Rob Spencer: Remember

The Oath with Chuck Rosenberg

MSNBC

Chuck Rosenberg, News, Biden, News Commentary, Government, Politics

4.8 • 15.8K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2019

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On September 11, 2001, Assistant United States Attorney Rob Spencer sat in his Alexandria, Virginia office – five miles from the Pentagon – waiting to meet an FBI agent about a new extortion case. The al Qaeda attacks that day changed his life, as it changed the lives of so many people in this country. Rob, a career federal prosecutor with deep experience in national security cases, was tasked to lead the team of extraordinary prosecutors and agents from New York and Virginia who teamed up in the case against 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person ever charged and convicted in a US courtroom for his role in those horrific attacks. Rob describes the investigation and prosecution of that remarkable, complex, and emotional case. Rob also discusses the prodigious efforts to reach out to victim families to give them a voice in the proceedings, and helps us to remember those we lost – and those we continue to lose – as a result of the 9/11 attacks. For more, please read the 9/11 Commission Report at https://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf As always, email us with any thoughtful feedback or comments at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
0:11.0	But I will bear true faith and allegiance to the sea that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter.
0:24.0	So help me God, so help me God.
0:27.0	So help me God.
0:30.0	Welcome, and for so many of you, welcome back to the oath.
0:34.0	I am your host, Chuck Rosenberg.
0:36.0	We begin season 2 of the oath with an important reflection and a compelling story.
0:41.0	18 years ago this week, Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four planes, crashed them into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, into the Pentagon, and into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and killed almost 3,000 innocent people,
0:57.0	men, women, and children on those planes, in those buildings, and on the ground.
1:02.0	It was a horrific and devastating attack. It was a tragedy. We lost so many good and decent and caring people, including hundreds of first responders.
1:12.0	Many first responders, to this day, continue to suffer from and die from. Illness is incurred during their heroic rescue and recovery efforts.
1:22.0	9-11 was an inflection point in American history, and changed the way we think about terrorism and our own vulnerabilities as a nation.
1:31.0	Our guest this week on the oath is Rob Spencer. Rob led the team that prosecuted the only Al-Qaeda terrorists ever to face justice in a US courtroom for his role in that 9-11 conspiracy.
1:42.0	The story of that investigation and the prosecution of that terrorist, Zacharias Misawi, is both important and fascinating.
1:51.0	Rob Spencer, the former criminal chief in the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, who long-handled national security cases in that district, knows this story as well as anyone. He lived it.
2:04.0	Rob Spencer, welcome to the oath.
2:06.0	Thanks, Chuck. Thanks for having me. Happy to be here. Where are you from?
2:09.0	I was born and raised in Hanover, New Hampshire.
2:12.0	My father was a professor at Dartmouth College. He was a chemistry professor. My mother worked at the hospital there as a cardiac technician.
2:21.0	There were four kids. I have three siblings. You're the second oldest.
2:24.0	Correct. I have two younger and one older sibling. Karen, I know you're older sister because we were classmates in college.
2:31.0	But you're two younger siblings. I took a very different career path than you did.
	...

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