挥中心。
Senior State Department aides jumped in staff cars to race to Arlington but immediately ran into clogged traffic in Washington. 国务院的高级助手跳进专车赶往阿林顿，却立即陷入了华盛顿的交通大堵塞。
