the secret service was desperate to get president bush to air force one and up to 40,000 feet and safety. and so we were in the motorcade going about 85 miles an hour when the phone rang in the limousine. the president took the phone. i could only a hear one side of the conversation, but i knew it was bad when he said is rumsfeld alive. the strike on the pentagon. and when that happened, donald rumsfeld, secretary of state oldest secretary of state in history, youngest in his previous service he didn t go to the safety of the bunker. he went to where the plane had struck the building. i heard a story the other day from one of the victims, a terrible burn victim. but he was desperate to go and rescue some of his colleagues. so he rushed to the epicenter of the strike. and as he rounded the corn kerr, he ran into a corner, he ran into a guy with a suit who said to him, these fumes are dangerous, you get out of here.
time, and we ve been covering our counterterrorism efforts ever since. back to you. bill: great to be with you, thank you, jen. jen griffin there at pentagon. in the moment here, there will be quite a song in shanksville. you ll hear that momentarily. i want to bring it back to ari fleischer. a majority of the american people said we can debate whether we did it the right way, clearly, because we saw it with our own eyes, cameras here and throughout kabul. he has chosen not to speak live today. what do you think of that? i m not sure it was his choice not to speak. now, first of all, to be fair about it, i think you have to go back to the previous american presidents on the 5th, the 10th, the sawth anniversaries 15th anniversaries, especially here in new york. new york takes this very seriously as a moment of remembrance just for the families.
so many here today. our daily lives were paid for with the blood of the fallen on this place at 9:37 on september 11th, 2001. those ideas were and still are hated by our enemies, the fascists, the nazis, al-qaeda, isis, the taliban, authoritarian dictators and tyrants of all kinds. at dawn this morning, here at the pentagon, a giant american flag unfurled over the exact spot where the plane hit. 184 people killed, 59 on board american airlines flight 77, which took off from dulles airport for los angeles at 8:20 a.m. five hijackers overtook the cockpit turning this commercial jet into a missile that struck the west side of the pentagon near corridor four. i ve spoken to many of the survivors who crawled out on
hits the pentagon, it goes through three outer rings of the five-ring pentagon. 189 people are killed there including those onboard flight 77. what s striking is overall 2,997 people died on 9/11. but we forget that there were 25,000 people who were injured. and, you know, this day for the families is the most sering, but there are many people dealing with the images that they saw. you know, bill, your special the lost calls of 9/11 with the people who saw the people jumping from the building, and there are images like that from the pentagon. and at that time when the pentagon was hit, i was on the road from atlanta to new york to back up reporting in new york. we were told to drive after the second plane hit. we were then rerouted to the pentagon after the third plane hit, and i started covering outside the pentagon, the burning pentagon, in the days that followed and i never left.
exactly 20 years ago at 10:10 a.m. part of the pentagon collapsed. at 10:53 a.m., donald rumsfeld then defense secretary ordered the military to increase the def-con readiness and prepare for war. neil, that war continues today even though there are no u.s. troops left in afghanistan. few here believe the war is over, neil. neil: jennifer griffin, thank you very, very much. jennifer s been there from the beginning continuing breaking news and conference insights second to none since. we appreciate that. as jennifer said, it s hard to imagine anything like this could happen and look at the coverage of the pentagon itself. take a look. individuals who committed these attacks on the people of the united states in new york and at the pentagon located in the state of virginia, sought a decisive strike, one that was