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CNN Live Event/Special

America's New War: Up to Date News Tonight

Aired September 20, 2001 - 00:32   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: Welcome back. Twelve thirty-two, Eastern Time. Let's get caught up in the latest news. For that, here's my friend, Garrick Utley -- Garrick.

GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jack.

One little story I want to pass on to you, a figure I found truly amazing in the news today. Obviously, we know the devastation, the destruction, because of the attacks, lives lost. But how many businesses were lost? I raised this because we're talking about the economy this evening there with Bob Hormats and others.

If you take all of the businesses in the twin towers and we take all the business around -- and these are financial institutions down to the mom and pop candy stores -- and take other businesses out of that area of lower Manhattan which have their phone lines run through there -- lower Manhattan by the telephone company -- 43,000 businesses destroyed or, at least for a while, displaced. Think of that.

Well, let's turn to other news right now. The search -- the investigation -- for those who are behind the attacks continues. The FBI has detained at least 115 people across the country. They're saying they're still searching for 190 who they believe have information about the attacks.

We're looking there at a scene, of course, at the Pentagon.

Let's turn to other military activity. And there's been a lot of it today. The military is on the move, as you can see there. Today, dozens of warplanes, including F-15s and F-16s were ordered to deploy and head to positions in the Persian Gulf region. Definite signs that -- that's being called Operation Infinite Justice -- is now underway.

And President Bush is gearing up to address Congress and the nation tomorrow night to urge patience. He's not going to -- expected to lay out any kind of a real timetable. Today, he and congressional leaders agreed on a strategy to grant the ailing airlines about 5 billion dollars in immediate, emergency relief aid. Right there you see him, by the way, with the German foreign minister. He's meeting a lot of diplomats today.

But as far as the airline industry is concerned, American Airlines, today, said it's in deep trouble, of course. It's cutting 20,000 jobs. And the chairman of Delta warned of more trouble without government intervention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEO MULLIN, CEO, DELTA AIR LINES: Now, stimulation to that demand is just crucial for us. You know, all of us are now flying with very low load factors. Delta's load factor was only 30 percent yesterday. So anything that this administration could do to stimulate the economy would be great. And we're coupling that with the assurance that we've done everything we possibly can to assure the traveling public that it is safe to fly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UTLEY: Along with a cash payment to airlines, Congress is also examining loan guarantees, and a less popular idea in Congress, which wants that tax revenue repealing airline taxes.

Well, on Wall Street today there was a very brief and unusually somber moment for evident reasons. The closing bell rung in honor of the victims of last week's terrorist attacks. Reeling from financial losses, the Dow staged a powerful comeback, late in the day, after punching more than 400 points. It ended the day with a loss of just -- just 144 points.

A moment ago we were hearing from some of the airline executives about how desperate is, Jack. They need help, and they're going to get that those $5 billion dollars and perhaps more aid. A question was raised today, though. They're laying off tens of thousands of flight attendants, cockpit crews, people at the check-in counter, the kind of people we face everyday when we're taking a trip across the country. But what about the top executives? Are they going to take any pay cuts?

Well, some reporting was done on this, and it shows that a number of the small regional airlines, the chief executives of these small public jumpers running around in, you know, in small planes, they're taking pay cuts at a number of airlines. But the big carriers, no way.

Somebody at Continental Airlines says their executives really depend -- their income really comes from stock options -- and you know where those stock options ...

CAFFERTY: Yes.

UTLEY: ... and stock values are today. So they're not going to take a pay cut.

CAFFERTY: Well, unless they go to exercise those options, in which case they'll find out the stock's down anywhere from 35 to 40 percent.

In the for what it's worth department, I got a call from my daughter, Garrick, today, who's a junior at Lehigh University over in Pennsylvania. And she takes a class in international relations. And she said, "Dad, I just wanted you to know, I went to my class today -- it's a big lecture hall, a couple of hundred students -- and the professor assigned each of us to write a two-page paper on the tragedy that happened in this country last Tuesday. And he said, 'I want you tell me what it means -- I don't want the news, I know the news -- I want you tell me the context of this. What does it mean? What's it going to mean to the country,' et cetera, et cetera. And he said, 'If you need some help,' he said, 'there's a new show on CNN at night called HOTLINE.' And he said, 'It's on at midnight and I suggest you check it out, you might find it useful.'

So to the degree that that's a comment on higher education in this country, I don't know. But it's a true story.

UTLEY: Good. Students who can burn the midnight oil just watching you.

CAFFERTY: Yes.

Leslie, if you're listening, shut off the TV and get back to your books.

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