EXCERPTS

	
	U.S. Department of Defense
	Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)
	News Transcript
	On the Web: 
	http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=1617
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	Presenter: Victoria Clarke, ASD PA
	September 12, 2001

	DoD News Briefing - Victoria Clarke, ASD PA

	Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2001 - 10:16 a.m.
	(Also participating are David Chu, under secretary of Defense for Personnel and
	Readiness; Meg Falk, director of the Office of Family Policy; Maj. Gen. Jim Jackson,
	commander of the Military District of Washington; and Ed Plaugher, fire chief of
	Arlington County.)
	
	
	
	Q: Is there anything left of the aircraft at all?

	Plaugher: First all, the question about the aircraft, there are some small pieces of
	aircraft visible from the interior during this fire-fighting operation I'm talking
	about, but not large sections. In other words, there's no fuselage sections and that
	sort of thing. . . .



	Q: Chief, there are small pieces of the plane virtually all over, out over the
	highway, tiny pieces. Would you say the plane exploded, virtually exploded on impact
	due to the fuel or --

	Plaugher: You know, I'd rather not comment on that.

	We have a lot of eyewitnesses that can give you better information about what
	actually happened with the aircraft as it approached. So we don't know. I don't
	know. . . .



	Q: Around that side of the building where the fire is and where the fire fighting's
	going on, I would appreciate it if you could intercede on behalf of the FBI to make
	sure reporters are allowed into a certain area there and allowed access in there so
	-- and not being threatened or, in fact, handcuffed and dragged away, that reporters
	do have an area close to the action where they won't necessarily interfere with
	things. But I -- would you --

	Clarke: Absolutely. You know, as I tried to say at the beginning of this, we
	understand and appreciate what you're trying to do. Understand and appreciate just
	how difficult this all is.