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American Morning
Interview with Greg Smith
Aired August 07, 2002 - 07:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There are new sounds of the terror of September 11. The first complete audiotape of 9/11 has surfaced now, and it is chilling.
CNN obtained the tape with the help of the "New York Daily News" yesterday, all part of an undercover FBI probe that was taking place at the World Trade Center complex that morning. But that would become a mere sideshow to the crime that was about to happen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I have a glass of water please?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was an explosion -- that was an explosion!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God, oh, my God!
(VOICES UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's get out of here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to go?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go! Go! Come on, go!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HEMMER: As we mentioned earlier, CNN obtained a copy of those tapes with the help of the "New York Daily News," which broke the story yesterday morning.
Greg Smith of the "Daily News" reported that story. He joins us live here in New York.
Good morning to you.
GREG SMITH, "NEW YORK DAILY NEWS": Good morning.
HEMMER: You heard these tapes first time, two weeks ago, was it?
SMITH: That's right.
HEMMER: Your initial reaction was what, Greg?
SMITH: Well, my reaction was essentially pure horror, because I had been down there that morning, and it was weird to hear the sounds again, because those sounds were very unusual. It's very specific sounds. You hear it, and you are there again.
HEMMER: Why unusual?
SMITH: It's weird. When you listen to this tape, before all of that stuff we just listened to a second ago, you hear this guy just walking around through the concourse of the World Trade Center.
HEMMER: Yes.
SMITH: And you can hear what it used to sound like in there. It's like walking through the city of Atlantis or something, this place that's no longer available for us to visit, and I -- you know, I have been there hundreds of times.
HEMMER: Yes.
SMITH: And it was just weird to be there again when I was listening to it.
HEMMER: Let's set this up for our viewers. There was a man working on behalf of the FBI as an informant.
SMITH: Yes. That's right.
HEMMER: And he was going in with a wire on his body...
SMITH: Right.
HEMMER: ... essentially trying to find out whether or not there was some sort of bribery scheme undergoing among the tax assessors in New York City.
SMITH: Yes, it was just another day in New York. This guy had been wearing a wire for the FBI for several months. They were doing an investigation of the city tax assessor's office.
And so this guy is just going off to meet with the assessor, and he's going to sit down and have breakfast with this guy and discuss this bribery scheme. And of all of the places in the world he picks to have this discussion, he picks the -- we used to call it the Vista Hotel, but it's the Marriott Hotel. It was in between the two towers. So he happens to be sitting there purely by coincidence when this thing happens.
HEMMER: I want to play another little clip, where we left off a short time ago, seconds later from what we just heard now.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They blew up the World Trade Center.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why?
(VOICES UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god!
(VOICES UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, those are people!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HEMMER: That was on the sidewalk outside. Steve McArdle is the man's name we were talking about.
Do we know how he got outside? And do we know for a fact that what we just heard there was the reaction of people on the sidewalk to people jumping from the tower?
SMITH: Yes. What happens with this -- there are two parts to this. There is the actual audio, where you listen to it, and you can kind of figure out what's going on, and then I talked to someone who was familiar with what happened. And essentially, after the first plane hit the North Tower, he and this tax assessor, who he was discussing bribery with, just bolted from the place, and actually you can hear him running.
He ran outside onto West Street, and when he came outside, you can tell that he doesn't really understand what's going on. I mean, no one knew what was going on unless they happened to see this, and he was inside a building. He comes out on the street, and you can tell he is looking up and seeing this thing for the first time. And then, he kind of wandered around down there, and he spent -- I don't know -- 15 minutes there until -- at least until the second plane hit.
HEMMER: All right. And you mentioned the second plane. Here is what happened about 17 minutes after that first explosion.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
(PEOPLE SCREAMING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out, get out, get out, get out!
(VOICES UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A second plane hit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody out of here! Everybody out! Go!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HEMMER: I found that even more terrifying, the screams and the explosion that seemed to be twice as loud on that tape.
SMITH: It's pretty scary.
The other thing about it is that he must have been pretty close. And you know, I was down there that morning, and I just know that if you were anywhere near any of this stuff, it was -- it was too hard for your brain to comprehend. You didn't quite understand what exactly it was you were seeing. And the sound, you can hear -- you can hear what's going on in their voice. They are -- they are really very, very scared.
HEMMER: There was a massive amount of reaction on the street. Here is more of that reaction moments later.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like a missile.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't get upset, please, don't!
(VOICES UNINTELLIGIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's my husband inside.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be OK.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HEMMER: We hear it again. What do you think it adds in the big picture?
SMITH: I suppose it's kind of like a relic that will always be there. You'll always have this. It's not edited. It's just what it is, and it's something that you -- if you -- you know, if you choose to want to understand what people were going through that morning, you can listen to this, and it will essentially put you there.
HEMMER: Well, the images are just terrifying. You know, you mentioned earlier about what happened before the first plane hit. What I found eerie was the fact that he was buying Marlboro cigarettes.
SMITH: Yes.
HEMMER: He was working his way through the concourse...
SMITH: A normal life.
HEMMER: ... Rod Stewart music in the background, and at one time he says, isn't this a great place, I love it here.
SMITH: Yes, I love this place, yes. That's kind of -- that for me was the saddest thing that he said. He is discussing about how he takes his boys there, and he can't do that anymore.
HEMMER: Thanks, Greg -- Greg Smith from the "New York Daily News." Thanks for sharing with us.
SMITH: Thank you.
HEMMER: OK.
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