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CNN Live Event/Special
America's New War
Aired September 15, 2001 - 04:00 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.
JONATHAN MANN, CNN ANCHOR: New York tries for some small semblance of normality as more of lower Manhattan reopens.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you, and the people ...
(APPLAUSE)
BUSH: ... and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Commander-in-chief rallies his people and warns their enemies.
MANN: And at vigils across the country, a sea of candles, a river of tears.
From CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Jonathan Mann.
VERJEE: And I'm Zain Verjee. This is CNN's continuing coverage of America's new war.
MANN: We begin with a key discovery, a first arrest, and the latest estimate of just how many people have been killed.
First, the find in the wreckage of United flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Search crews located the cockpit voice recorder Friday night.
The recorder is designed to capture the last 30 minutes of cockpit conversation. It could reveal whether passengers tried to regain control of the hijacked jetliner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM CROWLEY, FBI: At approximately 8:25 p.m. this evening, the voice data recorder was recovered by investigators in the crater. It was approximately 25 feet below the surface. It is believed it is apparently in fairly good condition.
It is already on its route -- en route to the NTSB location to be analyzed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANN: The plane's flight data recorder was recovered Thursday. The cockpit voice recorder from the plane that targeted the Pentagon has also been found. Now, word is it's badly damaged.
It has been sent to its manufacturer, in hopes that some information can be retrieved.
The flight data recorder also has been found at the Pentagon site.
VERJEE: Several developments at the World Trade Center in New York City, including staggering new figures. Although the official death toll has risen to 185, 4,717 people are missing.
Now, more than 13,000 tons of debris has been removed, taken to a site where investigators are combing through the rubble for clues.
Parts of lower Manhattan will reopen on Saturday. Pedestrians, buses and subways will be able to enter the area East of Broadway, but no cars yet.
Meanwhile authorities say they have made their first arrest in the investigation.
MANN: That's right. The man in custody is described as a material witness. CNN's Mike Boettcher has more on the FBI investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE BOETTCHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Four thousand special agents chasing 36,000 leads and circulating to 18,000 law enforcement agencies a growing list of people they want to question.
JOHN ASHCROFT, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The Federal Bureau of Investigation has also forwarded a list of more than 100 names to numerous law enforcement organizations.
These are the names of individuals the FBI would-- the FBI would like to talk to, because we believe they may have information that could be helpful to the investigation.
BOETTCHER: Another FBI list, this one made public. The 19 men who the FBI says were the hijackers of the four aircraft.
Seven of the men were pilots, according to CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen. Thirteen of them have recognizable Saudi tribal names from the west and southwest of Saudi Arabia, an area where bin Laden has recruited.
PETER BERGEN, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: According to a source familiar with the bin Laden organization, men returning from Afghanistan, who had trained with bin Laden, arrived in Saudi Arabia in recent weeks and were talking about some kind of big operation that was imminent.
BOETTCHER: The FBI searched this apartment in San Diego where, in those final stages, Monday before the attack, three men left town in a hurry.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That truck right here that's moving out, I mean right here...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, I never seen nobody move after midnight.
BOETTCHER: The trail of another accused hijacker, Mohammed Atta, in the months before the attack, led from Hamburg Germany to Florida and a series of flight schools, rental car agencies and apartments.
Then back to Hamburg, a return to Florida, and a final trip to New England where he boarded a Boston to Los Angeles flight, that eventually crashed into the World Trade Center.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy shit!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOETTCHER: U.S. intelligence sources tell CNN the entire terrorist operation required so many people in special skills, that they believe several terrorist groups had to be involved.
Egyptian Islamic Jihad, led by this man, Iman Zoari (ph), a close bin Laden associate, is one of the groups getting close scrutiny by U.S. analysts. They were photographed together about three years ago, in Afghanistan.
A second man who has not been seen in more than 20 years is also being scrutinized. Imad Moognia (ph), who was suspected by U.S. officials of masterminding a string of terrorism attacks against Americans, including the 1983 suicide bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, that killed 241, has had numerous contacts with bin Laden since 1994, including face-to-face contact in the Sudan at an Islamic conference. This, according to Western and Mideast intelligence sources.
A founding member of Lebanese Hezbollah, Moognia (ph) is believed living in Iran.
U.S. officials remain convinced that bin Laden was behind Tuesday's attack, but believe the day's mega-terrorism marked the debut of a new, larger and more dangerous organization, a group with many heads and many faces.
Mike Boettcher, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: Rescue and recovery efforts in New York City were hampered by weather, Friday. Rain made the already dangerous rubble slick and heavy, and kicked up clouds of dust.
Frustrated workers should be able to continue full speed in the hours to come. Forecasts are now calling for sunny skies.
For more on what's going on in New York, we turn to Garrick Utley -- Garrick.
GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Jonathan.
The sunny sky, or at least the sun, should be coming up shortly on this Saturday morning. Right now it's shortly after four a.m. in the morning. Most New Yorkers are asleep.
But the one part of the city that certainly isn't sleeping, as the old cliche and saying goes, is Lower Manhattan, the site of the devastation on Tuesday, by now a very familiar picture. And Alessio Vinci is there on the scene-- Alessio.
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Garrick, from far away, the site where the two World Trade Center towers once stood, look like a giant Hollywood set, but no movie is being made down there, and everything is real, beginning with the tireless work of thousands of rescue workers determined to find somebody alive, and frustrated that so far what they have found, mostly, are body parts.
The latest count, 185 dead people, 408 body parts, but everything and everybody here expect that-- the final number to be in the thousands. And certainly there are thousands of body bags that are on the ready, being ordered here. We understand as much as 10,000 body bags ready here to collect those bodies.
Four thousand seven hundred and seventeen are the people still missing. And the rescue workers, they are tireless, digging through that mountain pile of rubble, must believe that somewhere down there there must be at least even one person alive, perhaps in a air pocket or underneath a big, large piece of concrete.
And as you see from these pictures of four days after the collapse of the two towers, the--- there's still big smoke coming out of the rubble. The iron, they are still smoldering, and perhaps a few fires here and there are still, still burning.
The rescue operation is still proceeding 24 hours a day. There are rescue workers working ...
UTLEY: Yeah. Sorry. I think we've lost our sound connection with Alessio Vinci, down there at the site of the World Trade Center.
There's another site which will be active tomorrow. It's about 20, 30 blocks away from where the attack took place. It's an armory. Perhaps there's a bit of an irony there, that an armory built to store weapons has become a meeting place for people to gather and commune, and really create communities.
They are families, relatives, friends of those lost in the disaster, coming to exchange information. It'll be up and open and filled with people tomorrow. And our Jodi Ross is right there now to give us indication of what can be expected -- Jodi.
JODI ROSS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's true, Garrick. Tomorrow morning the armory will reopen at around eight a.m.. And if it's anything like today, which I'm sure it will be, it will be packed with people from very early in the morning, looking for, again, missing friends and family members.
Andre's going to show you, behind me, that the posters remain, the pictures and the signs. That's something that happens even after the hours here of the armory have closed.
People still coming by to put up pictures and signs about their loved ones, hoping that if you recognize a face, see somebody you think you've seen before, that you might be able to help.
And that's what keeps this area sort of alive and active, even when it's quiet and late at night, as it is right now.
People continue to come by to look at these signs. It's impossible not to stare at them, impossible not to read them, to take in some of the information, feel some of the sadness for the family and the friends.
And that continues to happen, even at this late hour. We still see people around. Candles remain lit from the nationwide vigil that started tonight at seven p.m.
And we've been here, now, for two days. I've been here for two nights, and you'd think that these stories would sort of start to blend together, become difficult to separate. You know what? That's not the case.
Each story, each person that I've spoken to has their own individual sad tale to tell. And quite frankly, they're unforgettable.
So all the searching and all the activity begins again tomorrow morning, early, here at the armory in New York City.
Garrick, back to you.
UTLEY: Thank you very much, Jodi Ross, on the scene there. And we'll be back a little bit more about what's happening in New York, just a little later in the program.
Back to you, now -- Zain.
VERJEE: Garrick, thanks.
Well, the victims and their families were the focus of Friday's national day of prayer and remembrance, designated by U.S. President George W. Bush.
At the National Cathedral in Washington, patriotic songs led the way as Mr. Bush joined four past presidents and other dignitaries in a display of grief and an attempt to comfort. Here are some sounds and pictures from that event.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
REVEREND JANE HOLMES DIXON: Those of us who are gathered here - Muslim, Jew, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu - all people of faith want to say to this nation and to the world that love is stronger than hate, and that love lived out in justice will in the end prevail.
REVEREND NATHAN D. BAXTER, DEAN NATIONAL CATHEDRAL: Today we gather to be reassured that God hears the lamenting and the bitter weeping of mother America, because so many of her children are no more.
REV. BILLY GRAHAM, EVANGELIST: My prayer today is that we will feel the loving arms of God wrapped around us. And we'll know in our hearts, that He will never forsake us, as we trust in Him.
BUSH: On this national day of prayer and remembrance, we ask almighty God to watch over our nation and grant us patience and resolve in all that is to come. As we have been assured, neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth can separate us from God's love.
May He bless the souls of the departed. May He comfort our own, and may He always guide our country. God bless America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANN: Elsewhere in the nation, the mood was no less somber, no different, in fact, in the western city of Seattle. Candles flickered gently in the nighttime vigil, as hundreds paid tribute to the lives lost and affected by the terrorist attacks.
Across the country, in the Eastern state of Rhode Island, crowds of mourners gathered under a huge American flag to pay their respects to the victims of the attacks.
And in Washington, a candlelight vigil complemented the service that was held earlier at the National Cathedral.
In the nation's capitol, across the country, the mood was sorrowful, patriotic and reflective for those affected by the tragedy.
VERJEE: President Bush spent an emotional Friday leading the nation in prayer, in Washington and rallying work crews at the heart of the rubble in New York.
CNN's senior White House correspondent John King recaps Mr. Bush's Friday and looks at the tough decisions that lie ahead of him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A first-hand look at the worst of the devastation, and a pep talk that included a promise to those pulling the dead from the rubble.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: I can hear you.
(CHEERS)
BUSH: I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you, and the people will ...
(CHEERS)
BUSH: ... and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.
(CHEERS)
CROWD: USA! USA! USA! ...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: After his emotional tour of New York, Mr. Bush was asked if he knew who was responsible.
BUSH: We know that we got a suspect.
KING: But lead suspect Osama bin Laden is an elusive target. And aides say one of the President's greatest challenges is convincing an angry nation to be patient.
BUSH: This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour of our choosing.
KING: Mr. Bush declared a national emergency and authorized a call-up of the National Guard and reservists.
And Congress passed a resolution, authorizing the President to use all necessary and appropriate force to retaliate.
Senior officials say they do not rule out a first wave of military strikes in the near future. But Mr. Bush is asking his national security team and other world leaders to develop a long-range plan.
For example, sources tell CNN the President is asking the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Britain and other nations to do more to break up terrorist cells in their countries, and asking Saudi Arabia and other moderate Arab nations to crack down on bin Laden's financial supporters and to take a tougher line with the Taliban, in Afghanistan.
COLIN POWELL, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: In our response, we will have to take into account not only the perpetrators, but those who provide haven, support, inspiration, financial and other assets to the perpetrators.
(MUSIC)
KING: Mr. Bush also led the nation in a day of prayer and remembrance, with former presidents, the Cabinet, and the Congress joining in.
BUSH: Grief and tragedy and hatred are only for a time. Goodness, remembrance and love have no end. And the Lord of life holds all who die and all who mourn.
KING: Consoling the nation is another role for a president at times of crisis, and a father who knows the strains of the job well gave his son a supportive tap.
MANN: Administration sources say weekend national security meetings will focus on options for responding.
And senior officials tell CNN they enter those talks with one encouraging development. Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan, has now promised to fully cooperate in any U.S. operations.
John King, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: Armed with Congressional authorization to use force, Washington is preparing its warriors. President Bush has given the Defense Department the go-ahead to call up up to 50,000 National Guardsmen and reservists.
Administration officials say the primary role of the troops, to supplement recovery and domestic security efforts.
Military planners have identified an initial allotment of 35,500 reservists from the various services -- 10,000 of them would come from the Army, 13,000 from the Air Force. The Marines would provide 7,500, the Navy and Coast Guard 3,000 and 2,000, respectively.
The Congress passed that joint resolution Friday, authorizing the President to counter force with force.
We go now to Major Garrett in Washington, with more on the story -- Major.
MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Jonathan, a significant act by the United States Congress. The House of Representatives, with only one negative vote and the House -- and the Senate, rather, voting unanimously in favor of a joint resolution, authorizing the use of force.
And the wording of that Congressional resolution is very significant. Let me put forward to you a key passage.
The President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons.
Why is that significant? Well, in the President's address to the nation on the night of the attack, on Tuesday, September 11, he said the United States would no longer draw a distinction between terrorists and those who harbor them.
No one in the White House is calling that a Bush doctrine, but it is clearly a shift in U.S. policy, one now the Congress has completely and thoroughly and legally endorsed, giving the President, now, full Constitutional and legal authority to prosecute a war, not just against those the United States deems responsible directly for the acts of terror committed in the United States on September 11, but the nations that also harbor those terrorists or terrorist cells-- a key shift in U.S. policy, one now that has the full backing, legally, of the United States Congress -- Jonathan.
MANN: Major, one vote against the resolution. Who was it? And why did...
GARRETT: Barbara Lee.
MANN: ... they vote that way?
GARRETT: Barbara Lee, a Democrat from California. That Democrat, Barbara Lee, told reporters afterward that she was afraid of granting the president too much authority to prosecute this, what he calls the new and first war of the twenty-first century.
She was not alone in that general sentiment, although she was alone when the final vote tally was taken. Many members of Congress were a bit reluctant to grant what they might have considered too broad authority to the President to prosecute this war.
And in fact, there were some rather heated negotiations between the White House and Congress about language that would have given the President this type of authority to deal with any future terrorist attack.
The Congress decided ultimately not to grant what they considered, in that case, open-ended authority to prosecute a war against actions that had not yet occurred, and gave the President the authority to deal with this particular and specific attack against the United States on September 11.
The White House decided ultimately that was good enough, but there was a good deal of negotiation, some of it heated, about even broader authority for the President. But in the end, a unanimous, or very near unanimous endorsement from the Congress for these broad presidential powers to react to the tragic, murderous events of September 11 -- Jonathan.
MANN: Major Garrett in Washington. Thanks very much -- Zain.
VERJEE: Thanks, Jon. Osama bin Laden, the man some Bush administration officials describe as the prime suspect, has long been at the top of the U.S. list of major sponsors of terrorism.
Andrea Koppel looks at how far-reaching the U.S. response might be, if bin Laden's the target.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If, as the U.S. suggests, Osama bin Laden was the mastermind behind Tuesday's attacks, going after him and shutting down his al Qaeda terrorist network will require more than just a military assault on Afghanistan.
That's because, over the years, al Qaeda has become an international network, with cells rooted in almost every region of the world.
That's why Secretary of State Colin Powell has put the world on notice.
COLIN POWELL, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: ... ladies and gentlemen, I'll be brief ...
KOPPEL: The United States needs help.
POWELL: ... in the future. I am not threatening so much as I am saying, this has become a new benchmark, a new way of measuring the relationship and what we can do together in the future and ...
KOPPEL: Since Tuesday, Powell has had the world on speed dial, in particular reaching out to countries where, the U.S. says, Islamic militant groups have links to bin Laden's network.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once these people have been trained in Afghanistan, we know that they've gone to Africa. We know that they've gone to Asia. We know that they've gone back to the Middle East, and it's clear now that they've been able to come to the United States.
KOPPEL: People like Ahmed Rusam (ph), the man charged with attempting to bomb the United States, over the millennium. He's a member of Algeria's armed Islamic group, but was trained by bin Laden.
So were members of Pakistan's Huraq (ph) old (ph) Mujehaddin group, which hijacked an Indian jetliner to Afghanistan in December, 1999.
On Friday, Pakistan's president informed the U.S. his country is prepared to take specific steps to help the U.S. wage its campaign against bin Laden.
And in the Arab world, Powell has asked countries like Saudi Arabia to cut off the flow of money and resources to bin Laden. For Secretary Powell, who led Allied troops to victory in the Gulf War, this war against terrorists will be fought on an entirely different battlefield.
POWELL: And so you have to design a campaign plan that goes after that kind of enemy. And it isn't always blunt force military, although that is certainly an option.
KOPPEL: But diplomatic sources say, whatever option the U.S. chooses to take, it will need the support of Islamic countries. Such support would send a strong message to bin Laden and his Islamic extremist supporters around the world: They have nowhere to hide.
Andrea Koppel, CNN, at the State Department.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MANN: Officials across the United States are urging citizens not to vent their frustration on Muslims and Arab-Americans. Still, there have been threats and attacks.
Hundreds of members of the Los Angeles Muslim community gathered for Friday prayer amid a large police and FBI presence.
Muslims across the U.S. are finding themselves targets of threats, harassment and abuse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TASNEEM KHAN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) some people have (UNINTELLIGIBLE) has nothing to do with this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANN: Jonathan Aiken has more, now, on how the Muslim community in the United States is being affected.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONATHAN AIKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In mosques and community centers like this one, Muslims added their voices to Friday's national chorus.
RIZWAN JAKA, ALL DULLES AREA MUSLIM SOCIETY: We are able to, you know, take -- also participate in the national day of prayer, as well. But this is our day of prayer.
AIKEN: These prayers in suburban Virginia were mixed with an effort to raise money for victims and their families. Charity is a tenet of the faith.
There's also been a concerted effort to speak to a much broader congregation, to the nation at large, to make the point that what happened this week in New York and Washington, was done in a moral vacuum, and doesn't truly represent Islam. Dr. JAMAL BARZINJI: Once a Muslim commits murder against an innocent life, he's outside the bound of Islam. He cannot be considered a Muslim.
AIKEN: And that's a major point American Muslims want to make, given the vandalism and threats of violence that have been directed towards them.
Those fears kept most women and children away from prayer services in some places, Friday, and have dominated conversations between parents and children.
AFEEFA SAYEED: We have to explain to them on the hand that somebody did something wrong, and some of these can be very hurtful to a lot of people.
And then I have to say that the person that did it was not acting as a Muslim. And I have to be very clear about that.
AIKEN: The pictures from New York and Washington don't help, as American Muslims try to convince their fellow citizens that a faith based on humility and social justice is not a threat to the American way of life.
Jonathan Aiken for CNN, Sterling, Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: Muslims in Great Britain have strongly condemned Tuesday's terrorist attacks, and Prime Minister Tony Blair has offered his thanks to the Muslim community.
Iqbal Sacranie, of the Muslim Council of Britain joins us now from London. Sir, is the backlash against the Muslim community that we're seeing in the United States, where there have been some incidents, is that a knee-jerk reaction or could there be some serious long-term implications?
IQBAL SACRANIE, MUSLIM COUNCIL OF BRITAIN: Well if the -- the way the media has been reporting for the last sort of few days, if this rather wide speculation continues, then certainly the Muslim community in the U.K and Europe and other parts of the world will suffer from this rather, you know, tragic event that has taken place in the States.
VERJEE: So what do you do?
SACRANIE: Well, now the situation is very clear. I think greater responsibility on the reporting has to come in. We have to -- there is a clear unanimous view prevailing within the Muslim community of utter condemnation to this people who have committed this atrocious crime, and we need to identify -- identify individuals, groups who are responsible, the perpetrators of this crime against the entire community.
At present, they are suspects. There are people detained. There is no guilt that has been pronounced, or persons responsible.
And I think we have to exercise caution and calm as we go along. Rushing into this judgment, this knee-jerk reaction of blemishing or castigating an entire community, we are exacerbating the already dangerous situation that we are facing at the moment.
VERJEE: When we look at the bigger picture here, as well, some analysts also that the onus is on Muslim countries, on Muslim leaders also to contain the extremist elements within their countries and make sure people understand that there's that distinction between the two. Your response?
SACRANIE: We're all responsible to that. I mean, we are all in responsibility to ensure that the present crisis that we are all facing is looked at in an objective manner.
But also, we have to look at the root problem. Why do we see the situation occurring? Why this sort of attempt, being such a serious evil attempt, had been made on innocent lives in America?
If we do not look at the root cause and simply come to reacting, and into our minds that the culprits can only be these extreme Muslim groups, then I think the larger problem is still there.
We need to examine the American foreign policy, the situation that we have in Palestine, the situation that is prevailing in Iraq, where daily hundreds of innocent children are dying.
Now, we know the problems that are arisen, the culprit who are -- the real culprits. But we never get rid of the culprits. The innocent people suffer the consequences.
So I think we have seen how the Gulf War has come out. Some people think it's a victory, but I think when we analyze the situation there, what sort of victory was there as far as the -- as the country, yes, Kuwait was liberated.
But the consequences that we have seen, has created even a greater danger for the entire world. So I think now is the time for the leadership, for the political leaders both in America, in the European union to look, and look into the whole situation with greater sensibility and not rush into making decisions which we will then regret in the end.
MANN: For the average person, though, who may not understand the intricacies and the diverse nature of Islam would you say that it was really -- it is really a matter of perception. And you touched on that a little earlier. Is there that confusion between religion and terrorism, and is that hazy?
SACRANIE: I think there's -- sometimes, one wonders whether it's a deliberate attempt on certain parties and certain groups to impose an agenda on the world community that the Muslim community, by and large, is involved in terrorist activities and this community perhaps condones terrorism. This -- they cannot be further from the truth. And Islam's position is very, very clear. The Holy Qur'an makes it very clear, the loss of one innocent life is equivalent to the loss of entire humanity. Now there can't be more powerful statement than this. And yet the notion which is coming to the minds of the Muslim community is that the Muslim blood is cheap. That has to be demolished. There has to be fairness in pursuing -- with our foreign policy, when we are referring to the U.N. resolutions, when we are referring to the law of international legality. It must be balanced. You know America must come out very clearly now that it has to look into its own entire foreign policy in a very objective manner.
And I hope Britain, European Union also look into that basis. Here Britain has to act as a calming force in this situation. And once we analyze the situation further it will make sense to us that we do not need to compound the situation and the notion, in the eyes of the Muslim community and of our community, there is not a war between the West and Islam. It's a war between people who respect civilized values and these criminal activities -- who perform the criminal activities.
And this includes the (UNINTELLIGIBLE), the mafia gangs, the white supremacy in America, William Vaughan and the Oklahoma bombing. These are various groups that, sadly, seem to be not giving much thought to it and concentrating on perhaps one group that may be involved.
VERJEE: Iqbal Sacranie of the Muslin Council of Britain. Thanks a lot for your time -- Jonathan.
MANN: Pakistan is one of only three countries in the world that recognize Afghanistan's Taliban rulers. The U.S. is waiting on Islamabad's response to several specific requests aimed at Osama bin Laden. Among the requests are access to Pakistani intelligence of bin Laden and the Taliban, for Pakistan to close its border with Afghanistan. The U.S. also asks that Pakistan stop supplying fuel to the Taliban and grant war planes access to its Pakistani air space, if asked.
And top U.S. officials say they've made one more request, that Pakistani and moderate Arab states prevent wealthy benefactors from sending money to Osama bin Laden. Friday, Pakistan said it would cooperate fully with the U.S., but officials in Washington say that level of cooperation remains to be seen.
With more from Islamabad, we're joined now by political analyst Talat Hussain. There is now a meeting of the National Security Council I gather and the Pakistani cabinet. They are going to make some important decisions. What do you think we're likely to hear?
TALAT HUSSAIN, POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, what we are likely to hear is that there is complete unanimity in the ranks of the government that will be the official line on whatever stand Musharraf has already taken. That is to provide full support to the plan of the Bush administration to have retaliatory strikes, whenever they deem fit. We are not yet sure what is going to be the specific detail of the Pakistani response. Of course, this remains a matter of high security, involving not just the core of the Pakistani establishment but also the core planners on -- in White House and the Pentagon and the State Department. So -- but there is no doubt that the Pakistani establishment, over the past two days, has been able to drive themselves towards a consensus point where they want to actually come across as a reasonable country staying along with the rest of the civilization of the world and helping the U.S. fight terrorism.
MANN: General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's leader, is a military dictator. Why does he need consensus? Is he -- is his government too weak to simply make this decision on its own?
HUSSAIN: It's not that his government is too weak to make this decision. In fact he is an -- he is an political almighty. His power flows from the barrel of the gun, and on top of it he has got six (UNINTELLIGIBLE) under his belt. He (UNINTELLIGIBLE) country. He's the president, he's the chief executive, he's the defense minister. He's also the head of the National Security Council, and so on and so forth.
It is just that the scale of the tragedy inside the U.S. and the scale of the response from the U.S. is so massive that even a powerful ruler like Musharraf cannot take a decision on his own. And also this is the implications of whatever options that he may exercise. I'm not going to digest his government. It is also going to touch the social fabric of Pakistan. It is also going to touch the relationship between the liberal sections of the society, as well as the religious sections of the society. It will also impact the future political plans that he has in mind.
So it is not just the decision of one man, it is actually a decision that is going to impact the lives of all the Pakistanis, and also the entire region. That is why I guess there is a lot of consultation going on. This is not a one man -- one man's decision, because the stakes are a bit too high.
MANN: Implicit in what the administration is asking or demanding of Pakistan is this. That Pakistan is part of the problem up until now and now has to become part of the solution, that Pakistani money and fuel and cooperation are helping the Taliban government and that Pakistan has a great deal of intelligence that it could be sharing and has not, up until now. Is that premise right? Is Pakistan essentially cooperating with the Taliban and cooperating, in a sense, with Osama bin Laden in the past months and the past years?
HUSSAIN: I think it will be illogical to say that Pakistan is not playing any role in dealing with the Taliban. Of course, Pakistan has been playing a role and there's a military side to this role. But there's also the diplomatic and political side to this role. After all whenever the messages needed to be conveyed to the Taliban, of course, for instance, you know issues relating to the U.N. and issues of closing down the terrorist camps allegedly run by Osama bin Laden, Pakistan was used as a conduit.
But at the same time, I think over the years, the Pakistani establishment has made a clear cut distinction between supporting and backing the Taliban against the backing that the Northern Alliance has been getting from other countries, and backing Osama bin Laden. Osama bin Laden may have become, for various reasons, a popular figure with some sections of the Pakistani society. But he is not the main concern that the Pakistani establishment has inside of (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
If anything, Osama bin Laden, over the years, because of his very poor record with Washington and the activities that he's allegedly involved in, has become an albatross on Pakistan's neck. The entire world comes knocking on Pakistan's door and makes demands on it, vis- a-vis Osama bin Laden, demands of Pakistan, over the years, has discovered it cannot fulfill. So Osama bin Laden is as much a problem for Pakistan as he has become for the world, as well.
MANN: Political analyst Talat Hussain. Thanks so much for talking with us -- Zain.
VERJEE: Thanks, Jonathan. Well, flags flying from every window. Donors in long lines at the blood bank. Americans rally to show their support and to respond in any way they can. But how do you respond to an outrage like this? Jeff Greenfield takes a look at the nature of America's resolve.
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FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yesterday December 7th, 1941 . . .
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JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN ANALYST (voice-over): From the moment Franklin Roosevelt declared war, American men rushed to enlist. And the home front swung into action as well. Women and children collected rubber. Civilians gave blood, scrap metal.
ROOSEVELT: And you have wisely loaned money to . . .
GREENFIELD: They bought bonds to fund the war. They painted their windows, to foil an enemy air attack. And they rationed everything from food to gasoline, all in the pursuit of the unconditional surrender of clearly defined enemies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. It's an A car, three gallons (ph).
GREENFIELD: There was also a less noble side to our response. Japanese Americans were interned in camps.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some among them were potentially dangerous.
GREENFIELD: They were targeted for abuse. In the first days after Pearl Harbor major magazines aired features like this one. How to tell your friends from the Japs. Forty five years after WWII, the Gulf War brought a different kind of response. No draft. No home front discomfort, but a broad national show of support. And we knew what to do after the Oklahoma City bombing. The national mourning, the shared grief, exactly the right responses to a single, spasmatic act of madness.
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MANN: America is not alone in mourning its dead. All around the world, people have gathered for vigils and memorials for the victims. For more we go to Liz George, in London -- Liz?
LIZ GEORGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Jon. The NATO alliance is now facing up to its commitment to support the United States. The essence of its latest resolution: an attack against one is an attack against all. But, joining in arms retaliation is a call some member states may be reluctant to take. Diana Muriel reports.
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DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A time for respect and remembrance. The 19 ambassadors to NATO, shoulder to shoulder, observing three minutes of silence at midday on Friday, along with millions of other Europeans. They stand in readiness, following Wednesday's affirmation of article five of the Washington Treaty, the first time a commitment has been given to a collective defense against an attack on an alliance member. Quite what that commitment will involve is less clear.
Some alliance members, like Britain, have promised strong support for any NATO effort. Even Norway, reported to be less enthusiastic, says its commitment is firm.
JAKKEN BJORN LIAN, NORWEGIAN AMBASSADOR TO NATO: Our resources are more limited of course than the United States' resources but we would certainly put NATO resources at the disposal of any operation that the alliance would decide. There should be no doubt about that. Special forces, or whatever we will bring to bear on the situation.
MURIEL: The British and the French could also provide elite troops to any operation if required. But support from others, like The Netherlands, appears more muted.
NICOLAAS BIEGMAN, NETHERLANDS AMBASSADOR TO NATO: We will be with you, mentally, morally and possibly also in concrete terms. But what it will be at that stage, I can't answer today.
MURIEL: Former NATO Chief Willy Claues believes some members of the NATO alliance would be unwilling to participate in direct military action, particularly if that involves attacks on countries that have shown to have harbored or supported the terrorists responsible for Tuesday's acts of terror.
WILLY CLAUES, FORMER NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL: It depends what countries and what will be -- or what could be the consequences of the military actions against those countries. Are we speaking about countries controlling nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons? Yes or no? It's a big difference, you know. MURIEL: Until a terrorist target is identified, NATO allies are understood to be providing military intelligence to assist the United States in their investigation. As the 19 national flags of the NATO alliance fly at half staff, the kind for action could be approaching. The United States has yet to make specific demands for NATO assistance. But that is expected here in the coming days and weeks.
Diana Muriel, CNN, at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
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GEORGE: There were scenes of grief across the world on Friday and an unprecedented show of solidarity, as people of all nations remembers Tuesday's victims. In Berlin an emotional memorial ceremony at the Brandenburg gates.
And later a march through the streets in a plea for peace. And in Jerusalem a candle-lit vigil at the gates of the ancient city that was attended by more than 100 Palestinian mourners. Around the world, a wave of anti-Americanism has been building in Arab communities for years. Observers say the U.S. support for Israel is one of the main reasons why. Our Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour has more.
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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These pictures of Palestinians celebrating the terrorist attack on the United States horrified all those who were in mourning. Palestinian leaders were quick to point out that these were only isolated incidents by what they called an ignorant few. And Chairman Yasser Arafat immediately condemned the attacks.
YASSER ARAFAT, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY: We are completely shocked. Completely shocked. Unbelievable.
AMANPOUR: Later, Arafat was seen giving blood in a symbolic gesture of solidarity with American. Arab allies, the Iranian president, and even Libya have strongly condemned what happened, saying that it violates Islamic principals. But on the streets of all these countries, anti-Americanism has been building. Moderates are being eclipsed by extremists, after almost a year of violence in the Middle East. The Palestinian intifada in Israel.
Experts on radical Islamic terrorism say masterminds like Osama bin Laden have cleverly manipulated a real sense of grievance into a willingness by some to become human instruments of mass murder.
MAGNUS RANSTORP, UNIVERSITY OF SAINT ANDREW'S: Osama bin Laden has been, in the Muslim world -- has been capitalizing on very sensitive issues that mobilize the whole Arab and Muslim community: the liberation of Jerusalem, American troop presence in Saudi Arabia. Of course, the fate of the Iraqi people, suffering under sanctions.
AMANPOUR: Experts say terrorism cells manage to operate in America's Arab allies such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as well as Europe and North America. Fearful of a backlash, mainstream Muslim leaders here in Europe are trying to explain that this war on American civilians is a crime that can never be justified as a religious duty.
SACRANIE: The position of the Muslim community in the U.K., as I'm sure in different parts of the world, is very clear. We condemn, actually and unequivocally, the atrocity that has been committed. We believe that the people, the perpetrators of this hideous crime are outside the pale of civilization.
AMANPOUR: So now, British and other world leaders are calling for a global alliance to combat a global network of terrorism. To arrest them, cell by cell, shut down their financial support and make it more difficult to forge travel documents. There are no quick fixes, they say, just a long, sustained and difficult campaign. Christiane Amanpour, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE: And that's it from London. Back to you now, Jon.
MANN: Thanks, Liz. Let's take another look at some of the latest developments now. Search crews in Western Pennsylvania have located the cockpit voice recorder in the wreckage of United flight 93. Investigators say the recorder is in fairly good shape. It's designed to capture the last 30 minutes of cockpit conversation, and could reveal whether passengers tried to regain control of the hijacked jetliner, as investigators believe.
VERJEE: Congress has taken quick action on a number of issues arising from Tuesday's attack. It has approved a $40 billion spending measure. Congress also voted to give President Bush broad powers in any military action against the terrorists who attacked the U.S., their sponsors and their supporters.
MANN: It has been nearly four days since the attacks, and around-the-clock rescue operations continue, despite some rainy weather Friday. The forecast for today, fair skies.
Air travel in the U.S. is gradually being restored, with many airliners operating limited flights Friday. Some flights took off from LaGuardia, one of the New York airports close to the scene of the attack on the World Trade Center. LaGuardia, along with the city's other two major airports, was shut down again Thursday, you recall, after the arrest of one man with false identification papers.
Passengers going through airport security now face new security measures. They're finding that items they used to carry with them as they boarded their flights will no longer get past security checkpoints. And as Patty Davis reports, resumption of flights after Tuesday's events has proven anything but smooth.
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PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Long lines at Atlanta's Hartsfield airport on the airlines' first full day of operations. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today, I got here at 6:00 and my flight is at 8:20, and I'm probably not going to make it.
DAVIS: Long lines at this United ticket office in Washington, D.C., as passengers try to change flights and get refunds.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have people who have been out here for hours waiting to get in.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I waited two hours yesterday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well today . . .
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And went through it . . .
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today we have people waiting for hours . . .
DAVIS: The airlines are urging patience. Days after the deadly hijacking, a slow return to normal. Most airports open. Two thousand flights in the air by mid day, one-half the normal air traffic. Instrument rated pilots in private planes and overseas carriers now allowed to return to the sky. That's where these passengers hope to be, as they waited for their flights at LaGuardia airport.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seems the FAA hasn't given any clearance for any planes to take off.
DAVIS: Eventually, New York's airports reopened, but Washington's Reagan National Airport remains closed, due to its proximity to the Pentagon and other federal buildings. Logan Airport in Boston, opening early Saturday. The airlines have been hit hard by the terrorist attacks, expecting $4 billion in losses, this week alone.
REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D-MS), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: I've talked to a number of airline executives in the last 24 hours, and I am convinced that they are seriously impaired.
DAVIS: Airlines welcoming a multi-billion dollar bail-out from Congress. But with the industry suffering from a slow economy, many wonder if it will be enough. Patty Davis, CNN, Washington.
MANN: It has been rainy and cold and dark at New York's ground zero, but workers are continuing their efforts to reach and save anyone who may still be alive. Garrick Utley joins us now, with an update on the effort -- Garrick?
UTLEY: Jonathan, the work, as they say, is continuing. The sun will be coming up shortly and of course, the workers are working 12 hour shifts, will continue through the weekend, unfortunately, for many many weeks to come. I want to take just a moment and talk about something that is obvious to all of us who have been following this tragedy. That is the power of pictures. Never have they been as powerful, perhaps, as they have been this week. There are pictures that you don't have to see, in order to see them. Just think for a moment. Mention in the past an event like Pearl Harbor, December 7th, and the picture erupts of smoke rising from those American naval vessels in the harbor, there in Hawaii. Mention the raising of the American flag over Iwo Jima. You don't have to see it. It's there in our long-term memory and it comes up to our eye, so to speak, immediately. What kind of images will September 11th leave? We can only begin to guess. There are so many of them. The importance of images and pictures. Here's Beth Nissen.
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BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An iconic image to help a stunned world comprehend the human cost of Tuesday's attack. Most of the images are at remove. Heavy machinery clawing at rubble. Closed trucks carrying bodies to the morgue. Headlines and news reports are starting to number the dead. But most of those lost are still shrouded without a name or face.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can say hundreds of people died, and if you see one image of one man holding one dead person it's a different kind of information because it's more personal.
NISSEN: For so many, this one image personalized the human loss in New York, this week. They looked at this picture and knew that there were thousands of souls like this one, dark-haired man, thousands who went to work Tuesday morning and were dead, just hours later. Many family members of those lost in other terrorist attacks say such graphic images are vitally important, psychologically. One of those lost in the bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, was JP Flynn, the brother of Brian Flynn.
BRIAN FLYNN: It does start to make it sink in when, all of a sudden, it becomes less this thing on TV and more about, "Oh my God, there's JP. He is gone."
NISSEN: Many psychologists say vivid images of tragedies, such as the Oklahoma City bombing, can help people move past disbelief and toward grief, a grief that will slowly give way to acceptance, however painful it is, that allows them to go on with life, however altered it is. Yet researchers on traumatic stress caution that graphic images of death, especially those televised without warning, are not therapeutic for everyone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They may be retraumatized by image. Information is a double edged sword. How much information is too much information?
NISSEN: And as traumatic as the sight of a human corpse is, the sight of a dismembered one is immeasurably worse, one of the reasons there are so few pictures of individual victims at ground zero is that so few individual bodies are intact. Those working in the debris say the scene is a horror.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You actually -- you bend down and you pull up a shoe, There's a foot inside. There might be an arm laying next to it. You know. It's -- I never seen nothing like it. Never in my life. You know. Only in the movies. And this is real life, what I'm talking about.
NISSEN: The full picture of all that happened is still developing. And may always be in thousands of pieces. Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
UTLEY: And of course, we all know that a picture is worth a thousand words. Although the exact quote is that a picture is worth more than a thousand words. Often many times more than a thousand words, and never is that more true than this tragic week in New York. Jonathan, back to you.
MANN: Garrick, thanks very much. One known victim of Tuesday's horror was lawyer and CNN commentator Barbara Olson. She was aboard the flight that targeted the Pentagon. Her husband is U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson and she managed to reach him twice by cell phone, before the end. He says he got another bittersweet reminder of his wife, later than night.
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TED OLSON, U.S. SOLICITOR GENERAL: I left the home a little before six, as I said, and Barbara not long thereafter, to catch the plane. And it was my birthday and when I -- when I finally went to bed, it was after 1:00 on -- now it was September 12th, there was a note that Barbara had written to me on the pillow saying, "I love you, when you read this, I will be thinking of you and I will be back on -- I will be back Friday. There were a few more words than that, but I just -- that was extraordinarily special and very much like Barbara, and I'm grateful that she did that.
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MANN: Barbara Olson was 45 years old.
VERJEE: We've heard the accounts of victims of Tuesday's attacks making phone calls to their loved ones, among them as we just mentioned Barbara Olson. Families though were reflecting on these treasured and tormenting final words. Thelma Gutierrez reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): September 11th, American Airlines flight 11 crashes into the north tower. Jill Gartenberg's husband is inside.
JILL GARTENBERG, LOST HUSBAND: He calls my office. I got to my office probably two minutes after he left his first message on my machine saying there was a fire in his building on his floor. He didn't know if he was going to make it.
GUTIERREZ: Eighteen minutes later, United flight 175 slams into the south tower. Lori Van Owken's husband, Kenneth, makes the final call home.
LORI VAN OWKEN, LOST HUSBAND: It was just horrible. It was really just horrible. I could hear the terror in his voice, and he was trying to sound like he was calm for us but you could hear the chaos in the background and the terror in his voice.
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KENNETH VAN OWKEN: I hope I live.
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GUTIERREZ: Some 30 minutes later, somewhere above the Pentagon, on American Airlines flight 77, Barbara Olson calls her husband Ted and tells him hijackers have taken over.
OLSON: She told me that she had been herded to the back of the plane. She mentioned that they had used knives and box cutters to hijack the plane. I had to tell her about the two airplanes that had hit the World Trade Center.
QUESTION: Why?
OLSON: I just felt that I had to.
GUTIERREZ: On United flight 93 over Pennsylvania, Thomas Burnett calls his wife.
THOMAS BURNETT, SR., LOST SON: And he said that somebody was already dead, that they had stabbed somebody and that they were all going to die and that -- they were going to try to do something.
GUTIERREZ: Mark Bingham (ph) calls his mother in the midst of chaos.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He said I just want to let you know that I love you all. There are three men on board who have taken over the aircraft and they say they have a bomb. And at that point, we were cut off. He wasn't able to say anything else.
GUTIERREZ: Moments later, the plane went down. And families forever lost their chance to talk with one another.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some family members will take comfort in the fact that they were able to say their goodbyes, that they were able to express certain feelings that they have, you know, such as I love you.
GUTIERREZ: And Alyssa Van Kirk is the medical social worker who deals with trauma.
ALYSSA VAN KIRK, SOCIAL WORKER: That they were able to communicate with the people in their lives that were important to them. And that, we can take comfort from.
GUTIERREZ: One of the last things Melissa Hughes did on September 11th is call her husband, Shawn. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MELISSA HUGHES: Shawn, it's me. I just wanted to let you know I love you and I'm stuck in this building in New York. A plane hit the building or a bomb went off. We don't know. But there's lots of smoke and I just wanted you to know that I love you always.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTIERREZ: Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: Pretty heart wrenching, heart wrenching stuff.
MANN: I can't imagine putting down the phone after a call like that.
Our coverage continues next hour with guests and correspondents live from around the globe. We'll leave you now with some haunting images from a week that saw too many.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BUSH: This is a terrible moment, but this country will not relent until we have saved ourselves and others from the terrible tragedy that came upon America.
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