America Must Back Its President, Says Clinton

Photos Reuters Photo Audio/Video Clinton Believes Americans Must Back Bush (ABCNEWS.com) Bush Vows to Find Terrorists (WKMG, Orlando)

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Former president Bill Clinton Wednesday said the United States must send a clear message to the world that it stood united behind his successor in the White House, George W. Bush, in the wake of the U.S. terror attacks.

``We should not be second-guessing. We should be supporting him,'' Clinton told reporters in northeastern Australia where he had been on holiday.

``We must send a clear and unambiguous message to the world that the people of America are completely 100 percent united and we're going to follow our leaders and support whatever action he takes,'' the Australian Associated Press quoted him as saying.

Clinton then sped to the city of Cairns to catch a U.S. military aircraft that flew in from the U.S. military base at Guam in the Pacific to take him back to the United States.

Clinton arrived at Cairns international airport in a motorcade that included at least 15 police cars, and quickly boarded the air force transport and took off, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported on its Web site.

Before leaving, he said his last day in Australia had been full of grief.

``We're all just finding out who we knew, on the planes, in the buildings and it's just beginning,'' he said.

``We have to really rally around the people who will be bearing an unimaginable grief.''

The former American leader gave fundraising speeches in Sydney and Melbourne Saturday and Monday before heading north to play golf at the five-star Sheraton Mirage resort at Port Douglas, in the far north of tropical Queensland state.

Security was tightened Wednesday around Clinton after the series of devastating terror attacks in New York and H Washington, in which hijacked aircraft were flown into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites).

A hotel worker said Clinton's security people had been ''flying around'' the hotel after the attacks, while local media said an aircraft exclusion zone was later placed on the resort.

Clinton's wife, New York Senator Hillary Clinton (news - web sites), told CNN she had spoken to her husband. She said he was outraged by the attacks and deeply angry and that he supported whatever action the Bush administration decided to take.

Earlier Stories
America Must Stand United Behind Bush, Says Clinton (September 12)

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