NewsMax.com
Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001

7:48 a.m. EDT - It appears from interviews with rescue workers that the first few floors of the Trade Centers may be partly intact, and that there may be some survivors in air pockets.

Already, three firefighters have been pulled from the rubble, and there could be more survivors.

Palestinians Cheer Attacks Condemned by Arafat, Israel

8:36 p.m. EDT - President Bush denounced today's "acts of mass murder" but said, "A great people has been moved to protect a great nation." See Text of Bush's Speech

Death Toll 'Horrendous'

Timeline of the Attacks

Barbara Olson: 'Witty, Wonderful'

Alarmed Putin Calls for Retaliation

8:11 p.m. EDT - The New York City Fire Department said 200 firefighters were missing.

7:48 p.m. - The New York City Police Department announced that 78 of its officers were missing.

7:18 p.m. - Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a televised address that the U.S. would do whatever necessary to bring the terrorists to justice.

6:57 p.m. EDT - President Bush has arrived by helicopter at the White House. He is to address the nation tonight.

6:51 p.m. - The U.S. had nothing to do with tonight's explosions in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said at a televised news conference.

Events Canceled Nationwide

6:41 p.m. - Air Force One, carrying President Bush, has landed at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., and he will address the nation tonight, TV networks reported.

6:34 p.m. EDT - CNN reported that the explosions in Afghanistan were due to civil war, not U.S. military strikes.

The explosions began around 2:30 a.m. local time near the airport and came in rapid succession, seconds apart, making buildings shudder, the Associated Press reported.

6:10 p.m. - CNN has reported explosions in Kabul, Afghanistan, and shown footage of a nighttime fire there. The attack could be U.S. retaliation for today's terrorism attacks but also could be fighting from Afghanistan's civil war or some other cause, CNN said.

Terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden has long found refuge in the fundamentalist Islamic regime of Afghanistan.

For Once, No 'Credible Claim' of Blame

Col. Lunev Warms of More Attacks, Possible Use of Weapons of Mass Destruction

'Act of War' Outrages Congress

Attacks Devastate U.S. Finance

5:23 p.m. - Reports to NewsMax from New York City indicate that TV stations are advising people experiencing flu-like symptoms to report to hospitals because of the possible threat of bioterror attacks.

World Leaders Rally to Support U.S.

4:48 p.m. EDT - Law enforcement officials told the Associated Press that one of the passengers on the American Airlines jet that struck the Pentagon was Barbara Olson, the wife of Solicitor General Theodore Olson and the author of "The Final Days: A Behind the Scenes Look at the Last, Desperate Abuses of Power by the Clinton White House."

Pentagon officials rejected rumors that the military had shot down the jet that crashed in Pennsylvania, CBS News reported.

4:34 p.m. EDT - Architects who designed the World Trade Center expressed shock that the 110-story towers collapsed after being struck by a hijacked passenger jetliner.

The World Trade Center was completed in 1976 at a cost of $350 million, and one of the towers had survived a 1993 attack by terrorists in an explosives-filled van that killed six people and injured more than 1,000 others, United Press International reported.

Lee Robertson, the project's structural engineer, addressed the problem of terrorism on high-rises at a conference in Frankfurt, Germany, last week, Chicago engineer Joseph Burns told the Chicago Tribune. Burns said Robertson told the conference, "I designed it for a [Boeing] 707 to hit it."

4:17 p.m. EDT - Roads into Washington have been closed, and only medical workers are allowed in, TV networks reported. The Pentagon injury toll was put at 58.

Government officials gave early details of two of the hijackings. A flight attendant called authorities from the airborne American Airlines Flight 11 reporting that two attendants had been stabbed and that intruders had broken into the cockpit, ABC News reported. This plane struck the World Trade Center. On the United flight that crashed outside Pittsburgh, a passenger called authorities from the plane with his cell phone saying the plane had been hijacked.

4:08 p.m. EDT - Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said: "For Israel it's a day of mourning. The only one that can save humanity from this terrible nature is the United States of America. ...

"It is like a declaration of war," he told CNN.

"It's a sophistication of the most evil kind ... the [retaliatory] measures must be as radical as the evil itself."

Israel is sending a plane with its crack rescue teams, Peres announced.

3:58 p.m. EDT - Abdel Aziz Ranteesi of the Islamic resistance movement Hamas said that Hamas was not behind the attacks and that he did not know who was.

"I don't believe that the Palestinians are responsible for the attacks in the United States," Ranteesi told United Press International. "The jihad of the Palestinians is against Israel and not against the American civilians."

A senior leader of Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine told UPI that his group did not carry out the attack on the World Trade Center in New York.

Saleh Zeidan, a member of the DFLP's Central Committee, said, "I totally deny our involvement in the attack. We did not do it, and we have no relation to it.

"The aim of that false phone call which claimed responsibility is aiming to harm the Palestinian cause," said Zeidan.

3:12 p.m. - Saudi terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden warned three weeks ago that he and his followers would carry out an unprecedented attack on U.S. interests for its support of Israel, an Arab journalist with access to him said.

Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper in London, said Islamic fundamentalists led by bin Laden were "almost certainly" behind the attack of the World Trade Center in New York.

"It is most likely the work of Islamic fundamentalists. Osama bin Laden warned three weeks ago that he would attack American interests in an unprecedented attack, a very big one," Atwan told Reuters news agency.

"Personally we received information that he planned very, very big attacks against American interests. We received several warnings like this. We did not take it so seriously, preferring to see what would happen before reporting it."

2:15 p.m. - The jet crash at the Pentagon could have been much worse because the section hit was undergoing renovation and not fully occupied; about 40 people were being treated at hospitals, Fox News reported.

Forty to 50 planes that had been in the air have landed safely, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Major League Baseball games and Sunday's Emmy Awards have been postponed.

1:40 p.m. EDT - Israel has evacuated all its embassies worldwide after the terrorist attacks on America, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Residents of eastern Jerusalem, the West Bank and southern Lebanon were rejoicing at the attacks on the U.S.

1:10 p.m. - "Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and freedom will be defended" President Bush said in a televised appearance from Barksdale Air Force Base, La.

"I want to reassure the American people that the full resources of the federal government are working to assist local authorities to save lives and to help the victims of these attacks. Make no mistake, the United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts."

He is touch with top officials in Washington, he said.

"We've taken all appropriate security precautions to protect the American people."

The military is on high alert, and "we've taken the necessary security precautions to continue the functions of your government."

The U.S. has notified world leaders it will "do whatever is necessary to protect America and protect Amnericans," Bush said.

1:02 p.m. - The death toll at the World Trade Center is estimated at 10,000.

12:57 p.m. EDT - The U.S. border with Canada has been closed, Fox News reported. Also, the hard-line Taliban regime of Afghanistan has condemned the attacks.

NASA reported that astronauts in the International Space Station can see the smoking rising from New York and Washington.

12:41 p.m. EDT - Air Force One has landed with President Bush in Shreveport, La., and a statement from him is expected soon, Fox News reported.

12:35 p.m. - The Pittsburgh plane crash was a failed attempt to attack Camp David, the presidential retreat, Fox News reported.

Officials in Boston have begun an "initial" investigation to determine if and how security was breached at Logan International Airport that reportedly allowed terrorists to board and hijack two passenger jets and crash them into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, United Press Internatinal reported.

Thousands of overjoyed Palestinians celebrated the deadly attacks on America, though their leader, Yasser Arafat, said he was horrified, the Associated Press reported from the West Bank.

An early report from London, quoting Abu Dhabi TV, said the communist terrorist group Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine took blame for the attacks, but Middle East Broadcasting later reported that the group denied involvement. The information has not been confirmed by any U.S. sources, Fox News reported.

12 noon - President Bush has placed the Atlantic Fleet on "Threatcon Delta," the highest possible alert, full war footing, Fox News Channel reported.

Bush is safe on Air Force One, TV networks said.

The death toll from the two plane crashes is 164, networks reported.

11:41 a.m. EDT - Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich appeared on Fox News Channel and described today's national emergency as an "act of war" and said he had no doubt the acts were orchestrated by states and state sponsors. He said the acts were on the par of "Pearl Harbor" or worse.

Observers have noted that the attacks occurred during the week the Camp David Accords on Mideast peace take place in 1978.

11:32 a.m. - Gen. Clark tells CNN that Osama bin Laden's terror organization is the only one that has claimed this kind of capability.

11:28 a.m. - United Airlines confirms loss of Flight 93 from Newark, N.J., to San Francisco.

11:22 a.m. - American Airlines confirms loss of two flights.

10:45 a.m. EDT - All federal buildings in D.C. have been evacuated.

10:43 - Hijacked plane crashed south of Pittsburgh. Officials investigating yet another hijacking, with the plane headed toward D.C.

10:30 - Second Tower (North) Collapses

10:30 - Another hijacked plane reported 20 minute south of Washington, D.C.

10:30 - U.S. congressional Leaders, top cabinet officials moving to secure facilities

10:20 - Report: Explosion at Capitol

10:15 - World Trade Center South Tower Collapses

10:13 - All U.S. buildings, Capitol Hill being evacuated.

9:40 - Plane Hits Pentagon
WASHINGTON - Federal officials said a U.S. Air plane has hit the Pentagon. The crash comes nearly an hour after two planes hit the World Trade Center building.

9:30 - Second Jet Crashes into World Trade Center

9:20 - FBI Says At Least One Plane Hijacked

8:50 a.m. EDT - Plan Hits World Trade Center
New York - What appear to be commercial jets, possibly 737-type planes, have plowed into the World Trade Center, at 9 AM, causing what one eyewitness described as a "huge boom," after which debris started to rain down on the financial district below.

Smoke is now pouring out of the 110-story towers, and several floors appear to be completely devastated.

The FBI is investigating a hijacking at American Airlines of a plane on route from Boston to Los Angeles. It is not known whether passengers were aboard.

The State department had issued, on Friday, a worldwide alert regarding Osama bin Laden and possible terrorist attacks. All parties were supposed to be on a 'heightened state of alert'.

The Lincoln Tunnel has been closed, and other New York airports have been closed. Armed Jets are patrolling Manhattan, ready to shoot down other threats.

President Bush has just made a statement, saying that we will "use the full resources of the Fedral Government to hunt down" the people who have perpetrated this act, and that: "Terrorism against our nation will not stand."

More details to come ...

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
War on Terrorism