The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 1

-T THRASHERS 5 PANTHERS 2 SPORTS, IB rose bowl bound OUR ANNUAL urn mnv A toast to one cool cat IN lllldllll CUgO Vd. ICUI1 U-t f) LIGHTS TENNESSEE 34 FLORIDA STATE 28 17 A TOUR WEATHER: Sunny. High 80, low 67. FORECAST ON BACK PAGE OF SPORTS kwitivn, vt "tar- wkviiuin ikvu COLLEGE FOOTBALL SECTION IN GOOD LIFE 4- aim em Sunday, December 2, 2001 Final Edition PalmBeachPost.com $1.25 1 DDWI iff mi tits iner 1 bom 150 dead. urx israe DIMS 9 Suicide pair brackets crowded mall West Bank in an Israeli missile attack last week.

In a statement, the Palestinian Authority condemned the terror attacks, expressing its "deep anger and pain" and accusing those behind it of trying to derail a U.S. peace initiative. The Palestinian Authority has said that in recent days it has arrested several militants. Israel has charged that Yasser Arafat's government bears responsibility for the attacks against it by doing lit- cisive action against militant groups waging a terror campaign against Israel and caused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to cut short a U.S. visit, according to an aide.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said the attack was "one of the worst we have ever seen." There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad groups have threatened to carry out attacks in Israel to avenge the killing of Hamas' military leader in the tie to rein in the radicals. Israeli Cabinet minister Dan Meridor said Israel was "tired of words. (Arafat) needs to take actioa immediately now because this cannot continue." U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni said in a statement that he had spoken to Arafat and "made absolutely, clear that those responsible for planning and carrying out these attacks must be found and brought to justice. This is an urgent task and there can be no delay nor ex- Please see BOMBERS, 14A By Jason Keyser lite Associated Press "JERUSALEM Two suicide bombers detonated nail-studded explosives at each end of a pedestrian mall crowded with young weekend revelers late Saturday, killing at least 10 others and injuring more than 150 people.

Minutes after the back-to-back bombings, another bomb went off in a car parked nearby, sending panicked, screaming pedestrians running in all directions. Eyewitness Eli Shetreet said he saw bodies being hurled in the air. "A lot of people were crying, falling, and there was the smell of burning hair," said Shetreet, 19, The attacks coming after a week in which seven Israelis were killed in other incidents increased pressure on the Palestinian Authority to take de The miracle that saved Afghan tribes. 'I do not sit and wonder why I got the disease. I marv el that I am the one who survived Ernie Blanco, anthrax survivor i.

rme Bianco i U.S jam By Christine Evans Palm Beach Post Staff Writer IAMI Ernie Blanco had anthrax. He lived. Taliban Airstrike reportedly kills governor of Kandahar I tVJ By John Pomfret 'Ihe Washington Post QUETTA, Pakistan Afghan tribal groups, aided by heavy U.S. airstrikes, have moved closer to the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, claiming Saturday night that their fighters had entered the southern city's airport. Airstrikes on Kandahar have intensified during the past few days as U.S.

warplanes and anti-Taliban tribal militias have begun to squeeze the Taliban's power base the last portion of Afghanistan still controlled by the radical Islamic movement. Thousands of Kandahar residents have fled the city, making their way to the Pakistani border, where they described a city under, a vast cloud of dust kicked up by the bombing. U.S. forces also have established a presence on the ground in southern Afghanistan, where more than 1,000 U.S. Marines have occupied an airfield 55 miles southwest of Kandahar.

Saturday a Pakistani aviation source said British special forces are working with the Marines. Commandos with Britain's elite Special Air Service conducted raids inside Afghanistan last week, and four British soldiers were wounded, the source said. A British newspaper, the Telegraph, reported that the four were wounded in raids on Taliban-held Please see AFGHANISTAN, 12A A lot of people have heard about his 23 days in the hospital, where he popped in and out of inten-. sive care, FBI agents lingering at his door, a fake name assigned to his bed number to fool the press. Yes, Blanco had an-.

thrax, and the world wanted to know all about it. But he also had this: a bang-up infectious disease specialist, a stepdaughter who managed his case like a CEO, and a boss who, at the most dire moment, had a hunch and followed it. One other thing: He had Dr. Aileen Marty. A top military expert on the very disease that was killing him.

You might not have heard of Dr. Marty. Ernie Blanco hadn't either. But at the very moment he lay feverish and con- fused in a Miami hospital bed, an odd thing happened. A 62-year-old assistant high school principal was traveling up Dixie Highway, on her way to work.

Somebody rear-ended her Honda. The repairs would be expensive, and the car was a '95, so she decided to make a trade. Instead of shopping near Kendall, where she lives, she went to Brickell Motors, on Calle Ocho, not too far from work. There, she found a new Please see BLANCO, 6A I i- ii 1 -my urn- i1 -11 Jm- 'in DAMON HIGGINSStaff Photographer Surrounded by family, Ernie Blanco holds his grand- were (clockwise from upper left) stepdaughter Maria daughter, Natalie Orth. Playing key roles in his recovery Orth; her husband, Willie Orth; and Ernie's wife, Elda.

S. Floridians get snagged in expanding INS dragnet Arabs and Muslims are being held for violations that were ignored before, attorneys say. Man used tools 70,000 years ago Tools found in S. Africa show scientists what may be the earliest evidence of modern man. STORY, 23A LESSONS FROM PEARL HARBOR 60 Years and Sept.

11 Later Day after day, Art Williams considers why he was spared: Survivors must relive horror so the rest of us may know 2D EDITORIALS 2E 4-5J HOROSCOPE 2D ANN ABBY BOOKS 2A 1SB BUSINESS IF LOTTERY BRIDGE COMICS SCORES CLASSIFIED 1G THEATERS 6J DEATHS 6C TV SPORTS 2B EMPLOYMENT CLASSIFIED 3G 11G, COMICS CROSSWORDS By Bill Douthat Palm Beach Post Staff Writer In normal times, Fahad Rashid's technical violations of his student visa would have gone unnoticed by immigration authorities. But the full force of the law is being used against the former Florida Atlantic University student as a cloud of national suspicion follows Middle Easterners who are in the United States on temporary visas. Rashid, 22, who came from Qatar two years ago, has spent six weeks behind bars at the Krome detention center near Miami. He has no idea when he will be released, his family and friends say, Visitors estimate the immigration lockup holds about 50 Muslims, based on the daily gatherings for outdoor prayer. Krome used to freely disclose the nationalities of Please see DETAINEES, 14A I FOR HOME DELIVERY SERVICE 8204663 1-806-654-1231 decks down, the sickening shudder deep within the ship.

The scramble topside to his battle station, an antiaircraft gun mount Another bomb, aft. Fires sweeping the deck. The explosion and virtual disintegration of the massive battleship tied up alongside his ship. Shards of metal and bodies and letters home dropping from the fiery cloud onto the deck of his ship. His captain and dozens of other men blown overboard by the blast.

The incongruity of the sea on fire, men burning to death in the flaming water. More By Paul Reid Palm Beach Post Staff Writer Art Williams has been back to Pearl Harbor over the decades. But he doesn't have to revisit the bay to conjure the memories. Pearl Harbor revisits Art Williams. Every day, in some way.

Every day. For almost 60 years. Some of the memories Art Williams will take to his grave: the bomb that crashed through the ceiling of the mess hall and exited downward through the deck as he and his shipmates ate a good Navy breakfast of eggs and steaming coffee. A second later: the explosion, four MARK EDELSONStaff Photographer ABOARD THE 'MIGHTY Some of Art Williams' shipmates were blown off the USS Vestal when the USS Arizona exploded just yards away, killing nearly half of all the people who died on Dec. 7, 1941.

Williams survived to fight back and to carry the memories denied the young men who died. Copyright 2001 Palm Beach Post Vol. 67 No. 50 15 sections 9 i II 7 Piease see PEARL HARBOR, 18A.