Disturbing History - DH Ep:61 911

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

We all know where we were that morning. The clear blue sky. The impossible images on our television screens. The moment when time itself seemed to split into before and after.In this episode of Disturbing History, we go back to September eleventh, two thousand and one, and tell the complete story of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil. From the years of planning in Afghan caves and Hamburg apartments to the final desperate moments aboard four hijacked aircraft, this is the full account of how nineteen men murdered nearly three thousand innocent people and changed the course of history. We trace the origins of al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's obsession with striking America. We examine the intelligence failures that allowed the hijackers to train at American flight schools and move freely through the country in the months before the attack. We relive the horror of that Tuesday morning as two planes struck the World Trade Center, a third hit the Pentagon, and a fourth was brought down by its own passengers in a Pennsylvania field.This episode honors the victims, the first responders who climbed toward certain death, and the ordinary people who became heroes when their moment came. We follow the aftermath through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the transformation of American security and society, and the long shadow that September eleventh continues to cast more than two decades later.

Some stories were never meant to be told. Others were buried on purpose. This podcast digs them all up. Disturbing history peels back the layers of the past to uncover the strange, the sinister, and the stories that were never supposed to survive. From shadowy presidential secrets to government experiments that sound more like fiction than fact, this is history they hoped you'd forget. I'm Brian, investigator, author, and your guide through the dark corner.

of our collective memory. Each week I'll narrate some of the most chilling and little-known tales from history that will make you question everything you thought you knew. And here's the twist. Sometimes, the history is disturbing to us. And sometimes, we have to disturb history itself,

just to get to the truth. If you like your facts with the side of fear, if you're not afraid to pull it threads, others leave alone. You're in the right place. History isn't just written by the victors. victors. Sometimes it's rewritten by the disturbed. We all know where we were on that fateful morning. Today we're going back to a day that fundamentally altered the course of human history.

A day that began like any other Tuesday morning in early September, with parents dropping children off at school, commuters rushing to catch trains and buses, office workers grabbing their morning coffee before settling into cubicles and conference rooms. The late summer sun was rising over the eastern seaboard, promising clear blue skies and comfortable temperatures. It was, by all accounts, a perfect day. But by the time that sunset, the world would be unrecognizable. September 11, 2001. Those numbers, that date, have become seared into the collective consciousness of not just America, but the entire world. It's one of those rare moments in history where time itself seems to split into before and after.

There was the world before that Tuesday morning, and there was the world that came after. They are not the same place. For those of us old enough to remember, the memories remain vivid, almost unnaturally clear, even after all these years. We remember exactly where we were standing when we heard the news. We remember the face of the person who told us to turn on a television. We remember the confusion that slowly transformed into horror as we watched events unfold in real time. Events so catastrophic and so surreal that our minds struggled to process what our eyes were seeing.

Nearly 3,000 innocent souls were stolen from this earth that day. Fathers who kissed their children goodbye and never came home. Mothers who called their families one last time from hijacked aircraft. First responders who charged into burning buildings while everyone else was running out. Office workers who jumped from impossible heights rather than face the inferno consuming their workplace. passengers who fought back against their captors, sacrificing themselves to save countless others on the ground. This is their story. This is the story of the 19 hijackers who committed one of the most devastating terrorist attacks in human history.

This is the story of the failures that allowed it to happen, the heroism that emerged in its darkest moments, and the chain of events that would lead America into two decades of war. I want you to listen carefully. I want you to remember. because the lessons of September 11th extend far beyond that single terrible day. They speak to our vulnerabilities, our resilience, our capacity for both unspeakable evil and extraordinary courage.

And in an age when the memory of that day grows more distant with each passing year, when young people are learning about it in history books, rather than living through it, it becomes more important than ever to tell this story in full, to leave nothing out, to make sure that those who do you, died are never forgotten, and that those who survived understand exactly what was sacrificed. To understand September 11th, we have to go back, not just to the weeks and months leading up to the attack, but to the years of planning, the ideology that drove it, and the man who

orchestrated it from a cave complex in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden was born in 1957 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the 17th of 52 children fathered by Muhammad bin Laden, a billionaire construction magnate with close ties to the Saudi royal family. Unlike many of his siblings who pursued Western educations and secular lifestyles, Osama was drawn to religious fundamentalism from an early age. By his 20s, he had developed a worldview that saw the presence of American military forces in Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's two holiest sites in Mecca and Medina. as an unforgivable desecration that demanded violent response. In 1988, bin Laden founded Al-Qaeda, Arabic for the base,

initially as a network to support the Mujahideen fighters battling Soviet occupation in Afghanistan. When the Soviets withdrew in 1989, bin Laden turned his attention to what he called the far enemy, the United States and its Western allies. He issued fatwas, religious edicts, calling for attacks on American civilians and military personnel wherever they could be found. The path to September 11th was paved with earlier attacks. In 1993, Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists

detonated a truck bomb in the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center's North Tower. The explosion killed six people and injured over a thousand, but the towers remained standing. The attack's mastermind, Ramsey Youssef, had hoped to topple one tower into the other, killing tens of thousands. He failed, but he proved that the iconic twin towers were vulnerable. In 1998, Al-Qaeda orchestrated simultaneous truck bombings at United States embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dara Salam, Tanzania. 224 people died, including 12 Americans. Thousands more were wounded. In response, President Bill Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes

on al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. But bin Laden, unharmed. In 2000, Al-Qaeda operatives attacked the USS coal while it was refueling in the port of Aden, Yemen. A small boat laden with explosives pulled alongside the destroyer and detonated, blowing a 40-foot hole in the ship's hull. 17 American sailors died. The attack demonstrated Al-Qaeda's growing boldness and its ability to strike American military assets. But bin Laden wanted something bigger, something that would shake America to its very founding. and demonstrate to the world that the great superpower was vulnerable. Something spectacular.

The plan that would become September 11th began taking shape in late 1998 and early 1999. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a Pakistani national with a degree in mechanical engineering from a North Carolina university, approached bin Laden with an audacious concept. Simultaneously hijack commercial aircraft and used them as guided missiles against symbolic American targets. Muhammad had been involved in the 93 World Trade Center bombing and had spent years refining his vision of aerial terrorism. Ben Laden approved the plan and provided funding and organizational support. The targets were selected for their symbolic significance. The World Trade Center represented American economic power. The Pentagon represented American military might,

and the United States Capitol or White House would represent American political authority. Four planes would be hijacked. Four teams of attackers would need to be assembled and trained. The selection process for the hijackers was meticulous. The operational leaders, the men who would actually pilot the aircraft into their targets, needed specific qualifications. They had to be able to enter the United States without arousing suspicion, pass through security checkpoints, and most crucially, they had to be able to fly large commercial jets. Not perfectly, just well enough to point a plane and at a building. Muhammad Ada emerged as the plot's ringleader.

Born in Egypt in 1968, Ada had studied architecture in Cairo before moving to Germany for graduate work in urban planning. In Hamburg, he fell in with a circle of radical Islamists, including Marwan al-Shahi from the United Arab Emirates, Zia Jara from Lebanon, and Hanujan from Saudi Arabia. These four men would become the pilots who turned passenger jets into weapons.

In 2000, the Hamburg cell began arriving in the United States. Ada and Al-Shehey entered in June. Jara arrived that same month. Panjur, who had actually lived in the United States previously and already held a commercial pilot's license, came in December. All four enrolled in flight training programs at schools in Florida, California, and Arizona. The men who would serve as the muscle hijackers, 15 in total, were recruited separately. All 15 were from Saudi Arabia, and none had previous flight training.

Their job was simpler but no less critical. They would help overpower the flight crews and maintain control of the passengers, while the pilots guided the aircraft to their targets. These men began arriving in the United States in the spring and summer of 2001. The hijackers moved through American society largely undetected. They rented apartments. They opened bank accounts. They obtained state identification cards.

They worked out at gyms to build the physical strength needed to subdue their victims. They bought tickets for test flights to observe cockpit doors, crew procedures, and passenger behavior. They studied the security measures they would need to defeat. American intelligence agencies had warnings. The Central Intelligence Agency had been tracking two of the future hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihadar, as early as 1999. Both men were known al-Qaeda operatives. Both were photographed at an al-Qaeda summit in Malaysia in January 2000.

But due to a catastrophic failure of communication between agencies, this information was never shared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation or Immigration Authorities. Al-Hazmi and al-Mehdar entered the United States through Los Angeles International Airport on January 15, 2000, and disappeared into the vastness of American life. Throughout the summer of 2001, warning signs accumulated. In July, an FBI agent in Phoenix wrote a memo warning that Bin Laden's followers might be training at American flight schools, specifically noting that several Middle Eastern men had enrolled in aviation programs in Arizona.

The memo was sent to FBI headquarters, but never acted upon. In August, Zacharias Musawi, a French Moroccan who had been sent to the United States by al-Qaeda as a potential replacement pilot, was arrested in Minnesota after flight school instructors became suspicious of his behavior. He had paid cash for training on commercial flight simulators while showing little interest in learning takeoffs or landings. Agents who arrested him wanted to search his laptop and belongings,

but were denied a warrant. The dots remained unconnected. On August 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received his daily intelligence briefing at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. The title of the briefing was Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S. The document mentioned hijackings and noted the existence of suspicious activity, including surveillance of federal buildings in New York.

But the briefing was considered historical in nature, rather than a specific warning, and no urgent action was taken. The hijackers were now in position. All 19 men were in the United States. The pilots had completed their training. The muscle hijackers had arrived and, linked up with their teams. Money had flowed from Al-Qaeda financiers through foreign banks and into the hijackers American accounts. Tickets for the September 11th flights were purchased in late

August, paid for in cash, and by credit card. On September 4th, Mohamed Ada flew from Baltimore to Spain, where he met with Ramsey bin al-Shib, a member of the Hamburg cell who had been unable to obtain a United States visa. The two men finalized the date of the attack. September 11th, was selected in part because Congress would be back in session after the summer recess, meaning the capital would be full of legislators and staff. Atta returned to the United States on September 9th. The final preparations were underway. The evening of September 10th, 2001 was unremarkable for most Americans.

It was a Monday night. People watched television, helped their children with homework, went out to dinner, fell asleep beside their spouses. The Red Sox played the raise in Tampa Bay. The Giants faced the Broncos on Monday night football in Denver. Autumn was approaching, but summer hadn't quite released its grip. In hotels and apartments along the East Coast, 19 men were spending their final hours on Earth.

Muhammad Ada and Abdulaziz Alomari checked into the Comfort Inn in South Portland, Maine. They had driven up from Boston earlier that day, a curious detour that has never been fully explained. Some investigators theorize Ata wanted to avoid the business easier security checkpoints at Boston's Logan Airport by flying in on a commuter flight that morning. That evening, Ata visited a Portland Walmart and a gas station. Security cameras captured his image. He returned to the hotel, and according to the document later found in his luggage,

spent the night in prayer and preparation. The document titled The Last Night had been distributed to each hijacking team. Written in Arabic, it combined practical instructions with religious exhortation. It told the hijackers to shower and shave excess body hair, to read specific passages from the Quran, to know that the gardens of paradise are waiting for you in all their beauty, and the women of paradise are waiting, calling out, come hither, friend of God.

The document instructed them on how to behave at the airport and aboard the aircraft. Smile and be calm, it read, for God is with the believers. It told them to recite specific prayers when boarding the plane, when the aircraft began to move, when they rose to begin the hijacking. Stay tuned for more disturbing history. We'll be back after these messages. It reminded them that the time of fun and waste is gone.

In room 122 of the Marriott Residence Inn in Herndon, Virginia, less than two miles from Washington-Dulles International Airport, Hani-Hanjur and four other hijackers spent their final night. Hanjur was the weakest pilot of the group. His instructors at Maw-Haw-Sahs, multiple flight schools had questioned whether he had the skills to fly at all. But he had been certified, and now he would attempt to fly a Boeing 757 into the Pentagon. In nearby motels and apartments, the other teams made their own preparations. Marwan Al-Shehey's group gathered near Boston.

Zia Jara and his team prepared near Newark. None of them displayed any doubt or hesitation, at least none that was recorded or observed. They had committed themselves to this path years earlier. They believed they were holy warriors about to strike a blow against the enemies of their faith. They believed they would be rewarded in paradise. The men who would die alongside them, the innocence on the plains and in the buildings, the firefighters and police officers and office workers who had committed no crime and served no enemy, went to sleep that night with no idea of what was coming. Fathers kissed their children good night for the last time without knowing it was the last time. Wives rolled over to embrace husbands who would be gone by morning.

Young professionals set their alarms and laid out their work clothes, planning for meetings and projects and deadlines that would never matter again. The world was about to change forever. But for one more night, for a few more precious hours, it remained intact. Tuesday, September 11th, 2001 dawned clear and bright across the northeastern United States. meteorologists called it severe clear, the kind of perfect flying weather that pilots dream about. Visibility was unlimited. The sky was crystalline blue, not a cloud to be seen from Virginia to Massachusetts. In South Portland, Maine, Mohamed Ada and Abdulaziz Alomari woke early. They checked out of the Comfort Inn and drove to the Portland International Jetport.

At 5.45 in the morning, they passed through security and boarded Colgan Air Flight 5232. a commuter flight to Boston. Addis checked luggage containing his will, the last night document and other papers that would prove crucial to the investigation was transferred to his connecting flight. In Boston, the other three members of Ada's team, Saddam al-Sukami,

Wael Al-Sheri, and Walee-Al-Sheri, had stayed at the Park Inn in Newton and drove to Logan Airport that morning. They were pulled aside for additional security screening because they had purchased one-way tickets with cash. but the screening consisted only of additional scrutiny of their checked bags. They passed through without incident. Marwan Al-Shehey's team, five men in total, also arrived at Boston's Logan Airport that morning for a different flight.

United Airlines Flight 175. They too passed through security without raising sufficient alarm to stop them. At Washington Dulles International Airport, Hany Hondur and his team of five approached the security checkpoint for American Airlines Flight 77. Security camera footage captured them passing through the metal detectors. Two of them, Nawaf al-Hasmi and his brother Salam, set off the detectors and were checked with handwans. They were allowed to proceed. Honduras bag triggered an explosives trace detection test, but came back negative.

All five boarded the aircraft. At Newark International Airport, Zia Jara and his three teammates, checked in for United Airlines Flight 93. One of them, Ahmed al-Haznawi, had a bandage on his leg. Unknown to anyone, he had likely received a smallpox vaccination weeks earlier, leading some investigators to later theorize that al-Qaeda had considered biological weapons for the attack. All four men passed through security and boarded the plane. In total, 19 hijackers successfully boarded four separate commercial aircraft at three different airports that morning.

Not one of them was stopped. Each team carried box cutters and small knives that were permitted under pre-September 11th security regulations, along with mace or pepper spray. Several carried leather multi-tools with short blades. These simple weapons would be sufficient to seize control of four aircraft, carrying a combined 213 passengers and 33 crew members. American Airlines Flight 11 pushed back from Gate 32 at Boston's Logan Airport, at 759 in the morning. The Boeing 767 was bound for Los Angeles, carrying 81 passengers and 11 crew members,

including the five hijackers and Atta's team. Captain John Ogunowski, 52 years old, was at the controls. He was an experienced pilot with over 5,000 hours in 767s, a family man who ran a farm in Drakut, Massachusetts, and participated in a program to help immigrant Cambodian farmers. First officer Thomas McGuinness, also a... a skilled veteran, sat beside him. 14 minutes later, at 8.13, United Airlines Flight 175 pushed back from another Logan Gate. This Boeing 767 was also bound for Los Angeles, carrying 56 passengers and nine crew members,

including Al-Shehey's team of five hijackers. Captain Victor Saratini, 51, was in command. He had been a naval aviator before joining United and had over 17,000 hours of flight time. At 810, American Airlines Flight 77 left the gate at Dulles. The Boeing 757 was headed for Los Angeles, with 58 passengers and six crew, including the five hijackers. Captain Charles Burlingame, 51, a former Navy fighter pilot who had once worked in the section of the Pentagon that his plane would soon strike, was flying the aircraft. At 801, United Airlines Flight 93 departed the gate at Newark, bound for San Francisco. The Boeing 757 carried 37 passengers and seven crew members, including the four-man hijacking team.

Captain Jason Dahl, 43, who had traded schedules with another pilot specifically to be on this flight, so he could return in time for his wedding anniversary, was in the left seat. By 8.20 in the morning, all four aircraft were airborne, climbing into that perfect blue sky. The 19 hijackers settled into their seats and waited. At 8.13 in the morning, American Airlines Flight 11 reached its assigned cruising altitude of 26,000 feet. In the cockpit, Captain Ogonowski acknowledged a routine instruction from air traffic control. One minute later, at 814, the aircraft was hijacked.

The exact sequence of events will never be fully known, but investigators have pieced together a likely scenario from phone calls, air traffic control recordings, and flight data. At some point shortly after 8-14, the hijackers rose from their seats and moved toward the front of the aircraft. At least two of them, likely brothers Whale and Walid Al-Sheri, had been seated in business class, directly behind the pilots. The hijackers used box cutters and knives to attack the flight attendants. They stabbed Betty Ong and Karen Martin. They sprayed mace or pepper spray to disorient and incapacitate resistance. Passengers later reported that the hijackers claim.

to have a bomb. Whether they actually did or not is unknown. At some point, Ada and his team breached the cockpit door. Captain Ogunowski and First Officer McGuinness were likely killed or incapacitated immediately. Within minutes, Mohamed Ada was at the controls of a fully-fueled Boeing 767. At 819, flight attendant Betty Alm, a 14-year American Airlines veteran, managed to reach the Airlines Operations Center using an onboard phone. Her call, recorded and later played for investigators and families, remains one of the most haunting documents of that morning. The cockpit's not answering, Ong told the reservations agent who took her call.

Somebody stabbed in business class, and I think there's mace. We can't breathe. I don't know. I think we're getting hijacked. Over the next 25 minutes, Ong remained on the line, reporting what she could observe. She identified the seat numbers of the hijackers. She reported multiple stabbings. She said the plane was flying erratically.

Her voice remained remarkably calm throughout. At 824, flight attendant Amy Sweeney also managed to reach American Airlines by phone. She reported that the plane had been hijacked and that passengers were hurt. She said the hijackers had stabbed the two first-class flight attendants. She provided seat numbers and other critical information that would later help investigators. At 824, air traffic controllers heard Muhammad Ada's voice, coming from Flight 11's radio. He had apparently meant to address the passengers over the cabin intercom,

but had pressed the wrong button. We have some planes, Ada said in accented English. Just stay quiet and you'll be okay. We are returning to the airport. Controllers immediately understood something was terribly wrong. The transmission confirmed what Betty Ong and Amy Sweeney were already reporting. The aircraft had been seized. At 834, Ada's voice came over the radio again.

Nobody move, please. We are going back to the airport. Don't try to make any stupid moves. But Flight 11 was not returning to any airport. It had turned south and was descending rapidly toward New York City. Meanwhile, aboard United Airlines Flight 175, the second Boston to Los Angeles flight, the hijacking had begun.

At 842, the aircraft was cruising at 31,000 feet when it suddenly deviated from its assigned course. Within minutes, Marwan Al-Shehi and his team had seized control. Unlike Flight 11, where the cockpit was breached quickly, there are indications that Flight 175's pilots may have struggled with the hijackers for a longer period. The flight data recorder showed the aircraft descending rapidly and then climbing again, as if a battle were being fought for the controls. At 8.52, a flight attendant aboard Flight 175 contacted a United Airlines Operation Center

and reported the hijacking. Around the same time, several passengers began making phone calls to family members. Peter Hansen, a 32-year-old software salesman traveling with his wife, Sue, and their two-year-old daughter, Christine, called his father Lee in Easton, Connecticut. I think they've taken over the cockpit, Peter said. An attendant has been stabbed, and someone else up front may have been killed. The plane is making strange moves. Call United Airlines. Tell them its Flight 177.

Boston to L.A. Peter would call his father two more times as the flight continued. Brian Sweeney, a 38-year-old former Navy pilot and business executive, tried to reach his wife, Julie, but got her voicemail instead. Jules, this is Brian, he said. Listen, I'm on an airplane that's been hijacked. If things don't go well and it's not looking good, I just want you to know I absolutely love you.

I want you to do good. Go have good times. same to my parents and everybody. And I just totally love you. And I'll see you when you get there. Bye, babe. I hope I call you. At 846 and 40 seconds on the morning of September 11th, 2001,

American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The aircraft struck between the 93rd and 99th floors, traveling at approximately 465 miles per hour. The impact was so violent that the building, building swayed several feet. Jet fuel exploded in a massive fireball that burst out of the building's opposite side. Debris rained down onto the streets below. In an instant, everyone aboard the aircraft was killed. Hundreds more in the tower died immediately or within seconds, incinerated by the burning fuel or crushed by the impact. Above the crash zone, over a thousand

people were trapped. All three emergency stairwells in the north tower had been destroyed or blocked by the impact. No one above the 91st floor would survive. In lower Manhattan, people stopped in the streets and stared upward in disbelief. Office workers in nearby buildings watched the burning tower in horror. The first news reports began to break, initially describing the incident as a small plane, accidentally striking the building. But 17 minutes later, at 903 and 2 seconds, any doubt about the nature of the event was eliminated. As millions of Americans watched on live television. Having tuned in after reports of the first impact, United Airlines Flight 175 came screaming out of the clear blue sky and flew directly into the South Tower of the World Trade

Center. The aircraft struck between the 77th and 85th floors, traveling at approximately 590 miles per hour. Because the plane hit lower on the building and at an angle, one of the emergency stairwells remained intact. A handful of people above the impact zone were were able to escape. But for most, the outcome was the same as the North Tower. Instant death or being trapped above an inferno. The second impact was witnessed by countless television viewers and people throughout Lower Manhattan. There was no longer any pretense that this might be an accident. America was under attack. Peter Hansen had called his father one final time just before the impact. It's getting bad dad, he said. A stewardess was stabbed. They seemed to have knives and mace.

They said they have a bomb. It's getting very bad on the plane. Passengers are throwing up and getting sick. The plane is making jerky movements. I don't think the pilot is flying the plane. I think we are going down. I think they intend to go to Chicago or someplace and fly into a building. Don't worry, Dad.

If it happens, it'll be very fast. My God. My God. The line went dead. At 8.20 in the morning, American Airlines Flight 77, had taken off from Washington Dulles, bound for Los Angeles. For the first 30 minutes of the flight, everything appeared normal. Captain Charles Burlingame and first officer David Charles-Bois guided the aircraft westward over West Virginia and into Kentucky.

Stay tuned for more disturbing history. We'll be back after these messages. At 8.51, the aircraft made its last routine radio communication with air traffic control. At 8.54, it deviated from its assigned course. Within minutes, the transponder, which broadcast the aircraft's identification and altitude to controllers, was switched off. Flight 77 effectively disappeared from radar. The hijacking followed a similar pattern to the earlier flights. Honey Hanjur and his team used knives and box cutters to attack the flight attendants.

Renee May, a flight attendant, managed to call her mother and report that the plane had been hijacked, and the passengers and crew had been forced to the rear of the cabin. Barbara Olson, a conservative television commentator who was traveling to Los Angeles for a taping of the show politically incorrect, called her husband Ted, the Solicitor General of the United States, at the Justice Department. Our plane is being hijacked, Barbara told Ted. She reported that the hijackers had box cutters and knives and had herded everyone to the back of the plane. Ted Olson asked if she could tell who the hijackers were. I can't say anymore, Barbara replied. The call was cut off.

Barbara called back a few minutes later. Ted told her about the two planes that had hit the World Trade Center. He asked her what she could see outside the window. I can see houses, Barbara said. They talked briefly about what she should tell the pilot to do. Then the call went dead again. Barbara Olson never called back. By now, the Federal Aviation Administration and military officials were scrambling to respond

to an unprecedented crisis. Two aircraft had already been used as weapons against the World Trade Center. Other flights were reporting problems or had stopped communicating entirely. But the response was hampered by confusion, communication failures, and the sheer unprecedented nature of the attack. Fighter jets had been scrambled from Otis Air National Guard base on Cape Cod after the first hijacking was confirmed. But they were not in position to intercept Flight 11 before it struck the North Tower

or Flight 175 before it hit the South Tower. Now with Flight 77 missing somewhere over the eastern United States, controllers struggled to locate and track the aircraft. At 932, Dulles Airport controllers spotted an unidentified aircraft on their radar, traveling east at high speed toward Washington. They alerted the Secret Service, which immediately began emergency procedures to evacuate Vice President Dick Cheney from his office to an underground bunker.

At 934, air traffic controllers at Reagan National Airport watched the radar blip that was Flight 77 crossed the Pentagon's airspace. They saw the aircraft execute a tight descending 330-degree turn, losing 7,000 feet of altitude in less than three minutes, a maneuver that would have been difficult for many trained pilots. At 937 and 46 seconds, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the western side of the Pentagon. The aircraft, carrying over 11,000 gallons of jet fuel, struck the building at 530 miles per hour. The impact penetrated three of the Pentagon's five concentric rings, collapsing a section of the building's facade. A massive fireball erupted. The destruction was immense. All 64 people aboard the aircraft were killed instantly. 125 Pentagon employees also died, many of them military personnel and civilian defense workers.

The death toll would have been far higher had the plane struck a different section of the building. The western side had recently been reinforced and renovated, with blast-resistant windows and steel-reinforced walls. Many offices in that section were unoccupied because the renovation was still being completed. These factors, along with the heroic response of Pentagon emergency personnel, limited the casualties. But 189 people were still dead, added to the thousands already killed or dead. dying in New York, and one more plane was still in the air. United Airlines Flight 93 had been the last of the four hijacked planes to take off that morning, departing Newark at 842, approximately 40 minutes behind schedule due to routine traffic delays. The Boeing 757 climbed out over New Jersey

and turned west toward its destination of San Francisco. Captain Jason Dahl and first officer LaRoy Homer guided the aircraft to its cruising altitude of 35,000 feet. The 44 people aboard, including the four hijackers, settled in for the transcontinental flight. At 928, nearly 46 minutes after the first plane had struck the World Trade Center, United Airlines Flight 93 was hijacked. By this point, the hijackers certainly knew that their mission had already succeeded beyond what they might have imagined. The towers were burning. The Pentagon had been hit. All that remained was their target, which investigators believe was either the United States Capitol or the White House. The hijacking began with sudden violence.

Zia Jara and his team attacked the cockpit, apparently without warning. The cockpit voice recorder captured sounds of a struggle, screaming, and the words, Mayday, May Day, May Day, from either Captain Dahl or First Officer Homer. Both pilots were likely killed within the first minutes. Jara, who had trained at flight schools in Florida and had logged significant time in flight simulators, took control of the aircraft. Unlike Han Jor, whose skills were marginal at best, Jara was considered a competent pilot. At 931, Jara made an announcement over the intercom, incorrectly telling passengers to remain seated because there was a bomb aboard and the plane was

returning to the airport. The recording of this announcement was later recovered from the cockpit voice recorder. But the passengers and crew of Flight 93 had something the other hijacked flights had not. Information. Because Flight 93 was delayed and because of the time it took for the hijacking to occur, the people aboard learned about the other attacks through phone calls to family members and airline personnel. They understood in a way that no one on the earlier flights could have exactly what their captors intended to do. Tom Burnett, a 38-year-old medical device executive, from Minnesota, made four calls to his wife, Dina. In the first call, shortly after 9.30, he reported that the plane had been hijacked and a passenger

had been stabbed. In subsequent calls, he told Dina what he had learned from other passengers. They're taking the plane to San Francisco, he said at first. But then, no, we're flying over a river, and they've just announced there's a bomb aboard. Dina told Tom about the World Trade Center attacks. Tom was quiet for a moment. Oh my God, it's a suicide mission, he said. By his fourth call, at 945, Tom had made a decision. A group of us is going to do something, he told Dina. I love you, honey.

I love you too, Dina replied. Jeremy Glick, a 31-year-old sales manager and former national judo champion, called his wife Liz. He told her about the hijacking and confirmed that the hijackers claim to have a bomb. Liz told him about the other planes. Okay, I need to know, Jeremy said. Is it worth it? If we're going to die anyway, should we try to take back the plane?

Liz told him to do it. Mark Bingham, a 31-year-old public relations executive and rugby player, called his mother Alice. I want you to know that I love you very much, he said. I'm on a flight from Newark to San Francisco, and there are three guys who have taken over the plane, and they say they have a bomb. Todd Beamer, a 32-year-old Oracle executive and former

college athlete, tried to call his wife Lisa, but was unable to get through. Instead, he reached a GTE Airphone supervisor named Lisa Jefferson. He told her about the hijacking and said that several passengers were talking about rushing the hijackers. Are you sure that's what you want to do? Jefferson asked. We're going to do something, Beamer replied. It's what we have to do. Beamer told Jefferson about his family, his two sons, and his pregnant wife. He recited the Lord's prayer. Then he asked Jefferson to stay on the line and listen. Are you ready? Beamer asked someone near him. Okay, let's roll. The assault began at approximately 9.57. The cockpit voice recorder captured the sounds of the passenger's attack on the cockpit door. There were crashing sounds,

screams and shouts in both English and Arabic. The hijackers attempted to repel the assault by jerking the plane violently from side to side. Jara pitched the aircraft up and down, and in an attempt to throw the attackers off balance, but the passengers kept coming. In the final minutes, the voices on the cockpit voice recorder became increasingly desperate. One of the hijackers could be heard asking, is that it? Shall we finish it off? Another responded, not yet. When they all come, we finish it off. At 9.59, Jera began rolling the aircraft from side to side, trying again to disrupt the assault. At 1002, he pushed the nose down.

18 seconds later, at 10.03 and 11 seconds, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into an empty field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, traveling at 563 miles per hour and inverted. All 44 people aboard were killed instantly. The impact crater was 35 feet deep and 130 feet wide. The aircraft was essentially vaporized. Recovery workers found no intact remains larger than a few inches. But the passengers of Flight 90s, had accomplished their mission. The plane went down approximately 20 minutes flying time from Washington. The hijackers never reached their target. The Capitol and White House were spared.

Countless lives were saved because 33 passengers and seven crew members decided they would rather die fighting than submit. Let's Roll became a rallying cry for a wounded nation. The heroes of Flight 93 were the first Americans to fight back in what would become a very long war. By 9.30 in the morning, both towers of the World Trade Center were burning. Black smoke poured from the gaping wounds in each building, rising thousands of feet into the cloudless sky and drifting east over Brooklyn. Inside, people were dying.

The structural damage from the aircraft impacts was catastrophic, but neither tower collapsed immediately. The buildings had been designed with innovative construction techniques, including a central steel core connected to exterior steel columns, by floor trusses. This design allowed the towers to remain standing even after losing significant structural support, for a time. But the fires were what would ultimately bring the buildings down. Each aircraft had been loaded with approximately 10,000 gallons of jet fuel for the transcontinental flight.

When the plane struck, most of that fuel exploded in massive fireballs, but enough remained to ignite the building's contents. Furniture, paper, carpeting, and the synthetic. materials that filled a modern office tower. The fires burned at temperatures approaching 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. At those temperatures, steel does not melt, but it weakens dramatically, losing approximately half its strength at 1100 degrees. The floor trusses connecting the central core to the exterior columns began to sag. As they sagged, they pulled the exterior columns inward,

destroying the building's structural integrity. For the people trapped above the impact zones, there was no escape. In the North Tower, all three stairwells had been destroyed or blocked. No one above the 91st floor survived. In the South Tower, stairwell A remained passable for a time, and approximately 18 people from above the impact zone managed to find it and reach safety. But for most, the stairs led only to collapsed passages or walls of flame. Some made phone calls to loved ones. They said goodbye. They said they loved each other. They tried to explain to children who would never see them again, why mommy or daddy wasn't coming home. Others gathered at windows, desperate for air as smoke filled their offices. Photographs and video from that morning

show people leaning out of windows on the highest floors, waving shirts and jackets, trying to signal for help that could never arrive. And then there were those who jumped. It remains one of the most disturbing aspects of that terrible morning. Dozens of people chose to leap from the burning towers rather than await the flames. Witnesses on the ground watched in horror as bodies fell from the sky. Photographers captured images that remained difficult to view more than two decades later. Men and women, some alone and some holding hands, plummeting to their deaths. The decision to jump was not, as some have suggested, a form of suicide.

It was a choice between two impossible. deaths. The people who jumped were trying to escape a fire that was cooking them alive. They were not ending their lives. They were seeking a faster, less painful end to an existence that was already over. An estimated 200 people jumped or fell from the towers that morning. Their bodies landed on the plaza below, on rescue vehicles, on the streets surrounding the complex. First responders who survived would later describe the sound of those impacts as one of the things that haunted them most. Inside the towers, firefighters from the New York Fire Department were climbing.

They had begun arriving within minutes of the first impact, driving their ladder trucks and engines to the base of the towers and then ascending on foot, carrying 60 pounds of gear up dozens of flights of stairs. They knew at some level that many of them would not come back down. The fires were too high, too hot, beyond the reach of any ladder or hose line they had. But they climbed anyway, passing terrified office workers heading in the opposite direction, offering words of reassurance, telling people they would be okay. Don't worry, you're going to be fine, the firefighters said.

Just keep going. We're right behind you. They weren't doing it because they thought they could put out the fires. They were climbing because there were people trapped up there, and a firefighter doesn't abandon people in need. At 9.59 in the morning, 56 minutes after it had been struck, The South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed. Stay tuned for more disturbing history. We'll be back after these messages.

The failure began near the impact zone, where the fire weakened floor trusses could no longer support the weight of the floors above. The upper section of the building tilted and then began to fall, driving straight down through the structure below. Each floor pancaked into the next, a cascade of destruction that took approximately 10 seconds from start to finish. The South Tower, 110 stories of steel and concrete and glass, was reduced to a pile of rubble eight stories high. The collapse killed everyone still inside the building, including hundreds of first responders who had been climbing to reach trapped civilians.

It killed people on the streets below, crushed by debris or struck by chunks of concrete and steel. It sent a massive cloud of dust and ash rolling through lower Manhattan like a pyroclastic flow, engulfing fleeing pedestrians and darkening the sky. 29 minutes later, at 1028, the North Tower followed. The sequence was essentially the same. The weakened floor trusses gave way. The upper floors began to fall. The cascade of collapse propagated downward faster than a person could run.

Chief Peter Gonsi of the FDNY, the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the department, had set up a command post near the towers. He was coordinating the rescue effort when the South Tower fell. When the North Tower began to collapse, he ordered his people to run, but he didn't run fast enough. His body was recovered from the rubble. Father Michael Judge, a Franciscan friar, who served as the FDNY chaplain, had entered the North Tower to administer last rights to a dying firefighter. He was standing in the lobby when debris from the South Tower collapse struck the building. He was killed instantly.

His body was recovered by firefighters and carried to a nearby church, where he was officially recorded as the first certified fatality of the September 11th attacks. 343 New York City firefighters died that morning. 23 New York City police officers. 37 Port Authority police officers. Eight emergency medical technicians and paramedics. They died doing their jobs. They died trying to save others.

When the towers fell, they took with them thousand. thousands of people who had come to work that Tuesday morning expecting nothing more than another day at the office. Secretaries and executives, janitors and bond traders, immigrants from dozens of countries and native New Yorkers whose families had lived in the city for generations. They were the victims of September 11th. They were murdered by 19 men who believed that killing innocent civilians was a righteous act. By 11 in the morning, the World Trade Center was gone. The Twin Towers that had dominated the Manhattan skyline for three decades that had served as a symbol of American economic power and ambition had been reduced to a smoking heap of twisted steel and pulverized concrete.

Lower Manhattan was blanketed in gray dust. Papers from the destroyed offices had been blown for miles. Some landing in Brooklyn, some drifting across the Hudson to New Jersey. Cars were crushed beneath debris. emergency vehicles were buried. The streets were covered with ash that included, though no one wanted to acknowledge it yet, the remains of the dead. And America was changed forever. President George W. Bush learned of the first attack

while visiting an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida. His chief of staff, Andrew Card, whispered the news of the second impact into his ear while Bush sat before a class of second graders. The moment was captured by news cameras and has become one of the iconic images of that day. The president's face registering the impossible information, his eyes processing the fact that America was under attack.

Bush did not immediately rise and leave, a decision that has been criticized and defended in equal measure. He later explained that he did not want to frighten the children or create panic. After approximately seven minutes, he excused himself, gathered his staff, and was evacuated aboard Air Force One. The president would spend much of September 11th in the air, flying first to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and then to off-at Air Force Base in Nebraska before returning to Washington that evening. The Secret Service had concerns about the safety of bringing him back to the Capitol, while the situation remained unclear. For much of the day, no one was certain whether additional attacks were coming.

Vice President Dick Cheney had been evacuated to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, a bunker beneath the wall. White House shortly before Flight 77 struck the Pentagon. From there he and other senior officials managed the government's response, coordinating with military commanders and attempting to understand the scope of the attack. In the immediate aftermath of the tower collapses, chaos reigned in lower Manhattan. Thousands of people fled north, many of them covered in the gray dust that had engulfed the area. The streets were clogged with emergency vehicles and terrified civilians. Reworthands, Rumors spread wildly. More planes were coming. Bombs had been found. Other cities were being

attacked. But even in the chaos, acts of extraordinary courage and compassion emerged. Ordinary New Yorkers helped each other escape the danger zone. Office workers carried disabled colleagues down dozens of flights of stairs. Strangers formed human chains to guide the blind through the dust and debris. A spontaneous flotilla of boats, organized largely by the Coast Guard, but including private vessels of every description, began evacuating people from Lower Manhattan, across the water to New Jersey. Over nine hours, approximately 500,000 people were transported by boat, the largest maritime evacuation in history. Across the country, the Federal Aviation Administration took an unprecedented step. At 945 in the morning,

the FAA ordered all civilian aircraft in American airspace to land immediately. Within a hours, 4,400 flights had been grounded at the nearest available airports. International flights were diverted to Canada and other countries. The skies over America, normally crisscrossed by thousands of aircraft, fell silent. Americans everywhere struggled to process what had happened. Schools sent children home early. Businesses closed. Church services were organized throughout the day and into the night. Lines formed at blood donation centers, so many people wanting to help. that most had to be turned away. That evening President Bush addressed the nation from the Oval Office.

Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts, the president said. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror. He promised that the United States would bring the terrorists to justice. He pledged that America would not distinguish between the terrorists who committed the attacks and those who, who harbored them. He called on the American people to come together in unity and resolve.

A great people has been moved to defend a great nation, Bush said. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve. The following day, September 12th, the New York Times published a front page headline that would become iconic, U.S. attacks. Below it, photographs showed the towers burning and collapsing. The country was in mourning, but also in a state of determined anger. On September 14, President Bush visited Ground Zero, the name that had already become attached

to the ruins of the World Trade Center. Standing on a pile of rubble with a bullhorn in his hand and his arm around retired firefighter Bob Beckwith, Bush addressed the rescue workers who had been digging through the debris for three days. I can hear you, Bush said, responding to a worker who shouted that he couldn't hear the president. The rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. The rescue workers chanted USA, USA. It was a moment of national catharsis, a collective expression of grief and defiance. The investigation into September 11th began while the towers were still burning. FBI agents were dispassed.

to the crash sites before the day was over. Within hours the Bureau had opened the largest criminal investigation in American history. The breakthrough came quickly. Muhammad Ada's luggage the bag he had checked in Portland that morning had not made it on to Flight 11 in time. It was recovered at Boston's Logan Airport and inside investigators found a treasure trove of evidence. Ada's will written in Arabic a folding knife a video cassette on how to fly commercial aircraft and And most importantly, a copy of the last night document with its detailed instructions for the hijackers' final hours.

Within days, the FBI had identified all 19 hijackers. Photographs from security cameras at the Portland, Boston, Dulles and Newark airports were released to the public. Background investigations revealed the hijackers' travel patterns, their flight training, their associates. The cockpit voice recorder from Flight 93 was recovered from the crash site in Pennsylvania, and provided crucial evidence about the final moments of that flight. The flight data recorders from the other aircraft were never recovered intact,

though investigators were able to piece together the flight's final minutes from radar data and witness accounts. The investigation quickly identified Al Qaeda as responsible for the attacks, and Osama bin Laden as the mastermind. Within weeks, the full outlines of the plot were understood. The Hamburg cell, the flight training in Florida and Arizona, the recruitment of the muscle hijackers from Saudi Arabia, the financing that had flowed through banks in the United Arab Emirates, and elsewhere. But understanding how the attacks had been carried out

raised uncomfortable questions about why they hadn't been prevented. The 9-11 Commission, formerly known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, was established in November 2002 to investigate the attacks and the government's response. Over nearly two years, the commission interviewed over 12, 1,200 individuals, reviewed millions of pages of documents, and held 19 days of public hearings. The Commission's final report released in July 2004, documented a pattern of missed opportunities and systemic failures. The CIA had tracked two of the hijackers for over a year without

telling the FBI or immigration authorities. The FBI's Phoenix memo warning about flight school students had been ignored. The arrest of Zacharias Musaoui had not triggered a wider investigation. The August 6th presidential briefing had not prompted urgent action. We believe the 9-11 attacks revealed four kinds of failures. In imagination, policy, capabilities, and management, the commission concluded. The report made dozens of recommendations for reforming the intelligence community, including the creation of a director of national intelligence to coordinate information sharing between agencies. Many of these recommendations were eventually implemented through the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. But no

investigation could undo what had been done. Nearly 3,000 people were dead. The Pentagon had a gaping hole in its western wall. Lower Manhattan was a wasteland, and America was about to go to war. On the evening of September 11th, President Bush told his advisors that he wanted to find out who was responsible for the attacks. But he already knew. Within hours of the towers collapse, intelligence officials had confirmed al-Qaeda's involvement. Intercepts of communications between al-Qaeda operatives celebrated the attacks. The connections between the hijackers and the terrorist organization were quickly established. Al-Qaeda was headquartered in Afghanistan, where it operated training camps and enjoyed the protection of the Taliban. The Islamic fundamentalist

movement that had controlled most of the country since 1996. Osama bin Laden had lived in Afghanistan since 1996, having been expelled from Sudan under American pressure. The Taliban had repeatedly refused American requests to hand him over. On September 20, 2001, President Bush addressed a joint session of Congress and delivered an ultimatum. The Taliban must act and act immediately, Bush said. They will hand over the terrorists. or they will share in their fate. He declared a global war on terror

that would not end until every terrorist group with global reach had been found, stopped, and defeated. He warned that this would be a different kind of war, fought not just by armies, but by intelligence agencies, law enforcement, and financial institutions. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make, the president declared. Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.

The Taliban refused to surrender bin Laden, demanding evidence of his involvement in the attacks. Evidence the United States was unwilling to provide to a regime it did not recognize as legitimate. The refusal sealed the Taliban's fate. On October 7, 2001, the United States launched Operation Enduring Freedom. American and British forces began bombing Taliban positions and al-Qaeda training camps across Afghanistan. Special operations forces linked up with the Northern Alliance, a coalition of Afghan groups that had been fighting the Taliban for years. Within weeks, the Taliban's military was shattered. Kabul fell on November 13th. Kandahar, the Taliban's spiritual capital, fell on December 7th.

By the end of 2001, the Taliban regime had collapsed and al-Qaeda's safe haven had been destroyed, but Osama bin Laden escaped. In December 2001, American intelligence located bin Laden and a group of al-Qaeda fighters in the Torah Bora cave complex near the Pakistani border. Rather than deploying large numbers of American ground troops, military commanders relied on Afghan militias and American air power to assault the position. It wasn't enough. Bin Laden slipped across the border into Pakistan and disappeared. He would not be found for nearly 10 years. Stay tuned for more disturbing history.

We'll be back after these messages. Meanwhile, the Bush administration was already planning a second war. Senior officials, including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, had been advocating for military action against Iraq since the first days after September 11th. They believed, or claimed to believe, that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction

and might share them with terrorists. The intelligence community was more cautious. while assessments indicated that Iraq was likely pursuing weapons programs, the evidence was far from conclusive. And there was no credible evidence linking Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda or the September 11th attacks. The Iraqi regime, while brutal and repressive, was secular in nature and ideologically opposed to the religious extremism of bin Laden's movement.

But the political momentum toward war was building. In his State of the Union address in January 2002, President Bush identified Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as an axis of evil that threatened world peace. Throughout 2002, the administration made its case that Iraq posed an unacceptable threat that could only be addressed through regime change. On October 10th and 11th, 2002, both houses of Congress authorized the use of military force against Iraq. On March 19, 2003, American and coalition forces invaded. The initial military campaign was even more successful than Afghanistan.

Baghdad fell on April 9th. Saddam Hussein's statue was pulled down in Furdo Square while cameras broadcast the images worldwide. Major combat operations were declared over on May 1st, when President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln, beneath a banner reading, mission accomplished. But the mission was far from accomplished. No weapons of mass destruction were forced. found. The intelligence that had been used to justify the war turned out to be deeply flawed,

based on unreliable sources and wishful analysis, and Iraq descended into chaos. The American occupation was plagued by insufficient planning, inadequate troop levels, and catastrophic policy decisions. The disbanding of the Iraqi army and the debaithification program, which removed members of Saddam's party from government positions, created hundreds of thousands of unemployed, resentful men with military training. An insurgency erupted that would rage for years. By 2006, Iraq was in the grip of a vicious sectarian civil war. Sunni and Shia militias slaughtered each other's civilians.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq, a group that had not existed before the American invasion, carried out devastating suicide bombings. American casualties mounted steadily. The human cost of the post-September 11th wars defies easy comprehension, Over 4,400 American service members died in Iraq between 2003 and 2011. Over 2,400 have died in Afghanistan since 2001. Tens of thousands more were wounded, many grievously. The toll on Iraqi and Afghan civilians was far higher.

Estimates vary widely, but credible studies suggest that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died as a direct or indirect result of the war and its aftermath. In Afghanistan, tens of thousands of civilians were killed in two decades of conflict. The financial cost was staggering. According to estimates from Brown University's Costs of War Project, the post-September 11th wars cost the United States over $8 trillion, including direct military spending, veterans' care, and interest on war-related borrowing. That money might have been spent on infrastructure, education, health care,

or any number of other priorities. And the strategic outcomes were, at best, mixed. The Taliban was driven from power in 2001, but never fully defeated. They fought an insurgency for 20 years, and in August 2021, returned to power after American forces withdrew. The Afghan government that the United States had spent two decades building collapsed in a matter of days. Osama bin Laden was finally killed by American Special Operations Forces on May 2, 2011, in a raid on a compound in Abadabad, Pakistan, where he had been hiding, apparently for years. The architect of September 11th was dead, but by then, the wars he had triggered showed no sign of ending. The effects of September 11th extended far beyond the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The attacks transformed American society, politics, and law in ways both visible and subtle. The most immediate change was insecurity. Within weeks of the attacks, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act, a sweeping piece of legislation that dramatically expanded the government's surveillance and investigative powers. The law allowed for roving wiretaps, the searching of business records, and the surveillance of individuals suspected of terrorist activities, even without evidence of connection to a larger organization. A new federal agency, the Transportation Security Administration, took over airport security from private contractors. Passengers now faced

longer lines, more intrusive screenings, and a host of new restrictions. Liquids were banned from carry-on bags after a foiled plot in 2006. Shoes had to be removed after Richard Reed attempted to detonate explosives hidden in his footwear on a flight in December 2001. full-body scanners and enhanced pat-downs became standard. The Department of Homeland Security established in 2002, consolidated 22 separate agencies into a single cabinet department responsible for preventing terrorist attacks within the United States. It was the largest reorganization of the federal government since the creation of the Department of Defense in 1947.

Guantanamo Bay became a household name, the military detention facility in Cuba, used to hold suspected terrorists captured in the war on terror, housed hundreds of detainees at its peak. Many were held for years without charge or trial. Allegations of torture and abuse sparked international outrage. More than 20 years later, the facility remains open, with a handful of prisoners still detained. The war on terror also extended to the home front in troubling ways.

Hate crimes against Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim spiked dramatically in the weeks after September 11th. Mosques were vandalized. Sikh men, sometimes mistaken for Muslims because of their turbans, were attacked. A climate of suspicion and hostility settled over Arab and Muslim communities across America. The FBI launched extensive surveillance operations targeting mosques and Muslim community organizations. The NYPD operated a controversial surveillance program that mapped Muslim neighborhoods and monitored businesses, student groups, and places of worship. Civil Liberties organizations warned that the war on terror was being used to justify widespread violations of constitutional rights.

The use of torture by American personnel became one of the most damaging aspects of the post-September 11th era. The CIA operated a network of secret prisons, known as black sites, where suspected terrorists were subjected to enhance interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, sleep deprivation, and stress positions. The Abu Ghraib scandal in which photographs emerged showing American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners shocked the world and did incalculable damage to America's moral authority. The debates triggered by September 11th continue to this day. How much liberty should Americans surrender in exchange for security? When is military force justified?

How should democracy balance the need for secrecy and intelligence operations with the public's right to know what its government is doing in its name? At Ground Zero, the recovery effort continued for months. Workers dug through hundreds of thousands of tons of rubble, searching for remains and personal effects. The work was dangerous, heartbreaking, and essential. Many of those who participated developed serious health problems from exposure to the toxic dust that permeated the site. Only about 40% of the victims were ever identified through remains recovered at the site. Advances in DNA technology allowed identification to continue for years, with some families not learning the fate of their loved ones until more than a decade after the attacks.

Many victims simply vaporized in the intense heat of the fires and collapses, leaving no physical trace. The names of the dead filled pages and newspapers across the country. They came from 90 different nations. They included citizens of the United Kingdom, India, Japan, Germany, Australia, and dozens of other countries. They were Christians and Jews and Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and atheists. They were united only in their innocence and their terrible fate. Some names became famous.

Todd Beamer, who said, let's roll before leading the charge against the hijackers on Flight 93. Betty Aung, whose calm voice described the hijacking of flight. 11 to American Airlines operators. Father Mikal Judge, whose body was carried from the North Tower by firefighters and became an early symbol of the tragedy. But most of the victims were ordinary people leading ordinary lives until the extraordinary evil of September 11th intersected with their existence. There was Canter Fitzgerald, the financial services firm that occupied floors 101 through 105 of the North Tower. 658 of its employees, were killed, the single largest loss by any organization. The company's CEO, Howard Lutnik,

lost his brother Gary in the attacks. He vowed to rebuild the firm and provide for the families of the dead. There were the families who lost multiple members. The Hanson family, Peter and Sue and two-year-old Christine, killed together on Flight 175. The Haskell brothers, both firefighters, who died in the towers collapse. The couple celebrating wedding anniversaries, the parents traveling with children, the siblings who happened to work in the same building. There were the first responders who kept climbing even when every instinct told them to run. Firefighters like Captain Patrick Brown, who had survived cancer and returned to duty only to die in the collapse. Police officers like Captain Kathy Mazza, the first woman to command the Port

Authority Police Academy, who was killed helping to evacuate the towers. EMTs, like Yamel Marino, A single mother who ran toward the disaster while others fled. And there were the survivors, whose stories are no less remarkable than those of the dead. The people who missed their usual train that morning and arrived at the office late. The workers who left the towers before the collapse to seek medical attention or simply to escape the chaos. The handful of individuals who somehow lived through the building's destruction pulled from the rubble hours or days later.

The September 11th Memorial at Ground. was dedicated on the 10th anniversary of the attacks in 2011. It features two massive reflecting pools set in the footprints of the original towers, with water cascading down their sides into a central void. The names of all 2,97 victims are inscribed on bronze panels surrounding the pools. A museum beneath the memorial tells the story of that day through artifacts, photographs, and recordings. The staircase used by hundreds of survivors to escape the towers is preserved. A damaged fire truck sits in a gallery.

The last column, the final piece of steel removed from ground zero during the recovery effort, stands covered in tributes left by rescue workers. Every year on September 11th, the names of all the victims are read aloud at the memorial site. The reading takes several hours. Bell's toll at the moments when the plane struck and when the towers fell. families gather to remember those they lost. The nation pauses to reflect. More than two decades have passed since that Tuesday morning in September. An entire generation has come of age, with no memory of the world, before September 11th. For them, the attacks are history,

as distant as Pearl Harbor or the Kennedy assassination, was to those of us who were alive in 2001. But the shadow of that day remains long. The wars that began in the wars that began in the war's response to September 11th only recently ended and their consequences continue to unfold. The Taliban rules Afghanistan once more. Iraq remains unstable. The Islamic state which grew out of al-Qaeda in Iraq terrorized the Middle East before being driven from its territory but not destroyed. Terrorism remains a persistent threat. The domestic changes triggered by September 11th have proven largely permanent. The surveillance apparatus built in the name of fight

fighting terror remains intact. Air travel is still subject to security procedures implemented in response to the attacks. The Department of Homeland Security is now one of the largest agencies in the federal government. For those who lived through that day, the memories remain vivid. The impossibly blue sky. The towers burning against that perfect backdrop. The moment of collapse, when buildings that seemed eternal simply ceased to exist. The silence that fell over cities across America as people gathered around televisions, watching and disbelief. We remember the fear that gripped the nation in the days that followed. The anthrax attacks that came in the mail.

The suspicion of anyone who looked different or worship differently. The rage that demanded response, demanded action, demanded justice. We remember the unity that emerged from the horror, the flags that appeared on every house and car, the lines at blood banks, the neighbors helping neighbors, the sense that, for a brief moment, Americans had set aside their differences and come together as one people. That unity did not last. The country that emerged from September 11th soon fractured along familiar lines, divided by the wars that followed,

by political disagreements, by the perpetual churn of media and politics. The sense of common purpose that characterized those autumn months of 2001 faded into memory. But the sacrifice of those who died should not fade. Nearly 3,000 innocent people were murdered that day. 343 firefighters gave their lives trying to save others. Passengers on a plane bound for destruction fought back and saved countless lives on the ground. Their stories must be told. Their names must be remembered. The lessons of that day must be preserved for those who were not yet born when the towers fell. Because history does not simply happen. It is made by human beings, by their choices and their actions.

The 19 hijackers chose to embrace hatred and murder. The first responders chose to run toward danger rather than away from it. The passengers of Flight 93 chose to fight rather than submit. We too have choices to make. How we remember September 11th, how we honor those who died, how we apply the lessons of that day to the challenges we face, these are choices that define who we are as a people. The world before September 11th is gone.

It cannot be recovered, but the future remains unwritten. And in that future, we carry with us the memory of those we lost, the courage of those who served, and the hope that such a day might never come again. We all know where we were on that fateful morning. May we never forget why it matters.