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CNN Live Today

America Under Attack: Rescuers in New York Continue to Sift Through Wreckage

Aired September 13, 2001 - 13:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREW BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: There are more than 450 people still missing, which is keeping rescuers' efforts alive down at the Trade Center. They continue to work.

Michael Okwu is with one of those workers, and he joins us now -- Michael.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, good afternoon. As you know, it is an absolutely beautiful day in New York, all the more striking, because we are standing underneath this great plume of smoke emanating from what used to be the World Trade Center that has come to symbolize now the great palls that descend over this city. I think that lessons possibly because of the five firefighters who were found, and I am in fact joined right now by Steve Simmons not one of the of the firefighters, but he can give us a sense of what it is like to be toiling there every day for the past 48 hours.

Steve, you are a volunteer rescue worker.

STEVE SIMMONS, VOLUNTEER RESCUE WORKER: Right.

OKWU: What is it like in this site?

SIMMONS: I mean, it's really unbelievable. I rode down, you know, late yesterday afternoon, and you knew what to expect, you had an idea of what to expect when you got down there, but it nothing like you could imagine. I mean, everything around the area was completely just destroyed. And, and I mean, it was just, it was amazing how it looked down there.

OKWU: What physically do you do in this rescue? Is there a lot of equipment used, or is it literally hand to hand?

SIMMONS: It's just you are shoulder to shoulder with guys, passing (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of debris, carrying stuff lifting, intermittently, you've got a part of plane, you've got a part of a building, and just handing it back and forth, just long lines, and it's just amazing how many people in the lines.

OKWU: Now you told me earlier, before we were on camera, that there were moments where sometimes everyone stops, that there is a sort of a collective silence. Describe that for me. What exactly does that mean? SIMMONS: What had happened is that the general mood there was somewhat levity, and the guys, the false bravado, guys are trying to be, hey, we are just at work, we are doing this, and then somebody, they would find a shoe, or maybe they thought that they heard something, or maybe a radio from somebody, and everybody yelled for quiet, and you had this whole hush and all of the machinery would stop, and if there is anything, and then you see people digging on their hands and knees just digging away trying to find anything, and you know, and then it's just, a few minutes later the same, passing stuff along.

OKWU: What have you personally found, or your team of workers?

SIMMONS: I mean, you find everything there. You find cell phones, you find shoes, you find some biological parts. I mention, you know, everything that you can find. Anything that gives of you opportunity, other than kind of hope, anything whatsoever is just -- but I mean the people there, the people there. I met such amazing people. And I rode down -- I am just a local guy. I am an equity trader, and I got on a bus with a bunch of iron workers and construction workers, and they let me in. And these guys on any given day that you pass on the street, I am in a suit they're in a tank top, there's no contact. But hey, brother, let's go, let's dig in, and it's this amazing resolve. I sat across -- when you were in the line, you have guys from Massachusetts and...

OKWU: Steve, thank you very much. Congratulations on your work and good luck to.

SIMMONS: Thanks.

BROWN: Michael, thank you. I am going to interrupt you here. We are hearing reports that perhaps another building has gone down. John Ross is in the area.

John, are you able to hear me?

OK, Michael. Stay where you are. Don't go away. We are trying to establish contact with John. John Voss, are you able to hear me, it's Aaron? OK. We will continue -- we have a report of another building collapsing. We do hear in the background and perhaps you can as well, a lot of sirens going on. It's always difficult to know. I mean, the truth is, since Tuesday, there have been a lot of sirens going on all over this city, certainly from midtown down toward the Trade Center, if it's related to that I can't tell you. Michael, are you there?

JOHN ROSS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I am, Aaron.

BROWN: What are you hearing down there?

ROSS: I haven't heard -- you mean specifically having to do with buildings going down?

BROWN: Have you heard anything or seen anything that helps us on that first? OKWU: Aaron, I can't hear you very well. It sounded like you made reference to the fact that there was a building that might have gone down. And I can tell that you what has been happening here in fact, not only through Steve Simmons, but some of the other rescue workers that we have talked to, that they are actually taking parts of buildings down, because they are so unstable, and they have been doing that in the variety of ways. They took a walkway that connected one building to another down just, just at some point early this afternoon, and they've been using everything from dynamite to sometimes literally knocking things down in order to make the place more stable and more secure so that they can continue with their rescue efforts -- Aaron.

BROWN: All right, Michael, thank you. Stay around here for a bit. We continue now to work on trying to verify a report that perhaps, we are not sure yet, but we are getting reports that another building may have collapsed in the area of the World Trade Center. John Voss, we are trying to establish contact with him. We haven't been able it do that yet.

Andrea Koppel is at State Department.

Andrea, I'll be honest, I don't know what you have, so why don't you just tell me.

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Aaron.

Secretary Powell just finished a press conference here at the State Department, and without explicitly naming Osama bin Laden and his network known as Al Qaeda as the only suspect, it's saying that they were the only ones responsible for Tuesday's attack. He came closer to any other Bush administration official to date saying they are one of the prime suspects.

Now let me just put this into context, You've been hearing us talk a lot in the last day or so about U.S. contacts, high-level contacts with Pakistan. Why is that significant? Well, because Pakistan is not only the neighbor of Afghanistan, where bin Laden and his network are believed to operate, but Pakistan is also the prime supporter. The U.S. has charged Pakistan with being one of the prime supporters of the network. So Secretary Powell just moment ago said this is why, he explained this is why he and members of his team have been holding high-level discussions with the Pakistanis.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLIN POWELL, U.S. SECY. OF STATE: We're looking at those terrorist organizations that have the kind of capacity that would have been able to conduct the kind of attack that we saw on the 11th. We haven't yet publicly identified the organization we believe is responsible. But when you look at the list of candidates, one resides in that region. So without waiting for a whole body of evidence to be ready for us to make a judgment and the presentation to you, I think we are acting in a prudent way by talking to those governments in the region.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOPPEL: Now when explicitly asked if, in fact, Secretary Powell was alluding to Osama bin Laden, he said, yes. Pakistan has been high on the U.S. agenda. Secretary Powell says he expects to speak with the Pakistani president later today. His deputy met, again, for the second time in 24 hours with the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan here in Washington. There have been meetings in Islambad.

So, Aaron, what we are seeing right now, this is one part of the diplomatic puzzle, is the U.S. beginning to tighten the noose around Afghanistan. We are told in the meeting here at the State Department, the Pakistani ambassador was presented with a list of what the U.S. expects, concrete actions that the Pakistanis must take. Unfortunately, we don't have details on that right now, Aaron.

BROWN: Andrea, Thank you, Andrea Koppel at the State Department. She's working the diplomatic side of this.

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