security to a ponzi scheme. will his performance in his first presidential debate come back to haunt him? the chilling words of the lead high-jacker of 9/11. while the attacks were in progress. stand by for unforgettable audio, some of it never heard before. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." president obama certainly knows full well what he and the american people have at stake this evening. there will be an urgency in his voice when the president goes before a joint session of congress less than two hours from now. we're getting late word that the jobs package he'll unveil is bigger than many of the initial reports suggested. let's get some of the details from our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin. jessica, what are you learning? >> reporter: the democrat familiar with the president's plan tells me this package is now worth more than $400 billion. i'm told this package targets a number of different groups. first let's take a look at it. for all working americans, the president's plan i'm told will not only extend the current payroll tax cut for all working americans, but a democrat familiar with the plan tells me it's even likely to increase the payroll tax cut that working americans now get. for small businesses, i'm told that the tax credit, there will be a tax credit given to new hires, and a tax credit for small businesses that hire the long-term unemployed. four people who are themselves the long-term unemployed, not only is he looking to get an extension of unemployment benefits, but something you can describe as maybe an unpaid internship program allowing the unemployed to embed themselves in businesses and get job training on the job. and for state and local governments, more funds for road construction. funds on the ground for school renovation, improving schools and monies to hire and keep on the job both teachers and first responders, wolf, just some of the elements in tonight's package. >> a lot at stake for the unemployed, underemployed, those who have given up any hope of getting a job. politically a lot at stake for the president himself, right, jessica? >> reporter: that's right. this you can think of the start of a three-month period, perhaps more, for the president to redefine himself to the american people as the president who is putting congress on the defensive. he wants to be the president with a plan to jump start job growth and pit himself against a krong who has to either accept his plan or openly reject it and then in some ways take the blame, if you will, for not doing enough on unemployment. that would be the white house's positioning. no doubt there will be democrats. we know republicans will object to many aspects of this plan, but there will also be democrats who are critical of it because it will contain so much in the way of tax cuts and tax credits and many democrats would rather see the money go to local governments and to other programs that they think has a more direct impact on hiring, but the white house wants to do what they think can pass more quickly and be more palatable to broader numbers. >> jessica will be with us throughout the evening for all our coverage. thanks very much. let's get more specifics right now about the president's jobs plan and his upcoming speech with one of his key advisors. we're joined by the director of the national economic council, gene sperling. gene, thanks very much for coming in. >> thanks, wolf. >> is it fair to call tonight's proposal that the president will unveil an economic stimulus package? >> i think it's fair to say, as you said, that there will be sense of urgency. that urgency comes from the american public itself. we've got 9.1% unemployment. we've got an economy projected to not grow anywhere near as strong as it needs to to get the number of americans back to work, to get customers in to small businesses so they can expand and hire, and the president is going to make very clear inaction is not an option. no is not an option. we as a country can take bold action to arrest this situation, to jump start job growth, to jump start growth, to give more moment tell to this economy. and we can do this in a context that we also make clear that in the long term we'll get our deficit and debt down. those two things together are exactly what our economy needs to get growth and momentum in the short term and the type of confidence and long-term fiscal discipline that will help encourage people to still think of america as the place to invest, to grow your companies. there's no reason for this not to happen. this will be a smart comprehensive plan and will be the type deserving of bipartisan support. the specific elements will be many, almost all, that have been supported by republicans and democrats in the past. >> i want to go through some of those. as far as an economic stimulus package, we remember the first one, it was about $800 billion. the republicans, a lot of them at least, hated that one. they don't like the notion of an economic stimulus package. is it fair to call this $450 billion plan that the president will unveil tonight an economic stimulus package? >> that seems to be your favorite word, wolf. first of all, i'm not going to comment on the numbers. the president -- you can tune in to hear the exact size and the specific elements of the plan, but i will say the following -- this is different from the recovery act and other acts put forward by republican presidents as well when we've needed an extra boost. this will be paid for, each and every penny. this will not raise our debtor deficit over the long term. it will be part of a long-term fiscal plan that will bring the debt down. that is a very important point. i'll also be clear. if we don't get momentum in this economy, if we don't get jobs growing, make sure this recovery takes stronger hold, we're not going to meet our fiscal targets anyways. we've got to do both, we've got to do them together. as you've said, this will have a smart comprehensive strategy for those who have been unemployed for the long term, it will have an ambitious vision for putting americans back to work, rebuilding america. it will have significant tax relief for every single worker, and it will be particularly targeted to the small business and entrepreneurs who by no fault of their own were hurt by this recession and are the backbone and engine of job creation. >> when you say, gene, it will be paid for. will it be paid for by spending cuts, tax increases or a combination of both? >> well, the plan that the president will put forward will obviously be a compensation. it will have -- he will be putting out the details of the deficit reduction plan later this month. it will be detailed. it will make sure that every single penny of the american jobs act he proposes tonight is paid for and that there is significant additional deficit reduction to bring our debt down as a percentage of our economy. you know that the president in the past has put forward, and we've now passed significant spending cuts in discretionary as well as in defense spending. this will include entitlement savings unquestionably. but it will, of course, ask those who are most well off, the most fortunate, high-income americans to help shoulder the burden and will reduce the inexcusable tax expenditures an loopholes that we should not be spending money on at a time when we have 9.1% unemployment and we need to take efforts to get tax relief and investments to get america back to work. >> you know, so many republicans say they're never going to vote for tax increases. what do you do if you can't get that passed, let's say, in the house of representatives? >> i think the larger message the president will have tonight is no is not an option, doing nothing is not an option. the president is going to put forward a plan that i think is deserving historically of bipartisan support. it's not so long ago that democrats and republicans worked together for infrastructure investments. not so long ago that republicans championed payroll tax cuts. they shouldn't be against just because the president is now for it. this is something we can do together, tax relief for small businesses. these are bipartisan proposals, ones that have his torp cli been supported. of course it's a democracy. we have divided government. people will bring other ideas. but the real test tonight people should be looking for is when the president puts forth his plan and says pass this plan, they should hear either that people are going to say yes or they're going to constructively work with us to put something together that will have an equal impact on creating jobs and growth. >> how worried are you about the -- >> i think most people feel this economy is still in a state of recovery. there's no reason for us as a country to stand by and watch. we can take action to ensure the recovery takes hold, that ensures we get job growth going, that we feel comfortable with the private sector expanding. we know many of the problems this economy and the global economy have suffered are beyond our control, the japanese earthquake, the problems in europe, we had self inflicted wounds by looking like a dysfunctional government on the debt relief. if we can come together on a jobs plan and doing so in a way paid for in the long-term brings down the deaf sit, that kind of confidence will have an immediate impact together with the extra demand that this plan will put into the economy. >> gene sperling has been working nonstop now for weeks and weeks getting this plan ready for tonight. i know how hard you've worked on it, good luck. >> thanks, wolf. >> gene sperling, director of the xhashl economic council at the white house. when the president lays out his new jobs plan in less than two hours, cnn will have live coverage. stay with us. our special coverage, by the way, leading up to the speech will begin at 6:00 p.m., less than an hour from now here in "the situation room." republicans don't plan a formal resfons to the president this evening, but there's a lot of informal criticism even before he gives his speech. we eel get a read on the level of resistance in congress coming in right now and the lead 9/11 hijacker actually promised passengers they'd be okay. you'll hear his chilling words in rarely heard cockpit audio tapes. stay with us. ♪ [ male announcer ] each of these photos was taken by someone on the first morning of their retirement. it's the first of more than 6,000 sunrises the average retiree will see. ♪ as we're living longer than ever before, prudential's challenge is to help everyone have the retirement income they'll need to enjoy every one of their days. ♪ prudential. bring your challenges. jack cafferty is here with the cafferty file. >> wolf, as the country gets ready to mark the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, there's no doubt we were forever changed on that sunny tuesday morning of september of 2001. one of osama bin laden's biggest victories was to make millions of americans afraid, so afraid that most of us stopped questioning our government, whether it meant launching unnecessary wars, removing some of our civil liberty, eroding constitutional rights, ignoring international treaties like the geneva conventions or torturing detain detainees. pat-downs and x-rays at airports became the norm. we used american's deaths to advance their own agendas. so afraid that in the name of national security we allowed the ill-defined wars in afghanistan and iraq to drag on. thousands of lives, trillions of dollars gone along with our once dominant position as the world's biggest superpower. bin laden is fortunately dead and gone, too, but not before accomplishing much of what he set out to do on 9/11. today "usa today" gallup poll shows almost one in five americans say terrorists have won. have they? or have we defeated ourselves? how much of the way our life has changed in the last ten years is a result of that single act of terrorism on 9/11? how much of it is because we allowed ourselves to succumb to our fears and in the process surrender much of what we have always been most proud of. here is the question ten years after 9/11. did the terrorists win? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile or go to "the situation room's" facebook page. >> a lot of people are talking about the 9/11 anniversary including people on jihad difficult websites. janet napolitano says intelligence officials are picking up, in her words, lots of clatter about it. so far, though, she says nothing that warrants a threat advisory. meanwhile, for the first time we're hearing new audio recordings from that day, from 9/11. cnn's brian todd is joining us with the details. >> wolf, some of these audio tapes became declassified just last year. combined with what was previously released, these tapes offer perhaps the most dramatic timeline of the moments the highjack kings were taking place. we hear voices of people on the front line including the flight attendant, betty ong, on board flight 811 at 8:19 eastern time, just 27 minutes before that flight hit the north tower of the world trade center. he calls her colleagues on the ground. this is the first time anyone outside those planes finds out what's going on. listen to betty ong. >> the cockpit is not answering. somebody is stabbed in business class. we can't breathe. i don't know. i think we're getting highjacked. >> five minutes later, 8:24 a.m., 22 minutes before impact on the north tower, the haunting voice of lead high-jacker mohamed atta, boston air traffic control picks him up talking to the passengers. listen to mohamed atta. >> is that american 11 trying to call? >> we have some planes. just stay quiet and we'll be okay. we are returning the the airport. >> who is trying to call me here? american 11, are you trying to call? nobody move. everything is okay. if you try to make any move, endanger yourself and the airplane. just stay quiet. >> again, that's just 22 minutes before that plane hits the north tower of the world trade center. take you forward more than a half hour later, 9:02 a.m. 16 minutes after the plane hits the world trade center, controllers are trying to figure out what's going on, they notice united airlines flight 175, following the purple track here, it has looped south and curved north heading toward the south tower of the world trade center. two air traffic controllers practically narrating the impact. >> hey, can you look out your window right now? can you see about 4,000 feet, looks like he's oh. >> yeah, i see him. >> is he descending through the building also? >> descending really quick, too. 800 feet in one sweep. >> they narrate that as the plane hits the south tower of the world trade center. one of them says holy smokes at the end of it. very, very compelling audio. less than a half hour later, cleveland air traffic control is trying to find united airlines flight 93. it can't find that plane. it enlists the helping of another flight nearby to try to help eyeball that plane. the audio of the cleveland air traffic control picks up flight 93 and passengers yelling inside. you can hear one of them saying we're all going to die here. you have to listen carefully. listen to this. >> american 1060. >> of course, just minutes later that plane hits the ground in shanksville, pennsylvania. the rutgers university law review released some of this material. to hear some of these haunteding audio tapes and other unforgettable moments including stories you have not heard today, turn into "footnotes of 9/11" withdrew griffin, this sunday at 9:00 p.m. >> chilling, haunting. i don't know what else to sachlt thanks, brian. thanks very much. with tightened security at airports, government facilities and critical infrastructure all across the country, dairy say all across the world. experts say terrorists may be targeting so-called soft targets such as shopping malls. cnn homeland security correspondent jeanne meserve reports. >> reporter: truck and bus drivers get id checks. there are schwab tests for explosives, pop-up barricades, bike patrols. undercover behavior detention officers, hundreds of surveillance cameras and bomb sniffing jobs. security for the capitol, the pentagon, the white house? no. this is security at minnesota's mall of america, one of the largest enclosed shopping centers in the country visited by 42 million people each year. >> i think if you're looking for 100% safety, wrap yourself in bubble wrap an never leave home. when you look at the size of this place and what goes on here, yeah, i think it's a very safe place to be. >> reporter: the mall even has something many government facilities do not. >> this is a drill. mall of america is now going into lockdown. >> seek shelter in the nearest store and follow the instructions. this is a drill. >> reporter: twice a month the mall, its tenants and customers participate in a lockdown drill practicing how to shelter in back rooms of stores to try to minimize casualties in an attack. >> if something bad should happen here, we don't want our response to start with, and law enforcement will be here and they will protect you. we can't to know what can be done until law enforcement gets here. >> reporter: the phish reportedly warned that soft targets like crowded malls could be attempting terrorist target. there have been several active shooter episodes. in 2007, for instance, eight died and four were wounded when a gunman opened fire in a omaha, nebraska, shopping center. it was school shootings in russia and columbine, minnesota that led to preaching proactively for an emergency. he says lockdown drills cost next to nothing. >> it is the life we live right now. we can prepare. and if you can do it at the mall of america, it can be donny where. >> reporter: jeanne meserve, cnn washington. it's been eight months since she was shot in head. now congresswoman gabrielle giffords is ready to share her story. large parts of the northeast under water. thousands forced to evacuate. we'll go there life. stay with us. you're in "the situation room." run more smoothly by helping remove deposits and cleaning up intake valves. so when you fill up at an exxon or mobil station, you can rest assured we help your engine run more smoothly while leaving behind cleaner emissions. it's how we make gasoline work harder for you. exxon and mobil. 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[ falcon screeches ] some republicans have been calling him president zero since the august unemployment report, zero jobs created in august. many of them already have made up their minds about the president's new jobs plan even before they know all the details. we're only now a little more than 90 minutes away from this make or break potentially speech that the president will deliver. let's go to capitol hill. our congressional correspondent kate bolduan is standing by. speaker boehner is talking about what he expects to hear. he's getting ready and will be there for the president's speech tonight. what are you hearing on the hill? >> reporter: we're in statuary hall. this is where they'll be walkin