A quarter-century after 9-11 much has changed.
A Quarter-Century After 9-11
“The world we see today is far different from that of September 10, 2001. On that day, who could have predicted that both New York and London would have radical Muslim mayors? That a real estate developer would be in the White House? That antisemitism would become a trademark of the Left and that the U.S. would be on the leading edge of technologies which weren’t even conceived at the turn of the 21st century? We have gone from a world that thought it knew where it was going to a journey in the dark.”
Richard Fernandez “September 10, 2001“
Watching People Jump Off the Twin Towers
The morning of 9-11 was completely disorienting: watching the first tower collapse seemed like a special effect. When the second one went, I had the strong sensation I was a minor character in a Tom Clancy novel. A number of us gathered in a training room that was not being used so that we could watch a working TV. It was working to the extent it could get a Spanish channel, but only a Spanish channel for reasons that none of us could figure out. The most chilling scenes that they played over and over but which I did not see on any network or US cable channels when I got home were those of people jumping off of the towers before they collapsed. I was reminded of an old movie, “The Towering Inferno,” and I kept thinking there must be a way to put that fire out or get those people off the roof. But no happy Hollywood was ending to be found.
From “Do You Ever Get The Feeling Everything You Know is Wrong?” (2018)
Anybody who survives the impact, we’ll go to an alternate center, and we’ll continue.
Lewis “Scooter” Libby, chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney: We learn that a plane is five miles out and has dropped below 500 feet and can’t be found; it’s missing. You look at your watch and think, Hmmm, five miles out, 500 miles an hour. Tick, tick, tick.
Dick Cheney: My Secret Service agent said, “Sir, we have to leave now.” He grabbed me and propelled me out of my office, down the hall and into the underground shelter in the White House.
Mary Matalin: My jaw dropped and the jaws of my colleagues dropped because we had never seen anything like that.
Condoleezza Rice: The Secret Service came in and they said, “You have got to go to the bunker.” I remember being driven along, almost propelled along. We had no idea where it was safe and where it wasn’t. We didn’t think the bunker of the White House was safe at that point.
Dick Cheney: They practice this—you move, whether you want to be moved or not, you’re going.
Gary Walters: The Secret Service officers started yelling, “Get out, get out, everybody get out of the White House grounds.” I remember early on, the chaos. People running, screaming. Fear was in my mind.
Christine Limerick, housekeeper, White House: The look on the faces of the Secret Service agents who were told that they had to stay—I will never forget that because we had at least the opportunity to flee.
Ian Rifield, special agent, U.S. Secret Service: We were fairly confident that plane was going to hit us. The supervisor in the [Secret Service’s] Joint Operations Center basically said, “Anybody who survives the impact, we’ll go to an alternate center, and we’ll continue.” It wasn’t a joke.
Garrett M. Graff (@vermontgmg) “The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11
There was a mindfulness in Silicon Valley after 9/11 and the dotcom crash that I miss.
“There was a mindfulness in Silicon Valley after 9/11 and the dotcom crash that I miss. I don’t miss the terrible turmoil and the anxiety and the 25% contraction in employment, but I do miss the mindfulness. I remember attending a Churchill Club program “Beyond the Bubble: the Future of Technology and Investing” that was held on September 20, 2001; it was a little over a week since 9/11 and there was a minute of silence to memorialize the dead that lent a candor to the program that followed. Edward Howe has observed that “a good scare is worth more to a man than good advice” and that was true in late 2001 and 2002 in Silicon Valley.”
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