Transcripts For CNN CNN Newsroom 20100218

we sawed i-report and someone who was driving in to work. popped the camera on the cell phone, right? >> yeah. >> and took some amazing pictures all of of the smoke billowing, just pouring out of the building. and this shot here you just saw a moment ago, i guess it's pretty well framed up now of what looks like the wreckage of the aircraft that was deli deliberately -- can you believe it -- crashed into that building? i know you have new information, i'm turning it over to you, my friend. thank you, tony. we'll start by telling you what we knew. we're bringing you live pictures from austin, texas. a small plane, a cirrus sr-22, a single-engine aircraft has crashed into a seven-story building. two have been taken to a hospital. one is unaccounted for. moments ago we heard from a federal source who told us the pilot apparently crashed into the building intentionally. we're also hearing that the pilot had burned down his house, his austin house, earlier, and may have stolen the plane. we're still getting a good deal of conflicting information on that. take a look. the office building is next to austin's fbi headquarters. it's located in a complex on the 9400 block of research boulevard in the northwest part of austin, for those of you who are people with it. research boulevard and mopac expressway. the building is near a busy highway. the mopac expressway. plenty of witnesses saw this happen. we're getting stunning images from our i-reporters. we, of course, are going through them all and will continue to bring them to you. but look at the amount of smoke continuing to billow out of that building after the plane flew into it. firefighters say there is a great deal of damage. i'm going to -- i'm going to talk to a retired commercial pilot on the phone with me, jim tillman is in scottsdale, arizona, he is a retired pilot, flown commercially. jim, i want to ask you about -- if you can fly a commercial plane, you have to fly a single-engine plane. the cirrus sr-22 very stable, doesn't fly into buildings. >> that's correct. it seems for whatever reason the pilot wanted to hit that building. i say that building, why that one? the fact is it's as if it was a target. he flew into it and that's what he wanted to do and that's what he did. >> we're seeing -- i don't know if you're seeing the same pictures we're seeing. but a great deal of smoke coming out of this building. does it strike you -- that's the fuel from the plane that has created those -- those flames and that fire. >> actually, there are a couple of things that really puzzle me. one, why in the world would he do it, obviously. another thing is why all of that damage? that's a great deal of damage from -- from the small amount of fuel that would be on board an airplane like that. >> uh-huh. >> i've seen a number of crashes, small aircraft hitting structures on the ground, i don't remember ever seeing that much damage. >> we saw one just yesterday in east palo alto, california, and they all look very typical, the unusual thing is the amount of smoke and damage coming out of this building. let's bring in jeanne meserve, our national security expert. she's in d.c. right now. jeanne, you've been in contact with homeland security officials. a great deal of developments. bring us up to speed for anybody who has not heard so far, walk us through this. >> i think everybody is trying to come up to speed on this story. there's a lot of information out there, some of it not completely verified, single source. this is what we heard from one federal source, that this individual had indeed set a house on fire before he took off on this airplane. the department of homeland security has modified its initial remarks in light of the new information that's been coming in. they now say at this time we have no reason to believe there is a nexus to terrorist activity. but they don't talk about criminal activity, which they did in a previous statement. they say, we continue to gather more information and are aware there is additional information about the pilot's history. that's the information we're all trying to get our arm's around right now. i should say that we spoke earlier with an fbi official who said there was absolutely no indication that they were a target, although they have offices nearby. >> next door. this is what has caused a lot of people -- >> that's right. >> jeanne, stay with me. >> sure. >> and, jim, stay with me. i want to bring you up to speed on a couple of things we don't know and are trying to find out. we have all kinds of information on what kind of aircraft it was, we had someone tweet me and said it was a cessna and now we have information it was a peopler cherokee. but we have information that it is a cirrus sr-22. we do believe it was a single-engine aircraft. jim tillman, who is on with me and is a retired commercial pilot is a little surprised by the amount of damage and moak and fire that a single aircraft -- a single-engine aircraft might cause, given that the fuel is in the wings and the wings are not very big. the crash happened at 10:00 central time, 11:00 eastern, and we do know that a man who federal authorities have told us was the pilot of the plane also set his house on fire before taking off. it took off from the georgetown airport, which is in austin, texas. now, let me just ask you, jeanne, we also understand from northcom that they did, as soon as they heard about this, scramble jets out of houston. tell me what you know about that. >> they did. mike mount, who is our producer at the pentagon, said they launched two f-16s out of ellington field in houston out of this crash. that was precautionary. that was a precaution because they did not know what it entailed, what it was about. whether or not it might be terrorist related, but as we say, dhs at this point saying no indication that that's the case, al? >> we also understand a flight plan was not filed. jim tillman, everybody does not have to file a flight plan when they take off in a planle. >> absolutely. if they are going from one place to another, if they don't have to have flight filing, they generally don't file. >> tell me something else, jim, for people who don't know who have never flown a plane, explain to me how in a commercial plane like that, it generally goes where you tell it to go. it doesn't sort of do its own thing unless you lose control of the plane. >> no. and this -- from everything we've heard from the eyewitnesss, the airplane was flying in what's considered to be controlled flight. he was able to turn the airplane, everything else. why was he that low? why was he flying at that altitude if he didn't have something in mind which was not very good? >> he was about 15 miles out from the airport, so there's no reason to below that close to a seven-story building. >> absolutely not. and from some eyewitnesss, claimed that he overflew a retaining wall and this and that and then almost dived into the side of that building. you know, it's -- it's -- i don't know whether the guy had some terrorist ties or not, i'm not -- that's above my pay grade, but i can tell you, it certainly was a suicidal move, for whatever reason. >> jim tillman, thanks your expertise in bringing us up to speed on what's going on. you're looking at live pictures at a building in the 9400 block of research boulevard. our entire team is following this and other developments. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the cadillac cts sport sedan. one of car & driver's 10 best for the third year in a row. ♪ and now, cadillac announces the new luxury collection lease. sir? finding everything okay? i work for a different insurance company. my auto policy's just getting a little too expensive. with progressive, you get the "name your price" option, so we build a policy to fit your budget. wow! the price gun. ♪ ah! wish we had this. we'd just tell people what to pay. yeah, we're the only ones that do. i love your insurance! bill? tom? hey! it's an office party! the freedom to name your price. only from progressive. call or click today. okay. let's continue to bring you up to speed on the story that we're following, a plane has crashed into a building in austin, texas. a very low building. a seven-story building which continues to burn. firefighters say a great deal of damage. the plane we believe to be a single -- we know to be a single-engine plane, not quite certain yet what model of plane it is. the latest reports we had it was a cirrus sr-22 which took off from georgetown airport in austin, texas. authorities are telling us that the pilot of the plane also burned down his house. in austin, texas, before taking off this morning. really, a lot of flames. this was earlier. but a lot of flames as a result of this crash. the plane was flying very low apparently, and went right into this building, which, by the way, is next to the fbi offices in austin, which had a number of people concerned about whether or not it was a terrorism -- an act of terrorism. jeanne meserve was just on with us saying that the department of homeland security does not believe there was a next nexus to terrorism, and earlier they said they didn't believe it was criminal activity, but now they believe it might be. they know more about the history of the pilot and they are following it. and josh levs is also following this, in addition to the developments you're following on this story, there's another story involving a plane and a threat of terrorism that you are on. tell us about that. >> that's right. this is what we understand right now. i'll talk to you about this. this one involves utah. and i'll tell you the latest. united airlines flight that was originated in denver. it was diverted to salt lake city international airport, salt lake international airport in utah. this is after a threatening letter was found on board. we're told it was a flight attendant who found the threatening letter, so what is happening now after they diverted the plane, we were told it was originally en route to san francisco, it's flight 741. the plane is a -- is boeing 757. so, they've landed there. at salt lake international, and now they're holding on to absolutely everyone who was inside the plane. i think we have a little sound here. a sound bite, from a woman at the airport, who is explaining what is happening. oh, we do not? i'll talk you through it. it's an airport spokeswoman we got some sound from earlier, what is happening now they are not allowed to let anyone leave obviously. there are investigators on the scene, including federal investigators trying to find out where the note came from, how it same to be about. our local affiliate, ksl, said there were 193 passengers on board that flight, and, again, if you're someone who's concerned, if you're traveling today, you want to check on how someone is in that plane, it's united airlines flight 741. it's a boeing 757, it was taken off from denver, and it was en route to san francisco, and it has been diverted to salt lake city. and satisfy ge and, again, ali, it is because a threatening note was on board. and the way ksl said, it was a note on board, but as we know, everyone on board is fine. >> josh, we'll stay on top of it. as of right now, we believed two matters are unrelated as far as we know. i want to tell you what the faa has told us about the pilot of the other plane that went into the building in -- in austin. the statement from the department of homeland security says -- i'm sorry, this is from the department of homeland security. it says, "we continue to gather more information, are aware that there is additional information about the pilot's history. at this time we are referring further questions to local authorities and the faa." the further information that they are referring to is the fact that they believe the person flying the plane also owned a home that he set fire to this morning before taking off in this plane, which has flown into a building in northwestern -- in northwest austin, texas. let's go to john king, not cnn's john king, but a john king in south -- in san diego, who is flight instructor. john, are you with us on the phone? >> i am, ali. >> john, tell me what you know, as a flight instructor. again, we do not have confirmation on what type of plane this is. there are conflicting reports as to whether it was a cirrus sr-22 or a piper pa-28. we will continue to check in to this, but it does -- we are getting a lot of reports that it was a single-engine plane that went into this building. tell us what we need to know about this type of plane. >> well, if you're flying an airplane, it's going to be at a lethal speed, if you do decide, and we'll assume that this is a suicide attempt, there's a certain way to do it, but it's a very unfortunate way, because it puts other people at risk. i wish he had chosen some other method of doing this. but it's a certain way to commit suicide in almost any airplane. so, it really doesn't matter too much. the thing about these airplanes is they have very small inertia and very little energy involved, so they're really not likely to cause much damage. >> right. and this is -- okay, so very little energy involved. the energy is the speed and the fact that there is fuel in the wing. he was just at an airport. he had just taken off, we understand, from georgetown airport in austin, which means he would have been full of fuel. how much fuel might we be talking about in a single-engine aircraft? >> somewhere between 50 and 90 gallons in that airplane. weighs about the same amount as an suv. >> okay. you've seen the pictures we're showing on tv about the burn coming out of that building? >> i have, yes. >> does that seem consistent with 50 to 90 gallons of fuel and setting on fire things on fire inside the building? >> and maybe some things got set on fire in the building. it doesn't seem to be it was a huge conflagration. i wish he had chosen another way of doing this. >> i think the building is 100 feet off the ground or something like that. there would be no reason at all for a single-engine flight to be anywhere near that height. >> no, we'll say it's a seven-story building, that's 70 feet of altitude. no one is flying at 70 feet. this is clearly an unusual situation. >> where do small planes level off? once they take off from airports, where do they ascend to before they start, you know, flying level? >> in an area like this, you have to be at least 1,000 above of anything in the nearby radius of just to be safe above the ground. so, a minimum of 1,000 feet. honestly, he should be 3,000 to 4,000 feet. >> there were people -- there are a lot of reports coming in. we don't know what we don't know. but there were people who sounded like it was coming in from full throttle. would anybody outside know that from a small plane? would you know the difference? >> i certainly wouldn't be able as a flight instructor on the ground to be able to know if the plane was coming in at full throttle. you could make a judgment as the speed it was moving. >> but generally speaking in a plane like that if you haven't lost control of flight, meaning you haven't lost lift or it's not in a spin or a spiral dive, it's not common that it would be out of your control yet flying directly into a building? >> no. the -- you might be making a maneuver and lose lift on the wings because you stalled the wings, but that's not what was happening here. this airplane came in at high speed. it was deliberate. >> let's look at a couple possibilities. let's say you lose lift on a plane, a trained pilot would know that if you lose lift on a plane, you actually have to point your nose downward to regain that lift. is that a possibility? >> that's correct. but let's assume that you weren't flying low to begin with, you would have plenty of room, that's the reason for the 1,000 foot of minimum altitude is give you plenty of room to recover. >> he'd have 900 feet to fix the problem. >> absolutely. there's no reason why a person would be at that altitude unless they are doing some kind of deliberate misbehavior. >> let's do problem number two. he lost power. >> you put it in a good glide speed which is much slower than your cruise speed and look for a place to land and it gives you time to land. so are you would be going much slower if you lost power. >> i don't know the area, what it would be like a pilot in austin, but if he's 15 miles from an airport, he could swing around and find a place less occupied than the office park. >> even if you lost power, you are still under control of the airplane. no reason to hit a seven-story building. >> option number three. something happened to him. was not conscious. >> that is a possibility. it's pretty unlikely. i don't know how old this person was. but that's a rare likelihood, but possible, that he lost consciousness and lost control of the airplane that way and flew into something. >> the only reason we're exploring these possibilities because we don't have more detail now. there is obviously detail that comes in that says the person that federal authorities believe flew this plane into the bulling was also somebody who burned their house in -- in austin, before getting on this plane, so, clearly, that comply things a little bit. we're getting this information through jeanne meserve in large part and her colleagues in d.c. jeanne is back with us on the plane. so, jeanne, department of homeland security officials are saying that they -- they -- they think now there might be criminal activity here? okay. we do not have jeanne just now. let's go back -- we're taking a look now. these are live pictures. this is affiliate coverage coming in from kvue in austin about this plane crash in -- in northwest austin. let's listen in to what they are reporting. >> the degree. >> this is apparently wreckage from the plane. >> in the road. >> we're being told. some people describe the hole in the building to be a 30 feet by 40 feet deep. we don't know exactly how far that piece of metal is outside that building. >> we do have a clarification from a news photographer on the scene who says it's not the entire building that in danger of collapsing, but one particular floor. nevertheless, a floor collapses, that's going to send more debris spewing from the building, so as a precaution, that area is being cleared. folks who are just kind of watching and waiting are being asked to move back. not the entire building is in danger of collapsing, but a particular floor. >> we just don't know how stable the whole interior is. in any case, let's take a -- a producer was trying to tell me something. where are we going now? tyler in the newsroom, tyler, in the newsroom, what do you have for us? hi? >> melissa, we are continuing to follow the trail here of andrew joseph -- all right, let's go to jeanne meserve, she is in washington, d.c. jeanne, what have we got about who this pilot might be and what might have been behind this -- this activity? >> well, still a lot of questions outstanding, ali, we do have a name, joseph andrew stack, this from a federal law enforcement official. according to this official they do believe it was his house that was set on fire this morning before this plane took off. as to the plane, there was a little confusion at first, this official concedes. initially they thought it might have been stolen. now they believe this plane belonged to him. he is known to own a piper cherokee pa-28, so we think that the aircraft involved here. let me see. he said at this point they don't have any history on this individual. and this law enforcement official, at least, was not aware of this individual having any grudge against anybody who might have had an office in that building. we should also say that the ntsb, the national transportation safety board is dista dispatching a team, the lead investigators is coming out of the regional office in dallas, texas. back to you, ali. >> and, again, there was a bit of a change in what dhs had said earlier. no nexus to terrorist or criminal activity, but they are still holding firm that there is no terrorist aspect. >> that is correct. there is no nexus to terrorist, but there is criminal nexus because of what we're learning about this individual. >> joseph andrew stack is the name we're given. someone known to own a piper cherokee pa-28 which is a single-engine plane that took off from -- from georgetown airport in austin, texas, this morning. this crash happened at about 11:00 a.m. eastern, 10:00 a.m. central. went into a seven-story building that is next door to the fbi in -- in austin, which led to some speculation that it may have been terrorist involved. but, in fact, now they are saying that's not the case. we're going to go to the phone right now. i don't know the name of the person who is standing by. mike ernest is on the phone. well, i hear a dial tone, so i'm not sure he's there. mike ernest is somebody who saw, he's an i-reporter who saw this happen. we're going to try to get mike back on to the phone in just a second. mike, are you there? >> i'm here. >> tell us what you saw. >> i was outside and waiting for my car, identify was g was gett changed at the lexus directly across from the building, i noised a plane flying unusually low. i didn't notice the landing gear, the landing gear didn't seem to be down, so i wondered what was going on, and i watched the plane what looked like in between the first and second floors of the building. >> all right. we -- we -- tell me again what we're doing right now. hang on a second. okay. mike, tell me now, you said this plane did not seem to have its landing gear down. do you normally notice that sort of thing on a plane? >> just because i saw it so low, that's one of the first -- that's what i looked for, just because i noticed it was so low, and it didn't -- it did not seem to have the landing gear did not seem to be down, so i didn't know if it wasn't working, and so they were maybe going to try to do an emergency landing somewhere, but i mean, it's -- yeah, i didn't notice that the landing gear was down. >> all right, we're looking at a picture that you sent us. this is from what you saw across the road. you say it went in between a low floor. it's a seven-story building, you say it went in pretty low. >> it seemed like the second story, between the top of the first and maybe between the second. somewhere in there. >> did you have any sense whether the thing was coming in full speed or slower than normal? >> it seemed pretty normal. i mean, the speed seemed pretty normal. it really didn't seem anything was wrong with the enjinl or the propeller. no, everything seemed fine except for how low it was flying. >> you didn't see any defensive maneuvers, a pilot trying to struggle to avoid the building? >> no turns left or right or nothing suspicious he was trying to maneuver to get out of anything. it looked pretty normal. >> how long did you look at it for before it went into the building? >> 15 or 20 seconds. i kept following and it went into this building. >> did you notice the building wax was in the flight path? what went through your head? >> i didn't think much of it until it got pretty close to the building, because i didn't -- i knew that there wasn't an airport nearby, so i just -- it was really suspicious and then i mean, when it got really close to the highway next to the building, i thought it looked pretty imminent that it was going to hit the building. >> what happened when it hit the building? did you hear a noils? d did the fire start immediately? >> black smoke, and people let out screams around me. a few people were crying. it was a pretty crazy scene. >> mike ernest, i-reporter, thank you for the picture. he sent us a picture on the right side of the screen. we're taking a quick break. we're staying on top of the story. developments in the story suggest that the pilot of the plane owned the plane and also set his house on fire before taking off and flying into that building. this country definitely needs to focus on other ways to get energy. we should be looking closer to home. we have oil on our shores. natural gas can be a part of the solution. i think we need to work on wind resources. they ought to be carefully mapping every conceivable alternative. there is an endless opportunity right here. alka-seltzer plus liquid gels rush relief everywhere you need it. it's the most complete relief you can get in a liquid gel, so you feel better, fast. alka-seltzer plus liquid gels.  our coverage continues here, breaking news of a small plane that has apparently deliberately been flown into a building in austin, texas. the building continues to burn. the small plane now identified by authorities as a piper pa-28, a single-engine plane, took off from an airport northwest of austin, texas, georgetown airport, this morning. this incident occurred at about 11:00 a.m. central time, 10:00 in -- in austin. let's go to greg fife, a former senior ntsb investigators, national transportation safety board, he's on the phone. greg, from what you've heard so far, what do you make of this? >> of course, the information that's coming out right now is always preliminary, but it does sound like it was an intentional act on the part of the pilot. it sounds like he may have been distraught over something to burn his house down and take his airplane and use it like a weapon like anybody would use a gun to walk into a building, he's used his airplane, you know, for malicious purposes, unfortunately. >> you investigated air crashes before? >> i have investigated aircraft accidents for the ntsb for over 20 years, and continue to do it in my afterlife. >> so, let me tell you, when you are -- when one is investigating this, how does one determine, in the absence of all other evidence -- and we're not absent other evidence, by the way, as you just mentioned, authorities say this man burned his house down before taking his plane and sending it into the building. but if you didn't have other evidence, would you know how to determine that that plane went into that building was flown in deliberately? >> well, any -- anytime you do any kind of investigation, whether it's a criminal investigation, whether a murder or an aircraft accident, you have to look at a variety of different pieces of evidence. of course, you got the physical wreckage itself. but you have to look at a lot of the circumstancecial evidence, and that is, why would this guy burn his house down? you have to look into his background. apparently some of the early information is indicative that he may have had some sort of mental problems or health problems, so they'll have to ferret those kinds of things out. they'll talk to people that knew him to see if he had made any kind of statements in the past to do some harm, either to himself and/or other people, so there's a lot of investigative evidence that needs to be collected to put the picture together. short of having a suicide note saying "on this day i'm going to do this," you can come up with a reasonable probable cause of the eve event based on the best available information. >> and the speed and the trajectory of the plane based on witnesses or whoever might have caught it on camera and the damage to the building, does that tell you about anything what the pilot's intent may have been? what i'm asking you is would you be able to know that somebody was trying to put that plane into the building versus somebody lost control of the plane versus somebody that was unconscious at the stick? >> yes, that's a very good question. and not necessarily. unless there's enough of the victim left or an autopsy, pathological-type work, to make some sort of determination whether this pilot may have experienced some level of physical incapacitation, such as a heart attack. something that two leave some physical evidence behind, in the heart tissue. if he had a stroke, you may not know that. or if he became unconscious because of a drug overdose, unless there's enough of the victim left to do a toxicology, you may never know the absolute extent of some sort of physical incapacitation that could have just caused an inadvertent collision with this building. >> answer me this, greg. often after an investigation in to a plane crash, the ntsb comes out with certain recommendations, might be about rules, might be about regulations, might be about safety devices on airplanes, might be about procedure. if we find out -- this man burned his house down in austin, got on a plane and deliberate flew it into this building -- could any recommendation come out of that? >> not necessarily. i mean, you know, this is an event that likely was unforeseen by anybody. this person, you know, had maybe a premeditated notion that he was going to do this today. may not have told anybody about it. we've seen this in the past. about six years ago there was a young gentleman, 15 years old, who stole an airplane from aplay school and flew it into a building in tampa, florida. his characterization by other people was he was an outstanding kid. a little introverted. nobody ever suspected him to do something as bad as he did, and it may be another instance here. there is no recommendation. you can't ground general aviation, nor should you, because this is more of an isolated event than a systemic problem. >> all right. i should tell you, you can't ground general aviation, you're looking at live pictures from our affiliate, kvue, in austin, texas, the georgetown airport in austin has been shut down. no planes in or out right now. greg, would that be typical? because an investigation is under way. >> it could be shut down for a variety of different reasons. there may be some evidence on the airport. people on the airport that can provide information to the investigators, so they want to try and capture that without -- this person had a hangar that he kept his airplane in. they may be isolating that -- that hangar, and because the airport may be a small airport, it may impede the operations, so they just altogether shut it down so that they don't -- they don't have a lot of aircraft traffic while people are trying to do an investigation. >> and i suppose at this point, information, fresh information, is more useful than something than investigates are trying to get a month down the road to ask questions. you get everybody while they still might remember what happened today, what happened this morning, what -- what mood this guy was in when he walked into the airport, what he said to anyone. >> absolutely correct. >> greg, i'm going to stop you right there. we need to go to a press conference in austin. i'll tell you who this is as soon as i find out. let's listen in, though. >> let me know when we're in. >> you're in the shot. you're right in the shot there. >> hey, you're in the shot. >> you're in the shot. >> reddy, ready, folks? >> yes. >> i want to confirm to you that the incident is totally contained. the fire is not totally out, but it is contained, and there will be someone here to talk to you a little bit more on the details of the status of the structure and with regard to the fire. but i want to tell you, i'm very proud, of the way our police, fire, and ems have performed today. they've done an admirable job. there have only been two folks transported to the hospital. one person is unaccounted for. everybody else is accounted for. hour law enforcement officers here at the city are working, together with all levels of law enforcement, to make sure we have a coordinated effort to get all of the details of this situation. i want to assure the citizens of austin, texas, that they are safe. there's no danger. the situation is totally contained. and with that, i will turn it over to -- to our chief for more details. chief? fire department? >> division two is on scene with the austin fire department. i'll give you a few details on the -- on the actual fire and the conditions inside the structure. this was a fairly significant fire, as you can see from the building. the plane crashing into it set multiple floors on fire. we do have the fire contained. we do have a few spot fires out. we are working at this time on working on complete extinguishment with. we have searched the first three floors. we are in the process of continuing that search. as of now, as the mayor said, we have two injuries that were transported. ems will talk some more about that. we have one unaccounted for person, so we're making a thorough search of the building. there are areas of the builds, for obvious reasons because of the fire and the collision with the aircraft, that are unstable. we do have our engineers on scene looking at that to make sure that we keep our firefighters safe while they continue the operation here. and hopefully, within the next few hours, we'll have this fire completely extinguished, and let these folks with the law enforcement get on with their investigation. i'm going to turn it over now to james -- yeah? >> what do we know about the unaccounted person? >> all we got was somebody in the building, supposedly was at work, and they haven't been accounted for. we cannot confirm whether they were actually in the building. this is -- and we're working through a process. we have an accountability officer who is trying to touch as many people as possible to find out where that person may have been located, trying to find out if we can get a home phone number, cell phone number, they may not even be here. [ inaudible question ] i don't have that information, sir, i apologize. >> we are getting information the person may have been up on the third floor. >> again, i don't know the information, i know we have an unaccounted for person which is why we're doing an extremely thorough search in the areas that we can get into and trying to confirm it through a variety of sources, not only -- but also like i said, trying to find information on this person, seeing if maybe they called in sick today, they're out at the beach, at the shopping center, something else. as soon as we know some more on that, we will definitely update you folks. >> it was an employee in the building? >> that's the information we have, yes, sir. >> have all been accounted for? >> i don't have any information on the pilot one way or the other. >> do you know what was on those floors that the were hit? was it a conference room, office room? >> apd will talk about the lessees and who was in the building. they deal with the all the other technical pieces of this. >> i think that would be a good segue to chief -- >> would you spell your name? >> d-a-w-n, p-a-t-e-o. >> thank you for being here. i want to identify everybody up here. this is andrew markoff, austin fire chief, mr. kerr, and the rest of the police department, david carter, and the rest of the chiefs are out here. i want to start off by saying and making it real clear to anyone that's watching this, here in austin and central texas and texas and throughout the united states, i know the number one fear that's coming to everybody's mind is it was an act of terrorism and is the country, the city, the region, in danger. and i can tell you categorically that there is no cause for concern from a law enforcement or a terrorism perspective. this incident is contained. it's under control. we have an outstanding investigative team comprised of the austin police department, the joint terrorism task force here that we are members of with the fbi. obviously the faa, the ntsb, austin fire, and all other responders here. so, the one point that i need to put out is that this is an isolated incident here. there is no cause for alarm. and that people should continue their lives as they would any other day of the week. >> chief, how do you know it's an isolated incident? >> do you what, you have to take me at my word, don't you? that's all i'm going to tell you. the second thing that is really important, we're starting to get news reports that -- that this aircraft was stolen. there is a lot of speculation. i can tell you right now that your reports are inaccurate, and it is irresponsible journalism to put out information that is not confirmed from law enforcement. please do not put out speculation, because this aircraft, i can tell you right now, it was not a stolen aircraft. >> we've been seeing on blogs and all that a connection between a house fire in north austin and a man who put out a suicide note. >> yeah. >> regarding the irs -- >> in terms of the investigation, the investigation is fluid. it is ongoing. moving pieces. i'm not going to discuss any further details of the ongoing investigation. you know how we feel about trying to get information out. but the number one thing we do not want to jeopardize is the integrity of the investigation and we don't like to do anything to jeopardize it. i will say, again, based on what we do know, there is no cause for alarm. there is no cause to panic. and there's no reason why people shouldn't go out and enjoy their day and just conduct your business like you would any other day of the week, so with that -- >> chief -- >> if it's an isolated incident, why not share more information about the pilot and the plane? >> because you know it's ongoing. it just happened a couple hours ago. we don't release information ahead of time. >> chief, the ntsb is confirming to us that this situation was related to a house fire that happened earlier in the day. can you confirm that with ntsb? >> the ntsb is notified. i have not talked to the ntsb here, but we are not going to confirm or deny any other information. that's all the information we'll give at the point until we -- >> do you know -- >> what kind of offices? >> the unaccounted employee, was it an irs person? >> we do not know. we just know that there was an individual that was scheduled to be at work, but we have not been able to confirm if, in fact, they came to work or if, in fact, they are were in the building and we are in the processed of trying to locate them. >> was it an irs employee? >> i do not have the information. >> chief, did the plane belong to the pilot? >> i'm not going to confirm any other information. that's all the information we have. we will have another briefing in a few hours, and your pio folks will let you know. thank you very much. >> do you know if it originated out of georgetown, chief? >> one second. >> as far as the phone numbers from the fbi regarding witness information. >> they changed the phone numbers. the new numbers are 210-650-6196, 6197, 6198, and 6000. 210-650-6196 and change it to 789 and 6200. if anyone has any information if they wjs itnessed the plane crashing into the building or anything else. again, the electricity is back on in the area and the traffic signals can be working but the frontage areas are still closed. >> can you give us the numbers again? >> 210-650-6196, 6197, 98, and 99, and 6200 and we'll get back with more information. >> what are some the numbers we can call to get information? >> that information -- there will be another repeat later. hopefully we are in the process of -- we are in the process of setting that information up right now. [ inaudible question ] hopefully within the next two hours. >> can you tell us about the victims? about the people that were transported? >> my name is james holly, h-a-w-l-e-y, i'm a division chief with austin county ems. as you have been told, two patients have been transported to the hospital. both were initially -- >> we're going to continue to monitor that. we do have more information than the local authorities are getting because jeanne meserve has gotten it directly from the department of homeland security. we dou know from them, accordin to the department of homeland security, the person they believed to have been flying the plane owned the plane. jeanne, are you there? >> i am. >> you got more information than they are giving out today. >> let me clarify, it didn't come from the department of homeland security, but a federal law enforcement official who identified the person flying the plane as joseph andrew stack, and according to this official they believe they owned the blane that crashed into the building, a piper aircraft and he owned the house that was burning in the austin area and it appears he was the one that set it on fire. when we asked, was this suicide, this official said "it looks like it." let me also tell you, ali, that we've heard from the white house travel pool that president obama was briefed on this situation by his counterterrorism adviser john brennan, although let me emphasize, we've heard from multiple sources that they do not believe at this point in time that there's any terrorism relationship to the events that unfolded in austin today. back to you, ali. >> the police in austin said they believe it's an isolated incident. thanks for your great report. >> ali, let me say one more thing. we've been in touched with the irs because there's been question about who occupied this building, the internal revenue service had offices there, the spokesman for the irs said they had 190 employees in the building and they are still in the processed of accounting for them, back to you. >> thank you. that's a very important piece of information given what i'm just going to tell you. rick sanchez is sitting next to me. very important piece of information. if you've been watching this and you think you've heard everything, hold on a second. this is new, very important information here, rick sanchez has a suicide note that we understand was written by this pilot. >> what we were obviously doing, ali, trying to figure out who this gentleman was. the first question that comes to mind is, is there a possible motive that would lead someone to do something like this? so back there while you were prepping your show, our staff starting doing a little research. dave johnson, one of my writers, said, look what i just found. so, we've been looking at this thing for a while. and cnn has now confirmed, we can report this. what i have here is a six-page suicide note. a six-page suicide note, that is coming -- or i should say was left by the website, that is administered by joseph andrew stack. it reads like a very angry person, ali. i don't know quite what -- how -- quite to put it. and what she just said about the fact -- i just -- just confirmed for me that she just said that there are irs offices inside this building, right? >> yes, yes, that's correct. irs -- 100 -- 190 employees of the irs worked in that building. 190? kelly, 190. >> she is reporting that this was, in fact, an irs building, i can tell you that joseph andrew stack unequivocally had very serious problems with the irs. >> all right. >> let me read to you a couple of excerpts here. >> yep. >> because now we're going to get into the nitty-gritty of what the note actually says. he said there was a storm raging inside my head. he said desperate times call for desperate measures. he said we are brainwashed to believe there is freedom in this place. remember one of these was no taxation without representation? he addresses that several times in here. makes reference to the wall street situation. something you and i have talked about. handful of thugs and plunders can commit unthinkable atrocities and when it's time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their glutny and stupidity, the full force of the federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours. >> wow. >> isn't that interesting? i knew you would think about it as i read it to you. let me get you to this and we can break it up, i don't want to do a read-a-thon for the viewers. but it's interesting to see what was in the guy's head. the joke we call the american medical system, talking about health insurance, the joke we talk about the american medical system, the drugs and insurance companies are murdering tens of thousands of people every year and stealing from the corpses and crypts that they cripple and the countries leaders don't see it bailing out the vial and the rich cronies here. what are you hearing? >> anti-government. >> anti-government and anti-wall street. he talks about justice. but let me cut to his own personal story. he starts talking about the second and third pages of how it begins in the 1980s. he had a series of problems with businesses. >> uh-huh. >> and he got taxed for those problems. he did not believe that he should have been taxed for those problems. i live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie. there are two laws, one for the rich and one for the rest of us. there we are, going back to the same theme we talked about. return now to the 1980s and here i was to a terrifying start as a wet-behind-the-ears as a software engineer, and thanks to the backroom midnight efforts, of some -- listen to this. thanks to the midnight effort by the sleazy executives of arthur andersen. tell our viewers who it was. >> the biggest accounting firms in the country tied into the enron scandal that doesn't exist because of the enron scandal which is a big deal in texas. >> absolutely. he's accusing arthur andersen, apparently. we saw the passage of the 1986 tax reform act with its section 1706, so he goes after that. and here's the issue with taxes and now it will be a little bit more specific as i read to you some of the things he seems to be saying about this. during 1987 i spent close to 5,000 of my pocket change and at least 1,000 hours of my time writing, printing, and mailing to any senator, congressman, governor, slug that might listen, none did, and they universally treated me as if i were wasting their time. he goes on to say i filed no return that year, thinking that because i didn't have any income, i didn't have money, our sleazy government decided that they disagreed, but they didn't notify me in time for me to launch a legal objection, so when they attempted to get a protest filed in the court i was told i was no longer entitled to due process because time had run out. bend over for another $10,000 helping of justice. and finally -- this is how he closes it. this is interesting. >> yep. >> and the whole thing tends to ramble. >> yeah. >> he's not a particularly artful writer, by the way. >> yeah. >> but he closes by saying this, the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. i am finally ready to stop this insanity. well, mr. big brother irs man -- this is an irs building. >> wow. >> well, -- and this is an irs building -- well, let's try something different, take my pound of flesh and sleep well. with that he closes. >> so joe stack has written a -- he calls himself joe, joe stack has written a six-page suicide wlet ter which he posted on the website and targets the irs specifically and we know that the irs had 190 employees in the building that was struck by the plane. the irs has not gotten back to us, and obviously, they are trying to account for all of their employees. what we do know and what we know is that we don't know who else was in the building, but the fire department reported to us that two people are taken to the hospital and one unaccounted for so far, but of the seven-story building they have searched three stories and they have reported to us that the fire not extinguished just yet, but it is still burning. this is very interesting, rick, that they are saying that his let ter is there. >> well, it is interesting that these two things came together. first we had the report that you had with jeanne meserve saying they now officially can say not one or two, but many irs offices here, ap we don nd we don't kno had direct dealings in this building at one time or another, but we can confirm that he has had problematic dealings with the the irs according to his own word in a letter we can confirm was left behind by him in a website that -- and we have confirmed this, administered by him. so, obviously, the whole thing comes down to serious issues. >> anything about family? >> no, it says very little about family, and i was taken aback by reading this, because we filed original reports, and would you tell me, because i have been working this, and i don't want to -- well, what is the deal with the burning of the house and who was in that house? >> well, this 1 what we know. we don't know who was in the house, but there was a fire on house in austin, texas, and this is the house. this is the house on fire in austin, texas, and joseph stack's house, and the plane, the piper cherokee pa 28 was his plane. they believe he was piloting that plane when it went into the building. we will tell you about joseph stack right now, he studied engineering in harrisburg, pennsylvania, and he was a contract software engineer in the '80s as you know from the suicide note, and he spent $5,000 of his money and 1,000 hours of his time writing to senators and congressmen and others about taxes. he lived in california in the depression of the early 1990s hit and lost his retirement savings for second time in 1990s and moved from california to austin, texas, and he could not find work. >> that is what he writes here. >> which is a big software and technology center in the united states. >> at this point in the letter he says, i think it is time for a change. bye to california, i will try austin for a while. continue. >> well, it is chilling the end of the note, well, mr. big brother irs man, try something different, take my pount of flesh and sleep well. >> well, by the way, to note, that is chilling the way he put the letter and maybe one part of the letter that is artful, that might be one. he says here i am in a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income. here i am in a new marriage and a boatload of undocumented income, not to mention an expensive new asset, a piano which i didn't know how to handle, and i thought it would be irresponsible to get professional help. a big mistake. >> the mayor of austin joins us on the phone right now. are you with us, mayor? >> it is lefingwell. >> well, i got it right. we saw you briefly giving a press conference, and this is coming together quickly. a house on fire, a plane and a suicide note. what are you making of this now? how is this changing the way you are look at the situation? >> well, we are in the process of confirming all of the details. i am standing in front of the building at the point, a few feet away from the point of where the airplane impacted the building. you can see it is a white airplane with blue markings and you can see the engine laying down here on the road in front of the building. the building, itself, the fire by the way is contained. there is a little bit of flames here and there and still some smoke, but it is definitely contained. we are fortunate in this. our police, fire, and ems folks did a great job. so far, two injured people have been transported to hospitals, and still have one person unaccounted for. we have no information, and we know it is a person who worked in the building and we are trying to get some more information on that person right now. >> clarify something for me, mayor. we heard the press conference and the fire department spokesperson saying that the search has been completeded on three floors. this is a seven-story building which means that four floors have not been checked yet. >> well, they will continue to search for the person unaccounted for in all of the areas that are not yet searched. i -- there may be other areas not named so far, but they will make sure to the extent that they can remain safe, i mean, there is concern that the building at this point lacks structural integrity. so we are going to make sure that the firefighters are safe, but to the extent that they can, they will continue to search this building and continue to work on totally putting out the fire. >> when you say one person is unaccounted for, that means that no one else has reported that anyone else was supposed to be in the building that has not gotten out? >> that is correct. no fatalities at this point and few injuries and it is incredible as you look at the building and the crash site, it is phenomenal that nobody lost their lives, and to a great extent i credit the public safety folks for getting out here and wrapping this situation up and containing it as fast as they did. >> rick -- mayor, as rick sanchez and i look at the pictures of the damage to the building by this plane, it is -- it does seem miraculous. >> well, it seems to me, and mayor, maybe you can straighten this out for us that this plane was packed full with fuel, right? >> it has to be with that much of a fire. >> in other words, a larger fuel capacity than most single-engine planes and i'm not an expert or perhaps you are, or the distance between the airport from where he took off and the place of impact was so short he had a full tank, correct? >> well, there is evidence that the plane's gas tank was just about full. i don't know what the capacity of the tank is, and probably something on the order of 40 to 60 gallons, because that amount of gasoline, when you spray it out over a large area can do a lot of damage. by the way, i am a former pilot and i because delta air lines pilot for 31 years, so i have a little bit of familiarity for this. >> and you are right, the piper pa 28 seems to have a range of 660 miles, and he has probably flown 15 miles from the georgetown airport where you are. >> as the crow flies, that is a good guess. >> so, i imagine, fellows the more gas you have and the higher velocity at impact you are going, the bigger boom you will get? >> more fuel on more stuff in that building making it catch fire. and that does seem, mayor, and i don't know what you thishgs bnk we have seen small planes crash into thing, and that is a bigger than normal fire than they create. >> well, we have all levels of law enforcement in the city working on this if for no other reason, but any plane crash involves federal officials, but we are all working cooperatively to get to the bottom of the details. details will come in throughout the day, and really the worst thing we can do at this point is to speculate about things that have not been absolutely confirmed. >> mayor, great information from you, and that is why we wanted to talk to, you because you are bringing us information that you do have confirmed, and that will help us. so as you get more information, we will stay in touch with you and monitor what you are doing with the local media, so we know what is going on, particularly, because our viewers want to know what are the greater implications of this. mayor, you are saying that your belief is that it is an isolated incident. >> it san isolated incident. the people of austin, and the people of the nation are in no danger whatsoever. the incident is isolated and absolutely contained at this point. everyone is safe, and we need to go now forward with the process of getting all of the details on exactly why it happened. >> all right. we wish you well, mayor, and continue to stay in touch with you. >> i should mention, ali, because oftentimes after we do stories like this, people start to look for ideological bets on the part of the perps as we call, the perpetrator in the case, and after reading that letter through and through, i can tell you unequivocally, that this fellow seemed to be as far against the right as he was against the left. he mentions george w. bush by name. he mentions obama policies by name. he mentions health care. he mentions wall street. he was really all over the map. so if anyone is to assert from this that he was on this side or the other side, as far as i can tell, he was against all sides. >> all right. we will bring you up to speed on 30 seconds on everything that we know for fact with respect to this plane that has been crashed into a building in austin, texas. who crashed it? why he did it, who is hurt and what is happening and what happens next. stay with us, as you are watching cnn, covering this breaking news of a story in austin, texas. we are back to breaking news here of a plane crash in austin. let me tell you what we know. you are looking at xwha we believe is damage from a single engine piper cherokee pa-28 which was flown according to officials deliberately into a building which houses the offices of the irs in austin, texas. federal officials have identified the pilot as joseph andrew stack. he also owned the h plane,plane they say he set his home on fire earlier in the day and then crashed plane into a seven-story building in austin, texas, northwest of the center of austin, texas. get this, a six-page message on a website registered to stack appears to be a suicide note. the message says that if you are reading this, you are no doubt asking yourself, why did this have to happen? i am quoting now. the simple truth is that it is complicated and coming for a long time. the writer rails against the government and in particular the internal revenue service, and he closes the letter with the words "well, mr. big brother irs man, let's try something different, take my pound of flesh and sleep well." the airplane crashed into a building which has a federal irs center and has 190 employees. we have heard from the local fire and police officials moments ago they did not confirm those details, but they say that two people are injured and one unaccounted for, but three of the seven stories in the building have been searched, because the fire is still burning in some of those places. they said that the plane has not been stolen contrary to other reports contrary to andrew joseph stack who calls himself joe stack. let me show you where this happened. it happened near a highway, the expressway which is in the northwest part of austin, texas, by research boulevard, and the building is on the 9400 block of research boulevard by mo pack expressway. it is next to the headquarters which gave credence to whether this was a terrorist attack, but in fact, the building itself houses irs offices. that is the building that we have the bull's eye on it right now. the plane, according to eyewitnesses flew into the building at what appeared to be normal speed, but flying lower than normally should in a populated area. that building can't be more than 70 or 100 feet high. an airplane should not been flying anywhere near that altitude. we also know that the plane was refueled likely at georgetown airport in austin, about 15 miles out from where the building is. it had a 50-gallon tank in it. it was likely full. that plane has a range of about 660 miles. we have plenty of accounts of this, and i-reports, you can see on the right of the screen, that looks like amateur video. we also know from norad and nor com that f-16 fighter jets were scrambled immediately after the crash, but officials from the homeland security have responded they don't believe there is a terrorist connection. as i said, two people have been taken to the hospital which is remarkable given the extent of the damage in that building. one person is officially unaccounted for, but firefighters say they will continue their search of the building. the plane apparently went in at a lower level between the first and second story, and as you can see the smoke is billowing up to the higher levels of the building. authorities say they have not searched that yet. we will go the jeanne meserve, our homeland security correspondent in d.c., and she is in touch with contacts. what do you know? >> well, ali, we know that president obama was briefed on this situation by john brennan, his counterterrorism secretary. and they don't believe there is any indication of terror nexus here. officials have identified the individual involved as joseph andrew stack. we are told that he is the owner of a house in the austin area set on fire earlier today according the a federal law enforcement official. he appears to be the one who set that fire before he took off in this plane which appears to have been owned by him, a piper aircraft. we asked this official, was this a suicide? and the official responded, it looks like it. as you mentioned this building houses 190 irs employees and the irs si they say they are still to account for all of the employees. it comes back to an incident in 1992 when a young man flew an airplane in an office building in tampa, florida, and that is determined to have been a suicide. ali. >> all right. jeanne, we will continue to stay on this, and you will continue the find out what more you know and what we are learnin learnint seems at this point if homeland security is not feeling this is a terrorism, they will hand it over not only to the local officials, but to ntsb officials, and earlier we talked to an ntsb official about how this investigation would continue, and if this individual took off with fuel and intended to target that building, it is unclear what could have changed to prevent that from happening in the first place. we are seeing reports of how a flight plan was not filed for that plane. we don't know that for sure, and the bottom line is that a flight plan is not required for most general aviation flights. you are looking on the screen of the pa- 78 plane, which is in combination similar to a large suv. but owe see on the right side of the screen the amount of damage done to a seven-story building. we go to tom fuentes in the d.c. bureau and formerly of the fbi and in fact, earlier we thought that this is targeting the fbi building, but it has not been. tom, you are looking at the situation, and jeanne was just telling us that federal authorities do not believe this to be terror-related, so now, what do you make of it? what do you think? >> well, that is true, ali. they don't believe it at this time, but still, the jttf officers and agents in austin will be thoroughly investigating to make absolutely sure, although all of the indications are that it is someone with mental problems and deliberately wanted to end his life and possibly kill others in the process by flying that aircraft into that building. >> tom, so, at this point, it may not be terrorism, but does that get the fbi out of the investigation after they have done whatever they do to make sure there is nothing terrorist connected. in other words, is this a local crime? >> well, it is a local crime, and the ntsb will be involved in the federal level, but what gets the fbi involved is if the austin police are asking for lead coverage outside of their jurisdiction, outside of the state or overseas. so in that situation, if they trying to obtain financial records or information about his business dealings and other business issues such as that, they would ask for the fbi to assist, but the fbi will not be the lead agency. >> right. >> once the aspect of terrorism is eliminated, then it is the austin police who are in charge. >> again, i say he ends his -- but what we know is that the federal officials tell us this is joseph andrew stack who flew the plane into the building, and they said that the plane is owned by him, and his house has been set on fire. and, now they say that he has left this suicide note on this website which ends with the words "well, mr. big brother irs man, let's try something different. take my pound of flesh and sleep well." does fact that he is maybe targeting the irs and flown this plane into the building of a local building that houses the irs make it a federal crime? >> yes, it is a federal crime, and the fbi would be the lead agency in the attempted murder of the irs officials in this case. but in this situation, if it is pretty clear that he did it, and he did it on his own and now he is dead, then, the fbi will be assisting with austin police, because, you know, it is mainly going to be within their jurisdiction, but yes, the fbi would have jurisdiction in the attempted murder of federal investigators. >> tom, a whole bunch of people following this and watching it and we have been getting people on twitter and facebook and e-mails and on some levels are breathing a sigh of relief it is not a terrorist attack, and no way on a bright sunny day to watch an airplane with these weather conditions to go into a building and this building catch fire to not think back to 2001 and think, oh, my, god, what is happening? and so there are a whole bunch of people relieved there it is not a terrorist attempt, but should we be relieved to know that somebody flew a plane into a building of federal offices? >> well, in that situation, you are always wondering what is worse? in this case, a mentally disturbed individual, and he was qualify and able to fly that aircraft, but what if he were a commercial airline pilot with those problems and same personal issues in the unprofessional life? this is a danger factor that you have. we have people who are flying airplanes and driving tanker trucks, and piloting boats in the harbors and any number of threats or vulnerabilities that you would have in this situation. if someone loses their mind, and decides to commit an act like this. >> are we supposed to be able to know if somebody puts something like this on their website, is there something out there that tracks that? we spent a lot of time and energy tracking terrorism stuff, so i would assume that if somebody put something on the website that sounded like terrorism, and people are mad at the irs and i get an impression that there are a bunch of people mad at the irs for any given reason because they believe they are taking too much of the hard-earned money, but we are not making judgments there, but is there any mechanism to know if people are making threats games at the irs, and the suicide note seems to make threats or imply anger toward a lot of people. >> well, i heard rick sanchez read excerpts from it, and at the end talk about the pound of flesh, but you know, the threats are unspecific, so, you know, you could read that letter and think he would file a lawsuit against the irs. it does not indicate he will attack the office and attempt to kill members of the irs. >> so absent any other information -- >> well, so a long message like that, it doesn't at least from what i heard about it, it didn't seem like there was specific threats. >> so, absent, that is my point to a law enforcement person, if you read the line absent of any other information, and my big brother irs man, let's try something different and take my pound of flesh and sleep well, that does not meet the standard of a specific credible threat? >> no, it didn't. it doesn't. i imagine there are thousands of letters or e-mails or posted messages just like that. an agency like the irs is going to have many people that are upset with how they do business, and in this case, it could be others besides irs, and business associates, and people that he applied for a job with and didn't get hired. there are any number of enemies in his mind, but the ability to read his mind as to, okay, he is upset and angry beyond control, bhou is th but how is that going to manifest itself? he could have driven his car into a tree and only hurt himself, but in this case, he decides to fly his plane into a office building housing the irs, but there is, again, nothing in the message and i don't know wh that message is directed to, to whom it may concern, a friend or associate or someone who knows he has mental problems and access to an aircraft and pilot's license and knowledge to fly that plane? there are a number of aspects that need to be looked at and will be continued to look at. >> tom fuentes, thank you for that perspective. tom fuentes, former with the fbi. let's listen to texas governor rick perry with comments on this. >> you always have some exposure in a free society, so, you know, the balance is finding how to protect the people and also protect their freedoms and liberties. whether it is allowing ease of access into the state capitol. i hope we don't turn our capital into dfw or bush international airport from the standpoint of security, that texans still, and visitors still have freedom to come and go and don't feel like they are being, you know, inappropriately hassled, but the other side of that is that we have people's safety, so it is always a battle between anarchy and tiyranny, and always has been. >> thank you, governor. >> that is texas governor rick perry, and we are getting in on the end of the statement there. we will take a quick break and continue our coverage of the plane that has gone into a building. the fire has not been extinguished at that fire. three of the seven floors have been searched, and we have more information about the pilot and the motivations of doing this and the recovery of those people who are injured and at least one person unaccounted for in that building in austin, texas. stay with us. in your garage. ofg if you're shopping for a new car, we invite you to put us to the test. and may the best car win. so many arthritis pain relievers -- i just want fewer pills and relief that lasts all day. take 2 extra strength tylenol every 4 to 6 hours?!? 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[ male announcer ] it's one thing to talk quality. it's another thing to back it up. the chevy 5-year/100,000 mile transferable powertrain warranty. with roadside assistance and courtesy transportation, it's the best coverage in america. all right. let me bring you up to speed on what is happening. on the right you are looking at building in austin, texas, which housed 190 employees of the irs. this is a building that had a plane fly into it at 11:00 a.m. eastern and 10:00 central. the plane on the left is the same model, pa-28 piper cherokee which took off from georgetown, texas, and apparently with a full tank of gas. that airport has been closed down due to the investigation. and this building is somewhere near seven stories which is 70 or 80-feet tall, and the plane went between the first and third floors as you can see from the fire in the seven-story building. no reason for a plane to fly at that level. we have eyewitnesses who say there was no erratic flying and the plane was down at that level without the landing gear down, although that does look like it may be a fixed landing gear, so i have to get more information on that. bottom line, the federal officials have identified the pilot of the plane as joseph stack. he is the owner of that plane. joseph stack, according to federal officials set his home on fire in austin, texas, and now we v and we have pictures there of the house. i can't tell what that is. that's the picture of the house that was burning earlier today in austin, texas. then we found an internet site which had what appears to be a suicide note, six-page note, written by joseph stack on a website that is registered to joe stack, calls himself joe stack. we are going through it to find out what he is saying, but it is fair to say that he was angry. he starts by saying that the writing process started many months ago and intended to bother pi in the face of the looming realization that there is not enough therapy to fix what is really broken. a couple of paragraphs later he says, in my lifetime, i can say with a great degree of certainty, there is never a politician casting a vote on any matter with me or the likes of me in mind nor are they interested in anything i have to say. then he goes on to talk about the tax system. he speaks about that. he speaks about how it cost him $40,000 plus ten years of his life and set my retirement plans back to zero. he mentions arthur anderson, the old accounting firm, now defunct after the failure of enron and the finding initially that they had something to do with that. that was subsequently turned around. he just goes on about a lot of things. he talks about the catholic church and says years later after weathering a divorce and trying to get momentum with the business i find myself once again trying to pick up speed. and then came -- he is speaking in past tense -- then came the dot-com bust and the nightmares. he continues on for several pages and in the final paragraph of the letter, he writes well, mr. big brother irs man, let's try something different. take my pound of flesh and sleep well. joseph stack studied engineering in harrisburg, pennsylvania n the early '80s where he got involved in some tax code discussions and groups. he worked a as contract software engineer. he then said in 1987, he spent $5,000 of what he calls his pocket change, and at least 1,000 hours of his time writing to senators, congressmen, and governors about the tax codes. he was living in southern california in the '90s when he says that the l.a. depression hit. he lost his retirement savings for the second time. he moved then from california to austin. remember, he was a software engineer and austin was a good center for software engineers and developers, but he could not find work. he is apparently divorced once, remarried and according to the letter, it is hard to follow the time lines in the letter, because it sort of goes all over the place, but apparently remarried and according to austin media, and this not in the letter, but according to the austin media reports, he has a daughter, but we have no more information on the family or the whereabouts or who lived at the home on fire. he says at one point in the letter on page five, he says here i am with a new marriage and boatload of undocumented income, and not to mention a expensive new business asset, a piano which i had no idea how to handle it. after considerable thought i thought it was irresponsible to get professional help, and that is a very big mistake. we go to chris ziebell at the seton medical center. >> yes, it is the university center of brekingridge. >> one suffered second degree burns over 25% of his body and stabilize here and transferred to the burn center in brook army medical center in san antonio. the second victim suffered from smoke inhalation, and stabilize here at the university medical center brekingridge and apparently discharged moments ago. >> tell me what happened 10:00 a.m. central time what happened when reports of the crash came in? what happens? are you typically alerted by authorities and there is a development and you have to be ready to accept patients? >> i was alerted by a physician who witnessed the plane going in, and said you need to get the guys ready. we had lead time that started even before ems was dispatched. >> that was a doctor, a colleague of yours? >> yes. >> do you foe who that is? >> yes, it is dr. todd nash. >> all right. excellent. good to know. so you were alerted and were you surprised having seen the scale of this thing that you had two patients? >> yeah, we have been calling all around the city to try to find out if there were any injured taken anywhere else, and it really does appear there were only two people who needed medical care today. >> that seems to mesh with what the spokespenn for the fire department and the mayor told us. i have to say, and i don't know if you are watching the coverage, because we are running it live on the air, but that seems phenomenal that that degree of damage and building with that much smoke and fire, and you have two patients. >> the victim i spoke to talked at length about how impressed he was with the rapid response of ems. they are just three or four blocks from a fire station, and of course, this was a witnessed event ain broad daylight, so everybody was dispatched quickly. the victim i spoke with said that was the thing he dwelled on is that before he was oriented to what was going on, there were officials in the building ushering him out. >> you have been given the standdown yet in terms of receiving new patients? >> we have, yes. we are told that the ems system has returned to normal operations and has left the scene. we are not to expect anymore casualties from today. >> for people who are joining us or don't know what happened here, you are looking at pictures at a building on 9400 block of research boulevard in austin, texas, which is an intersection of research boulevard and the mopack freeway. we go to an affiliate who is at the home of joseph stack that he set fire to. >> he was being audited by the irs, and many people were saying that the family were secluded in the home. they moved in about two years ago. they didn't really know them. i have one person who was a witness, and her name is shannon houston, and shannon, you woke up to the flames this morning, and then tell me what you saw. >> when i walked out of the house, i saw of course the flames and the smoke, and a little while later, i saw a little girl trying. she was crying really hard, and she ran into my neighbor's house. and it appeared to be her mother, an older woman, and she ran in behind her. yeah, so, i mean, it is just devastating and like you said, it is just -- i can't believe it is in my neighborhood, like, directly across the street from me. it is just mind boggling. >> thank you for taking the time to talk to us, shannon. we appreciate it. and we will check back with you a little later. that is kind of has been the sentiment of all of the neighbors here a little bit of shock and a little bit of dismay not really understanding why this happened. only a good friend who did want to go on camera told me that joe was a great guy. he referred to him as joe stack, joseph andrew stack, and he referred to him as joe, and great guy and would kind of give you anything that you needed. another neighbor who didn't want to go on camera told me that the family might have been having some marital problems, so we are working that angle as well to find out if that in fact is true. now i did get a statement from the family, and i just want to read it to you at this time. it says, the family has no comment at this time. they would like no media contact. the family will contact the media tomorrow to answer questions, and give information. we don't expect to hear from the relatives today and hopefully they will speak to us tomorrow, and shed some light on exactly what happened here. reporting live. >> all right. that is steve alberts reporting live from kvue our affiliate from austin, texas, from the home of joe stack, joseph andrew stack, the man identified as the pilot and own oreer of the plan that flew into the building. he is reported to have a wife and daughter. we don't have confirmation of the daughter, but steve said that the family has issued a statement saying they don't want any contact with the media today and they will give a statement tomorrow. he appears to have lived in that home with his family, according to the reports we just got moments ago. now the building that he flew the plane into is a building that houses irs offices, and we are trying to confirm exactly what happened at those offices where you went, and that is the report that, that is the building you would go if you have an audit or needed to meet. we understand that joseph stack had dealings with the irs and what could be perceived a as threat against the irs, but it is in such a way it may not have been regarded as a threat. you are looking at pictures of a building that was hit by a plane in austin, texas. okay. we continue to follow this story we have been on for several hours. federal officials say a man may have intentionally crashed a small plane into a building in austin, texas. that is the building you are looking at. those are pictures of a remarkable fire burning after a piper cherokee pa-28 single-engine aircraft after having just been refueled 15 miles away having flown into the lower levels of a seven-story building which houses irs offices. people are saying those are the offices if you would go into if you have to have an audit. the pilot is identified as joseph andrew stack. he left a suicide note on a website. he rails against the government and the irs in particular. two people are hurt. we spoke to the hospital where they were transported. one has been released. apparently, they are doing okay. one person is missing. no deaths have been reported. although the fire department did say they have not been able to search the upper levels of that building. we do not have reports of people unaccounted for except for one. one person unaccounted for not including the pilot of the plane. we go to washington, d.c. where our homeland security correspondent jeanne meserve has been following this closely from the beginning. reset this for a moment, jeanne. when this first happened, obviously, what people think about is a terrorist attack. tell me how this has developed since you first learned of this. >> well, from to get-go, i will tell you that the department of homeland security said they did not see any nexus to terrorism, but at the beginning, they were saying they didn't see any nexus to criminality. they have taken that out of their statement. apparently, because of all of this other information about joseph andrew stack, because there was a house belonging to him that was set on fire before this occurred, according to a federal law enforcement official. it appears he set that fire before he got into the piper aircraft and flew into the building in austin which houses the irs. when i asked the federal law enforcement official was this suicide, he said, it appears that way calling to mind the 2002 incident in which a young man flew an ir plane into an office building in tampa, florida, ruled a suicide. about the irs, we have spoken to them, and all they will say at this point is that they had 190 employees at that building, and they still trying to account for all of them. the white house is saying that the president has been briefed on this situation by his counterterrorism adviser john brennon, even though we have been told repeatedly, there does not appear to be any nexus whatsoever to terrorism. >> thank you, jeanne meserve, reporting on this. the response that it was not terrorism did not sort of was not informed by the idea that there were a few things that were coming together, the fact that the house had been set on fire, that this was not a stolen plane, which may have been the first impression, but this plane was actually registered to this man and it starts to come together. so it is a tough one, with a lot of moving parts, but the building is not secured. there are questions about structural integrity coming from the mayor, and the fire does not seem to be -- the smoke is not billowing out of it, but the search continues to make sure nobody is trapped on the upper floors of the seven-story building on the 9400 block of research boulevard in austin, texas. i want to bring you up to date on other things we are working on in cnn. it is a story we are following for several hours, and let me bring you up to speed on this one first of all. a federal official says a man intentionally crashed a plane into a building in austin, texas. the irs has an office inside with nearly 200 employees. authorities have identified the pilot as joseph andrew stack who allegedly set his own house on fire, as jeanne, told us before hand. and stack left an apparent suicide note on the website, and we have got that and it is railing gains government and the irs in particular. two people are hurt, one missing and nobody reported dead. president obama is sending a clear message to congress today, you are not doing enough to cut the national debt. hours ago, he formally set up a bipartisan commission to address the issue, to tackle the issue of national debt. among the options, raising taxes and doing other things to revamp medicare and social security. in new york, former police commissioner bernard keric has been sentenced to four years in prison. he is accused of filing false taxes and lying to investigators. he was considered a hero after 9/11 and nominated for homeland security in 2004, but he withdraw after allegations started to surface. we will take a quick break and continue with the news of the afternoon when we come back. ♪ i have clients down 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[ male announcer ] meet us at ameriprise.com. all right. let's continue to recap the information that we have got on the right of the screen where you are looking at pictures from earlier on of a building in the northwest part of austin, texas. police, firefighters and emergency crews have been working hard to extinguish the flames and rescue anyone who is in that building. miraculously after a plane crashed into it and the flames started burning, two people were taken for treatment at a local medical center. one has been released. one person is unaccounted for at the moment. we are learning now that the pilot of the plane is dead. we believe that the pilot is joseph andrew stack, and he is the owner of the plane, a piper cherokee pa-28 single-engine craft. that is not the exact plane, but it is a picture of a similar plane that took off from georgetown airport which is in austin, about 15 miles away, and we are believing that it had full tank of gas which would have been 50 gallons of gas, enough to fly the plane about 650 miles, but it only flew 15 miles and then right into the lower floors of a seven-story building, and it really at an altitude that a small plane would have had no business being in it, unless it were out of control. it went into the lower floors of this building which houses near 200 employees of the irs. it does turn out that this person, joseph stack, joe stack as he called himself, left a ♪ note on a website registered to him and it is a six-page note which reads like a suicide note where it ends by well, mr. big brother irs man, let's try something else, take my pound of flesh and sleep well. let's talk about the extent of the damage which seems incongruous to a small plane. we will go to bonnie, and we have been going through this all day, but first somebody said a cessna and then a cirrus plane, but now it is a piper pa-28 and very much like the one you saw. >> and the planes you mentioned are similar models to this one, and this is not the exact plane that flew into the building, but it is a picture of the same sort soft model. i want to open up the picture a little bit so you can see a close-up of what it looks like. zoom in here. this plane has four seats though it could hold about six people, as you can see from the picture, but what we see is the plane, itself, and the flight path as we look at google earth. looking at where the flight originated from is the georgetown airport and the d distance as we zoom it up here is not far from the crash site. zoom in here, and it is important to note that the distance is only 7.8 miles from downtown austin, and we can show you that path as well. now zooming into the crash site so close to the highway. ali, i took a look at the weather conditions at the time of the crash, and they were calm. visibility 10 miles and temperature in low 50s and perfectly clear. winds at the time of the crash were light out of the south. we did see a lot of the smoke blowing on to the highway, as the hours continued we saw the winds become invariable and pick up with intensity, but overall, weather is not a factor here in terms of what is going on at the crash site. >> and we talked about this when it first happened, because when you fly a small plane like that, unnaturally high winds could have an impact, and we were trying to rule out weather as a factor of this plane going off course, and that is before we realized this note and house on fire, but it seemed like a calm day. so if that plane went into the building it lent credence to the theories of some law enforcement officials and pilots if that plane went into that building, it is probably because somebody was trying to get it into building. >> you mentioned high winds and most of the country is dealing with high winds, especially in the northeast, so if this had happened in any oter part of the country, we would have soon strong winds, but in texas, it is calm, and it will continue to be calm in the austin, area as we go through the evening hours. >> thank you, bonnie schneider. we will go the josh levs who continues to follow the developments in the story. what have you got? >> well, ali, we are looking at things online from the i-reporters all over the country, but particularly in austin. people in austin are sending photos out and people are saying, get them to i-report, and get them to i-report, so i-report is overwhelmed, and we have a lot of pictures to show you. we have a computer behind me, and you can take it through, and i want you to see this first, because these are photos from the home that was burning. we can get closer to it, too. this is from sherry who was in that area in austin, and as we know, as we have been telling you throughout the day, this home was set on fire, an investigators do believe it is the home of the same man who went and took the plane into the ild being. so we have these, but take a look at how many more we have gotten and so many i-reports coming to you today throughout austin from people with different views of this. we are following it interactively, and a lot of the photos are incredibly powerful. a couple of hours ago, i spoke to an i-report who said that as he was driving by, people were stopping on the highway and getting out of their cars and literally crawling on the grass there to stare in shock of what was happening in their city. we heard from a woman in the building next door who said it felt to her like an earthquake at the moment it was happening. the building next door shook. she then looked outside and was able to see this, these giant plumes of smoke coming up to the sky. and also, interactives and facebook as well, and some people have taken an interest on what is said on facebook. unfortunately, ali, part of the reamity when you hear of a horror like this, there are some people who create these twisted fan pages who are saying, look at this great guy fighting for liberty against the irs, et cetera, but fortunately, it is a few dozen we are seeing who are joining anything like this. we encourage anyone out there who has these pictures to go ahead to share them with us at i-report.com, and obviously, if you are in a safe place to do that, go ahead to share the images you are getting, and the stories that go along with them. in each case, it is a powerful story about what it felt like, the sounds, the scream, and ali, you can imagine, that we have been hearing all day from the i-reporters what it was like to be there at the time. one of the i-reporters literally saw the plane crash into the building. he saw the moment of impact, and he said that everyone around him where he was screamed all at once. obviously, it is unlike anything he had ever imagined. back to these right here, and just a few of what we have been getting throughout the day here as we sift through the internet and looking at twitter and facebook and all of the social media for the images that people are posting out there, ali, as really austin and the whole country tries to come to terms with what we saw today. >> well, the pictures are amazing, when you see the amount of smoke and the flames earlier, and when you look at that, i am not sure i would have naturally associated that with a small plane with 50 gallons of gas going into a building. big picture and a lot of kudos for the emergency response teams in austin foring so quickly. a lot of i-reporters commented on how quickly the first responders responded. >> there is a company who has an office inside of the building which had ladders which is incredible thing that worked out. we heard from a woman who is an eyewitness and talked about a glass company situated in the same area and they immediately took all of the equipment they had and used it to get people out. the response by not just the authorities, but also the people who happened to be there really striking information. i will tell you that you talk about the size and the scope of the disaster at that building. when you hear from some of the i-reporters about what they saw today, the moment that this happened, you have to understand that you have this plane, and granted it is relatively small plane as these things go, but when it is going in with that kind of impact, you can understand, especially with gasoline in there, you can understand why it would create devastation, and certainly to every person who has seen this, just completely shocking. it is morning time in austin and people were driving to work and all of the sudden pull over to stop and stare at a building that is partly turned into a giant black plume of smoem, ali. >> josh, we will continue to stay on the story. josh levs is following there for us, and we will continue to follow it. we do know that two people were taken to the hospital. one is released and one person is unaccounted for in the search of the building. until we hear otherwise, the fire department had not completed the search. allegedly joseph andrew stack's angry letter was posted on a website registered to him, and the fact that he set fire to his home, again, according to officials, before taking the plane into the building. we will give you a full recap when we come back on this story. so heading to the doctor uh... yeah? you gonna ask him this time? about what? our erectile dysfunction. shh...no...i don't want to talk about it. look, you're not alone, millions of men with ed have talked to their doctors. i don't know... we can do this. okay... (announcer) talking to your doctor about ed may be the last thing you want to do, but it's definitely a conversation worth having. twenty million men have had their viagra talk. when you're ready for yours... you'll find helpful tips on talking to your doctor at viagra.com ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. don't take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects may include headache, flushing, upset stomach, and abnormal vision. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. stop taking viagra and call your doctor right away if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. talk to your doctor today... and ask if viagra is right for you. let's bring you up to speed on what we know right now. there is a building, a plane went into it in austin, texas, a small plane, a single-engine piper cherokee pa-28, and that is not the plane that went into it, but a plane of the same type. you can see the wings. that is where the fuel is in the plane, about 50 gallons of it. the plane went into a building flying very low, and went into a building 15 miles away from the airport apparently after having been refueled, and the building caught fire, and we have reports of one person unaccounted for, and we know also that the pilot of the plane is dead. he has been identified by authorities as joseph andrew stack. he owned the plane. he also apparently, his house had burned down today. he had apparently set fire to his house according to the authorities, and that is a picture of his house in austin, texas, and on a website registered to him is a long six-page long note, rambling note, critical of all sorts of things. rick sanchez was here and preparing for his show, but he went through the note, and it was quite clear of your reading of it, rick, you cannot identify an ideology, but a man angry about a lot of things, but he does, he does -- this is, he does take particular aim at the irs, and there are irs employees who work in that building. right there. >> and 199 of them to be exact. interestingly enough, ever since we reported this suicide note, it's, you know, gone pretty much viral throughout the twitter and social media and everything and it comes back to the chilling last line that we talked about a while ago where he says mr. big brother irs man, let's try something different, take my pound of flesh and sleep well. it was almost as if with those words, ali, he was essentially saying, this is the end for me, and i have chosen to do this, because, folks, as simple as it is to put this for anybody out there who may be thinking that this may have involved anything else, from very simple and plain reading of everything that took place today, including a real good look at the suicide note that he left behind, this man had a very serious grudge. this was a grudge. this was an act based on a stewing grudge that had been festering for decades. >> he details it. and you have to work through the letter, because it moves around, but he details it. i want to give you a new piece of information on this. >> yes, please. >> from our affiliate kxan in austin, texas. a 12-year-old girl and woman were apparently rescued from the burning house that you saw pictures of. we will show them again. a 12-year-old girl and a woman were apparently rescued from that fire this morning. the girl is believed to be his stepdaughter, joe andrew stack's stepdaughter. this apparently happened and the reports we are getting about 9:15 a.m. and that is central time which is 45 minutes before that plane went into the building. the house was owned by joseph stack, and it is in the scoffield farms area of austin. >> hold on. hold on. repeat that again. he -- this is the original report that was not confirmed that there may have been somebody someone in the house. >> that is what we are hearing that a 12-year-old girl and woman were rescued from that house after the fire started this morning. this gets stranger and stranger with each new report we get. >> well, and -- he had divorced his wife, had he not? >> he was once divorced and it is hard from -- it is very, very hard to understand from reading that note, because -- >> yes. >> he talks in present tense of things that happened in the past. i am newly marry and have boatloads of undocumented income. i don't know if it is now or '90s. >> he pretty much leaves the family out of the personal note. >> we know he was divorced once, but we don't know if he is remarried or who the woman was that was rescued or the 12-year-old girl. a according to the affiliate kxan, this is believed to be the daughter. >> brooke baldwin on my team will try to drill down on what the relationship was with the town and what mhappened in the house, and what kind of family he may have left behind. >> before you go into your show, let's look at what you are digging into. let me give you a few paragraphs of this note, and rick has read every part of it and his team are on it. but while very few working people would say they haven't had their fair share of taxes, as can i, i can say in my lifetime i can say with a great degree of certainty that there has never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my interests in mind. nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested in me or anything i have to say. >> well, let me stop you. we have done dig on this. let me tell you the reaction on twitter and myspace and facebook and e-mails we are receiving, and on i-reports. a lot of the folks are saying that i understand this guy's anger. it is an amazing thing to share with you right now, and usually when we report a story like this, you know -- >> i have got it on paper, here. >> and please do not misunderstand me, i don't think that -- i have not gotten a single let ter from anybo-- let they condone what he did, but there is a pent up anxiety with americans about the irs, and the economic situation and their own taxes in particular. there is this one particular tax that was passed in 198 -- help me out here. 1986. it was the re -- the tax reform act of 1986 -- pardon me, the tax reform act of 1984, where it had a section called 1706. we have been looking into this. we have had a lot of folks right here behind ali and me to look into this to see what it was that frustrate sod mad so many americans, including him, and we understand there is a huge controversy involving that tax code and we have booked someone in the next hour to take us through that, so we want you know there is substance there. >> and we want to report of an affiliate reporting that a woman and stepdaughter is in the house. you know, we are not entirely sure, and we want to make sure that it is right. there are conflicting reports. there was a woman and teenaged girl at the house at 9:15 and conflicting reports they arrived at the house after the fire started and distraught. so we are trying to get information of whether they were inside of the house and rescued or outside of the house? we don't know. this is a lot of conflicting information. >> we should mention that we both knew about that report, and that report came out four or five hours ago, and gone back and forth, and we have guidelines here at cnn unless we are sure that something has happened we don't report it, but now we know for sure ali knows that something happened regarding this woman and girl and whether they were in the house and ran out. >> when we read the note, we were trying to figure out who the family is and where they are, and we are closer to understanding this, but to your point, rick, comments on twitter and facebook, who cares? why do we want to know the motivations. i have to tell you as a person who lives in the country, i want to know what people's motivations are to do bad things to see whether there is anything that we can do about it, and not to justify anybody's gripes, but how do we know that? how do you read somebody to know that they are really angry and up to. when i talked to tom fuentes of the fbi and i read this last sentence here. >> yeah, it is right here. >> well, mr. big brother irs man -- >> that is probably something different. take my pound of flesh and sleep well. >> he says, that does not constitute a credible and detailed threat. it is not the kind of thing that if the irs get that, they would say, hey, watch out for this guy, because he might do something bad to us. but the irs gets lots of this type of thing. >> and i shared a while ago that there are so many people out there who say, i don't condone what this guy did, and it is crazy and how he can hurt that many people and be so selfish and those are exact quotes i have been hearing, but a lot of people understand what his frustration was, and it is a sentiment that is shared by a lot of americans at this particular given time, and maybe through no fault of anyone else, but he -- >> nobody this it is okay to fly your plane into a building that you have lots of concerns. >> well, hell, no. >> here is another one. >> well, it is interesting that there is a sentiment out there, and there are many frustrated americans out there who understand his frustration, and don't in any way condone his action. that is all. that is all. >> here is issue two, a lot of people have said, why are you saying or government officials saying it is not terrorism? it is just because it is not somebody from a different background who has got some lelter who says he wants to destroy something? is this terrorism when you fly a plane into a building that is occupied by people? >> the semantics game is one that we could play until midnight tonight. i think it is best not the play it when it involves one human being with one grudge directed at one particular group or one particular person. i think that if we start to stretch the definition of terrorism to involve a neighbor's grudge against the neighbor or homeowner's association, then it is thin and we start to get confused in the semantics. i believe it is correct to stay away from the w

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