THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS
FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH
TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE
UPDATED. We also have a report now that it was a plane that
crashed into the Pentagon, and we have a large fire at the
Pentagon. The Pentagon is being evacuated as we speak now. The
White House had been evacuated as well.
AARON BROWN,
CNN ANCHOR: CNN's John King joins us on the phone. John?
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESP.: Aaron, I'm
standing in Lafayette Park, directly across the White House,
perhaps about 200 yards away from the White House residence
itself. The Secret Service has pushed most people all the way
back to the other side of the park. I'm trying to avoid having
that done to me at the moment.
Just moments ago they
started slowing evacuating the White House about 30 minutes
ago. Then, in the last five minute people have come running
out of the White House and the old executive office building,
which is the office building right directly across from the
White House.
About 10 minutes ago, there was a white
jet circling overhead. Now, you generally don't see planes in
the area over the White House. That is restricted air space.
No reason to believe that this jet was there for any nefarious
purposes, but the Secret Service was very concerned, pointing
up at the jet in the sky.
It is out of sight now, best
we can tell. They've evacuated the entire White House staff
and the old executive office, as well as some townhouses that
are government offices. Many of our viewers might know Blair
House, where other international leaders say when they are in
Washington. That block of townhouses has been evacuated as
well. They are pushing us now back towards 8th Street, which
is the next main street to the north from Pennsylvania Avenue,
across from the White House.
BROWN: John, hang on one
second. We are getting reports that the Capitol, the Treasury
building also being evacuated.
John, is this
evacuation from the White House, was it orderly? Did it seem
panicky? How would you characterize it?
KING: It
started off as orderly, much like we get when there are
ocassional bomb scares near the White House. But then, again
in the last 10 minutes or so, the people who came out -- the
last several hundred I saw leaving the grounds, were told and
ordered by the Secret Service to run. They were running
through the gates. These were of course professionals in
business suits.
I'm also told that prior to that, and
we don't know the current situation that the vice president
and other administration officials on the scene very meeting
in the White House situation room, which is in the basement of
the White House. Whether they have stayed on the complex or
not is unknown to us at this moment.
I spoke to an
administration official shortly after the president delivered
his statement. He said obviously the operating assumption here
is terrorism. The initial assumption, this official said, was
that this had something to do, or at least they were looking
into any possible connection with Osama Bin Laden. The
administration recently released a warning that they thought
Osama Bin Laden might strike out against U.S. targets.
BROWN: Just to add at bit, John, to what you've been
saying. We're getting a report from the Associated Press now
that the White House was evacuated after the Secret Service
received what the AP is describing as a credible threat of a
terrorist attack against the White House itself. I expect
you'll be checking that out. We'll try and confirm that. But
that is what AP is reporting right now.
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