News Events:
Terrorism of September 11, 2001
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Bill Clinton: "The President, in the current campaign against the Taliban and Mr. bin Laden, is bringing to bear military forces to support our law enforcement efforts... and I might add, doing it in a way which deserves our commendation, and I applaud the way this campaign has been conducted."  (Oct 9, 2001)

Senator Hillary Clinton: "I think it's imperative that we support the President in his efforts to root out whoever did this."  (Sept 13, 2001)

Senator Hillary Clinton: "Uh, every nation has to either be with us or against us. Those who harbor terrorists or who finance them, uh, are going to pay a price."  (Sept 13, 2001)

A frantic conversation between a 911 operator and a caller from the World Trade Center complex during the terrorist attacks.  (Sept 11, 2001)

Emergency radio calls during the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. (Sept 11, 2001)

More emergency radio calls during the WTC terrorist attacks. (Sept 11, 2001)

Hijacker aboard United Flight 93: "Ladies and gentlemen, here it's the captain. Please sit down. Keep remaining sitting. We have a bomb aboard."

Cleveland air traffic controller: "Uh, calling Cleveland center, you're unreadable. Say again slowly."

Hijacker aboard United Flight 93: "Hi, this is the captain. We'd like you all to remain seated. There is a bomb aboard, and we are going to turn back to the airport. And they have our demands, so please remain quiet."

Cleveland air traffic controller: "Is United 93 calling? United 93, understand you have a bomb on board. Go ahead... [inaudible] 956, did you understand that transmission?"

956: "Affirmative. He said there was a bomb on board."

Air traffic controller: "United 93, Cleveland. Do you still hear the center? ... United 93, do you still hear Cleveland?"

U.S. House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt: "This is war! And we will do everything in our power, together, to make sure that terrorists never, ever again can create this mayhem, this chaos, this violence against our people and our country!" (Sept 12, 2001)

New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani: "Rebuild the city of New York and the World Trade Center to be even greater and more wonderful and more beautiful than it was before." (Sept 13, 2001)

New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani: "Our hearts are broken, but they are beating, and they are beating stronger than ever. New Yorkers are unified. We will not yield to terrorism."  (September 29, 2001, on the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live after the September 11 terrorism)

ABC News anchor Peter Jennings: "Now we've been very concerned and curious and mystified by what's been happening." (Sept 12, 2001)

David Letterman: "The reason we were attacked, the reason these people are dead, these people are missing and dead... They weren't doing anything wrong, they were living their lives, they were going to work, they were traveling, they were doing what they normally do. Uh, as I understand it -- and my understanding of this is vague, at best -- another smaller group of people stole some airplanes and crashed them into buildings. And we're told that they were zealots fueled by religious fervor, religious fervor. And if you live to be a thousand years old, will that make any sense to you? Will that make any goddamned sense?"  (September 17, 2001, Letterman's first show taped after the September 11 terrorism)

Senator John McCain: "I say to our enemies: We are coming. God may show you mercy – We will not." (Sept 12, 2001)

Senator Zell Miller: "I say bomb the hell out of them. If there's collateral damage, so be it. They certainly found our American civilians to be expendable."  (Sept 12, 2001)

Fire Department of New York firefighter Mike Moran speaking during the Concert for New York at Madison Square Garden: "Osama bin Laden, you can kiss my royal Irish ass!"  Crowd cheers. (Oct 20, 2001)  Moran's brother, also a firefighter, was killed during one of the tower collapses.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf: "I wish to assure President Bush once again, and the United States government, of our unsplintered (?) cooperation in the fight against terrorism."  (Sept 13, 2001)

Reporter announcing the first crash: "... not appear that there's any kind of an effort up there yet. Now remember... Oh, my God!!"

Woman: "My God!"

Studio announcer: "That looks like a second plane."  (Sept 11, 2001)

Pakistani youth, translated by NPR reporter Rob Gifford: "I'm signing up for the jihad, says 17-year-old Akran. America is attacking Islam, he says, so I must fight. I want to be a martyr, he adds."  (Oct 16, 2001)

A crowd of Pakistani radicals cheering for the Taliban. (Oct 16, 2001)

Reporter: "Dateline West Bank. Thousands of Palestinians celebrated today's terror attacks in the United States, chanting, 'God is great,' and distributing candy to passers-by. The attacks, of course, and we've been showing you the video tape – Two planes crashing into the World Trade Center, there is the second plane. Both towers, within an hour, then collapsed." (Sept 11, 2001)

CBS New anchor Dan Rather: "Making the rounds now is a chilling story about Ramzi Yousef, a protege of Omasa Bin Laden, convicted of masterminding the previous attack on the World Trade Center in 1993. Six years ago Yousef was being delivered by helicopter to New York for trial, as Newsweek Magazine reports it. As they flew over lower Manhattan, an FBI agent pointed to the twin towers and said, 'See, you didn't get them all, after all.' Yousef looked down and said, 'Not yet.' "  (Sept 12, 2001)

CBS News anchor Dan Rather announcing an amateur video: "Now this is the collapse, the first of the towers to collapse... We've just secured this video."

Woman's voice on tape: "Aahhh!

Man's voice on tape: "Aaach!"

Woman: "Oh no!"

Man: "The whole building's gone!"

Rather: " 'The whole building's gone' ... Indeed."

Man: "Holy f***in' Jesus!!"

Rather: "We do apologize for the language on the video tape." (Sept 11, 2001)

CBS News anchor Dan Rather: "It's almost impossible to conceive of the death and injury, the blood and the screams of the dying."  (Sept 11, 2001)

CBS News anchor Dan Rather: "An indescribable scene of death and destruction. People seen leaping or being forced out of a building at fairly high levels. And when those buildings collapsed, that concrete and steel that came crashing down covered a wide area – a horrific sequence of destruction."  (Sept 11, 2001)

CBS News anchor Dan Rather: "Well, folks, it's, uh, live television. In a situation like this I know you understand that mistakes happen. Uh, to err is to human, but to really foul up requires a computer, and we've had some computer difficulty." (Sept 11, 2001)

CBS News anchor Dan Rather: "What you're looking at, live, from the tip of Manhattan, is a new face of war. You've heard talk about terrorism, the war on terrorism, the war being waged by terrorism. Take a good look -- this is what it's about. We've said for years that terrorism would soon be coming to America. It began coming here big time in the 1990s with the first attack on the World Trade Center and other terrorist attacks... There is a war... It's a 21st Century kind of war. It's a war by sneak attack, in this case a devastatingly effective one." (Sept 11, 2001)

CBS News anchor Dan Rather: "A horrendous act of terror has, in a matter of minutes, changed the most famous skyline in the world. No one will ever look at this skyline again in exactly the same way." (Sept 11, 2001)

CBS News anchor Dan Rather: "The Taliban made what could be interpreted as a threat, suggesting that U.S. military action that causes what they called 'suffering' in Afghanistan might lead to more suicide attacks." (Sept 12, 2001)

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: "We did not start this war, so understand, responsibility for every single casualty in this war, whether they're innocent Afghans or innocent Americans, rests at the feet of the Al-Qaida and the Taliban." (December 5, 2001)

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: "We know of certain knowledge that the Taliban leadership and Al Qaeda are accomplished liars, that they go on television and they say things that we know are absolutely not true." (Oct 15, 2001)

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: "The Taliban have said they have shot down at least two helicopters, which is false; they have not. They have indicated that they have captured some Americans, which is false; they have not. And we have absolutely no evidence, at all, that would suggest that that allegation is correct; I'm sure it's not." (October 22, 2001)

Abdul Salaam Zaeef, Taliban ambassador to Pakistan: "Such brutal attention (?) by America will unify the whole Afghan nation against the aggressions. The Afghans will rise against the new colonialist. We will condemn this terrorist action on the nation of Afghanistan."  (Oct 9, 2001 -- Thanks, Kevin)

Abdul Salaam Zaeef, Taliban ambassador to Pakistan: "It is now clear that American planes are intentionally targeting the Afghan people. The goal is to punish the Afghan nation for having chosen an Islamic system. America is using against the Afghan people sophisticated and destructive weapons that have never been used before in any war." (October 22, 2001)

Taliban official: "Okay, you tell me. If we go and kill a thousand people there in the United States, what will you think? What would your country would like to do?"

Reporter: "Retaliate."

Taliban official: "Okay. We are also human beings like you are. Why don't you understand this thing, that we are exactly the same kind of human beings like you people are? Our people also want to retaliate." (July 2001)

Reporter watching the North Tower collapse: "Oh, my God! There it goes!!" (Sept 11, 2001)

Senator John Warner: "This is, indeed, the most tragic hour in America's history. And yet I think it can be its finest hour." (Sept 12, 2001)

Witness: "I was happening to look on the first tower and actually saw people waving where the first plane crashed through, and then it was unbelievable seeing this second jet come crashing into the second tower! ... What is going on??" (Sept 11, 2001)

Witness named Eileen: "And I saw people jumping out of... off the building, many, many people just jumping. And in a panic I had my bag and my cell phone and everything, and I was trying to find a phone because the cell phone wasn't working. Everybody was screaming, everybody was running. The cops were trying to maintain the calm. And in that haste people were stampeding. People started screaming that there was another plane coming. I didn't see the plane, but I turned around, and the 2nd building just exploded. And again all the debris was flying towards us. There was a woman on the ground with her baby. People were stampeding the baby." (Sept 11, 2001)

Witness: "... We heard a big bang, and then we saw smoke coming out, and everybody started running out, and we saw the plane on the other side of the building, and there was smoke everywhere, and people were jumping out the windows!... Over there, they're jumping out the windows! I guess because they're trying to save themselves, I don't know! And, and... I don't know, everybody just doesn't know where to go. Everything is blocked off. You can't even... They're telling us to get out, but there's nowhere to go. And then I heard that another plane hit, and if you go over by there you can see the people jumping out the windows. They're jumping out the windows right now... Oh, my God." (Sept 11, 2001)