Art Bell opens The September 11, 2001 Show with Craig Kitchen describing Manhattan’s eerie silence after evacuations and global shock, while listeners link attacks to Nostradamus, remote viewers pinpoint Kandahar’s bunker complex beneath Durrani’s tomb, and Ed Dames notes military-level precision. A Gallup poll reveals 55% fear more strikes, 90% see it as war, and half trust Bush’s response; calls from Taiwan, Canada, and Hawaii question media narratives, structural collapses, and snipers at borders. Dave, a Canadian pilot, exposes cockpit vulnerabilities—doors breached with fire extinguishers—and demands Afghanistan surrender plotters or face U.S. military action. Bell underscores the civilian-targeting horror as unprecedented, sparking debates on retaliation, security overreach, and whether America’s response will address state-sponsored terrorism or just symbolic strikes. [Automatically generated summary]
Good evening, good morning, good afternoon, as the case may be across the world, and we will get into international coverage of the night wears on.
This, of course, is uh post to post AM, and I've like many of you, most of you probably, I've been up since uh early morning, uh without rest, watching the horrific events of the day.
And I've thought about what to do tonight, all day long, and I have come to the conclusion that I cannot, nor should I, try to out-export CNN or any of the other large outlets.
You've been getting that all day long since early morning.
It's still going on now, and I expect days from now it will still be going on.
The events in New York are just a lot of faxers and emailers to me said, Art, there just aren't words.
And yet, in radio and broadcasting, we deal in words.
So I thought perhaps by this time of the night or morning, depending on your time zone, the best thing that I could possibly do would be to essentially open the lines and let all of you speak.
Instead of just sort of sitting here and speculating, I'll let you speculate.
There's no expert I could bring that would be more powerful than those CNN and others have had on the air.
It's just as simple as that.
So I'm going to open the phone lines here shortly.
And I'm just going to let America speak to America.
I know you've got a lot.
By now, you've got a lot of pent-up feelings.
I think that's the proper thing for me to do.
What happened was compared by so many media outlets, you know, to Pearl Harbor.
It is certainly another day of infamy, but in my opinion, far more dastardly than Pearl Harbor.
Pearl Harbor, at least, was an attack on the U.S. military.
This was an attack on U.S. civilians.
In New York City, earlier today, I happened to speak with the president of our network, and I mean Premier Radio Network, the network that syndicates Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, myself, Mike Reagan, and so many others.
And when I spoke with him, I asked him if he would be so kind as to come on the air tonight with me for a moment and sort of give us a rough idea of the mood, the feeling, and what's going on in New York.
And he agreed to come on, even at this late hour in New York.
And it's a little after one o'clock in the morning in New York, of course.
So here from New York City is the president of this network, Craig Kitchen.
I was in a building just above the very popular Radio City Music Hall Marquee.
And like so many other people in New York City, just starting what we would call just a normal business day when we first heard the news of what really was the first, what we described as accident.
And certainly thought that after all this time and all that heavy traffic over New York City, that maybe one of those small consumer airplanes, the small civilian airplanes, might have accidentally flown into a tall building.
I can imagine, though, that would be the first thought, of course, that there had been some tragic accident.
Sure.
unidentified
Absolutely.
Certainly the electronic news in New York City and the availability of television newscasts and even the radio broadcasts, you know, very quickly informed us that it was something much more than that, which is why I think so many people in New York City and probably to a lesser extent around the country had their televisions on when we witnessed that just horrific picture that we'll always have in our minds of a commercial airliner just literally going right smack dab into the World Trade Center tower number two.
Of course everybody wanted to know what had happened to Rush.
Where was Rush?
Because it was right in that time period where all the confusion was going on.
What, in fact, had happened to Rush?
unidentified
Well, he had long planned to take today as a vacation day and was on a plane on his way to the middle of the country to make an appearance today.
And his long anticipated vacation day for himself turned into, as you pointed out, many people perceiving that he might not be available or in a place that was safe.
In reality, he was in an airplane that, like a lot of other aircraft around this country, were forced to land and then had to go about the process of getting himself home, and he eventually did back to a place that he could be on the air the last 30 minutes of the program.
As a matter of fact, I caught a little bit of that program, Craig.
Craig, as it became apparent what had happened in New York, what was it like in the city during the day?
unidentified
The first two hours after the events, from 9.30 to 11.30 or so, was just a real mixture of emotion.
Certainly people were just caught in amazement, many people crying or in tears or shaking with fear that either people that they knew were in the World Trade Center or that some of the other high-profile buildings in New York City, the Empire State Building, for instance, Rockefeller Center, would be next, if you would, on the list of attacks.
So there was certainly a great amount of fear, no panic, hushed comments, a lot of hugging.
One building after another asked the employees of the building to vacate.
And so the streets were absolutely full of people.
And again, no panic, a very orderly process.
Many people, as many as 6 million people, commute onto the island of Manhattan every day.
And of course, instantly the subways were closed, the trains, the ferries off of the island of Manhattan were closed.
And so you have this outpouring onto the streets of just millions of people.
You have the exits off of the island temporarily disconnected.
And as a result, people sought hotel rooms and apartments and homes of those that they knew on the island so that they had a place to go.
And so by almost noon New York time, the city had become very quiet again, almost as New York City was on the mute button that you would hold on your television remote control to the extent that there was no subway trains underneath and there was no aircraft overhead.
That must have been very, very eerie for New York City.
unidentified
It is disturbingly.
Even six hours later, in the 6 o'clock hour, which is normally reserved for just the heaviest rush hour, you could see photographers from some of the news press in the middle of the lanes of some of the busiest streets, you know, in Times Square and on 6th Avenue,
just taking pictures of, if you will, the city 40 or 50 blocks away from what everybody in your audience tonight has seen on television, taking pictures of what will be the only time in Manhattan where nobody was on Avenue of the Americas, not a single car.
I wonder what kind of day New York City will have later today, your time zone.
What will happen in New York?
unidentified
Well, they have suggested that schools will be open tomorrow in Manhattan, that the banks will be open, that businesses will be open.
In some ways, it almost forces the routine of America to kind of continue.
Sure.
But even in hushed terms, you can hear people around Manhattan who are not necessarily ready to go back to do business or to, because it's such a superficial, almost callous-like disrespect for what has gone on literally less than two miles away where we just know that there are potentially thousands of people buried under the rubble of almost 4 million square feet of office space that has just crumbled in front of us today.
The President seemed to suggest at the core of his message, perhaps, and that's where they're taking this from, that we can't be defeated by terrorism and will not be defeated by terrorism.
You know, steel and concrete may be, but we are not.
And so people from that may be taking the message that they should pick up and continue.
Craig, I can't thank you enough for coming on the air.
I wanted to get some sense, since you were right there in the middle of it all, what the city was like tonight, and you gave that to me.
unidentified
Excellent.
Well, good luck, and I'm very fortunate that you're in a place tonight that Americans all over the country can speak.
I'm sure that they've listened a whole lot, and I'm sure there's a place for some of the emotion to come across tonight.
And this is obviously an excellent form, and you're just the person to allow people to share.
That's Craig Kitchen, president of Premier Radio Networks.
In New York City.
And that's exactly what I'm going to do.
As I said at the top of the show, there's no way I can out, nor will I try to out, experts CNN and the others.
This is talk radio, and so I'm going to let you all talk.
Now, I have one caveat to that.
Any of my guests, previous, present, or for that matter, ones that have not been on yet who would like a word with a national audience, and I'm going to keep it short in every case, are welcome to contact my network office in Medford, Oregon.
That would be the way to get on the air, and they'll filter the calls there and relay them to me.
And if I think something is appropriate to put on the air, I will do so.
My network phone number in Medford, Oregon is area code 541-664-8829.
Once again, area code 5401-664-8829.
So if you're somebody who has something to contribute in the category of any of the guests that I've had on over the years, or even those I have not, you're welcome to call that number, and they will screen those calls and pick out what they think is important.
And perhaps we'll get some of that on the air.
But by and large, what I'm going to do the night through is to let all of you say what you want to say.
I can't think of any greater nor more important service right now than to do that in these late hours.
You have the phone numbers.
If you don't, we'll give them out shortly.
So in a moment, we will get underway with all of that.
Once again, I'm going to assume that my audience is very well aware of what has occurred during the day, so I'm not going to regurgitate all of the facts for you.
I will get any new information as it breaks on the air.
But I'm not going to sit here and regurgitate all the horrible facts to you.
I'm just going to let you speak.
I think it's the wise thing to do.
As I listened around, I hardly heard any of that going on.
Yeah, but more than that, it has the possibility of changing our lives.
That the response to this and the sudden knowledge that we are this vulnerable will produce all kinds of things that some will say will threaten freedom.
Yeah.
And that's worth considering how much of a trade-off you're willing to make, you know, whether you're willing to sacrifice some of your freedom for more security, because that is what it will come down to.
unidentified
I would be willing to sacrifice more of my freedom.
Because there is indeed going to be a profound change.
I would like to remind my international listeners that you can reach us, and the following process will help you get to us.
Canada, of course, can use the U.S. 800 numbers.
However, if you're outside the U.S.-Canadian areas, you would simply go to my website, artbell.com, and you would go down to Interact on the left-hand side in the yellow area, go to Interact, go to Call-In Numbers, and when you do, you will see codes for almost every country in the world.
You might try dialing with that code, and then, of course, once you've dialed that code, dial our 800 number, which is toll-free from anywhere in the world.
It's been quite a day, to say the least, but I wanted to approach an angle that, well, I think your show is the perfect forum for because I haven't heard anywhere on any of the national media outlets the mere mention, although there's a little buzz on the internet stirring up, about connections with Nostradamus prophecy.
Yes.
And specifically, the one that Major Ed Daines tried to remote view a while back that was talking about terror from the sky.
And there's a great number of people that are saying that Nostradamus may have been off on the time.
As you're probably aware, timelines are the most difficult.
Right.
So what they said is a lot of people were talking that perhaps this was indicating a nuclear attack on the new city, terror from the sky, and the man in the blue turban and all of that.
But I really think that this is what Nostradamus could have been envisioning was a terror from the sky that was visited on us today in the new city.
I'm pulling up actually a prophecy, not the one that Major Ed Dangs, the one that talked about terror from the sky, but there's one I'll read to you.
It says, In the city of gold there will be a great thunder, two brothers torn apart by chaos.
While the fortress endures, the great leader will succumb.
The third big war will begin when the city is burning.
And there are a lot of people that are speculating that the two brothers torn apart by chaos.
It was really strange, the previous caller, about Nastradamas, because I was going to talk about that, but he already covered what everybody else is thinking.
But my heartfelt thing, my heartfelt thoughts is about the children, the kids, how are they going to see the world now?
I sat down at my desk this morning right after I got a phone call, I believe, from my brother telling me that this had happened, that the first plane had hit, and at the time, of course, we thought it was an accident.
Over the course of this day, I learned what it really means to run a news-oriented website, which I've been doing for about a year.
And we posted, I think, over the course of the day, 40 stories from some of them from the news media, some of them that came in directly to us, and some of them that we picked up here and there.
And it was an appalling, awesome, just amazingly emotional experience.
And the calls from New York, from Washington, calls from people who string for our website, people who are just friends.
It was absolutely amazing.
Looking at my message boards and seeing this huge, just vast outpouring of what people are saying.
And there was one story that just did something for me.
And that is the story from the International Space Station.
240 miles above the Earth, Frank Cuthbertson and two Russian cosmonauts saw, they could actually see the fires from the World Trade Center.
Well, you know, in a funny way, it's going to bring us closer together the same way it is in New York.
I had calls from friends who were talking.
In one case, someone who was actually in a meeting who was within, just really literally across the street from the World Trade Center and saw the whole thing unfolding.
Sure, this is going to change us, but indeed, you bet we'll prevail.
Oh, you bet we will.
You know, I've been watching the speculation about who they think did it.
And they obviously don't know for sure yet who did it.
Osama bin Laden, maybe.
But no firm ID yet.
It was an act of war.
An absolute act of war.
In all likelihood, more people died today in New York.
Still my time zone today.
Than died at Pearl Harbor.
Somewhere I have the figures for how many died at Pearl Harbor, and it was over 2,000 soldiers and a far lesser number of civilians.
So that'll give you an idea of scale.
And everybody is, of course, comparing this to Pearl Harbor.
And I guess that's fair.
This just was a far more cowardly act, in my opinion, because this was actually aimed at civilians, whereas at least in Pearl Harbor, they were after military assets, which is what you do in war.
Somewhere here, I've got a recent, yeah, here it is, a Gallup poll.
I'll let you know what the American people think right now.
It says more than half, 55% in fact, said they thought Tuesday's attacks represent the beginning of a sustained terrorist campaign against the U.S. that will continue for several weeks or more.
3 in 10 disagreed.
Almost 9 in 10 said they considered the attacks an act of war.
I said 9 in 10.
Half were very confident in the President's ability to handle the situation.
Another third somewhat confident.
Nine in 10 said the attacks were the most tragic events of their lifetime.
So there you have a quick read on what Americans think.
unidentified
It's terrible.
It's really terrible.
And what really shook us here was we've never really had a terrorist attack here in Australia.
And we just feel so sorry for those people in the airplane.
And just the way it seemed to have been timed to make sure that there was a maximum amount of police and firemen and emergency personnel that would be there and would be killed in the second.
They just seem to just aim for maximum amount of casualties.
And that's the thing that's most shocking here, that someone can just go to work in the morning and that's it for them.
And it's caused, I don't know if you're aware of here, but we've had a lot happening here with the Afghani and Pakistan refugees constantly trying to get into our country.
And we actually turned back a boat last week, we refused to let them land.
And we turned back another two boats and they're actually going to Papua New New Guinea and Nairu to be processed.
But I mean we weren't really keen on these people coming here in the first place strictly because we already have a policy of a refugee policy through proper channels.
Well, that's a really bad question right about now.
It's really in shock about the whole everything, everything about this whole day.
I was at work all day, and so I heard nothing but audio of the entire event of the day.
And when I got home this afternoon, I am in shock.
That's as puny as the English language is, it's the only word that comes to mind.
It's just terrible.
Absolutely terrible.
I have to say one thing, though.
It almost seems, it is absolutely systematic the way the events occurred today.
And I feel a great disservice being done to being said right now in the city of Los Angeles, where they are, for the most part, saying all is calm, all is good, everything's safe.
If indeed, as we saw, the occurrences of the day reveal themselves for them to come out and say that as a city.
I don't even know if I had to bring this up, but I got a call from one of my previous guests, Harvey Wasserman.
And he's talked to us about things nuclear in the past.
And he said, actually, Art, we should be counting our lucky stars that they did not target one of the U.S. nuclear facilities.
They certainly would be vulnerable, obviously, to this kind of attack, you know, a nuclear power plant, something like that.
As vulnerable as the Twin Towers, at least.
So we've all got a lot of thinking to do about how this is going to change us, and it will change us.
We will begin to take actions and security measures that Americans are not used to seeing.
Americans are not.
You know, you travel in a lot of other parts of the world, and you see people routinely with machine guns and soldiers routinely in the streets.
Travel to Israel.
You would be absolutely amazed at what the atmosphere is like in Israel.
Now, it's very casual.
I would call it casual with arms everywhere.
Just about everybody you pass in the street, or at least every other person, carries a gun.
And Americans are just not used to seeing that, other than on the hip of our domestic police.
Well, obviously, the military is going to get involved, and we are going to see things we're not used to seeing, and we're going to, some of us, I think, feel infringed upon, our freedoms infringed upon as a result of the security that we're going to have to have.
Well, no, last I heard, they said at least until noon tomorrow.
The at least part being, I think, important.
In other words, I sort of feel that they will extend that.
I kind of doubt they'll let planes back in the air at noon, but they might.
You never know.
unidentified
Yeah, I think they need to kind of take a couple steps back on this one and figure out what they want to do.
something else i was trying to figure out is why they would not uh...
declare a national emergency on something like that especially when you have no idea if the airplane that's final your house is going to crash into uh...
Arafat sort of expressing condolences and big Arafat crocodile tears?
What a bunch of crap.
He doesn't represent the Palestinian people.
I saw the Palestinian people during the day, and he certainly doesn't represent them.
All right, in a moment, we're going to hear from perhaps a series of people.
Major Ed Dames has got some news for us, so we'll get to all of that in a moment.
I'm Art Bell.
The only thing Lear Financial would like to say to you all this morning Is, again, they would like to join others in expressing their condolences for what has occurred today to America and to Americans.
A very profoundly sad day for all of us, and a day that I think continues in sort of a state of shock.
It certainly does for me.
So, from Lear Financial, condolences.
One of the men who brought remote viewing out of the U.S. military was Major Ed Dames.
He's a frequent guest of mine, was due to be on this week, as a matter of fact.
He's in the Hawaiian Islands, and here's Ed Dames.
I want to be terse and succinct, and to the point here, most of your listeners know who I am, so I don't think there's any need to go in the background.
What I wanted to say was for the last 12 hours, the best remote viewers in the world have been working on locating the command and control authority for today's attack, and we have now pinpointed that.
So I'd like to give you and your listeners that information.
And we are now turning our attention to any other targets that are outstanding that this Command and Control Center, this authorizing authority, has on its plate.
We want to see if there are any more targets that have not been hit.
And that's what we're turning our attention to now, Art.
And again, the way that you can make it to us internationally is to get hold of the AT ⁇ T operator or partake of the information on my website, artbell.com, where you can get a list of telephone numbers, access numbers worldwide, and then dial us at 800-893-0903.
Well, okay, I'm told the following, that the transponders on the aircraft involved did not transmit the secret code, the four-digit code, meaning there was hijacking underway.
Now, that would indicate to me that the takeover was very fast and very complete, and that the hijackers had people capable of piloting those planes to their doom.
And so there never was a chance for anybody to do anything.
That's what you would have to presume, because they can send out a four-digit transponder code that says, hey, hijacking underway.
I am a Canadian living here, and I've been living here for over two years.
I teach in a bilingual school, and in our school this morning, we had the news, the first thing that happened, and the kids and teachers have been devastated.
Now, I know that you are an American living there.
No, you said Canadian.
When you hear, though, that the Mexican border with the U.S. has been closed, and the Canadian border with the U.S., I'm not sure what the status of that is.
I imagine it's very close to how does that make you feel being down in middle Mexico and hearing all of that and knowing that you really couldn't come home if you wanted to?
unidentified
Well, right now I have Mexico as my home, but what I feel is I have a tremendous amount of empathy for the Americans because I feel the United States as a home.
It's almost the same as in Canada with very, very little difference.
The only difference is in the government.
Other than that, our cultures are almost basically the same.
Language is the same.
So we are sister countries and Mexico is a sister country to the United States as well.
I was asking Americans specifically how they thought it would change America, and it is going to change us, but it's probably going to change you, too.
I've listened to your show for years, and this is the first time I ever felt like I needed to call in, just to get this off my chest, because it's a world-changing thing.
Have you been just sort of sitting watching it unfold all day long?
unidentified
I've been watching TV all day today.
Luckily, I had today off work, and that's on, like, you know, I usually not want to watch TV, but I've been in front of it all day watching CNN, our local stations, to see what's happening in our airport because of all the flights coming here.
I'd rather not say where I am calling from here in the East, but I do have some, I am psychic, and I do have some information I'd like to share with you quickly if you want to.
Well, you know, I don't know if the nation's aware.
Certainly some of the country is aware that there was a reign of absolute terror in Sacramento as a man went on a rampage going after supervisors of the company from which he'd been fired.
And I guess your husband was one of those supervisors, correct?
This kind of violence, maybe that's another worthwhile topic.
This kind of violence.
I mean, people understand, horrific as it was, dastardly as it was, you understand what happened at Pearl Harbor.
The Japanese hit us as hard as they could in what we now understand as real war in order to prevent us projecting power into the Pacific, and they hit our armed forces in Hawaii.
That to me is dastardly, but it's understandable in a war.
This going after civilians, women, children, office workers, policemen, firemen, this is far worse.
unidentified
I'm Art Bell.
Knights in white satin, never reaching the end.
Letters of written moon, never meaning to send beauty out with these eyes before just what the truth is, I can't say anymore
Far
We've been traveling far Without our home But not without a star Free, only one will be free We've hovered close And hang on to a dream
On the boats and on the planes They're coming to America Never looking back again They're coming to America Recharge bells in the Kingdom of Nai from west of the Rockies dial 1-800-6188255 East of the Rockies 1-800-8255033.
First time callers may recharge at 1-775-727-1222 or use the wildcard line at 1-775-727-1295.
To recharge on the toll-free international line, call your AT ⁇ T operator and have them dial 800-893-0903.
This is Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell on the Premier Radio Network.
All we're doing this day is letting you reflect on the events of the day, and they have been very serious, profound events for the United States of America, for all of us.
So we will continue doing that.
Stay right where you are.
I'm Art Bell.
Oh my God, CNN is showing...
They're showing some scenes now with lights at night of the devastation in New York at the base of the buildings or close to the base of the buildings.
And you just cannot imagine anything as horrific as this.
I don't think it's sinking in all the way.
For me, it still hasn't.
We're going to talk to a variety of people, mostly you, throughout the night tonight.
I thought it the wisest thing to do.
The parade of experts on CNN is unbeatable and elsewhere, other media outlets, and we'll have some of those, but for the most part, I'm going to hold it to all of you.
Here is one of my previous guests, Howard Weinstein.
Well, my thoughts are I was on my way to work this morning.
I caught what was going on on the radio.
I presently live just north of Philadelphia, and I was going into New Jersey.
When I heard what happened, I instantly turned around and came back home.
I have a daughter who attends school in Washington, D.C. That was not in my mind at the present, but she works two blocks from the Pentagon and attends school there.
So anyway, she is safe, thank God.
My son is here at school in Philadelphia.
But of course, my thoughts went out to, well, as we can see on CNN now, the surface Navy is being shown, out to what the Navy was doing as far as response to what was going on.
And as we know, surface forces have been deployed along the East Coast, especially up near Montauk Point in Long Island Sound and around the New York area.
And I obviously was able to get through on the telephone with some of my friends who are still in the submarine force.
I'm no longer in the submarine service.
But I can tell you that no one is getting near New London, Connecticut.
The boats are vigilant, they're on duty, and they are properly deployed.
That's a quote from a high-ranking Navy officer.
The boats, basically, when there's a problem, you know, the United States Navy puts to sea.
You can see what's going on, and we're all immersed in the shock of what has occurred and is occurring.
But behind the scenes, at the highest government levels, I wonder what's really happening.
unidentified
From previous experience, I can tell you now that plans are being made to take care of this problem quickly because the people of the United States demand it.
What's it like being that far away from America, your home, at a time like this?
unidentified
Actually, it's very difficult because you tend to want to, of course, the area that I'm from in the Midwest, I'm pretty far removed from everything, so it wouldn't be a whole lot that I could do to help.
But your heart goes out to your fellow Americans.
It's very difficult to see people that you share a heritage with going through something like this.
Well, as you know, there is a fairly extensive amount of anti-American sentiment in the Philippines.
And I wonder what sort of reactions are coming from that sector, the terrorist group in the Philippines.
unidentified
Well, yeah, there is a strong Muslim faction in southern Philippines, the Abu Saif.
Yes.
And, yeah, of course, anything that what they consider, I guess, the homeland or the headquarters for Muslim activity, anything that they do, of course, is applauded just completely.
They get behind it completely.
So as far as any, the Abu Sayyaf, they don't really have much access to radio or television networks.
So of course they're being hunted over here.
So it's not where they can come in and give interviews and applaud what has happened.
Well, if you've got CNN, you're getting plenty of updates, that's for sure.
unidentified
Did you see the interview here a few hours ago, I think it was around 9 or 10 o'clock, with someone who said that Mrs. Olson, the Solicitor General's wife, was able to call her husband two times from the plane?
When you look at some of the interviews that have been done during the day on CNN, Tom Clancy was a repetitive interview because he's written of things like this.
But he said, you know, as much as you can sit down and write stories about this sort of thing, in the end, you can't write anything as horrific as what has happened.
And this is just beyond belief.
That this could have been accomplished by four separate groups of perhaps three with nothing more than knives is just the whole thing suspends belief.
First time caller line, you're on the air.
Hello.
unidentified
Hello.
I just wanted to comment on one of the questions you've been asking over the night, and that is how we're going to change as a people after this event.
And I find myself rather, I'm trying to choose my words carefully here, to say the least, irritated, not necessarily by you, but by hearing that same sentiment from a number of people.
I find it too passive to say that we're going to be affected by what has happened.
And I find it rather irritating to find that more people aren't choosing to be affected and how they're going to be affected by what has happened.
Part of the problem, I think, is if you're looking for reaction, it's hard to have reaction until you really understand for sure who did this to us.
And then you will see, I think, the shock that people are in right now convert to anger.
But that time is not yet.
unidentified
Yes, but the major thing that I think people need to consider is that we can choose how to react to this.
And one of the fears that I have for the American people right now is that they're going to choose to react with violence against those of Middle Eastern descent.
And I would like to think that we can be better than that.
Although, if we do determine who did it, I think their time on earth is about over.
Yes.
I appreciate your call Andrew's sentiment.
You're exactly right, of course.
You know, there will be, I suppose, because there always has been in this sort of thing, look at the Japanese internment camps in World War II.
So that sentiment is going to be out there.
He's absolutely right.
We can choose to react in a restrained, but yet prepared to be extremely forceful way, if you follow me.
I would choose not to jump out and say we ought to be attacking anybody yet because I don't think it has been revealed to us yet who it is that we should be angry with.
Our local television here, sir, said there were waits of four hours to give blood in Las Vegas.
unidentified
It's just a fantastic response.
The wait, though I know hotels, I was talking to a friend in St. John's, Newfoundland, the hotels are all booked up with the transatlantic flights that are down parking there waiting.
I was thinking today when I was listening to the news broadcast that all these different 911 calls that were coming in and the cell phone calls on the ninth month of the 11th day.
We're in the flight path from McCarran Airport toward San Francisco, and there's normally a pretty steady stream of civilian aircraft passing overhead.
And I'm sure all of you probably felt this today, to look into the sky and not see the contrails and not hear the aircraft.
I'm 19 years old, and I thought I would bring a younger point of view to the table.
I just, my whole life, I thought that America was just, you know, it couldn't be harmed, you know.
And now America's changed.
It's definitely going to be changed.
The president said that the light was going to shine on, and it's going to shine on, but, you know, our hearts are dim.
Everybody was affected by it.
And it's hard to deal with because I feel like I want to do something, and I don't know what to do, and I don't know if I can do anything, but I just, it hurts to know that there's people out there that can do that.
And that I thought that, you know, America was just, you know, it couldn't be harmed and to see the damage that can be caused by people that don't care.
I decided that I wouldn't try to out-expert the experts tonight.
CNN's doing a very good job of that, and I'm presuming that most of you, as Americans and otherwise, have been following all of this all day long, as I have.
I've been up all day, and I'm going to be up almost all night here, I guess, as well, if not all night.
So I thought the best thing I could do would be to get on the air and just open the lines for all of you to say what you wanted to say and give you some outlet and take the temperature of the nation.
And that's kind of an interesting topic in itself, isn't it?
The temperature of the nation right now, taking the temperature.
It's kind of a degree below normal, a degree or two below normal right now.
That's shock.
And that will change.
But right now, it's hard to get past watching the pictures of this occur from every conceivable angle, as obviously a lot of New Yorkers had camcorders with them.
And caught the horrific events as they were unfolding.
And so they've got every conceivable shot of it, and they're showing it again and again and again, as you could well imagine they would.
And it's just like you're watching some movie with just incredible animation or something.
It's like it isn't real.
In a moment, Howard, no, not Howard, but Frank Jones, who's a private security expert and a hostage negotiator, and we'll find out what he knows about all of this.
Stay right there.
CNN is running some headlines that are appearing in newspapers around the country.
The Chicago Tribune saying that our carefree days in America, and I'm paraphrasing, basically are over buried in the gray ash that was once those buildings.
And I'm sure that's true.
The earliest question I asked as a general question, and I hold it up to you now for your consideration, is how it's going to change America.
It is going to change America.
I don't think that as a nation we're about to cower down and become terrified beyond our ability to act and proceed.
We will prevail.
There's no doubt about that.
But it will also profoundly affect us in many ways.
And there will be a delicate balancing act going on between our perceived freedoms and the need for security, the obvious need for security.
There will be an element which will say that it was all orchestrated, of course, they always say that, in order to limit the freedoms that we so cherish.
I haven't heard from that group yet, but I'm sure that given enough open lines, we will.
Right now, here is Frank Jones, who is a private security expert and a hostage negotiator.
In your capacity, Frank, what is it you can tell us about what happened today that you think we should know or what is yet to happen?
unidentified
Well, I am fortunate enough to be the principal for OGC Consulting Limited.
We have endeavored for 12 years to provide a very fine-edge in tactical consulting, special operations security, and training, not only domestically but around the world.
We function in a number of roles and capacities to proactively head off threats of this type for our clients and we consult for government entities, diplomatic entities, as well as corporate entities.
Well then, maybe you'd be in a great position then to tell everybody how it could possibly be, Frank, that this many people would be involved in this intricate an operation and they pulled it off with knives and airplanes.
I mean, how could that happen?
unidentified
Well, the typical religious fundamentalist extremist has become much more attuned to the fallacies of security and procedures in the United States.
We have been literally lulled into a false sense of security at our airports, and everything that I have been screaming for the past several years has now come to fruition.
It seems that we are, again, just a sleeper the switch in that we seem to focus most of our energies as a nation towards reactive policies as opposed to, again, proactive policies which ODCC favors as a corporation.
And one of our biggest tasks is to go in with a client and reorient that type of thinking into a mode that it's better to head it off at the pass than to figure out how to recover from the damage.
You know, you said there's lax security, but I'm thinking at levels of the FBI, even the CIA, apparently, it's early days because you never hear about these things until later, but right now the word is there was no word.
There was no intelligence.
There was no information that this was going to occur.
There were no leaks.
Does that seem possible to you?
unidentified
Well, the nature of the strike itself, the word conventional has been bandied about a lot today, and that's exactly what happened.
If you could wrap this up in a nutshell, they used the KISS formula and kept it simple.
We were far more prepared for a Kim Bio or nuke type strike than we were for something of such a conventional nature.
Within the realm of operations of this type and damage of this magnitude, this was a low-budget operation for the perpetrators.
I think that there was certainly a great learning curve involved, particularly in the area of obtaining pilots so dedicated as to make themselves martyrs that were also not only that radical mindset, but expert aviators in commercial airframe.
That type of thing is difficult to come by, and everything that we know of through our contacts overseas, and I have upwards of 300 consultants, all with backgrounds in military special operations, as well as what we characterize as the outfit agencies.
All of our contacts are pointing towards, of course, the bin Laden organization and several faction or splinter groups that answer to him.
Frank, what good is any terrorist act unless you claim credible credit for having done it and tell the world why?
Otherwise, what cause have you forwarded?
unidentified
Well, they're still in the mode of sitting back and doing their damage assessment.
They have achieved their objectives, and if I can pass any salts on to the individuals that say, well, this is just the first strike and it's going to continue, this type of action against the United States fits very typical jihad type of MOs.
They have achieved their objectives.
Of course, it's clear from the number of airliners hijacked and the targets that were engaged that if you just want to boil it down to simple percentages, they were 75% successful.
There is no agenda or objective beyond the terror itself?
unidentified
Well, in my opinion, the entire nature of this strike was to, again, put America on its heels.
And that, you know, regardless of your background, that has been achieved.
But to strike all the selected targets in one virtually simultaneous offensive and not to operate in what might be called waves over an extended period of time is exactly what these people are involved in.
And I would be extremely surprised if there were any further strikes subsequent to the ones that occurred this morning.
I just don't understand without a claiming of credit and some sort of statement, then how does it forward any agenda other than to have terrorized Americans may be down, but they're certainly not out, and we will prevail, we will continue, and everybody knows, the world knows, when we find out who did it, they'll probably cease to exist rather rapidly.
unidentified
Well, I agree with that.
And depending on your perspective of when it's appropriate to claim credit, one who is a follower of bin Laden and his tactics, he has already done just that.
He has been announcing for, you know, in and out of certain media outlets since the beginning of the year that this was the year.
Well, I certainly hope that we view this in a constructive manner and dedicate more of our attention and assets towards proactive measures and programs.
This is something that has to be done, obviously, to react after the fact is not going to increase our security or further our intentions or imperatives overseas.
Well, we will certainly improve our security, but it will be to some degree at the expense of our convenience and freedom.
And so people should be prepared for that, shouldn't they?
unidentified
Certainly.
And of course, the other aspect of that is proper response in retaliatory strikes, such as the retaliation against Gaddafi and the raid at Tripoli.
He was effectively neutralized as a terrorist.
Gaddafi Indian country, of course, was effectively neutralized as a terrorist training and sponsor state.
And of course, the flip side was as of the late administration, Clinton's administration, was that half-hearted strikes against the former bin Laden camps following the embassy bombings in East Africa.
It's gotten to the point where we can no longer take satisfaction in making a gesture of retaliation.
It needs to be down and dirty, neutralize a threat, cut the head off a snake, and then we'll be in a position to sit back and say, well, we don't expect threats of this type to come, certainly come out this way, reach out and touch us again.
But in my opinion, for what bin Laden has announced all year and the fundamentalist aims of the jihad, he has accomplished exactly what he announced he would do.
And I would be very surprised if any organization came out after the fact and claimed credit.
That's Frank Jones, a private security expert, as well as hostage negotiator.
And I'm going to continue with Open Lines All Night Long.
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I felt it in every fiber of my being, and I told the audience that.
So you're absolutely right.
unidentified
Sure.
Yeah, and the thing is, a while ago I was watching on the Discovery Channel about New York, how these buildings were built to withstand even a plane impact.
And I just found out today that it was proven totally the opposite.
You know, you really are bringing up a point that I did want to talk about.
I've seen the pictures now, today, a million times, like everybody else.
And I thought, okay, that's horrible.
But, you know, the buildings look like they're going to stand.
And I can't exactly understand how they collapsed the way they did.
Maybe once it began toward the top, it cascaded down upon itself.
I don't know.
I'm not a structural engineer.
But it didn't seem likely that what followed, you know, the collapse of the Twin Towers, it just didn't seem like it was going to happen.
I suspended all belief when I saw the photos.
I just couldn't believe it.
People were talking about, well, there must have been other bombs or something else, but there was not, as I now understand it.
The aircraft impacts did this alone.
Incredible stuff.
unidentified
I couldn't believe it myself.
And, you know, I just went to work.
I didn't watch the news.
And people were telling me or asking me, are you from New York?
Are your family from New York?
And I said, no, why?
And they said, oh, something happened.
These huge buildings just collapsed.
Four planes hit and da da da da da and all this stuff.
And I'm like, all right.
And then during break, I saw this on the news and I said, oh man, is this country, I mean, is this terrorist country declaring war on us because they also hit DC at the same time?
And the U.S. has said, I believe, that it will treat Anybody harboring those who did this as it would treat them.
So clearly, I think it is an act of war, and I think it's a more dastardly one than the attack on Pearl Harbor, because, as I mentioned earlier, what struck me with all the comparisons this morning and all day long to Pearl Harbor was at least the Japanese attempted to attack military targets.
There will be more lives lost here than there were in Pearl Harbor, and these will be predominantly, of course, civilians, innocent civilians.
Very cowardly.
unidentified
Yes, and you're right also that there's no place in this world for a terrorist, and they could go join the dinosaur and dinosaur heaven.
Well, that's probably the next stage for most Americans.
Most Americans right now are pretty much like me, in shock, in mourning.
To imagine that many people instantly killed in a cowardly, dastardly, rotten act for a purpose that has not even been articulated.
Has that occurred to you that the purpose of this attack has not even been mentioned?
What sort of terrorism is that?
I don't know.
If they think they're going to demoralize Americans to the point that the nation will collapse, they're wrong.
We're not like that.
I'll tell you how we are.
We're slow to anger.
And we are a nation that, when it does finally act, acts with decisiveness and very great force indeed.
And so that's what will occur.
And how anybody could imagine it would be otherwise, that we would sit around just crying and mourning and doing nothing.
What a terrible mistake on the part of the perpetrators.
We won't do that.
The minute we know who did this, as I said, they'll be moving on to another world.
First time caller align, you're on the air.
unidentified
Mr. Bell?
Yes.
Hi, my name's TJ from Boyd Yagaho.
And I basically saw a lot today where they were saying the international terrorist information and everything they should have been on top of this and a lot of blame was being placed on them.
And then I kind of got through that and I was trying to think where the one point where they had the one plane that was still up in the air?
And it is, I think, more tragic, more morally corrupt than the attack on us at Pearl Harbor in every way you can imagine.
Both in the number of casualties and in the manner of the attack.
Certainly the manner of the attack is more morally reprehensible than even that awful surprise attack on our military at Pearl Harbor.
What's going to happen now?
CNN, I just noted, was running a little bulletin across the bottom suggesting that U.S. legislative members have been told that the U.S. is now reasonably sure it's bin Laden.
Now, if that turns into certain it's bin Laden, then I think you're going to see some action on our behalf.
You're going to see the United States begin to do something, and I don't think it's going to be all that many hours before it occurs.
For them to be running this particular bulletin at this time would indicate to me that they must be awfully sure at the top.
Of course, do bear in mind that during these kinds of breaking news Situations.
All kinds of rumors run through the media, so I'm trying to be very cautious in even what I report to you.
But certainly, that is crawling across the bottom of CNN that U.S. legislators apparently have been told that they're reasonably confident it's bin Laden.
Forgive me if this hasn't been brought up yet, or I mean, if it already has, I'd like to see the CIA shut down, because we're told from its inception it's supposed to give our country a heads up against being attacked, and they've never seemed to have accomplished that.
They actually have many, many times, and most times you don't hear about it.
In those cases where they have stopped people bent on some sort of terrorism, you rarely hear about it, only occasionally.
You don't hear about CIA's successes.
You just tend to hear about their failures.
And I wonder why you would suggest such a thing at a time when, if anything, we need more intelligence, particularly more human intel on the ground, not less.
unidentified
Well, another point would be that I think it's pretty well documented that the CIA has had a hand in destabilizing other countries throughout the world and make us a target of hatred.
Kind of in shock, sir, as I've been telling people.
Where are you?
unidentified
Well, right now I'm just about in Zanesville, Ohio on my way to Kansas City.
Okay.
Well, actually, what I'd like to do is first tell you, when I first heard about this this morning, I had taken a couple hour nap over in Youngstown, Ohio.
When I woke up, I turned the radio on, and Howard Stern was on the radio.
And basically, he was talking about it, and at first I thought it was a joke, and I thought it was kind of like one of these War of the World type things.
But as time went on and I changed the channel, I noticed everybody else was carrying it.
What else I wanted to touch on was I was watching a little bit of TV here and there, and they had, nobody had said anything, but there was this guest they had on.
I can't remember the guy's first name, but his last name was Sick.
The gentleman was like an advisor to Carter, Reagan, and them.
And he was basically what he was talking about was, you know, he was talking about Ben Loud and everything, and he says, you know, that's all fine and dandy, but the gentleman there has basically all he's done in the past is car bombs, boat bombs, stuff like that.
For him to do something like this, number one, would have taken a lot of financial backing.
And, you know, he basically, what he was saying was, you know, you need to turn some other stones over and look other places.
And the one guy that was interviewing him basically said, Saddam Hussein, he says, well, I'm not going to say yes or no, but they might want to look there, too.
Yeah, as I reported just before you got on the air, CNN's running a little thing now suggesting that our legislators are being told that there's now a reasonable high confidence that it was bin Laden.
Now, I have seen other statements, as I said earlier, indicating that those who harbor those who perpetrated this act will be treated as those who perpetrated the act.
You know, America is down but not out.
Shocked but not defeated.
And so those who think that they may have America on its knees had best reconsider.
Something like this does, of course, shock us and sadden us and a state of shock is what I think we're all in right now.
I know I am.
But we are not defeated, and they cannot imagine, as they watch the coverage of this, that we are defeated.
In fact, they should be worried about where they're going to hide, because there will be no place to hide.
And they learned from the bombing in 93 that what they need to do is hit in the middle and then destabilize the middle so that the weight of the top brings it down.
Plus, there was enough fuel, it was pretty much a flying bomb, and they fly it into it and they start this huge fire.
And once the temperature gets to 800 or 900 degrees in there, then the structural steel begins to get and that is how that happened.
Either the passengers or the pilots or somebody got enough control to crash that thing where they wanted to instead of where it was intended to go, sure.
unidentified
Right, to save some lives.
But I'm almost 27.
I don't know if that counts as young people, but I wanted to address that, how it affects young people.
Well, you're young enough to be able to speak as one who's never seen America really in this situation before.
unidentified
Exactly.
I called my mother when this first started happening.
It was just before the Pentagon got hit.
And she was just, you know, Randy, you need to calm down.
There's no point in you getting so excited over all this and getting so upset.
And I said, well, what's the point in, you know, somebody cross the street from the World Trade Center getting upset?
It doesn't do anybody any good.
That's not the point.
The point is, we've spent our whole lives believing that there's a measure of invulnerability in the U.S. We've never had an attack, civilians hurt like mad and killed, and the one time that we were invaded, we turned around and blasted the hell out of the ones that did it.
And we've got borders with friendly people and we try so hard whenever we go to attack somebody not to cause collateral damage and hurt civilians.
And we try so hard, and that was the entire point.
They took a plane full of people, full of gas, and crashed them into buildings that were full of people.
And they knew that those buildings would be full of people.
And that's why they did it when they did it.
And I just, I haven't, I've only just about the past few hours gotten to the point where I feel like I can cry.
You know, I've gotten, I was just stunned and shaking for hours.
I couldn't, you know, I felt like I should be crying because I did when Oklahoma City got blown up.
But I just, it's unbelievable.
Thousands of people.
They were just at work.
And some maniac because we, you know, wear blue jeans and we allow girls to run around uncovered and they just come over and blow up people.
What do you think the people of New Zealand imagine will happen next?
unidentified
Oh, that's hard to say.
I mean, speaking for a whole country and stuff like that.
I imagine, well, I just caught a bit of Bush's speech earlier and I I sort of take his side of it, you know, just sit back and you know cool their heads for a minute and just instead of just lashing out, you know, just see where it leads us.
Yeah, Americans by far and away want to wait until they fully understand who perpetrated this and who helped, and then they want a response, but not until we understand.
We don't want to lash out without knowing who to lash out at.
Yeah, I think everybody agrees on that.
And I think right now, as I keep saying, we're in shock, and that's going to translate at some point as the hours and days wear on into an awful lot of anger and calls for action.
Certainly that will occur if there's an identification, an absolute identification of who perpetrated this.
Then there's going to be a lot of anger all of a sudden, sir.
unidentified
I sympathize with you on the shock, and that I'm still shaking now.
I've been shaking for about 10 hours over this sort of thing.
And it's just inconceivable that this could have happened.
And part of that was reading the Internet tonight.
Well, not so much anger, but it was really interesting.
I've been spending this evening looking on the Internet, and people basically, the sentiment has been, sign me up, you know, and a lot of flag icons on a lot of the message boards I check and stuff like that.
And it's been all real positive, and it's just been unbelievable.
And what is it that they will draw from this that they really need?
unidentified
They need to be more behind the country rather than listening to all the propaganda they have been taught in school.
They need to understand that this is something that must be protected, and it's like the old people who formally formed the country said, you must fight for liberty or you lose it.
but in the traditional sense of fighting for our liberties i don't think uh...
what just happened lies although i think fighting is is it's
unidentified
everywhere i go so if you really love me come on and let it show you know
i love you i always will my mind's made up by the way that i feel there's no beginning there'll be no end cause all my love you can be done Call Art Bell in the Kingdom of Nye from west of the Rockies at 1-800-618-8255.
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This is Coast to Coast AM with Art Bell from the Kingdom of Nai.
Well, how many years now have we all been saying it's coming, knowing that it was going to happen, that there would be a major terrorist incident of some sort, something tragic and awful like this, or biological or chemical or something terrible would happen?
We all knew it was coming, just a matter of when.
unidentified
You mean ever since the Halloween Day massacre of Jimmy Carter, where we don't have any intel left on the ground.
And just wanted to thank you for your programming and I hope that you and your wife and everybody are okay, and I hope we all have a little prayer in our hearts tonight.
You know, a lot of people have different views about a higher power, God.
But I believe in it.
You know, I certainly believe in a higher power.
And I believe that prayer works.
I can say more than that.
I know prayer works.
We have done experiments that conclusively prove prayer works.
And so I think, yeah, prayer would be appropriate.
So many lives have been lost.
They're not even talking yet about how many thousands.
Maybe tens of thousands.
It was my understanding that 50,000 people on an average workday worked in those buildings, those 110-story buildings that came tumbling down.
50,000 people.
On an average day, 100,000 visiting those buildings.
The Twin Towers.
100,000 people.
So they're saying that the number may be more than New York can handle.
Mayor Giuliani said that, that the number when it's finally known may be more than they can handle.
Wildcardline, you're on the air.
Hello.
unidentified
Yes.
Hi, Art.
This is Richard.
I'm a truck driver in Waco, Texas, right at the moment.
Yes, sir.
Yeah, I thought I'd call you.
I've been wanting to for several times, but I was down the Mexican border this morning, and we thought we were going to be stuck down there, but they did allow freight to come through the border.
Yes, I was a little bit surprised about that, but we were allowed to get our freight coming across the border, and they kept saying they were going to close the bridge, but they did keep it open.
I take it that foot traffic and normal civilian traffic was not moving through, or was it?
unidentified
Well, it showed on the television down there, because all I could get was Mexican channels, so I don't understand Spanish, but it was showing the bridge and showing people coming across.
But they allowed our freight to come through the border.
Yeah, I understand that in some areas, in a kind of a spotty way, it's as high as $5 per gallon.
It's probably a normal reaction of supply and demand.
unidentified
Well, this major truck stop, I won't mention the name, but it's got a notice on the door of it telling why they've increased the fuel prices, because they shut down all the refineries and that, and all the ports from letting the fuel come in.
I mean, we're talking about an industry that as the Labor Day holiday begins, prices rise 10 or 20 cents a gallon, and as the weekend ends, the prices go back down again.
So I'm being probably too charitable, but there is a supply and demand aspect to it for sure.
unidentified
Yes, that's what they're saying is because the supply is going to be low because they've shut down their refineries internally and through the ports, that that's the reason for their fuel increase.
But it's definitely going up all over from what we're hearing, what I'm seeing.
Well, we have a treaty, as you well know, that allows that trafficking.
So I suppose under these extraordinary conditions, they'll keep it closed, but for how long, who knows?
unidentified
Yeah, that was all I really had to say, and it was good talking to you, and I wish all the people that had these terrible incidents happen the best, and God be with them all.
Now, that is kind of, in a way, that's a shocking report that he was able to bring an 18-wheeler across his freight at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon from the Mexican border.
It was my understanding that was closed tighter than a drum.
And that information would seem to fly in the face of that.
That's interesting.
East of the Rockies, you're on the air.
Hello.
unidentified
Yeah, my name's Dave.
I'm in Omaha, Nebraska.
Hello, Dave.
And I was going to make a comment about, you had asked about what the children might think or whatever.
I'm sure the young ones don't really understand what's going on right now.
But when they read about this in their history books, I think they're going to be very surprised on the security measures that we lack at the airports, because I think it's going to be totally different by the time they start flying.
Well, it's going to, you know, if they really implement The kind of security that El Al has, for example, everybody's going to have everything searched before they get on any aircraft, and that is going to bring the industry to kind of a crawl because it's going to take a very great deal of time, and it's going to mean a lot of patience on the part of the American people.
And if history is any teacher, they'll put up with it for a little while, but then they will forget, and then they will get annoyed, and then they will want convenience, and then there's going to be trouble.
unidentified
How strict do you think?
I guess one of my biggest worry is they talk about going after the people who support this, but my worry is they're going to maybe take out this guy, but then lax off again.
I'd like to see him stay on any and all terrorist people, not just the one that did this damage, but just flat out say, okay, this is enough.
This is how we're going to handle it from here on out.
Well, I think we need to understand not just whether or not it was bin Laden that did this, but to what degree he was state-sponsored, to what degree Afghanistan provided him and is providing him with a safe haven.
We need to understand a lot of this before we respond so that we just don't have, and I don't think that America will be satisfied with some quick surgical strike.
This was a major act of war against the largest country in the world, and there will be a very serious retaliation.
And I think Americans expect it.
unidentified
Well, that's all I pretty much wanted to say.
I just wanted to know that my prayer goes out to everybody, and I hope things settle down for us.
Just to terrorize us without some claim of responsibility and some sort of, no doubt from our point of view, insane reason for doing this to affect our national policy in some way.
That's certainly the kind of thing that you would expect, but just to produce terror without apparent motive is crazy.
And I was just listening to your comments about some of this, and one of the comments I have is if we should capture these guys alive, from what I understand, if we were to like maybe condemn them to death by pigs or dogs or something, they would be denied the opportunity to paradise.
And that would be something to scare them, I would think.
We do have capital punishment, but we don't let dogs tear people apart.
I guess that is a main observable difference between what they do and what we do.
We don't kill innocent civilians, or we try not to.
When we do attack, we try to avoid killing innocents.
Their whole purpose was to kill innocents.
It's a big difference, isn't it?
unidentified
Yes, sir, it is.
And I mean, it's not something we'd ever do, I wouldn't imagine, but, you know, it's just ridiculous how they think they can get away with it.
And all this is going to send them to paradise and stuff.
You know what I'm saying?
But the other thing, real quick, was, I don't have CNN, so I don't know if they've been showing it a lot, but it's been really irritating to me, the people who have been celebrating our misfortune in this country.
Again, I thought everybody's got the experts out tonight, so rather than have a line, a great parade of experts on the air, I would just sit here and take calls from all of you.
But what I wanted to ask you, I listen to you all the time.
What I wanted to ask you is about the rest of the world, how you think that they feel about the retaliation that America will take.
If I would picture myself in England or somewhere else, or not so much England, but other countries, and I would be shaking in my boots right now because of what could happen.
I haven't I had a, my child was killed a couple of years ago.
I had one child, and so I don't react as hard as most people do.
I mean, most people are taking, you know, my sister called me late, and she very seldom calls, and she's really upset.
And she, you know, and I just told her that I don't feel there will be any more coming.
Like, you had that earlier caller.
I believe the same way he does.
I don't think there's going to be more at this present time.
But I think that, like, you know, like I was just saying before, that there will be a very violent retaliation to what's happened.
And again, to make my point, is I feel that if I were in other countries, you know, close to Afghanistan or close to where this could happen, I would just be concerned that something may start going up.
You know, it would just go up.
I'd be worried about it.
Because America, I mean, they are extremely angered.
But, you know, I just am trying to imagine a scenario in my head that would have the United States retaliating in some massive way against foreign capitals and cities.
My uncle is a flight attendant, and he luckily wasn't aboard on flight 11.
I believe that's the one going from Boston to L.A. But he was supposed to be on that flight, that very flight, and he missed it because he had just come back from a vacation, and he had actually called yesterday before they had left L.A. Now, that was, let's see, American Airlines.
I would like to understand what twisted reason the people who did this had for doing it.
And we're not getting that.
We're not getting a claim of...
No, there is none.
Normally, you would think an act of this magnitude would carry with it some sort of claim and then an attempt to affect a nation's policy.
But if they think that even hitting us in these strategic locations is going to do anything other than anger Americans ultimately, they're crazy.
unidentified
And, you know, I've really been pretty numb today.
I mean, my dad actually passed away about a year ago, and just everything from Zen, I've been reading about Robert Monroe and things like that, and Albert, I can remember.
And I have a strong belief in the afterlife and that we do go on so that I know that they're doing people who unfortunately had died this morning.
I know they're doing well now, but I know their families.
I pray for all the families and suffering.
But I'm just kind of in shock, too, because of knowing my uncle almost was on that flight.
And so if there was a group, I can understand that we might work ourselves up to some sort of tactical strike and wipe these rats out where they are, but it won't be.
how could it be much bigger than that unless we discover that there really was state sponsored terrorism and then you go in and you wipe out the infrastructure and military capability of that country you period but uh...
until you discover that you can't do that This is true.
unidentified
This is true.
And like you said earlier in your show, when Pearl Harbor was attacked, it was a military installation that was attacked.
Yeah, so I heard some comments, for example, about the air traffic controllers not getting that hijack code.
Right.
Well, what that would just by that and also from the film footage that I saw of the plane flying into the building, it seems as the I guess Mr. Hogan or Jones, Howard Jones, or the expert there, the detective guy, that the people that took over the plane knew what they were doing as far as flying the airplane and all that kind of stuff.
That code is readily available to anybody that just goes into a pilot shop and picks up a book that tells you about getting your private pilot license.
If you were in the cockpit and you heard a ruckus going on in the rear or somebody trying to get into the cockpit, how long would it take you to initiate that code?
Well, yes, but with the ruckus going on, they could presume that that was what was happening, couldn't they?
unidentified
Yes, but right now, with all the air rage going on, we would just be thinking it's air rage.
And we wouldn't be going to that extreme sense of level of emergency right away.
But now that this has happened, air crew are probably going to be a lot more serious as far as letting guests come up to the cockpit, which happens routinely.
As far as violence occurring on board, normally what would happen, you would declare an emergency if you did know something like that was going on, if you had time.
If it was just a ruckus and you have a hijack situation develop from that, we're trained to comply as much as possible with the demands, you know, expecting to make a safe landing somewhere.
I don't think there's been a hijacking where they've caused the airplane to fly into the ground like that.
So I don't think anyone on board was expecting this kind of, I guess, a suicide attempt with an aircraft.
What I foresee happened there, first of all, the guys that carried this out, they started the hijack right after takeoff, knowing the plane is full of fuel.
So that was a strategic advantage for them.
And they had the pilots probably fly the plane to New York.
They probably demanded take us to New York.
And then when they were on approach to JFK, they probably incapacitated the pilots somehow, either physically or else maybe they had some kind of ether gas or something that they could spray at them.
Wouldn't it require that one of the hijackers be proficient in flying an aircraft of that magnitude?
unidentified
Yes.
They couldn't have flown that on.
Well, they could have flown it on an auto.
Sorry, there's a truck going by.
They couldn't have done that on, well, they could have done it on autopilot, but it's a pretty busy airplane.
They could have done it by hand, but for them to be able to aim it right at the building and from what I saw of the trajectory just before impact, they seem to have excellent control of that plane.
I would suspect they've had training either on that kind of plane or else a simulator.
And there's really nothing you can do about that.
Even if you have someone go through a security check prior to giving them any training on an aircraft, that could still be circumvented.
So as far as them learning how to fly the plane, there's not really too much that can be done.
The only thing that I think the FAA and the rest of the aeronautical agencies could Do is do what the Israelis do with LL.
They have security guards on board and they have reinforced cockpits, and if anything does happen, it becomes basically a little mini, I guess, a mini battle zone on board in order to prevent a takeover of the aircraft.
And it would be a shame if you had to have that kind of security happen on all aircraft, but that's what it may come to.
You may have to have a third person up there in the cockpit just in case things get rough, and you may have to have possibly shots fired or whatever.
Maybe something like that occurred on board the aircraft that crashed in Pennsylvania.
unidentified
Yeah, well, from what I heard about that phone call where someone phoned from the lavatory that they decided to take over, you know, hand-to-hand combat, you could probably overwhelm them, but you could have all kinds of scenarios where the terrorists could plan ahead for that, such as booking half the plane.
If they have that many suicidal terrorists, they could put 50, 60 of these people on board.
And if it becomes an all-out battle on board, you know, the main thing is to secure the cockpit.
But even then, when something like that happens, you would expect one pilot to keep an eye on the plane and the other one to get out of their seat and grab something handy nearby and try to get it.
Well, I guess the answer is when people are prepared to give their life to accomplish their goal, in terrorism, it's very difficult, if not impossible, to stop them.
unidentified
That's true.
And I think that maybe the Israelis are going to have to be consulted and will have to adopt their procedures and possibly have armed air marshals on board.
I'm surprised there weren't air marshals on that flight, on any of those flights.
Well, since you fly something of that size, do you, as a regular course, have air marshals on board or not?
unidentified
No, security screening should be good enough, but first-class passengers do get metal cutlery.
So, I mean, but even so, if someone came up with, I guess, with a knife from their dinner, we would be able to fight them off.
But as we heard from that person that phoned from the laboratory, they had the plate attendants in the back and they were threatening to kill them unless the air crew came out.
Now you get into a whole different situation.
It becomes sort of like a military battlefield where you have to decide, well, are we going to give up the plane or are we going to get away from the menu?
But at the point that kind of negotiation is going on, where, for example, they're threatening to kill stews in the back of the plane, you would think at that point the pilot would get off the transponder change that would indicate a hijacking was underway or a radio transmission or something.
unidentified
Yeah, if anything does happen where it becomes required for assistance from outside or to let them know it's a dire emergency, that code can be switched very quickly.
In the heat of the moment, that might have been forgotten.
Now that the Pennsylvania crash, I'm sure all help broke loose and they probably were, you know, they had their hands full and switching a code, that's not as important as controlling the aircraft controlling a screen.
Well, as far as I'm concerned, I'm not really too worried at this point.
I'm sure that there's going to be a lot more screening, and I'm sure we're going to have rules now about cockpit doors being closed, no guests coming to visit, that kind of thing.
If you want to have the absolute safest situation, it should be a sealed cockpit.
And they may have to come out with airworthiness directives from the government saying that you have to install better locking systems.