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CNN Live At Daybreak

America's New War: Investigation Continues Onward, New News

Aired September 20, 2001 - 07:36   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: And, John, you mentioned those law makers, some of whom now are loading up on buses to head over to Union Station in Washington, D.C. to get on the Metroliner north, the train service that brings them here. We actually have someone who's going to be traveling in the opposite direction.

Joining us right now is Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York. We are delighted to see you before you head back to Washington, crisscrossing the paths of the delegation coming up here today.

First of all, as I understand it, you have some news on the investigation that none of us have heard. What's new?

REP. CAROLYN MALONEY (D), NEW YORK: Well, I have been down to ground zero several times and many people are asking about a national monument and what could be more appropriate than saving these steel frames that are sticking up like sails out of the debris, sails of hope? And I had asked Ken Holden (ph), the head of construction and design, to save them. He said he would. And I met with some of the construction companies there, four of them that are clearing the sites and working with the fire.

One of them called me last night and said that he thought they had found the black box, that they were removing it, they were hearing beeps. They thought they had the black box.

ZAHN: And did those folks give you any indication how long it might take to actually locate the black box and unearth it?

MALONEY: No, he didn't. No, he didn't. But what has struck me about the site is how committed everyone is. It's absolutely silent, unlike most construction sites. Everyone is working so hard. Every now and then fire will give a signal that they really want hear something. You could hear, Paula, you could hear a pin drop.

And some of the fire officers are sleeping in their trucks. They have these makeshift cots. They're so exhausted. They're trying so hard and hoping so much. But finding the black box would be important and I think many people are calling, they want a monument. What could be more appropriate than saving some of these remains from the day our city and our country really literally turned upside down?

ZAHN: You have offered to volunteer, as have many of other New Yorkers. What have you done down there at ground zero? MALONEY: Well, Paula, I believe this has truly been New York's finest and worst hour. People have volunteered in so many respects. My office has coordinated the hospitals and mental health facilities in providing grief counselors to the various organizations that have lost their employees, their loved ones, their friends. I have helped to put professional volunteers into the appropriate slots within the city and responded to my constituents. We are having our own meeting of the neighborhood with the families that have lost loved ones on September 30.

And it has really been a coming together. We are probably the most diverse city in the world, but we are united in this effort behind our mayor and Congress, of course, is united behind our president. We have voted $40 billion in aid to New York and for defense and intelligence and efforts to root out the terrorists and those that harbor them and we have come together as a nation.

We will be there with the president tonight. Hopefully, we will be voting on legislation to help the airline industry. Our markets are functioning, they're working. That's good news. And we'll be pulling through this.

ZAHN: As you share with us this morning some of your more personal reflections of what you've seen at ground zero, we're going to share with our audience some pictures that were taken as you got into areas most of America has not seen. You don't have to, if you could see those, you could describe to us what you're seeing.

MALONEY: Are those my pictures?

ZAHN: Yes, they are.

MALONEY: They're my pictures?

ZAHN: Yes.

MALONEY: Oh, really? I didn't even know you had them.

ZAHN: You probably wanted to forget this.

MALONEY: I did not, this was the day after the assault, the unspeakable crime. This was the day after. I was in my office. I literally saw the second plane fly into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I just got in a car and drove home and brought volunteers to One Police Plaza and came down to the site the first thing the next morning.

You can't describe it. You can't believe it. It's destruction beyond belief. I've talked to people who were in WWII. They said they never saw such destruction. It just tears your heart out, particularly the first day. The walls, this is the site that many are trying to preserve as a national monument. And there was a fire truck in front of it. And what speaks more than really the building, the top of the building itself that came like an arrow into our hearts, the destruction? It is a fitting tombstone for those who lost their lives and what can speak better than this destruction itself for what happened?

ZAHN: I'll tell you, from having gone into these same areas you got into over the weekend, it is hard to explain to the American public how much worse this actually is than these pictures even show.

MALONEY: But what it doesn't show is the smell and it doesn't show the air. The air was so thick, the buildings were polarized and it was like, you could hardly breathe. And there was like three to six inches of polarized cement on the ground that you were walking through. And it was just absolutely, everything was covered with this cement that had come out of the building.

They've done an incredible job. Every time that I go back it's been really transformed in many ways, many ways cleaned up. It shows the tremendous spirit of New Yorkers and all the Americans that have come. They've broken our heart, but believe me, they have not broken our spirit. And I have never seen us so unified to find the terrorists, to destroy them and to make anyone who harbors them pay for it.

ZAHN: Let's look ahead now to the president's address to a joint session of Congress and to the American public. The administration has been preparing the American public for a very long protracted campaign and I think Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld made it clear yesterday that it is as complicated as it can get. What does the president have to do tonight?

MALONEY: The president will really tell us we know what happened, now the question is what do we do? So he will be putting forward the plan that we will be following. We have received some good news -- I am sure he will have more to tell us -- in that Indonesia, and I think it's incredibly important that Pakistan is standing with us and that many of the world community has come together as our allies not only in combating terrorism but also those organizations, those people, those countries that assist and help them in any way.

Many people believe that it will be a long determined effort. Before I don't know if we would be willing to pay the price. Now there is no question that America is willing to pay the treasure and the blood to make sure this doesn't happen again.

We have been transformed. Our world is turned upside down. We are living with security measures that we will never -- we've never had to live with before. Just at ground zero I was having trouble getting into the Nynex opening. Most of the people were coming in by bus, excuse me, by water, by water, because they couldn't get through the debris. And I got a police inspector to help me get through and he was being stopped. And they were stopping even police officers to check their I.D.s because people were coming in and police in uniforms.

So there is tremendous security throughout the city and it will probably continue for quite a long time.

ZAHN: Yes, it's an ongoing assault. I know some workers we talked with yesterday described hitting five checkpoints before they ever made it to their place of employment on the street.

MALONEY: Exactly. That's what it's like now.

ZAHN: Congresswoman Maloney, thank you very much for joining us. Good luck as you continue to go about the business of trying to fix this place.

MALONEY: Thank you.

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