The warnings before 9/11
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 6 September 2021
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Throughout 2001 the US authorities were being given warnings that a terror attack was imminent. A Congressional Commission, FBI officers and the CIA were all worried. There were even specific warnings about planes being flown into buildings. Louise Hidalgo spoke to former Senator Gary Hart who co-chaired the Congressional Commission that tried to convince the government to take action.
This programme is a rebroadcast.
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
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism. |
| 0:08.9 | In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero? |
| 0:16.1 | Simply doing your job, being a decent human being. |
| 0:20.0 | A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by |
| 0:23.1 | their own light and that light is to be recognised by others. The long history of heroism |
| 0:27.8 | with me, Rory Stewart. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service with me, Luis Adalgo. |
| 0:42.6 | All this week, we're looking back at the events surrounding the Al-Qaeda attacks against America on September the 11th, 2001. |
| 0:49.9 | In the months before 9-11, there was a series of warnings about the likelihood of a major terror attack on U.S. soil. |
| 0:56.8 | And in 2019, I spoke to former Democratic Senator and presidential hopeful Gary Hart, |
| 1:02.7 | who was one of those whose warnings were ignored. |
| 1:04.9 | Hold on just a moment. We've got an explosion inside. |
| 1:11.2 | On the 11th of September, 2017, Just a moment. We've got an explosion inside. The building is exploding right now. |
| 1:21.3 | On the 11th of September 2001, Islamic extremists flew two passenger planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. |
| 1:25.5 | 50 minutes later, a third plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington. |
| 1:29.1 | A fourth plane crashed into a field. It was the biggest terrorist attack on America in its history, killing nearly 3,000 people. And it shocked |
| 1:34.9 | the world in a way few terrorist attacks had done before or since. |
| 1:39.0 | I don't know. Everybody just doesn't know where to go. But there had been warnings. |
| 1:45.5 | I don't think I or anyone else identified where it would come from, |
| 1:49.7 | but we were ironclad in our conviction. |
| 1:53.4 | We would be attacked somehow sooner rather than later. |
| 1:56.9 | Eight months before the 9-11 attacks, |
| 1:59.3 | former Senator Gary Hart and the Republican Warren Rudman |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.