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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

London Terror Attacks

Aired July 07, 2005 - 22:00   ET

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

AARON BROWN, HOST: Good evening again, everyone.
You barely need a sentence to say it, a photograph does the work. This is London, a different London. One-hundred-eighty degrees different from the city that was celebrating being chosen the host city for the 2012 Olympic games barely a day ago.

This, too, is London, where in just a few hours, people will start making their way back to work, some of them past crime scene tape and most will, Londoners being Londoners, make their way. That is one fact.

Here are the others: Four bombings, one on a bus, three more on the underground; at least 37 people have died, more than 700 have been injured; a claim of responsibility from an Islamic group, a radical Islamic group. Tonight, that and all of the questions that come with it about the who and the how, some still unclear, some of it absolutely perfectly clear.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please for your safety, please start moving down.

BROWN (voice-over): It was the worst attack in London since the darkest days of World War II: Four explosions ripping through the city subway system and aboard a moving double-decker bus. Maybe bombs were planted, maybe they were suicide bombers. It is unclear as of now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And they we could hear the screaming coming from the carriage just in front of us. It took the full blast. And there was people trapped, twisted, there was bits of the carriage missing, seats missing and people covered in blood.

BROWN: They began as the morning rush hour neared its end in a light rain and lasted for nearly an hour. The first blast near the city's financial district between the Aldgate East and Liverpool Street stations. It was 8:51 in the morning; at least seven died.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was in the second carriage and there was just a massive bang and the whole train just then suddenly was dark. It was full of smoke and glass and everything just kind of went flying through the train. We couldn't see. We couldn't breathe and it was, you know, honestly, for the first few second, we didn't know if we were going to get out. BROWN: The second explosion, five minutes later, near one of London's busiest stations, Kings Cross. The death toll there quickly rising above 20. Survivors struggling their way out of the tunnel, the horror documented by some with cell phone cameras. This is what terror looks like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People started saying prayers, praying to God, panicking, breaking the carriage windows with bare hands.

BROWN: The third explosion at 9:17, the train nearing the Edgware Road station; at least five die.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of the windows are blown in and some of the metal had been bent withinside the carriage.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were in the tube. We listened to a bang. Everything went dark, a ball of fire came in the tube. Everyone started screaming, went down to cover themselves.

BROWN: Finally, 9:47, a double-decker bus, number 30, exploded as it pulled away from a stop near Tavistock Square. No firm estimate on casualties yet, but they are expected to be high.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was about, sort of, 25 - 30 meters away from it when it just completely blew up and -- into thousands of pieces. It looked to me as though there was no bus left at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was past the bus, so heard the explosion and sort of turned back and looked and saw the sort of top rear end of the bus had blown off and you know, smoke everywhere and debris and people running.

BROWN: As many as 700 are believed injured. Ambulances arrived and so did paramedics as quickly as they could. This city has experience with terror. The IRA attacks went on for years, but this was more. This was worse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I done seen a few minutes after it had actually happened to find lots of walking-wounded outside of the tube station. A few people scattered in the foyer, who were more seriously injured.

BROWN: For many, the horror has moved on to the investigation. For those on the trains and the bus this morning, time stands still. They remember the heroes of the day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE; There was a chap on our train who opened the end of the door and he was brilliant. He was spot on. He was -- he really took control of the situation. I don't know who he was. He was just a fellow passenger.

BROWN: And they remember their relative good fortune.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were all trapped like sardines waiting to die and I honestly thought my time was up. I honestly thought I was going to die. And I'm just grateful to be alive. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Among the injured, a number of Americans; exactly how many, may change in the hours ahead. The State Department is certain of two and is working to confirm two more. The two we know about, for certain, came from Knoxville, Tennessee: Emily and Katie Benton. They were caught in the explosion beneath Edgware Road. Both hospitalized tonight, but according to their father, they're are both expected to recover. One part of a larger picture.

Over the next two hours: What we know about what happened, how it happened, what can be done to stop it from happening again there and here and, of course, who is responsible and what that tells us about where we are in the War on Terror.

In some respects, you knew who did this the second after you first heard about it. You may not have known exactly how, maybe not their names, but you knew and we knew. In the hours and days ahead, if the people of Scotland Yard are good and lucky, we may know exactly who and we won't be surprised.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour joins us tonight from London -- Christiane?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, indeed. And in the immediately -- when we heard it happened, we all thought back to Madrid a year ago, when this happened on over-ground trains, when so many more people were killed and injured; but when the culprits were al Qaeda.

And we all thought that today and finally, the foreign secretary of Great Britain said that this did bear all the hallmarks of al Qaeda, this series of coordinated attacks.

And then, there was a claim of responsibility by an up-until-now- unheard-of group. Who knows who they are, but they claim to be al Qaeda in Europe. The police here themselves, say -- the metropolitan police, that they have had no claim of responsibility to them and they had, had no prior warning.

Now, this would not be unusual, because in the al Qaeda attacks, there have been no claims called in to police. Rather, they have been claimed on Web sites and other such typical signature ways that they brand their terrorist attacks. CNN's Nic Robertson has been following al Qaeda and has this report on the hydra-headed movement and its tentacles in Europe.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Genuine or not, the first claim of responsibility from: The Secret Group of al Qaeda's Jihad in Europe. The four deadly blasts, revenge, their statement read, for British massacres in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their claim, on callah (ph), a radical Islamist Web site: To have repeatedly warned the British government -- None received. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The police service received no warning about these attacks and the police service has received no claims of responsibility.

ROBERTSON: So, is the al Qaeda in Europe claim credible?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: MALE: We are treating this as a terrorist incident. We are keeping an open mind as to who the perpetrators might be.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This attack has al Qaeda or its affiliates hallmarks all over it. It's multiple attacks, it's long-term planning. It's attacking an important symbolic event, the G-8.

ROBERTSON: But postings on the site callah (ph) site cannot be verified. And so far, there are only the slenderest indications al Qaeda in Europe may be anything more than a shadowy fiction.

Shortly after the Madrid train bombings in March, last year, a Portuguese news magazine quoted Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, leader of the radical Muslim group Al-Muhajirun in north London, saying an attack in Britain was inevitable because a group he called al Qaeda in Europe, he said, was on the verge of launching a big operation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, the Al-Muhajirun is somebody who is going to look at this pretty carefully and are going to be looking at these people, because they've already been associated with acts of terrorism outside Britain and also with terrorist plots that were fortunately averted last year.

ROBERTSON: Significantly, however, al Qaeda in Europe's web- posted claim has failed a key barometer of jihadi faith.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE; When those statements are posted, they're then picked up an repeated on a host of other web forums and e-mail lists. That just has not happened in the case of this posting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Now, much like the al Qaeda attacks in Madrid last year, the police here say they have no evidence that there were any suicide bombers involved. They say that they have no evidence anything other than conventional explosives were involved.

That's their position at the moment and of course, the forensic investigations do continue and they'll be trying to get as much information as they can from the CCTV cameras, which in the past, have provided them with links and clues to criminals who have operated on the underground system.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was at the G-8 Summit for the meeting of world leaders and who flew down to London briefly to meet with his anti-terrorist squad and ministers and emergency services who have been dealing with this, said that he believed that this was timed to coincide with the G-8 Summit. But he said that leaders would not be deterred from doing their business of trying at this Summit, to help the world's poorest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We will not allow violence to change our societies or our values. Nor will we allow it to stop the work of this summit. We will continue our deliberations in the interest of a better world.

Here at the summit, the world's leaders are striving to combat world poverty and save and improve human life. The perpetrators of today's attacks are intent on destroying human life. The terrorists will not succeed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: The prime minister was surrounded by fellow world leaders in a real show of solidarity. Many of them had had the terrorist attacks on their own soil. And all vowed not to be deterred in this fight against them -- Aaron.

BROWN: Just Christiane, one quick question, going back to the investigation part of this. We've seen some reports that they found timers or pieces of timers. I'm not sure the level of confirmation on that. Do you know anything?

AMANPOUR: We don't have any here in England. That report, in fact, came out of the United States. Law enforcement officials saying that they had been told by English counterparts that that was the case in at least one of the stations here.

But that's obviously one of the things we're going to try and get from Scotland Yard tomorrow. And clearly, as their investigations continue, we'll know more about this.

BROWN: Christiane, thank you. Very long day for you. Christiane Amanpour who is in London.

Continuing the conversation, Daniel Benjamin joins us. Mr. Benjamin was the director of counter-terrorism during the Clinton administration. We're always pleased to see him.

Dan, what do you -- just based on sort of what we know happened today, what can we surmise? Can we surmise this was al Qaeda, whatever al Qaeda is now?

DANIEL BENJAMIN, AUTHOR, "THE NEXT ATTACK": Well, we're speculating, of course. But there are a number of things we can say. It was certainly an attack that was carried out, as Peter Bergen said before, by people who at least adhere to the al Qaeda ideology, who believe the same things that Osama bin Laden does.

Now, I would differ with what has been said earlier in the evening by saying that we have heard of al Qaeda in Europe before. There was a tape, if my memory serves, that was dropped in a garbage pail near a TV station in Madrid after the Madrid bombings in which responsibility for that attack was claimed by al Qaeda in Europe. But I think we need to understand what al Qaeda in Europe is. It's not necessarily a well organized group, but rather it's something that people aspire to. It's their way of showing their team stripes. These are people who believe what bin Laden believes, but have never necessarily had any contact with al Qaeda itself.

BROWN: That's -- I just want to spend a moment on this point, because it does seems to me everybody and their brother, these days, in the radical fundamentalist universe puts al Qaeda in front of their name as if it were some kind of franchise deal they were running. And it's not clear to me the degree to which there is any central authority. Is there a central authority to al Qaeda these days?

BENJAMIN: Not in any really recognizable sense, other than the ideological. That is, there is a central authority about what the struggle is about. And that's been laid down by bin Laden and a number of fellow traveling clerics and other radicals. But if the question is, is there a place where sovereignty and al Qaeda law is, no, there isn't.

Now, there are many different organizations carrying out similar kinds of activities, similar kinds of attacks with the same sort of goals, but there is not a lot of contact between them in many cases.

For example, al Qaeda in Iraq and al Qaeda itself in wherever it's lodged now on the Pakistani border, they don't seem to have a tremendous amount of contact. They are in contact, but there isn't a command and control relationship there.

BROWN: A couple more before I let you get away. We know from Madrid, at least Spanish authorities arrested 100 people or so in the Madrid attack. So, we tend to think of these things as not huge operations, but 100 people is a lot of people to know about something. Would you expect that we've got dozens of people who are involved in the planning and the executing of what happened today in London?

BENJAMIN: Not necessarily. The Spanish authorities have pursued a strategy of picking up pretty much anyone who is connected to anyone. The number of people who are actually right in the cell itself were probably about 13 or 15. This is a smaller attack. We could see that it's 4 to 6 or 8 people with half a dozen more knowing about it. It's just very hard to say.

It does seem that there had to be at least three or four people carrying the bombs, more than that is just guesswork right now.

BROWN: Dan, good to see you. Dan Benjamin who handled counter- terrorism during the Clinton administration.

Straight ahead on the program, as news of the bombings in London broke this morning, how did Americans react?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've also put all of our dogs out and our S.W.A.T. team. CHIEF WILLIAM BRATTON, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: We are in the city of Los Angeles on a modified tactical alert.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our marine unit is patrolling the river.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Across the United States, an orange alert for the nation's mass transit systems.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAREN CALLAHAN, NYC COMMUTER: I feel like a sitting duck. That's what I feel. I feel like every time I get on a train, you know, it could happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: A new kind of war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM NICHOLS, U.S. NAVAL WAR COLLEGE: You can't prepare for everything. That's simply a given. There are certain things that will leave us vulnerable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Mass transit by nature is fast and fluid. It is, of course, a perfect target.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BO DIETL, SECURITY EXPERT: Can you stop it completely? No. Can you try? Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If something happens, then I'll try to claw my way out, I guess. What can we do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In certain situations, you're not going to be able to do too much other than wait for rescue workers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: From New York, more questions, some answers, none of them easy. A special edition of NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: This morning, I have been in contact with our homeland security folks. I instructed them to be in touch with local and state officials about the facts of what took place here in London and to be extra vigilant as our folks start heading to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: That was the president in Gleneagles, Scotland, where the G-8 summit's going on. At home, the country's color coded threat level was upgraded to orange early today, but only for mass transit. In truth, we sometimes wonder what a terrorist would make of this, why he or she wouldn't simply decide that with all the cops down in the subway, to strike somewhere else instead.

To be sure, it's not as simple as that. Subways are tempting no matter what, but perhaps less attempting today. Here's CNN's Jeanne Meserve.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On Atlanta's subway system.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've also put all of our dogs out and out SWAT team.

MESERVE: In Los Angeles.

CHIEF WILLIAM BRATTON, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT: We are in the city of Los Angeles on a modified tactical alert.

MESERVE: In Chicago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our Marine unit is patrolling the river with an eye towards all bridges, especially where CTA trains cross.

MESERVE: And of course, in New York. All across the nation, transit agencies and cities took precautions, even before the threat level was raised. It was moved up to orange for mass transit only. This is the first time the alert has been raised without specific intelligence indicating a threat.

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Currently, the United States has no specific, credible information suggesting an imminent attack here in the United States.

MESERVE: Every mass transit system is a maze of entrances and exists, hard to secure, easy to case. In some ways, a perfect terrorist targets.

RICHARD FALKENRATH, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: They are very easy to get onto and off of, by design, and they have very dense populations of civilians at very predictable hours.

MESERVE: The Department of Homeland Security says cameras, sensors, drills, improved communications have all made mass transit safer. But critics say it isn't safe enough. Why? Americans take public transportation 32 million times a day. Mass transit carries 16 times more passengers than airlines, but it has gotten a fraction of the security money.

WILLIAM MILLAR, AMERICAN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATION: About $250 million has been made available for public transit since 9/11 by the federal government. $18 billion has been made available for the airline system.

MESERVE: Despite the horror of the London attacks, public officials here in the United States Thursday urged citizens to be vigilant, but keep riding.

MAYOR ANTHONY WILLIAMS, WASHINGTON, D.C.: To send a message that our city is open and safe, live your lives.

GOV. GEORGE PATAKI, NEW YORK: The best security in the world is there to protect you and, it will be there night and day, so long as it is necessary.

MESERVE: And some passengers appeared resigned to commuting at orange.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And if something happens, then I'll try to crawl my way out, I guess. What more can we do?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: State and local officials tonight received a bulletin from the Department of Homeland Security expressing continuing concern about the possibility of a terrorist strike in this country. Officials say one of the threat streams on which it was based was recently developed, but dates back to 2004. In it, al Qaeda expresses an interest in derailing trains and smashing trucks into them. But, again, that is an old threat stream. Officials say they have no current credible information about when, where, how, or whether mass transit in this country is going to be hit -- Aaron.

BROWN: Jeanne, thank you. Jeanne Meserve tonight.

The idea that it can happen anywhere at any time probably works better as a rallying cry than a way of living your life. In truth, London is a more likely target than, let's say, Lima, Peru, and New York is always high on the list. So from New York tonight, CNN's Kelly Wallace.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Susan Stein, a New York City mother of three, was taking a bus home Wednesday morning when a police officer did a random safety check and talked about something startling.

SUSAN STEIN, NYC RESIDENT: What really struck me was that he began talking about what a suicide bomber would look like. And I was shocked.

WALLACE: Then he got specific.

STEIN: He said, if you notice someone who would get on a bus in the summer with a heavy coat, or with something heavy around their waist, this -- you need to notify the driver immediately. WALLACE: He then used language new to her, but common to terrorism experts.

STEIN: He used the word "zombie." He said right before a suicide bomber would commit that act, they would look like a zombie. It was unbelievable.

WALLACE (on camera): When people are listening to what this person is saying, what's the mood like on the bus?

STEIN: It was serious. People were serious. They -- I have to believe that they had never heard this before, and he had everyone's attention. He actually commanded it.

WALLACE (voice-over): And so we wondered, in light of the London bomb blast, had New York City police started something new? Not just doing routine checks...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just checking to make sure everything's fine.

WALLACE: ... but also specifically warning passengers to beware of suicide bombers. New York's police commissioner says no.

RAY KELLY, NYPD COMMISSIONER: We're a big organization. Somebody -- some enterprising sergeant may have given them talking points. That's always possible. But it's not a policy where he's getting on, saying hi, my name is, and look out for this. We don't have that right now.

WALLACE: Still, the commissioner did not rule out such a policy in the future.

Susan Stein thinks it would be a good idea.

STEIN: It tells me that we can't be complacent. I'm happy that New York and the people that are protecting our city feel that way too. It was a reminder, but it wasn't a reminder on TV with another color coming up that people are just not even hearing anymore. It was a police officer, practically talking directly to you and saying, "this can happen, here's what to do to avoid it."

WALLACE: And on a day when New Yorkers couldn't help but remember September 11th, she hopes New Yorkers remain vigilant.

(on camera): Do you feel like it's just a matter of time before we see a suicide bombing in the U.S.?

STEIN: God forgive me for even saying it out loud, but I do.

WALLACE (voice-over): Kelly Wallace, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Coming up on the program tonight, we'll go back to London, take the measure of the day. Also ahead, clearly, it is a new kind of war. But how best to fight this new kind of war? From New York and around the world tonight, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just sadness, because I know that it's not something that you recover from in a day or two days. Even if it's not something that happened directly to you, it's just the powerlessness of knowing that this could happen at any time to anybody. It's just so sad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: That is exactly right. Boy, that is right on the money. Even in the new normal, days like today are not easy for anyone, least of all perhaps for Muslims, as troubled as anyone else by what could be a terror strike by extremists whose claim to represent Islam.

In a statement tonight, the Washington-based Council on American- Islamic Relations, CARE, said: "We join Americans of all faiths and people of conscience worldwide in condemning these barbaric crimes that can never be justified or excused."

The Muslim Council of Britain and other British Islamic groups issued similar condemnations and urged Muslims to help in the recovery effort.

Tomorrow, or today in London -- it's already Friday there, early in the morning -- the queen will visit some of the injured, the survivors of the attack. Tonight, from one of several busy hospitals in the city of London, CNN's Alessio Vinci. Good evening to you.

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Aaron.

Let me recap briefly what happened this morning here in London. Four separate explosions in less than one hour disrupted entirely the London transportation grid. Three explosions underground, one on a double-decker bus above ground.

The first one, at 8:51 a.m. local time, killing seven people between the Liverpool Street and Aldgate East station. Survivors there describing scenes of panic and agony.

Four minutes later, 8:56 a.m., at Kings Cross station, killing 21. The highest number of casualties in a single attack. One survivor there describing people starting screaming because they could hear -- they could smell the smell of burning.

A third blast at 9:17 a.m. Explosion blew the hole in the wall of a train car near Edgware station. There too, seven more people killed. One American nurse who was nearby said, there were people already dead, there was nothing I could do to save people's lives. And finally, a half hour later, two more people died when the fourth explosion blew off the top of one of the London's famed double- decker buses as it was driving some commuters to their work.

So four explosions, all of them came without warning -- Aaron.

BROWN: When -- at the hospitals, what are you hearing about where the death toll may go? Are we close to the end there, or do we have a lot of people in really bad shape?

VINCI: We do have a lot of people in really bad shape, Aaron. About 45 people remain in critical condition, in intensive care units, and British officials are actually saying that a number -- the final number of fatalities could rise from the current 37.

Of those 45 in intensive care units, seven of them are here behind me in this hospital, at the Royal London Hospital. This is one of the best hospitals here in this city, even equipped with helipad and helicopter, which this time was not used to bring casualties here to the hospital, but to bring doctors back to the scene where the explosions took place, so that these medical nurses, these medical teams could attend the worst casualties right away.

They're on the ground. Medical doctors here speaking of this golden hour, the first hour after an incident. When that happens, you need to get the aid as quickly as possible to them, and that's what really happened, because these medical teams managed to bypass the gridlock, which ensued after the attacks, reaching the locations there by helicopters and able to provide first -- critical first aid to the people and perhaps saving many lives -- Aaron.

BROWN: Alessio, thank you. Thank you very much.

We learned this week and reported that senior planners at the Pentagon are in the middle of a top-to-bottom review of the country's military strategy. It all takes on new meaning tonight. Part of it includes figuring out how to adapt a fighting force that is very good at blowing up tanks in a faraway desert to one that excels in protecting people where they live and where they work. This is more than a hardware problem. So reporting for us tonight, CNN's Tom Foreman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Forget about battleships, fighter jets and tanks. The newest weapons of war are some of the oldest: Hit-and-run insurgents, hostages and attacks on innocent civilians.

TOM NICHOLS, U.S. NAVAL WAR COLLEGE: To me, this is very much a matter of war.

FOREMAN: And even at the Naval War College in Rhode Island, instructors like Tom Nichols say such attacks can certainly happen in America again. NICHOLS: You can't prepare for everything. That's simply a given. That particularly in an open society like ours, like the United States or any other democracy, there are certain things that will leave us vulnerable.

FOREMAN: Much is being done to fight this new kind of war. Security patrols, cameras and checkpoints dot the landscape in ways unimaginable a few years ago. Military training and war games now frequently feature not clashing armies, but fast-moving terrorist cells.

Even predicting conflict has changed. Military planners once looked primarily for disagreements between nations. Now, many agree with military analyst Thomas Barnett, who says if you draw a line around the most socially or economically isolated cultures, you define where terrorists tend to thrive.

THOMAS BARNETT, AUTHOR, "THE PENTAGON'S NEW MAP": Show me places that are the least connected to the global economy, and I'll show you, basically, all the wars. Where globalization spreads, there also spreads peace and stability, and where it doesn't spread, there you're going to find the battle lines.

FOREMAN (on camera): Are all of these theories making anyone safer or helping America track down its enemies? Hard to say. But military strategists point out, for all the horror and pain, attacks like those in London are quite rare.

(voice-over): And in World War II, 30 to 50 million civilians were killed. So as awful as each terrorist bombing is, there is perspective to be considered.

BARNETT: When I got into this business 15 years ago, I was planning quite literally for the end of humanity. Now, we're down to the point of chasing individual bad guys across bad neighborhoods.

NICHOLS: Are there going to be more dark days ahead for the Americans? Absolutely. But I think -- I think the terrorists and the particular ideology they represent are already losing, and I don't think they know it yet.

FOREMAN: Hard to imagine at a time like this. But that's war these days.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still to come on the program tonight, we'll talk with an expert about how and if such things can be kept from the heart of an American city, why they happen in the first place.

Later, how the pictures from Britain struck those who faced fear and death and all the rest on 9/11.

We'll take a break first. From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: In the wake of the attacks in London, far more questions than answers tonight, including who, and how, and why, not to mention where. We're joined now from Chicago by Robert Pape, professor of international affairs at the University of Chicago and the director of Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism and the author of "Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism."

In Washington, Daniel Goure, homeland security expert, vice president of the Lexington Institute. We're pleased to have them both.

Professor Pape, it seems to me, we talk a lot about the who and the what and the how, and not nearly enough about the why. Why did this happen and why did it happen in London? It can't be as simple as they hate our freedoms.

ROBERT PAPE, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: Well, we actually know a lot more about al Qaeda than we did just after 9/11. "In Dying to Win," I collected the first complete set of every al Qaeda suicide terrorist from 1995 to early 2004. The 71 individuals who actually died to carry out Osama's attacks.

This shows that over two-thirds of those attackers came from Sunni Muslim countries where the United States has stationed tens of thousands of combat forces since 1990. And actually, surprisingly few from some of the most Islamic fundamentalist countries in the world. Iran, for instance, has never produced an al Qaeda s suicide terrorist or any terrorist for that -- attacker for al Qaeda for that matter.

This means is that al Qaeda is not driven so much by Islamic fundamentalism as simply by a response to the presence of foreign troops on the Arabian peninsula and in other Muslim countries.

BROWN: Just briefly, is it possible to execute the American policy goals: spreading democracy in that part of the world, economic prosperity in that part of the world and so on, is it possible to do that without stations American troops there?

PAPE: Actually, it is. And what we need to do is focus on our core interests on the Arabian peninsula, which is access to Persian Gulf oil. The main reason we're in the Persian Gulf in the first place, have been since World War II, is to secure access to oil, which is critical to the world's economy.

Well, we pursued a close called off-shore balancing for decades prior to 1990 that was spectacularly successful. Offshore balancing was secured our interests in oil without stationing a single combat troop or tank or aircraft on the Arabian peninsula. And, instead...

BROWN: I'm sorry. Let me bring in Mr. Goure for a second. In my more cynical moments, I tend to think we do sort of flavor of the month homeland security. It was airplanes one day. Now we're sort of into mass transit. So, maybe we'll spend another $50 million or so there and then they'll hit a chemical plant. Are we doing this in a logical way? And is it possible to do it in a logical way?

DANIEL GOURE, LEXINGTON INSTITUTE: No, we have not been doing it in a logical way. There is not a plan, if you will. What we're trying to do is put together a layered defense. That's the concept. But we're really putting money where either there's there's popular interest, such as airplanes or first responders, firemen and police and the like, or we're trying to put it a little bit everywhere, from the smallest town in Idaho to the largest American city.

There's not a rational approach that tries either to save the most lives, protect the most people, save the most value, or go after the most vulnerable targets. Hopefully, the new secretary of Homeland Security will change the strategy to something that might work.

BROWN: If I gave you just, let's pick a number, say $5 billion, OK, where would you put it first?

GOURE: Oh, I'd put it on the borders first. No matter what we do about intelligence and off-shore operations, the real issue is securing the borders, knowing who is getting in and out of the country, preventing al Qaeda personnel, money from coming from. The kind of money that supported the 9/11 hijackers for 18 months. If you can secure the borders that enter the United States, it's a major way of reducing the terrorist threat.

BROWN: That's a whole 'nother conversation. Gentlemen, thank you very much. Thank you both.

Ahead on the program, what Dennis has been up to all day. That would be Hurricane Dennis. It was news there. We'll get to that. A very dangerous storm is building out in the Atlantic.

Also ahead, a first edition of morning papers. We'll have a couple. And you can imagine the headlines. We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Terrorist attacks rattle many things from nerves to stock markets, they don't have much effect on hurricanes. While much of the world was focused on London today, Hurricane Dennis was picking up steam out in the Atlantic. CNN's Rob Marciano in Atlanta tonight. Quickly, Rob, where is it?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Aaron, right now, it's in the southeastern tip of Cuba. It has been upgraded now to a category 4 storm with winds of 135 miles per hour. Cuba is just going to get pummeled tonight with those winds. And it will diminish slightly in intensity, tomorrow.

But here's the latest forecast track. As of 11:00, it brings it right over the Florida keys around Saturday morning as a category 3 storm. And then somewhere along the Florida panhandle Sunday night as a category 3 major storm, like Ivan was last year.

Hurricane warnings are out for the Florida keys. That means hurricane conditions are expected in the next 24 hours. Category 3 storm, 111 mile an hour winds, and that means damaging winds, Aaron, on top of the wind and on top of the rain there's going to be flooding as well.

We'll give you another update in about an hour.

BROWN: Thank you, Rob, very much. It's going to be a major story next week, or at least the early part of next week. We'll keep an eye on it.

A couple of newspapers to show you in this hour. We'll have more in the next hour. This was the front page of "The Times of London" yesterday. The games, the 30th Olympiad, 2012, awarded to London. The scene was celebration. Here is the paper that Londoners will get if they get the Times at least, 24 hours later. This picture has become an iconic picture of the day.

Same idea from the Guardian. one sweet word: London. That was the headline 24 hours ago. The paper they'll get tomorrow, "London's day of terror."

All of the international papers are leading with the terror attack. "The Moscow Times," the English language paper, obviously. Four blasts rip through central London, at least 37 dead. Putin calls for united front on terrorism.

"International Herald Tribune," Americans and others abroad tend to grab this one. Dozens killed in rush hour bombings. "El Mundo," a Spanish paper. More than 50 deaths in London in series of attacks similar to those of Madrid. The headline there.

"The Jerusalem Post," they're all too familiar with terrorism. Al Qaeda blamed as London blast kills dozen. Another Spanish paper, Spain is placed on maximum alert after bombs terrorize central London.

A quick look at some of the international papers.

Straight ahead on the program, they lived through 9/11 just barely. And today, the memories of terror came back. From New York, nearly four years later, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The attacks in London brought back memories of the attack on America and airplanes as flying bombs. And for many, they brought back fears, fears of another attack.

In a CNN Gallup poll just completed tonight, 62 percent of those polled were worried about a similar attack in the United States in the next several weeks; 38 percent said they were not. You'd like to know what those numbers were yesterday or a week ago or a month ago. Eighty-three percent of Americans think they and their immediate family members are safe from attacks, similar to those in London, and they're right. The chances of any one person being hit are infinitesimal, but that's not the point of terror. It gets in your mind, as the woman said earlier in the program. The city of London has been there before, of course, during the London blitz of World War II. Many here in New York had been there too, not that long ago, and for some today, there were echoes of another day. Here's NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For so many New Yorkers, the scenes from London were so dreadfully familiar.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It happened about the same time of the day as September 11th, a little bit before 9:00, when people were commuting to work. And then all of a sudden, the world changed for them.

NISSEN: Bruce Goldstein (ph) and Hathan Goldwaser (ph) both had their worlds change on September 11th. Both escaped from the World Trade Center, Goldwaser (ph) from tower one, Goldstein (ph) from tower two.

It's been almost four years, but the news from London brought that day back in vivid detail. So many of the sights were disturbingly, unsettlingly, the same.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It happens just like that, that it takes you right back to emotions that you think you have stored away. A feeling of helplessness, the feeling of terror, seeing people walking down the street today in London with dazed looks in their eyes, just -- it was the same scene. They were clearly scared, but not really knowing what to do, whether to stay and try and help. You're not quite sure where safety is.

NISSEN: Both men saw a familiar look on the faces of those in uniform.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think you can absolutely be trained to expect this kind of thing. You have that stunned look. I saw it in the looks of the firemen that day in the stairwell. It's that look of disbelief, like, how could this be happening, and how do we react?

NISSEN: They watched people in London seek company, find each other, as they had in New York.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just knowing other people are in the same situation sort of helps you out. That you're not alone.

NISSEN: There was, for these two men, understanding and sadness of how life has changed for these newest terrorism survivors. How this one day will now be forever burned into memory.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The mind breaks it down into minute by minute. You remember very -- I remember very clearly every minute of that day. I think we have this amazing recording device in our brain that, you know, remembers what the weather was like, the elevator that I took going up, what I thought the minute the first plane hit, what I thought when I saw the first fireman in the stairs. NISSEN: Millions of New Yorkers know the full range of what's been lost to those in London. Lives, yes, but also a sense of confidence, the sense of what to expect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not sure that once you've lived through this experience, you're quite the same with respect to how secure tomorrow is. I think one has to recognize that there's this constant level of danger all all the time, and hopefully, you go through life and it doesn't happen to you. But it could.

NISSEN: It could. In these uncertain, hateful times, it could.

Beth Nissen, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still ahead on this special edition of NEWSNIGHT, we continue our special coverage of the terror attack that struck London really just hours ago. We'll take a break first. From New York and around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: That's Kings Cross station in London. At 8:56 in the morning this morning, our time, or their time rather, a bomb went off underneath the ground in the subway station there, and more than 20 people died. It was the second bomb that went off.

In a few hours, Londoners will head back to work. They're a sturdy lot, and they tend to carry on, and we expect they will do so on Friday morning in London.

As we approach the top of the hour, our second hour, here is a quick rundown of what we know so far in the attack in London this morning. Four bombings, three underground, one on a bus. At least 37 people died; about 700 more wounded. These numbers will change.

A claim or responsibility from a radical Islamic group.

In the next hour, we will try and fill in the blanks on the who and the why and the what happens next. First, though, the shape of a very rough day indeed. From our chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR (voice-over): The killers struck at the peak of morning rush hour. They committed the worst ever terrorist attack on a capital city which has survived the Nazi bombing blitz, decades of IRA bombs and now this.

A passenger's cell phone silently captures a crowded subway. Underground the light finally showing the way out. You could not hear the cries of pain or the fear but afterwards victims spoke of the terror of thinking they were going to die. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People started saying prayers, praying to God, panicking, breaking the carriage windows with their bare hands, anything to get oxygen into the carriage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People started screaming and there was what appeared to be smoke or soot was everywhere and it was all over our clothes and our hands and we just had no idea what was going on.

AMANPOUR: Above ground, people crowded onto buses when the subway shut down. David Messenger told me he had just missed being blown up on the double decker that was attacked.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was past the bus, so heard the explosion and turned back and look and saw the sort of top rear end of the bus had blown off and smoke everywhere and debris and people running.

AMANPOUR: Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had joyfully celebrated London winning the 2012 Olympic Games just yesterday appeared grim- faced at the G-8 summit in Gleneagles and urged Britain to hold its legendary nerve.

TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: It is through terrorism that the people that have committed this terrible act express their values and it's right at this moment that we demonstrate ours.

AMANPOUR: Later, fellow world leaders, as they did after 9/11, after Madrid, and now after London, renewed their signature declaration.

BLAIR: We are united in our resolve to confront and defeat this terrorism that is not an attack on one nation but on all nations and on civilized people everywhere.

AMANPOUR: But who committed this attack?

BRIAN PADDICK, METROPOLITAN POLICE: The police service received no warning about these attacks and the police service has received no claims of responsibility.

AMANPOUR: But senior ministers and terrorism experts say it bears the hallmarks of al Qaeda. An unknown group claiming to be al Qaeda in Europe say that they had done it because of Britain's roll in Iraq and Afghanistan. Just as the killers said, after they struck in Madrid last year. And they warned that they would strike again, strike other countries which also have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Blair who came to London and hours later returned to the G-8 summit called the slaughter of innocents barbaric at a time when he and fellow world leaders are trying to help the world's poorest.

Christiane Amanpour, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: When people recall tragic days like today, they often begin like this. It began like any other, and so it did today in London. But the ordinary soon became horrifying.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got on the Tube at King's Cross.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The train had only traveled maybe 2 or 300 meters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I was in the second carriage and there was just a massive bang.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just minding your own business. Bang.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... a big bang sent me out of my chair.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard a very big bang, the lights went out and the carriage filled with smoke.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just a massive explosion and then glass shattering all over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was in the front carriage and people were severely injured there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was black and very, very smoky. The people were panicking that there was going to be a fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The smoke intensified, the screaming intensified, the hysteria - and that's what it was - became almost pandemonium.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone started shouting, let's all come down, let's all come down. Then it was full of smoke, like literally you could not open your eyes or mouth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The smell. The smoke. You couldn't breathe. You couldn't do anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People then became more and more agitated, thinking they were going to die.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And then we just had to sit on the train and we sat there listening to people screaming.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People wanted to get to the back of the train away from the danger area but there was nowhere for them to go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were there for about 40 minutes and they had to break the windows of the carriages and walk us along the tunnels to get us out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They took us out of the train and made us walk all the way back past it all. Dead bodies on the track, train blown open.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two policemen finally appeared amongst the mayhem and carnage and people started to exit the tube station.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're covered in grease, they're covered in soot, and some people coming out covered in blood.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was horrible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unbelievable. So many people shocked. So many people just wandering around like they didn't know what they were doing like they were -- during the day (ph).

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Something like this happening above ground would be terrifying enough but you try and imagine what it would be like to be underground in one of those tunnels and it's dark and it's smoky.

The world's focus today on London reminds us again that the one man who may have had nothing to do with the terror attack or everything to do with it, still at large.

CNN's Barbara Starr tonight from the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Within moments of the attacks in London, the inevitable questions. Could al Qaeda be responsible? Where is Osama bin Laden and nearly four years after the 9/11 attacks, why has he not been caught?

On an Arabic Web site a little-known group referred to as al Qaeda in Europe claims responsibility but it remains unverified.

Experts believe al Qaeda has morphed into a deadly worldwide network of cells which may be inspired by bin Laden, even if he does not directly order their attacks.

JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, FORMER ACTING CIA DIRECTOR: It is doubtful he is in some control room, however, pressing a button and causing all of these things to happen.

STARR: Just days ago, Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan said while it is still important to get bin Laden, the fight against terrorism is no longer that simple.

LTG KARL EIKENBERRY, COMMANDER, U.S. FORCES-AFGHANISTAN: No one person out there is crucial to the destruction and the defeat of that network. If we take out one financier, if we take out one person, the network adapts against us.

STARR: Even so, where is bin Laden? Why can't the U.S. get him? Many intelligence experts believe bin Laden escaped the bombing of Tora Bora, Afghanistan in December 2001 and slipped across the border into the remote mountains of Pakistan, just beyond this ridgeline.

MCLAUGHLIN: It's vast, about 10,000 square miles, and very mountainous and difficult to operate in and a very good place and easy place for someone to hide.

STARR: The U.S. cannot simply send in troops. Pakistan is an ally. But the central government of President Pervez Musharraf has little control over this border region, facing tremendous pressure from Pakistani fundamentalists, Musharraf will not allow U.S. troops to come in. Even before the London attacks, a vow from the general to pursue the world's most wanted man.

EIKENBERRY: He is important, to bring him to justice one day and our nation will not stop until he is either captured or he is killed.

STARR: The U.S. is using some of the most highly classified technologies available to try to locate Osama bin Laden, but the horrors of London, again, are reminding the world that the terrorist threat have moved far beyond the plans and actions of just one man.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: When we first heard the news this morning, our first reaction was simple, it's Madrid again. It wasn't exactly, thankfully. Today's attack in London was far less deadly. 191 people died in Madrid in March a year ago. 1,500 injured. CNN's Al Goodman now on lessons learned and mysteries still unsolved.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL GOODMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like London this morning, commuters in Madrid had no warning last year. This was the ghastly scene captured by a Madrid security camera.

The Madrid bombings hit four trains just minutes apart in the middle of rush hour. A total of 10 bombs, 191 people dead, more than 1,500 wounded. Both attacks were designed for terror. Both sought to kill and wound as many as possible. So what have we learned from Madrid? Eventually, Spanish authorities would focus on al Qaeda. More than 100 suspects have been charged.

(on camera): Police say the terrorists carried out surveillance of the trains and the stations like Atocha here, carefully rehearsing the attacks over a number of weeks.

(voice-over): The terrorists even rode the trains, testing security. They left bags aboard to see if anyone would notice. The explosives we now know were manufactured in Spain for legitimate mining, but they were stolen from this mine in the north. Police say this house on the outskirts of Madrid was the bomb factory. The terrorists recruited local criminals to help assemble the bombs and place them in backpacks and sports bags.

Soon after, the terrorists placed the bombs aboard the commuter trains. They used timers on cell phones to coordinate the bomb triggers and to detonate the deadly bags. One of the bombs failed. By examining it, police learned the bombs were synchronized with timers on cell phones. Police announced the first arrests two days after the attacks. There were no suicide bombers in Madrid, but three weeks after the attack, as police closed in on their hideout, seven of the leading suspects blew themselves up. But the identity of the mastermind who caused the horror here in Madrid is still a mystery.

(on camera): There were so many bodies that a makeshift morgue was set up here, at Madrid's main convention center, but many relatives said it took a long time to find out the fate of their loved ones.

(voice-over): The day after the attack, millions of Spaniards took to the streets to protest terrorism. And a few days later in a historic turnaround they voted out of office the conservative government, which like Britain's Tony Blair, had taken the unpopular step of putting troops in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. Some say it was a direct response to Osama bin Laden's threats of payback for Iraq.

And now today, a year after the Madrid bombing, the lesson for London seems to be that recovering from such an attack is a very long ordeal.

Al Goodman, CNN, Madrid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Americans who were traveling outside the United States on 9/11, and we've met a lot of them over the years and sympathized with Lionel Barber, the U.S. managing editor of the "Financial Times," a very important British paper, who watched the days events unfold a long distance from home. His office is in New York and he is with us.

Did you wish you were home today?

LIONEL BARBER. "THE FINANCIAL TIMES": No. My family, fortunately, was in London but had gone to the coast, so we were lucky.

BROWN: Madrid, it seems to me, and the reaction to Madrid is a little more complicated than sometimes we make it, but do you think that what happened in London today will lead the British to rethink their position in Iraq?

BARBER: You know, I think there is a very big difference between the attack in Madrid and the response and the attack in London. Obviously, Madrid was more serious, but it came just before an election, when a left wing government had previously campaigned to withdrawal and then came to power.

Here you are dealing with a mature British government which is committed to being America's most steadfast ally, both in Afghanistan and Iraq.

BROWN: So if what they were seeking was a policy change, they're not likely to get it. BARBER: Won't happen. Tony Blair will stay firm.

BROWN: It struck me as odd today that you have all these world leaders gathered in Scotland and terrorism, at least formally, wasn't on the agenda at all. It is now.

BARBER: It is and you'll see something, a serious declaration, common declaration tomorrow, but what is interesting is Tony Blair has been the leader in Europe pressing Mr. Bush to take on these soft security issues, debt relief in Africa, ending poverty, global warming, some of which he thinks are part of the task of combating terrorism.

BROWN: Because you can blow up only so many of them, you can arrest only so many of them, but there is this incubator in parts of the world, in Africa, parts of Africa, the Arab world and Mr. Blair makes the argument, you need to deal aggressively with the incubator, if you will.

BARBER: Exactly. And what was interesting today, apart from President Bush suddenly repeating his slogan of the need to prosecute the war on terror, he also said you need to combat terror with an ideology of hope and compassion. Those are Blairite words.

BROWN: But it's in fact a very hard thing to execute. It's easier to say that, in truth, then to actually do that or to even know how to do that. Do you think these countries actually know how to do this?

BARBER: Well, the fact is since 9/11 I think people in Europe, including in Britain, feel that the need of the campaign against terrorism has been solely seen through one prison, which is the use of force.

BROWN: Right.

BARBER: And they are saying it is more complicated, we need a global strategy and we need to have a more balanced strategy.

BROWN: Let me ask you this. As a Brit looking at us, do you think Americans by and large that you run into, your reporters run into it, do you think Americans see it that way?

BARBER: No, I don't. And I think in a way, certainly immediately after 9/11 they have tended to follow the hard-edged pursuit of force as they way of dealing with it.

BROWN: Right after 9/11 we wanted to whack somebody as a country. That was pretty clear, but we're four years out almost. Do we have a more sophisticated view at all?

BARBER: You're just beginning to hear it. People in Washington, obviously some of the Democrats are using this kind of Blairite talk, the trouble is that when they do Karl Rove hits them on the head and says, oh are you suggesting we need therapy to deal with terrorists?

BROWN: It's a complicated matter, this terrorism business, and it needs multiple strategies. Nice to meet you.

BARBER: Thanks, Aaron.

BROWN: Thanks for coming in. Appreciate it very much.

Straight ahead, in the span of two days, the best of times and the worst of times for Britain's Tony Blair. We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The games of the XXX Olympiad in 2012 are awarded to the City of London.

BROWN (voice-over): A coveted victory, a horrifying blow.

BLAIR: There will of course now be the most intense police and security service action to make sure that we bring those responsible to justice.

BROWN: 48 unforgettable hours in London.

CHARLES HODSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thursday was the day terrorists bombed my neighborhood, Bloomsbury.

BROWN: A story that couldn't be closer to home for one CNN reporter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Life has to go on. We can't give in.

CALLAHAN: I feel like a sitting duck. That's what I feel. I feel like every time I get on a train, it could happen.

BROWN: Could the same thing happen here? Why so many Americans tonight are worried.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There as just absolute mayhem.

BROWN: Terror through the lens of a still photographer.

EDMOND TERAKOPIAN, PHOTOGRAPHER, PRESS ASSOCIATION: Even the blank expressions were moving. That actually told more of a story to me.

BROWN: From New York, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 9/11 to this day brings up a lot of emotions for me. You know, a lot of people I knew died and this is ground that's very important to me standing here. I spent my entire professional career coming to this site and the London bombs really just bring home that we are all vulnerable. BROWN: It won't be long before the fourth anniversary of the attack of 9/11. The inevitable questions find new urgency again tonight. Can it happen here? How vulnerable is the rail system, the subways, mass transit?

The truth is securing the airports is a piece of cake compared to a subway line. Subways likely easier than an entire bus system, all soft targets that could be made harder but not invulnerable. Here's CNN's Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is one morning Karen Callahan can relax at home with her cup of coffee. A day off from work as a paralegal. She relishes days like this. No 30 minute train ride into Manhattan. No security worries.

KAREN CALLAHAN, COMMUTER: I feel like a sitting duck. That's what I feel. I feel like every time I get on a train, it could happen.

CARROLL: We joined Callahan on her commute home through the world's largest train station, New York's Grand Central. This is where security concerns her most.

(on camera): Do you think about it very often?

CALLAHAN: I do. Probably every day. I get on the train, I look around and I just feel that there's no security.

CARROLL (voice-over): This single mom of two sees the train as her only choice so she tries to minimize her risk.

CALLAHAN: I tend to go in the very first car. For a few reasons, one of the being that it would be easier to get out if anything happens.

CARROLL (on camera): So there are little things that you try to do. On the extreme end it sounds like you were saying if you could you would leave Manhattan.

CALLAHAN: Well, New York, the city area altogether. It might be an option sometime for me.

CARROLL (voice-over): Senator Joe Biden says Callahan's security warnings are not unfounded.

SEN. JOE BIDEN, (D) DE: There is no basic security. It is bizarre. Absolutely bizarre.

I am actually angry about it.

CARROLL: Biden commutes daily from Delaware to Washington.

BIDEN: It's been three and a half years of this.

CARROLL: He is so angered by lapses in security he introduced legislation.

(on camera): Do you see any things around here that you think could be improved?

BIDEN: Well, for example, what you could improve is people just standing there with dogs. Just bomb-sniffing dogs.

I mean, it's basic block and tackle stuff. Basic stuff.

CARROLL (voice-over): New York lawmakers gave train and subway security a D, citing unprotected tunnels, rail yards and in particular, lack of surveillance. So, at a train station in Philadelphia and another in New York, we waited to see how long it would take for security to notice an abandoned bag left in clear view. After 10 minutes, nothing. 20 minutes pass, in Philadelphia an officer and his dog look over the bag. Our producer steps in and identifies it.

But in New York, still nothing. After 30 minutes, one person stops, but is too rushed to report the bag. We conclude the experiment.

Amtrak says since 9/11 it has added police, increased use of bomb sniffing dogs and requires passengers to show I.D. but passengers like Karen Callahan say even more should be done, but she's not holding her breath.

CALLAHAN: It all comes down to I think it's probably just too expensive to have security on all the trains at all times. Yeah, it's money.

CARROLL: So she'll keep riding and keep watching the city (ph) nearby. Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: For the people who run the trains and the buses and the subways in the country and the people who try to protect them and us, bombs in London are inevitably a wakeup call if they needed another one. We are joined tonight by George Warrington, the executive director of New Jersey Transit, which carries hundreds of thousands of people in and out of Manhattan each and every day.

It is good to see you. Someone earlier on the program said, and some of this is understandable, that since 9/11 we spent about $18 billion on airport security and essentially chump change on mass transit in trains. Is it simply a question of money?

GEORGE WARRINGTON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, N.J. TRANSIT: Well, there is a federal policy disconnect, no doubt about it, Aaron. It is very good to be here with you this evening on this very difficult day. I will tell you that last year, for example, the federal government invested about $4.5 billion in aviation security and a mere fraction of that amount, $150 million in railroad, freight railroad, Amtrak and transit system security across the country. When you translate that into a per capita investment, you have about $2000 per passenger being spent on the aviation system and about five dollars per passenger being spent on America's transit system, so clearly something is out of whack there and Senator Biden is clearly right, much more has to be done in the way of federal investment in protecting America's transit systems.

BROWN: I read today that in fact that the administration had proposed cutting the amount of money, the security money for trains and mass transit in this upcoming budget.

WARRINGTON: Yeah, as a matter of fact, I chair the American Public Transit Association's new security committee, all with an eye toward educating the public, educating the Congress and the administration about the critical needs across America's transit system and in fact that level of effort of $150 million last year which needs to be substantially increased, right now is being considered for reduction to about $100 million a year, and once again, the context for that is $4.5 billion to protect America's aviation system. So we've got to reverse that trend very clearly and frankly what's been happening is agencies like New Jersey Transit, New York's MTA, transit operators across the country, have had to invest a fortune because of that lack of federal investment in protecting its customers and facilities.

BROWN: Let me talk about quickly a couple things. In short term, if you has more money, you would use it for what?

WARRINGTON: Well, first order of business is educating customers and our employees and we've done that. We've trained all of our employees. In fact we use Rutgers' National Transit Institute to make sure all of our employees know what to observe and know how to report suspicious behavior and we spend a lot of time and effort educating our customers about the importance of their eyes and ears, number one.

Number two, money has been spent and needs to be spent on what we call hardening critical facilities. Bridges, tunnels, terminals, passenger facilities, and we've done a lot there and we need to do a lot more there.

In New Jersey alone, we have ratcheted up the level of our police force by twofold. We have moved from about 100 police officers three years ago to about 250 officers today and that has been supplemented, obviously, by the New Jersey State Police.

But more investment in police officers for visibility and K-9 units and explosive detection canines is very important. We have done a lot of it. We all need to do a lot more of that.

And finally what I believe is most important is the federal government needs to invest in research and development around unobtrusive technology that can detect either explosive, chemical, radioactive or biological agents. As you know, the transit systems in this country and across the world are open systems by design and by nature and they need to be, they need to facilitate full access and really seamless movement across modes.

That type of a system will never lend itself to the kind of gating system that is used in the aviation business, and consequently, the challenge here is to conduct the kind of federally sponsored research and development that enables the adoption of those kinds of technologies in an unobtrusive way to be applied to transit systems.

And there is a lot of good work going on out there. As a matter of fact, right now at the Picatinny Arsenal through the Department of the Army, right here in New Jersey we are working very closely on the development of just those kinds of systems to be able to employ on cars, on buses and in our stations.

BROWN: That's a great story for us to take a look at. It is good to see you. Thanks for you help tonight. Thank you.

WARRINGTON: Thanks very much, Aaron. Good to be here.

BROWN: Thank you.

We never, of course, know how many acts of terror are thwarted but in a new center just outside of Washington, D.C., terrorism is the 24/7 focus of a combined team of intelligence analysts who rely on the most sophisticated technology to protect the country.

Our national security correspondent David Ensor serendipitously had an exclusive tour of the place yesterday and then went back to talk to the director late tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The National Counterterrorism Center in Northern Virginia, created in response to the 9/11 attacks is in high gear since the London bombings. John Brennan is the center's director.

JOHN BRENNAN, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL COUNTERTERRORISM CENTER: As far as we can tell, all the bombings took place within the course of one hour, so they were very closely timed with one another and that type of well-coordinated attack really does indicate a degree of sophistication and so there have been some early indications in fact that maybe timing devices were used to maybe set off some of these explosives.

ENSOR: So that wouldn't be suicide bombs then. It was timers. It was people who planned to survive and attack again?

BRENNAN: Well that's right and that's one of the things we're concerned about.

ENSOR: Just hours before the London blast, Brennan showed us the center and how it is supposed to work in situations like this.

BRENNAN: This is truly a world-class facility that we might have up there classified imagery that we would have as well as the information that comes from clandestine sources. They will overlay on top of that imagery to show us where the threats are merging and to correlate the information that comes from technical sources, U.N. sources, imagery and other things. ENSOR: Next door to the op-center is a high-tech, secure conference room that is in heavy use on days like this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And so twice a day, we have a secure video teleconference with the White House, and CIA, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and the other departments and agencies.

ENSOR: With the touch of a button, the participants can look at classified intelligence or imagery in real-time on separate screens.

(on-screen): About 300 government employees work here at the NCTC, all of them on loan from other agencies, CIA, FBI, Homeland Security. And addition to them, there are more than 400 private contractors, many of whom who work on the extraordinarily complex IT structure that they need here in order to bring in 26 different data systems to this one place.

(voice-over): The op-center has its eye on London, seeking to help the British and looking for any signs of plans to attack this country.

BRENNAN: But there's no indication right now that there's going to be an attack, but, again, we are scrubbing the intelligence very, very carefully. We're doing the analysis. We are interacting with our colleagues. We are leaving no stone unturned at this point.

ENSOR: They are looking at the new evidence from London, working to connect the dots.

David Ensor, CNN, at NCTC in Northern Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still ahead on this special edition of NEWSNIGHT, how will all of this affect the man who is perhaps President Bush's closest ally, the British prime minister, Tony Blair? Not an easy day for him today, as you can imagine.

Break first. This is NEWSNIGHT from New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: An attack in London like the one today, or in Madrid, or Bali, or anywhere else can have a dramatic effect on American public opinion. Sometimes that effect will last a long time, sometimes not.

A CNN-Gallup poll was out in the field tonight asking people, Americans, questions about terror and their concerns about it. Bill Schneider joins us for the results of the polling -- Bill?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: The American public has a sense of proportion about Thursday's terrorist attacks in London. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say the attacks were a major setback in the war on terrorism. But do the attacks mean the terrorists are winning? No, say nearly 80 percent. A setback, not a defeat.

Are Americans worried about a similar terrorist attack in the United States in the next few weeks? Sixty-two percent say yes, they are, meaning it could happen here. But more than 80 percent feel they and their family are fairly safe from such attacks, meaning it probably won't happen to me.

Are Americans willing to put up with some inconvenience in order to prevent terrorist attacks? They say they are. After all, metal detectors and searches at airports are now widely accepted as a necessary precaution.

How about requiring Americans to go through metal detectors when they take public transportation, including trains, buses and subways? Sixty-nine percent that's OK with them. People who live in cities and who are more likely to use public transportation are less enthusiastic. But even most city-dwellers favor metal detectors to get on buses and subways. That's life in the big city.

We asked people whether they think the terrorists attacked London mostly because Britain supports the United States in Iraq, or was it for other reasons? Fifty-six percent of Americans think it was mostly because of Iraq. That view was shared by Democrats and Republicans alike. That could set off a political debate. The issue: Whether the war in Iraq has made the world safer or less safe from terrorism.

Do Americans feel a special bond with the British people? They're split. Most Americans over 50 do feel a special bond with the British. Most younger Americans do not. World War II, when the U.S. and Britain were comrades-in-arms was a long time ago.

Bill Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Metal detectors at subway stations? Sounds good in theory, huh?

Today's attack came with leaders of the G-8 countries, President Bush included, meeting in Scotland. They vowed, as you imagine they would, to go ahead with their work, one diplomat saying we should not give the terrorists a victory.

Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, also promised to continue to host the summit, but first he went south to London, where triumph winning the Olympics turned to tragedy and terror. Here's Robin Oakley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Tony Blair, it's been like a Dickens novel. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." On Wednesday, following London's victory in the quest for the 2012 Olympics, he was hailed in the British media as a politician who'd rediscovered the golden touch. His own exhilaration was obvious. TONY BLAIR, PRIME MINISTER OF BRITAIN: Well, it's not often in this job that you sort of punch the air, and do a little jig, and embrace the person standing next to you. So...

OAKLEY: Within 24 hours, his worst nightmare became reality. Mr. Blair's security chiefs had long warned him that there would, one day, be a terrorist attack on Britain. As Mr. Blair was chatting with President George W. Bush and greeting G-8 leaders, the terrorists made reality of those predictions.

(on-screen): As he met China's President Hu in the hotel here, aides got first word of the attacks. Not enough at first to interrupt. But the grim details mounted, and then they confirmed to Mr. Blair that what had first been reported as an electrical power surge on London's underground subway was likely a deadly attack.

Two hours later, he confirmed that terrorist action was reasonable clear. He'd be off to London for a few hours to get first- hand reports.

(voice-over): Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was summoned to fly north from London to come and chair the G-8 while Mr. Blair flew south. Before he did so, the prime minister made his second statement. Flanked by 13 grimfaced world leaders, not just the G-8, but others who'd been at the summit, like the presidents of China and Brazil, and the prime ministers of India and Mexico, Mr. Blair read out their public pledge to help him battle terrorism.

BLAIR: We will not allow violence to change our societies or our values, nor will we allow it to stop the work of this summit. We will continue our deliberations in the interests of a better world.

Here at this summit, the world's leaders are striving to combat world poverty and save and improve human life. The perpetrators of today's attacks are intent on destroying human life. The terrorists will not succeed.

OAKLEY: In Downing Street, as casualty totals mounted, Mr. Blair attended a meeting of COBRA, the emergencies committee which wraps in security chiefs, key services, and senior ministers.

Backing Mr. Bush over the Iraq war has cost Britain's prime minister dear. It shredded his parliamentary majority at the election. But this time, it's the president who's lending a helping hand. Back in Gleneagles, he led the chorus of support for Mr. Blair.

As for Mr. Blair, he went on from Downing Street for what officials tell CNN was a private visit to police headquarters at Scotland Yard. More painful detail. And finally, on what must have felt like his longest day in office, he then flew back to Gleneagles to pick up on summit business.

The communiques will still emerge, but Mr. Blair knows that the headlines won't be about climate change and African aid. This will be remembered as the summit during which the terrorists hit Britain and stole his agenda. Robin Oakley, CNN, Gleneagles, Scotland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still ahead tonight, too close to home. His neighborhood was the target of terrorism and his job was to cover the story. His story and more, because this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The world changed today. We've said that before. For some, the changes came very close to home, indeed.

Two of the four bombs in London exploded only a few hundred yards apart in a district known as Bloomsbury. That's home for CNN's Charles Hodson.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLES HODSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thursday was the day terrorists bombed my neighborhood, Bloomsbury. It's home to the British Museum, academics and students, hotels, tourists, my son and me. This bus was torn apart on a street I cross on my way to work. One of the bombed subway trains had just left my local station. It may have been almost literally underneath my apartment.

It took me a long time to pick my way among the police cordons to somewhere I could see what had happened and hear what my fellow Londoners and visitors thought as they, too, paused to look.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Devastated. Speechless. Speechless.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It reminds me of New York, 9/11.

HODSON: Some had seen the immediate aftermath.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of people very, very, very distressed. And because the nature of the business, you just want to take care of them, look after them. A couple of the girls I looked after were absolutely shell-shocked.

HODSON: Carnage it may have been, but at nearby Euston Station, I saw commuters trooping on and off public transport almost as if nothing had happened, cursing the perpetrators and the disruption in almost equal measure.

The phrase "business as usual" was invented here when Nazi bombs rained down 60 years ago. And the Royal George is awash in that spirit. The small TV screen has the news on. The big TV screen beside it, the cricket match between England and Australia.

Funny enough, as a Londoner, I do understand why that should be, when Olympic euphoria turns to shock, sorrow and disgust.

(on-screen): What's your reaction to these events here, just down the road, in effect? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm shocked, but it was inevitable. And I guess, as so often, because we did it through the IRA bombing, we'll just carry on.

HODSON: Life goes on?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Life has to go on. We won't give in. We certainly won't give in to this.

HODSON: Will life continue after this, in a way?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, of course. Hopefully, yes. London's had an incredible 24 hours. I mean, from the high of yesterday to the low of today, it's been incredible. But yes, I am sure it will, yes.

HODSON: It's a strange phenomenon what's happening here this evening, people coming up to this cordon, looking over, looking at the wreckage of the bus a few hundred yards away, maybe taking photographs and then moving on, getting on with their lives.

Is it genuine heroic stoicism? Is it indifference? Is it denial? Or is it perhaps a little bit of callousness towards what's really happened here?

Well, maybe Londoners aren't different to other people. And I can tell you, I've lived in this city for most of my life. I can trace my family back at least 200 years in this city. And my own home is just a few blocks away at the other side of this cordon.

There's a sense that terrible things have happened in the 2,000 years of the history of this city. Terrible things have happened today. And terrible things will continue to happen.

Charles Hodson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still ahead, others were running from the chaos. He was rushing straight into it with his camera. What he saw and recorded, because this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: The images of these terror attacks are first captured by photographers, still photographers, mostly, who throw themselves into the midst the chaos that most others are trying to flee. It was no different today.

Tonight, one of the photographers who had his lens trained on tragedy describes what he witnessed to get the pictures you're about to see.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EDMOND TERAKOPIAN, PHOTOGRAPHER, PRESS ASSOCIATION: After I got the news, I got in my car and drove to Edgware Road Tube Station. And there was just absolutely mayhem, emergency services all over the place, firemen, policemen, ambulance men going in and out.

After about five minutes, some of the passengers starts to come out. These were the passengers who didn't seem to be hurt in any way, and they just sort of streamed down the road. And they were all on their mobile phones trying to call loved ones.

And shortly after that, we started seeing the walking wounded, bandaged up, bleeding. The majority of people were in shock. There were one or two ladies who were totally distraught, tears coming down the eyes. It was very moving. Even the blank expressions were moving. That actually told more of a story to me, because it was the blankness that sort of brought it home that they must have been hit with such a shock that they still haven't reacted to it.

One of the worst wounded that I saw day at Edgware Road was this elderly lady who was barefoot, and she had sort of smoken soot stains on her feet and on her legs. And as I looked up to her face, there was no face. It was covered with this white sort of facemask bandage type thing.

And there was a young guy next to her hugging her across this road. It was very moving.

Looking through some of the images, it brings home the spirits of the people of this country. One gentleman in particular had a newspaper in his arm like he'd started his day which he'd not let go of. It's kind of amazing, because he's sort of determined to keep his stature, keep his sort of -- you know, his perfect posture, and that sort of semi-determined look on his face.

I think, if you look closer into his eyes and into his face, there is an element of shock, as well, in there. It's an interesting sort of juxtaposition because there's this horror that he's just been through and, at the same time, is trying to keep his sort of stature. I think it's -- in a way, it sums up Londoners, actually, stiff upper lip, and we'll just carry on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: That guy got some of the most memorable pictures of the day. And when you look at the papers -- and we will -- so many of them come back. This is one of the best editions of morning papers we've ever had. And we'll do it in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: OK, time to check the morning papers. All the papers, of course, lead with the attack, but papers are different.

The "Washington Post" lead is a pretty staid, "Bomber Strike in London's Rush Hour: Attack Bears Earmark of Evolving Al Qaeda." "In my mind, am I dreaming? It was surreal." That's the "Washington Post." Perhaps the "Daily Star" a little more succinct in how it told the story. "Bastards: Al Qaeda Suicide Bombers Blitz London," "60 Dead, 1,000 Injured, 300 Serious." I'm not sure where those numbers are coming from. They may turn out to be right.

And the "Ottawa Sun" up in Ottawa, Canada -- where else is there an Ottawa? Probably nowhere. "Bloody Hell," the headline there. That's one of the pictures that is among the most memorable.

The "Rocky Mountain News": "Brit Grit," the headline, "London Resolute After Deadliest Attack Since World War II." That's another one of the pictures we just showed you in that still-photo piece, that already you just know these are the pictures that tell that story. "Brit Grit."

The "Atlanta Journal-Constitution," glad to have them tonight. "Attack on London," "'Nations United to Defeat this Terrorism,' Tony Blair."

"San Antonio Express News" -- I like this headline. I'm sure it's exactly right, though. "It's London's 9/11: Horror Unleashed," "Blast Rips Subway Trains, Bus." "Prime Minister Points to Islamic Terrorists."

Brits have gone through a lot of these terrorist attacks. They went through a whole generation of IRA attacks. But this sounds so stupid. The IRA attacks were somewhat more civilized. They would usually phone them in before they actually happened so people could get out, or they often did.

"Barbaric," the "Boston Herald" lead. "Worldwide Hunt for Cowardly Killers."

The tabs just do it right on a story like this. It's also the headline in the "Chicago Sun-Times" where we'll end this. "Barbaric: At Least 37 Dead, 700 Wounded, in Coordinated Attacks in London." A couple of the pictures you will remember. And the weather tomorrow in Chicago -- because some things just have to be normal around here -- will be spectacular. On a day when nothing much seems spectacular, that's good to know.

There is weather building out in the Atlantic. And we'll check on that after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A lot to do and not much time. Rob Marciano in Atlanta, a quick update on Hurricane Dennis?

MARCIANO: Category four now, Aaron. And it's battering the coastline of Cuba as a category-four storm. That means damaging winds. It will remain a major storm, it looks like, right on through the weekend.

Over Cuba it goes tomorrow, into the Keys Saturday morning, with damaging winds there likely, northeastern Gulf of Mexico. Landfall somewhere between New Orleans and the panhandle of Florida.

Aaron, come the end of the weekend, this is going to be the big story. Unfortunately, barring a miracle, we're going to see this hurricane make landfall across the southeastern shores of the U.S.

BROWN: Rob, thank you very much for your patience and your work tonight.

A special edition of "AMERICAN MORNING" 6 o'clock Eastern time, Miles and Soledad. And they were absolutely spectacular today. And if you haven't checked them out, you ought to. A special edition of "LARRY KING LIVE" coming up next. We'll see you tomorrow at 10:00 Eastern. Good night for all of us.

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