Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

America Under Attack: Pentagon Resumes Operations

Aired September 12, 2001 - 08:41   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's Bob Franken is in front of the Pentagon now with the latest there -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And we have some further information on the search effort, effort to try and find out just how many casualties there are and of course also to see if it's entirely at all possible that there might be some survivors in the rubble of the crash, the plane that was -- hijackers crashed into the Pentagon. You can see that, in course, back of me.

What we have been told by Mike Tamilo (ph), who is a battalion chief with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Unit, that's the worldwide unit that has gone into so many disasters around the world and has searched for both the victims and the survivors of tragedies. He says that, as early as yesterday, during the day, that the unit was able to take some of its search dogs and go through very gingerly some of the area. He said that they, quote, "identified some bodies," closed quote, by which he means that they did find some people who had been killed, he did not have a number.

He did not say, however, they had been removed. We have been told that a temporary mortuary has been set up not far from here. We do not have any information from the Pentagon on any casualty number or even an estimate from them.

There was one local fire chief who said it could be anywhere between 100 and 800 deaths as a result of this. Pentagon officials think that the upper figure is way too high.

Now, he also said, he being the Fairfax County search and rescue person, that the search is resuming today. It stops overnight because it's so dark and so smoky inside that there's a concern that people are going to trip over the debris as they conduct their search. But the search is beginning inside now as they try and find out exactly the human tragedy of this catastrophe that has befallen the Pentagon.

At the very same time, in other parts of the building, the Pentagon is open for business. It was important for the defense secretary, who said, to that in spite of all this that the operations here would continue. About half the building is considered safe enough to use. There are 17 miles of corridors, so about half of those are going to be in the safe area, that includes many of the vital operations that are conducted by the Pentagon.

Meanwhile, the grim search goes on for the casualties of this disaster -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Bob, there are 20 thousand workers who report to the Pentagon each day. I assume that not all of them have been asked to report to those areas that are considered safe. Is it just essential personnel?

FRANKEN: Well, the word was spread through Washington media in the hours yesterday and overnight that people should call supervisors to find out if in fact they are among those who should go in. But, of course, many of them know what part of the Pentagon where they work, and, of course, some of the answers would make good sense.

But the Pentagon is open for business. They're making a very important point with that, they believe, and it opened about 45 minutes ago.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Bob Franken at the Pentagon, thank you very much.

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