The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer : WETA : September 14, 2001 12:00am-1:00am EDT

Good evening, I'm Jim Lehrer. The news hour will once again be devoted solely to Tuesday's terror in America. We'll have what the president said today. Look at the details of Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization, summarize the developments in New York City, and at the nation's airports, and interview Secretary of State Powell and Senate Majority Leader Dashow. Major funding for the news hour with Jim Lehrer has been provided by. Imagine a world where we're not diminishing resources, we're growing with ethanol, a cleaner burning fuel made from corn, ADM, the nature of what's to come. And by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, this program was also made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you. Thank you.

The probable death count from Tuesday's hijacked airliner assaults neared 5,000 today. In New York, 94 were confirmed dead, but Mayor Giuliani said nearly 4,800 people were missing. In Washington, officials said 190 was the toll thus far at the Pentagon. At the devastated World Trade Center complex, firefighters used dogs and listening devices to search for survivors, President Bush will visit that site tomorrow. Today in Washington, you visited some of the injured from the Pentagon. The 190 dead there include the 64 people on the airliner that struck it. Earlier in the day, the president vowed America would lead the world to victory over terrorism. A top Pentagon official promised it would be a sustained military campaign. This evening, the Senate had to be evacuated after a bomb threat. It had been working on $20 billion in emergency funds for the military and other needs. Secretary of State Powell confirmed Osama bin Laden is a prime suspect in the investigation.

An attorney general Ashcroft said at least 18 terrorists took part in the hijackings. One of the airliners crashed in western Pennsylvania. And late today, the Associated Press and Reuters reported investigators had found its flight data recorder. In addition, there were new reports that passengers may have forced that plane down short of its target. Two women said their husbands phoned them from onboard to say they would try to stop the hijackers. Elsewhere, limited commercial air travel resumed under strict new security measures. But hours later, the FAA again barred all flights into New York City due to FBI activity. On trading resumed as well, but stock exchanges in New York were shut down for a third day. They'll reopen on Monday after the longest closure since the market crash of 1929. Also bridges into Manhattan were opened, but lower Manhattan remained closed to civilians. Now excerpts from what President Bush said today, speaking from the Oval Office, he called

New York Governor George Potaki and New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani announcing his plans to come to New York and thank the rescue workers. Then he talked to reporters. The questions included those about the International Coalition he's trying to build. I've been on the phone this morning, just like I was yesterday, and we'll be on this afternoon on the phone with leaders from around the world who expressed their solidarity with this nation's intention to route out and to whip terrorism. They understand, fully understand that an act of war was declared on the United States of America. They understand as well that that act could have easily been declared on them. As these people can't stand free, they hate our values. They hate what America stands for.

Many of the leaders understand it could have easily happened to them. Secondly, they understand that unlike previous war, this enemy likes to hide. They heard my call loud and clear to those who feel like they can provide safe harbor for the terrorists that we will hold them responsible as well. And they join me in understanding not only the concept of the enemy, that the enemy is a different type of enemy. They join me in also in solidarity about holding those who fund them, who harbor them, who encourage them responsible for their activities. I'm pleased with the outpouring of support, changing men, Vladimir Putin, had a great visit this morning with Israel Highness, Prince Abdullah, Saudi Arabia, will continue to stay on the phone. And there is universal support for the American people, sadness in their voice, but understanding that we have just seen the first war of the 21st century.

And there is universal approval of the statements I had made. And I'm confident there will be universal approval of the actions this government takes. Yeah. If this is a different kind of war, it might require perhaps a different kind of coalition. Many people believe that for real war on terrorism or war, you'll need cooperation from governments that haven't necessarily done so in the past, specifically Pakistan and Afghanistan. Have you made any progress on this front? I would refer you to the statements that the Pakistani leader gave about his, I don't have the exact words in front of me, but it's willingness to work with the United States. And I appreciate that statement. And now we'll just find out what that means. Well, we will give the Pakistani government a chance to cooperate and to participate as we hunt down, those people who committed this unbelievable, despicable act on America.

You know, through the tears of sadness, I see an opportunity, you know, make no mistake about this nation is sad, but we're also tough and resolute. And now's an opportunity to do generations of favor by coming together and whipping terrorism, hunting it down, finding it, and holding them accountable. Hi, the nation must understand this is now the focus of my administration. We will be very much engaged in domestic policy, of course. I look forward to working with Congress on a variety of issues. And now their war has been declared on us. We will lead the world to victory, to victory.

Could you give us a sense as to what kind of prayers you are thinking and where your heart is for yourself as you come at? I think about myself right now, I think about the families, the children, I'm a loving guy and I'm also someone, however, who's got a job to do, and I intend to do it, and this is a terrible moment, but this country will not relent until we have saved ourselves and others from the terrible tragedy that came upon America. And now a newsmaker interview with Secretary of State Colin Powell, he joined us from the

State Department. Mr. Secretary, welcome. Good evening, Jim. How are you? It's fine. Exactly what is it that you and the President are asking these international leaders to do? We're creating a coalition to go after terrorism. We are asking the United Nations and the United, all every other organization you can think of. United Nations, NATO, the European Union, the Organization of Islamic Countries, the OAS everybody who join us once and for all in a great coalition to conduct a campaign against terrorists who are conducting war against civilized people. The attack that took place in Washington and the attack that took place in New York were directed against America, but they really are directed against civilization. And we have to respond with a full-scale assault against this kind of activity, beginning with the perpetrators of the attacks against us this past Tuesday. And we're asking all of the nations to join together to use political action, diplomatic action, economic action, legal action, law enforcement action.

And if necessary, join with us as appropriate and if necessary in military action, when we have identified the perpetrators and decided what military action might be appropriate. And so there is a lot that we can do, and the point I also want to make is that no country is safe from this kind of attack. It crosses every geographic boundary, social boundary, religious boundary, cultural boundary, and we must see it in those terms and respond in a unified way. And thus far, everybody signed up. I'm very pleased with what has been accomplished over the last 48 hours. An article, Five Declaration for the First Time in its History from NATO, Solid Support from the European Union, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution that is a strong one, the General Assembly of the United Nations did the same thing. I've been on the phone this afternoon with the chairman of the Organization of Islamic States, and I expect they will be putting out additional statements.

And I've been talking to leaders around the world, as has the President, to mobilize his coalition, and we have been getting solid support from almost everyone. Almost everyone. Who has been the, who has been noted early in the day, sought him who's saying not to my surprise, is not somebody you would expect to share our sentiment. What about the President of Pakistan? You talked to him today. I had a good conversation with the President of Pakistan. He met with our ambassador earlier this morning, and we met with Pakistani representatives here in the United States, and we gave him some items we thought would be useful for us to cooperate on, and he expressed his desire to cooperate with us fully. He is reviewing that list now, and I expect to talk to him again in the very near future, but I'm very pleased with the response we have gotten from Pakistan. And that includes intelligence and information about Osama bin Laden and possible military staging areas.

That sort of specifics. Well, it includes a variety of things, and when you look at all of those things, it's very, very inclusive, all-inclusive, but I would not like at this time to go into the specifics. But there's no question that Osama bin Laden is a prime suspect, is that right? I think when you look at that region and when you examine the kinds of terrorist organizations that are around that have the sophistication to conduct such a series of attacks, you would certainly have to identify Osama bin Laden and his organization as being one of those suspects. And it would make it much easier for us to go after, and with Pakistan's cooperation, and is that what you told the president? If that was the organization we finally determined was responsible, then of course it would be a lot easier with the cooperation of Pakistan. Now, you've talked to, you and the president have talked to people in the Arab world as well. Is that correct? Yes, we have. And I'm very pleased with that response. The president has spoken to President Mubarak in King Abdullah and Jordan.

I've been touched with Saudi officials, the Saudi officials, and I'll be making more calls tonight and tomorrow. Now, the Saudis are very important in this, are they not? Because bin Laden is a native of Saudi Arabia's money comes from Saudi Arabia, does it not? Well, he is a native of Saudi Arabia, but I have to draw your attention to the very strong statement that the Saudi ambassador to the United States Prince Bandar made yesterday, which reminded everybody that his citizenship was taken away from him. bin Laden's citizenship was taken away from him. The Saudis consider him a disgrace to their nation and to his own heritage, and they have condemned his actions. He has sources of money from various places throughout the world. But I am absolutely confident that the Saudi government is not supporting his efforts in any way. Why have we been unable to dry up those sources? If we know he's got $300 million and they're all over the world, why haven't we been able to stop that flow of that money?

I don't know that we really do know what all of his sources of money are and how much he actually has access to and who else might be supporting him. I'm sure we know quite a bit, but apparently not enough because he is still in operation and he has a rather far-flung network and parts of that network are able to sustain themselves in the places that they are located. In general, Mr. Secretary, how close are we to knowing who was responsible and how they did it? I think the evidence is building rapidly now and the FBI and other intelligence and law enforcement agencies have done a terrific job in just a short period of time. And I think in the not too distant future, we will have enough confidence in what we have gathered, the information and evidence we have gathered, to make a definitive judgment and then a definitive statement as to who we believe is responsible. I know the specifics are off limits at this moment.

The President spoke of what it's going to take to stop this kind of thing. Can you give us, as a military man, before you became a diplomatic man, give us a feel, and the American people to feel for the magnitude of what lays before them as a people, as a nation? Well, lays before them is a long, tough campaign. We should have no illusions that a few missile strikes will take care of this problem. They are well entrenched, they are well dispersed. It is not an enemy sitting out in the middle of a battlefield waiting to be attacked. They are clever, they are resourceful, and they are thinking. They are always trying to think what we might do to them. So we have to see this as a long campaign plan, using all of the weapons and tools at our disposal, political, economic, isolate them, diplomatically isolate them, isolate those countries that give them support and serve as their host. In terms of legal actions go after their sources of money, go after their ability to move

back and forth around the world, put them on watch list, be on the lookout for those who we know are identified with this organization, and always, always, be prepared to conduct a military strike when targets surface and targets become available. That make it clear you have found the perpetrators and somebody we ought to go after. And of course, there are covert things that one can be doing that I wouldn't discuss here but you are familiar with Jim. But if somebody is thinking that there is going to be desert storm to 500,000 US troops and it's going to be over in a few days, forget it, forget it. This will take time and we'll have to use all the weapons and tools I described. And the other thing you have to remember is that Osama bin Laden and his organization is not the only terrorist organization out there. And we have to see this not just in terms of Osama bin Laden. If that's the one we determine, we have to go after because he is responsible for this

and we should go after it anyway and have been trying to get to him because it is a terrorist organization, but there are many others out there who are responsible for crimes against American citizens and crimes against citizens of other nations. So it's going to be a long campaign against many terrorist organizations and the whole world has to be united in that campaign. But for Americans listening to you now, should they also know that this may not be free of casualties, this may not be a war that can be fought in such a way that either US military or even more civilians and counter retaliation from other terrorists, et cetera. This is not risk-free. Nothing is risk-free in life, especially battle. And we are now entering a number of battles to deal with this and it will not be risk-free. But we are a proud people, a brave people, and I'm confident we will do what is necessary to prevail in this conflict.

And that will involve, I'm gratefully have to say, that will involve casualties and we should not look for some cost-free option. They really don't exist. Finally, Mr. Secretary, let me ask you this. The President mentioned today as well that the people who committed this at these awful acts on Tuesday hate us and hate what we stand for. Where does that come from? You were as a military man for years now as Secretary of State. Why don't we think of ourselves as the good people of the world? We Americans. Why do these people hate us so that they would fly an airplane into targets and kill themselves in order to kill Americans? The reasons are very, very complex, in some instances, they don't like our values system. They don't like the system that treats every individual as a creature of God with the full rights of every other individual. They don't like our political system, our form of democracy. They don't like who some of our friends are, and in the Middle East, in the fact that

we are strong supporters of Israel and we remain so. They resent, in many instances, our successes as a society. But rather than debating us on our values, rather than listening as we listen to them, they choose another form of debate with us, debate on the battlefield. They choose terrorism, a weapon that is available to them because they can't defeat us on a conventional battlefield. And I wish that was not the case. We also have to remember is that this is not a conflict against Arabs or Muslims or those who believe in one particular religion or not. This is a conflict against terrorists. The other day, we saw some images from the occupied territories, from the West Bank of people cheering what had happened, and that sort of was seared in our mind. But I got a message in from our council general in Jerusalem saying that his switchboard is swamped with calls from Palestinian, Palestinian officials, Palestinian people expressing

their distaste for that kind of display, and letting us know that they were expressing their condolences and sympathy to us as well. That's the civilized reaction. All right, Mr. Secretary, thank you very much. Thank you, Jim. And now more on the terrorist organization of Osama bin Laden, that is the main suspect in the New York and Washington attacks. We start with some background from Kwame Holman. Osama bin Laden is a 43-year-old Saudi dissident living in exile. He has been accused of masterminding acts of terrorism around the world that wounded more than 1,400 people and killed hundreds, including 59 Americans. bin Laden is said to have used a personal inheritance of more than $300 million to help finance the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen last year. The 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, for which U.S. prosecutors

won a federal indictment of bin Laden and several other attacks. U.S. officials say the Taliban militia in control of Afghanistan has provided bin Laden's safe haven there. And earlier this week, the Afghan foreign minister denied that either the Taliban or bin Laden is connected with the attacks in the United States. Meanwhile, investigators continue to search for clues at the Pentagon and the World Trade Center site. The FBI said today it has received some 2,000 telephone tips, some of which have been useful to the investigation. The Justice Department says there probably were 18 hijackers, at least four on each of the jetliners that crashed Tuesday. At a midday press conference, Attorney General John Ashcroft said several hijackers likely were trained in this country to fly and had accomplices on the ground here. It is our belief that the evidence indicates that flight training was received in the United States and that their capacity to operate the aircraft was substantial.

It's very clear that these orchestrated coordinated assaults on our country were well conducted and conducted in a technically proficient way. With suspicion for the attacks centered on the Saudi bin Laden, Ashcroft condemned reports from several U.S. cities of violence against Arab Americans and others of Middle Eastern descent. Margaret Warner takes it from there. And for more on Osama bin Laden and his organization, we turn to three experts. Daniel Benjamin served on the National Security Council on the Clinton Administration. He's now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and he's writing a book on the rise of religious terrorism. Rashid Khalidi is a professor of Middle East history at the University of Chicago. And Milton Bearden is a retired CIA officer. He was stationed in Pakistan in the mid-1980s and helped run the CIA's covert operation

to arm the Afghan resistance against the Soviets. Welcome, gentlemen, Daniel Benjamin, beginning with you. Let's pick up where Jim and Secretary Powell left off. What motivates Osama bin Laden and his organization to commit acts of violence against the United States? Osama bin Laden and his followers have a distinctly different view of the universe than we do. They view the United States as being a hostile force, a force of evil in the universe. One that is committing the blasphemy of having intruded into the traditional realm of Islam and that must be repelled and must be defeated. And in that sense, they are acting both in the here and now and they believe that their violence is divinely mandated. And so they're also acting on a metaphysical plane, if you will. And for them, this is all there is. This is the great struggle to reestablish a caliphate, a Muslim super-state, like there was in the seventh century.

And they see the United States as standing in the way of that? They very much do. They view the United States as being an evil presence in the universe. It has its troops stationed in the Holy Land of the two mosques. And that is considered intolerable to them. You're speaking of Saudi Arabia. Absolutely. Rashid Haliti, what would you add to that in terms of the motivation here? I think I would add that groups like this develop this perverse misinterpretation of Islam in the cauldron of the Afghan war. They fought and helped to defeat a superpower. They went through the valley of death, they fought a very ruthless foe, and they developed a worldview, which combines elements that have been there before, but which is in essence entirely new and is entirely alien to what Muslims believe is a perversion in terms of a variety of things.

And as a result, we're talking about a very peculiar strain of Islam, a very peculiar and, in fact, unrecognizable strain of this religion to most of the billion and a quarter Muslims. It very deeply rooted in the specifics of that conflict in Afghanistan. As are, in some respects, the forms of organization, the trade craft that was then learned, and many other things come out of the Afghan experience. The bringing together, for example, of people from Algeria, Pakistan, other parts of the Arab world, Afghanistan, they're fighting together in the same trench. They're coming to have the same worldview, was entirely a function at the outset of the Afghan war. Things then developed in the ensuing years, and they have many targets. The United States, I think, is obviously the most important of them, but many, many governments in the Islamic world are also seen by them as ungodly in positions on the Muslims. They are, therefore, a group that holds beliefs that most Muslims abhor, killing innocent

people, for example, is something that, for these ruthless men who watch the Soviet army butcher people and who in turn engaged in ruthless warfare, is not important. A sacrificing themselves is something that, after seeing their comrades die in battle, they clearly don't think is important. So this is a very peculiar group of people who came out of a very peculiar situation. Mr. Beard, you, of course, were on the front lines of that Afghan war. Is this a job with your view? I think we can overdraw the experience of the Afghan Arabs, as opposed to the Afghan people themselves. That war was fought and essentially won by the Afghan people who lost a million dead, a million and a half maimed, and maybe five, six, seven million driven into external exile. We can overdraw the role that the Afghan Arabs played in that war. I think it has been...

When you say Afghan Arabs, you mean people came from other countries who were recruited by the CIA? No, no, no, no. What do you mean indigenous? I mean Arabs that came to Afghanistan to claim to Pakistan to take part in the Jihad. CIA actually avoided the issue of recruiting Arabs for this war, although many people will claim that that's a fact that never happened. This simply didn't happen. The truth is that the Arabs that came to take part in this war were more engaged in fundraising activities. Osama bin Laden, for example, building homes for orphans and widows of the martyrs of the war. The truth is that there was a very marginal role by non-Afghans in that war. They fought it. They didn't need any help to fight it, except what we were providing them. So I think we have to try to redefine this just a little bit. I have no doubts that these people were affected by that. These Afghan Arabs, the people who came from the Arab world.

But I would take issue with some of the assessments I hear of the role they played in it. Dan Benjamin, I'm sure you're going to want to pick up on that, but also move on in part in our brief time to whether you think Osama bin Laden and his organization, this al-Qaeda network, have the wherewithal to pull off this kind of sophisticated operation if so, where that comes from, the money, where they operate, how they communicate all of that. Well, it's a big question. I do believe that they have the wherewithal. They may have had assistance from other states, but they have a network with cells and over 50 countries. They have been present in one way or another in the US since the 80s, or at least people who became members of al-Qaeda or its constituent groups, they've shown enormous technical sophistication and very impressive tradecraft. And of course, an extraordinary ruthlessness.

They can draw on considerable resources because, although Rashid Kalidi is completely correct in saying that this is a perverse and very alien strand of Islam, the sad fact is that while a billion Muslims do view this brand of Islam as anathema, there is a minority that still numbers in the millions, stretched really from northwest Africa and Algeria and Mauritania as far as the Philippines, which is attracted to bin Laden, that minority includes many poor people who feel disenfranchised and have no political voice and feel frustrated and overborn by the West, and also revolted by American culture, which they view as a dominant culture, and they are contributing money, and it includes the poor, it also includes rich shakes in the Persian Gulf region. So there isn't a peel here that is profoundly dangerous. In the battle ahead that Secretary Powell and the President have described, it's going to be absolutely imperative that we have both a short-term and a long-term strategy because

radical Islam cannot be defeated militarily over long run. This is a project that will require enormous diligence, diplomatic resources, more money for foreign engagement of many kinds, extraordinary innovations in the realm of intelligence. It's going to be a challenge not for one or two years, but for a generation. Professor Khaledi do agree with that assessment that he can draw from all kinds of resources throughout the Muslim world, even if it is just a radical fringe. I think one of the great challenges for the United States in the coming era is going to be separating out this tiny minority of people and their potential supporters from the great majority of people in the Muslim world who find these ideas abhorrent. We are going to have to watch very carefully to ensure that our government doesn't act in a way that in effect gives these fanatics additional foot soldiers, gives them additional

support. They do have some support. Benjamin is right, but the crucial element in a war is to limit your number of enemies, to isolate them, and there are things that this country can do which probably can help in that process, narrowing down the number of people who would conceivably support them, decreasing their resources, isolating them from the countries in which they operate, some of which they are already being pursued in some of which because their weak states there is no government to chase them. There are also, however, things that our government is capable of doing in policies that we can follow which will alienate people throughout the Muslim world and increase that tiny fringe, multiply the numbers of people who might sympathize with them. There are many American policies which people in the Islamic world disagree with. These people would never dream of harming Americans or carrying out terrorism. What we want to avoid doing is pushing people who have legitimate differences with American policy over the line to where they might conceivably support people who carry out these

murderous, malevolent, horrible acts. Mr. Beard and we only have a minute or so left, but pick up would you please on the professor's point? I think the professor is right. The key point here is that there is a coalition building and it is not just Paris London and Berlin. We are talking about denying these people safe havens. That means you are going to have to deal with Cairo, Khartoum, Damascus, maybe think about dealing with Tripoli. You certainly deal with Pakistan. Pakistan has delivered more terrorists to the United States than any other country. And you get behind the scenes on the back channel and talk to the Taliban. They are talking today. They understand what's going on. They see the resolve. So do you think the state, some of the states that are supporting them, can be peeled off? Of course they can. What happened in 1989 and 1991 was that the world changed. The Soviet Union went, the Warsaw Pact, Carlos had to leave Budapest.

They ended up in Khartoum or in Afghanistan. We completed these countries off and leave almost no place for them to go, but it takes building coalitions and takes time. All right. We have to leave it there. Thank you all three very much. Until to come on the news hour tonight, the rescue effort in New York City, airports reopen, and Senate Majority Leader Dashow. Rescue and recovery efforts in New York, Ray Suarez reports. This is a staging area, some two miles north of the crash sites. Here, stream in from the skilled trades, a reminder of what a Union town, New York still is, skilled people built the World Trade Center, it'll take skilled people to tear it down. Some of these guys built this building. Really? Yes. I was around when it was first started, and we think that we can keep down here and help.

Take it down. We worked on it going up, so we should be able to work on it going down. We can burn steel, cut the steel. You know, that's our specialty. Do you worry about the danger of a place that's still unstable? Something like that. You always worry about it. But we've got to put the field side on going to what you need to do to get a job done, but so on. Basically, this is done in case we get hurt. We can get out of touch. What do you got on here? My name, my sister's security number, my blood test, my phone. When your helmet says that you're a hazmat gun, what does that mean? What can you do when you get there? Well, you know, it's not a pretty job, but I can go down in the small holes. And I'm trained to go down as far as I can get. Now, what might be down there after a situation in this country? Just about anything. People, oil, gasoline, electrical fires, the most important thing that everybody's looking for survivors.

And his school is right across the river from the, he's a perfect view of lower Manhattan in Brooklyn. And I mean, he saw people jumping off the building and he could tell me what color their shirts. Is that why you felt that you had to come forward to do this? I was at work this morning and I just, I couldn't be there. Examples that make it on to the island of Manhattan are loaded with donated food, clothes, gloves, blankets, water. These workers come knowing they may not see home for a while. We just drove down from Chicago. They board buses and head for ground zero. The hard work of pulling apart the wreckage of two of the world's largest buildings cannot go on full tilt, not yet. Not as long as there's even a slight chance of finding people alive. Research and rescue dogs are rotated in and out of the site and fresh fire crews, working hellish hours, search for thousands of world trade center workers and their own comrades.

Every one of these firefighters in here are our brothers. Every one of these police officers in here are our brothers and the civilians that are in here are the people that we just want to protect. That's our job. That's what we do. And as far as I'm concerned, I treat every person in there as my personal family and every firefighter does the same thing. Our job is to go on and do what we have to do. We tell them the rest. They do get their rest. We tell them to sit down. We have guys lined up over there. Thousands of firefighters and fire officers lined up over there with police officers waiting for the opportunity to go in. We have to hold them back because we don't want to create a situation where because of the structural defects, et cetera, where they're going to be put further in danger. And maybe during the recovery process, we wind up in dangering someone else. Some of the injured were so badly hurt. They couldn't even be treated at the city's top flight trauma centers. The most seriously burned were taken to New York Presbyterian Medical Center. The burn unit's chief held out little hope for those most severely injured. Almost all of them were in very critical condition.

We're talking 70 to 90 percent of their bodies burned. The patient with 70 percent burn has a chance if they're young and healthy, about 20 percent survival. If they have any stimulation or injury, that is, if they've been smoking, then the chances of survival decreased by about 20 percent. Many of these people we anticipate did have inhalations for because a lot of it seemed to be within a close space when it was smoked. So what you're saying is that most people on this board will probably not make it. Because once with the big burns, there's various small chains. Those are still hoping their missing friend, father, sister, wife, will still be found among the living. I'm trying to locate my daughter. She's still missing. My name is Morita Tam. If someone see her, please let me know. The New York City Office of Emergency Management shifted its operations to a public television station.

One of the few places in town that already had hundreds of phone lines running in. The pledge lines were open. Red Cross volunteers took missing persons calls, hour after hour after hour. Let me just go over what we need to do. We've been working off list number two, which has all the missing people that we have so far listed with the different hospitals. We also have some names that are kind of close but not quite the same. We have one and John kind of thing. We call those a possible match. So we have to found the possible match and then we have the missing, so the no match. We also have separate categories for firemen, police, a separate entity in the airlines. Pictures of lower Manhattan have been beamed around the world, but just a short distance from the fires and twisted metal are neighborhoods, stretching north, home to more than a million Manhattan Knights. Secondly, telling New Yorkers what to do is not easy, but after the attacks, there's a sense

on the street that this is no time to argue. People show idea police barriers, wait quietly and patiently on long lines. Clear streets to keep them open and moving, and break into spontaneous applause for the police and firefighters. As a growing understanding that these forces have suffered the largest losses in their long histories, there are some 350 firefighters missing and presumed dead and more than 30 police officers. Hundreds of police and firefighters were clustered around the north and south towers when they came down. Across the river in Brooklyn, life looks pretty normal on 7th Avenue. This neighborhoods main commercial street, but the Boy Scouts of Troop 815 are learning a lesson about loss. As cubs, they visited Squad 1 every year, 11 firefighters are missing from Squad 1 alone. One of the first trips of the year we usually do is to take the kids down to the firehouse. It's very exciting visit.

No, what it was impressed me is when I would see the whole truck pull up to a bagel store, you know, you'd get in line, there'd be eight firemen in line, ahead of the year or something. The thing I finally realized was those guys, one day they're never out of each other's sight for a minute. Wherever they are, if that alarm comes in, they have to go that second. They're not down or anything, like they do all of these things, they see people die and everything, but they're not, like, like, sad or like, still cheerful. The firemen were just great, they love to have kids come in. They really feel a camaraderie with the scouts, because they know that it's, they're very similar organizations, actually. Scoutmaster Bill Tucker's next door neighbor, firefighter Dave Fontana, is among the missing. He was just a wonderful guy, and we were very close friends. He came to our pack meeting two years ago and gave, perfectly on his own time, gave a

whole demonstration, told us all about firefighting. And then he put on his suit, and I said, it was quite an experience. It took him almost five minutes, and I remember just everybody sitting there, utterly fascinated. And when he finally got it on, it was a standing ovation, you know, because he looked, you know, well-protected. So the boys, their school, still closed, joined the neighbors in marking an enormous loss for one firehouse. I don't think many people in Park Slope realize now that this troop, that this firehouse has severed such casualties, bringing flowers, remembering their friends. It's just something that people will never forget and probably won't get over a long, long time. And these firemen are so much part of the community that kids go to school, everybody knows.

They were the bravest people, and they went in trying to save other people's lives. So I thought they should be honored, they died because they're helping other people. They crouched to sign the poster-sized card in so many ways, it says, thank you, thank you. The firemen that gave their lives today were very great men, and their heroes, and I think everybody is with them, and I saw sir with you. For as young Alex puts it, thank you firefighters for saving the world. For the first time in three days, there was limited air service in major cities throughout the country. Tom Bearden reports on that. Late this morning, America's massive air transportation system began what promises to be

a long, slow process of returning to normal operation. A few flights began to operate at a small number of airports like Atlanta and Baltimore, Washington. After those facilities received the Federal Aviation Administration's stamp of approval on newly mandated security precautions. The security at the airport in Atlanta was phenomenal. Between the checkpoints of security, they searched bags and had a good bat and did a really, thorough job. In Minneapolis, St. Paul, travelers from Asia finally headed to their final U.S. destination after being stranded for two days. They have your boarding pass and ID please. The handful of travelers at this and other mostly empty airports were subjected to ticket and ID inspections. We have looked at all of the mechanisms we used to provide for secure situation, and we've beefed up the security checkpoints, a higher staffing level, we've restricted the items that can go through the security checkpoint.

According to transportation secretary Norman Manetta, all travelers should expect a different environment at the nation's airports. A thorough search and security check of all airports and airplanes will take place before passengers are allowed to board any aircraft. Members from the Department of Justice and from the Department of Treasury will be employed to air will be deployed to airports across the country. Manetta said curbside check-in is discontinued, and vehicles near terminals will be watched closely. Passengers must check in at the ticket counter, and only ticketed travelers can go through metal detectors. We are only able to check in a few flights right now. It's expected to be at least several days before full services restored. The airlines face the daunting task of moving tens of thousands of people stranded Tuesday when the FAA grounded more than 2,000 aircraft within hours of the terrorist attacks. Officials urged all travelers to contact their carriers for more information and to be

prepared for extraordinary delays before being allowed to board. Finally tonight, a newsmaker interview with the Senate Majority Leader Tom Dashfield, Democrat of South Dakota, and the Gwen Eiffel. Senator Dashfield joins us from the Capitol where lawmakers are attempting to reach an agreement on a $20 billion emergency aid package to help respond to the attack. Members of the House and Senate are also working out the details of what they are calling a resolution of resolve to support any U.S. retaliatory strikes. Senator Dashfield, welcome. Thank you, Gwen. First of all, we understand you're just getting back in the Capitol after having been evacuated for a short time this afternoon. Is everything all right? Everything is fine. Yes, right. There was a suspicious package and one of the floors of the Capitol until the dogs could, and of course the police force could examine the package appropriately. We all had to depart the building.

We were out for about a half hour and came back in. And back to work on several things, including this resolution of resolve, where do things stand on this? We're not exactly a war powers act. What is it, and exactly where does it stand tonight? Well, it is a simple declaration of authority that the President has requested regarding his ability to respond to the circumstances and to find ways with which to assure that he has the means that may be required as he considers all of the options and retaliation to the incidents of this week. We're working on the language. We haven't come to any conclusion. There still has to be a lot of vetting and work done on it, but that's underway. Does the President actually need congressional approval to declare such an act, to declare war as he has been kind of doing all week? Well, the War Powers Act, of course, gives the President latitude to do a good deal of whatever requires is required. But as in his role as Commander-in-Chief, we have a role, of course, in Congress, to be

able to ensure that under our constitutional responsibilities, we can respond and be partners in whatever decisions are made over the longer term. So I think what the President is looking for is some clarification and a restapement of that authority for purposes of emphasis as we go forward. And what is the sticking point right now, Senator? Is it a difference over language over a scope? Well, I think that there's, I don't know that there's one way to describe it or characterize the differences. I think that there are some issues that we're still trying to work through. I wouldn't characterize them necessarily as, even as differences. I think that we've been so successful so far in the last three days and working as carefully and as cohesively as possible that I wouldn't want to give you the wrong impression. We simply have a lot of different ideas on how to word it when we're working on it. One of the different ideas that sounded like, at least Senator John Warner, who is the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, was saying that he thought it would

be beneath the dignity of the United States to declare war on someone like, for instance, Osama bin Laden. Well, I don't know that anybody is seriously considering a declaration of war any longer. I think there have been members, of course, that have made that proposal. But I think the administration has stated its opposition. I'm certainly opposed, and I think the overwhelming majority of members of the Senate are opposed as well. But there are other ways to restate the President's authorities commander-in-chief, and that's what we're looking at now. The White House has also asked for $20 billion to begin to address some of the recovery efforts as well as a rebuilding, as well as, I guess, the beginning of the read. I don't know what it's for, I guess, is the question. What is its $20 billion for and where does that stand? Well, actually, there have been a number of different figures that have been considered. I think the figure may now be $40 billion in large measure money to address the tremendous needs that we now have in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia. We've got to find ways with which to help those states dig out of the calamitous circumstances

they're now facing. Beyond that, of course, we want to help with the President's strong and concerted effort to deal with the array of issues that he must in intelligence gathering, working as we are with the military to find the perpetrators and to deal with that as well. So we've got a lot of work ahead of us, and this is just the first installment, perhaps, as we try to address it in a real way with the resources that are going to be required. Is that, does that mean writing an essence of blank check for the White House? No, in fact, that's one of the issues, is that I don't think there is any support for an open-ended appropriation. We want to take this one step at a time. We want to be able to evaluate our circumstances. We want to be able to have the kind of role constitutionally that the Congress has required to have. We're doing that now. And to make sure that every chunk of money, for instance, New York gets a dedicated chunk. Pennsylvania gets a dedicated chunk. It's not just a big barrel of money that goes over the transit, but everybody gets

to their own claim on their own source of money. Well, we're trying to find the right balance. We want to give the president a good deal of latitude and responding as the administration sees fit. But we also want to go through the normal appropriations process as well. We want to ensure that we are able to keep tabs and to ascertain where the money is going and have the confidence that it is going where we intended it to go. You have said that Congress is standing, Democrats, Republicans, shoulder to shoulder with this president during this time. I think that part has said there's no daylight between him and between and us. How do you begin to question the details on requests like this and still give the appearance of total lockstep support? Well, I think we just have to take it a step at a time, a decision at a time that we've all talked about the importance of consultation. I've made that speech many times. I've heard my colleagues make it as late as this afternoon. There has to be a lot of consultation.

I'm satisfied that today there has been a good deal of consultation. We can always do better. And that means on both sides, but we're attempting to do what we've not been able to do very much in the past under the most threatening and very difficult circumstances. One member of your body, Republicans, Senator Arne Hatch, was somewhat scolded by the administration for some information that he revealed about classified intersex. What did you think of that? Think of the revelation and the very response from the White House. Well, I think we've got to be very careful. I've admonished my caucus from the very beginning that this information is very, very sensitive. We have to be sure that it is kept and classified as we expect that it should be. We want to work with the administration and the only way we can is to understand that they have to earn our trust and we have to earn theirs.

And that means especially the way we handle very sensitive information. This is a very difficult time for everybody involved in this process, Senator Dashow. How do you go about during this process, especially with all the noise some details, how do you go about sustaining public confidence in the process and in their belief that the leaders of our government will be able to get to the bottom of this problem, this issue? So I think the most important thing is to continue to show what we've been able to show in the last couple of days, that we are taking this in a very deliberate and very careful, very thoughtful way, that we're doing it not as Republicans and Democrats, but as Americans representing all of America in Congress, and that as we take it so deliberately, that we ensure that the American people know exactly what we're doing. I think we've been able to do that so far in my hope and intention is that we continue to do it for the days and weeks ahead. Senator Dashow, thank you very much. My pleasure. And editor's note before we go tonight, as you regular viewers know, Paul G. Go of that

famous analysis team of Shields and G. Go is leaving the program as a regular. That's because his becoming editor of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page requires that he moved to New York. Tomorrow we'll bring his last Friday night with Mark Shields. His spot will be taken by David Brooks of the weekly standard, someone who is already familiar to most of you who watch this program. We will say our formal goodbyes to Paul here tomorrow, and we'll see you then and online with our continuing coverage of the New York and Washington attacks. I'm Jim Lara. Thank you, and goodnight. Major funding for the new's hour with Jim Lara has been provided by. Imagine a world where no child bakes for food, while some will look on that as a dream, others will look long and hard and get to work. ADM, the nature of what's to come.

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What's with him? I don't know. I just made a joke about the witness protecting program.