Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Saturday Morning News
U.S. Calls for Further Heightening of Security
Aired September 15, 2001 - 06:29 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.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Washington has heightened security across the nation considerably since Tuesday's attacks, but President Bush is calling for more. He's authorized the call up of as many of 50,000 reservists. Now, for the latest from the Pentagon, let's go to Bob Franken. He joins us live -- Bob.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That was the requesting from his Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and it was approved quickly. The president authorizing 50,000 reservists soon to be mobilized. Of that number, about 35,000 are planned immediately. Most of them in support functions. Homeland Defense is how it was put in the statement that came from the Pentagon. The Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard et cetera, Marines are all determining exactly which units they're going to need. So it could take several days before the actual call-ups begin. That is what is going on inside the Pentagon.
Outside the Pentagon, of course, is the continuing to try and repair the massive damage from Tuesday's collision between that American Airline 757 and the wall of the Pentagon, which of course, has been burned into our minds as an image of that horrible day.
The searches continue for any possible survivors, although officials will privately admit that is a futile search. They're also continuing to try and shore up the part that collapsed, the actual wall that collapsed. The more successful they are in doing that, the more successful they are in entering some areas that are just completely blocked off because of prohibit of rubble.
The fact that we are inside this building is remarkable if you look back. Of course, at the beginning on Tuesday and for a day or so afterwards, it was not that easy to operate from here. You can still smell the smoke. And an interesting sidelight has emerged from this entire matter on Tuesday, after the first plane hit the World Trade Center, military officials scrambled jets from Massachusetts and New York. The jets were not able to get to the site of the World Trade Center before the second plane hit it. They never got the chance to discuss whether they would have shot down that plane, which was carrying passengers.
At the same time, with suspicions that another plane was heading for the Washington area, jets were scrambled from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. They did arrive quickly enough either. The plane had already collided. Again, no conversation about whether they would have shot that plane down. There have been some people who are now raises questions about the quick response or lack there off on the part of the military. But it is one of the sidelights in the story that is so bizarre, so tragic both in New York and here at the Pentagon -- Zain.
VERJEE: But what kind of concerns are there or have been discussed about calling up those reservists?
FRANKEN: The concerns are not really that much. The United States has about a 1,300,000. So an integral part, a seamless part of the military. So many of them were called up during the Persian Gulf War. The normal kinds of concerns you get are the concerns about the personal affairs of the different people who are in the reserves. They are citizen soldiers. They have family lives, that type of thing. So military officials are going to be asking for volunteers first in the units that are affected. And the shortfalls in the volunteers, of course, will have to made up with people, who perhaps will not be too happy to go even though they realize that that way of life is a reality for reservists and members of the National Guard in the United States.
VERJEE: Bob Franken reporting to us from the Pentagon.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
