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Emergency Crews Still At Work at Site of WTC; More Than 300 People Including Firefighters Still Unaccounted For. Aired 4-5:30a ET

Aired September 12, 2001 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Far (ph) to the left.

JONATHAN MANN, CNN ANCHOR: What you're looking at is a nightmare that is going to continue well beyond dawn.

You can see the emergency crews at work and the mess of what was one of the great financial centers of the world, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, 110 stories and two buildings brought down, a 47- story building in the same complex brought down as well.

And that's what remains, dirt and rubble and somewhere in it an unaccounted number of people alive and dead.

There are in some places two feet of soot and paper in other places. A mound of rubble and firefighters are on the scene, emergency workers are on the scene trying to find out who, if anyone is still alive.

RALITSA VASSILEVA, CNN ANCHOR: Including some firefighters and more than 300 who are unaccounted for and feared dead. Several dozen police officers also who all rushed to the scene to try and help.

(OFF-MIC)

MANN: President Bush spoke to the nation some time ago. He said thousands of people may be dead. We do not know. The author of the attacks still unknown. The means that they took control of the two planes that crashed into the Twin Towers still unknown. But there are details of this story emerging from the United States, from elsewhere around the world. We'll have full details at the top of the hour.

(OFF-MIC)

VASSILEVA: Besides those that are feared dead also leave the thousands in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center buildings, there had been 266 passengers on the four hijacked planes. And as we mentioned, there are 300 -- more than 300 New York firefighters still missing, 50 --

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VASSILEVA: Acts of terrorism that are almost beyond comprehension. Hijackers seize control of four planes, including two that crashed into the World Trade Center. MANN: The Pentagon shares a similar fate as the U.S. vows to hunt

down and punish those responsible.

HENRY HUGH SHELTON, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: We have watched the tragedy of an outrageous act of barbaric terrorism carried out by fanatics against both civilians and military people, acts that have killed and maimed many innocent and decent citizens of our country.

MANN: Thousands may have perished. The search is on for the living.

From CNN Center I'm Jonathan Mann.

VASSILEVA: And I'm Ralitsa Vassileva. September 11, 2001, began like most other Tuesdays in the United States. Millions of Americans woke, many heading off to work, other perhaps to the airport. But normalcy ended at 8:48 am Eastern time when this happened.

(EXPLOSION AND SCREAMING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy shit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes (ph).

VASSILEVA: And airline crashed into the North Tower of New York's World Trade Center. It had been diverted by hijackers. They'd also commandeered three other jets, only minutes after the first slamming into the Trade Center's South Tower. That was the end of a prominent of the city's skyline for the past three decades. It was also the end of thousands of lives.

(OFF-MIKE)

VASSILEVA: The next hijacked plane fell from the sky as well. This time devastating a section of the Pentagon, the hub of military operations in the United States, an unknown number killed there.

[04:05:00]

Finally, the fourth aircraft crashed into Pennsylvania's rural Somerset County, as in the case of the other three planes all aboard were killed.

MANN: It is being called America's newest day of infamy, a horrible tragedy, a horrendous turning point in history.

Our colleague Garrick Utley joins us now from New York. Garrick?

GARRICK UTLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jon, there comes a point in a tragedy like this where the initial shock that numbs the body and the mind gives way to the body somehow dealing with, minds functioning once again and getting to work.

And that's what's happening behind us, our position here in lower Manhattan, the rescue work continues. It is a 24-hour-a-day and night operation. These are some of the latest images from the Trade Center area.

We see the heavy equipment that's been moved in. Fire hoses still being (inaudible) on the building, although the fire as far as we know is largely out. There's still considerable amounts of dust in the air and it will continue because of the work itself which is going on there.

Now we know that when the two towers, each more than 100 floors high collapsed there were thousands of lives, no doubt, lost inside. But to try to give a sense of who was in there, what this rescue operation is going after, here are some of the companies, the tenants in the World Trade Center. Major companies like Morgan Stanley, financial giants had -- it had 22 floors at the World Trade Center.

New York State Blue Shield Blue Cross had 10 floors, Credit Suisse, First Boston and one of the major international institutions had a large operation there.

Sun Micro Systems was -- had at least two floors in one of the Trade Center Towers. And the Oppenheimer Funds, Incorporated was on four floors. Hundreds and thousand employees of these firms trapped there and believed almost all of them most certainly lost.

The rescue efforts there continuing and there are still the stories coming in. The individual stories of those who were in the building that escaped with their lives and what we want to present to you right now is some of these eye witness accounts as they occurred this day and recorded by our CNN camera teams and reporters. Here they are.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was walking to work about quarter to nine, going south down Manhattan Island was what looked like a 737 jet went straight into the north side of the World Trade Center, went in, looked like slow motion. And it looked like something out of a movie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well we were watching CNN actually and they were telling us, you know, that World Trade Center one got hit. We were screaming calm down, calm down, nothing is happening here. But at that moment, at exactly that moment the plane it us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- shit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When that second plane hit a huge fireball in the sky, an explosion that kind of knocked you back. Then you look up into the blue sky and you see all this debris coming and flying. Everybody's running like a riot.

(YELLING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go, get out. Get out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The tower collapsed and it was just a big on rush of ash and smoke and people running. It was horrible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) company dark, there is no lights. So (inaudible) little light came out because you wouldn't even see what's happening.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody's bleeding. People lying all over the floor. It's horrible. And I was there the first time, this is twice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the explosion went off and everything went black and my lungs filled up with the debris, I just thought, you know, OK I might die here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was about five blocks away. What we did see were people jumping out of the building in suits. It was unbelievable.

(SCREAMING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I came down here with about 25 police officers. We went inside. We were effecting an evacuation on the second floor. We were helping people out of the building while we still weren't sure exactly what happened.

Then we heard stuff coming down. The next thing I know it was complete darkness. I couldn't breath. I couldn't see the building had come down. And how I got out I don't know. I'm very blessed. Myself, my C.O. and one other officer shouldn't be here but we got out.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

UTLEY: Some of the eyewitness accounts today and this is a live scene of 8th Avenue in Manhattan looking down to lower Manhattan. And as you can see it is empty. You can't drive down there.

Nobody is driving even in the parts of midtown Manhattan, which are still open to traffic. The city has been dead tonight. Of course it's a little after 4:00 am but usually at this time there's plenty of activity and life in these concrete canyons of midtown New York City.

But not on this evening. People are home. People are sleeping. And one of the things that really shows how a city like this, a city of more than 7 million people has been affected, it's a very simple thing.

[04:10:00]

By 4:10 am in the morning Eastern Time we'd be having the first editions of the morning newspapers, "The New York Times," "The Daily News," and "The New York Post." They don't have them yet. Why? The reporters and editorial offices are just a few blocks from here. "The Daily News" is just right over here, one block away.

But their printing presses several years ago where moved outside of Manhattan where real estate is cheaper. They were across the Hudson River over there in New Jersey. Some of them were over in Queens in that direction.

The tunnels are closed, the bridges are closed. Obviously they'll get the papers into town at some point, but as of right now on this Wednesday morning there are no newspapers in New York, as New Yorkers will soon be waking up.

Back and to you now in Atlanta.

VASSILEVA: Thank you Garrick. New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani says the dimension of city's tragedy will be very large in terms of casualties. The death toll more than likely in the thousands. But he says search and rescue officials will keep going, keep hoping and keep praying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: Rescue teams are able get very close now. It was very difficult during the day. But in most places they now can -- they now can operate. There's still a few dangerous areas, but they're able to operate and they're able to operate down there now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VASSILEVA: And joining us now with the latest on the search and rescue efforts in New York is Michael Okwu. Michael, what can you tell us?

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Ralitsa. Just moments ago we saw three victims transported and brought here into St. Vincent Hospital. It is unclear, I should say, whether any of those victims sustained injuries having anything to do with the World Trade Center attack.

For the most part it has been very quite here. We haven't seen any action outside of those three victims brought in here moments ago in more than about two to three hours now. For the most part what we've seen here is a handful of medical personnel.

We've seen gurneys and just next to them we have office furniture essentially covered in sheets all there and set up presumably to transport some of the what they hope will be many of the survivors who may still be possible trapped near the twisted litter and metal and rubble of lower Manhattan, which is just five minutes dew south of here.

St. Vincent Hospital, as you may know at this point, has become the main triage and trauma center here in New York. Some moments ago, at about 10:30 actually last night, hospital officials told us that 327 patients were admitted here, 50 to 55 of whom were at that time were in critical condition. And, of course, they have pronounced three people dead here on the scene.

Earlier today my colleague Greg Clarkin spoke to one of the doctors here at St. Vincent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. CHARLES FELDMAN, DOCTOR AT ST. VINCENT HOSPITAL: Well there's a, you know, whole host of injuries. Anything you'd see in any other kind of major trauma. Obviously a lot of broken bones, cuts and bruises, but a lot of blunt

trauma, chest trauma, head trauma, things like that.

Well, I mean the longer people are buried I think the more severe the injury and they're going to be -- there's going to be a lot of smoke and gas inhalation and people are going to be dealing with that in the -- in the next 12 to 24 hours I believe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OKWU: Now earlier this evening Governor George Pataki of New York visited the hospital. He said that he visited with many of the victims who were brought here as well as the doctors who are trying to perform feats of heroism.

He said that their stories were unusual. And on this night in New York it's very difficult to imagine describing it as anything other than that.

Back to you guys.

MANN: Michael thanks very much. All day Tuesday firefighters struggled to bring a massive blaze under control at the Pentagon after a hijacked plane hit the building at 9:38 am local time.

Overnight the search has been underway for the dead and missing. And last information we have is that the fire itself is still burning. Bob Franken has the latest. Bob?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well Jon actually smoldering is more like it.

They are hoping that they can have it enough under control that at about daybreak they can peal away the wall, the part that was -- that was hit by the plane and start to go through the rubble, looking to see who's inside, looking for causalities, looking for the human cost of this tragedy which, of course, hit New York but has also hit the Pentagon.

The sign of military strength in the United States, as you can see, people have been around the building now for so many hours. It was about 9:40 yesterday morning that this happened.

And all day and all night and throughout the night they have been climbing around the building, dealing with the fire inside, allowing it to burn out. Spending so much time.

[04:14:56]

Now, at the very same time there was still work going on there. There are plans to, in fact, put ships out to sea on both coasts to protect the West coast, where an entire flotilla of ships is going out, including the aircraft carrier Stennis on the East coast. The Kennedy and other ships have gone out along to protect the East coast of the United States. And in the -- in the area of the Middle East there are ships that are,

in fact, were scheduled to come back to the United States, but they're being kept there. The Enterprise in particular, the aircraft carrier and its retinue of ships.

So, at the same time the United States is still trying to recover from the shock, particularly the shock here to its military establishment, the center of its military activity, the Pentagon. Military plans are very slowly developing when it comes times for retaliation. Jon?

MANN: Bob Franken thanks very much.

A fourth hijacked plane crashed in a rural area of Pennsylvania. The United Airlines Boeing 757 was headed from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco with 45 people on board when it went down.

Intelligence sources say they believe the intended destination was another government target, possibly Camp David the presidential retreat. There was some speculation that the plane was shot down, but the military denies it.

Local emergency officials say a many who identified himself as a passenger on the flight called by cell phone just 10 minutes before the plane crashed. That was how authorities learned the plane had been hijacked.

VASSILEVA: In a five-minute address to the nation a grim-faced President George W. Bush said the United States would make no distinction between terrorists and those who harbor them.

The president said thousands of lives were claimed by the, quote, "evil, despicable act of terror," end of quote. He branded the attacks, quote, "Mass murder," and said those responsible would be hunted down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America.

These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VASSILEVA: American forces overseas have been put on high alert. The U.S. European command in Germany says it is taking steps to ensure the security of the troops and their families.

For more we're joined by our correspondent Tom Bogdanowicz at the U.S. base in Ramstein, Germany. Tom? TOM BOGDANOWICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Well let me first tell you about what's going at the German equivalence of the World Trade Center. That was evacuated this morning after a bomb threat, 4,000 people work in that very tall tower. But I understand that that has been calmed down. Everybody's back at work. So that's the German Mesatow (ph).

The Motor Show, which is taking place in Frankfurt here that is going on as normal although all parties and at sort of thing have been canceled. It's a very subdued show.

I'm standing right outside the Frankfurt Air Base, the Rhein-Main Air Base. This is at maximum security alert. We saw that the soldiers were checking for every -- the Air Force were checking every single car going in. The engines were being examined, mirrors were being used, dogs were being used.

Where we're standing now is the nearest that we're allowed to go the base at present. We're not allowed to stand in front of the front gate.

This base is not actually an active base. There are no planes here. It's -- it was due to be closed down for -- in 1995 but it was kept going because of the Kosovo crisis. This air base is actually right next to the Frankfurt Airport, so it can take very large planes. There's a -- there's a runway here and it can take large cargo planes.

If there were to be any operations in Europe then this base would definitely be used because it can take those planes. So, this base could be active again.

In terms of what the German government is doing, we've just been hearing from Chancellor Gerhardt Schroder. He's expressed his solidarity with America. He's described the act as a declaration of war against civilization and he's announced that there will be a five minute silence at 10 o'clock on Thursday and all workers and executives will participate in that. There's a memorial service today with All Faiths (ph) (inaudible) Cathedral in Berlin.

Back to you in Atlanta.

VASSILEVA: Tom, thank you. Jon?

MANN: The editor of an Arabic language newspaper published in London says he received a warning three weeks ago. He believes the warning came from Islamic fundamentalists close to suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. The warning was of huge and unprecedented attack but it offered no specifics. The editor says there are several groups capable of such an operation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABDEL-BARI ATWAN, EDITOR AL-QUDS NEWSPAPER: It could be a work of consortium of many organizations, Islamic organization, which they declared war against the United States. You know, the anti-American feeling gets very high now in the Middle

East and the Muslim world because what's happening on the occupied territories and many people accuse United States of actually helping the Israeli and protecting them.

[04:20:10]

So, the groups like bin Laden and other Islamic fundamentalists actually they would like to come out and say look, you know, we are targeting United States. United States is supporting their Muslim and Arab enemies which is the Israeli and we are taking revenge of what's happening.

So we learn from sources that, you know, they are really at work to hit American target. But nobody expected that this target would be in New York itself or on the Pentagon. So the place of attacks was surprising to everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: Afghan's ruling Taliban are harboring bin Laden. Only hours after the attack several explosion rocked the perimeter of Afghanistan's capital Kabul. The United States said it had nothing to do with the Afghan explosions. The Taliban opposition first denied and then claimed responsibility for them.

CNN Correspondent Nic Robertson is in Kabul to help us sort it out. Nic, what's going on there?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Jonathan a few hours after those explosions we were in touch with the Northern Alliance, that is the group of fighters and political leaders controlling the last place (ph), the center (ph) of Afghanistan the Taliban have yet to gain control of.

They told us that they were responsible for those attacks and shortly after that confirmation Taliban officials, ministerial officials also told us that the city had been attacked by the Northern Alliance.

They said it -- they were attacked by helicopters firing missiles. Certainly we can see the missiles firing -- fired -- flying across the city. Certainly we can see an ammunition dump (ph) on fire and also hear aircraft in the air.

Taliban officials also tell us today that two aircraft and workshop facilities at Kabul Airport were damaged. Two Antonov aircraft, one of the national airline Ariana and one a military aircraft were damaged on the airfield.

But certainly from here in Afghanistan what happened last night in Kabul was part of an ongoing civil war spurred on by the fact that a key leader in the north was (inaudible) of an assassination attempt over the weekend. Very unclear if he's still alive.

This morning in Kabul United Nations aide workers have been preparing to leave, they've been reduced to a skeleton staff here. And workers from other international territory organizations, non-governmental territory organizations has been preparing to leave.

A (inaudible) German group in the city understand that four are leaving today and certainly some of them we've already seen today driving out of their compound and leaving the city.

Taliban of course, Jonathan, very swift to move in this situation and say that bin Laden was not responsible. And that Afghanistan condemns terrorism. A certain amount of apprehension here in the leadership circles about what could happen in the coming days and weeks.

And the Taliban's very swift to put their stamp of what happened, the responsibility here very clearly that they are not responsible they say. Deeply they say they believe bin Laden not responsible as well, Jonathan.

MANN: Nic, many people in the United States are calling this an act of war though they're not naming the enemy who presumably carried it out. Does Afghanistan, does the leadership there feel like it's being drawn into a war? Are they preparing for one?

ROBERTSON: Well, when asked about that last night the Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil was clear, he said that Afghanistan had not been directly accused yet.

And he said that it was not necessary for Afghanistan to take any precautions such as go on a heightened status security alert, secure airfields and other such areas. He said that wasn't necessary at this time. Afghanistan and bin Laden, he said, have not been accused openly.

However, they are very concerned about the situation right now, Jonathan.

MANN: Nic Robertson in Kabul. Thanks very much. Ralitsa?

VASSILEVA: Jon, for more analysis now we're joined by Magnus Ranstorp who's the Deputy Director of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St. Andrews University.

Mr. Ranstorp thank you very much for joining us.

Your thoughts on who could have carried out these attacks.

MAGNUS RANSTORP, DEPUTY DIRECTOR CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF TERRORISM AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE: Well it's perhaps too early to say right now who would be responsible for the attacks. It could be a combination of a consortium of groups. It could be possibly a state involvement.

But I think most of the money, most of the attention is focused on bin Laden, perhaps not him personally but many of lieutenants and his network of followers that are distributed all around the world.

[04:25:00]

His organization is truly a multinational enterprise with not only followers from many different nationalities but also have financial infrastructure all around the world. And there has been a massive intelligence led effort ever since 1996 when he declared an open war against America to track down not only him and his followers but also his financial assets.

VASSILEVA: Where did intelligence fail in this case?

RANSTORP: The organization, given the fact that they have 40 Soviet -- well members of organization have fought the Soviet Union for over a decade. They are well skilled in gorilla techniques and terrorism techniques. They understand how the west gathers intelligence.

They have therefore avoided signal intelligence in terms of using satellite phones and so forth that figured previously in some of the information we have about bin Laden himself.

The United States and other intelligence agencies have a great difficulty given the decentralized nature of the organization and being able to infiltrate it. Many of the followers we are unaware of in terms of their nationality and therefore most governments, most intelligence agencies do not have lists of these operatives.

However, there are certain nationalities that have figured at the top end of the core of bin Laden and Al-Qaeda as an organization. Those being principally Egyptian but also Algerian, particularly following Al-Qaeda's ability to infiltrate the Armed (ph) Islamic (ph) Group in 1997, '98 and set up an infrastructure in Europe.

VASSILEVA: And certainly out to the complexities of the post Cold War era where it is very difficult to pinpoint terrorists attacks.

RANSTORP: Yes, it's very difficult because you are -- or you have individuals, groups that can overcome asymmetry of power using very conventional, yet as we have witnessed yesterday through very conventional means, simple means cause a catastrophic mass causality events.

VASSILEVA: Mr. Ranstorp --

RANSTORP: And we are --

VASSILEVA: Yes, finish your thought.

RANSTORP: And we have been facing a new kind of terrorism, a faceless enemy that does not claim any credit anymore, that is interested in retribution, that is interested in mobilizing forces against the dominance of the west and the United States in particular.

And in particular, vis-a-vis bin Laden, over the issue of continued U.S. presence in the Gulf. He has advocated and mobilized and tried to use the issue of Jerusalem as a course to get more popularity. And, of course, the Iraqi population suffering under the sanctions.

VASSILEVA: Mr. Ranstorp thank you much for speaking with us. Jon?

MANN: U.S. financial markets, including the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will remained closed Wednesday in Asia. Markets fell decisively right from the open.

Richard Quest has the latest now on Asian and European trading as well. Richard?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes indeed Jonathan, the markets in Asia pretty much followed the trend that had been seen in Europe. Of course there was no trading in the United States on Tuesday, so it was really left to Europe and to Asia to give the financial world's reaction to what was being seen.

There were very sharp reduction in values. Tokyo was off some 6 percent, in Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index down 8 percent. At the moment we're seeing something of a turnaround. We'll get to that in a second.

Across the financial world central bankers have been trying to talk confidence into the market. The Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, the U.S. Fed, they've all said that they stand ready to add cash, to add so-called liquidity to the market. That can be in the provision of cash to ATMs for people withdrawing money out of panic or to companies who are suddenly finding themselves in a credit crunch.

OPEC has said it also stands by to provide greater supplies of oil in the event that prices should exceed supply. That would be, of course, very bad for the world economy. And there had been fears that the rise in price, what you saw in the last 24 hours, would continue. It doesn't seem to be at the moment.

Overall all financial agencies, all central banks are aiming to build confidence in the world business system. As Bob Hormats the Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs explained.

[04:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT HORMATS, VICE CHAIRMAN GOLDMAN SACHS: G7 particularly have to work together to restore --

QUEST: Right.

HORMATS: -- confidence by showing that they're working together on this. It's not just one country. It's the overall financial world that needs to have confidence restored. And the G7 leaders need to do that together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: And to that end they will take whatever measures they deem necessary, cutting interest rates, providing money to the market.

The European markets are open. We'll now catch up with what's been happening. Liz George is at the London Stock Exchange with an update. Liz George?

LIZ GEORGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Richard thanks very much indeed. It's extremely somber here in the city. In fact, there's an eerie quietness. Normally on a morning at this particular time in the morning you'd see the streets very packed, commuters coming into work. Today the streets are extremely quite. There's hardly any traffic around. Just a few people walking into work.

And one of the most extraordinary things of course, as well, is that there's not even any aircraft noise. Now the city is normally in the flight path and, of course, there are no aircraft coming across either. So there's an awful lot of quietness. A very, very somber feeling here.

The links between the financial markets here in London and the financial markets in New York are extremely strong and traders, investors, people in the city really thinking very hard about their colleagues, their co-workers, their friends in New York that perhaps are missing, that they haven't heard from.

So there really is a great deal of quietness and that's pervading onto the trading floors as well. Extremely somber, very light trading, people really waiting to see what's going to happen. Trading rooms extremely empty today.

I was talking to one analyst earlier on, Jeremy Batson of Natwest Stockbrokers about the mood yesterday when this news actually broke across the trading floors. And he was saying there was a huge feeling of panic, just a gut reaction of massive amounts of selling going on.

But he was saying that as people begin to take time to think about it, then the markets are going to come back slightly and that's what we've seen them doing today as people just digest this mood.

So the markets at the moment are rising slightly, but they've been wavering all over (ph) the place.

Now let's got to Maggie Lake in our New York Bureau.

MAGGIE LAKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Liz hi there. As you can imagine everyone here still reeling from the news today. We won't find out how markets react. All financial markets are closed in the United States.

For many companies their first concern, especially for those in New York and the lower part of Manhattan, are making sure that all of their employees are accounted for. We've seen some companies running banners on the news stations across the bottom saying -- asking their employees to call numbers to make sure that they get a final headcount. You know, personal safety is going to be the first concern here.

There are a lot of worries about what this will do to consumer confidence. We were already having many fears about whether the U.S. economy was facing recession. This type of unprecedented action here in the United States, we're just -- we're just not clear what kind of impact this will have on consumer confidence at a very fragile time. We'll have to wait some days before that is evident.

We will not have stocks trading in the U.S. tomorrow. We also understand Incanet (ph) is not trading U.S. stocks in Europe until we're able to come out of this. One of the big focuses when we do -- are up and running again, of course, will be the insurers as is often the case here with so much damage and loss of life.

There are two areas really of insurance that are going to be covered, which is liability and property. And some of the -- the last time, you know, it's eerie. We have been through this before with the World Trade Center, many of the people coming out saying this is round two for them and hopefully the last time.

Last time out insurers paid $510 million in damages in the wake of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Their big focus I know that they're suffering losses abroad in both and Asia and Europe in terms of insurers.

Some of the companies last time that were affected, American International, Hartford Services, Cigna which sold its U.S. property insurance to the Bermuda insurer ACE and Lloyds of London.

Of course, we do not know if they are the companies that will again be facing liabilities on this side. We have had a statement from Chubb already, but we are going to have to wait until we can sift through them. You know, some -- as I said, a lot of these companies at least have some satellite offices, even if they're not these insurance companies, others that are involved in life have satellite companies down there.

We understand that Paul O'Neill the Treasury Secretary is making his way back to the U.S. Obviously as Richard mentioned the Fed has come out and said they will provide the liquidity needed to keep the markets moving.

So still a sense of shock here but hopefully things will slowly get back to business. I also should mention that a lot of employers will keep their people home tomorrow and not bring them into Manhattan. So we're going to slowly grind forward here. Liz?

Actually I think we're going to Jonathan Mann perhaps. Jonathan?

MANN: Maggie Lake thanks very much.

There is enormous uncertainty now. The money is one thing but the center of everyone's concern, of course, the people.

[04:35:00]

It could be weeks before the fate of all those who were in or near the World Trade Center is known.

Michael Holmes has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move it. Move out (ph).

(YELLING) MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Even in the chaos of the aftermath it was clear the casualty list would be obscenely long.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't want to know. You don't want to know. You don't want to know the things that we were stepping over. It was horrific, absolutely horrific.

HOLMES (voice over): Survivors, the walking wounded and those who were just passing by the World Trade Center ghost-like, covered in dust and ash and disbelief.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you go over by it you can see the people jumping out the window. They're jumping out the window right now. Oh my God.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody was on top of each trying to come down and then somebody finally calmed the crowd down to get them to come down the stairs in an orderly fashion and get them out of the building.

HOLMES (voice over): The dust was everywhere. Blanketing entire city blocks, an eerie warzone scene. Stunned survivors being guided to buses or simply walking silently away from the scene.

04: Emergency workers did their jobs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why don't we just set this up as a little mobile hospital unit right here, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

HOLMES (voice over): Witnesses spoke of how eerily the calm the survivors, even the injured appeared to be. People ran back, there was little hysteria.

But buildings housed thousands of workers, thousands more visited each day. It will be day, maybe weeks before the number of dead is known. It could be in the thousands, it all depends on how many of those 10,000 workers managed to evacuate before the building collapsed.

The injured are easier to count. And they too number in the thousands.

There are 170 hospitals in the New York area and all were on maximum alert. Many swamped with casualties. Injuries ranging from shock and asthma attacks brought on by that dust, through the broken bones and severe heard injuries. And then there were the burns. Hundreds of people burned from head to toe said one doctor. Here another on what he saw.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was one -- a burn patient. I mean, it's very difficult to see burn patients. They're charred -- they're charred, their skin is coming off, they're in tremendous pain and, you know, it's tremendous suffering.

HOLMES (voice over): Officials were worried about blood supplies. But as soon as that became known hundreds of New Yorkers lined up to donate, as did Americans across the country, jamming donation centers.

Disaster relief agencies working with the military to transport thousands of pints of blood to New York City and to Washington, where survivors of the Pentagon attack were also in need.

Among the dead and injured in New York hundreds of firefighters, rescue workers, police officers, people who'd gone to the scene after the first plane crashed into the Twin Towers to help the injured and evacuate the survivors.

They were inside when the buildings collapsed and at last count more than half of the 400 firefighters who went to the scene never reported back.

Michael Holmes, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VASSILEVA: Assuming they got any sleep overnight, Americans will be waking up this day to headlines that will probably still seem very unreal. In some ways this might be seen as the day the 21st century really began with the American people.

Back now to New York and once again our Garrick Utley.

UTLEY: Well Ralitsa, talking or speaking of headlines, we've just got the first edition of one New York newspaper. It's "The New York Post." As you can see here, "Act of War" is on the front page. Get it right there. World Trade Center bombed and there's picture or still photo of that one plane heading into one of the World Trade Center towers.

We're still waiting for "The New York Daily News" and "The New York Times." They're having trouble getting their papers in as the posted across the river is where the printing plants are located because the bridges and the tunnels have been closed.

Today we see many of these images and yet things that were not captured on videotape can also be very telling and very important.

For example, early this evening I experienced two or three things. The skies were quite over Manhattan after the explosions occurred because air traffic, of course, had been grounded. Till about 7 o'clock this evening and suddenly I was outside and I heard a noise, a strange noise. There as a U.S. Air Force fighter plane flying over Manhattan. One fighter, rather high, streaking across this city. Never heard that before here.

A few minutes later trying to get transportation, there are no taxis in town, very few buses or subways are running. At the edge of Central Park where tourists love to come there was one of those horse-drawn carriages, a hansom cab, just one. A horse, the carriage and its rider -- it's driver looking for farers, alone in an empty street at Central Park South, but there were no customers out on the streets this evening.

[04:40:05] Finally you find a bus. We got on the New York City bus and guess

what, no charge. Everybody rides free these days and these nights in Manhattan.

Those are some of the little things that aren't recorded on a videotape.

And here now are some of the pictures we've really been seeing over these past several hours. Let's go to them once again.

We saw this extraordinary site, the exodus. You really can't call it anything more than that, people leaving Manhattan this afternoon. Maybe you've seen these scenes before. In lower Manhattan, the Manhattan, the Brooklyn Bridge famous to so many people, just look at that. And look how orderly everyone is. Concern, anxiety certainly, but order, no panic here.

Amazing in view of what had just happened a few minutes before after the planes struck the building. It comes down. Only 30, 31-years-old the World Trade Center towers and down they came.

Down they came after the fire in the towers reached 1,500 or 1,600 degrees or even more. That melted the steel. As it melted the steel, shell or frame, the floors collapsed, each on the other and down they came into rubble.

And amid this, the chaos, understandable chaos, confusion, fear, fleeing, the pure basic human instinct of self-preservation.

And yet even in these scenes, again and again, the reports of how many individuals helped each other, helped pull them along, their friends, their colleagues. And tonight the rescue efforts continue.

Heavy machinery as well as flood lights run off portable generators have been brought in. There are up to 10,000 rescue workers in Manhattan working day and night. Still no estimate as to what the casualties will be in the World Trade Center bombings. But the work continues. It has only begun.

Which also raises another question, a question that New Yorkers will be asking as they get this morning. And perhaps people across the nation will be asking too. Was this it? Is it now over?

As horrendous as it was, was the taking down of the two towers here, the bombing of the Pentagon, the bombing of the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. Is that the end of this terrorist attack by whomever organized it? Or could there be more attacks?

We don't know. We don't want to raise any undo concern. But the fact that New York City security officials and federal officials, security officials are saying keep the bridges and the tunnels closed tomorrow. Keep the airports closed. Keep the planes grounded means they are obviously very concerned that there may still be another attack out there, some terrorist out there.

Earlier this evening bomb squads were -- could be racing through the city checking out every suspicious vehicle. They don't know the security people. We don't know. Of course, we'll never know until it happens again if it does.

Ralitsa?

VASSILEVA: Garrick, certainly that there is a massive loss of a sense of security that Americans will have after this event.

UTLEY: Certainly, there's now question about this. This is, as been said many times today, the single most traumatic direct attack on American territory and lives since December 7, 1941. And this too will be a day that will last much -- for many, many years infamy.

And yet, I think Americans are not totally surprised by this. Shocked? Yes. Surprised? No. We understand the world today. We understand the dangers. We see what happens in the Middle East. We understand the terrorists in Afghanistan and elsewhere in this world. We see it via satellite all the time. We see it in the news.

And so this scene is a reminder that, yes, it could happen again. It is, as somebody else observed looking at these documents, these memos, these expense accounts, the letters that floated down from the World Trade Center towers, whatever the high-tech age has brought us we are not yet a paperless society.

VASSILEVA: Garrick --

UTLEY: So much invested in those papers and those lives and in those jobs. Yes Ralitsa?

VASSILEVA: Garrick thank you very much.

UTLEY: Back to you (ph).

MANN: Many nations around the world are more familiar with terrorism than the United States has been -- had been. But still the reaction elsewhere has been enormous shock.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour joins us from London. Christiane?

[04:44:55]

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jonathan indeed, the day after the sense of shock and naked fear is growing not diminishing. Here the normally staged (ph) British newspapers, the broadsheets are using headlines like "Doomsday America." The cerebral "Financial Times" has got a massive front page which says, "Assault on America." And even "Le Figaro" in France saying "The New War."

The sense here is that this an act of unparalleled barbarism. It is not just the biggest single act of terrorism on U.S. soil, but according to everybody I've asked this is the single biggest recorded act of terrorism in our memory. We can't think of anywhere that something like this has happened as far as we can see way back even in 50 years. The British Cabinet is meeting in emergency security session today.

The prime minister has gathered his home secretary, otherwise known as the interior minister. His foreign and defense secretaries they have issued statements certainly.

Last night the British prime minister saying that all democracies in the all the world must now unite, not only to defeat but to eradicate this actor of barbarism and these kinds of movements that create this kind of upheaval and disaster and calamity.

The French President Jacques Chirac called this an attack on freedom itself. The German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder called it an attack on the entire civilized world. Presidents across Europe from Russia to Italy to France to Germany are all saying that the world, the democracies must stand firm, not only offering moral support and sympathy to the United States, but a new resolve to combat this kind of naked aggression they're saying.

In the Arab world all the moderate Arab leaders, most of whom are allies of the United States, have condemned this. Even Libya, which as has its history of antagonism with the United States has condemned this attack and has sent sympathy to the United States.

The only country not doing so is Iraq, which as we know is in current state of ongoing war with the United States and in fact the United Kingdom.

Here in Britain there has been heightened security, not only at the airports where I flew in today, where there are policemen with submachine guns at the entrances to the airport. There are no planes allowed to fly over central London but also in other areas of government buildings there is a heightened state of alert as there are in many other capitals.

It is increasingly jittery. We've heard stories and reports of hoaxes, fake bomb alerts, people being told they had to evacuate a building in Frankfurt only to discover that this, in fact, was not a real attack. And indeed Downing Street, the prime minister's residence here in Britain, was evacuated of all the journalists shortly before their national security meeting and no reason was given for that.

But a state of shock settling in here and around the world. Jonathan?

MANN: Christiane Amanpour thanks very much. Ralitsa?

VASSILEVA: For more in the mood (ph) in Paris we're joined by Jim Bittermann. Jim?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes Ralitsa, good morning. The news here has been dominated of course by the attack this morning. One of France's leading commentators said that we are entering a new world here this morning. A world which we dominated between the conflict, we dominated by the conflict between a radical Islam and the west. And he said that September 11 will mark a pivotal date between the before and after that conflict.

Afterwards, of course, there was swift reaction on the streets here in Paris.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BITTERMANN (voice over): Within hours of the attack in New York the American embassy in Paris was closed and evacuated. The employees told to go home. It remains closes this morning and there's no sign of when it might open again.

At American institutions around town there is much tighter security this morning. Most remain open. But American flags have been withdrawn from outside the buildings in case anyone should want to try another attack.

At the American Cathedral a service is scheduled for later on today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACQUES CHIRAC, PRESIDENT OF FRANCE: (Foreign language).

BITTERMANN: President Jacques Chirac went on television last night to call the American attacks a terrible tragedy. And he ordered a top security alert which will mobilize thousands of French troops and put them on the streets of Paris. But so far this morning there is little sign of any military activity and it's not clear that there has been any specific threat to the country.

None the less French on the street this morning were nervous about what happened in New York and feeling very vulnerable even here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't feel any (ph) security nowhere now.

BITTERMANN: You don't feel secure anywhere?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody is safe in this -- in his own country and this is awful I think.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BITTERMANN: There's a special meeting of France's anti-terrorism committee going on right now. Once again, the interior minister has emphasized that there is no specific threat against France.

One leading newspaper here, as many have, compared the attack in New York to Pearl Harbor but it took it one step further saying that like the attack on Pearl Harbor perhaps the attack on New York will bring the United Sates out of its isolationism.

Ralitsa?

[04:50:10]

VASSILEVA: Jim, what kind of offers for help to the U.S. are being contemplated?

BITTERMANN: The French have offered to do anything they can to help in this situation. I think the have a sent some special teams to help look for victims in the rubble. But basically there's no a whole lot they can do from here. They have canceled, by the way, I should have probably mentioned, they've canceled all further Air France flights today to the United States just as a precautionary measure.

So we're seeing that kind of global shutdown of the airlines that we saw yesterday afternoon. It's looks like it's going to take place at least through part of the day today.

Ralitsa?

VASSILEVA: Jim thank you. Jon?

MANN: Beyond France the European Union as a whole is trying to make its voice and concern known. Diana Muriel joins us now with the latest from a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers in Brussels.

Diana?

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right Jon. In fact there's a series of emergency meetings taking place here in Brussels. Right now the European commissioner's holding an emergency session. We'll be hearing more from the in a press conference an hour and a quarter where Romano Prodi the Head of the European Commission is likely to make some remarks, as well as Chris Patten who's the Commission for External Relations.

As you said the European Union Foreign Ministers will also be holding a meeting this afternoon here in Brussels and we'll be hearing more from them later. And NATO which has canceled a meeting in Budapest, the chiefs of NATO returning to Brussels, they'll be holding their own meeting later. And again, a press conference.

In fact, the permanent security council of NATO is currently in its second meeting of the day in coordination with the U.S. authorities coordinating security measures her in Europe.

At the same time the response here in Brussels is one of absolute shock. In fact the Belgian authorities have provided a team of five medical officers who are specialists in burns, from the burns unit of the major hospital here in Brussels. We understand that they will be sent to America in response to American requests for assistance, as well as five police officers from the federal police here who are specialists in identifying corpses.

The airport in Brussels is at a state of high security. There is a lot disruption to flights around the region. Of course, there are no flights to the U.S. to Canada or, indeed, to Israel today.

But the security measures will continue until further notice. We understand that no flights will be going to the U.S. unit approximately mid-day Washington time. But of course that has to be confirmed. Back to you Jon.

MANN: Diana Muriel thanks very much.

VASSILEVA: And it has been an unbelievable and tragic 21 hours here in the United States today. Here are now some of the most enduring images that were caught on camera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(EXPLOSION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy shit.

(EXPLOSION)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy shit (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This just in, you are looking at obviously a very disturbing live shot there. That is the World Trade Center and we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The plane was coming in, I noticed a second before it hit the building. It looked like it was moving slowly, that it lined itself up to hit the building directly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The doorman goes to me, wow I've never seen plane flying so low. And we looked out at it, all of a sudden, boom, it looked -- it seemed like it wasn't even real.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd say the hole takes about -- looks like six, seven floors were taken out. And it --

(YELLING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's an explosion right now. Hold on, people are running. Hold on.

(SCREAMING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He said hold on just a moment. We've got an explosion inside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The buildings exploding right now. You've got people running up the street.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't (inaudible) going on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just went ba-boom. It was like a bomb went off. And I was like was that holy hell coming down them stairs. And then we were going -- we got -- finally got to the bottom they were coming out on the mezzanine level there and another explosion came (inaudible) everyone flying. Right in front of me, everything just boom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's like a huge crowd I'd say of hundreds of people on the streets that come from south to north. I mean, really thousands of people that have been running from inside these buildings.

You know, it's a very heavily trafficked area in downtown, the World Trade Center, many of them were inside the building when the felt the explosion and they say there was just pandemonium. There was no warning, no alarms, no anything. Everyone just raced from their desks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was people jumping out of windows. I seen at least 14 people jumping out of windows. It's horrific. I can't believe this is happening.

(RESCUE VEHICLE SIRENS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Move it. Come on. Move it. Back up. Let's go. Let's go.

(RESCUE VEHICLE SIRENS)

[04:55:05]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They started slowly evacuating the White House about 30 minutes ago and then in the last five minutes people have come running out of the White House and the old executive office building.

BUSH: Today we've had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country.

I have spoken to the vice president, to the governor of New York, to the director of the FBI and I've ordered that the full resources of the Federal Government go to help the victims and their families and the -- and to conduct a full scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act.

Terrorism against our nation will not stand. And now if you'd join me in a moment of silence.

May God bless the victims, their families and America. Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well arriving at Pentagon a short time ago there was a huge plume of smoke which continues to rise from the west side of the Pentagon. The plume of smoke is enormous. It's a couple of hundred yards across at its base. It is billowing into the sky.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a lot of confusion here at the Pentagon. It appears that something hit the Pentagon on the outside of the fifth corridor, on the Army corridor, several Army officers I talked to reported hearing a big explosion, seeing shards of metal coming past their window.

The Pentagon has been evacuated. Emergency services personnel were rushing to report several people trapped in the building. Most of the building's 24,000 people are outside of the building or in the center courtyard.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The White House is reporting that the Capitol building has been evacuated and the Treasury Department has been evacuated. Washington, D.C., the nation's capital is exceptionally tense and clearly taking steps as if it is virtually under siege here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There has just been a huge explosion, we can see a billowing smoke rising and I can't -- I'll tell you that I can't see that second tower, but there was a cascade of sparks and fire and now this -- it looks almost like a mushroom cloud explosion. This huge billowing smoke in the second tower.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope I live. I hope I live. It's coming down on me. Here it comes. I'm getting behind a car. It's incredible.

OK, I'm going to head (ph) to find people who need because I don't think I'm one of them. Are you OK, sir? OK. Can I just get a tune (ph) off your respirator? Can I get a tune (ph)? I'm just getting a couple of clean breaths. That's good. Thank you. OK. Back to you.

(YELLING)

This is the car I hid behind that saved my life. Or maybe it was this one.

[05:00:00]

There's all these noises, I think it -- I don't know what it is. They say someone needs help.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Mike (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike (ph). Mike (ph), I'm over here. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anybody need a doctor?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where are you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oxygen?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't have oxygen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) go ahead.

(ALARMS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh man. (COUGHING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello doc.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, that guy needs some oxygen if someone can share it with him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 10-4.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks.

(ALARMS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They told me just to wait here, this semi staging area to see if I can help, so that's what I'm doing. They won't let me go any closer. No one can go in to get the people out. There are small explosions still going on.

So far I've just seen some people who just needed oxygen from the dust. You know, it's like a sauna (ph).

I'm going to go wash my eyes out.

We just heard another explosion.

They're handing out gloves and masks.

The consensus is it's too unsafe to go in there.

You know what --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) anything?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- why don't we just set this up as a little mobile hospital unit right here, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Four-nine -- four-nine (ph) is trying to get all units that are available to head into (inaudible). Any units available report (inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a report now that a large plane crashed this morning north of the Somerset County Airport which is in western Pennsylvania, not too terribly far from Pittsburgh, about 80 miles or so.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think there are enough words in the English language, or are there enough appropriate words to describe the range of emotions that I think Pennsylvanians share with the -- their neighbors in Virginia, New York and the rest of American after literally witnessing the most brutal act of terrorism perhaps in mankind, at least in recent history.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[05:03:25]

VINCE CELLINI, CNN ANCHOR: The day after a massive and unprecedented terrorist attack on America a nation mourns.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A major recovery effort is underway in lower Manhattan right now. A search for thousands of innocent victims and hundreds of the rescuers who were lost in the destruction.

CELLINI: And good morning I'm Vince Cellini along with Carol Lin. And lower Manhattan this morning lying in a mountain of rubble. Fewer than 24 hours after the world's worst ever terrorist attack.

LIN: That's right Vince. Efforts are underway at this hour right now to find what is feared to be thousands of victims and here are some of the latest pictures. And as you cans, heavy equipment is now on the scene for helping.

CELLINI: Among the victims more than 300 firefighters are missing, feared dead. They were among the first crews to enter the World Trade Center area after the initial plane crashes.

LIN: We also have new pictures of those terrible moments when two passenger jets became missiles aimed at the Twin Towers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy shit.

(SCREAMING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my gosh.

(SCREAMING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my God.

(SCREAMING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my God.

[05:05:10]

(SCREAMING)

(END VIDEO TAPE)

LIN: More than 20 hours later it is still seemingly unbelievable that this even happened. CNN's Garrick Utley is live in New York for the latest on the rescue operation.

Garrick do we yet know how many people survived? How many people died? UTLEY: We can't even begin to speculate on that Carol. The mayor, other government officials have said they're not even going to try to guess, although the figure will obviously be in the thousands.

It's now just after 5:00 am as you well know here on the East coast of the United States here in New York City. And this is the time that this metropolis usually starts to come to work, get up and get at it in the New York way.

But not this morning, nobody's really coming into town. The streets, even at this hour, are still empty. The only sounds we hear is the occasional siren of an ambulance or a police car racing around Manhattan Island.

The rescue work, as we saw just a moment ago, is continuing. It has been going on all night down as the World Trade Center site. The generators with the flood lights were brought in. The fire department is still there. Rescue workers are starting to move the rubble with giant earth moving machine. But, of course, this is going to go on for days and days.

And what is really hard for many, I think, of us to understand or comprehend that what seems to have (ph) hit a trauma (ph) that has gone on for an eternity has really been with us for, what, 20 hours now and it started under such different circumstances.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UTLEY: It was such a beautiful morning. The air was clear over Manhattan. The sky a rich blue. The two Twin Towers stood tall, anchored in a bedrock of granite, so secure, so unshakable.

And then --

(SIRENS)

We have seen smoke and destruction before, but we've never seen -- seen badness like this.

(SIRENS)

Or catastrophe like this.

(SIRENS)

It was morning when words could only begin to express the horror.

(SCREAMING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was like a blizzard, but a blizzard that wasn't cold, a blizzard that, you know, had no wind. It was just hot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was an enormous fireball. It was fire, debris falling to the ground and then just a whole kind of mushroom of smoke that sort of just billowed up. UTLEY: We knew that some of what happened this morning could happen. That there could be another attack on the World Trade Center as there was eight years ago. That terrorists might attack the Pentagon and hijack commercial flights.

But how could we imagine that all this could happen? That much of the government would be shut down? The capital of the United States evacuated and the White House? That the president of the most powerful nation in the world would take evasive action for his own security?

Across this nation from airports closed down to home, to workplace, we watched and tried to comprehend what we were seeing. It took time after the shock of the terror to digest the dimension of the human tragedy.

We tried to imagine what those caught in the soaring towers, in the doomed planes and the Pentagon went through before the end. We can only wonder what happens next.

The president vows action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I've directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UTLEY: Retaliation, even revenge may feel sweet one day. But right now there are only the remnants of terror, the pain of the tragedy and the tears.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

UTLEY: And now there is the morning after and the days to come. And the morning newspaper, another one has reached Manhattan Island, "New York's Daily News" the largest circulating tabloid in the United States, the oldest one too. The headline is simply, "It's War," in red letters. Pictures throughout the newspaper as throughout the journals coming of the city and across the country this day.

Really telling us nothing new except that it's war. The question, of course, Carol is if we know where the battleground is, it was right down here in lower Manhattan, it was in the Pentagon today or yesterday. The search there continues. The question is where is the enemy? And that's what we will be asking for days and weeks to come.

Carol?

LIN: Certainly. And how do we find the enemy? Thank you very much. Garrick Utley reporting from New York.

We will get to that matter in just a moment but right now we want to talk about the recovery operation. New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani says hospitals have so far treated 1,100 people.

[05:10:08]

Catholic Cardinal Edward Egan arrived at St. Vincent's Hospital to administer last rights to a dozen victims.

CNN's Michael Okwu is monitoring the situation at St. Vincent's and he joins us now live. Michael?

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, in a couple hours most New Yorkers will awake in a city with a gaping hole in its skyline. But there is absolutely no lack of compassion or empathy in many of the people at this scene on this night.

Walking along -- I should say that many of the pedestrians here at St. Vincent's Hospital which, of course, has become the main triage center here in New York have greeted each other with knowing nods, which as you can imagine is not common practice here in New York. It's been a very strangely silent night.

just north of here, a couple blocks on 14th Street, the police department has set up barricades and that's limiting the traffic just south of 14th Street to residents, police vehicles and occasionally emergency vehicle -- emergency medical vehicles who's sirens occasionally punctuate and break the eerie silence.

Now about 40 minutes ago we saw three victims. And in fact in the last one minute we saw a fourth victim who we identified as a police officer. They were rushed into the hospital, but it is unclear whether any of those victims sustained injuries associated with the World Trade Center attack.

Hospital officials here at St. Vincent's said that they have admitted 327 patients associated with the attack, 50 to 55 of whom were in critical condition as of 10:30 last night Eastern time.

Many of those victims sustained severe burns. Many of those burns to the face. Officials say that they will have another briefing at about 6:30 this morning and we will be here, of course, live for that.

Back to you Carol.

LIN: All right. Thank you very much, Michael Okwu outside of St. Vincent's hospital this morning.

It could be weeks before we know the absolute total number of people who were injured and killed. And of course the hunt for suspects does go on.

Last night President Bush in an Oval Office address promised to hunt down those responsible, denounce this failed attempt, as he called it, to scare the United States. But what are the administration's options.

Former State Department Spokesman and former Assistant Secretary to the State Department James Rubin joins us now from our London bureau. Good morning Jamie. JAMES RUBIN, FORMER SPOKESMAN FOR STATE DEPARTMENT: Good morning to

you.

LIN: Well certainly Americans will be waking up this morning asking how could this possibly happen. And we have learned that just last month security officials had warned about Osama bin Laden's threat to American installations overseas.

Just last Friday the State Department issued travel warnings to Americans. So how is it that the American intelligence community failed to detect that something like this could happen?

RUBIN: Well I suspect that is the $64,000 question that's going to be examined day after day by the committees in Congress, by the intelligence community itself and by the administration.

Clearly what we've seen is an attack not just on the United States but on the nerve center of the civilized world, which is what the World Trade Center is. And I think in terms of the administration's options that you mentioned earlier, I think first and foremost they're going to have to nail down if this really was Osama bin Laden.

It certainly has all the fingerprints of an Osama bin Laden or his followers attack. It follows closely on ideas that were discussed in previous attacks, namely to take over jetliners and crash them into American facilities. It follows on their attempt to destroy the World Trade Center before.

So it has all the fingerprints of Osama bin Laden. I think the important point that President Bush stressed last night is that we are not going to allow governments to come up with ridiculous arguments, such as the Afghanistan government, that somehow Osama bin Laden who is masterminding these attacks is a guest of their country and therefore can't be turned over.

We're now at war. The lower part of Manhattan is a warzone. The United States has never been attacked like this before. It looks, unfortunately, like it may be on the scale of Pearl Harbor in terms of the deaths of Americans by surprise. And Americans are going to respond to that war.

And the key question is, is when --whether the President of the United States is going to be able to gather the civilized countries of the world, all of them, one-by-one, and putting the question to them are you on the side of the civilized peoples. The peoples who believe in not just freedom but in safety and security or are you going to be on the side of these evil terrorists?

[05:15:08]

And that diplomatic campaign has already begun and it's going to be an enormous challenge, because there's no way to combat this kind of terrorism and prevent it from happening again without the support of a large, large numbers of countries in the world.

LIN: Which raises another question, Jamie. How far should the United States go in going after sympathetic governments who might be supporting Osama bin Laden. Of course, you know, that it's thought that he's being harbored by the Taliban in Afghanistan. So even with a united front what options do the administration have in going after the Taliban?

RUBIN: Well, I don't think there's any question that the Taliban are harboring Osama bin Laden, they've been doing so for some years now. I don't think there's any question that there are other individuals around the world who have been part and parse of his fundraising apparatus and who have given aide and comfort to the -- this enemy of the United States.

In terms of military options, economic options, diplomatic options, at this point I think it would be premature for me to say, except to say that when people talk about military action it should not be thought about as retribution.

It should be thought about as preemption. This organization has acted before time-after-time against the World Trade Center, against the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, against the USS Cole.

If indeed the acted yesterday as it looks like they did they are going to act again. And the use of military force is not for some retribution or revenge if it comes to that. It's to deter and preempt them from acting another time and killing even more people than we've seen in the last 24 hours.

LIN: So Jamie take us into the process then. Take us into behind the scenes at the national security operation and at the State Department. What discussions are being had today? Who is sitting at the table? And what decisions are likely needed to be made in the next 24 to 48 hours?

RUBIN: Well I think on the domestic side obviously the emergency system is going to be put in place to try to help the city of New York and the state of New York deal with its tragedy in lower Manhattan and obviously the tragedy at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.

On the foreign policy side, the national security side, I think the first order of business is to determine if there are any other potential capabilities for these terrorists to take over aircraft again. And I think by stopping the flights and changing the security apparatus by which pilots operate will be prime on the agenda.

On the diplomatic side I think what will be happening is that the secretary of state or his representative now, because I gather he's flying back from Peru, will be asked to canvas the world's governments to try to ascertain the level of support we're getting from all of the key countries. We need a coalition against terrorism and that coalition has to be more than just our NATO allies who are committed by treaty to defend the United States if it comes under attack.

But also countries like Russia and moderate Arab states and other countries, perhaps even the Chinese to commit with us in this battle against terrorism so that if the Osama bin Laden organization is proved to be responsible that those countries support us in whatever measures we need to take.

Not to act in revenge, but to act to prevent them from doing it again to another civilized country because this is just the beginning of what they see as a permanent campaign against the United States and the civilized world.

So I think all those steps are being taken. And finally, there is a reassurance that has to take place and I think President Bush has done a good job so far.

But he and his administration need to do an even better job today, tomorrow and in the weeks to come to reassure not only the American people that all these steps are being take, but to reassure the financial markets.

to make clear that the United States nerve center and of commerce and Wall Street may have been attacked but our nerves are made of steel and we're going to go forward and continue our daily business and the business of America because that's what these terrorists are trying to prevent.

And needs to convince every American citizen that they need to get up in the morning and do the -- all the things they used to do. And do them, perhaps, with more care and more caution, but to not let the terrorists win by changing our freedoms or changing our habits.

LIN: James Rubin former State Department Spokesman from London. Thank you very much for joining us this morning.

CELLINI: Washington, D.C. was in the crosshairs of terrorism. Senior White House Correspondent John King and National Correspondent Bob Franken on the scene for us this morning in the nation's capital.

First let's go to John King. John?

[05:20:10]

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well Vince, in the hours ahead look for the administration to move aggressively on several fronts. First, an effort by the White House to make the case the federal government is doing all it can for the rescue and the relief operation. As part of that there will even be a symbolic blood drive on the White House grounds this morning.

Also Secretary of State Colin Powell will be out making the round of morning news shows, also delivering remarks here in Washington, promising a thorough investigation and promising, as Jamie Rubin was just speaking about, to reach out to governments around the world to build a new coalition against international terrorism.

Now the president will awake this morning and be briefed once again by his national security team. He will also have bipartisan meeting with the Congressional leadership at the White House and deliver some public remarks after that statement. That an effort by the White House to show continuity and resolve, that the government is at work even as the investigation and the rescue and relief efforts unfold. Now Mr. Bush last night delivered a nationally televised address to the nation, certainly a defining moment for this president on a defining day for the country. Mr. Bush speaking to the American people from the Oval Office said the nation was gripped by what he called a quite, unyielding anger.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quite unyielding anger. These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong.

A great people has been moved to defend a great nation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Now Mr. Bush also said as the investigation continues the United States would make, quote, "no distinction between the terrorists and those who harbor them."

The administration publicly saying the investigation continues privately, though we are told at a national security briefing at the White House last night as well as in private briefings to key members of Congress, senior administration officials are saying that they are confident the evidence collected so far points to the suspected Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden and associates and organizations affiliated with him. The administration promising to take retaliation when this investigation is completed.

One official I spoke to last night after this meeting said they were going to take this time. This official saying they wanted to make sure they sorted this out before acting.

Again, look for more words from the president later this morning after he receives an update on the latest on the investigation as well as the relief and rescue operations underway at the Pentagon and in New York City. Vince?

CELLINI: Well John, in reading some of the information you've transmitted to us overnight, United Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania may have had a more specific target. I wonder if you can elaborate on that?

KING: Still some speculation involved in this, but we are told that law enforcement officials and administration officials in their briefings to key members of Congress said that based on the information they have so far they believe that that plane was turning south, heading toward Washington. Three possible targets.

One, the presidential retreat of Camp David outside of Washington in Maryland. More likely though, according to our sources, the White House or the U.S. Capitol. They believe that plane was ultimately headed for Washington. No explanation yet as to why it crashed in Pennsylvania. But that is what we are told, the key members of Congress are being

told as the investigation unfolds. At least so far they believe that the target for that plane was here in Washington.

Vince?

CELLINI: White House Senior Correspondent John King. Thank you very much. We'll be checking in with you throughout these early morning hours and into daylight on Wednesday.

Well the Pentagon is the nation's military nerve center and an important symbol of U.S. strength. On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, it was a target. Officials now say as many 800 employees died in the attack on the Pentagon.

CNN National Correspondent Bob Franken is here with the latest. Bob?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well this morning when regular business hours occur there is going to be an attempt at a small victory. That is to say that the defense secretary has ordered that that parts of the building that can be opened for business will be opened for business. That is a small victory over the big loss of yesterday when a plane crashed into it.

You can see in the back of me. We are going to find out or start to find out, as the say unfolds, just how significant, how big that loss is. Once daybreak occurs officials are going to check to see if the fire has receded enough that they go into the building, start combing through the rubble and finding out in human terms just how many casualties there were.

That, of course, is going to be an extended process. The Pentagon has just steadfastly refused to give away any information about the number of people who they expect might have been killed.

They're talking about figures that might go into the hundreds, although the Pentagon says that some estimates that have gone as high as 800, maybe far too high, but they're going to find the grim task of doing that. They're going to start that this morning.

Business is still going on at the Pentagon. There is still military planning going on. There are some efforts, in fact, to make sure that the United States remains protected on both coasts.

[05:25:15]

Flotillas of military ships including aircraft carriers have been sent to sea on both the east and west coast and along the coast of Hawaii to protect against any contingency. Nothing is expected in particular, but of course this tragic day was not expected yesterday. Vince?

CELLINI: Bob before we let you go President Bush talked about how important it was to have business go on as usual. You touched on this. And how important is it to show some semblance of order, things taking place as they should at the Pentagon? FRANKEN: Well, it's going to be difficult to do that. It's quite interesting, only about half of this building is really considered safe enough to conduct business. Although, of course, it was not half that was really wiped out by the airplane that crashed into it. You can see in back of me there were three of the corridors that were hit.

There is actually 17 miles of corridors in the Pentagon and about half of that is going to be considered structurally unsafe, at least not proven to be safe. But that other half is going to be open for business.

That is the half that would include so many of the vital functions here, the military command center, the offices of the top ranking people, the secretaries and deputy secretaries. Business will be going on there. And of course it's business in time of crisis.

CELLINI: Thank you very much. CNN National Correspondent Bob Franken.

LIN: Well Vince, amid the chaos in New York and Washington there was another hijacking and plane crash and this time it was in Pennsylvania. United Airlines flight 93 crashed in a field near Pittsburg. There were 45 people onboard and no one survived.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANK MONOCO, PENNSYLVANIA STATE POLICE: What we're doing is maintaining the scene. We have 150 troopers both mounted on horseback and on foot in two separate perimeters keeping the scene as pristine as possible to protect it for the further investigation and to make sure that no one is injured through a biohazard or wants to get into the crime scene.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: And just a few minutes ago John King reported that government sources are telling CNN United Flight 93 was likely headed for a government target, possibly the White House, the Capitol or even Camp David.

CELLINI: Well so many people have outpouring of emotion. We'd like to hear from you. And to do that you can contact us by e-mail at this address, daybreak@cnn.com. Please include your name and where you are writing from. And this might be an opportunity for you to express your views on this terrible, terrible turn of events.

LIN: Also as a service to our viewers, Vince, some of you might want to grab a pen or pencil, throughout the day we are going to be broadcasting telephone numbers where you can call for information about passengers, flights, that sort of thing. So these numbers will run throughout the morning. So go ahead and prepare for that if you need to.

Also, a handful of people who died in the plane crashes has one last chance to say goodbye to their loved ones. In fact, one man called his family in San Francisco from United Flight 93.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well that I love you very, very much in case I don't see you again.

ALICE HOAGLUND, SON MARK BINGHAM DIED ON UNITED FLIGHT 93: He said that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That the plane has been taken over by hijackers and then -- then I said, "Well we love you very much too Mark. Let me go get your mother."

HOAGLUND: I got on the phone, "Mark." And he said, "Hi mom, this is Mark Bingham." Kid will (ph) be his a classic (ph). And he said, "I want to let you know that I love you and I'm -- I'm flying -- I'm -- I think he said I'm in the air. I'm calling you on the air phone of the airplane."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In his seat?

HOAGLUND: I presume so. He said, "I want you know I love you very much and I'm calling you from the plane. We've been taken over. There are three men that say they have a bomb." And I said, "Well who are they Mark?"

And then he said -- and he repeated that he loved me and he said I -- I don't think he said, "I don't know who they are." He just -- he -- he became distracted there as if someone was speaking to me. And he said, it's -- something to effect that it's true and then the phone went dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Her son Mark Bingham was on the flight that crashed in that field near Pittsburg. Now John Ogonowski was the captain of American Airlines Flight 11 and his plane crashed into one of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center. His family spoke out yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM OGONOWSKI, BROTHER OF CAPTAIN OF AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 11: I ask all of you for your prayers, for as I refer to him as Brother John.