Preview -- World News Tonight 10/10/01
Oct. 10 -- Good Afternoon.
Once again, an awfully busy day for Peter Jennings. He promises he'll be back to this newsletter soon.
A moment to mention a message we received today, in one form or another, from several of you. In support of less information, rather than more. I'll quote the letter from Irene: "I am happy to hear that we are not going to see or hear much … I'd rather have it this way. We are living in dangerous times."
You will not be surprised to learn that we endeavor to see and hear as much as possible — while stopping if and when there is any danger to the national security. At the moment the difficulty is that we are covering a war — with great limitations on what we really know.
Take the example of trying to understand the situation inside Afghanistan today. The Taliban will not permit foreign reporters on the territory it controls — and the Pentagon has been less than forthcoming today. Much of what we are learning comes from refugees, from reporters along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, from the few aid workers and reporters still operating near the places where the bombs are falling. And from our own national security correspondent John McWethy. He provides a sketch of the mission on Day Four.
We also have a sketch tonight of what life has been like for the Afghan people, living under the bombardment. David Wright has the stories of the shoe-shiner, the trench-diggers, and the masses of people who have left their homes, fleeing the bombs, and heading for various points along the Pakistani border. As Wright reports for us, the border remains technically closed — meaning that the vast majority of those people are in a kind of no-man's land, and may be for some time.
We'll also talk tonight to one of our resident experts on Afghanistan. The day's news leave us with a lot of questions.
In this country, from the Bush administration, America's Most Wanted. There was a highly unusual event at the Justice Department today: You are probably familiar with the FBI's lists of most wanted criminals; now we have the government's 22 most wanted terrorists. Terry Moran has this story tonight.
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