and i bumped into a u.s. military intelligence official. and i said, look, what have you got? and he said, obviously this is clearly an act of terrorism. then he got very close to me and almost silent for a few seconds. he leaned in and he said this attack was so well coordinated, that if i were you i would stay off of the e-ring where our nbc office was. the outer ring of the pentagon, the rest of the day, because, we re next. and it sent a chill down my spine. david gregory is now on the phone from long boat key, actually. david? yes, katie, the president is about to begin an education event which is obviously being canceled.
it s just adjacent to the e ring. the offices nearest the heliport area are u.s. army reserve officers and the army reserve officers are located there. as you can see it appears to be a pretty significant blast. we are almost on the opposite side of the building the world s largest office building. as i reported to you, we could feel the building shake and the windows rattle. as i was in the hall way a few moments ago, i could smell the kind of smoke, almost when you smell when a floresent light goes bad. authorities are clearing the building. i don t know if you can hear the sirens, but it appears that i
pretty i mean, fairly typical in terms of an event happening without any foreshadowing? no, katie, this unfortunately is typical. it s only in the movies that you get the advanced warnings. you know, you look at every major terrorist incident against the united states, whether you re talking pan am 103, the world trade center, the uss cole bombing, the bombing the saudi arabia. rarely do you get an advanced notice. jim miklaszewski has more information. i don t want to alarm anybody light now but apparently it felt a few moments ago like there was an explosion of some kind here at the pentagon. we re on the e-ring of the pentagon. we have a window that faces out toward the potomac, toward the kennedy center. we haven t been able to see or hear anything after the initial blast. i just stepped out in the hallway. security guards were herding people out of the building. and i saw just a moment ago as i
we re on the e-ring of the pentagon, we have a window that faces out toward the potomac, toward the kennedy center. we haven t been able to see or hear anything after the initial blast. i just stepped out in the hallway. security guards were herding people out of the building and i saw just a moment ago as i looked outside, a number of construction workers who have been working here have taken flight. they are running as far away from the building as they can right now. i hear no sirens going off in the building, i see no smoke. but the building shook for just a couple of seconds, the windows rattled, and a security personnel are doing what they can momentarily to clear this part of the building. again, i have no idea whether it was part of the construction work, whether it was an accident or what is going on. we re going to try to find out those details and get them to you as soon as possible. but interestingly enough, one intelligence official here in
knows exactly what happened. i think the picture is pretty clear. according to one u.s. army officer who went running past me at a full trot, he says that it appears that a bomb was detonated at the heliport. the heliport is a helicopter landing area next to the pentagon adjacent to the e-ring. the offices nearest the heliport area are u.s. army reserve officers and army reserve offices are located there. but as you can see, it appears to be a pretty significant blast. to give you some perspective, we are almost on the opposite side of the building, the world s largest office building, and as i have reported to you, we could feel the building shake and the windows rattle. as i was in the hallway just a few moments ago, i could smell