October 20, 2001 – CBS Hourly News – CBS Weekend Roundup – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
October 20, 2001 – News for this day, and in fact for the week had much to do with Afghanistan and the search for Osama bin Laden. There was also news on continued threatened domestic terrorism and reports over how lax airport security was in light of the September 11th attacks.
Slowly, our incursion into Afghanistan was taking shape. With numerous raids taking place and the hunt for Osama bin Laden escalating, it was beginning to look like Afghanistan was going to be in our future for awhile.
News that letters containing the deadly Anthrax poison were showing up in offices around Capitol Hill had many worried. And if that weren’t enough to get everyone’s attention, a package containing Anthrax showed up in the offices of Dan Rather at CBS News, subjecting one Assistant to the poison and prompting quick evacuations of CBS offices in Manhattan. Closer inspection of one of the letters revealed a crudely fashioned note which had all the earmarks of being homemade and not from Al Qaeda.
Alarming reports of lax conditions at airports around the U.S. were an extra added level of anxiety in America this week. Bombs, guns and weapons of all sorts were able to be smuggled on board flights; not only in cargo holds but in passenger cabins. Causing many to take immediate action in preventing terrorist plots to unfold in the skies again.
And news from Paris that Concorde, the supersonic jet transport, grounded earlier due to an accident which killed some 156 passengers outside Paris, was taking to the skies again. A flight resumed to New York, carrying company representatives and engineers, poring over the plane to make sure nothing was faulty or accident prone.
That’s a small slice of what happened during this busy week, ending on October 20, 2001 as reported by CBS Radio.
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