This is an ABC News special report.
Hello again everybody and for those of you joining us now who I cannot imagine under
any circumstances expected to see a normal World News Tonight broadcast at this time.
We've been on the air for the last 10 hours as the country has endured or is trying to
get through as one official here in New York said this horrendous attack on the United
States today in both New York City and outside Washington at the Pentagon and an attack that
may or may not have gone wrong on Camp David in Maryland the President's country retreat
but certainly resulted in the deaths of some people on yet another airliner today.
So this is going to be a very different broadcast and try to deal in the next half hour as we
have deal with today in a comprehensive way exactly what the United States has been through
today began a little more than 10 hours a little less than 10 hours ago and first one
aircraft will take you through the video scenes of the day when first one aircraft and then
another hit and ultimately destroyed the twin trade towers 110 stories high on the west
side of Manhattan.
We didn't see the first one happen even though television was on and that is the astonishing
second one as seen by a freelance cameraman who joined us a short while ago and he then
stayed on to record this extraordinary which we've seen from many angles collapsed the
first one of the trade towers and then of the other and the attack brought down these
two towers upon themselves ultimately and has left this extraordinary pile of rubble
video brought to us from yet another person meanwhile we have this crash at the Pentagon
200 feet wide concern at the White House obviously the President was in Florida early today but
then particularly when word that a fourth plane had been hijacked which ultimately crashed
in the Pennsylvania countryside outside Johnstown Pennsylvania not far from Pittsburgh.
The President of the United States has spent part of this day in an underground bunker in
Nebraska.
He's on his way back to Washington now he's going to speak to the nation tonight.
The Navy's Atlantic fleet was at one point diverted to come and bring aircraft carriers
to New York Harbor so that they could assist.
There's help and assistance descending on New York and Washington from a variety of
places and it's probably not at all unfair to say that the entire country is in some
measure in shock as to what has happened to the United States in a psychological symbolic
and very physical way on this particular day.
In this half hour we're going to try to put together just some of the more cogent reporting
of our reporters who've been watching this throughout the day and I want to go first
to ABC's Diane Sawyer who's been in Midtown Manhattan all day gathering what she can.
Diane.
All right Peter forgive me if I don't respond to you carefully because it's still very noisy
down here and I'm going to tell you what happened to me.
We're now about four blocks from the scene and you can see even at this hour it's like
being on the edge of the crater of a volcano.
The smoke is still pouring out the air is still acrid with fumes everywhere around me
I see haggard firefighters exhausted policemen and then in this eerie disconnect in New York
occasionally you see people just succumbing to the everyday and walking by but still when
you look at this it is clear it is not over because as we know within the last hour another
building came down number 47 a 47 story building and also they're saying they're evacuating
now the Millennium Hotel so this may not be over in a number of ways.
As I said when you walk around the streets of New York and it's too easy probably to
say that it's like one of those techno future thrillers where everything seems wrong and
yet people are carrying packages they've been shopping while firefighters are still streaking
their way down here.
I also want to bring in if I can Don Daylor Peter because Don has been down here all day
he was with us this morning as well and about an hour ago you made your way up to the scene
and you've had those pictures from from the private photographer Peter but I want Don
to tell us what he saw when he went to the scene himself.
Right well about an hour ago we made our way down Broadway past where there were a large
number of firemen gathered very frustrated very exhausted because they were not being
allowed to put out these fires in the number of the buildings around the side of the World
Trade Center itself there was too much danger for them to be going there they wanted to
go and work we made our way past the firemen and got about half a block away from where
this building on this side would have been standing and there was billowing smoke it
was hard to see everything but I clearly saw something worse than I what Dante would have
imagined there was there was rubble there was twisted metal and I clearly saw bodies
and what appeared to be body parts strewn on the street on the road on the rubble itself.
And people still working on the evacuation working on evacuations.
Yes but but they were forcing at the point I was there the police were forcing everyone
from emergency workers to the firemen away because there was such a fear as you saw later
of a building collapse.
Well I want to give you a sense again Peter of what it is like here when one of the buildings
collapse.
We have here Jeff Ross and who's from W.A.B.C. our affiliate which has done great work today
on this story and Jeff we have footage and I hope we can cue it up because we see this
wall this thunderous wall of smoke streaking down the street and you were just ahead of
it and for all of you who were trying to escape it what was that like?
Well what happened was we saw this big cloud coming at us it was dust and it was smoke
and we knew the people inside of it couldn't see anything because we saw them running at
us so our job was to just get out of the way what happened was we couldn't get out of the
way fast enough and it caught up with us we have people crying they were creating a human
chain literally walking around like this because they couldn't see anything.
At one point we were stuck we were at a store with a glass front and we couldn't get in
there was no way to go we couldn't breathe we didn't have masks so an officer a police
officer from New York came in with an axe and literally just bashed in the window and
led us into that store if it wasn't for that I'm not sure what we would have done and that's
been a huge problem all day couldn't just see anything and that was the problem.
What was the heat like and how suffocating was it for those trying to escape?
It was hot but luckily we were a couple of blocks away and the bigger problem was all
the dust and it got into your lungs and you just kept coughing and you couldn't speak
and you couldn't see that I mean you kept people walking at the poles people were crying
and screaming it was a nightmare it was a nightmare.
Well again these are just a couple of people who have been on the scene all day Peter and
as we said we've watched this footage we have seen people both heroic terrified and mystified
and the scene out here tonight is really just one of complete almost wounded numbness and
there's no other phrase I can summon at this moment to convey it to you.
Thank you very much Diane.
Diane Sawyer who's been in Midtown Manhattan all day trying to get a grasp of the city
and very effectively what's going on around her.
John Daler from ABC News Good Morning America has been down with a couple of freelance photographers.
These freelance photographers who brought us the most intimate the closest up video
of what actually happened at the Twin Trade Towers today.
It's a reminder of the world we live in there's a camera pointed by somebody almost everywhere.
Catch up very quickly on a story to say again what we said before World News Tonight came
on which the US officials speaking for some reasons on the conditions of anonymity say
the United States is not involved in any of the violence going on in Kabul the Afghanistan
capital tonight.
This appears to be an intra Afghan affair that the supporters of a leading anti Taliban
leader who was killed the other day have been rocketing the city tonight so it has nothing
as best we can tell to do with this.
And then of course there was the Pentagon and it just think back 10 hours it's being
had a pile up on us one thing after the other one was horrible the next was third horrible
by the time the Pentagon attack shortly after the attack on the Twin Trade Towers it was
amazing and here's ABC's John McCarthy who's been there all day.
John.
Peter it was at nine thirty eight this morning I was innocently sitting in my office at the
Pentagon when there was a jolting blast on the other side of the building.
You can see it over my shoulder.
A large aircraft came down three ninety five which is a major highway it clipped off the
tops of many of the light poles on the way in and it slammed into the building.
You can see on the one side of the huge gash that windows 25 windows down along the Pentagon
were destroyed.
The building the section of the building that was hit by the fuselage of the aircraft collapsed
several minutes after the aircraft hit it.
I was able to get an exclusive walk up to the damage site with some officials who got
me through police lines.
The area is surrounded with police evidence markings all over there was a huge area for
medical triage that is quiet now and now they are continuing to fight fires inside the building
Peter so they can go ahead and try and get anyone who may be still trapped in the rubble.
It took them five hours before they were able to get into the building initially and begin
to look for people who might be trapped and injured.
John we heard a while ago and there's some chaos here too as you can understand about
the but a preliminary casualty figure at the Pentagon.
Do you feel you have a good handle on that?
I do not have a good handle on it Peter there have been wild rumors from several hundred
to over a thousand it's impossible to know at this point and I will not speculate.
And you may have said this most recently and we would never want you to speculate John.
We believe I believe you said now what you said earlier before that the senior military
officials of the Pentagon none of them have been hurt to the best of your knowledge.
Don Rumsfeld the Secretary of Defense is in just a few minutes going to hold a briefing
inside the Pentagon for a very few number of reporters that are over there and all of
the military chiefs have been accounted for and they have been spending the day in the
National Military Command Center.
Presumably they have initially been looking at rescue options but we also believe they
are looking at retaliation options but before that can happen of course the United States
has to determine who they believe is responsible for this attack.
I'll tell you Peter there is a pervasive sense of anger among the military officers I've
talked to today they have mentioned again and again Pearl Harbor saying that it is going
to be dwarfed the number of people killed in Pearl Harbor so many years ago just about
twenty six hundred they say the casualties from this one are going to be so much worse
they are ready to go to war there is a sense of war here at the Pentagon.
And thank you very much John McQuithy at the Pentagon we'll be coming back to you many
times in the course of the evening the question is go to war with whom because from the FBI
from the CIA from the Pentagon today no warning of this whatsoever no knowledge of who is
involved no clues yet as to who is involved that we have heard about in any respect today.
It has been interesting today to try to focus on the President too because the country does
so clearly focus I can't read that I'm sorry does focus on the President in a moment like
this for leadership and I believe that Ann Compton who has been with the President all
day in a very tight group of people with the President is on Air Force One and can talk
to us at the moment Annie can you hear me?
Yes Peter I can we're just getting off of Air Force One he has arrived back in Washington
with a dramatic flight with F-16s and F-15s on either wing as he came into Andrews Air
Force Base and the President feels it's important to address the nation tonight later this evening
he will give what we are told is a message of reassurance to Americans that the United
States has been tested before and has always passed those tests and when we saw him briefly
toward the back of the plane he was resolute.
Annie thank you very much the President will take a helicopter I gather from Andrews Air
Force Base downtown or do we know that?
Well we do know that but it's one of the things we aren't going to talk about until he's
safely at home.
We just did inadvertently and as we had not been told not to talk about it but there was
some question the President does traditionally come from Andrews Air Force Base down and
one assumes given the extraordinary security that's surrounded the President today and
how the Secret Service has moved him first from Florida and then out to Nebraska and
now to Louisiana first of all then to Nebraska and back to Washington President of the country.
Here's the Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld who's been in the Pentagon all day and we're
having difficulty hearing him and one should not be surprised if there isn't some kind
of if there's some kind of hookup that didn't work today very very rarely today have we
had a problem so we'll have our reporter on the scene listen to this and the moment that
we can hear him we will go back to him but in the meantime Claire Shipman is just outside
the White House across Lafayette Square.
Claire I want to check in quickly with you if I may to know that if we know anything
about the President's plans for this evening that we in some respects haven't had on the
air today or go beyond what Anne's reporting is.
Well what we do know is that we're told by sources who've been with the President today
that he is extremely upset of course about what has happened but agitated and angry somebody
told us that the language he will use tonight will be retaliatory he will express his impatience
in other words he will say there won't be a long time spent thinking about how to act
once the U.S. is confident.
I apologize I wouldn't interrupt you if you couldn't go back to Mr. Rumsfeld.
Secretary of Defense.
Well the best laid plans for this evening.
Oh here we are.
Kind enough to come down and has been with us.
We've very recently had a discussion with the President of the United States Chairman
Hugh Shelton has just landed from Europe, Secretary of the Army Tom White who has a
responsibility for incidents like this as executive agent for the Department of Defense
is also joining me.
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 Pentagon's functioning it'll be in business tomorrow.
I know the interest in casualty figures and all I can say is it's not possible to have
solid casualty figures at this time and the various components are doing roster checks
and we'll have 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.
I'll be happy to take a few questions after asking First General Shelton if he would like
to say anything and then we will allow the others to make a remark or two.
General Shelton, outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
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.
Acts that have killed and maimed 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 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 upfront I have no intentions of discussing today what comes next but make
no mistake about it, your armed forces are ready.
Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Carl Levin.
Our intense focus on recovery and helping the injured and the families of those who
were killed is matched only by our determination to prevent more attacks and matched only by
our unity to track down, root out and relentlessly pursue terrorists, states that support them
and harbor them.
They are the common enemy of the civilized world.
Our institutions are strong and our unity is palpable.
Senator John Warner.
Thank you.
As a past chairman, preceding Carl Levin, I can assure you that the Congress stands
behind our President and the President speaks with one voice for this entire nation.
This is indeed the most tragic hour in America's history and yet I think it can be its finest
hour as our President and those with him, most notably our Secretary of Defense, our
Chairman and the men and women of the armed forces all over this world stand ready not
only to defend this nation and our allies against further attack but to take such actions
as are directed in the future in retaliation for this terrorist act, a series of terrorist
acts unprecedented in world history.
We call upon the entire world to step up and help because terrorism is a common enemy to
all and we're in this together.
The United States is born to brunt but who can be next?
Step forward and let us hold accountable and punish those that have perpetrated this attack.
Again I commend the Secretary, the Chairman and how proud we are.
We spoke with our President here moments ago.
He's got a firm grip on this situation and the Secretary and the General have a firm
grip on our armed forces and in communication of the world over.
The Secretary of Defense, Carl Levin, Senator, Democratic Senator Carl Levin, they're going
to take questions.
Let's stay here with this and see if we have anything to reveal.
Mr. Secretary, did you have any inkling at all in any way that something of this nature
and something of this scope might be planned?
Charlie, we don't discuss intelligence matters.
I see and how would you respond if you find out who did this?
The obviously the President of the United States has spoken on that subject and those
are issues that he will address in good time.
Mr. Secretary, we are getting reports from CNN and others that there are bombs exploding
in Kabul, Afghanistan.
We at the moment striking back and if so is a target Osama bin Laden and his organization.
I've seen those reports.
In no way is the United States government connected to those explosions.
What about Osama bin Laden?
Do you suspect him as the prime suspect in this?
It's not the time for discussions like that.
Mr. Secretary, you said you could not be specific about casualties.
Can you give us some characterization of whether it's dozens or hundreds in the building?
Well we know there were large number, many dozens in the aircraft that flew at full power
steering directly into the between I think the first and second floor of the opposite
the helipad.
You've seen it.
There cannot be any survivors.
It just would be beyond comprehension.
There are a number of people that they've not identified by name but identified as being
dead.
There are a number of casualties.
The FBI has secured the site and the information takes time to come.
People have been lifted out and taken away in ambulances and the numbers will be calculated
and it will not be a few.
Mr. Secretary, do you consider what happened today both in New York and here an act of
war?
There is no question but that the attack against the United States of America today was a vicious,
well coordinated, massive attack against the United States of America.
What words the lawyers will use to characterize it is for them.
Mr. Secretary, Defense Dom Romsfeld, being asked all the obvious questions and let's
just quickly review them before we move.
Did they have any inkling of this in advance?
The answer is they don't discuss this.
Every single piece of evidence we have seen all day says the United States in no way had
any inkling of what was going to happen.
And if they did, boy, somebody missed something somewhere.
Secretary reaffirming what we reported to you already, the U.S. has no, or saying again
what we said already, that the U.S. has no involvement in Afghanistan, the violence occurring
in Kabul tonight.
This is not a time to discuss or whether or not the United States suspects Osama bin Laden,
but he's been at the top of the list of American suspects for international acts of international
terrorism for so long now it's impossible not to imagine he wouldn't be at the top.
Casualties in the building.
He says there are many and then he goes on to make the point that we sometimes forget
in covering New York and the Pentagon today and that is the people who died on the aircraft.
Two hundred and sixty-six people died on three aircraft today, four aircraft today.
The two that crashed into the trade towers, the one that crashed into the Pentagon and
the one that crashed in Pennsylvania today, whether or not it was on a mission or not.
Was this an act of war?
Secretary of Defense and everybody else in the government today, you can expect to be
very careful about using the phrase an act of war because it imposes on the United States
certain requirements to respond in certain ways if they find themselves involved in a
war especially with another country.
We believe this is now the President coming from Andrews Air Force Bay to the White House,
but it was Senator John Warner, one of the most senior politicians involved with the
military for many, many years now and a man with a real sense of history and knowledge
of history surely who describes this as the most tragic hour in America's history.
I think there will be people not least of whom are historians throughout the country
will, will argue with the Senator about that today given the attack on Pearl Harbor, given
the invasion of Normandy and heaven's knows given this first most tragic days of the Civil
War in 1861 who will argue with that characterization, but it does give you some real sense at the
moment of how intense the feeling is not only in the political establishment in the country
as a whole as well and all sorts of other countries.
I'm getting messages from countries all day today, people deeply profoundly shaken by
the experience that the United States has had today.
I want to go to Washington now because Claire Shipman is there right opposite the White
House.
We'll come back to Charlie Gibson and casualties in just a moment, but as we think Claire that
the President may indeed be arriving, are those helicopters Air Force or Marine One
as it's called the President's helicopter coming from Andrews Air Force Bay?
Yes, that's right Peter and in fact we're told the only reason that his security team
felt comfortable letting him chop her back to the White House was because there is substantial
air cover in the area keeping him protected, but it has been a long day for him as you
noted and he has we're told from people who were with him wanted to get back to the White
House all day, but again was listening very closely to his security team who wanted to
be absolutely certain that that was going to be all right.
We were talking earlier the President is very eager to make plain tonight that his mood
is retaliatory to express impatience.
We got a little bit of a hint of that from a statement from Ari Fleischer, his press
secretary today who said not so long ago we will find these people and they will suffer
the consequences of taking on this nation.
I wouldn't be surprised to hear something like that from the President tonight.
Equally eager to get back Peter just as the President is back congressional leaders they're
planning to make a public statement tonight at 730 p.m.
Again everybody wanting to show this is business as usual in Washington certainly not usual
in the way we would ever define it, but they want to show a government that is up and functioning
because they think that the PR element here in terms of sending a message around the world
is every bit as important as security measures.
As we wait I'm going to spring in the voice of Charlie Gibson at the moment because I
do not want to go away from this scene on what I assume is the south lawn of the White
House.
We'll just stay with this and watch the President come up, but Charlie you've been trying to
get some kind of handle on casualties throughout the day.
Have you had any success?
Well no Peter people want a number and as if it were some way to quantify these most
horrific of acts and properly no one has been willing to speculate on what that number may
be.
Obviously any low number would have to be ratcheted up at some point and to give upper
end estimates are probably too horrible to imagine as the Mayor of New York, Rudolph
Giuliani said when we get the final number it will be more than we can bear.
The concern obviously is that there were emergency workers inside the World Trade Centers when
they collapsed when the Twin Towers came down and the evacuations had not been completed
and as the Secretary of Defense said a moment ago when we get the totals from the Pentagon
it will be a lot more than a few.
We do have some estimates on injured but again these are highly unreliable, the Mayor again
saying at least 2100 injured in New York, 1500 taken to Liberty State Park across the
Hudson River in New Jersey, 600 taken to hospitals and the most chilling, one of the most chilling
quotes that we've heard today, St. Vincent's Hospital here in New York had more than 200
injured, one doctor, Stephen Stern saying there hundreds of people burned head to toe
and we know many burned victims have been evacuated, some as far away as being taken
to Canada, some being flown to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, the military apparently
flying those burned victims out.
Thanks, Tony.
There he is, the President coming back from a trip that has taken him first to Florida
today to talk about education when ironically the political establishment in Washington
wanted to talk about federal budget and keeping the country out of recession and then this
happened just as the President was visiting a group of people, he learned about it, spoke
to the people then moved on to Louisiana and then out to Nebraska where he went into a
bunker totally reminiscent of the situation which the President might have found himself
in and which the country prepared for during the Cold War when the issue was nuclear exchange
between the United States and the Soviet Union and now after something of a sharp debate
we gather between the President's political staff and between the Secret Service, the
President is coming home to the White House.
There's nothing that this President, this new and young President could ever have imagined
was going to occur on his watch which would test his leadership qualities so and he is
going and how he responds, how he accommodates the country's frustration and how he accommodates
the country's anxiety and anger and how he responds or finds a way to respond and as
we've said many times to whom will mark George Bush however it goes one way or the other
as he was speaking to the nation at nine o'clock tonight and the Claire Shipman said to us
the representatives of the Congress who have been pretty forthright today earlier, Senator
Biden early today saying Congress must be seen to keep going that the most important
thing is that terrorists not be allowed to see that American life has been interrupted
to any greater extent than it already has today so we're going to hear in full later
tonight but we shall be on the air for the entire time for any development.
Lisa Stark who covers aviation for us on a full-time basis from Washington is in Seattle
today among other things the headquarters of the Boeing Company which had its aircraft
involved in these hijackings today 757 and a 767.
What can you tell us Lisa?
Well Peter it now appears that the weapon of choice appears to have been knives on
board these planes we know from reports from our sources and others that reports from flight
attendants on an American flight and from two passengers from passengers on two different
flights we're now learning the United flight that went into the World Trade Tower as well
as the flight that went into the Pentagon.
Telephone calls from passengers on both those flights reported that men were on board with
knives or box cutters that flight attendants had been injured or killed that people had
stormed the cockpit.
We also learned that on one of the flights the American Airlines flight that went into
the World Trade Tower the flight attendant was also able to tell the American Airlines
operations center she reached them and told them what was going on board she was able
to tell them the actual seat number of the passenger who was causing the problems on
the plane so that may lead authorities at least to one name at least the name of the
person who booked that ticket she was able to give that information to the people at
American Airlines.
Obviously this was a major security breach at at least at three US airports there will
be a lot of talk as there is already about how this could possibly have happened one
person told me these are obviously shocking events but not that surprising there have
been a number of reports throughout the years about security problems at US airports the
Department of Transportation Inspector General the GAO all of those groups have done reports
talking about how easy it is to penetrate secure areas to get on airplanes how easy
it is to get devices past the people who are checking you at the screening machines so
obviously this will be a focus of the investigation to find out how these people got on board
and how the weapons got on board as well.
Peter Lisa Stark who is in Seattle for us tonight
and gives us one additional piece of information I think we have not had earlier today which
was that one of the people on board the American Airlines flight that was I think she said
Lisa are you still there Lisa Stark still there I think she said was the first flight
the first aircraft today which ran into the trade towers that somebody on board did manage
to give some security operators at American Airlines headquarters the number of a seat
in which one of the hijackers or terrorists was occupying am I correct in that Lisa?
Correct that was the American Airlines flight 11 it was the one that went into the one of
the two that went into the world trade tower the flight attendant was able to tell American
Airlines operations the actual identified the actual seat number of the person involved
in the hijacking so that may help authorities and Peter I want to add one other thing I
did manage to talk to a number of controllers in the New York area today they told me that
they realized by the time the second plane was heading to the world trade tower what
was going to happen they said they had a helpless feeling all they could do was watch the blip
on the screen at that point of course there was nothing that they could do.
Okay thanks very much Lisa Stark in Seattle tonight the headquarters of the Boeing Company
or at least part of the headquarters of the Boeing Company and they moved to Chicago but
there's three airports three major major violations of security or breaches of security to be
fair at Dulles Airport just outside Washington at Boston and as somebody pointed earlier
could have been any number of flights leaving from Boston today and at New York Airport
a flight headed for the west coast as well all three of which given the fact that they
were going to be transcontinental flights would have had huge amounts of fuel on board
it was John Miller who first brought us that piece of information and John you I don't
think anybody's been in quite as close touch as you have with the cops the firefighters
here in New York City today as we get to this point a little more than 10 hours after this
incident what what do you not your conclusion what's your interim conclusion of where we're
at.
Well three things are happening one the very basics the FBI has activated its command post
in New York and set up well an FBI slang it's a lead bucket as all leads come in they're
entered into computers and agents are assigned to go out and check them out this covers everything
from crazy crank calls about people who suspect people to leads from people with direct information
they they have set up a toll free number that they're working on getting the telephone number
for we don't have it yet for national needs to come in ironically it won't be in New York
it's going to come into the Atlanta field office because they literally are buried under
phone calls and and and business in New York so they've tasked that field office to sort
through these phone calls in the coming days.