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CNN Live At Daybreak

Memorial Service to be Held at Pentagon

Aired October 11, 2001 - 09:21   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: President Bush is scheduled to speak a little bit later, just about an hour-and-a-half from now, at a Pentagon memorial service to mark the one-month anniversary of the deadly attacks. But Vice President Dick Cheney is not expected to attend. He's been out of the sight from the media and the public for some time now.

For more on this, let's go to CNN's John King, who joins us live from the White House. Do we have any idea where he is today, John?

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We do have a pretty good idea where he is, Paula. We're not disclosing that information at the request of the White House. That is one of the recurring questions here, though: When will we see the vice president next? More on that in just a second.

As you mentioned, the president will go across the Potomac River from the White House today for a solemn ceremony at the Pentagon, much like that ceremony at the World Trade Center earlier today in New York; a chance to reflect and remember those killed and injured in the terrorist strikes of September 11. In the president's remarks there we are told he will once again promise that the United States will lead this campaign until it decides it has reached victory in the war on terrorism. But mostly a chance for the president to remember those killed and injured in the terrorist strike.

Here at the White House, the president has a very important meeting this afternoon. He will sit down with his Cabinet in the Cabinet Room. We are told he wants to go around the table and hear from each of the agency heads in the United States government, their update on what their departments are doing in the continuing war on terrorism, not only overseas but preparations here at home. The emergency relief efforts here at home as well.

We are told significantly that the treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill will come with a, quote, "substantially higher" number. That an update on the total assets freezed in not only in the United States -- frozen not only in the United States, but around the world. Remember, President Bush asked for a crackdown on the financial assets of terrorist organizations and suspected organizations affiliated with them. We are told there will be significantly higher new numbers on that front today.

When the president does convene that Cabinet though, one of the questions will be: Where is the vice president? And there has been talk of Mr. Cheney returning to a more normal routine. But as of now the seating plan for that event, this afternoon's Cabinet meeting, does not include the vice president at his normal seat across the table from the president.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING (voice-over): It is a familiar yet now rare snapshot of the Bush White House, Vice President Dick Cheney on hand for a major event. This is Sunday, just after the president announced strikes on Afghanistan. Moments later, the vice president left the White House as a security precaution and he has not returned since.

ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The vice president remains at a secure location where he is fully and completely informed of all events and is participating.

KING: Cheney is hardly out of touch. He speaks with the president several times a day, participates in national security meetings through a secure video conference link and is making calls to world leaders and key members of Congress, but his absence speaks volumes about the extraordinary security precautions in place in the month since the September 11 attacks.

From day one of the administration he has been the president's top lieutenant, a key player in relations with Congress, the architect of the administration's energy plan. The president was in Florida when America came under attack, Cheney was at the White House and directed the initial response. But when Mr. Bush returned, the administration implemented continuation of government protocols, a list of precautions that sometimes includes keeping the president and the vice president at separate locations. So he was absent from the president's speech to Congress and canceled plans to swear in the administration's new point man in the war on domestic terrorism, an added security precaution even as the president urges everyday Americans to get back about his business.

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), ARMED SERVICES CHAIRMAN: Where he is placed is a matter of a professional decision by Secret Service and others and something that is properly in their hands, not in my hands. Whatever their decision is necessary for his and the nation's safety, I'm for it.

KING: Aides describe the vice president as in relatively good humor, occasional complaints about the food and the disruptions to his routine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Don't tell them where I am. That is the vice president's stock line when aides tell him that people are looking for him. We do know, though, there have been conversations between the president and the vice president about returning to a more normal routine in the days ahead, meaning a Cheney return to the White House. We're told to expect that in the next day or two. But for now at least we are told -- the seating chart, anyway, does not include the vice president for this afternoon's Cabinet meeting.

First up for the president, though, is that memorial service over at the Pentagon.

And for more on the preparations and the scene there, we're joined now by CNN national correspondent Bob Franken -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, in a little less than 15 minutes will mark the exact time one month ago that an American Airlines 757 plane with 64 aboard, including the hijackers, smashed into this building. And officials say that 189 lost their lives here.

And it's almost been shoved aside a little bit. That image that was such a horrible experience here, first of all because of the much larger death toll in the World Trade Center bombings in New York, but also because almost as an act of defiance the Pentagon returned to it's normal activities -- of course, normal being a comparative word these days.

The normal activity now has been planning the war that the president has declared on terrorism, the bombing runs that are going on now, the ground combat that is expected very shortly with the special operations. All of the complications of that have gone full steam in this building, even as people remember what happened just about a month ago -- exactly a month ago.

They'll be memorialized this morning with ceremonies including the president and the defense secretary and about 3,000 members of families of the victims of this crash into the building, which is being remembered this morning even as normalcy, as I mentioned, John, is going on in the Pentagon; normalcy being war planning.

KING: Bob Franken at the Pentagon we will check with you later today. Details of the war planning, also details in our live coverage of that memorial service.

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