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CNN Live Event/Special

London Terror Bombings

Aired July 08, 2005 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Christiane Amanpour at Tower Bridge in London, near the Aldgate East station, one of those attacked in the wave of bombings yesterday.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And I'm Becky Anderson, welcoming our viewers in the U.S. and around the world to our special coverage of the London bombings. I'm here at King's Cross station, the site of the worst of the fatalities. Twenty-one were dead here at King's Cross.

AMANPOUR: As London woke up to this day, the worst ever attack on this capital city -- it woke up to the day after -- Londoners did go about their daily work. People did get on the buses, and the queen left Buckingham Palace and went to visit the wounded in hospitals, evoking the images of her mother and father, who did the same when the Nazi bombers blitzed this city back in World War II, and remembering, of course, that this city not only suffered under that wave of bombings, but also under the IRA bombings during the '70s and the '80s.

But this, of course, was the very worst, and yet London refuses to surrender. People have simply said that, and they've (INAUDIBLE) and they've talked and they've made clear by their actions that they will not be cowed by this act. They've got on the buses again, they've got on the tubes that have been running, and they have determined to continue. Children had their birthday parties. Schools were not closed. People went to work. People walked, and people also rode the subway -- Becky.

ANDERSON: And as London comes to terms with the cost of this human tragedy, the painstaking task of piecing together exactly what happened on Thursday, July the 7th -- 7/7 is what many people are calling this day of terror in London. Tom Bradby now with more on the investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM BRADBY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rush hour on Thursday, July the 7th, 2005, and every security officer's nightmare has just come true. The capital is under attack. Across the city, bombs are exploding. The cry around Whitehall, What can you tell us? The answer? Nothing. We've got nothing at all. As the city descends into chaos, at MI-5, at the Met and MI-6, politicians are screaming for results, but everyone is drawing a blank. They have thousands of employees and spend millions of pounds, but this has come as a bolt from the blue. So inside MI-5, what happens next? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Initially, they would call up any files on suspects and go through those with a fine-toothed comb to find out if they've missed any information. They would also contact any agents they have in the field, although probably they don't have that many in the suspect groups, and debrief them and try and go and meet them in the safe houses, talk to them about anything they might know about the attacks or anyone who might have been involved. And they would also go through the telephone intercepts, e-mail intercepts with a fine- toothed comb to try and find if there's any indication there was going to be a attack.

Now, I presume there wasn't any indication, which is why they said they had no intelligence. So it might well be that they'd missed it.

BRADBY: The impression we have is that this process has yet to yield a coherent picture. So it's down to old-fashioned detective work and forensics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we have a breakthrough and we find an unexpected evidence type, it's quite possible that some of our technologies, such as DNA, can provide results very quickly, in hours. That's unlikely with a bombing. Typically, our experience -- unfortunately, we've dealt with IRA cases in the past at this laboratory -- this can be weeks or months of very painstaking work. It really depends on what we find.

BRADBY: It was reported this morning that detectives had found traces of RDX explosive, a key component in the Madrid bombs. Others were pointing the finger at Mustafa Nasar, allegedly a former trainer at one of bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan. He was linked with the Madrid bomb, and some claim he may also have set up a sleeper network here.

In truth, it is all speculation. It's equally possible this bomb may have been conceived and carried out by young Britons who'd been trained in Iraq.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's one of the lines of inquiry that will be high on their list because Iraq is live fight now. It's creating new jihadis. That's what's important. The pool of people that were supporters of al Qaeda, active in al Qaeda at 9/11, was known. They were the people from Afghanistan. But now, there are new faces all the time, going from minor role to major role because of involvement in Iraq. And I think that that's the concern for the security services, that they're dealing with an entirely new pool of people.

BRADBY: The police may be under pressure, but they've made it clear they'll go at their own pace. They can't afford any mistakes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: The police here have given us their latest toll, in terms of casualties: 700 casualties, of injured people. Of those, 22, we understand, are critically injured. People have had had to have limbs amputated. People have got chest injuries and severe burns. There are, according to the police, 49 people dead, but they believe that that toll may rise because there are still bodies, they say, trapped under the difficult-to-get-to train under King's Cross station.

Of course, they did up the death toll on the bus explosion. At first, they told us only two people had been killed, but we saw the devastation -- the roof ripped off, the sides torn off, seats thrown about. And now police are telling us that 13 people were killed on that fourth explosion that ripped through a London double-decker bus.

We're joined right now by Paul Slaughter, who's a terrorism and security expert and CEO of Task International. Thank you for joining us.

PAUL SLAUGHTER, CEO, TASK INTERNATIONAL: OK.

AMANPOUR: As the investigators go about trying to figure out who did this, we just heard in a report that some are saying it could turn out to be young Britons who were trained and recruited in Iraq in the terrorism sort of cauldron that's bubbling there.

SLAUGHTER: Yes. Yes. From a personal perspective, I think that's probably correct. Obviously, we'll have to wait for the intelligence analysis to come out, but I think because the indications are that they are not suicide bombers, that they probably planted explosive devices and then detonated through either a timer or a mobile phone, something like that, I think it's more than likely that they are indigenous people here, and they've been awoken, as sleepers normally are, and then instructed to lay the devices to cause as much damage as they possibly can.

AMANPOUR: And these are people that, in your analysis, would have been recruited when? When you say sleepers, are these pre-9/11 sleepers, post-9/11, post-Iraq war?

SLAUGHTER: Not necessarily. I think that the way the Islamic fundamentalists work now, they can actually recruit people and indoctrinate them in a very short period of time. So they could have been recruited three, maybe six months ago, or as many as three, six years ago. There's no real telling.

But I think what probably has happened is that they have been recruited. They may well have been trained elsewhere, but then they've come back to England. They've assimilated themselves, probably, into the Muslim community, and then been told to perpetrate these crimes, and they've done so with the devastating effect that we saw yesterday.

AMANPOUR: There has been quite a lot of debate as to the -- what even the home secretary, Charles Clarke, has called an intelligence failure, although he added that it was not a failure of the intelligence services. What does that mean, an intelligence failure but not a failure of the intelligence services?

SLAUGHTER: I think it's very easy to condemn the security services. In any act like this, wherever it is in the world, there's obviously a failure of intelligence to find out when something's going to happen. But the big problem is that it's a question of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted because the terrorists know when they're going to do something, where they're going to do something and how they're going to do something. And the intelligence services, to try and prevent that is virtually a mission impossible.

AMANPOUR: Do you believe that there is justified concern that perhaps the eye was off the ball somewhat in London, given that even the police admit that the security level was reduced in the last month to a notch below the highest?

SLAUGHTER: Yes, but you cannot keep such a heightened state of security all the time because people just won't do it. It's human nature. You've got to have a fluctuation of those security measures. And it's very easy to criticize in hindsight what's happened.

AMANPOUR: I know that, and it's hard to criticize when you've got such a loss of life. However, this was a G8 summit time, and why -- I mean, is there a sense of complacency? I mean, London does pride itself and Britain does pride itself on really superior counterterrorist knowledge, counterterrorist operations, et cetera. How did this happen here?

SLAUGHTER: That's obviously going to come out in the inquiry. But I think it's -- it is very easy to criticize, but what we have to look at is that the security measures in place are probably as best they are anywhere in the world. And we've got to look at it from that perspective. I think it's also very easy to say that we should have had a much heightened state of security, especially with the G8 summit and with the possibility of getting the Olympics, which we have now. But hindsight is very easy to think about and to criticize people.

AMANPOUR: What about foresight now, as people try to find out who are the perpetrators? If you think that it's potentially people who are British, will the police find them?

SLAUGHTER: Well, hopefully, yes. I mean, it's all very well saying that we will bring these people to justice, but after every outrage, that's always said by politicians and leaders of countries, but it's rare that it happens. Hopefully, from the forensic investigation and trying to find the fingerprint of the bomb makers in the debris that's been left, will indicate who they are.

But I think if they are Islamic fundamentalists, they will obviously have been -- have come from the Muslim community in England, and probably London. So I think the Muslim community have to look at themselves and look inside themselves and assist as best they can.

AMANPOUR: Thank you very much, Paul Slaughter.

And interestingly, to follow on what Mr. Slaughter has just said, the Muslim community of Great Britain was very, very quick to condemn what happened. And I noticed that Muslims around the world, by their e-mails, by their public statements, have been much, much quicker and much, much louder to condemn what happened here in England than they were, for instance, a year ago, or even in the previous bombings, and most particularly, after 9/11, it seems. And we've seen it on Web sites that many in the Muslim world have said, Enough -- Becky.

ANDERSON: Interesting, Christiane. Well, it's 10 past 9:00 local time here. That's just about 36 hours after the first of these four bombs went off yesterday. And as you can see behind me here, the traffic is moving. Effectively, London is back at work.

Now, Londoners were terrified yesterday, absolutely terrified. And let me tell you, 150 feet below where I stand at present, there are still emergency services trying to recover some bodies. This was the worst of the fatalities, here at King's Cross station, 21 fatalities, unfortunately. Many, many other hundreds were hurt. But as I say, the emergency services are literally below where I stand at present.

This street would have been empty yesterday evening. It was a summer evening. At this time, at 10 past 9:00, it would have been completely deserted. London was scared. Tonight, London is back at work. Let's see this report from Lucy Manyon (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCY MANYON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Londoners heading back to work any way they could. The tube may have been bombed, but London Bridge thronging with those who refused to be scared off by the bombers -- buses, cars and on foot, many keen to stay aboveground. Not many people on the tube early this morning. Those who needed to or were brave enough to sat pensively in the carriages. After yesterday, no one quite sure what to expect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Business as usual, really. I'm pretty impressed that the trains were working 100 percent (INAUDIBLE). You know, just get on with it, and sod al Qaeda, basically.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got to get to work anyway. Life goes on.

MANYON: Outside King's Cross station, passengers waited for buses, reading about commuters who fled in panic from here yesterday. Just yards from Aldgate tube station, Londoners crammed onto the buses. Some because they had to with the service disrupted, others because they were too scared to return to the underground. Before yesterday, taking a bus was risk-free, but after yesterday, no one was quite sure how safe this morning's bus journey would be.

The buses wound their way through central London, busier, quieter, some people a bit more apprehensive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not safe, and I don't like underground now anymore. I don't want to go back underground. And the buses, as well, I think.

MANYON (on camera): You're not happy being on the bus today?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, really, I'm not. I'm scared, as well. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a bit scary (INAUDIBLE) you know, because you never know what's going to happen. But still -- still, the police and the government have just made sure that they're making everything right.

MANYON: What are your thoughts about traveling this morning, after what happened yesterday?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's quite scary, to be honest. But if you let yesterday defeat London, there's no point. Like, the actions of yesterday were horrendous, and by not traveling or not going on with your routine, you're just kind of giving in to what they want.

MANYON (voice-over): Londoners carrying on, but no one on a bus today will forget the image of the number 30 blown apart in Tavistock Square.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Lucy Manyon reporting there. Well, as I said, many, many people are still injured. They are in the hospitals around London. Jim Clancy is at St. Mary's -- Jim.

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're going to have an update for that coming up after this short break. Also, the missing. How on earth will they be found? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll all get together, irregardless of race, color, creed in the country. We'll go fight together, and then we will definitely win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back, as we continue our special coverage of the aftermath of the terror bombings that swept London yesterday.

President Bush is en route back to the United States and is due to land at Andrews Air Force Base shortly, and then he will go to the British embassy in Washington, D.C., where he will sign the condolence book there. And we will have that for you live perhaps in about 15 minutes. So stay tuned.

In the meantime, there's been much, much reaction from people all over the world, from ordinary people and from world leaders, shock, solidarity and sympathy for the people of London, who suffered their worst ever terrorist attack.

The queen herself, the head of this country, left Buckingham Palace, where obviously, the flags are at half-mast, and she went to the hospitals, where she visited the wounded. There are some 700 people wounded, 22 of them, we're told, are critically wounded. The queen went to the hospitals to try to comfort some of those injured. This is what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUEEN ELIZABETH: I want to express my admiration for the people of our capital city, who in the aftermath of yesterday's bombings, are calmly determined to resume their normal lives. That is the answer to this outrage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: And that, of course, the queen there, speaking to some of those who have been hospitalized as a result of this terror act.

While there are many people still in hospitals receiving intensive care, hospitals around the country -- sorry -- around London -- Jim Clancy is at one of the London hospitals, St. Mary's, and he joins us from there -- Jim.

CLANCY: Well, Becky, I want to begin -- there are many different numbers that we could talk about. I'll get to the casualty numbers in a moment. I want to talk about some numbers that are far fewer but every bit as important. And certainly, what we are seeing here at this hospital -- and this is something that's being played out, Becky, at hospitals all around London -- loved ones, colleagues looking for the missing.

Just a few moments ago, a young man named Carl (ph) came by to leave this with me. It's a picture of his 53-year-old mother, Ojara Ikiagwu (ph). She's Nigerian. She was on her way to work in Social Services. They can't find her anywhere. He's been to seven hospitals this day. We saw the same scene played out again and again here at St. Mary's today, as victims' family members went out looking for them, bringing their pictures with them.

In one case, it was a Turkish girl about 24 years of age, her family looking for her. In another case, the colleagues of a young Polish girl, 24 years of age, had gone out looking. She actually called them yesterday, saying she wasn't able to get on -- to carry through with her ride to work on the tube. She was transferring to get on a bus. They haven't heard from her since. They're circulating the photos, hoping that they are going to find these people and they're going to find them alive. But the hopes for that are fading.

Here at the hospital, we can report that out of the 700 originally reported wounded, about half of those were treated on the scene. The last night, about 100 stayed overnight in the hospital. Steadily, that number has been decreased. We don't have a specific number for you on how many people remain hospitalized citywide. Here at St. Mary's, we know that 10 were hospitalized, but a couple of them were said to be going home. Two are critically injured, though. They have suffered amputations. In addition to that, we understand there are another 20 people critically injured across the city, many of them badly burned in the four explosions that literally tore the heart out of London in the morning rush hour -- Becky.

ANDERSON: Jim, I know that you've been speaking to some of the staff there at St. Mary's. It was quite an incredible effort by the emergency services when these explosions happened. Just give me the sense of the mood there at the hospital, a sense of what the staff felt and how prepared they were for this sort of event.

CLANCY: Well, indeed, we were able to talk with them. And you know, the perspective that they have, of course -- they were tested, and it was horrific for them to try to deal with as many casualties as they had to deal with. One of the spokespeople here at St. Mary's talked with us a little bit earlier. Let me just play that out for you. She best describes what the staff here in accident and emergency, or A&E, went through on Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLAIRE BURROUGHS, HOSPITAL SPOKESWOMAN: We've seen 38 people in total, you know, with a range of injuries. Casualty staff were saying that, you know, they saw yesterday what they'd expect to see in a year of A&E work. So we have people with chest problems due to smoke inhalation. Many of the victims, their eardrums were perforated because of the noise. We've seen breaks, sprains, head injuries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CLANCY: Now, many of those people that are still in hospital here, we understand, do not have family members here in London. And as a result of that, the staff is stepping in here. They are their families, so to speak, for the moment. Some of them live farther away in England. Others live overseas. Because London is an international city, because it is a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic city, we are seeing that the casualties are really coming across the entire spectrum here. Not all of them are native to the Unite Kingdom -- Becky.

ANDERSON: Yes. Interesting. Jim, thank you very much indeed. Jim Clancy is at St. Mary's hospital in London. I'm here at King's Cross. Back to Christiane.

AMANPOUR: Becky, just to follow on from what you and Jim, were discussing, the police say that among the injured yesterday were people from Sierra Leone, Australia, Portugal, Poland and China.

And I was just talking a moment ago with Paul Slaughter, the terrorism expert, and he said that, awful as it sounds, Britain got off, he thought, rather lightly compared to what could have happened. And he attributed that, first, he said, to the incredible way the emergency services responded. And secondly, he said, that it was because it happened at the height of rush hour. And he sort of described that people standing very, very close together, packed like sardines, protect those who are behind them, whereas if the trains had been slightly less full, the shrapnel, the impact of the blast would have potentially been much more deadly.

The police are telling us, as we keep repeating, that they have found 49 bodies. There may be more -- in fact, there are more that have not yet been able to be recovered from under King's Cross station. We're going to go to a break, but when we come back, we're going to bring you, hopefully, the return of President Bush to the United States. And also, we'll hear from Al Goodman in Spain -- Spain, which lost 190 people in their terrorist attacks a year ago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: I'm Becky Anderson here at King's Cross station for this special report on the London bombings. I'm going to tell you we are standing by for President Bush, who is expected at Andrews Air Force Base, from where he will go to the British embassy in order to sign the condolence book. Stay with us for that, if you will -- Christiane.

AMANPOUR: Becky, and as we've been talking about this wave of terrorist attacks that has hit England and has also hit other capitals, Madrid notably last year, we're going to go now to Al Goodman, our correspondent in Madrid, to talk about how the people there are feeling after what happened to their sister city.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL GOODMAN, CNN MADRID BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Like London this morning, commuters in Madrid had no warning last year. This was the ghastly scene capture by a Madrid security camera. The Madrid bombings hit four trains just minutes apart in the middle of rush hour, a total of 10 bombs, 191 people dead, more than 1,500 wounded. Both attacks were designed for terror. Both sought to kill and wound as many as possible.

So what have we learned from Madrid? Eventually, Spanish authorities would focus on al Qaeda. More than 100 suspects have been charged.

(on camera): Police say the terrorists carried out surveillance of the trains and the stations, like Atocha here, carefully rehearsing the attacks over a number of weeks.

(voice-over): The terrorists even rode the trains, testing security. They left bags aboard to see if anyone would notice. The explosives, we now know, were manufactured in Spain for legitimate mining, but they were stolen from this mine in the north. Police say this house on the outskirts of Madrid was the bomb factory. The terrorists recruited local criminals to help assemble the bombs and place them in backpacks and sports bags.

Soon after, the terrorists placed the bombs aboard the commuter trains. They used timers on cell phones to coordinate the bomb triggers and to detonate the deadly bags. One of the bombs failed. By examining it, police learned the bombs were synchronized with timers on cell phones.

Police announced the first arrests two days after the attacks. There were no suicide bombers in Madrid, but three weeks after the attack, as police closed in on their hideout, seven of the leading suspects blew themselves up. But the identity of the mastermind who caused the horror here in Madrid is still a mystery.

(on camera): There were so many bodies that a makeshift morgue was set up here, at Madrid's main convention center. But many relatives said it took a long time to find out the fate of loved ones.

(voice-over): The day after the attack, millions of Spaniards took to the streets to protest terrorism. And a few days later, in a historic turnaround, they voted out of office the conservative government, which, like Britain's Tony Blair, had taken the unpopular step of putting troops in the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. Some say it was a direct response to Osama bin Laden's threats of payback for Iraq.

And now today, a year after the Madrid bombing, the lesson for London seems to be that recovering from such an attack is a very long ordeal. Al Goodman, CNN, Madrid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: The memories are there of Madrid. And let me just remind you, we are standing by for the arrival of President Bush at Andrews Air Force Base, from where he will go by helicopter directly to the British embassy there in Washington to sign the condolence book, the book that is being prepared for those -- in honor of those who have been injured and, of course, who have died in these London bombings.

Well, many of you from around the world have been writing in, just describing how you feel about what went on in London some 36 hours ago, about these London bombings. Zain Verjee has some of your e-mails -- Zain.

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks a lot, Becky. Here's just a sampling of some of the responses we've had so far. Juan from Spain writes this: "It's a real pity and a tragedy what's occurred in London. A sincere and very warm salute to the U.K. from all of us here in Spain.

Tim from the United Kingdom had this to say, "We've had worse in the U.K.: the Battle of Britain, the IRA bombing campaign and the Lockerbie attack. We're resilient. And terrorism won't scare us from a way of life that has been established over a 1,000 years."

Abed from the United Arab Emirates says this, "this is a terrible act against humans. We condemn this act of terrorism and we hope it will stop forever. And people from all over the world will live in peace."

Still ahead on our special coverage of the London attacks. One day after London suffered its deadliest attack since World War II, the wait goes on for friends and relatives who are missing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to our coverage. I'm Christiane Amanpour here in London where it's about 9:30 in the evening and people are still going about their daily life, one day after the worst terrorist attacks this city has ever seen.

ANDERSON: That's right, Christiane. And I'm Becky Anderson here at King's Cross station in London, the site of the worst of the fatalities in Thursday's bombing.

And let me just remind viewers who may have joined us that we are waiting for the arrival of President Bush at Andrews Air Force Base. He is being flown there. From there, he will be taken by helicopter to the British embassy in Washington where he will sign the book of condolences.

We will bring you that live, of course, as he arrives at the base -- Christiane.

AMANPOUR: And as you're looking at those live pictures of the marine helicopters that are ready to ferry the president into Washington, D.C., let's just remind you, of course, of the figures that the British police are telling us are the casualties so far known from yesterday's wave of bombings.

49 people confirmed dead, but they say that figure will rise because there are still bodies, they say, trapped especially under the Kings Cross location there, because that is the hardest to reach.

They also told us that there were 13 people who were killed on that bus, the fourth explosion. And that is a significant increase from what they were saying yesterday. Yesterday they said only two people had been killed. But when you looked at the pictures, when people told us what they had seen and what they had heard there, the top ripped off, the sides ripped off, the chairs and seats ripped out, we knew that that death toll would go higher, and it has. 700 people, we are told, have been injured. 22 of those critically, many of those requiring operations and even amputations.

This has been a terrible, terrible time for Londoners. But they have not bowed. And they have not given in. And they are continuing to go to work, even go on the underground tube station to work, even take double-decker buses where they are in operation, which is over most of London. James Mate has today's story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES MATES, ITV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A day after the worst bomber attacks in London since the war, the queen wanted to be amongst Londoners. Her mother and father had insisted on being with people during the Blitz, she did likewise, visiting the wounded and those caring for them. She held back nothing in her admiration for the people of the capital, nor of her feelings towards the bombers.

ELIZABETH II, QUEEN OF ENGLAND: I want to express my admiration for the people of our capital city who in the aftermath of yesterday's bombings are calmly determined to resume their normal lives. That is the answer to this outrage.

But those who perpetrate these brutal actions against innocent people should know that they will not change our way of life. Atrocities such as these simply reinforce our sense of community, our humanity and our trust in the rule of law.

MATES: Many of those who insisted on getting into work today stopped to place small bouquets of flowers. As they did so, it was emerging that many bodies, 20 or more still lie trapped deep underground. That when rescue workers finally get to them, the death toll is going to rise significantly.

(on camera): There's been a strange feeling all day in this part of London. On the one hand, an admiral return to normality. People doing is exactly what they're urged to do. And yet all the time the knowledge that underground directly beneath us in the tunnels and on the platforms of the Piccadilly line, there are still hundreds of police and rescue workers dealing with a quite appalling scene of carnage.

(voice-over): The police spoke today of that carnage and the difficulties they're facing down there.

AC ANDY HAYMAN, SPECIALIST OPERATIONS: It's yet to be the case for us to get near the carriage. There's the threat of the tunnel being unsafe. Of course, given the passage of time, we would be expecting things such as vermin and other dangerous substances to be in the air.

MATES: The forensic investigation of the No. 30 bus destroyed yesterday is not so hampered. But officers are instead having to cope with the terrible damage done to the victims. If this what the blast did to a bus, it is beyond imagination what it did to a human body.

The driver who survived this, spoke today of his feelings for those of his passengers who died and for their families. Only this afternoon were the police able to give a final figure.

SIR IAN BLAIR, METROPOLITAN POLICE COMMISSIONER: All bodies have now been recovered from the site at Tavistock Square, which is the bus that we can confirm now that there were 13 people killed on the bus.

MATES: With most of the capital today remarkably back to normal, the mayor promised the defiance of the bombers would go on.

KEN LIVINGSTONE, LONDON MAYOR: Watch next week, as we bury our dead and mourn them. But see also in those same days, new people coming to this city to make it their home, to call themselves Londoners.

MATES: And that was the message on so many cards left today. So you can e you think you can defeat us, says this one. And this echoed that actions of millions in the city today, London will go on.

James Mates, ITV News, in Central London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: And you are now seeing live pictures of Air Force One as it comes into Andrews Air Force Base, carrying the president, George W. Bush. He will be taken from there by helicopter when the plane comes in -- by helicopter as I say to the British embassy in Washington where he will be greeted by the ambassador, of course. And he will be there to sign the book of condolences.

We saw pictures Thursday of the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice there offering her support for those who were hurt or injured or indeed died in these terrible attacks in London on Thursday. She was there to sign the book of condolences. She was there on site.

The British ambassador to expect George Bush to be whisked by helicopter straight to the embassy in Washington -- the British embassy in Washington where he will be seeing that signing the book of condolences very much aware of the feeling in London.

He's just arriving back, of course, from the G-8 summit in Scotland. He will have been filled in by Tony Blair who left that summit yesterday for a number of hours to return to London after he heard word of the bombings, the four explosions that took some 50 lives and left so many hundreds of others wounded.

George Bush, of course, was there with Tony Blair. Tony Blair left. He left for London to join the Cobra Committee, which is the U.K. Government's emergency committee which was sitting at that time organizing the emergency services here in London.

So George W. Bush very much aware of the anxieties, the terror, the fright, but the sense of no surrender, that those who live in London who work in London, ordinary people whose lives were disrupted, significantly disrupted, in many cases lives taken by the bombers, the bomber or bombers who set those bombs, the perpetrators of those four explosions in London on Thursday.

So this -- these pictures of the base where George W. Bush will be landing from where he will be taken by helicopter to the British embassy in Washington to be greeted there by David Manning, the British ambassador. And he will there sign the book of condolences as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did so yesterday, offering their support for those who were injured, or indeed those who were killed in these atrocities in London on Thursday -- Christiane.

AMANPOUR: Well, there you have Air Force One touching down now in Andrews Air Force Base. And just as he was coming down, you saw behind us here on the tower bridge, a fleet of ambulances with sirens blaring going across that bridge.

We don't know why, of course, but it does have an eerie connotation when you see these ambulances screeching through the city like we did yesterday as they responded so quickly to this terrorist attack that struck the city. Six -- or rather, four blasts, 49 people confirmed dead. That death toll bound to rise, because as we've been saying, bodies still trapped in the carriages that are difficult to reach as the police spokesman said because of the unsafe nature of the tunnel down there.

So that's going to be a priority now for recovery workers to get those bodies out and to be able to bring them to a proper burial and to inform their families who actually are still looking for those who are missing. And there are many numbers as we've been reporting of people who can't find their families and friends after yesterday and who are still looking and who are still hoping.

Going back now to Wolf Blitzer who's joining us from our studios in Washington as President Bush touches down. This must be both a moment of solidarity, of course, for President Bush when his country was attacked, when the USA was attacked in 2001, the whole world was American for a few months there as they stood in solidarity with the United States. And the same has happened now here in England with reaction from all over the world coming in -- Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Christiane. And it's certainly underscored by what the president is about to do, landing here at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland just outside Washington, D.C. Once he gets off Air Force One, he always takes a few steps to go to Marine One, the helicopter that normally will either take him to the south lawn of the White House or to Camp David, his presidential retreat in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland.

This is very unusual. The president will be landing, has landed. Will get aboard Air Force One -- will get aboard Marine One, that is, the helicopter, the U.S. marine helicopter. And he will fly directly over to the area around the British embassy on Massachusetts Avenue here in Washington.

Right next door to the British embassy, Christiane, as you well know, is the U.S. Naval Observatory, the residence of the vice president of the United States. There's a helipad there. And to underscore how strong this relationship is between the United States and Britain, especially during these very trying times of terror attacks, whether 9/11 here in the United States or 7/7 what happened in London yesterday, this is a symbolic gesture that the president of the United States will make to his friend, Tony Blair, the British prime minister, to all the people of Britain. He'll go over to the British Embassy. Sir David Manning, the British ambassador, will receive him there. And the president will sign a book of condolences to the people of Britain in the aftermath of this terror strike yesterday.

The president clearly anxious to underscore his personal, personal moment of sadness and solidarity as you well point out, Christiane, with the people of Britain.

Air Force One is continuing to taxi. It will come to a halt very, very soon. The president will walk down those steps and then go over to Marine One.

We do expect at some point to hear directly from the president, presumably over at the British embassy upon his departure. CNN, of course, will have extensive coverage of all of that in the coming half hour, hour or so -- Christiane.

AMANPOUR: We're going to go to -- we're going to go to a short break now. And then we'll come back as the president gets on the marine helicopter.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Hello, I'm Becky Anderson. And welcome back to our special coverage of the London bombings. We welcome our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. I'm at King's Cross station in London.

AMANPOUR: I'm Christiane Amanpour here at Tower Bridge. We just saw a fleet of ambulances and police cars with their sirens blaring. This is close to the site of one of those attacks yesterday. We can't tell why, but it does really at this time give sort of an eerie reminder of what happened in so much of London yesterday.

Today, though, it's about recovery. It's about getting the bodies out that are still stuck under, for instance, King's Cross station. It's about numbers, about 49 people who are confirmed dead. But those numbers will rise because as I say, there are still those who need to be recovered.

About 700 people injured, 22 of them critically, people who have required immediate surgery, who've had to undergo amputations, who have chest injuries and severe burns, people and families whose lives have been turned upside down, but who have not surrendered to what happened to them yesterday.

The families, other people around London, going about their business, getting on the tubes, those are open. Getting on the buses, those that are still running, and most of them are.

The Muslim community of London, Great Britain, has come out loudly and forcefully condemning what happened yesterday saying that this was an atrocious attack that bears no bearing on any kind of religious faith.

And for the first time, really, Muslims around the world have really come out quickly and forcefully and publicly about what happened here. Much quicker than they did in Madrid last year, or after 9/11, or after other bombings. And one perhaps signifies the feeling amongst many Muslims right now as we've been getting reports a website entry where Muslims are saying enough of this.

CNN's Jim Boulden has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): London's Muslim community answered the call to Friday prayer as they do every week. But as they do whenever there is a threat or an act of terror, the television cameras were intruding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our thoughts, prayers and condolences go toward the victims of yesterday's terrible terrorist attack.

BOULDEN: What makes this Friday different is these Muslims are praying for the victims despite their own fears.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had some reservations about coming today in case there should be reprisals. But in the same way as Tony Blair said, I shouldn't let it interfere with our daily routine. I thought it best to come along.

BOULDEN: Thankfully, there have been few reports of reprisals.

IQBAL SACRAMIE, MUSLIM COUNCIL OF BRITAIN: There have been minor incidents reported in the community. We have -- abusive language has been used against them. But no major incidents that has been reported.

BOULDEN: It's not yet known who was behind Thursday's terrible deeds. But most Muslims were quick to condemn the acts, particularly at London's Finsbury Mosque, once the center of London's radical Islamic community. it was here that the cleric Abu Hamza once preached his gospel of hate and jihad against the west. Abu Hamza is now on trial here in London for alleged links to terrorists.

Today, the leaders of the mosque preach a new message. They want those responsible for yesterday's attacks to be brought to justice.

MOHAMMED KOZHAR, FINSBURY MOSQUE: As Muslims, we can, as I said, feel with these victims, with these who died and we are pretty sure that some of them will be Muslims.

BOULDEN (on camera): London's Muslim leaders say the attack had nothing to do with faith. And point to the fact that one of the trains was bombed right under here, Edgware Road, which is at the very heart of London's Arabic community.

(voice-over): And flowers are beginning to pile up near that sight. One Muslim woman left a message that is shared by so many here in London, that she is shocked and heart broken.

Jim Boulden, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Some images there of Friday prayers at the mosque in London. And let me just remind you of one other fact. The bus that was blown up in Tavistock Square came from an area in London called Hackney, that is a densely Muslim population there in Hackney.

So it was a high probability that there were Muslims on that bus. And that is the message from the Muslim Council of Britain today. This has been an attack on innocent people in England, British people. Maybe third or fourth generation Muslim British people. And that was the message from the Muslim council today.

Well, let's bring in our senior Arab affairs correspondent Octavia Nasr who is at CNN center. Now, Octavia, just give us some sense of what the Arab media is saying. What's being expressed around the world about these atrocities in London Thursday?

OCTAVIA NASR, CNN ARAB AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Outrage seems to be the headline of the day, Becky. People cannot stop telling anchors and reporters and going in chat rooms and expressing their disgust at how can someone call themselves Muslim and commit such an atrocity. You're hearing it from even the most extreme of Muslims. Take a look at this quote, for example. This is an Islamist thinker, basically an Islamist extremist who said on al Jazeera, "the U.S. and Britain are committing atrocities against our people everywhere, but we shouldn't respond to a crime with a crime."

You have a very interesting twist here, because you have extreme Muslims turning around and saying wait a minute, now you're starting to kill each other. You're killing your brothers. You're killing Arabs and Muslims. And you also have a group of people who are very concerned about the backlash, as you heard in this report earlier. They think that there are victims on both ends, they're victims of the terror attacks and they are going to be victims of the finger pointing, they're going to be victims of harassment.

This is an example -- this woman posted this message on al Arabiya Web site. She said, "those terrorists have ruined the reputation of Arabs in Europe. These terrorist acts hurt Islam. Arabs will be facing more harassment now as a result."

Now, of course, have you also editorials, for example. When you read them today, they were very interesting because they were very forceful. The condemnation was abound.

You still heard the voices bleeding in, voices of hatred, some people saying that the Brits got what they deserve and they deserve more. You still heard some people clapping and chanting long live Osama and so forth.

But this is an example of how op eds looked like on Arab media this morning. This is from Jihad Al-Khazen from "Al-Hayat" newspaper. And, of course, "Al-Hayat" newspaper is based in London. He said, "such criminal terror acts prove that no measure is enough to fight terrorism. Actions that governments take to fight terrorism are totally justified because protecting life is a lot more important than protecting civil liberties."

And I have to add that Jihad al-Khazen indicated in his column that he's totally opposed usually to laws under the banner of fighting terrorism such as the new laws that could infringe on the civil liberties of people. And he's saying -- this is a moderate journalist saying you know what? Forget civil liberties. We don't need them anymore. Protecting lives is a lot more important than protecting civil liberties -- Becky.

ANDERSON: No question.

Octavia Nasr in Atlanta at CNN center. We thank you very much indeed for that.

The reaction of the Arab press and those who have written in and called in and spoken to the Arab media around the world. Christiane, it's been an overwhelming 36 hours here in London. And this, of course, a day when the human costs of those terror attacks really became extremely evident. AMANPOUR: That's right, Becky. It's really been such a roller coaster, because you remember 48 hours ago, Britain was on a megahigh having just won the privilege of being the host city for the 2012 Olympic Games, the summer Olympics, seven years from now. And then to have this happen really has knocked the socks off people and really devastated people.

But I think something that you were just talking about with Octavia is going to come up more and more as people digest this, people react to this, the impact settles in. And governments and ministers and the prime minister tries to figure out what to do.

And the issue of civil liberties will come up very, very, very, very strongly and people won't take kindly to their liberties being impinged on. And that has been such a point of contention both in the United States and in Britain since 9/11 and trying to strike a balance between fighting terrorism and making these countries safe and still not infringing too much improperly on people's natural civil liberties. So, that's going to be very interesting.

ANDERSON: Christiane, let's also remind viewers of the irony of the fact that just about a month ago, after the British elections in May, the state of alertedness in the UK was actually reduced. And this is something that's been brought up over the last 36 hours, particularly by the opposition party, the Conservative Party here in the UK.

It's a question that they want answered, why was it that the state of alertedness was reduced particularly at a time when the British authorities, of course, knew and had planned that the G-8 summit would be happening in Scotland where world leaders would be gathering. It's an interesting point, isn't it?

AMANPOUR: Yes, of course, it is a question that many, many people are asking. The home secretary himself, Charles Clark called what happened an intelligence failure if not a failure of the intelligence services. And the terrorism expert that we were just talking to in this special coverage was saying that you just simply cannot be at the highest alert all the time. No city can. That they had notched it down, but not dramatically. It was at the second highest possible level.

But, of course, the question is why, particularly at a G-8 summit meeting. These questions will continue to be asked as they are being asked now.

But of course, they say look, you can be as alert as possible, you can have the best anti-terrorism squads in the world, you can have the best intelligence, you can live through this and be as experienced as any other country on combating terrorism, but you cannot make any city completely failsafe, and that is the dilemma.

ANDERSON: Christiane, thank you. I'm Becky Anderson here at Kings Cross Station. It is just before 10:00 p.m. on a Friday evening. And as you can see behind me, London is back on the move. Thank you very much indeed for watching this special coverage of the London bombings.

END

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