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CNN Live At Daybreak

Morning Following The Attack on Washington, D.C.

Aired September 12, 2001 - 07:07   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go to Miles O'Brien now -- Miles, before I leave you, I just wanted to give New Yorkers a great deal of credit for living up to the plea that city officials and the governor has made for donations of blood. And at some area hospitals people yesterday were lined up for hours wanting to donate blood to the thousands of victims here.

We'll be back a little bit later on.

Miles, are you with me?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In all, there were four aircraft that were involved in this carefully coordinated diabolically planned plot. Two of them, of course, as you well know, crashed into the World Trade Center. Another one crashed at the doorstep to the Pentagon.

That's where CNN's Bob Franken is this morning. And Bob, while the effort in New York is to find, perhaps, some survivors trapped beneath the wreckage, at the Pentagon there is not much hope of that, is there?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No. As a matter of fact, the defense secretary said that, that there is very little hope of any survivors. What they also don't know is exactly how many casualties, that is to say, how many people were killed when the plane, the American Airlines plane, crashed into the Pentagon -- it was a United Airlines plane -- crashed into the Pentagon yesterday about a little less than 22 hours ago and caused such devastation. You can see that in back of me.

Also in back of me you can see the medivac helicopters that are awaiting for the search teams to go into the rubble. It's not clear exactly when they're going to go in. There have been fires overnight inside the building and, of course, they want to make sure that it's safe to go in before they begin the very grim job of searching for the people who, in fact, will be the bad news that comes out of this very tragic event.

But at the same time, the damage has been done at the Pentagon. The work goes on. As a matter of fact, military officials ordered overnight the Pacific Fleet to send out ships that would go out into the coastline of the West Coast and offer a protective barrier, the West Coast of the United States and Hawaii. And that followed action on the East Coast, where ships were sent out of Norfolk, including aircraft carriers, and those ships, in fact, were up there to protect particularly the ports of entry of New York and Washington.

So that is the scene there. Back here at the Pentagon, the building will open for business. The defense secretary, the president, all are determined to show that, in fact, this terrorism is not going to stop the United States government from conducting its business and, of course, here its military business. But only about half of it will be open. The engineers have decided that there's too much damage -- too much danger of structural damage so only about half the employees are going to show up for work. The others will have to find out whether or not they come in.

Now, you've got to understand this is a massive building with over 17 miles of corridor. About half of that will stay shut down and, of course, part of it will be shut down because the search is going to go on to find out just how severe the damage was in tragic human terms -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Before you get away, you mentioned the aircraft carriers and the support in and around the East Coast of the United States. As I understand it, the Enterprise, another aircraft carrier, will remain in the Persian Gulf. Do you have any sense from where you sit as to what, if anything, will be bolstered in the Middle East as it relates to the U.S. military?

FRANKEN: Well, of course, they're trying to decide that and the first thing they have to decide is what a retaliation plan will be. Even before they decide that, they're going to have to decide who would be the target of such a plan.

As far as the Enterprise is concerned, it had been rotated out of the Persian Gulf, in fact, was in the Sea of, the Arabian Sea or the Arabian Sea and it was told to stop steaming back to the United States, to stay put. So there are now two anti-aircraft, there are two aircraft carriers in that region waiting to find out whether they'll be needed in some sort of military action.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Bob Franken at the Pentagon this morning.

Let's go back to New York and Paula Zahn -- Paula.

ZAHN: Miles, thank you so much.

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