The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

You I'm Jim Lara. Terrorists use hijacked airliners to kill Americans on this September 11, 2001. Another day of infamy for the United States of America. The tragic details tonight on this special PBS NewsHour report. Major funding for the NewsHour with Jim Lara has been provided by

National Police don't know. And by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. This program was also made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you. Thank you. Good evening from Washington, and welcome to this special PBS NewsHour report on a most horrific day in American history. A well-organized group of terrorists has yet unidentified hijacked four U.S. airliners with a total of 266 people on board. Two of them were flown, suicide-bomb-fashion, into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. The third slammed into the Pentagon in Washington, and the fourth crashed into an open field, 80 miles south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Within hours, both of the World Trade Center towers collapsed, and later in the day, a smaller building in the complex fell apart after burning for hours. More than 2,000 people were injured, and Mayor Giuliani said the number killed would be horrendous. The crash at the Pentagon touched off a raging fire and collapsed one side of the building. Dozens of people were hurt, and many more were feared dead. No one claimed responsibility for the attacks, President Bush promised to hunt down and punish those responsible. He ordered the military on high alert and flew to a highly secure air force base in Nebraska. Later, he returned to Washington and planned to address the nation this evening at 9 p.m. Eastern Time. The attacks brought much of the country to a standstill. In Washington, the Capitol, the White House, the Supreme Court, and most other federal buildings were evacuated. Congressional leaders were taken to secure locations. The financial exchanges in New York were closed.

All domestic aviation nationwide was grounded, and landmarks from the Sears Tower in Chicago to the Space Needle in Seattle were shut down. Now, to the detailed story of this awful day, told chronologically, as it unfolded by Kwame Holman. 8.47 a.m. Eastern Time. A commercial jetliner smashed into the north tower of the 110-story World Trade Center Building on the tip of Manhattan. 18 minutes later, these live TV pictures showed another airliner flying directly into the other tower. We have two airplanes that struck each building of the World Trade Center. The north building was struck on approximately the 80th floor. My estimation is that the south building, which is what you're looking at now, that was struck at approximately between the 50th and 60th floors. We had a big bang, and then we saw a smoke coming out, and everybody started running

out, and we saw the plane on the other side of the building, and there was smoke everywhere and people jumping out the windows over there, jumping out the windows, I guess, because they're trying to seize themselves, I don't know. Big explosion happened, some guy came out, he's skin was all off, I helped him out, this was all over. There's people jumping out of windows, I seen at least 14 people jumping out of windows. It's horrific, I can't believe this is happening. Anything else that you saw were you there for the second hit by the plane? About 10 minutes later, the second building went off. Did you see it? Yes, I saw it. It just blew up, a big explosion, people started running, it was just chaos everywhere. A few minutes later, the president's chief of staff, Andrew Card, told Mr. Bush about the New York City events during an appearance at an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida. Mr. Bush then gave this statement.

Today we've had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country. I have spoken to the Vice President, to the Governor of New York, to the Director of the FBI, and have ordered that the full resources of the federal government go to help the victims and their families, and to conduct a full-scale investigation, to hunt down, and to find those folks who committed this act. Terrorism against our nation will not stand. Nineteen minutes after the president spoke, a third airliner smashed into the southwest side of the Pentagon building, a mile from downtown Washington, causing a huge fireball followed by heavy smoke.

People were carried out, others lay on the ground. It came in at such a deep angle, at such fast speed, it was a severity of, I was telling the gentleman, it was a real severe intention, is what it had to it. You could tell it was like a suicide bomber, but I'm not saying there was a bomb, it was a plane, and it just came streaking down and hit short. It didn't go into the top of the Pentagon, it came like in short, and then everything sprayed up like a fireball, sprayed up on the wall. Within minutes of the attack, officials in Washington began evacuating the U.S. Capitol building. Later in the morning, armed security personnel were seen on the roof of the White House, which was evacuated. Later, all other federal buildings in the Capitol were closed down. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights nationwide. Meanwhile, there were reports of a fourth jetliner crash outside Pittsburgh in Western Pennsylvania.

10-06 AM, back in New York City, the second World Trade Center tower to be struck, collapsed. 10-28 AM, much of the top floors of the other tower also fell to the street for less than 30 minutes. This was the view across the Upper New York Bay passed the Statue of Liberty at about

1030 in the morning. There was a media speculation about who was behind these attacks most centered on the Middle East again the Kwame Holman. 1056 AM U.S. Eastern time Palestinian leader Yesor Arafat spoke in Gaza. First of all I am afraid my condolences the condolences of the same people to the American president the President Bush to his government to the American people for this terrible act. We are completely shocked, completely shocked, unbelievable.

In the West Bank a spokesman for the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine or DFLP a radical PLO faction denied his group was involved in the attacks. The DFLP has no relation to this accident or this incident we have always been against terrorist actions against civilian targets and especially outside the occupied territories but in spite of that we deny our responsibility but we call upon the American administration to review their attitude and their policy towards the Palestinian question because this policy arouses the anger and the hatred of our people and of all Arab and Islamic peoples and it's liable actually to harm the interests of the United

States in our region and therefore it has to be reviewed. The spiritual leader of Hamas the pro-Palestinian Islamic resistance movement said this. First of all we don't support attacks on civilians and we don't support aggression towards innocent people however the United States should revise its current stance and has to look again at its position very carefully towards people all over the world if the U.S. doesn't want to be targeted and suffer the same way as other people are through oppression injustice and exploitation in that regard America finds itself today weakened in the face of the rest of humanity taking its own revenge against American oppression and injustice and in Pakistan an ambassador of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban also denounced the attacks. I strongly condemn these incidents I want an investigation to be

carried out and who has committed this should be brought to justice we do not allow some have been laden to operate from our land for such activities we have taken all communications from him and he is not in contact with anybody he has no facilities to carry out such activity the powerful rivals of America can carry out such activities but not Osama at Jerusalem's Damascus gate some Palestinian men, women and children took to the streets in celebration after hearing of the events in the United States in Lebanon at a Palestinian refugee camp there were more celebrations as men fired their weapons in the air President Bush vowed to find and punish the people behind the terrorist attacks here is what he said and in a separate statement the reaction of Secretary of State Colin Powell just before noon Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke from Lima Peru where he cut short his first official visit to

South America before leaving he thanked foreign ministers for adopting a message condemning terrorism a terrible terrible tragedy has fallen my nation but has been fallen all the nations of this region all the nations of the world and the former all those who believe in democracy once again we see terrorism we see terrorists people who don't believe in democracy people who believe that with the destruction of buildings with the murder of people they can somehow achieve a political purpose they can destroy buildings they can kill people and we will be saddened by this tragedy but they will never be allowed to kill the spirit of democracy they cannot destroy our society they cannot destroy our belief in the democratic way you can be sure that America will deal with this tragedy in a way that brings those responsible to justice you can be sure that it's terrible a day as this is for us we will get through it because we

are a strong nation a nation that believes in itself a short time later President Bush spoke to reporters at Barclay Air Force Base in Louisiana he'd flown there following his education event in Florida freedom itself was attacked this morning by faceless coward and freedom will be defended I want to reassure the American people that full the full resources of the federal government are working to assist local authorities to save lives and to help the victims of these attacks make no mistake the United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts I've been in regular contact with the vice president secretary of defense the national

security team and my cabinet we have taken all appropriate appropriate security precautions to protect the American people our military at home and around the world is on high alert status and we have taken the necessary security precautions to continue the functions of your government we have been in touch with the leaders of Congress and with world leaders to assure them that we will do whatever is necessary to protect America and Americans I ask the American people to join me in saying a thanks for all the folks who have been fighting hard to rescue our fellow citizens and to join me in saying a prayer for the victims and their families the resolve of our

great nation is being tested but make no mistake we will show the world that we will pass this test God bless the president then President Bush is on his way back to Washington now he'll be addressing the nation later tonight around 9 p.m. Eastern time we'll carry those remarks lied now some further reaction to today's events from the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Richard Shelby Republican of Alabama Senator Richard Durbin Democratic Illinois also a member of the Intelligence Committee and strobe Talbot who was the deputy secretary of state and the Clinton administration Senator Shelby what can you tell us about who did this well we're not exactly sure as of this hour I talked with George Tennant the director the CIA within the hour we talked about some of the details of it he gave me some opinions they were preliminary I will not divulge them now but I can tell you this these were

dastardly deeds but we're we're going to go through some more of this unless we get timely information you know this was not a intelligent success we've been going through this to fight terrorism we have to beef up intelligence we've got to have the best intelligence in the world and obviously we don't have it today I want to come back to that point in a minute senator Shelby but are you saying that you that the CIA has a very good ideas to who was behind it you're just not gonna tell us or they don't know yet well they're not sure yet but this was within the hour I'd say it won't be it might be a matter of hours I don't think it will be days before they will have a pretty good if not a definitive idea who who was really behind this senator Durbin what would you add to that only that the appropriation for the next year was already focusing on putting additional resources into human intelligence the electronic surveillance research things that are essential but certainly what

happened today a day that I'm in American life that we will never forget is going to change the contour of that debate dramatically when it comes to our intelligence effort and our defense effort it'll be defined based on September 11th 2001 for a long period of time strobe tell but much of the attention rightly or wrongly has been put on Osama bin Laden the Saudi former Saudi resident who is headquartered believed to be headquartered in Afghanistan and has been identified with other terrorist acts including during the Clinton administration does this sound like Osama bin Laden to you I think the only proper prudent thing to say Jim is sure he's a plausible suspect but there are others as well and as the two senators have said the first thing to do is to establish the facts all first thing to do is to try to save as many of our people as possible but to establish the facts and not jump to conclusions but based on who I mean this was a incredibly well coordinated well Jim what I was going to say in that regard is that the

magnitude of the disaster that is befallen our country in the world and I want to stress that it's befallen the world as well seems to derive from the extraordinary sophistication that the perpetrators of this brought off and I'm sure that Senator Shelby in his conversation with George Tennant probe this question but is it possible for private or non-governmental groups to a pulled off something like this without the support of a nation state and that is part of the investigation that the senator Shelby his colleagues and the intelligence community will be pursuing it sounds to me like you're suggesting that maybe it wouldn't be possible for some private group of people to do this well I think even the most knowledgeable officials who have had the benefit of all of the briefings available to them during the course of the day are as stunned as we are out here watching it from around the country that something with this degree of synchronization could be pulled off so one of the

questions is to try to extrapolate from what we've seen today who could possibly have the resources to do this and that raises the question not just of individual terrorist organizations and individual terrorists but also that will have to follow the trail of evidence into into capitals as well you agree with that senator Durbin I certainly do and I think that the investigation which is underway is an important one to find the source of this terrorism and I think that the basic advice being given by all the leaders in Washington is don't point of finger at any specific source until we are certain we've learned in the past that many times we were wrong in our speculation we want to be certain as certain as we can be of the source of this terrorism and make certain that we have the appropriate response senator Shelby whoever did it should this be considered by the United States and act of war I really believe it's an act of war it's a different type of war it's a war without borders it's a war without defined enemies but nevertheless you know it is a

it is a war and I believe that we've got to do better Dick Durbin just mentioned that we are doing a lot in the intelligence committee and on the appropriations committee to fund properly the intelligence agencies but we've got to have NSA that's on the cutting edge of technology we've got to have that's the national security agency at the electronic eavesdropping organization yeah and it's fallen behind and we know that and we're beefing it up but we've got to do better people have said in the last year or so all over the hill well we spend too much money on intelligence that's not right we're going to have to spend more because we live in a free open society and we're going to want to continue that we must continue that and we've got to run this information wherever it leads us and we've got to find out it's scrolled tall but said who did this and it could be nation-state it could be something big big because this was not an amateur job Jim could I just want one point on that I think it's very important for us to see this not

just as an attack on the United States it of course is an attack on the United States but I suspect that when we go through the dreadful process of toting up the carnage here and we start putting names and faces to the victims one thing we will see is that there were many many people killed today who are not Americans and this was really a blow against the entire international system all the world suffered from this and the response has to be equally international we were able in the past a lot of references to Pearl Harbor today to assemble great alliances that were able to defeat great villains and a new alliance is necessary to defeat this villain it has to be an international response just as the target was international Senator Durbin is that right should we see this as Pearl Harbor and that an international effort must be mounted if there was during World War II absolutely I think what happened today was just as heinous as Pearl Harbor the casualties will unfortunately I'm afraid be much larger and it certainly is a mobilizing moment for more people more

people were probably killed once the once the the the death toll amounts more people were killed today than were killed at Pearl Harbor so what you're saying it appears that that will be the case and I think what it says and I agree with strobe talbot we would come together with our NATO allies for example an attack against one nation is an attack against all and invite them and others who are not formal members of that alliance to join us in a common defense against terrorism to say to those rogue nations that want a harbor terrorist or to entertain their activities that that's unacceptable conduct and that they are going to pay a price for doing so that's the only way we can bring this under control strobe talbot back to you for a moment you just left the executive branch of government you were one of the so-called consumers of intelligence for the for within the government of the United States the average person average American today is winning a highly sophisticated attack like this that clearly involved many many people and many many resources how in the

world did our intelligence apparatus miss something like this well Jim just as earlier I think we all agreed we should jump to conclusions about who perpetrated this we certainly shouldn't jump to conclusions about this being an intelligence failure I my eight years in government left me with the highest respect for the intelligence professionals they're up against a very tough problem here I mean essentially we have an enemy here that's exploiting what makes our society is strong and as as effective as it is which is its freedom its openness and its mobility so anybody who wants to take advantage of that is going to have some clean shots along the way the extraordinary thing about this one is they were able to take a number simultaneously now that said I think both in our approach to intelligence and in our approach to defense what happened today even though it's not the first terrorist attack the sheer magnitude of it is going to bring about a revolution in the way we set

priorities for what we're looking for and how we deal with it Senator Shelby in your conversation with CIA director tenet did you ask him directly hey George how did you miss this one I didn't say that but I did say George to the effect that we this was certainly not intelligence success and if it's not a success it's a failure what intelligence is about is timely information if we don't have timely information in a democracy like we have open society like we have we're going to have these kind of situations disasters and if we don't continue to improve our situation with intelligence gathering and preventing preventing in terrorist attacks we're waiting for the next attack we can do better we must do better well let me ask you let me put the question to you a more in a more difficult fashion based on your you've been on the intelligence committee now for how long seven years all right nearly five

right in you the chairman for five right based on your knowledge of the intelligence community community did it surprise you that we didn't know about this it it surprised me it didn't shock me because we've had a number of intelligence failures look at co bar towers look at the trade towers one as we would call it look at today look at the USS Cole look at the strategic intelligence failures some of us called it dealing with the lack of information on the Indian nuclear testing we can go on and on we can do better we must do better senator Derbin what's wrong with our intelligence well frankly we need to not only invest the appropriate resources in it we need to hold those who are responsible for it to a standard that really reflects the danger in the world today and that of course is going to be a tough thing to do to ask for that kind of assessment but I think that after this tragedy that Congress will demand it of all of the leaders in the Pentagon as well as

those in our intelligence agencies we understand that we live in a dangerous world we're warned all the time about the possibility of terrorism who could possibly imagine the two major aircraft would crash into the world trade center towers within 18 minutes of one another coming from separate airports this was a highly sophisticated and coordinated attack on America and I think that's going to teach us that we have to be that much more vigilant in the future strobe Talbot beginning with you and then going back to the two senators after you what about the the fear and the uncertainty that this unleashes among the average American as a result of this we thought we were safe and now we're not how does the leadership of this country deal with this and what should they do about it I think not just the leadership but the American people as well need to be aware of a danger which is that the fear that you're talking about so justified after today will push us in the wrong

direction a colon pal in his opening statement that you showed at the top of the show said that this was an attack on the spirit of democracy we've got to be very careful that we preserve that spirit in the way we deal with the problem and that means civil liberties it means making sure that we remain an open society because if we don't then the terrorists who struck today will have won senator Shelby well I believe that he's right strobes right on his remarks there but we if we don't improve our intelligence gather now I know I'm I'm harping on this so important our information gather we're just going to continue to be vulnerable to the next attack because there will be other attacks and it could be sooner than later and we have so much to gain here if we are aggressive and we're prepared we can do better we can penetrate a lot of these rings we've done a lot of these sales but we can do better we have to do better for the American people senator Darwin well I might say that the

intelligence community doesn't receive a lot of plots when they avert disasters and they have helped us avert many and that should be remembered during the course of this debate but it also means that we need to change the way we do business in some ways in America members of Congress are the biggest frequent flyer club in our nation we understand what we go through in airports with metal detectors and searches and questions being asked and the procedures on airplanes it's not enough we have to do more it means more inconvenience and some sacrifice on each of our parts but that may be the small price that we're going to pay to avert this kind of disaster from reoccurring all right gentlemen all three thank you very much thank you thank you now more detailed look at the still developing personal and practical aftermath of what happened today first reaction from New York's governor George Pataki and Mayor Rudolf Giuliani of New York City they held a press conference at 230 this afternoon we have 1500 people at Liberty State Park who were evacuated described as walking wounded they were evacuated by ferry and other means

they're about 600 as of about 15 minutes ago in local hospitals that we account for 600 people to being treated in local hospitals and there are 150 in particular that were critical that were moved by EMS New York City has 170 hospitals so we have a lot of hospitals and we're utilizing all of them the people of New York are not only the the freest the most diverse people in the world we're also I believe the most capable of rising to meet the challenges of this type of attack and right now we want New Yorkers to remain calm to go about their business to appreciate the fact that everything to provide for their safety is being done earlier today Ray Suarez spoke with the reporter who was in the area we're joined now from New York by Scott Gurvey who is the New York Bureau Chief for Public Television's Nightly Business Report Scott I understand you were on your way to work when the first attack occurred on my way

to work yes actually just just putting on my jacket I live in an apartment that it's within walking distance of the World Trade Center and of our Bureau here I heard a noise it sounded like a tremendous crumbling a crunching I thought as if someone were unloading gravel in front of the building only much louder of course a round of the window and saw the smoke and flames already burning from the top floors of the World Trade Center we were looking out of my office window later on when the second explosion occurred and then still later on when the when the towers themselves collapsed you're pretty close to the World Trade Center area at the Nightly Business Report studios yes about two blocks outside it was like like nighttime there was so much debris and smoke dust papers flying through the air that it was just very very dark even now hours later as as you see the sunlight begin to pour through and you think it's beginning to clear up there must be secondary settling or additional explosions or something and it just gets dark again it is unbelievable how much debris is still in the air it must have taken some time

before you even fully understood what was happening yes and in fact of the local television stations almost all of them all except I think WCBS have their transmitters on that tower WCBS is on the Empire State Building or as a secondary transmitter there so that the people of the city are listening to radio they are getting cable feeds you know there's a lot of cable television in this in this market but but not over the air broadcast the streets are pretty well deserted you may be hearing there's an alarm that goes off here about every minute or so it is an evacuation signal that has been raised the mayor has asked everybody in the southern part of Manhattan really if they can leave to leave were there in evidence a large number of emergency personnel vehicles what did you see unbelievable I my remark from just a few moments when I was down there which was probably about oh half an hour after the first explosion and before the towers collapse was I was seeing ambulances coming from places I had never heard of as if every ambulance that was available they had probably just put out a call saying anything out there come

and they had come and the enormity of this has not sunk in I have to be honest with you and I I was here for the 1993 bomb which was a you know much smaller thing early in my career I was one of the first reporters on the scene of the crash of the DC-9 American Airlines 191 in Chicago which is my hometown so I've seen some of these things but I if you consider how many people must have been in those two buildings you're talking about tens of thousands I don't know you know how how well they had evacuated the towers already by the time the they actually did collapse the enormity of this has not sunk in yet that's going to have to come in the days ahead for people who've seen it in person or for people who've only seen it in the movies are on television these two buildings are are symbols of the New York skyline it must be shocking to see a skyline without watching you know the we're watching the shots from across the river the video that's being taken the skyline of New York is now irrevocably been changed I mean if someone had said to me

postulated this kind of thing to me yesterday I would have so yeah that's a pretty far-fetched movie script or something nobody would ever believe that this could happen Scott Gurvey earlier today from his office in Lower Manhattan for the latest on the ongoing emergency we're joined from New York by Frank Donahue of the American Red Cross he's a member of the organization's National Disaster Response Team and Thorvald Mannes a reporter for USA Today who's been on the scene all day and here in Washington our health correspondent Susan Denser well Susan it's been many hours since the first attack is it at least now possible to start getting a feel for the human toll in injuries in deaths it's possible right but it really is only a beginning Mayor Giuliani said earlier today that 2100 people had been injured it's not clear whether that is still a very preliminary number as we suspect it is it's also not clear how many are dead in New York all of the New York area hospitals were almost instantly put on alert we are told that there were people taken as far away as

Bridgeport Hospital in Connecticut by helicopter to be treated today there were people on alert at Stanford Hospital 50 miles north of the city waiting for wounded to arrive on Metro North commuter trains later this afternoon that apparently had not happened as of showtime tonight but they were still on alert and then of course much closer to the World Financial Center to the World Trade Center St. Vincent's Hospital for example in Greenwich Village about 10 minutes north of the of the World Trade Center was the site where many many of the injured were taken more than 200 as of late this afternoon several had died as they were arriving at the hospital and after the hospital down here in Washington as a consequence of the of the attack at the Pentagon also roughly 40 people at least were injured and taken to area hospitals I spent much of the day over at Virginia Hospital Center Arlington which is the official hospital of the Pentagon that's where people who fall very seriously ill at the Pentagon are taken to be treated roughly 31 people were

taken over there some of them quite seriously injured as a consequence of smoke inhalation somewhere intubated somewhere in intensive care others were treated and released we were not able to speak to them they were asked if they were willing to speak to the press they were obviously too shell-shocked to do so so we don't know much of what happened any number yet of dead coming from the Pentagon we do not know we do not know we suspect that there had to have been a number of fatalities you saw the pictures earlier what had happened at the Pentagon we did speak with one Pentagon employee who did not want to be identified she happened to be in the news bureau at the Pentagon they were watching the World Trade Center attack on television as suddenly the attack occurred at the Pentagon she was the Pentagon is in eight is in five concentric rings a through e she was in the b ring one of the more innermost rings they were immediately many people were immediately evacuated into the courtyard in the interior she was then helping she described people coming out of the building she said injuries I don't even want to describe some very

horrific burns some very horrific injuries she was one of a number of Pentagon employees who attempted to accompany people who were injured to area hospitals she said she was in a car actually people were being taken by in regular passenger cars they were not even sufficient to emergency vehicles at that point to take people she was in a car with a very seriously injured person and a doctor trying to navigate through horrendous traffic back to about 20 minutes away to Virginia hospital beating on car windows to try to get people to move aside and and doctors saying floor this person is very seriously injured so there were some serious injuries again to put in context though as yet we have reports of only about 40 of seriously injured people going to area hospitals in Washington Thorvald Monis when I heard the mayor of New York talk about injured being put on ferry boats and taken to New Jersey and to Staten Island I was figuring it must have been pretty hard to move around the island of Manhattan in the middle

of the day today it was absolutely impossible everything was all transportation systems were basically stopped I arrived on the sea and shortly after the second tower had collapsed and thanks to a helpful police officer I was brought into a block from the World Trade Center and the only way to describe what I saw was the absolute war zone there were body bags straight all over the place burning buildings blown out buildings cars that were burning some of them upside down a lot of wounded being escorted onto stretchers a lot of heroism the ambulances were streaming in and they would just pick up whoever they saw immediately and try to help them but it was absolute carnage just total devastation now with the television towers on top the World Trade Center buildings are about a quarter of a mile tall and when two of them come down

onto the streets I mean the streets must be covered with the leaving of this building what's it like there right at ground zero that's good question I mean it a number of survivors describe the scene is when the trade centers came down it was it was just basically a avalanche of darkness and they couldn't run past it it just consumed everybody and the number horrifying stories but one woman told me how she saw a woman pushing her baby in a stroller when the second tower came down and all of a sudden she just disappeared in the cloud of smoke it was really really horrendous and I was down by the World Trade Center for I guess the better part of four hours and watching the the whole complex was on fire there was nothing left except maybe four or five stories of just burning red hot flame and firefighters who

were incredibly brave just sort of watching you know a real icon financial icon just being destroyed but if the debris is continuing to burn does that mean it's impossible for rescue workers to get anywhere near the scene to see if there's anybody in the rubble well they they are trying but they also have to worry about there's a lot of concern that the surrounding buildings have been so damaged that they're unstable as well so whatever they do they've got to do it very carefully but as one firefighter said to me there's nobody left anybody that was in the world World Trade Center complex is dead down so it's unbelievable I'll never forget there's actually a piece of the World Trade Center that fell it's probably about 20 to 30 stories long just lying on one of the side streets Frank Donahue with a disaster of this magnitude what does the

Red Cross do first there's so many needs that that have to be met absolutely I think most important is that we coordinate with the emergency response folks here in New York and have a long history working in greater New York we were there with the first bombing of the World Trade Center and work closely with emergency management with the mayor and other emergency response folks we have disaster vehicles out throughout the neighborhood I've been there since about noon today we have disaster response vehicles in the area providing water providing support to the emergency firefighters and the ambulance drivers etc we have facilities at all the major transportation centers the poor authority grand central station and throughout New York so the people have a place to go providing primarily mental health we have mental health volunteers that are responding providing people whatever we can I had a gentleman come up to me that needed as heart medicine we connected him with the right disaster volunteers it could provide him medicine he had left in his

apartment standing on the street today handing out water just talking to folks who I'd left their pets were wanted to make sure someone that they knew was okay and one of those buildings and it's that kind of contacting people emergency needs that Red Cross workers are providing tonight as well as obviously shelter for thousands and thousands of New Yorkers when the World Trade Center was first built they weren't there but today there are two big neighborhoods right there have they've been evacuated and where are those people going battery park that whole neighborhood that apartments in that region I've just came before tonight the show styerson high school which is right next to those new apartment buildings in battery park at styerson high school there happens to be an incredible emergency hospital set up Red Cross is there with mental health workers but most of that neighborhood has been completely evacuated and those folks tonight will be finding shelter Red Cross will be setting up shelter it's going to be announced later this evening where all the shelters are in Manhattan that folks can go to the Red Cross will be providing you have all the help and the blood that you need well

clearly people have been so responsive coming tonight I was saying that every time I stopped at a light between coming from the financial district up to Midtown tonight for this show people would stop me at every corner and ask could they volunteer could they give blood what could they do to help the people of New York have been incredibly responsive the blood center of New York people have been standing in lines I just left there standing in lines waiting to get blood at hospitals volunteers we need mental health workers certified mental health workers that can provide assistance to these folks so we always need trained volunteers to help us and we always need blood we have 50,000 units of blood on standby but I think a disaster like this is a great reminder to Americans that we should never let our blood supply go down and we everyone should be calling 1-800 give life and this is a great opportunity to be reminded of that Frank Donahue for Vamanas Susan Densa thank you all thank you the wire services are moving stories now of explosions north of Kabul Afghanistan near

the airport there in the capital city there no there there say there have been no sounds of airplanes or anti aircraft fire there's no reason to suggest or to believe at this point that they may be related to any attack by the United States but they could be related to these terrorist attacks in some indirect way we do not know yet hopefully there will be more information as the evening goes on finally in this hour of our special report and look at how in this age of tight security at U.S. airports four large airliners could have been hijacked and once again to Kwame as the day progressed details emerged about the planes involved in the attacks the two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center towers were American Airlines flight 11 a Boeing 767 it carried 81 passengers nine flight attendants and two pilots and United Airlines flight 175 also a Boeing 767 with 56 passengers nine crew members in the Pentagon crash American Airlines flight 77 a Boeing 757 with 58

passengers six crew and the plane that went down in Western Pennsylvania was united flight 93 a Boeing 757 with 38 passengers seven crew and to go an eye full and joining me to discuss airline and other security issues are James Calström former assistant director of the FBI and head of the Bureau's New York division he led the FBI investigation into TWA flight 800 explosion and Darrell Jenkins head of the aviation institute at George Washington University mr. Calström I guess the question everybody is asking themselves today is how could this happen and how did it it's a sad day Gwen and you know my heart goes out to all the victims of this tremendous series of tragedies and their families all the people that don't know the outcome of their loved ones and the World Trade Center at the Pentagon or on those airplanes so it's how could it happen

I think that's the question do we think it was in your experience which would this be a breach of security a breach of what well that's what the investigators are going to be looking for obviously the FBI the intelligence community of looking at their database their intelligence base they have upon the board a short list of people that would have the ability to do such a horrendous thing they're putting together what they know about that now they're bringing to the national command authority intelligence that we'll tell the national command authority you know who did this terrific act should at this stage should that investigation be focusing on the air or on the ground it's going to focus everywhere there's evidence it's going to focus around the world it's going to be conducted by our allies in conjunction with us it's going to be a unified effort Darrell Jenkins what's your take on this how could this have happened well what's interesting on this is we have no

details right now that would indicate that the horrible acts today were a result of any breach an airport security at all we have no evidence right now that any of the terrorists who did this came on board with guns or anything most likely they had very small knives under two inches which you are allowed to take on board an airplane the the terrorists in the 21st century is different than any terrorist we have ever worked with before they're more adaptive they're smarter they're brighter when you think about all the logistics that went into planning this carrying it off almost flawlessly and at the same time keeping any information away from the authorities these are probably some of the brighter people that we've ever had the deal with simply having a screening device at an airport that picks up an explosive or a gun it's really a little use against terrorists like this you say terrorists like this you mean terrorists who are willing to die in the actual act that's correct what it

shows how important it is in airport security that we have a very strong intelligence gathering capability in the United States which obviously in the last 10 or 15 years since the you know the fall of the Berlin Wall we haven't had to have good airport security a necessary condition is that we have good national intelligence about things like this and the reason this has never happened before is in the past we've always been able to gather intelligence find these things before they happen and and stop them before they happen today our luck ran out mr. calcium of darrell Jenkins is right and in truth there's no way there's not no breach that happened there is nothing that suggests there's nothing that could have been done to protect against it well we don't know the facts and i think i largely agree with what he said about that is a it's a difficult difficult situation in a free society people moving it it will all of us have been at airports and we know the crowds we know the the necessity to get airlines out we're all been in those lines we've all

complained to people you know what's holding up this what's holding up that it's a difficult situation when you have people that are that crazy to do something that they did today i think it's going to galvanize this country i think we all need to get behind the the president and the leadership in washington i think they made a big mistake today it's sad it's horrendous but the united states will come back from this we'll find out who did it will take the necessary action and will be a stronger country for it how can the country be any more galvanized in many ways than it was there are already extraordinary security precautions taken here in washington around federal buildings around landmarks after the Oklahoma city bombing what more was there to be done without shutting people's lives down entirely well that's the thing we don't want to do we don't want to change our way of life we don't want to change our ability to go places and do things you know and this will be the debate for the next months in the next years and it's why we need a strong and competent and highly motivated intelligence agencies

why we need a strong and competent and highly voted motivated FBI we have those people i was part of those organizations you know and and nothing like this in their minds whatever happened they don't ever want this to happen but the the realism is that we live in a very tough situation today we've seen that hatred played out in the world trade center back in ninety three and all the conspiracies and all the terrorist acts that have led up to today that there are people that have that type of hatred and a willing to sacrifice their lives and that's a tough thing to combat uh... the free nations of the world free people of the world democracy of the world all peace loving people of the world need to unite against terrorism in those that harbor terrorism earlier in the program tonight senator shellbee said he had spoken earlier with the c.i.a director and even though he wouldn't tell us what he said he did say that he felt it was a failure of the intelligence community on this point well i'd be very cautious about talking about failures i mean uh... obviously nobody in that business no citizen nobody in the world

that would want this to happen other than those people that are supposedly dancing in the streets somewhere uh... but failure is a strong word to put put out at this point yes it happened uh... let's not throw the baby out with the bath water let's not talk start talking about failure and and the lack of uh... people professionalism and and their ability to do things it happened let's move ahead uh... let's do whatever we can to make the situation better let's have realistic tools for law enforcement and for the intelligence community uh... in this new age that we live in Darrell Jenkins what is it about these two particular kinds of planes seven fifty sevens and seven sixty sevens what what would have lent them to such a horrendous attack or there are very large planes they carry an awful lot of fuel uh... they're both common in that if you can fly seven five seven you can also fly seven six seven so they have the same uh... cockpit so uh... basically what they did is they found the biggest bomb that

uh... probably the people that they had available to them to fly and they uh... pick those off and flume in the buildings and they performed just exactly like they predicted another thing that was said earlier in the program tonight strobe talbot the former deputy secretary of state said that basically uh... uh... such a coordinated attack would have had to have been carried out perhaps by a nation state is that does that kind of level coordination ring true to you especially with these types of aircraft well uh... these are trained pilots if you look at the videos of the uh... plane going in it was a a flawless approach uh... the wings were not jiggling up and down the plane was not porpacing uh... the people who were flying that knew what they were doing james calcium do we routinely get warnings about these kinds of terrorist attacks is it uh... that we get a lot of warnings and perhaps we only pay attention to a few you never know what's going to be real how does that work uh... we get a lot of warnings uh... obviously we pay attention to all of them we have to assess which ones are more important others and that's a tough thing to do

uh... we stopped uh... the blind shake in his co-conspirators to blow up the Holland tunnel the Lincoln tunnel many years ago we stopped Ramsey Joseph uh... through the good work of the philippines uh... police in the conspiracy to blow up uh... nine or ten major uh... american flag carrying jumbo jets uh... not that long ago so uh... yes we do an awful lot of stopping terrorism you were very involved in the tw eight hundred investigation how does this compare in your mind is it ring familiar to you uh... the grief is uh... certainly rings to me the sadness of the event the impact on our society uh... what the families are going through with this minute uh... rings to me and i can understand that all of us fly on airplanes we all picture ourselves on one of these airplanes we all picture the terror that must have went through the folks on these airplanes the small children the teenagers the

people like you and i uh... before that plane crashed into the trade center it's just one of the worst things that i can ever remember daryl Jenkins that we are as vulnerable as you say we are what should we be doing if anything to guard against the sort of action the future i think the thing that we need to do to really make airports as tight as they possibly can be certainly there's some changes in terms of screening and things like that which we need to do there are holes there no doubt but the necessary element for airport security and to ensure the safety of off-line public is to have very good national security and intelligence gathering capabilities uh... if shall be once the point fingers at anyone dirt the senators in congressman to cut back budgets in the last ten years in these things and that's why we don't have intelligence gathering capabilities that we used to have i assume in the next year that uh... probably is in the nineteen nineties the dot coms or the place to go get jobs intelligence gathering

in the next ten years the graphics which we saw today were so horrific that they will last with us for decades to come i doubt the united states will ever make the mistake of cutting back its intelligence gathering capabilities as much as we have during the last decade one question about the the flight that the direction of these planes food when they were hijacked they were off course for a very long time is that something that should have been picked up on some well should have noticed uh... obviously when a plane takes off in its nose it has what's called a transponder and it's uh... signaling to the air traffic control the flight number of that plane uh... plus uh... uh... other information as well i assume what happened is the terrorist got on to in the transponder of so you have a beep out there but you don't know which beat that is what type of a plane obviously the airlines which have system operations controls which is the nervous center of the airline new right away and was in coordination with the f.a. what was going on and james colstrom what should we be doing if anything to prepare against the guard against this the future i guess i'll just add to your previous question

what do you do about it in the fifteen minutes that before this event happens where you don't know where that plane is going you shoot it down uh... within us in civilians on board what do you do now these are not easy decisions uh... these are very sobering events i mean every day of my life in those of us that have had the uh... the proud service uh... in law enforcement intelligence you know those are the issues we went to bed with the night in those of the issues we walk up within the morning this is serious stuff james colstrom terror jankens thank you very much for joining us just moments ago defense secretary donald rumsfeld in general henry shelton chairman of the joint chiefs of staff spoke to reporters in a makeshift newsroom at the pentagon it's an indication that the united states government is functioning in the face of this terrible act against our country i should add that the briefing here is taking place in the pentagon

the pentagons functioning it'll be in business tomorrow i know the interest in casually figures and all i can say is it's not possible to have solid casually figures uh... at this time and uh... the various components are doing roster checks and we'll have uh... information at some point in the future and as quickly as it's possible to have it it will certainly be made available to each of you uh... i'll be happy to take a few questions after uh... asking uh... first general shelton uh... if he would like to say anything and then we will allow the others to make a remark or two thank you mr. secretary ladies and gentlemen as the secretary just said today we have watched the tragedy of an outrageous act of barbaric terrorism carried out by fanatics against both civilians and military people

accident killed and named many innocent and decent citizens of our country i extend my condolences to the entire department of defense families military and civilian and to the families of all those throughout our nation who lost loved ones i think this is indeed a reminder of the tragic the tragedy and the tragic dangers that we face day in and day out both here at home as well as abroad i would tell you up front i have no intentions of discussing today what comes next but make no mistake about it your own forces already and we will continue our special coverage of this horrific day in a moment on most public television stations i'm jim lara terrorists use hijacked airliners to kill americans on this september 11th 2001

another day of infamy for the united states of america the tragic details tonight on this special pbs news hour report and major funding for the news hour with jim lara has