Summary

This "ABC News Special Report" presents coverage of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath, as aired on ABC affiliate KABC-TV (Los Angeles). This coverage begins at 10:00 p.m. EDT in the middle of a press conference by New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is updating the city on the rescue effort. Giuliani states that enough volunteers have arrived at the disaster site, and he announces a hot line that has been established to field questions about hospital information and other topics related to the attacks. When the press conference ends, anchor Peter Jennings reports that a story has run on a station in Philadelphia about a woman who told police that she has received phone calls from her brother, who is trapped with police officers under rubble at the World Trade Center. Barbara Walters then states that Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has told her that the government has information that links some of the people aboard the crashed planes to terrorist Osama bin Laden. Walters then screens her interview with Senator John Edwards (D-N.C.), who says that he cannot comment on the claims made by Hatch. Reporter John Miller discusses the idea of instituting a "terrorist czar" in the United States. Hatch then telephones Jennings to confirm that the CIA suspects bin Laden. John McWethy at the Pentagon reports on rumors that the U.S. military is gearing up for some kind of retaliation. An aircraft carrier was ordered to report to the Persian Gulf, he explains, and several fighter jets have been flying over Washington, D.C. Jennings asks Miller whether there is a link between bin Laden and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, and Miller states that bin Laden does not like Hussein and that it is therefore highly unlikely that both were involved in the attacks. Jennings then runs an interview Connie Chung conducted with Evan Fairbanks, the freelance videographer who shot footage of the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings. Miller breaks in to report that police have stopped a van, rumored to be full of explosives, on its way from New Jersey to New York City. The tape ends as reporter Cynthia McFadden tells Jennings that no bodies have been brought to the triage center at Chelsea Piers; instead, doctors are being told to report to the World Trade Center area to perform amputations on people trapped in the wreckage.