Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Event/Special

America's New War: News Headlines in Aftermath of Tuesday's Terrorist Bombings

Aired September 18, 2001 - 00:00   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.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The stock market falls, closing at its lowest level in almost three years despite the federal reserve board lowering interest rates by one-half of one percent. The Dow Jones Industrial average loses 684 points in the first rating session since terrorists attack the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Airline stocks got crushed. The announcement is made that armed sky marshals will soon be aboard American passenger planes.

President Bush says evidence continues to mount that Osama Bin Laden is behind the worst attack on American soil in over 100 years. Bush says Bin Laden is wanted, dead or alive. We'll talk about it tonight on CNN's hot line.

CAFFERTY: Good evening from New York City. I'm Jack Cafferty. The number to call is 1-800-310-4CNN. This is your program for the next couple of hours. You'll have a chance to talk to our guests, our CNN correspondents, including people at Ground Zero, Washington DC and overseas, in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Tonight's topics include the alarming sell off on Wall Street today, although not unexpected, it was the biggest one day point fall in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial average, but percentage wise it wasn't as bad as all that; the prices in the tourism industry; and what kinds of war is this country ready to fight.

We'll take our first phone call. We have Greg on the line from California.

Greg, what part of California do you live in?

GREG: The Santa Barbara area.

CAFFERTY: That's a nice part of California. What's life like there for the last week or so?

GREG: Well I think the reality is that everybody is devastated by this and we all have kind of a deep gut pain over this and no matter where you are, whether you're poor, wealthy, you're very, very upset by this and there's the fear facto too, where you wonder what's going to happen next. I've been watching your show and they talked about chemical weapons, biological weapons possibilities, which would have been much more devastating. So, you know, we're all kind of wondering what's going to happen next. CAFFERTY: How's your life different than it was a week ago?

GREG: Well, I'm in Los Angeles now and I have to say coming down here, I made sure I had water in my car and drink and snacks, because we don't know what the future's going to bring. Anything could happen, so I kind of think about the Buddhist concept of mindfulness where you live in the present moment, but there certainly is anxiety about the future.

CAFFERTY: And so much of what we took oh so very much for granted has been changed, and that's the absolute freedom we enjoy in this country to come and go with impunity and protection and safety, and not very many of us feel that way anymore.

Greg, nice to talk to you. We're going to begin as we always do here with the news headlines with Garrick Utley. Garrick?

GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks Jack. Here's a look at the top stories at this midnight hour here in New York and along the east coast as we near, approached the one-week mark of the terrorists attacks, that is Tuesday morning.

First, let's look at Wall Street, what happened there. There it was, it was time to hold your breath when the opening bell rang on the New York Stock Exchange. Then it was time to hold onto your wallets as trading began and stocks headed down. The Dow Jones plummeted, seven percent by days' end. The NASDAQ follow is only slightly less unpleasant.

Transportation stocks were hardest hit. As expected the airlines were caught in the downdraft. They saw the most dramatic losses. Continental, US Air, Northwest, Delta and others have announced cuts in their flight schedules, and layoffs by the thousands of their staff and employees.

In New York City and at the Pentagon this evening and into the early morning hours, the work and search continue. The death toll in New York City climbed to 201 confirmed death. Those are bodies recovered or parts of bodies, unfortunately. The number of missing is now over 5,000.

At the Pentagon, 188 are presumed dead. President Bush went to the Pentagon on Monday to meet with advisors to consider his military options in the coming weeks. Then he spoke out again about suspect number one. You know him, Osama Bin Laden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Osama Bin Laden is just one person. He is representative of a networks of people who absolutely made their cause to defeat the freedoms that we take, that we understand and we will not allow them to do so.

QUESTION: Do you WANT Bin Laden dead?

BUSH: I want him, I want justice and there's an old poster out west as I recall that said wanted, dead or alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UTLEY: Well, one part of American life that is definitely alive tonight or last night is baseball. Major league games resumed. The players were back on the field and fans were back in the stands, many of them with American flags in six games and six cities. The playoffs were just weeks away. There it goes once again, a familiar sight, but it's not going to be very easy to put that innocent fun back into our National pastime. Certainly Jack.

One footnote I want to pass on also in the news today. Last week it didn't get that much attention. It was on Thursday that the Reverend Jerry Farwell went on television and he said that the terrorist attacks occurred because God's protection of the United States had been lifted due to the work and the efforts of people such as, and I quote to follow at the time, on Thursday, pagans, abortionists, feminists and homosexuals. That created quite a stir amid all the other tragedy and anguish in the nation. President Bush distanced himself and criticized that and today Farwell has offered an apology.

He said quote, "I made a statement that I should not have made and which I sincerely regret", unquote, period, full stop. Jack?

CAFFERTY: Probably file that somewhere under not helpful. That's Garrick.

All right, our guest for the next couple of hours will begin in Boston in a couple of minutes with Ned Riley. He's the Chief Investment Strategist at State Street Global Advisors. He will talk to us about the professional take on the big sell off on Wall Street today and I would guess, knowing Ned and I've interviewed him many times, that he'll be willing to take questions from the people watching about maybe the best way to approach this thing in here.

We'll also go to Denver, Colorado, Thomas Nulty in the President and CEO of a company called Navigant International. This is a huge travel management company, deals primarily with businesses, operates out of 1,600 offices, 16 countries around the world and we'll be talking with him about the problems facing business travelers.

Kelly Wallace is at the White House tonight. We will be touching base with her. Allesio Vinci at Ground Zero here in New York where the cleanup and search and rescue efforts continue. Frank Buckley is at Dodger Stadium.

Garrick mentioned they're playing baseball again. That makes me feel better. That's a pretty good sign that America is going back to work as the President had requested, and I understand, I heard this on the radio, that they are, during the seventh inning stretch, no longer going to sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame". It's going to be replaced by I think, "God Bless America". It may be "America the Beautiful", but a patriotic song nevertheless. So that's good. That's good that they're playing baseball.

Tammy (ph) in Ohio is on the phone. Hi Tammy.

TAMMY: Hi. How are you doing this evening?

CAFFERTY: I'm doing all right. You know, one day at a time as they say. How's everything in Ohio? Where do you live in Ohio?

TAMMY: Sandusky.

CAFFERTY: Is that near Columbus, Cincinnati? I don't know the state that well.

TAMMY: OK, that's near Toledo and Cleveland.

CAFFERTY: Oh, I got you. How's your life different? Everybody's life is different. How has yours changed?

TAMMY: Well unfortunately, I knew two names that I recognized as women on them passenger flights, and the toy store that I work for lost one of its workers from somewhere here in the nation. And they're setting up a memorial fund.

CAFFERTY: It looks like we're going to war. Nobody knows exactly what it's going to, what kind of war it's going to be yet, but we're getting the sense everyday that it may be a protracted affair, cost a lot of money, may call for some sacrifices on the part of all of us. Are you ready to sacrifice national interest?

TAMMY: Yes sir I am and I have a question for your panelists, whoever can answer it.

CAFFERTY: All right. We haven't got them on the air yet, but what's the question. I'll pass it along just as quickly as we get to that person. What is it?

TAMMY: OK, I just wanted to say do they feel that we are being left wide open, because of closing of some of the bases that we went through in the last couple years? That we ...

CAFFERTY: ... That's a good question, there have been a couple of rounds of base closings, one a few years ago and they got another one started here not so long ago as the debate over defense spending. That's a good question and I will perhaps, we'll address that to Kelly Wallace at the White House. If you're listening Kelly , if you can get at idea that ...

TAMMY : ... I wanted to let you know sir, that we here in Ohio, at my church, and all of Ohio that I've polled have pulled together and we're praying and fighting on our knees and we, one, can I make one suggestion to Americans ...

CAFFERTY: ... Quickly ...

TAMMY: ... who want to support the President and his cabinet right now. Write a letter, like I did.

CAFFERTY: And say a prayer. Prayer is a weapon as you suggest. I've got to move along. I appreciate your call. I hope you'll stay with us for the program and find it useful as we move through the next couple of hours.

Let's being with the big story on Wall Street. There was a lot of questions entering the opening of trading this morning whether or not they were going to be able to one, open on time; two, stay open; and three, operate without technical problems till the closing bell at 4:00. That was a monumentally challenge given the destruction to communications lines, computer lines, telephone lines and everything else that happened down in the financial district with the terrorist attack last week.

Well, they got it done. They got it open. They stayed open. They didn't have any big problems, except at the end of the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had registered its biggest one-day point loss ever, 684 points and some sectors of the market simply got crushed including and not surprisingly airline stocks.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com