9/11 and the war on terror

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2021

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In a special edition on the terrorist attacks on America, we hear from the White House official who broke the news to the President and a Muslim first-responder who worked at Ground Zero. Plus, personal memories of the US intelligence failures in the run-up to 9/11 and the bombing of Afghanistan which followed. We also get a dramatic first-hand account of the death of Ahmed Shah Massoud, the leader of the Afghan resistance against the Taleban, who was killed by an al-Qaeda suicide bomber on the eve of the attacks on New York and Washington. And former BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus joins us to analyse the war on terror and the gains made - or not made - in the twenty years since a day which changed the world.

Photo: Smoke pours from the World Trade Centre after it was hit by two passenger planes on September 11, 2001 in New York City. (Credit: Robert Giroux/Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson.
0:05.2	This week we're looking back 20 years to the shattering attacks of 9-11, the moment that changed the course of history at the dawn of the 21st century. A so-called War on Terror followed
0:16.0	with American-led military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, the consequences of which those countries
0:21.8	still suffer today.
0:23.2	We'll hear from some of the key individuals at the heart of the story of those dramatic events.
0:28.1	Also, why were the warning signs ignored?
0:31.1	I don't think I or anyone else identified where it would come from, but we
0:35.8	were ironclad in our conviction. We would be attacked somehow sooner rather than later. and how America responded shaping the post-9-11 world.
0:46.0	It was a clear sky, moonlit, all over cobble, and all of a sudden we heard a big bang.
0:55.0	First though, the event itself.
0:57.0	Simon Watts has the story from the heart of the US administration.
1:03.0	We understand that there has been a plane crash on the southern tip of Manhattan.
1:07.0	You're looking at the World Trade Center.
1:10.0	On the morning of September the 11th, 2001, President Bush was in Florida to promote his education
1:17.2	policies.
1:18.6	As he arrived for his first appearance of the day, his officials began to hear worrying news from New York, among them
1:25.8	White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card.
1:28.9	He spoke to the BBC in 2011.
1:31.7	As we were heading over to this elementary school, the Emma E-Booker School in Sarasota, Florida, there
1:37.7	was a buzz in the air.
1:39.2	People kind of asking a question, anybody here about a plane crash in New York City.
1:44.0	We don't know if it was a commercial aircraft.
	...

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