Mike Rouse from Blue Torch Solutions has tagged me with the September 11th meme. I was sitting at my desk on the balcony at Politico's talking to my bookkeeper when I suddenly noticed that Sky News had switched to Fox and were showing smoke coming from a tall tower. As the situation became clearer I remember seeing a spec on the skyline coming closer to the tower. I assumed a small light aircraft had hit it. In the corner of the screen I noticed a spec moving across the screen. 'Jesus, there's another plane', I remember saying. 'Oh my God, it's going to hit the other tower'. Crash. Fire. Carnage. But it wasn't until the first tower collapsed that the true horror hit me. People down below in the shop stood watching the bigger screen in silence. Someone rushed out the door saying her sister worked at the World Trade Centre and she ha d to phone her.At that moment I thought of my friend Daniel Forrester who I knew worked there from time to time. Indeed his father had a corner office in one of the towers. I tried to ring him. The number didn't work. I remember helping a customer ring her boyfriend in China to tell him what was happening. His father worked in one of the towers. I kept trying to call Daniel, becoming increasingly frantic. Eventually he called me. The emotion of the day caught up with me and I can remember speaking to him with tears running down my face, trying to keep my voice from breaking up completely.
I remember thinking how brilliantly Sky had coped with the coverage. I think Kay Burley was broadcasting at the time. She had come a long way from her first job on TvAM. That day she came of age. It wasn't until much later in the day that I started to think about the political implications. I could not understand why President Bush hadn't sought to immediately reassure his weeping nation. It was not his finest hour.
September 11th 2001 was a day that changed the world. It robbed a generation of its innocence and its consequences will be felt for decades to come. But there is one thing it did not shake - and that is the alliance between the two greatst free nations on earth - the United States and the United Kingdom. Some of the most evil regimes inthe world have tried to defeat the cause of freedom which our two nations exemplify. They failed in the first world war, they failed in the second and they are failing now. As long as the cherished flame of freedom burns in the hearts of true democrats we'll never give ground to those who seek to destroy us. Indeed, we must destroy them. This is no normal conflict. It is a conflict which demands extraordinary leadership from extraordinary people, which demands courage and bravery from those who defend us. We are fortunate that there is no shortage of that. We should salute them.
Please add your own recollection in the Comments Section.
44 comments:
I was at the office (an accountancy practice). The office ground to a halt as we watched the terrible events unfold. A memorable day for all the wrong reasons.
I was shopping in Safeways when the first plane hit. I think I was in the Soap Powder aisle.
Did you know 10,000 people die a year from gun crime in the USA? That 40,000 die a year from car accidents? That's 50,000 a year, or 250,000 in five years in the USA from cars and guns. Perhaps the Americans should fear each other, not the cave-dwelling bearded pork-dogders of Al Qaeda?
I was at Boston Airport waiting for a flight back to the UK early in the morning. I always think how the terrorists wanted to take planes full of fuel and my flight would have been too....
Very sad day overall and quite scary fro a while when there were reports of more planes and targets, including the airport itself.
Only got home a week later. Many good Amerivan friends put me up in the meantime.
Slightly off topic, Iain, but I do hope you have the time to mention what you thought of David Cameron's insensitive and ill-timed speech on US foreign policy today.
I had just poped into the TV shop next door to where I worked, I can't remember why and watched it all happen on some very large TV's.
It was unbelievable.
I was in the RAF working in a headquarters job along with NATO personnel, including quite a few from the US.
There was quite a flurry of activity, to say the least. We felt very bad for our US colleagues and there was a clear sense of solidarity. As events unfolded, the Afghanistan operation was clearly proportionate and measured and it is to Bliar's credit that he stood alongside Bush at the same time as urging restraint. It is a shame that, due to bungling and lies, this has been squandered 5 years later.
I was living in France and I'd gone to the little convenience store round the corner to pick something up. I saw people gathered at the bar across the street, looking up at the TV.
I crossed, to see what it was, and, of course, that's what it was. Everyone, French and tourists, standing in the bar, silent in shock. It was an appalling moment.
I was having lunch at my desk while my secretary was on the telephone trying to arrange a conference call with someone in New York - she broke off the conversation to say that the person on the other end of the line had just seen a plane crash into a skyscraper opposite her. After that everything more or less stopped and we spent the rest of the day trying to log onto the BBC website until we were all sent home early. Someone's leaving drinks were cancelled.
I was at a meeting in the Ministry of Defence!! Not personally worried for my safety but the wife was having kittens. Did not see any of the footage until late that evening as we went out on the town straight after the meeting - watching the events unfold so many hours later than anyone else was bizzare as the other people watching that late news bulletin could not understand why I was reacting with such shock and incredulity.
Gareth
Sitting at home in Cardiff, reading, with Radio 4 in the background. Suddenly realising that the 2pm news bulletin was going on too long. Hearing the words "plane - flown into - World Trade Center". Immediately switching the TV on and gazing in disbelief at that unbelievably blue New York sky and the horror which had just taken place in that city. Calling a neighbour in case I had gone mad and was "seeing things". Emailing friends in the States - the phone lines were down. Thinking it was the end of the world as the words "White House being evacuated" came up on the newsbar. Later, in the garden, watching a plane headed towards Cardiff airport and hoping it was one of ours. Being unable, for the rest of the evening, to unglue my eyes from the TV screen and feeling guilty about it....
Was sitting in a London office but with several New York / Wall Street pre-occupations at the time. Enron was melting down, which was affecting business badly; had travel plans on my desk for a meeting in one of the Twin Towers; some business acquaintances were actually at just such a meeting on the day in question; and I had a family member in the air, en route JFK.
The attacks put all these things into a different perspective: made even Enron seem quite small. When the news came through, the BBC website, and other obvious places to tune into, were mostly unavailable due to very heavy traffic (less bandwidth 5 years ago). But an Indian friend suggested the New Delhi TV website, which was not getting as much traffic and maintained good coverage - if that's an appropriate phrase - all day. Saw the whole ghastly thing unfold realtime on NDTV - actually a rather pertinent, even poignant sidelight on globalisation.
Made the 'phonecalls to find out about family & acquaintances - family OK, acquaintances not. By the end of the day, nothing looked the same, in more ways than one. Just one person's reflections.
Gareth,
Like you, I was in a negotiation all day and didn't see the images until late in the evening. Before I did, I had to go through the hotel lobby of where I was staying. It was full of flight crews. They had all checked out but had nowhere to go and were very distressed, all waiting on instructions as to what to do next.
I knew it had been a massive world event, but even then, nothing prepared me for the images.
My travelling companion was even more traumatised. The WTC had been designed by a member of his family.
I got a call from one of my staff at Heathrow asking if I knew why there were no flights. Put on the car radio, as I was travelling, and listened as the story developed. Rang her back and told her. Then mounting horror until after the first tower fell when I had to pull over as I couldn't drive safely.
Daily Pundit - put your New Labour spin elsewhere.
Had just arrived at work (in US), hard to get info all morning, websites crashed, radio guessing etc, we all got sent home. Colleague had been in WTC restaurant at the same time the previous Tuesday, had been talk of a follow up visit for 9/11 but luckily it didn't occur. Conference calls difficult for about a week afterwards as there were some huge switches in WTC whose loss affected the entire network.
By the end of the day the PC crap was already kicking in, TV stations curtailing coverage ("for the children" of course) and Peter Jennings on ABC already sniping at Bush, they and the rest of the MSM haven't stopped since come to think of it.
I was working at Liverpool COuncil at the time, I can remember the shock of being told that the first plane had hit, myself and many others assumed that it had been an accident involving a light aircraft. Then we heard the second plane had hit and rumours about the pentagon, there was a lot of shock sympathy for those involved and worry about what was to come.
Radio 5 live had some moving comentary on the events, then the coverage from sky later that day brought home the true horror of events.
this was an event that shocked the world and brought with it a reall sense that terrorism could hit any time any where.
I was working at Liverpool COuncil at the time, I can remember the shock of being told that the first plane had hit, myself and many others assumed that it had been an accident involving a light aircraft. Then we heard the second plane had hit and rumours about the pentagon, there was a lot of shock sympathy for those involved and worry about what was to come.
Radio 5 live had some moving comentary on the events, then the coverage from sky later that day brought home the true horror of events.
this was an event that shocked the world and brought with it a reall sense that terrorism could hit any time any where.
I was in Manhattan, and watched it on the street, by the Flatiron Building. People were openly sobbing in the streets. It was unreal.
One thing they do not tell you about that day was that in NY itself, most communications were down and people were shouting at each other - car radios blaring - passing on info as they got it. For most of the day, most people in Manhattan believed that more planes - eight planes - were headed our way. We thought the Empire State and Times Square would be next.
I watched the second tower fall myself. It looked like a small nuclear explosion - mushroom cloud, the whole thing.
To think how evil the men were who did this thing. We cannot gloss over the hatred of the terrorists. It should be remembered, too, that Sep 11th was not the first Al Qaeda attack on the twin towers. They had tried before, in 92 I think, when Clinton was President and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was at its zenith - they had sent in a lorry packed with explosives to the underground car park. That failed. This did not.
That morning I went to the dentist for work that needed an anaesthetic. Afterwards I asked if it was OK to have a pint on the way home. “Sure, I always have one after work,” replied the dentist. He was a Kenyan Asian. “So you’re not a Muslim then,” I replied. “Oh yes, but most of us don’t go for all that stuff about not taking alcohol.”
After my beer I went home and turned on the news. The first plane had just hit the WTC. I visited the same dentist a few weeks later but we didn’t discuss his religion…
Strangely enough I was also at the dentist this morning. A different one.
We were in HK, at a business dinner. One of the guests had a phone with news update feature. When the first plane hit, we thought it was a mistake, and in fact the feed was mentioning a second plane we put down to confusion. When the Pentagon was hit, I stood up and said I had to leave. While my brother and nephew could have been hit because they lived/worked near there, the real issue was I suddenly felt the shock of it all. I wandered back the hotel like a zombie, had about 4 stiff drinks then sat down and watched the news. Don't think I moved from the TV the whole night, other than to speak with my brother to make sure he was OK.
I was so hopeful that after 9/11 a new attitude would grow up in the U.S. which would encourage people to understand what I still saw as a main issue behind it, the unresolved Palestinian issue. And it did start, as Muslims who were interested in rebuildling explained why such sentiment had built up against the U.S. But this small dialogue was quickly strangled by the neocons and their allies, who from day one -- as it turned out -- were thinking of how to use this to attack, no not Afghanistan, but Iraq as was subsequently revealed by Colin Powell, amongst others. A tragedy for the US has become a catastrophe for much of the rest of the world. And in the meantime, Osama is still alive and in Aghanistan, where we placed him, and left him because our initial military attack was being done with one, longer term eye on Baghdad.
I was having a domestic moment cleaning out my kitchen cupboards with Radio 5 Live on when they suddently made that horrific announcement and I immediately switched on Sky News and saw the second aeroplane crash into the WTO. No-one else had heard about it on the school run. I'll never forget the horror of it, seeing those poor, helpless people stuck in the skyscraper, unable to escape.
From my blog:
At almost exactly this time five years ago, I was just finishing my shift at a coffee shop where I worked, when my boss came in to say that a plane had struck one of the Twin Towers in New York.
At first, I thought it was a small biplane, but it very soon became clear that it was an airliner and that another one had struck the other of the Twin Towers. By the time I was home, all the terrestial TV Channels were covering the event and amid the shock and fear, it was clear that we were watching an incident parallel with Pearl Harbour.
I recall cancelling a trip to London that I was making that afternoon, and having that fear about the fact that the World had changed in a way I have never felt before or since. I recall my sister saying that one of the Towers looked like it was going to collapse, rumours about a car exploding near the State Department in Washington DC, hearing about the attack on The Pentagon.
I recall the next time I recited the Lord's Prayer and pausing before saying "As we forgive those who sin against us...", because the emotional block in trying to say it and mean it was understandably large.
The emotional wounds all of us have felt since that day may never disappear. This incident has changed some of our political views (I for one, have found I am less gung ho about foreign policy than before), and in other ways has changed us for the better. Perhaps we are more thoughtful and considerate than before.
I was living in Fuengirola at the time, and I had driven to Gibraltar to sort some financial business.
I had parked my car in La Linea and, as it was a nice late summer day, I decided to walk across the Frontier and into Main Street.
As I crossed the runway I noticed there was an American cruise ship tied up alongside the marina. However, as I walked down the Main Street I was struck at how quiet and subdued it was. Gib is always bustling and on days when large cruise ships visit the crowds are almost unbearable.
Half way up Main Street I popped into the Horseshoe Pub for a coffee. The bar was packed and eerily silent - everyone was watching the TV in the corner. I assumed it was a major sporting event attracting their attention and gave it no further thought.
I ordered a coffee at the bar, and it was only as I paid I began to realise the depth of the silence. As I turned to look at the TV I saw the look of horror on the faces of those around me.
The TV was tuned to Sky News and I remember now the feelings of revulsion and anger at what I was witnessing.
I don't know how long I stood, transfixed, but it was well after the second tower had fallen that I realised that I was still holding a cup of cold coffee in my right hand and the change from a £5 note in my left.
I recall my parents generation talking of "always remembering what they were doing when Kennedy was shot". The 11th September 2001 is the same for me. I still visit Gibraltar regularly and I always pause at The Horseshoe with my own memories of that dreadful day.
Was in my study/office when wife called me down in a high pitched voice. My brain could not comprehend the images burned into my head. Shock, disbelief, horror,anger, pity, sadness, an overwhelming sense of vicarious terror as the poor souls leapt from the upper floors faced with the horror of fire. Witnessing this I could watch no longer so turned the TV off and went into the garden.
The basement bombers of WTC(1992) are in prison. Clinton allowed Bin Laden to get away twice.
We had arrived in Turkey late on the morning of 9/11 and after the usual unpacking took a stroll down to the beach. Seeing several hundred Turks gathered around a TV and thinking it was a football match we wandered over to join the crowd. As the commentary was in Turkish all we saw were the images. After initial feelings of, first bafflement, followed by disbelief we suddenly realised we were surrounded by a couple of hundred muslims. Their reaction...'do you think it will affect the tourist business'? Amazing.
I was in the toilet at my in-laws when my son phoned from his London office and said, "Quick, put on the TV, Sky, a plane has flown into the Twin Towers!"
We watched spellbound. When the second plane hit I realised we had seen that second impact live, up to then we had seen replays of the first onslaught.
After about 35 minutes, I said to my wife and in-laws, "These towers are going to collapse shortly."
The rest of the day was a blur as we made our way back home to Hereford. My 85 year old Mum was in a bit of a state.
I recall feelings of SHOCK and ANGER, and I still feel the latter.
Regards,
Roger J
I was out in a Tokyo bar late, when people ran in and said to watch the TV in another bar. It was completely unreal. In the morning, everywhere I went the Japanese stared into my eyes imagining I was American. It was hard to look up.
I was in the city and we went into full business contingency and disaster recovery mode. We sent home all non-essential personell but no work was done anway. The day was spent calling collegues in NY to check they were OK and watching TV. I found out severaly days later that an old friend of mine was killed.
I was in my office when one of the post boys, knowing I was from NY, rushed in to tell me,
The shock and disbelief of seeing the plane crash into the second builing in real time was eerily reminiscent of seeing Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald on tv when I was a girl.
I am still enraged by what those bastards did to my city. They deprived children of parents, wives of husbands and worst of all parents of children. Those poor souls who knew they were doomed - in the Twin Towers and on the planes. Nothing can ever justify it and we should never forget it. I know I won't.
I will be ever proud of my fellow New Yorkers - firefighters, policeman and all those who selflessly rescued others and equally grateful to the UK for their support.
I remember every minute of the 11th 2001 because I was at work, in a workshop equipped with a TV, and saw just after the first tower was hit, right through to when the last tower dropped. The workshop was full of people and no-one had believed me when I went through to the main shop and told them a second tower had been hit with a plane.
Very vivid memories.
Griswold, Jimmy Carter and Clinton both let bombers get away with it. The current round of aggression against the advanced West - aka "jihad" - kicked off with the seizing of the US Embassy and personnel in Teheran in 1979 and the stunning ineptitude of weak-kneed Jimmy Carter's behaviour. Next came the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Lebanon, at night - the jihadi cowards - as the Marines slept.
The Achille Lauro, anyone, when 50 Palestinian terrorists boarded and demanded ... oh, something or other. These masked people are always "demanding" ... Then the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires? All these attacks, and others, preceeded the first attempt on the WTC. While first Jimmy and then Bill dithered.
Innocdent people were dying and the United States and the West was clearly under attack by people to whom life meant nothing, and they dithered. Weak. Weak. Weak.
Anonymous 5:12 - Perhaps you should have stayed in the soap powder (quixotically capitalised)aisle and never ventured onto a soap box.
When you say 10,000 people die each year from "gun crime" - to which states are you referring and which 10,000 people died? In Texas, their share of this statistic (over 50 states) those who died would be people shot to death by homeowners or people defending themselves from assault. So,divided by 50, that would be 200 arsheholes down the drain in Texas.
40,000 die a year from car accidents? Figures or links, please. You mustn't forget, at the same time, that the United States is vast. Great Britain would fit into Texas three and a half times, so you we are talking about scale here.
No, Americans don't, by and large, fear each other, as you suggest they should. There's a pretty nice feeling in the United States although bitches in burqas would not be regarded as "one of us". So I think your suggestion that Americans should fear one another is, well, madly ill-informed, if you'll forgive me.
What a great name for a movie, though! "Bitches in Burqas". It could be a sort of vengeance theme. Of course, under the burqas, they would naturally be wearing, as their work clothes, bikinis. I think it could work.
My memories?
1. Being surrounded by Americans who didn't speak Spanish and having to take turns with two Mexicans as we translated the TV soundtrack for them.
2. Going for a long liquid lunch with said Mexicans and wondering if this country was going to get dragged into something nasty whether it wanted to or not.
3. Being relieved when the local TV went back to the daily diet of soap operas after less than a week. This suggested that we weren't.
4. Watching over the next week or so as thousands of Mexicans flooded back south of the Rio Bravo del Norte for fear that the Americans were going to conscript all and sundry for whatever war they were planning.
I was on a cruise ship just about to dock in Alaska. My wife and I watched the news in our cabin with increasing horror.
The ship was full of Americans and I left the cabin and walked around the ship to listen and watch.All passengers were horrified and stunned.
9/11 was the first time I set foot on American soil and I will never forget the rage of it,s citizens on that day. Iknew the World had changed.
3000 die on 9/11. A terrible crime but at least 100,000 have died as a consequence of America and Britain's response to it. Our actions since 9/11 have been disproportionate to the crime committed.
We need to rethink our foreign policy and stop killing thousands of innocent people in defence of our freedom. Such actions are only turning more and more Muslims against the us and are creating the circumstances in which another 9/11 could take place.
Two wrongs don't make a right and if measured in terms of innocent victims our response could even be seen as the greater of two wrongs.
I remember being in class at 6th form in rural Derbyshire and leaving to go to the toilet. Going down the corridor i noticed how weirdly silent everywhere was, and that the receptionist was not at her desk, even though the phone was constantly ringing. Going back to class i poked my head around the common room door to ask a friend what they were doing after school.
There were about 20 pupils, the receptionist and a couple of teachers huddled around the ancient, fairly unreliable television in silence, watching the first tower blaze on BBC1. I remember going back to class and telling everyone what had happened. Needless to say, class was dismissed.
The next morning the first lesson was Religious Studies, ironically about Islam. The comments were not kind and the usually extremely mellow teacher didn't make any effort to make us moderate our language.
I'd be interested to hear from somebody who was in the company of muslims when they were watching the coverage, for I'll never forget press reports that muslim pupils arrived next day in a school in Southall (I think) cheering and punching the air.
Regarding the yearly coverage: I think it's too much. If I'd lost someone in the disaster, I wouldn't to be dragged through it every year. I wonder whether there's a political motive in keeping people onside with the War on Terror.
9/11 killed about as many people as we did in our pro-KLA war & less than half as many as our Islamic terrorist friends have been allowed to murder under our authority in Kosovo since then. Possible 1/200th as many people as died in iall the Yugoslav wars we incited.
Puts it in perspective doesn't it.
Working in the office without a TV and didn't realise thesignificance until later.For some time I was still trying to sell and couldn't understand why no one was interested.
In the evening I had a meeting near the Edgeware Road and saw a muslim lady in Burka.I remember thinking that perhaps she would be given a hard time in the street in the days to come.
Also remember feeling glad that thew US had a proper bloke as president rather than a slimy sleazeball like Clinton.
5 years later perhaps it would have been better if Clinton had been in charge after all.
When the first plane hit, I was behind my desk in a government building, with no access to TV. A colleague of mine heard about the first plane crash from his wife who'd phoned him from home, and the news spread around the office liike wildfire. At first we all assumed it had been a dreadful accident, but when further reports reached us on the grapevine about the other plane crashes, and then we heard that the Americans had grounded all flights, we knew this was far more complicated that just tragic accident. A colleague at a nearby desk had special access to the Internet(we didn't all have it 5 years ago) which had a live video feed, and when he said, "come quick, the towers are collapsing..."I got there in time to see the towers concertina into clouds of grey dust. This was the first time I'd seen the twin towers since the news had first filtered through to us, and as I watched, appalled, I recall muttering:"I hope there's nobody still in those buildings...". My office managers immediately started checking up on whether any personnel were in New York/the US on holiday or business(one person was, but they turned up safe later). When I got home from work later, I found out my hopes had been dashed when I heard how many had failed to escape in time and haddied in the buildings. I remember catching up on the news footage on SKY NEWS and the BBC at home in sheer horror and disbelief that anyone could have carried out such an evil and despicable act on so many innocent people, office workers like myself.
When was George W Bush's finest hour then?
Anonymous 10:03 - you obviously don't know your history with your woolly talk of appeasement and 'two wrongs don't make a right'. It was appeasement that allowed Hitler to gather strength just as it has been appeasement and political correctness that has allowed suicide bombers and terrorism to take hold in the West.
I take it that many of the 10,000 killed you refer to those killed in the Iraq war - insinuating those killed in Iraq were all killed by the Allied Forces. I'd beg to differ - it is Muslim killing Muslim there - don't try to blame American foreign policy for that.
bebopper - Re the yearly coverage - there is still a vast scar in the Wall St area of NYC. It is there as a daily reminder. It is still real and immediate to New Yorkers. The yearly coverage isn't for the British.
neil craig writes: "9/11 killed about as many people as we did in our pro-KLA war & less than half as many as our Islamic terrorist friends have been allowed to murder under our authority in Kosovo since then. Possible 1/200th as many people as died in iall the Yugoslav wars we incited.
"Puts it in perspective doesn't it."
Hmmm ... not really. Not at all, in fact.
The icons of the American ethos of capitalism and success was attacked and destroyed (temporarily). I am sorry about the people who died in Kosovo, just as I am sorry about the people who died in the tsunami. But the WTC in NYC is on a different scale entirely.
We'll have to agree to disagree on that Verity. I take your point about the improtance of symbolism making human action more important than natural causes.
However in Yugoslavia we not only killed people but broke international law & our word under the Helsinki Treaty not to destroy the territorial integrity of other states. The WTT can be rebuilt but trust is more difficult & more valuable.
There were two comparatively small things that touched me after this appalling event: firstly that somebody in a phone company thought to make all calls from New York City payphones free that day (I still can't help but wonder if BT would have thought to do the same thing if it had happened here ...)
Secondly, that at the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace the next day, they played the American national anthem instead. A trivial jesture perhaps, but one that said to me how inextricably and proudly linked our two countries are.
VirginBlogger
You wrote re Sept 11,
"I could not understand why President Bush hadn't sought to immediately reassure his weeping nation. It was not his finest hour."
I am struggling with the concept of "Bush" and "finest hour". Can anyone help out? No, not you, Rummy...
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