and i am talking to a police officer right here. he said yes, he heard it was a plane. >> does he have information about what kind of plane it was? can he give me any details. >> i am going to put you on hold for a moment, okay? >> just to recap. dramatic pictures of the world trade center, and a short time ago, we are told a plane crashed into the western most tower in the upper floors. that's on the north side of the building. can you see residual damage on the west side of the building, and obviously fires are burning right now in the world trade center. >> tall buildings have had a problem in new york. in the '60s, a helicopter crashed on what was now the met life building. >> right now we are getting information that it was a small commuter plane.

we will let people know as soon as we have information as to what caused this. on everybody's minds, who might have been hurt as a result of this terrible, terrible incident. we will be talking to more eyewitnesses coming up in a few minutes. we are back at 9:00 eastern time to this tuesday morning. we are back with dramatic pictures of an accident that happened a short time ago. you are looking at the world trade center in lower manhattan where just a few minutes ago, we are told a plane, some reports are that it was a smaller commuter plane crashed into the twin towers. you can see smoke billowing from the tower. there is a gaping hole in the building, and other damage to the west side of the building, which is to the right side of

your screen. this happened just before the morning commute before people were head into their offices. while i am sure some were already at work, immediately there is speculation or cause for concern that this is the world trade center that was the center of a terrorists bombing years ago. >> it looks like white smoke bi billowing out of the east side of the building. >> yeah, and we had another eyewitness, a producer here at the today show, elliott walker. >> hi. >> what did you see? >> i returned to my apartment. i was walking down the sidewalk delivering my young daughter to school.

we heard a very loud sound, the kind of sound that you hear when a plane is going fast past you. it was followed by an enormous crash and immediate explosion. i don't think that we could feel shock waves, but we felt like we did. we were in a position where we could see the trade center almost immediately between the other buildings. an enormous fireball that must have been 300 feet across was visible immediately. a secondary explosion, i think, and then plumes of smoke. there must have been a three-block cloud of white smoke. now from where i was on the street a moment ago, you can, in fact, see smoke leaving the building on three sides. it seems to be coming out on at least four or five floors. the air is filled with hundreds of dozens of pieces of paper that are floating like confetti. the area is swarmed with

emergency vehicles and sirens. obviously we are very sensitive to this kind of thing in this neighborhood. >> because of the incidents that happened in the 1990s, have you seen any evidence, elliott, of people being taken out of the building? you say emergency vehicles are there understandably, so but of course a major concern is -- >> oh, my goodness slam. >> oh, another one just hit! a very large plane hit over my building and there is a collision. something else -- that looked like a 747. >> we just saw a plane circling the building a second ago on the shot right before that. >> i think there was another impact. can you tell? i just heard a another loud bang, and a very large plane that just flew past my building and it hit the trade center again. >> i did not get the impression it was that big of a plane.

>> it looked big from here. >> i did see a plane go by and it impacted the building. i am trying to see if it's the different tower. >> i believe the first one was world trade center one, and it looked like from on television the second building. >> this is a piece of tape. >> i wonder if there are air-traffic control problems. >> let's go back to jennifer who we were talking a few moments ago. >> hello. matt, i have never seen anything like this. it looks like a movie. i saw a jet go immediately directly into the trade center. it just flew into it coming south to north. i watched the plane fly into the world trade center. it was a jet. it was going very fast. it right past it and hit it and went in. >> this is so shocking. everybody is watching.

>> i have never seen anything like it! it literally flew itself into world trade center. >> obviously now we -- there it is right there. >> again, i am looking from south to north. it went into the one on the right. >> that appeared to be a 727. we saw it a second ago. here comes the videotape that we just showed you. you will see what appears to be a large plane. a 727 right there. maybe even bigger, flying right into the side of the world trade center. >> it was at least a 727. it was a jet! i could not believe my eyes watching it above me. >> you have to move from possible accident to talk about something deliberate that has happened here. we are going to immediately check with air-traffic control in the area to find out if they had contact with either of the planes before the accident. what we just seen is about the most shocking videotape i have

ever seen. >> elliott, are you still there? >> hello? i am still here. >> what can you see from your perspective? >> i don't face in that direction. i can't see anything there personally. >> it's hard to understand, and try to figure out what in the -- what in the world is going on. >> i think we have to be grateful the first one hit before 9:00 a.m., and it's now after 9:00 a.m. >> hopefully the building were evacuated following the first incident. it was a very short period of time from when we first learned about this, probably about 8:50 eastern time. and then the second incident occurred at 9:05. that would be a short amount of time to get the people out of the building. and another witness on the ground, ollie. what are you hearing? >> i live in lower manhattan,

and i face the north tower where the first plane crashed into the building. right now there is a lot of chaos on the ground and a lot of emergency vehicles. everybody from the world financial center exited and is walking north up to battery park north. there is a mass of people walking north up town of manhattan. i happen to look at the first tower and saw people waving where the first plane crashed through, and it was unbelievable seeing the second jet come crashing into the second tower. what is going on? >> in new york, many of the stations cannot see it because the anntanas are on the world trade center and they are

probably knocked off the air. >> it looks like the towers are leaning. i don't think that that is actually the case, because after the first impact it looked as if the left -- the right-hand tower was leaning. and now somebody is saying we are getting a witness saying they are leaning, actually right now, which will give you an idea of the type of impact that we are talking about. >> and perhaps they are buckling under the force of the collision, the hole that resulted from the two planes. >> we will go to george say who also witnessed both or one of the collisions. can you hear us? >> i can hear you. >> what did you see, george? >> i was in the car, and driving north on west street when an enormous explosion happened. i think it was larger than a construction explosion. i looked out the window, and what happened to be an enormous tire smashing to the ground. i believe it hit the car to the right of me. it was so scary. and there was also a ton of

debris falling. i jumped out of the car and i ran south from the building because i felt like there could be further explosions. >> could you see anybody that was hurt? >> a man was hit by a piece of degree in his arm. they said somebody had been badly hurt in a car ahead of me. i am not certain if it was the car next to me. i cannot verify that. all i can say is a lot of debris was falling. i think everybody immediately thought a bomb had exploded. and that's what had people thinking that further bombs would explode. >> did you see the second plane fly into -- >> i heard two explosions, however. there was a first explosion that was louder, and then the second explosi explosion. i could not see it. when i looked up i saw debris falling and the tire, and as i said, a very large tire.

>> of course this is, as we have said, completely shocking video. it's a shocking turn of events. we have been talking here that the first incident one might surmise that it was some kind of accident, and then to have a second, what appeared to be a 727 jet, and of course the question of terrorist activity has to surface, and question whether this was a terrorist act. >> we have newark airport and kennedy and laguardia airport, all within several miles of the trade center. it's unusual for a plane to get into this area without being completely tracked or identified by air-traffic control. you would have to imagine that a, if this plane were headed right for the world trade center, there must have been somebody trying to talk or communicate with the pilot, and for it to fly right into the side of the building. >> the smaller plane, you can

understand, almost, but a jumbo jet, a large jet, completely -- >> let's rerack that video where we saw the jet fly into the building. >> yeah, and elliott walker said it was a building. i thought to see this plane come into the picture, and that is a big plane. i mean, it's hard to emergency -- it's a 737 we are now being told. and it was flying directly into the midsection of the -- the eastern tower of the world trade center. >> jennifer, do we still have jennifer on the phone? she is not on the phone. she was near a police officer. perhaps we could have gotten more information from the police officer. needless to say it's pandemonium, i am sure. we gathered that from the

eyewitnesss with whom we spoke. and as you get closer to the twin towers, a new york landmark, how what the scene must be like there. >> you talked about the building looking like they buckled. they are designed to have a two degree sway because of the height of the building with wind and stress, but something like that is probably more than what it's designed for. >> and let's go to the television producer here in new york. can you hear me? >> yes, i can hear you. i am down here near the world trade center. i was walking down sixth avenue this morning at 8:42 a.m. a group of us saw a plane veer through the building and then a huge cloud of smoke and then fire came out of one of the towers. here it's near the upper floor. you can probably see with your chopper shot. and then ten minutes ago, a second explosion in the second tower, and lower down. that was not affected by the

plane. i am not sure what happened there. right now there is a huge gaping hole in one of the towers and the other building is on fire. it's incredible. people are out of their office buildings, watching, and crying and taking pictures. i have never seen anything like it down here. >> you said you saw the first plane. did you get a glimpse of what kind of plane it was? we were told it was a small commuter plane. >> it was a larger plane, not a cessna or anything like that. it was a larger plane. we looked at each other thinking what is happening. it veered on its side through the building. >> when the impact hit the first tower, you would hope that people who were in the second tower were beginning to evacuate, especially if air-traffic control had some indication that this was

deliberate. you would hope that they were starting to get people out of the other tower before this second plane hit that tower. >> if you tried to go up -- we have been upstairs in the restaurant up there, to try and get down, i mean -- >> the elevators would have been jammed. but if there was an indication it was deliberate in the first place, they would hopefully begin evacuation in the second tower. >> we have dan on the floor, an eyewitness. tell us what you saw? >> what i saw was one plane coming in low from the north down over 7th avenue. it crashed into the top -- or the middle of one of the towers. ten minutes later i saw another plane crash into the other side of the tower at a lower level. it looked to me to be a small, you know, commercial plane, the first plane that i saw. it crashed into the top of the

tower, and then there was a huge fireball and a gaping hole in the side of the tower. as we were waiting outside and looking at it, another plane came in low, and i believe from the other side, and hit the -- the middle of the other tower. i saw both planes, two separate planes, crash into each tower. >> dan, again, the size of the planes. tell me about that. >> i would say that the plane is a mid-sized -- looked to be a commercial airline. i don't know. i thought perhaps a commercial airline, a mid-sized and not a jumbo jet. >> this is unconfirmed. we are getting information from an employee of united airlines, and we want to emphasize it's

unconfirmed, news that a plane was hijacked and crashed purposely into the world trade center and the second plane was another plane hijacked perhaps and flown into the second tower. dan, tell me about the people on the ground. >> i am further up in the west village. i am not on the ground near the base of the towers. >> where were you when it actually happened? >> walking down 7th avenue, at about charles street, which is about 15 or 20 blocks north of the towers. >> obviously, this was a shocking thing for you to witness on this tuesday morning. wires came out that said in 1945, a twin engine bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the empire state building. that occurred in dense fog. this was a crystal clear day in manhattan. so it was completely unclear how there would be any kind of

problems with visibility. dan, thank you so much for talking with us. hopefully you can stay on the phone and we will check back with you at another point in time. we appreciate it. >> you are welcome. we want to remind people that the world trade center bombing that took place on february 26th, it was the result of a terrorists attack that killed six people and injured more than 1,000. that happened on a friday afternoon. matt, you and al were working on that day and i was home in virginia watching it in disbelief. this is so much more bizarre. >> and yeah, keep in mind that killed six people and that happened in the garage. and this was a direct hit. the potential for injuries and death, larger. and also, people on the planes. >> yeah, if they were hijacked

and inroute to a different destination. bob kerr joins us. what can you tell us? >> i am on the north lawn at the white house. the first thing we looked for here in light of what happened is whether there is unusual activity out here, police or secret service presence, people on the roof and that sort of thing. we don't see that as we speak. i did try to call the national security office here. the president is out of town. he is in florida. we are told he has been informed of this. i can tell you the white house national security staff that remains here is in a senior-level meeting. we hope to hear them as soon as possible. the reaction here to the pictures you are seeing and the initial pictures in what has come up, in the lower press office here at the white house was one of shock. people are just standing around, television monitors looking at

this. when i say people, i don't mean just the reporters. i mean the people that are actually in the office who work here at the white house. >> so very little information is coming out of the white house at this juncture. needless to say, if the speculation is true about some kind of terrorists event, this will be a major, major crisis for the bush administration. jim is at the pentagon now. are you hearing information there? >> well, according to intelligence officials, there appeared to be no specific threat in hijacking airliners or any attacks on buildings in the new york area. u.s. intelligence officials report this morning that they are constantly hearing about threats, possible terrorists threats against american targets worldwide. but they had no early indications that anything of

this nature could have occurred. pentagon officials are already calling this a terrorists attack. they say that they have not yet ordered the scrambling of any military jets. if the national guard were to be scrambled in the area, that would be at the order of the governor. the president does have the authority to scramble american military forces in defense, but there is a problem here. what now do you defend against exactly? if you put war planes in the air, always a danger that they could misidentify a pilot's intention. although -- >> i just want to tell you guys if you want to continue -- >> this is off limits and reflected. so far the u.s. military and

pentagon officials are scrambling to get as much information as they can to determine what course of action, if any, the u.s. military would take. >> they are describing this as a terrorists attack right now? >> there are some officials here in the pentagon that are calling this an obvious terrorists attack based on very preliminary information. the information that intelligence officials are getting in terms of a possible hijacked plane, and, of course, the very horrifying video of the plane veering into the tower itself is a clear indication to everybody here that this is not an accident. >> jim, thanks. of course, the coordination that took place to have two planes hit the towers within 18 minutes of one another. let's go back to the white house. bob kerr is still standing by. bob, what can you tell us? >> it was interesting to listen to jim from the pentagon. of course the president has the authority to scramble military

forces. this is a case, obviously, in which retaliation, if indeed it proves to be a terrorists incident will be contemplated. but the usual course will be this is an investigation. unless somebody steps forward and claims responsibility, they will try to pinpoint who is responsible, and then the u.s. usually says somebody will be made to play. that's a big if, if we can determine the origin of the terrorists attack. so there are implications to that. >> let's go back to jim at the pentagon. you have more information? >> bob is exactly right. what the primary concern right now is protecting the american public in the new york area right now against any further attacks by the air. they have no indications there will be. there is some concern that since this appeared to be such a

highly coordinated attack, there may be other terrorists attacks that could be planned either in new york or elsewhere. there is absolutely the worse case scenario for the counter terrorists planners, because apparently, according to intelligence officials, there were no firm indications prior to this that anything like this could have happened. in terms of the scrambling the u.s. military, it would be for protection for the time being and not necessarily even thinking right now about any kind of retaliation. >> david gregory is on the phone, where -- >> he is following the president. >> david? >> yeah, the president is about to begin an education event which is being cancelled. we expect the president will come out and make a statement about this. he was made aware en route from his hotel to the school here in

florida, and then he will go to washington. >> all area airports have been closed. the lincoln tunnel has been closed. while we are getting ready to listen to the president, let's go back to the pentagon. you talk about counter terrorists measures in place, can you shed light about what kinds of things are in place in the event of an attack of this nature? >> it's difficult for the u.s. military to respond to this kind of thing right now because it's unclear exactly who is behind it and if there are any other potential attacks or incidents like this. this has not been officially declared a terrorists attack. all the experts looking at the

pictures say there is no doubt about it, it was a coordinated terrorists attack. but who and why is very much unclear right now. the problem with trying to put planes in the air to prevent any further attacks is -- these are, after all, open air spaces for the most part. and it's difficult for the u.s. military to simply scramble jets and put them in the air and then, according to officials here, and then do what? this area, of course, according to officials here, will be declared off limits in terms of any air traffic. but right now, officials here at the pentagon are simply scrambling to find out first what happened, and then what potential reaction the u.s. military could provide in terms of protection, possible further protection against any further

potential attacks. >> it's important to note if the planes were hijacked and carrying passengers, not much officials could have done, you can't shoot down a plane like that because of who is onboard, and then shooting them down to the ground in a place like manhattan. >> that's exactly right. the president does have the authority to scramble the military to put them up in a force protection mode. the governor has the air national guard at his disposal. and officials are wondering what to do in terms of protection, and how. again, to the counter terrorism officials, this is the worse case scenario. they are right now -- it seems not much they could do in the terms of the after math.

>> reuters is saying this. cnbc tv said there were at least 1,000 injured. both towers at the lower manhattan landmark were the scenes of a bombing in 1993. the fbi told the associated press that it was quote, foul play, and not an accident. a person that answered the phone -- that was reported by abc. a person that answered the phone on the trader floor located near the top of the world trade center said we are blanking dying and then hung up, and there was screaming in the background and the next call was not answered. and just before the first explosion, one man said he saw a plane fly over his apartment. jamie, what can you tell us? >> i just spoke to top u.s.

officials with the access to latest intelligence and they said, quote, that this was clearly terrorists related. no question about it. they said they could not give any further details now, not because they did not want to share it but because they just don't know yet. they are at the earliest stages. >> do they know if a plane was, in fact, hijacked? >> they would not answer that. i think that it's -- i think that they just are getting the earliest details and they are afraid of putting out misinformation. but they said, you know, that it was clearly terrorists related. >> all right. thank you. if you are just joining us, both towers of the world trade center in new york city where two planes have crashed into the towers. one certainly before 9:00 eastern time, and one shortly after 9:00 eastern time. and as you can see, the tower on the left was hit just above the

midsection point. they are 110 floors high. 110 feet above the ground. and the seconds was hit two-thirds up the tower. fires burning in both towers. we saw the second plane hit the building. you will watch it enter in one portion of the screen and watch it hit one tower, which is shocking video. here it comes there. the impact on one side of the building and the residual damage coming out of the other side of the building. one can only imagine that occurred shortly before 9:00 in the morning. how many people were in the building at the time of the impact? it's a large plane. we are told it was either a 737 -- some other reports are the first plane was it was a 757. >> yeah, it was an american

airlines plane that had been hijacked from boston to los angeles, but we are just getting initial reports of that. again, we must tell you that we are trying to get as much information, but it's trickling in at a very slow pace. so all of this is unconfirmed. of course, speculation of a terrorists attack is unconfirmed, although that's what some pentagon officials are saying. let's go to president bush right now. >> unfortunately we will be going back to washington after my remarks. senator pace will take the podium to discuss education. i want to thank the folks at the booker elementary school for their hospitality. today we had a national tragedy. two airplanes have crashed into the world trade center in an apparent terrorists attack on the country.

i spoke to the vice president, and to the governor of new york, and to the director of the fbi, and i have ordered that the full resources in federal government go to help the victims and their families, and to conduct a full-scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act. terrorism against our nation will not stand. now if you join me in a moment of silence. my god bless the victims, their families and america. thank you very much. >> that, of course, was president bush, who is in florida, and he was speaking at an elementary school. he was planning to talk about literacy. obviously he had to change. he mentioned this was an apparent terrorists attack.

he is traveling back to washington. he said he spoke to the governor of new york as well as the vice president. all the resources will be brought to bear by the federal government to determine who did this and who was responsible for the terrible, terrible event. and it was followed by a moment of silence for the victims. >> we are going to go to andrea mitchell now, who has more information on the tragedy. >> matt, and katie, i spoke to a top u.s. official that says early reports to the intelligence community and to other officials within the administration are that this was a hijacked american airlines plane en route from boston to los angeles one of the two planes, they say, was apparently a hijacked american airlines plane. they caution early reports still need further confirmation. this is what the u.s. government is being told by american airlines apparently.

they are assuming and informed the president it is a terrorists attack. >> in what term of the flight this plane was taken over, and how much warning air-traffic controllers may have had that somebody hostile was at the controls of the plane? >> that's right. one of the two planes was hijacked from boston in route to los angeles i was told they were inroute to los angeles those are very short flights. usually 737 or 757s on the route. and this clearly to the u.s. government is a terror attack. one of the things, there was no specific threat that the u.s. government is aware of. no specific terror alert other than the world-wide caution that has been reissued in recent days

because of the strike in the middle east and concerns over terrorists, and bin laden, but no alert coming from his organization. as far as they know as of this morning and this minute, he is in afghanistan. >> and andrea, it appears this was a well coordinated bombing or terrorists attack because of the fact that two planes were used, both substantial in the size. and they both hit the world trade center within 18 minutes of each other. obviously a lot of planning went into this attack. let's go back to mick. >> senior military officials here at the pentagon are saying they are getting information that the american airlines flight 11, after it left boston, apparently, was hijacked, and was diverted -- apparently the early information was was it was being diverted to jfk for some

reason, and then obviously nobody knows exactly who was at the controls in the plane, but it broke off its route to los angeles and was headed toward jfk. that was the initial information that officials had received when obviously it did not go to jfk, but veered off and headed towards the world trade center. but, again, no indication as to who may be responsible or who was at the controls of that plane when it rammed into the world trade center, matt? >> thank you. we will be obviously talking with you throughout the morning. right now we want to talk to a terrorism expect, and the former deputy director of the state department's office on counter terrorism. mr. johnson, can you put this in perspective for us and give us your insight on what might have happened here? >> first we need to be caution before jumping to the conclusion

that it's terrorism. and we could find out this was a suicide pact that had nothing to do with politics. with that said, this is a first. back in 1992, there was -- excuse me, '93, there was a hijacked plane from germany and it landed in new york. one of the concerns we had at that time was the plane may be under control of a hijacker flying it into one of the buildings. and my concern now is that there is always a -- we ignore terrorism. we talk a lot about it. but we ignore taking practical steps on security fronts until something like this happens, and then the pendulum springs out to the extreme. and now people will talk about

surfaced air missiles on top of buildings to prevent this things. this is a rare event, and unlikely to be repeated. president bush put his finger on it. we have to find who did this, and any country and any nation in the world that is involved in in way if it turns out to be terrorism needs to have an answer. >> the first plane crashed into one of the twin towers. another large plane did the same thing. we have been talking with or correspondents all morning about if another incident could happen on the heels of these two. what kind of measures are in place to prepare for something else that could conceivably happen. >> well, i think since it's already being taken. i was at the national airport getting ready to fly at

laguardia when this occurred. they shut down air traffic going in and out of the cities. and you are talking about an enormous disruption economically for the nation right now with the air traffic not going in. people are going to err on the side of caution. across the board you will look at the major hubs in the united states where there are large buildings. chicago. atlanta. los angeles and they are going to be extra measures being taken. and one possibility is you could put up air cover and require that planes stay within a particular area and do not approach, and if they approach you go to the extremes of having the u.s. air force intercept. >> there was no warning attacked to this event. generally speaking, do we get some -- do u.s. officials or government agencies get some

kind of warning from a particular group, or is this pretty -- fairly typical in terms of an event happening without any foreshadowing? >> this is typical. it's only in the movies that you get the advanced warnings. you look at every event against the united states, the world trade center, or the u.s. s. cole bombing. >> katie, there felt like there was an explosion here at the pentagon. swr we have a window that faces out toward the kennedy center. we have not been able to hear anything after the initial blast. i just stepped out in the

hallway. security guards were herding people out of the building. i saw just a moment ago as i looked outside a number of construction workers who had been working have taken flight. they are running as far as way from the building as they can right now. i hear no sirens going off or see no smoke. but the building shook for a couple seconds. the windows rattled. a security personnel, they are doing what they can momentarily to clear this part of the building. i have no idea whether it was part of the construction work or an accident or what is going on. we are going to try to find those details and get them to you as soon as possible. but interestingly enough, one intelligence official here in the building said when he saw what appeared to be the coordinated attack on the world trade center, his advise was to stay away from the outside of the building today just in case. now, again, nobody has any

indications of exactly what happened. but it appears that there has been some kind -- it felt like a small blast of some kind. the windows -- the building shook and the windows rattles. and i am looking out the window now, and the construction workers are still -- i'm sorry, the constructions are still keeping a distance. that's all that i can see. i see no other extra security activity outside. to get more information, i have to break away and walk down the hall way and see what it is exactly that happened here a few moments ago. >> please be careful and let us know what is going on there. meanwhile, we will go back to david gregory who is in florida where president bush was earlier this morning for an event on literacy. he was going to a school to talk with kids. david, what can you tell us?

>> a little bit more about how all of this unfolded and what the president is going to do next. the president declared this an apparent terrorists act and offered a prayer. aides for telling us he will convene a national security meeting to see what steps are taken -- >> david, sorry to interrupt you. we are looking at live pictures of the pentagon where there is pillowing smoke. right now we are looking at an ariel view of the pentagon. mick, can you talk to us? >> officially, nobody knows exactly what happened. i think the picture is pretty clear. according to one u.s. army officer that went running past me at a full trot, he said that it appeared that a bomb was detonated at the heliport.

it's just adjacent to the e ring. and there is the u.s. army and the reserve officers and the army reserve officers are located there. but as you can see, it appears to be a pretty significant blast. to give you some perspective, we are almost on the opposite side of the building, the world's largest office building, and as i reported to you, we could feel the building shake and the windows rattle. as i was in the hallway just a few moments ago, i could smell an acrid kind of smoke, almost what you would smell when a fluorescent light goes bad. authorities are clearing the building. i don't know if you can hear the

sirens outside now, but it appears that what i think people hear in the building are already describing as a highly sophisticated coordinated attack, not only against the world trade center, and against the pentagon and u.s. military right here in washington. >> i work at the pentagon as well. it's a huge building. it's miles and miles of offices. at what location did this seem to have detonate in? >> at the heliport, which as you sit in the pentagon, you have the potomac river and washington, d.c. on one side, and then the heliport is on the other side of the building. even though they increased the security here significantly at the pentagon within the last couple years -- >> i want to mention we are

hearing unconfirmed reports that this was the result of a plane crashing in the area as well. >> i have no idea, katie. all i know is that people who were in the building that came running from that part of the building thought it was a bomb of some kind. according to chris brown, my colleague, who just came in, it appears that whatever it was, and perhaps it was a plane, katie, if those are the initial reports, crashed into -- or the damage is on the roof of the building at the heliport side of the pentagon, office side of the potomac river, as i just said. >> we are looking at the white house, because we are learning there have been some evacuations from the white house. i am assuming everybody is being evacuated from the pentagon? >> well, nobody has given us the official word yet.

but i think that's probably a safe bet. thank goodness that was a helicopter that just flew by. i am a little nervous now when you hear aircraft go past. they have, in fact, evacuated that portion of the building. usually they have sirens that go off in the building alerting you to the fact that it's time to get out. i have not heard those yet. but just judging by the pictures, it's clear that that part of the building that is not damaged at least has been evacuated. like i said, in the hallway, it was pandemonium. people were rushing from their officers -- >> you are in your office reporting to us? >> i am in the office, but i am in the opposite side of where this crash occurred. >> see if you can gather more information. please, be careful, and we will go to matt who will be talking to jamie.

>> i am talking to tom brokaw. we want to go to our national correspondent with more information. >> matt, i just want to tell you that u.s. intelligence sources are confirming the reports that one of the planes was a hijacked flight, an american flight from boston to los angeles. they are also looking now into what is going on the pentagon. they don't have details. they now put government buildings around the city of washington on a heightened state of alert. i think part of that is happening formally. but obviously people are seeing what is going on, and some people are leaving buildings as well, simply because of the concern following these latest reports from the pentagon. >> jamie, thank you very much. and katie is back with us, and joined by tom brokaw.

let's recap what is going on so far this morning. the news is terrible. just before 9:00 -- >> at 8:42, actually. >> at 8:42, a plane crashed into the world trade center. and then about 18 or 20 minutes later, a second plane, a large plane, we saw it on tape, hit the left hand tower of the world trade center about halfway up. an enormous fireball on several sides of the building, people trying to be evacuated. there is the tape of the second plane hitting right there, even as people were trying to get out of the first building. we have confirmed reports that there was one plane hijacked, american airlines flight 11 from boston to los angeles that is apparently one of the planes used in this crash. >> and there is one of the reports on dubai television, the

group claiming responsibility, this is when there is a meeting in south africa for the past several days where the palestinians were accusing some of racism. the u.s. vacated that meeting as well. and it's worth pointing out that terrorism has two prongs to it. and this is the most conspicuous symbol of american capitalism, the twin towers here in new york. we do not know for sure who is responsible. >> and the capital, by the way, the u.s. capitol has been evacuated. there are evacuations taking place at the white house. many people in the pentagon have left that building as well.

>> and this building in midtown new york, they have asked a lot of people at 30 rock to leave. it's another high rise capital building. in new york, i came down the links in manhattan, and a lot of people were unaware it's election day in new york and what we have is what some americans thought could never occur. >> larry johnson, a terrorist expert, i spoke with a few moments ago, the former deputy director of the department of counter terrific says this is a first. he talked back in 1993 a german plane being hijacked and fears when it flew to new york it had crashed. >> this is a major development. the faa has shut down all air traffic nationwide. this country has been immobilized by these terrorist attacks in terms of air travel

today and we don't know where it goes from here. we just ask that you stay with us so as we get hard information we can share that with you. there will be a lot of speculation. president has described this apparently as a terrorist attack. the fbi has confirmed that an american airlines flight boston to los angeles was hijacked. it's believed that is the first plane that went into the twin trade towers. >> let's go to the former director of the fbi here in new york. i'm sure you've never seen anything like this. do you have any information that might be helpful to us? >> well, not particular information on this tragedy, but certainly one incredible tragedy and, you know, all of us in law enforcement and prior law enforcement have talked for years and the public has seen the hatred in the world, has seen the bombing of the world trade center, saw the conspiracy to blow up the tunnels and the united nations and the fbi building back in the '90s and

seen the bomb at the "uss cole" and the bombingings of our embassies in af ka. we know the hatred exists and now it looks like it culminated in this absolutely horrendous incredible act against the united states. >> someone who has investigated some of these crimes in the past and we think back to 1993 and the world trade center bombing and what it took in terms of coordination and planning to pull off that one bomb in the world trade center, can you even speculate what it might take to coordinate this, what we think so far is a three-pronged attack this morning? >> matt, it obviously took a lot of coordination. there's a lot of groups in the world that have the ability to coordinate these types of attacks. as you know, and most people should know, the united states is an open society. i mean, we've talked years about the downside of having our borders basically open and any given day, people fly into our

airports undocumented and turned into the population. they are certainly not all terrorists, but we leave in a free society and i'm not espousing we change that. it's very, very difficult for the fbi and law enforcement to keep track of this when we live in the site that we live in. >> jim, if you could stand by for a moment because jim miklaszewski jim miklaszewski at the pentagon has more information for us. >> my colleague chris brown here at the financing encountered some of those who survived. whatever it was. whether it was a bomb or an airplane crashing into the pentagon. one of the survivors who was reportedly injured had various lacerations, was on the second floor of the d-ring, that is one ring inside the outer ring of the pentagon when, suddenly, there was this horrific blast and he said that the second floor buckled upward and then the third floor above him actually collapsed downward.

the scene on the other side of the building as it's being described to us there are people being removed on stretchers. security forces are evacuating the building right now. and according to the officials here at the pentagon, they still don't know exactly what it was, but as you reported, katie, eyewitnesses reported that, in fact, it was a plane that crashed into the pentagon. >> mick, any idea? i'm not sure you said this about the number of people who might have been hurt or were injured in this? >> no idea at all, katie. as you know, having worked here on any given day, this is a small city, 25,000 to 30,000 people might be working here at any one time. that portion of the pentagon, by the way, had just been remodeled and just reopened. if the crash that occurred just a few months ago, that section of the pentagon would have been virtually empty. but at this time of day, early

morning or mid-morning, the pentagon is very busy. it's impossible to say how many casualties there maybe. but there have been a large number of people cited being removed on stretchers and, again, as one survivor said, the floor just buckled up under him and the roof caved in on him. >> mick, thank you very much we want to move a couple of miles away from you now to the white house where bob curry is standing by. we understand that building has now been evacuated? >> matt, that's true. it is utterly surreal. as soon as word came of the pentagon incident, we were rather forcefully removed from the white house. the scene was one of administrators, cooks, whatever, running at fairly high speed. all the way out of the building through the top gates and then we huddled for a while in lafayette park across the street and we've been moved now from

there a block or so away. the offices along jackson place, which are across the street from the white house and adjacent to lafayette park, also have been evacuated and in the most surreal of this morning's scenes here at the white house, a white plane, very big jet, was flying in an unusual pattern near the white house over lafayette park very slowly. it made one circle and we have not seen it since. there was a lot of concern about what that plane might be but, again, it's only speculation, but most people say that since flights have been cleared from u.s. air space and it was a totally white plane, looked unusual to all of us, that it was a government plane of some kind. >> we should point out that we're looking at pictures, bob, as you speak, of the world trade center, because all of the camera crews have been evacuated from the white house as well.

when do you expect president bush to arrive there, bob? >> well, katie, he is coming back directly -- and you figure it's about a two-hour flight -- so you can do the math. the reason i said that it was so surreal was that about 20 minutes ago, they were still conducting tours. you had hordes of tourist and others lined up on the white house to get in. there seems to be absolutely no unusual activity outside the white house until word came of the incident at the pentagon. so it's been quite a dramatic shift here. >> you know, in terms of responsibility, tom and matt and bob, apparently a senior official from the radical democratic front to the liberation of palestine denied on tuesday the group had any connection to the plane crash. an anoneus caller had told television it was behind the crash but, quote, i emphasize the story released on television by an aknownus person is

incorrect. the dfl is against hijacking planes and against endangering the lives of civilians who are not connected with the struggle of this region, he said. >> there are going to be a lot of claims and counterclaims in connection with the next 24 hours or so. this is a task for investigators of extraordinary magnitude to try to determine who did this and how they got away with it. you think about an american airlines flight that was on its way from boston to los angeles was hijacked in mid air. they are now citing transmission from the plane so they have hard evidence of that. then brought down here and made to fly into the twin trade towers. did one of the hijackers get control? did they shoot the pilot? it boggles the beyond our ability to figure out what is going on. >> you talk about transmissions. i was just curious. have you had any evidence of what was said? >> they are sayinghe