wear with allherewithal. i think obviously the finger of suspicion, and we're also very cautious about pointing that in any particular direction but we have to look to the middle east. we have to look to osama bin laden. we have to look at some palestinian groups right now. >> but even in the past when we were talking about osama bin laden and his group there have been intelligence experts who have picked up conversations, transmissions, that occurred before an attack to give some kind of indication -- even if we didn't understand them until after the attack. is it unusual with so many prongs to an attack that there wouldn't have been some type of warning through intelligence sources? >> well it's -- it's a myth we always know these things are coming down. part of our problem is, and we just had a warning go out to our embassies and military bases in the far east. that could have been a feint. that could have been a diversion. we have so many warnings they tend to fade into the background noise unless we have real specific information about an

upcoming attack. generally we don't take action. these groups are very hard to penetrate. they're focused with bonds of kinship and people who have known each other forrer eryears. it doesn't surprise me we didn't know this was coming. >> all right. thank you very much. we appreciate it. >> benjamin levy is at the scene near the world trade center. actually, he's going to tell us precisely where he is and what he saw. benjamin, can you hear me? >> hello? >> hello benjamin? >> yes. >> hi, it's katie couric. can you tell me where you are and what you've seen or seeing? >> right now i'm in lower manhattan. i was working -- i work at the federal building behind city hall. we were just sitting at our desk. this morning we heard a big explosion. about five minutes -- i mean, ten minutes later we saw the other plane hit the building, the second tower. then we just evacuated. as we started to walk away we

turned around about maybe 15 minutes after we left the building and the second tower just disappeared from sight. i tell you i've never seen anything more horrible in my entire life. >> did you see any people any casualties, mr. levy? >> we -- we bumped into some -- to a guy from tower one who said that he had a chance to get out of the building after the plane hit the first one. he had a chance to get out of the second one but he said that -- he said that people were jumping out of the windows to get away from the fire. >> where are you now, benjamin? >> i'm -- i'm in a hair salon in lower manhattan talking to you guys. >> well, obviously that was -- >> and was the whole federal building evacuated? >> yes. well, we started running out of the building as soon as we saw the second explosion. and then -- i work on the 22nd floor. sooz as soob as we were down to the

bottom they announced the alarm but most were already out. >> how far physically -- >> now? >> no, when it happened. >> six block as way. >> you were able to get out pretty easily and there were no electrical problems in your building as a result of the impact of the fire or anything like that? >> no. we got out pretty good, thank god. >> as that whole area down there, the city hall, the federal building and all the oe commercial buildings they've been evacuated as well? >> yeah. as we were leaving the police were telling the shop owners to shut their shops and go home. >> that must be enveloped by the dust and smoke and everything we see now because that covers the entire lower end of manhattan, which is a considerably large area. not only physically but in terms of the financial networks, the commerce, a lot of residential areas. >> yeah, you could smell the smoke. you could smell it but it wasn't -- we were walking away from it. >> benjamin, thank you for talking with us. we appreciate it. we're glad you're safe.

>> kate y iie, i have a rundown about what's going on. the state department officials have been moved into the state department training center in arlington, virginia. in minneapolis st. paul international airport shut down the ids center in minneapolis, evacuated. georgia, all flights at hartsfield international airport closed. the cnn center world headquarters of cable news headquarters was closed to public in maryland. officials are tightening throughout the state, home of andrews air force base. pennsylvania philadelphia international airport has been closed. the liberty bell and independence hall are closed as well. >> all national monuments have been evacuated and closed. >> california, the state has been put on the highest alert. tactical alert in los angeles. oak ridge, tennessee, put under heightened security. >> it is now coming up on 10:59

east coast time. we'll give you a recap of what we've seen so far in just a moment. just a quick note from one of the hospitals downtown in new york city. where they say that hundreds of people have been burned from head to toe. this is from dr. steven stern at 50 or 60 doctors standing by in scrubs. the entire emergency room was covered with stretchers covered with white sheets. the doctor said most victims had burns. >> they're being treated in a number of area hospitals including st. vincent's nyu, downtown is just about five minutes away, as a spokesperson told us earlier, they've had a lot of experience dealing with problems at the world trade center from that february terrorist bombing in 1993. and obviously they have all been mobilized and emergency crews are working feverishly outside

the world trade center. >> you are looking at a live picture of lower manhattan at 11:00 east coast time on a day of tragedy and terror in the united states. you're looking at what remains of the world trade center in lower manhattan. earlier this morning just before 9:00 and just after 9:00 two planes, individual attacks struck each tower of the world trade center, causing gaping holes in both towers. you're looking at a tape after the first impact. and there is the second impact of a large jet flown we now believe, deliberately into the second tower. it was a short time after that that the towers collapsed. and then there was an attack in washington, d.c. we now have confirmed reports that a plane crashed into the pentagon. we have no reports of confirmed injuries or death.

however, it's clear officials all across the country are now saying this is a deliberate terrorist attack on the united states. as tom has put it so far this morning, this is a declaration of war by terrorists against the united states. >> most serious -- >> we should mention, by the way, tom before we talk about terrorism, that another large plane crashed as well just north of somerset county airport, 80 miles southeast of pittsburgh, pennsylvania. it was a 7 -- boeing 767 that crashed around 10:00 this morning. it is unclear whether the crash was related to the other crashes that took place this morning. >> president bush is en route back to washington. the state department has been evacuated. there's been that attack on the pentagon. the white house has been evacuated. there will be an emergency meeting of the national security council. this is the most serious attack on the united states since pearl harbor. there has never been a terrorist attack of this magnitude, in fact, on any country in the

world so far as we can tell. the untold loss of life in new york alone, we only know that there have been hundreds of burn victims brought to various hospitals. both twin trade tower centers have collapsed to the ground. that's a densely populated area, obviously. we don't know the number of casualties yet at the pentagon. and we don't know the number of deaths in that plane that went down as katie pointed, north of pittsburgh. >> we left out a piece of information. we know for a in fact that one of these planes that was crashed into the world trade center was hijacked from boston this morning. it was american airlines flight 11 en route from boston to los angeles. we had reports it had been diverted to jfk and a short time later, while perhaps feigning a landing at jfk it veered dramatically into the world trade center. >> all air travel has been stopped. airports have been closed across the country to planes departing, in items of planes en route it's

unclear if they've made emergency landings or reached their final destinations. the white house has been ee vak witted, the state department, cia has been evacuated. many, many buildings in manhattan have been evacuated as well. >> and transatlantic flights to this country are being diverted to canada. still, no claim of responsibility that is verifiable or credible at this time. yasser arafat has condemned this attack saying it's shocking and appalling. >> of course, we should mention back in february of 1993 was when that bomb went off in the garage of the world trade center killing six people injuring 1,000 people. and that of course was an unbelievable scene. but compared to this -- >> this is what they intended to do back then. >> this is minor. bob hager has information for us. >> >> reporter: i gave you comment about the various planes involved. the one we know of so far because it's confirmed by

american airlines 11 from boston's logan airport to los angeles, that flight 11 was hijacked this morning and did is presumed that that is -- that may have been one of the planes that went into one of the towers of the world trade center. there were at least two more planes involved in this because the other tower was hit and then the pentagon was also -- there were eyewitness accounts it was a plane that went into the pentagon. we don't know the sources of those planes. whether they were commercial planes that were hijacked, private planes whether they were hijacked at all. i would point out the report from somerset county pennsylvania, is so far just local authorities commenting. the faa has not confirmed that crash. so, we're waiting to hear more. i'm hearing just now -- bear with me. faa is now confirming, so this adds to the earlier rumors, there are several airplanes unaccounted for.

there were some rumors there might have been other planes hijacked we didn't yet know the outcome of it, and now the faa is confirming that there are several, is the word i heard several planes unaccounted for that were evidently hijacked and has not come to a conclusion yet. >> bob, we'd like to you get a list of as many of those as you can, as specifically as possible. we'll show you now -- we'll replay a tape of the second attack on the world trade centers in slow mo. there's the plane. as you can see, a large airline type plane. and now the collision. flown deliberately into the second one. >> when they say several bob, do they give you any indication of what they're talking about? >> reporter: several is the description and that was just passed onto me. so i wasn't talking personally to the faa person, but several is the account i have. >> american airlines flight 11

out of boston, do we know what exactly kind of plane that was and perhaps how many people were on board? >> reporter: we do not yet but i think we'll get additional information from american. they were supposed to be adding comment to this from dulles airport in a few moments. we might learn more about that. right now, it's very important to worry about rumors and so far. i'd like to hear more confirmation that a plane really has crashed in pennsylvania, for instance since the faa hasn't confirmed that. i think one needs to be very careful here in this chaotic situation. >> we have a report here that osama bin laden, often identified as the word's leading terrorist, warned three weeks ago he and his followers would carry out an unprecedented attack on u.s. an arab journalist said tuesday in london. >> editor of the london based al

air ba newspaper said fundamentalists was almost certainly behind the attack of the world trade center in new york. quoted, most likely the work of islamic fujd icic fundamentalists. he warned he would attack america, a very big one he told reuters. >> he has interviewed bin laden and he maintains close contact with his followers, according to reuters. that's the first report we've had that osama bin laden may have been responsible. obviously, it was a very sophisticated organization carefully coordinated. it had to have its origins in this country. fbi director, as he left office said has continuing great concern with a number of terror cells that exist in america. not just in some shadowy enclave in afghanistan or somewhere in the suda continent but they've taken root in this country because it's so easy to get here. >> let's talk more about osama bin laden because as you say he was associated with the 1993 world trade center bombing.

why don't we talk about him to give people a little background. >> well, he is from saudi arabia originally. he's wealthy. he is very sophisticated in terms of using the new technology. we believe that he is being harbored in afghanistan. no one knows for sure. a number of people have attempted to get to him and have been unsuccessful in that. they also believe he was behind the bombings in kenya as well. he is obviously a zealist of great, dark passion most directed at the united states. >> our terrorist expert remain on the phone. tell us more about osama bin laden and if you think that he might, in fact, have carried out this kind of well-orchestrated horrific attack on the united states. >> certainly he would have to be included in any very, very short list of suspects, but it is premature to be able to say with

any confidence who might be responsible. something like this, i mean, we know what has happened. we know when it has happened. we know where it has happened. who and why, it takes a little longer to figure out. i have no doubt we'll ultimately be able to identify who was responsible but until then we can only speculate. >> in an attack of this magnitude, so carefully coordinated and executed with such cold-blooded efficiency, it obviously had to be a very sophisticated organization. >> clearly this took -- this took organization. while organization hasn't in terrorism in recent years become more fluid, that is, we are not dealing with the identifiable terrorist organizations that we dealt with in the 1970s and 1980s terrorism in the last decade has been a lot more fluid. and from these universes of like-minded fanatics, people

have been able to put together these ad hoc conspiracies. nonetheless, the magnitude of this attack, the coordination involved in this attack does indicate a considerable amount of planning and organization. >> right. mr. jenkins if you'll hold for a second, i want to go back to bob hager of nbc. we were talking a second -- apparently we don't have bob. let's go to jim, former direct he of the new york office of the fbi. where does law enforcement start? obviously, we know in several cases we're talking about the plane as the weapon so to speak, but where do we start to track who's responsible? >> well, matt, i think someone said, this is unprecedented. and law enforcement will start from the base of intelligence that they already have. hopefully always have. i mean, that's the -- that's the argument in the country. i mean, we have a very short memory in the united states.

maybe that's good, maybe it's bad. but that's why we need effective law enforcement. amount in a free society as brian jenkins points out and i agree with him, it's very, very difficult to stop things like this. the first goal would have been to stop this horrific, horrific event. the second goal now is to save as many people as we can. and to find out who did it. thirdly, and most importantly, not let something like this happen again. >> jim, if you were starting the investigation tomorrow morning, where would you begin with the man who hijacked an american airlines flight? >> i'd probably have 100 courses of action taken simultaneously. i'm sure that's what's going on as we speak. it's a bit chaotic. i mean, i just look at the twa tragedy. this is so much bigger than

that. it's chaotic but law enforcement is trying to make sense of it. obviously not let something happen again in the next ten minutes, the next hour, the next two hours, so that's on the mind of public safety officials in washington and locally. of course, a long-range plan to see what we can do about stopping this. you know, we live in a free society. people come and go. our borders are open. we see that talked about on the news every night. not so much from a terrorism standpoint. from, you know, a work standpoint. but people landed on major airports every day undocumented. so, it's extremely difficult. as brian pointed out earlier these terrorist cells are very insulated from each other. there's no particular hierarchy like there was in the mafia where you put a particular wiretap in at the top and you know everything that's going on. that's not the case here. we know there's tremendous hatred -- i mean, we talked about this in law enforcement for over a decade. they blew up the world trade center. they tried to bring the world

trade center down. they've blown up many, many other government symbols. they also tried to blow up 11 jumbo jets -- >> i'm sorry to interrupt. we want to go to pat dawson at the world trade center talking with that official. >> reporter: katie forgive me, we're trying to get -- you could go ahead. put the microphone on there. as you can imagine this is a very, very difficult situation here. we are here with a couple of guests who can give us at least some insight into what's going on there. this is chief william hall, port authority police of new york. as we told you earlier, port authority police have jurisdiction over the trade center. and also allen rice, director of the world trade center. if i can get you to stand like that. first of all, chief, do we have any idea of how many people are in there? >> we have no idea. as you know pretty much rush hour time this took place this morning, so the numbers we don't know yet.

we tried to get almost everybody out that we could early on. >> reporter: the first two crashes, when the planes hit the building, there was roughly about, i would say, about an hour an hour and 15 minutes between that and the point where the south tower collapsed. >> give or take, yes. >> reporter: how many people were you able to get out, any idea? >> we don't know. we tried to do a floor by floor search, new york city police fire department, port authority police, tried to get everybody out. as you know, there were still people coming out after that building came down. >> do you have any idea how many people would normally be in the building at 8:30 -- >> possibly 10,000 people in each tower. would typically be in there on a normal business day. we get about another 5,000 visitors during the course of the entire day. so by 8:30 9:00 the building should have been full. >> reporter: in other words, by 8:30 to 9:00 you figure the building would have been approaching full capacity with workers. so, we are talking about, roughly, 10,000 people -- >> per tower.

>> reporter: per tower. now, at this point obviously you've got a situation having these towers collapsed that is bordering on chaotic. what's the first challenge? what are you doing at this moment? i've seen emergency worker trooig try to go in there and come running back out. what are you trying to do now? >> i guess the next step is between the chief and myself and my staff. we're going to go assess the condition and determine whether it's safe or not to send personnel into the building to continue looking and evacuating people. >> reporter: are there any emergency workers in there now? >> we don't know that. >> we don't know. >> reporter: if there were in there now, presumably they would have been trapped in there -- >> it's possible. from what we saw yeah, very much so. we were trapped ourselves in the building in the basement. we were -- the building collapsed and we came out of that. but, yes -- rt. >> reporter: you were in the basement of the south to youer? >> no, basement of building 5 -- >> six. >> i was in building five. >> reporter: you dug your way

out. what was that like? >> scary. >> scary. >> but was a volunteer fireman for years so you learn not to panic. >> reporter: what was -- what do you do right now to try to get to those people? how long before you get to those people? >> we're going to have to wait and make the building safe. we have our engineers here, our law department here. we'll make the building safe and send in rescue team. we're already breaking the men and women up into rescue teams and they're ready to go once the building is declared safe of what's left. >> reporter: how soon? >> we're going to try to do this right no and i hope soon. >> reporter: is any part of the building still standing? we can't really see. >> i can't see either. i don't know. >> reporter: you don't know how much of the building is left? >> that's are where we're going now to assess the condition. >> reporter: we appreciate very much taking the time out. the latest report that we have at this point from those who are in charge of that building. speaking to the director of the world trade center and chief of the port authority police. they are at this point, as they said, just trying to put

together a plan to go in there and just assess the damage. this sequence of extraordinary tragedies, of atastcatastrophes. sequence, one tower coming down another tower coming down. obviously, the first order of business is to try to organize themselves and to go back in there in a way that doesn't endanger more emergency workers because i can tell you based on what i've seen there have been a number of emergency workers who were put in harm's way this morning, they had to be, but the toll has to be extraordinary. tom, we'll throw it back to you. >> thank you very much. those are the first numbers we've had this morning. they think there were about 20,000 people in the two buildings at the time of the attack, to say nothing of the untold number of people on the streets or in nearby buildings. who could also have suffered injuries or worse when the buildings did come down. this is tantamount to war. a plane attacked the pentagon

this morning as well. there's a report of a hijacked plane that went down near pittsburgh. nbc's robert hager is tracking all of this through the faa for us. robert? >> well there's some more information now on the one confirmed hijacking that we know of. that was that american airlines flight 11. it was a 767 took off from boston logan this morning. it was to go to los angeles. american airlines confirmed it was hijacked. we have some first numbers on how many were on board. 58 passengers and a crew of 11. so, 69 people on that flight. that's presumed to be one of the planes that went into one of the towers of the world trade center. the other planes that we know of, the other tower of the world trade center, and the plane that went to the -- that crashed into the pentagon area those are unknown flights. the pennsylvania crash, which is still not the faa but local authorities saying it. our affiliate in pittsburgh has heard traffic on the radio scanners saying that it was a

flight that originated in chicago and was headed to cleveland, but i'd caution that sort of information coming off radio scanners is very, very sketchy and so very unlee liable but the first report off the scanners. >> bob, an fbi spokesman is quoted as saying there were four flights that were hijacked all together. we know about american 11. i won't mention the name of the carriers or the numbers on the others. are you getting in i kind of detail like that at the faa? >> no, the faa is not getting into that kind of detail. a moment ago i said they said there were several planes in the air. that report was coming to me while on the air. now i understand what they were saying is that they had unaccounted -- flights that were unaccounted for. that could mean in addition to the american airlines flight 11 the other planes that went into those other buildings. it does not necessarily imply that there are still planes in the air. a little more information. canada has now shut all of its airports down but it will leave

the airports open to allow incoming planes that were bound for the u.s. and are now prohibited from landing at u.s. airports to divert into canada otherwise canada is allowing no takeoffs and not taking inbound flights from any other place other than planes bound for the u.s. >> now we get word from american airlines, bob, stay with us here for a moment, it had two air traffic, boeing 767, flight 77 they're saying, a boeing 757 from washington dulles to l.a. with 48 passengers two pilots. that's from one of our guys in the dallas area from american airlines. >> so now we know the identity of two of the flights involved in today's incidents. that leaves at least once more, and if the report of the crash in pittsburgh is accurate, two

more. >> it could have been both these planes could have been into the twin trade towers because plainly two airliners that went into the twin trade towers as we saw on the videotape. >> reporter: they say there's a bomb in the school here. i was told by firefighters. >> pat dawson in lower manhattan. >> reporter: tom, we have just been told -- we're being evacuated. you can see the emergency workers walking north. we've been told by firefighters there's a report of a bomb in this building. this is a high school right here. as you can see, they're moving everybody away from this building. they've said there's a bomb in the building. they are evacuating us north now. according to firefighters on the scene. wire going to move out of here right now. just to keep ourselves safe. so, we're going to start walking north ourselves. that's what we're told by new

york city firefighters here, that there were reports of a bomb in that high school right there. so, we are walking north to get out of the way. you can see to my left here, these are the -- even the ambulances which were down there are being moved north. firefighters are being moved north. everybody is being moved north. we're being asked by the police to go north and get out of the way. officer, do you have any idea of what the problem -- >> a report of a secondary device possibly in the area of this school so they're going to move everybody back as a precaution. >> reporter: meaning a bomb? >> possibly. >> reporter: where did that report -- >> it came in over our radios and it's reported to our supervisors on down, so we're pulling everybody back. >> reporter: that's in the high school right there? >> yes. >> reporter: thank you very much officer mcquaid of new york city emergency service. >> that school has been evacuated? >> reporter: i don't think there was anyone in the school this morning. at this point i think everybody had been evacuated from here probably when the first events took place early this morning. just because of the fact that it's so close to the world trade

center. most of these buildings around here have been evacuated. i neffver saw any kids go into that school this morning so i'm going to presume they never allowed them to get into school. those here at 8:45 were probably moved out within moments of the crash took place because it literally is only ten blocks north of here. >> pat, thank you very much. the big story, obviously that is still to be resolved is how many planes were hijacked. we have a report there could have been as many as four. two planes were involved here at the twin trade towers. a report of a plane down north of pittsburgh. another plane went into the pentagon. there could still be planes in the air under the control of hijackers. we don't know for sure what flight they are or where they're headed. there are some unconfirmed reports much them. we can only tell you that american 11 and american 77 have been identified by american airlines as two of the planes

involved in the incident. >> and the hijackings are scattered around a fairly wide area. we have to remember two of these planes did arrive at the world trade center within 18 20 minutes of each other. again, to point out the coordination of this attack. we'll go down to nbc's tim russert standing by with more information. tim? tim? apparently tim can't hear us. >> obviously people are scrambling to get as much information -- we i think we do now have audio. >> reporter: can you hear me? >> yes. please give us your information. >> reporter: i've just been speaking to the chairman of the house intelligence committee porter goss and we're trying to get him on the telephone here and continue our conversation on the air. he told me he was on the phone with house speaker hasssert about the situation when the code red was called on the hill and the speaker moved to a secure place. congressman porter goss, the chairman of the intelligence committee, also said that this

extremely well-coordinated attack could only be done by a very few people, very few organizations. and that because of the magnitude of it, it will be relatively easy to, quote, see their fingerprints, and then we as a nation will have to make a decisive retaliation as soon as we're able to identify exactly who this was. mr. goss said he's obviously never seen anything quite like this. as it plays out perhaps more to come, and he will be joining us shortly on the telephone here. so we all can hear his words directly. he will be briefed throughout the day because of his position. he is -- has access to the nation's utmost secrets. >> tim, obviously president bush is on his way back to the nation's capital. is it yourening he's abed yet or do he know his whereabouts at this point? >> katie i do not know that. i do know while the white house has been evacuated, the situation room continues, or

people in the white house doing their jobs, so with the pentagon. in the nerve centers of both of those facilities are highest ranking officials are obviously monitoring this situation, making a determination as to how widespread this attack may be and trying very, very hard to get a handle on exactly who did it and just how we respond. >> tim we have secure areas, obviously, for the president in case of a nuclear attack in the past, in the mountains of virginia not too far from washington by helicopter ride in. any indication the president may have to go to one of those facilities? facilities? >> reporter: we have not yet heard that. i asked that question and they said, we're not going there. meaning not responding to my question. they have on the highest state of alert. they understand the magnitude of this. they understand the american people now are going to be waiting and watching for a response from washington. other than what the president gave in florida. as you might expect, even or most sophisticated communication in 2001 era it is still

extremely difficult trying to get any kinds of information cell phones are down many of the hard lines are down, but i've been assured by people at the white house and at the pentagon that, in fact, they are in touch with each other and have the situation as under control the best they can. but like all of us, they simply don't know yet who did this. >> tim you talked about porter goss. obviously, the capitol was evacuated along with other major monuments and government buildings in washington, d.c. where are people members of congress right now? have they assembled anywhere? what are they doing? where are they? >> reporter: after the explosion at the world trade center, congress convened -- said a prayer, and then recessed. many of the members headed home. they were obviously going to look forward to a very difficult week in washington dealing with the economy. i'm told porter goss is on the telephone with me.

congressman, can you hear me? congressman goss can you hear me? we'll continue to effort that, katie. most of the congressmen have now -- and congresswomen have returned to their homes here in washington because the building itself has been evacuated. the leadership of the congress, as i mentioned speaker hassert is in a secure place and he'll be in constant communication with the president and vice president, being the number third person in the hierarchy. >> tim russert in washington, thanks very much. when you get porter goss on the phone, maybe you can give us more information. >> let's go to msnbc's ashleigh banfield. ashleigh? >> reporter: hi. i am just about -- between five and ten blocks north of the actual site of where those two towers have come down. we're obviously having a bit of trouble right now maintaining our location because we just heard one more explosion. that's about the fourth one we've heard. the police are telling us

they're either car bombs or they are simply cars that have overheated so much they're exploding. every time one of those happens there's a flurry of activity and more nj vehicles that come down this road. i don't know if you can shoot past me and down there. that is the cloud we were in just about 45 minutes ago or so. at the time we were there when the first trade tower came down my producer and i were overcome by the cloud of debris and smoke that came at us so rapidly. we had to break down a window to an apartment building. we had to break the window and go into the second door inside just to breathe. we were followed by a police officer and a security guard from the world trade center area. i want to show you something, if i can. just using a cell phone so i can hear you because there are no cell lines coming out of manhattan. see if you can zero in on this. this is the debris we're seeing all over the ground. if can you see the address, one world trade center --

>> here's the first confirmation from united airlines confirmed one flight crashed in the pittsburgh area. flight 93 boeing 757 flight involved originating in newark bound for san francisco. no information on how many people were on board. a 757 carries a lot of folks. anyone who has felony from newark to san francisco knows most of those flights carry a full load. >> this now brings to three the number of confirmed flights that have been involved in this tragic day. american airlines flight 11 from boston to los angeles. flight 77 from washington dulles to los angeles with 58 passengers on board and now united flight, tom you just mentioned. you can say that we have to say the number of passengers was relatively low on those first flights. we can only hope this was not a full flight. >> there was a collapse, obviously, not just of intelligence, but of airport security as well that that many planes were hijacked almost simultaneously. >> although these days as we know, tom, and learned from the

twa tragedy flight 800 that oftentimes some of these devices are absolutely -- it's impossible to see them in our security x-ray machines that you have at typical airports. some are made of plastics that can be very small and virtually undetectable which is of course, another major problem for airport security. we're going to bob at st. vince en's hospital. obviously, we're very concerned about the people who are in the world trade center when these two planes crashed into them. bob, tell me about the scene at st. vincent's hospital. >> reporter: katie, the wounded are starting to come in with great regularity now almost every 30 seconds an ambulance pulls up. some are badly burned or dead. head of catholic archdiocese is out on the streets giving last rites. there's been a call out for blood from all the new york

hospitals. people are lined up around the block. people have responded in enormous numbers to that. everybody seems to want to help in some way. new york has become kind of surrealistic on the streets above lower manhattan because all the subways and commuter lines and bridges and tunnels have been shut down, so many people are not injured are wandering around aimlessly. in the hospitals there are so many injured coming in they've run out of gurn anygurneys. it's an enormous amount of work for the staff. everybody who was off has come in. calls have come out for specialists, for plastic surgeons, burn specialists and it's going to be a very gruelling several days ahead. >> bob, the other thing i don't know whether you can tell about traffic in the rest of manhattan because our major hospitals are well north of there, lennoxville, new york cornell, are ambulances able to get through? have they cleared the traffic? we're in a tomb here in the

studios in midtown. >> reporter: i had trouble hearing you. there's a system in place here where they're triaging people in lower manhattan. putting sometimes tags around their neck. you see people wandering up who have slight injuries, are cleared. every hospital in the area is involved in a plan to take in some kind of patients. this one where i'm at, st. vincent's, is one of the closest with a major trauma center, but every hospital is on alert, taking in what is now a sea of patients. >> nbc's robert bazell. thanks very much. let's go back to washington and nbc's tim russert who has a guest on the phone, porter goss head of the house intelligence committee. >> reporter: exactly right. congressman goss are you here? >> i'm here. >> what is your official reaction to what we've witnessed this morning? >> well, obviously, i'm horrified. we do our best to make sure there are no surprises like this happening to americans at home or abroad. it's never 100% sure.

we got the wake-up call again today. it is unbelievable that anybody would do an act like this. basically using innocent victims aaboard our commercial airliners as weapons against other innocent victims in our big buildings, our signs of commerce and economy in new york and our defense and legislative and executive buildings. >> when people are watching this at home, congressman, they're saying, how could this happen in the united states of america, a complete breakdown in our airport security, a complete break breakdown in airport security, over the pentagon, the center of our military command. how could something be this vulnerable? >> well, we are a free, open democratic society. we take great pride in that. we pay a price for it. as you know f you've ever flown into washington national washington reagan airport, you fly right over the pentagon. many times we've commented on how vulnerable the buildings are just for that reason.

that vulnerability was taken advantage of today. our commercial airliners flying around new york, air space there. obviously they fly near the trade towers. to be able to say our airport security works 100%, anybody who flies in america knows that's not true. you answer a few questions and show a photo i.d. that doesn't necessarily mean you can't do mayhem on the plane, as we see from time to time. tragically tragically some kind of an organization somewhere has orchestrated all this in an effective fashion. we have great intelligence capabilities out there who keep us constantly on alert about these types of reports. i can tell you, i knew of no specific reporting anything of this particular specificity on this day with these targets. but i can tell you that we are scrambling all the time to assess information that would do harm to the united states and its people. as we know we've seen our military installations subject to attack, embassies subject to

attack. before we -- we stop a lot of it, but we obviously don't get it all. we're just going to have to rethink how we do business in today's world and deal with these kind of threats. >> based on your experience as a honored cia agent and now as a very -- highly respected chairman of the house intelligence committee, how many organizations terrorist organizations in the world, are capable of pulling off such a coordinated massive attack? >> i would say there's only a handful, if we're not talking about state-sponsored terrorism. if you're talking state-sponsored, it could be more. but i don't think we're dealing with state-sponsored. i think we're dealing with a loose network, a loose association of people who have the same goal, which is an anti-united states goal, who found a way to get together and network and pull this thing off. part of the problem with terrorism is that one of the weapons of terrorism is confusion. and one of the hopes now, of course, of the terrorists who perpetrated this is that we will have lots of confusion in the

united states and there will be rumors of other things happening and that will upset how we go about our business and our behavior and how our law enforcement people react and so forth. another thing to deal with, as the president alluded to this morning in his very strong statement, we will respond. the question is, against whom? we to want make absolutely sure when we're dealing with asymmetrical warfare such as this, dealing with innocent people by and large who are victims of this, that we respond appropriately and not provoke any other incidents that aren't warranted in the world but get the people who actually caused this to happen. that requires good information and, obviously we're in the process of trying to get that information. >> but it may take some time to sort through all this, find the fingerprints and launch any kind of retaliation. >> that is certainly true. one of the hallmarks we may need is patience these days. >> congressman porter goss chairman of the house intelligence committee, thank you very much. we'll be contacting you throughout the day and we very

much you appreciate you joining us this morning. >> add my prayers to the others. >> thank you very much. >> we'll talk to someone in the studio but, tom, have you a phone number for people concerned about passengers on board those flights. >> american airlines has confirmed that two of its flights were hijacked. for people who want to know the number is 1-800-245-0999. united headquarters you may not be able to get through is 847-700-5538. united has confirmed one of its planes went down near pittsburgh. american has said two of its planes were involved in the hijackings today. one from dulles and one from boston. >> apparently united airlines was involved, sfrit. >> i said that, in pittsburgh. >> right from newark en route to san francisco, is that right? >> yes. >> we want to go -- >> we to want go down to -- oh no we're -- there we go. >>. >> reporter: we're giving out nj numbers over the airways.

we're doing that now. >> that's the only thing. >> reporter: i wanted to ask you -- >> can you hear me? >> for emergency personnel, either law enforcement or medical -- >> reporter: do you know anything about the extra explosions we heard? >> no, i don't. >> reporter: car bombs? >> no idea. >> reporter: are you told we're having to move out of this area as well? >> i was not told anything relative to that? >> reporter: are they looking for bombs in sewers? >> nonessential personnel -- >> obviously emergency workers are moving people out of that area. ron, obviously, you were downtown at some point because we see you have basically soot and debris in your hair and on your jacket. what happened? >> well, one of the msnbc cameramen and i were trying to get across the street having driven down to try to cover the event, obviously, for nbc. as we were going across the street, we were not terribly far from the world trade center building, south tower. as we were cutting across in a quarantine zone, actually, the buildings began to disintegrate. we heard it, looked up and saw

elements of the building come down. we ran. obviously it was a scene out of "independence day." everything rained around. it was pitch black. i ducked around a corner, got into a car which was open and it was -- it was nighttime for several minutes before things cleared up. >> was this is the first tower -- >> i believe it was the south tower. as it was coming down, what -- that looks like there is mild compared to what it was like to be at the center. it was pitch black for blocks. >> was the smoke as well as dust? >> smoke, dust, i assume it was part of the building coming down. just pieces of a disintegrating building coming down as well. >> obviously we're very concerned about the triage unit set up there to help people trying to get out of the building, ron, to help people who had already been carried out of the building and who were being treated medically. were you close enough to survey the scene -- >> i was within half a block of the building as it started to come down. >> can you tell us what you saw? >> it was fairly clear. there were some areas along the

street that did have blood and debris. there were no longer people in the area except for a couple of journalists and police officers who were quarantining -- containing the area so people wouldn't cut through. >> once it did begin to clear after that several minutes of pitch darkness, what did you see in the streets then? >> a very deep gray smoke. honesty, it looked like a nuclear winter the thing you see in the movies with ash all over the ground on top of cars, on police cars o windows. i made my way into a building because it was the one light i could see and stayed there until a couple police officers and a few of the people inside the building were able to get into a vehicle. we picked up a few injured people and dropped them off at the hospital. >> what were their injuries? >> one policeman had a deep gash in his forehead and the young lady had shrapnel in her arm. don't know if it was glass or part of the building. >> was there peripheral damage to other buildings and stores in the area? >> not really. >> because when that building came down, one would only imagine all the pieces of steel

and concrete that came cascading down as well and hit other places. >> i imagine the collateral damage was enormous but we were probably, i'd say, two or three blocks away in a building where we holed up in a time until we were comfortable it was safe to come out. it was truly the most intense and frightening experience i've ever had in my life. it was literally pitch black on the streets. people were, you know, obviously inhaling a great deal of this material as well. a lot of people were having difficulty breathing. >> we're happy you're all right. >> we have united airlines confirms united flight 175 from boston to los angeles is down as well. no details yet. it's confirmed flight 93 we believe from newark to san francisco, is down. no details as yet. that's the one we think went down in the pittsburgh area. i wish we could be more specific. the information is as you might expect, pretty chaotic but there have been at least four

airliners that have been i jack hijacked. >> there's going to be a lot of scrutiny on the security at boston logan airport because it seems two originated from there. >> well, this is -- this is an event, ron we're happy to see you. >> thank you. you have no idea how happy i am to be here. >> it's a relief. then you think about the experiences of thousands of other people who are down there in the epicenter of all that. and were there when it occurred. our hearts go out to them. we don't know what the numbers are yet. >> you hear about cardinal egan delivering last rites outside the hospital. >> the magnitude will go on for some time. this is not just a national tragedy but a national security event of an untold magnitude this country will have to deal with. the president is coming back and we're at war in effect here. this country has endured a de stating attack that will cost us in sense of loss of life n terms of our psychological security that we have in this country.

we're going to have to revisit a lot of our freedoms as a result of this kind of an attack. and then, of course, the whole question of retaliation. >> this sn anis an upsetting wire that came from west bank. it says thousands of palestinians celebrated tuesday's terror attacks in the united states chanting god is great and distributing candy to passersby even as their leader yasser arafat said he was horrified. the u.s. government has become increasingly unpopular in the gaza strip and west bank in the past year with fighting with palestinians for those of you who think events in far off places like the middle east or afghanistan or that places in asia have no effect on us this is the answer today. we are so vulnerable because of all the things that make us so great. our freedoms and our sense of security that we have.

but america has been changed today by all of this. >> we want to go and find out more about what's being done for those who were injured in these attacks. leslie van zandt is with the american red cross. can you hear me? >> yes, i can, matt. >> tell me what kind of resources you have available to pour into the areas where in loweer manhattan and washington, d.c. and outside pittsburgh. >> caller: our chapters on the area, the local volunteers are the first people responding. some of them now are also victimized by the event. we're mobilizing 80,000 units of blood to transfer to the regions as needed. taking guidance from emergency management personnel on what assistance we can provide to them to make this you know, response go smoothly. >> is there anything -- i mean, i know it's early after this happened, but is there anything you can think of people may be able to help you out with in terms of donating certain things. ? you mentioned blood. >> we're asking people in other

parts of the country who are maybe blood donors or maybe not to call and schedule an apointment so we can make sure the supply stays ready. the disaster volunteers, mental health volunteers are going to be responding, as tom mentioned earlier, this is going to be a long, long response. the emotional trauma, the emotional impact will be felt weeks, months into the future, even years. >> lest see van zandt with the american red cross. thank you very much. >> caller: thank you. >> let's go to kathy from new york university hospital, about five minutes away from the world trade center where many of the victims have been brought. kathleen, i know we spoke to you about an hour or so ago. can you tell me what's going on in the hospital now? okay. apparently we're having problems with kathleen. i'm sure it's as chaotic there as it was at st. vincent where

we heard there was a line delivering last rights to the dead that were brought to the hospital. so we'll try to touch base with kathleen in just a moment. first we want to go to andrea mitchell in washington. >> i've been told the state department evacuation katie was precautionary only. there was no car bomb as had at least been reported or rumored not here at nbc, but in any case that was precautionary only. there are still officials there now being redeployed to another location in virginia. the cia is still operational. intelligence officials are still meeting. but those officials have also evacuated the nonessential employees. the current working theory is there's only one terrorist organization in the world that could coordinate this event. that would be something operated by osama bin laden. he is in afghanistan where he has been protected by the taliban. as we know, the united states

has warned the taliban government of afghanistan that if there were any attack against the united states they would hold afghanistan responsible. so most likely we will expect military retaliation. i think right now the full focus of the u.s. government is on finding out how many other possible targets there may be. how many vulnerabilities there may be, making sure there's no chemical or biological element out there. i spoke to former secretary of defense bill cohn and others were who part of the anti-terror operation planning. they say those are the first lines of defense to make sure there is not some other event unexpected as this obviously was, that could make americans vulnerable. >> andrea mitchell thank you. we're going to check in with kathleen from new york university hospital. tell me what the scene is like. >> we're at nyu downtown

hospital in lower manhattan. we've had a steady stream of patients coming through the door since the first explosion occurred some hours ago. we have information at this point on three plus fatalities. plus because there may be additional fatalities i'm not yet informed of. we've had severe burn case. one individual is an amputee. a serious neurosurgical injury. full range of injuries from debris and res pri tear issues. related to smoke and debris from the collapse of the two buildings. >> so, how many medical personnel, county lean, do you have working there at nyu hospital? >> we have medical staff of 500 plus positions. the entire medical staff has been mobilized. as has the nursing staff.

they are working as hard as is possible to work. >> tell me again kathleen i know it's hard to estimate how many people you've seen so far. >> it's in the hundreds. our entire calf fear has been transformed to a triage area. it is wall-to-wall people at the present time. >> kathleen, thank you very much for that update. i'm sure we'll be checking back with you a little bit later on. thank you very much. >> katie let's go to nbc's bob hager. it's important to recount. a short while ago we were talking four planes unaccounted for. it seems now we know what happened to all those four planes. isn't it? >> that's it. there's no plane at the moment that's unaccounted for. now they can put them with the acts of terror richl. both were takeoffs from boston.

one belongs to american airlines. those are the two planes that went into the united world center. they were bound from dulles airport to los angeles. and the plane down southeast of pittsburgh is a united flight. it was bound from newark to san francisco. i heard one report that it was new york via washington national to san francisco. i'm not sure of that. let me tell you the flight numbers. the boston takeoffs for american airlines flight 10. it had 92 aboard. that's one of the ones that hit the world trade senter. >> let me interrupt you. we've been reporting it was american airlines flight 11. >> i'm mistaken. it's 11. with 92 aboard.

the unite airlines flight was united 175. i don't have a figure on how many on board yet. the flight that went into the pentagon was american airlines flight 77 bound washington dulles to los angeles. there were 64 people aboard it. that was unite flight 93. again, you have four flights known to have been hijacked. known to have crashed. no flights at the moment that are outstanding that we know of. >> the crash that you just mentioned near pittsburgh i want to say that is a united flight on route from newark to san francisco, is that accurate? >> that's what i have. i've heard it two ways. newark to san francisco. i heard one report there was an intermittent stop it was to make at washington's reagan national. that's not confirmed. >> united is confirming that, apparently, roberter. we have a report from the mayor of cleveland saying a boeing 77

out of washington made an emergency landing at cleveland hopkins international airport because of concerns it may have a bomb on board. no confirmation. >> we also have just because i have a personal friend flying from kennedy to los angeles that that plane was diverted to kansas city. many planes on route to certain locations have made special emergency landings in the wake of this. and because of concern there is may be more problems aboard more airplanes. >> and what happens in situations like this if the terrorists themselves don't call in to say there's pa bomb on board you have the twisted minds of other people who call in and say there's a bomb on board the flight. so it is chaos in the skies for the flights that were already in the air. other flights were grounded the country has been immobilized in terms of where the