Multiple hijacked airliners have attacked several targets in the United States.

Two airliners, carrying a total of 156 people, crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center Wednesday morning. The first one hit around 1500 UTC; the second hit 18 minutes later.

I watched both towers collapse - within a half hour of each other - on live television. The second plane (believed to be a Boeing 767, with 81 on board) was also captured in the act, and the impact/collapse is being repeatedly replayed. Ground-level camera crews caught frantic people hanging out of the windows of the 110-story buildings in the minutes before they fell.

Here is your sense of scale: Approximately 50,000 people work in the two Trade Center towers. There have been no estimates of casualties; all hospital and emergency/fire workers throughout the State of New York have been mobilized to NYC this afternoon. Hospitals outside of NYC will be staffed by National Guard docs today.

In addition to this, an airliner also crashed into the Pentagon, decimating almost an entire segment of the five-sided structure. The Pentagon is still on fire (as of 1808 UTC). No estimates of casualties there, either.

Another airliner has been reported crashed near Camp David, the President's personal retreat. President Bush was in Florida when the attack occurred; he has since been moved to an air force base in Louisiana (not Washington, D.C. - Vice President Cheney has his fingers on the buttons in the White House 'Situation Room')

A fourth airliner has been reported crashed about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There have been no additional reports from this scene, except for the news of the crash.

ALL aircraft traffic over the United States has been halted - NO airplanes are allowed to fly anywhere in America. This has never happened before. All inbound international flights have been diverted.

The United States Military is on a war footing. Fighter jets have been scrambled and are patrolling airspace over air bases and major airports. Borders to Mexico and Canada have been sealed.

Congressional leadership has been "moved to a safe place." All federal buildings have been closed and evacuated in Washington. Most states have sealed off their own capitol buildings and state offices; major municipal buildings in other massive cities (like Chicago, Seattle, etc.) and even in mid to large cities are now under guard. Most state and municipal governments in America have activated their disaster response plans, just in case.

Schools are being closed around the country. All major financial markets have also been closed for the day.

Needless to say, the rabble are pretty much in shock, glued to the TV. All televison and radio stations (even those of completely music format) have gone to continuous coverage of the drama. Don't try to call New York - you will NOT get through.

This is not a good thing, as the mainstream media coverage, devoid of new details for the last couple of hours, are into full speculation-and-vengeance mode. Repeatedly re-running clips of the carnage as it unfolded.

The usual suspects (Arab in nature) are being pre-blamed, and it is being bandied about by our political leaders and pundits that this has been an "act of war," with the proper response expected.

Many of my local IMC-istas have checked in, and we're all worrying about the increased domestic repression that may come, both in the long and short-term.

If the worst-case scenario is assumed, the death toll could mount to as much as the United States killed when they dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

This is big, and we're all pretty much dumbstruck. I am probably missing some details, but that is all I can think of right now.

-wxm