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CNN Larry King Live

Fifth Anniversary of 9/11

Aired September 11, 2006 - 21:00   ET

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

LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to a special edition of LARRY KING LIVE from Ground Zero where Twin Towers once soared against the Manhattan skyline and more than 2,700 people lost their lives.
We're going to show you now an extraordinary sight that New Yorkers are quite used to by now. This is the Tribute of Light. It's about a couple of -- maybe three, four blocks from the World Trade Center, where the World Trade Center was and it sort of is a beam going to heaven. It's an incredible sight that literally when you're here, television does not do it justice, takes your breath away.

Let's meet four widows from 9/11. They have combined to write a book called "Love You Mean It." They are Patricia Carrington, her husband Cazz (ph) Carrington died on 9/11; Julia Collins, her husband Tom died on 9/11; Claudia Gerbasi, her husband Bart died on 9/11; and Ann Haynes, her husband Ward died on 9/11.

Patricia, what is this day like for you?

PATRICIA CARRINGTON: It's been a difficult day, a long day, but every day, 365 days out of the year we have a little 9/11 in our day because we miss our husbands every day.

KING: So, Julia, it doesn't take a 9/11 to bring it out?

JULIA COLLINS: Absolutely not. You know it lives within us and, you know, today is a very special day where we can honor all those that were killed that day.

KING: Is it hard, Claudia, to look at it?

CLAUDIA GERBASI: Yes, it is and so it is important for us though. We were down here this morning. We were a part of the ceremony. It was important. As hard as it is, it's important to come down here and pay our respects.

KING: Why did you write a book, Ann?

ANN HAYNES: We wrote a book because we wanted to give others hope about the future and carrying the spirits of our husband with us and in our hearts but also making their spirit part of us and moving forward in life.

KING: Does it seem like five years, Pat?

CARRINGTON: Some days it seems like just yesterday we were with them and some days it seems longer than five years.

KING: Tough to go on with your life, Julia? What do you do? What are you doing? Are you working?

COLLINS: Well, I'm still working. I work for the NFL and...

KING: Oh, you work for the National Football League?

COLLINS: Yes, I do, and they've been very supportive of me. And, you know, you -- it's not easy. The last five years have been tough but together with these women and the power of friendship we have helped each other tremendously.

GERBASI: And supported America.

COLLINS: Yes.

KING: You didn't know each other, Claudia, before 9/11?

GERBASI: We did not and I'm fortunate because I had met each one of the women individually. And then they each gave me so much that I knew I had to get the four of us together.

KING: And has that continued? Do you constantly -- are you talking to each other all the time, Ann? I mean you wrote a book together.

HAYNES: All the time.

GERBASI: All the time.

HAYNES: We're together all the time.

GERBASI: E-mail is a wonderful thing.

KING: How well have you gone on? One of you has remarried right?

GERBASI: I was the first to remarry. Patty (ph) introduced me to my husband John Donovan who is just a wonderful, wonderful man and I'm very blessed.

KING: Did he have a tough time accepting?

GERBASI: I think because he was such close friends with Patty and went through the grieving process with her with Cazz, he knew what was -- what it was like and what to expect and he's a very strong man and so.

KING: How did you hear about it that morning Cazz -- I mean Pat?

CARRINGTON: A friend called me on the phone. I was actually on my way to work in the subway when it happened. And when I got to my office there was numerous calls.

KING: What floor was he on? CARRINGTON: He was on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center 1.

KING: They had no chance right?

CARRINGTON: No.

KING: Julia, how did you hear?

CARRINGTON: But at the time I didn't believe that.

KING: Yes.

COLLINS: I was actually on an airplane coming back from Denver and the captain came on the speakers and said, "We're turning the plane around. The World Trade Center has been hit by a plane. And it's a beautiful day like outside your window, so I'll let you draw your own conclusions." So, at the time I was like what, what is he talking about? So, I never comprehended it until I...

KING: You went back to Denver?

COLLINS: Went back to Denver and I learned of the events when representatives met me.

KING: And what floor did Tom work on?

COLLINS: The 104th floor of Tower 2.

KING: Did you know then that this was a difficult shot to live?

COLLINS: You know Tommy was in the '93 bombing and I never lost hope until they told us they found his body.

KING: So, you found out in Denver?

COLLINS: No. I got home the next day.

KING: How did you get home?

COLLINS: The NFL flew me home. Mr. Tish (ph) had a plane.

KING: A great man.

COLLINS: Great man.

KING: He passed away but a wonderful man. Claudia, how did you hear?

GERBASI: Bart actually called me and told me, so he called me at exactly 8:46. I could see the time on my telephone. And, because it was the same moment that the buildings were hit he didn't seem to understand the enormity and he was very much himself.

KING: And you, Ann? HAYNES: I was home getting ready to take one of my children to his first day of preschool and I got a phone call from one of Ward's colleagues saying "Our squawk boxes have gone dead. I need to get a hold of him to make sure he's OK. Turn on CNN."

KING: I salute you all, Patricia Carrington, Julia Collins. Claudia Gerbasi, and Ann Haynes. Their book is, great title, "Love You Mean It," a true story of love, loss and friendship. Thank you.

CARRINGTON: Thank you.

GERBASI: Thank you Larry.

COLLINS: Thank you.

HAYNES: Thank you too.

KING: From the site of what was the World Trade Center, next Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton, lessons learned from 9/11 and implications for 2008. Don't go away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of a sudden the staircase moved and a crack in the wall appeared maybe about six or eight inches. I kept on looking at the numbers coming down the stairwell, 15, 14, counting. I actually thought I could make it, I could make it when I got out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDOLPH GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: The situation is that two airplanes have attacked apparently. What? All right, well then let's get -- let's go north then. Thank you very much for your help today.

People of the city their spirit is tremendous and I said that yesterday and I'll say it again. This city is the greatest city in the world. It has the greatest people and a bunch of cowardly terrorists can't make us fearful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: One of the heroes of 9/11 New York's own Rudy Giuliani. He became America's mayor in the midst of terror and tragedy. I spoke with him about this day of remembrance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Does it feel like five years?

GIULIANI: You know, sometimes it does and sometimes it feels like, you know, a couple days ago and sometimes it feels like an eternity, so it depends on the feelings you're having that day or that moment.

KING: Do you drive down there a lot?

GIULIANI: Sure, I have to. I did, you know, over the weekend several times. It never fails that you get a very sad feeling, very angry feeling. Sometimes you get a feeling of elation because of all the heroics, you know, but it's always, always -- you always remember it.

KING: Does it shock you that bin Laden is still out there?

GIULIANI: Well, a couple of things shock me. It shocks me that he's still out there. I wish we would capture him and bring him to justice. And I think justice is the word, not vengeance.

And then it also shocks me that we haven't been attacked again, which I expected. If you would ask me this question the night of September 11, five years ago, I would have said to you and everybody else in America, particularly American law enforcement, "We're going to get attacked. We better get ready for a number of attacks, you know, suicide bombings and other kinds of attacks." So, I thank God that that's not the case and I expect we are going to get attacked again but I'm thankful that we got these five years.

KING: But him being out there shocks you?

GIULIANI: Oh, sure. I thought he'd be captured, you know, a number of different times, thought we almost had him in the last couple of years.

KING: Are we safer now than then?

GIULIANI: We are. We're safer than we were then. What we are is more aware of the risk now than we were then. We were sort of in some kind of a state of denial before September 11, 2001.

Those attacks began 30 years ago and they're still going on now, including the September 11 attack but we didn't really focus on it before September 11. Now we do. We're doing a better job of preventing them, like in London a couple weeks ago, but we're still at grave risk.

KING: Is the one major drawback may be the wrong word, Iraq?

GIULIANI: Well I don't know if Iraq -- I mean Iraq...

KING: I mean the public concern.

GIULIANI: In perception Iraq is difficult. In reality, Iraq -- I would also never have believed five years ago that today in Iraq there would be a government of any kind and that any Sunnis or Shiites or Kurds would be sitting down trying to put a government together or that Saddam Hussein would be gone.

I mean so those -- I mean there's good and bad in everything and the good part of what's going on in Iraq is that there are people trying to put together an accountable government. If they do, that could be a transformation in the Middle East and we have to support that.

KING: What do you think of what they're going to do at the trade center site?

GIULIANI: I think there will be a soaring memorial at the trade center site. I think it's coming together better now. I think if you ask me as I surprised that it took this long, that I'm not surprised about. I expected from the moment this happened this was going to be very emotional, very difficult, very hard.

KING: A lot of sides make good points.

GIULIANI: Yes, sure. And this hurt us so deeply, that it's very hard to get people in unison about what should be done there. People who want to just devote it to a memorial. People that want everybody to move on. I mean, there are different emotions about this. It took Oklahoma City quite some time to get their beautiful memorial together. So I expected that -- this would be a difficult process.

KING: Is it finally in place?

GIULIANI: As best as it can be. It looks like there's a plan in place. It looks like it has at least substantial support. Nothing will ever have unanimous support. And even if it takes a little bit longer it's better to let everyone work these emotions out.

KING: And you, Rudy, is the presidency in line?

GIULIANI: I don't know. We'll see next year.

KING: When do you make that decision?

GIULIANI: You make it sometime next year, sometime in 2007. I think all the people who are fortunate enough to be in a position where anybody even asks you that question, which sort of for the kid from Brooklyn, sets you back a little. I mean, people -- we're both from Brooklyn.

KING: You're not kidding.

GIULIANI: If we had met each other in Brooklyn, we wouldn't be asking each other that question. You wouldn't be sitting here, and I wouldn't be.

KING: What are we doing here?

GIULIANI: What's going on, Larry?

KING: What's the key to making it though?

GIULIANI: Oh, I guess it's a lot of things, including what the issues are -- mostly it's, do you feel you can make a unique contribution because it's a very hard thing to do. It's worth it, but it's very hard to do. And you've got to feel that there's something special that you can do or you can bring to it, both to the campaign and if you should win, to the presidency.

KING: And finally, 9/11 will always be a part of you, won't it?

GIULIANI: Every day.

KING: When they say Rudy Giuliani.

GIULIANI: Well, whether it's when you say Rudy Giuliani or not, I figured out a long time ago, every day it's with me, every day I think about it, every day it comes back and different memories flood back. Instead of suppressing it -- you know I talk to a lot of people who have gone through September 11th like I have, and I find it helpful to talk about it, get it out, not keep it inside. Some of the memories are horrible but it's better not to keep them inside.

KING: Thanks, Rudy.

GIULIANI: Thank you. Thank you, Larry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KING: New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was in Washington on September 11, 2001. Today she came to Ground Zero. I spoke to her after the memorial ceremony this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KING: Ironic, isn't it, that the weather's almost identical to five years ago?

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D) NEW YORK: You know, Larry, one of the most common things people say to me is the sky was so blue, it was such a beautiful day and it was a day as beautiful as this. It's hard to imagine all of the terror and horror that happened five years ago.

KING: They seem to be making some -- it looks like progress.

CLINTON: Yeah, there is progress being made and come back next year and they'll be a lot more. It's been a difficult process for all kinds of reasons but the plans are now agreed upon and this will be a very busy, active construction site.

KING: Is it difficult for you to contemplate that Osama bin Laden is still around?

CLINTON: I'm dumbfounded. If somebody had told me five years ago that the mastermind of this attack on America, with all of our power, would still be not only alive but putting out videotapes and taunting us, I wouldn't have believed it. I would have assumed that by now we would have unequivocally defeated our enemy and our primary enemy is al Qaeda.

KING: As I remember, on the night of 9/11, Congress stood in front of the steps of the Capitol and sang "God Bless America."

CLINTON: That's right. KING: You were there?

CLINTON: I was, I was.

KING: Is that unity still around?

CLINTON: Not as much as I wish it were and I'd like to see it renewed. Not only was the Congress united, the entire country was united and the world was united behind our country. That was a wonderful feeling and it gave us just so much comfort and sense of resolve and now there is divisiveness and I regret that because we have to be together in dealing with the enemy that we confront. We've got to have everybody pulling in the same direction.

KING: I know you're not going to answer me tonight but when you think about leadership, why would anyone want that responsibility? Why would anyone -- present company aside, want that job?

CLINTON: Well, I'm not going to comment specifically and I can only say that throughout history people have recognized what a great honor it is to serve our country in so many ways.

Those who serve in our military, those who serve on our homeland defense teams, like our police and firefighters and the people who do run for office. It is something that is so great about America that we really do ask people to sort of summon up that energy and go forth together.

KING: And those who run for office, they don't say to themselves, I don't think I want this. I don't think I want that responsibility.

CLINTON: Well, obviously if you throw your hat into the ring and you get out there, everybody knows that it's a brutal environment to run for office and be in public life today. People do it because they think they have something to contribute. They think they can make a difference.

KING: But you've got to take the hits, right? Like you've been critical of the president. He's got to read that, see that, it's not easy.

CLINTON: It's not as though people haven't been critical of me.

KING: No kidding?

CLINTON: I understand that it kind of goes with the territory. But what I've tried to do is to focus on what we need to do together. I don't think that the personal criticism, frankly, is very productive or useful. I criticize that we haven't done enough to deal with our ports and our borders and our mass transit and rail lines and our chemical and nuclear plants.

I'm critical because we've got to take care of our first responders and others who got sick because they were on that pile for days and weeks and months, breathing that toxic air and so I think that there is always ground in a democracy for constructive criticism and I think that's part of the territory.

What I would like to see is more of that and less of kind of moving away from evidence and constructive criticism to ideology and partisanship. Let's get back and roll up our sleeves and figure out how we're going to keep our country safe and how we're going to defeat our enemy.

KING: Are we safer today?

CLINTON: We're safer but we're not safe enough. We still have a lot of work to do and we need to make sure that we put our money where the risk is. Everybody knows that New York remains the number one target of interest of the terrorists and so let's make sure that we do everything we can to make New York as safe as possible and unfortunately, we've got a long ways to go.

KING: Thank you, Hillary.

CLINTON: Thanks, Larry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He called me at 10 to nine and said our building has just been hit by a plane. Turn on the news.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we have unconfirmed reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I changed the channel and I saw what happened and I said, oh god, John, please get out of there safely. And he said, I love you. I have to go. And we hung up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Firefighters from all over the city were inside those towers, hundreds of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: We're in the heart of New York City at 47th street and 8th avenue. We're at the home of Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9 of the New York City Fire Department. This firehouse lost all 15 men on duty on the day of Ground Zero, September 11, 2001. It is, by the way, the busiest firehouse in New York City.

We're going to talk with four of the men who lost their friends. Battalion Chief Charles Williams, 33 years of service with the department. Behind him is battalion chief Jim Hodgens, 25 years with the New York City Fire Department, took over for Chief Garrigi (ph), who lost his life on 9/11. Lieutenant Robert Jackson, 20 years with the New York City fire department. And firefighter David Turner, 14 years with the department, assigned to this fair house since '93. Your wife, David, didn't want you to go to work that day?

DAVID TURNER, N.Y.F.D. FIREFIGHTER: No. That morning I was up working downstairs in my house and she screamed downstairs for me to come upstairs. Her sister told her to turn the TV on and we were watching right after the first plane hit. And at that time I knew how bad it was. I knew I had to come in. So I told my wife I had to leave. And she was arguing with me.

KING: We realize this is tough. And you never get over something like this, especially on the anniversary. Battalion Chief Williams, did you have a sense that your buddies were in trouble?

BATTALION CHIEF CHARLES WILLIAMS, N.Y.F.D.: Oh, yes. I mean, I knew it was going to be a difficult job when I saw it on TV and I never really anticipated that they would fall down. But, yes, we knew that things were going to be difficult.

KING: James, what happened when you got there?

BATTALION CHIEF JAMES HODGENS, N.Y.F.D.: When we got down there we had just found out that the second tower had just came down. After we left the 11th battalion the second tower was still up and the radio in that apparatus wasn't working. So, when we got out of the rig we were shocked that the second one had come down.

KING: What were you doing Lieutenant Jackson that day?

LT. ROBERT JACKSON, N.Y.F.D.: I was on 86th street at a subway station when my wife called me, told me what had happened and there was a police officer there. He was on his cell phone and his handy talky was, you know, screaming, squelching.

I asked him is it true, he just nodded. So I came rushing here, jumped in my car, came here, ran into Chief Williams. Somebody was already getting the spare apparatus. And like the chief said, got our equipment together and went down. As we were going down the west side highway the second tower came down.

KING: When did you find out about the deaths of your buddies?

JACKSON: We had thought during the day that we had heard a report that guys from 54 were somewhere and when we came back here Chief Mayor told me, no, everybody's gone and I just started crying like a baby.

KING: Firefighter Turner, what's that picture?

DAVID TURNER, N.Y.F.D: It's a picture of 54 engine responding to the World Trade Center on 9/11.

KING: Who took the picture?

TURNER: I don't know his name.

KING: I know this is hard for you. Did he come here and give it to you much later?

TURNER: Yes, about --

KING: Do you ever wonder why it was this battalion that got wiped out? Why you? You're not the closest one to the incident.

JACKSON: But everybody from, say, Lincoln Center south, we lost everybody. Everybody working that day, from almost that part of Manhattan down to the Trade Center --

KING: Died?

JACKSON: Died, 343 men.

KING: I'll just name the names. Give me a quick word about each. Guadelupe?

JACKSON: Jose, one of my chauffeurs, fantastic guy.

KING: Ragaglia.

HODGENS: Ray, great sense of humor.

KING: Oitice.

TURNER: Oitice was the training guy in the firehouse.

KING: Lynch.

WILLIAMS: Very proud man.

KING: Gill?

JACKSON: Paul Gill, artist, fantastic artist.

KING: Could paint?

JACKSON: Oh, his family, when you got to meet everybody afterwards, the families, they brought out all of their personal items, an artist.

KING: Angelini.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quiet guy, great cook.

KING: Santora.

JACKSON: Probey, he was our Probey in 54 engine, young guy, still lived at home.

KING: Was he the youngest?

JACKSON: Yes, in our house.

KING: Tipping?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Funny, comedian.

KING: Comedian. Brennan.

JACKSON: Oh, hysterical, the best. Mike Brennan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Funnier.

KING: Funnier than Tipping?

JACKSON: Yes.

KING: Feinberg.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Character.

JACKSON: Good guy.

KING: Haue? Am I pronouncing that right, H-A-U-E?

JACKSON: The German. He was the hobbenater, that was his nickname.

KING: Asaro.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grateful Dead lover.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dead Head.

KING: O'Callaghan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Intense.

KING: Geraghty, the chief.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A leader.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Second to none.

KING: True leader?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

KING: Wooley.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Forget it, how can you say, one of the best. Leader at home, leader here, everywhere.

KING: Battalion Chief Charles Williams, Battalion Chief James Hodgens, Lieutenant Robert Jackson and firefighter David Turner, thank you.

And now Lieutenant Jackson will give us a very special tour. Come along.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JACKSON: This is our riding list for the day. It's a board made by one of the brothers. It has Captain Vido, say he's the officer. It has each position, each name. It has some pertinent information for the day. On the 11th, this board up here was down here. And the gentlemen, you will see the positions, the names you mentioned before are up there. And the families came in and basically wrote love notes and notes to their loved ones.

This is the pictures of the 15 men from the house that were lost that day. Between them they have 28 children. This we put up in their honor. People come in. The families will come and put notes on. Like the Feinbergs came in and they put a stone on his cemetery plot. So they bring in things like that. The Lynch boys write cards to their dad.

KING: Super dad.

JACKSON: ... had two boys, Mike and Jack. It was a big hit.

KING: This says if tears could build a stairway and memories a lane I would walk right up to heaven and bring you home again.

JACKSON: Yes, this is one of the flags the city gave to us to give each family. And then another, you know, this in their memory.

KING: You wanted to tell me something.

JACKSON: Yes, sir. The gentleman from 4 truck that were recovered, the six men riding that day, when they were recovered down at the Trade Center, it happened in March after the 11th. And the workers that were doing the recovery, like Chief Williams was one of our workers down there, they would call here.

The dispatcher would send us down in our rigs that we're working. And everything would stop at the Trade Center. The workers would line the platform out of the pit. And they would let the members from the company carry the stokes basket out, covered with the flag, total silence, you know, it was just a really, the honor that they gave us. They were doing the back-breaking work and then they would call us down to carry out our brothers.

KING: I never heard of that.

JACKSON: It was one of those things you see down there. It was fantastic.

KING: Salute you, lieutenant. God speed.

JACKSON: Thank you, sir.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We show you again the tribute of light about three blocks from the World Trade Center in New York, incredible site. And they have kind of a duplicate one in Washington near the Pentagon. Very symbolic, eerily on the mark.

We now welcome to LARRY KING LIVE Greg and Lauren Manning. Lauren was senior vice president and partner at Canton Fitzgerald, a very famous company. She was severely burned in the 9/11 attack. Defying medical odds, she survived and became a symbol of hope and healing. And Greg Manning chronicled her extraordinary story in an e- mail diary that became a runaway best-seller, "Love, Greg and Lauren," a powerful true story of courage, hope and survival.

Do you feel funny -- not funny -- that you survived when so many of your fellow employees died?

LAUREN MANNING, SURVIVED WORLD TRADE CENTER ATTACK: I feel grateful, certainly. I feel most compelled by what they did in giving their lives and how strongly I know they must have fought. When I came out of the coma that I was in over a period of six weeks, I sought to avenge them and a lot of my recovery has been focused on getting back to my family and being there for all those that couldn't be.

KING: There was a period of time when they thought you wouldn't make it, right?

L. MANNING: Yes, I didn't think I would make it. I mean, it happened obviously right down there. And I made a decision to live. And I was fighting for many, many months in the ICU and then many more months afterward in a rehab hospital. It's been a long haul but I've had a great man with me along the way.

KING: Greg, how that book was done, you did e-mails, right?

GREG MANNING, WIFE LAUREN BURNED IN WTC ATTACK: That's right. So many people wanted to be with Lauren and they couldn't be. I just tell you that I was inspired from the first second I found her at 10:00 in the morning on 9/11. It was an honor to tell the story and it's a privilege to continue to see it unfold.

KING: How's life going?

G. MANNING: Life is great. It's been a long five years. And it's changed -- our lives have changed in so many ways, but today is really about tribute and memory.

KING: I wish we had more time. We'll do you again sometime real soon. But I thank you so much. I thank God you're looking so well.

L. MANNING: Thank you.

KING: We'll be right back with more at the site of what was the World Trade Center. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Let's check in first with Anderson Cooper before we close things out here. Anderson, what's up tonight? ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Larry, you're at Ground Zero in New York. We're at ground zero of the war on terror here in Afghanistan, a forward operating base on the Pakistan border, the tenth mountain division who are out here every day are fighting the Taliban, a newly resurgent Taliban and al Qaeda fighters. The same men, the same kind of men, the same foreign jihadists who flew those planes into the Pentagon and into the World Trade Center.

Tonight we're going to look at why five years after 9/11, the Taliban has been able to come back and why al Qaeda fighters are still out there and able to cross over into Afghanistan from Pakistan. We'll also look at that the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Is our ally in the war on terror, Pakistan, really doing all they can to hunt down and find Osama bin Laden. We'll have all that and more, Larry, at the top of the hour.

KING: That's "A.C. 360" from Afghanistan, a couple of minutes away. We want to spend a couple of minutes with Michael Hingson. You may remember him -- you've got to remember him. Michael, blind since birth, he was working on the 78th floor of tower one of the World Trade Center. His dog Roselle, she's with him tonight, guided him down nearly 80 flights of stairs out into safety. How's life going?

MICHAEL HINGSON, ESCAPED WORLD TRADE CENTER ATTACK: Life's going well, Larry.

KING: Do you often think about -- on a day like today, do you think about it a lot?

HINGSON: Oh, absolutely.

KING: Was Roselle the key?

HINGSON: She certainly was and in a large sense. Although it's really a team effort. What I've learned and come to recognize even more since 9/11 is that it took both of us to survive and help others get out of the building. We worked together as a partnership.

KING: Did she realize what she was doing?

HINGSON: I think in her own way, she had to. I don't think there's any doubt about that.

KING: Are you working?

HINGSON: I am. I work at Guide Dogs for the Blind out in California in San Rafael, which is the largest guide dog school in the country. We now -- I work in the development fund raising development and I also travel and do a lot of speaking about 9/11, which has been a great joy.

KING: You're an amazing man. It's an honor to have known you and knowing you still.

HINGSON: It's a pleasure to be able to be here and it's an honor to have a chance to spend some time with you. KING: Michael Hingson, a special man. We close with images of 9/11 set to Alan Jackson's "Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning."

(MUSIC)

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