i want to thank you for being with us for this special edition of c"cnn sunday morning" stay with us as the coverage continues with candy crowley and anderson cooper. ♪ >> we can't breathe much longer. >> the images still shock. the heart break still hurts. for ten years we lived with the scars, the fear, the proud moments. 9/11, 2011, this morning we take time to remember to hear stories seldom told -- >> when that call came on the radio, they were coming. >> to look at how we started to rebuild, and to witness the

determination, the resilance of america. >> the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. ♪ good morning to you. the sun peeking through the skyscrapers in manhattan. ten years ago, it was a beautiful day just like this. today a decade after the buildings fell, a different landscape emerges, memories are inshrined alongside new towers rising to new and greater heights. we will like to welcome our viewers here around the united states and around the world to the special coverage commemorating the attacks on 9/11. i am anderson cooper, and here

is my colleague, candy crowley. what a gorgeous day here. >> it is. never be afraid of a beautiful morning, and yet we saw ten years ago -- >> how quickly that can change. >> yeah. love it, and it's also so eerie reminiscent of that day so cloudless, and in washington, d.c. and in new york city and shankville, the places that were hit. we want to move forward and talk about the resilience of a country. we saw the memorial fountains. it's just a day that sort of like, it's bricks on your chest. >> yes, the streets are largely empty of traffic, and it's early in the morning on sunday and that's not surprising, but given the security concerns as well, people are staying off the streets and i took a subway down

here, and you see so many family members that lost their loved ones that day, some are wearing t-shirts with pictures of the ones that they lost, and they are gathered around for what is going to be an extraordinary day of remembrances, not just here in new york and also in pennsylvania and by the pentagon. >> nearly 3,000 people died that day, fellow americans as well as people from other countries around the world. soon after the second plane hit the south tower here in new york and we realized there was no accident, word came of the crash in pentagon and the crash in pennsylvania. those locations have ceremonies of their own this morning. we will here from john king and wolf blitzer covering those in just a moment. in new york city, the ceremony begins in 30 minutes.

family members will read the names of every person lost that day, those in new york as well as in washington and pennsylvania. plus, those who died in the world trade center bombing in 1993, they will hear from president obama and former president bush, and it's not a day for political speeches but for reflections. family members will see the names of their loved ones etched in stone for the first time. >> and there was so much contention of what should be done at the site, and on a day like this it's put aside, and after so many years of frustration, and you look at the images, the giant reflecting pools, beautifully designed. when you see them, not only during the day but at night, and they are approximately 200 feet

in length on each of the time memorial pool. you are looking at the forth one right now. the design is called reflecting absence. and throughout the day as the light changes, the reflection of the water changes as well. at night it looks like the water is going the opposite direction, like it's going up, and it's extraordinary. >> here is a beautiful park-like area, and it has all the trees in it that soften up some of the ha hardscape that you see with the buildings, and around it are the buildings. that's what they struggled with all of the ten years how do you integrate what some people see as hollowed ground into the downtown area. >> yeah, and the family members will see the loved ones names

etched into the memorial. the way they grouped the names. and so basically people who worked encounter fitzgerald, if the families wanted those names would be grouped together. the idea that in remembrance, they were together. >> and our colleague, wolf blitzer is outside the pentagon with a preview of what will happen there. >> it will be an emotional ceremony here at the pentagon. 184 victims died right behind me at the pentagon exactly ten years ago with the american airlines flight 77 which took off from washington dulles airport, and scheduled to fly to l.a., and instead made an unexpected u-turn, and 184

people were killed, and 125 victims at the pentagon and 59 people onboard. there's a pentagon memorial that is there, and exactly at 9:37 a.m. eastern there will be a moment of silence, and the formal ceremony will be at 9:30. among those speaking will be the vice president of the united states. later in the afternoon after the president visits new york and shanksville, he will come here to lay a wreath. this is one of the days that we all will remember. we all remember where we were when we got word of this horrible, horrible series of events. the moments of silence will be very, very powerful. we will have live coverage, candy, throughout the morning here at the pentagon.

we will remember and reflect at that pentagon memorial, those 184 benches that have the names of the victims on each one of those illuminated benches. there will be a memorial service in shanksville, pennsylvania, and that's where john king is standing by. john? >> wolf, good morning to you and everybody watching in the united states and around the world. the pentagon, the world trade center, the simple of the economy, and why pennsylvania, how has it made its way into the history books? because of the heroism of the passengers who refused to let the terrorists strike the desired target. here, you see the memorial behind me to the 40 people, their plane crashed here in a

fireball because they fought back aboard the plane. their heroism will be honored today. and every name etched into the monument there. as the ceremony plays out today, remember, this is not just a memorial, it's the final resting place, the plane crashed so violently with so many jet fuel aboard it the remains sadly was not able to be recovered fully. the president of the united states will be here. first, though, at 10:03, a moment of silence. that's when flight 93 crashed into this field, in this tiny remote town in central pennsylvania. the president of the united states will be here for the ceremony. he will not speak but will participate in a wreath laying ceremony. he will meet with the families. the families return to the site quite often, and the president

will spend time with them as he makes his way to all three of the big sites. anderson cooper, as i bring it back to you in new york, the history of the sites is the connection of the three, on this day when we remember and reflect each of us, it's striking how just a moment in each of the few places as you mentioned, a perfect, crisp september morning turned horrible. >> i want to show you, john, president obama, his wife, michelle, former president bush and his wife, laura, are now at the site here. you are looking at live pictures. you are seeing them as we are seeing them as they walk around the memorial grounds, and are walking by the extraordinary reflecting pulls. hard to get a sense of the scale of it from the television images. truly enormous, 200 feet of each side. as they pause to reflect, let's watch.

>> i am assuming, anderson, what we are looking at are the former president and the current president greeting some of the family members that have been involved, and a lot of them have been, inputting not just this day but this site back together again, striking that balance that we talked about earlier. >> that's lee, one of the fathers of the firefighters lost here at ground zero. he has been a regular presence here over the years. he was a former firefighter himself, and he was able to stay

and work on the site, on the pile as it was called then, searching for the remains of his son, and he was there when his son was found as well. >> yeah, some of these faces are familiar as we go down the line. behind them, the politicians that we saw quickly as we went by, and it's a day of politic n politicians to be in the background. obviously these presidents were at the shanksville dedication, and advisory president biden and president clinton, i believe, both talked about president obama and president bush, two very different men dealing with the same problem and thanked them both for, quote, keeping the nation safe since 9/11. there you see the president with chris christie, the governor of new jersey. he was not the governor of new jersey when 9/11 happened, but an enormous number of new jersey

residents died. >> former governor pataki will be here. their former mayor, rudy giuliani was mayor of new york. >> the smallness of our words are evidence compared to the greatness of the memorial and the sounds of the water. we want you to hear the sounds and see the sites and absorb them as you will throughout the morning. and also during the coverage this morning, you will notice the names of the people who died at the world trade center and the pentagon and shanksville. and those people who died back in 1993 are also -- their names are also included in the

memorial, etched in stone down at the world trade site. because of the events, in the past few days, everybody has a lot of questions about security, of course, on the anniversary. there are always questions about security. security here in new york city is extraordinary tight today. there have been credible threats, according to the u.s. authorities, credible threats, though several days ago they were unconfirmed. we have been covering for the last few days the security, and we have seen a lot of traffic stoppage and cars being checked, and it has been intense security for the last two days. i am not sure where i was in washington, but we had not seen anything in new york for quite sometime. >> it was very intense when we left washington. we came by train. there were authorities everywhere. it was less in your face, i

think, than when we got up here when they started to stop trucks and cars and three lanes of traffic went down to one. it was a mess in new york city. >> we do want to give you a sense of what is happening right now because of the current terror threat. we think on this day it's important to reely focus on the victims of this tragedy, and not focus so much on the terrorists. i think it's fitting in a way where if they asked many americans they would not be able to name any of the hijackers. i don't think their names should be remembered in history, it should be the names of the lives lost on this day. suzanne candiotti, let's get a check on the current update of the threat. >> the streets around here are very quiet because of the extreme amount of security. it's anything but quiet behind the scenes as investigators continue to work 24/7 to try to pin down the validity of the terror threat.

i spoke with my sources not long ago and they tell me so far it is quiet, and in their words nothing has panned out to indicate that any of the three possible suspects believed to be headed to the united states from overseas to possibly plan to carry out an attack, a car bomb or truck bomb or some other cained caikind of explosive, they have not been able to tell if any of them have entered the united states, and at least two of the three were headed to the united states as recently as last week. remember, there are only four days into the investigation, and two of the three are not only u.s. citizens, but of arab dissent. and there was an intercepted

communication, and because of that we are seeing security that you have described all around the city. >> we will check with you throughout the morning. again, we're looking at former president bush and laura bush alongside president obama. and you can send a tweet to hash tag 911 where i was. let's just watch as the president and former president are looking at the memorial site. ♪ >> engine, 204, 201 --

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the flight attendant has been stabbed. >> we can't get to the cockpit. the door won't open. >> can anybody get into the cockpit? >> we don't know who is up there. >> chilling stuff. much of our attention is focused on the world trade center. we want to take you to another site, seven miles north of here is a memorial to new york's firefighters that gave their lives in the line of duty. soledad o'brien is joining them today. soledad? >> 343 firefighters lost their

lives on 9/11, and there has been a little bit of controversy over the fact that the firefighters were not invited to come down to the ceremonies where you are at ground zero. this is where they always meet every year since 9/11. they come here to honor their dead. and we asked peter regan to come join us. his father, donald, was a firefighter. his father died with seven other members of rescue 3. are you disappointed in being invited to ground zero where the bigger ceremony is taking place today? >> i am disappointed that the disinvite was put out there. >> you could be there, but you are here instead? >> i am here, because there is

where units come, and other areas in the city, and we're always invited. >> i was told there are no speeches or politicians, and there is no big over-the-top ceremony. it's private and focusing on all the firefighters who died on the job. >> right. at these events we honored the ones that died, firefighters especially. we don't forget the others that died, we don't forget the police and port authority and average citizens that died, but we do direct it towards the fire department, because that's who we are. everybody has their ceremonies, and we like to call this ours. >> thank you for talking with us. we appreciate your time. you can see behind me, this ceremony will get started soon. we are expected thousands of people to come because they shut down 15 blocks here and we are expecting a scene that might

rival what you are doing down at ground zero later today. back to you guys. >> probably given the sacrifice what rivals down here today, a quick programming note today. you can see soledad's documentary, "beyond bravery, the women of 9/11," tonight. >> massive loss, their families spent the last decade trying to remember those who they lost, and figure out how to rebuild their lives. one that has come to their aid, and told their stories, and it's a fraction of what he has done to help. he joins us this morning. it's exstori

it's is extraordinary to be here. >> yeah, we shot down here. it's a different feeling. especially when you hear the bagpipes start to play, especially anybody that had a family person or a friend that is connected to the line of duty death, and it's a strange feeling and it opens you up all over again. >> why did you want to do the series you did? it was new york centered? new york city fire department is an extraordinary organization and a tight-knit organization? >> my cousin was a firefighter up in my hometown, and in december of '99, there was a storage unit that caught on fire and six firefighters were killed, and my cousin was one and a childhood friend, and after that i started the foundation to help the families. at the same time a couple of my

friends from the fdny, two of my friends that helped me get started up there, after 9/11, timmy lost his life that day, and terry was very adamant about me getting involved, getting the foundation involved. so that was the beginning of it. i wanted to tell the story of that bravery, and after watching what happened with my cousin and the brotherhood up in massachusetts, and witnessing the same thing i thought it would be a fascinating story to tell, and be inside a firehouse and see what brave men do for a living and examine the after affects of this event? >> you live in downtown new york. it must be -- i mean, there has been so much contention over the years of the building and the site, and it must be nice to see it finally coming together. >> it's a very strange -- i come

by here quite often, and while we were shooting i would come by in the morning and sometimes at night on the way home, so it's strange to see where it's at and where it's supposed to be. there's something soothing about the sound of the water alone. it's complicated. >> we appreciate you coming and spending time with us this morning. we're minutes away, and 8:46 is the minute that so many lives changed and so many lives were lost when the first plane hit one of the towers. our coverage continues and we'll be right back after a short break. ! transfer! transfer! transfer! transfer! hello...my name is... peggy? come on!!! hello? want better customer service?

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we are -- there will be moments of silence at each of those times that the planes hit. we want to show you tight shots of the memorial itself. it's an extraordinary thing. you see some choir members and large groups of people who are family members who are waiting for the ceremonies to begin, which we anticipate very shortly. we saw earlier, president obama is here and former president bush, and former mayor giuliani, and current mayor bloomberg. and there you see the footprints of the towers. >> i will do a very poor job of this, but while we are looking at the pulls, i was listening to the architect about the meaning of what he was thinking when he created this. the water comes down from the larger wall that you are seeing, and it then goes into the larger pool, and eventually sinks down

into that small, small sized hole that you can see when you see the wide shot. he said it is the water disappearing into nowhere, sort of evoking the people who died, the buildings that came down, and the water going in, and yet the water recurring back on top as life continuing on. >> reflecting absence is the name of the design. >> the absence being that smaller square that you see in the middle of this. it's enormous. when you look at it next to the people that are now gathering -- we're told it is packed down there. a lot of the families coming back for the very first time since the first memorial. >> i was talking to family members as i was making my way here, and there is intimacy on a day when security is so tight, you find yourself in a group

trying to get around and you wind up talking to one another, and everybody has somebody with them, and sometimes it's a t-shirt or a bracelet, and people brought mementoes of what they have lost. let's listen in as the haunting bag of t sound of the bagpipers go by the ref reflecking pool.

they are heading toward where the north tower was. >> dennis leery, the cocreator of "rescue me," said it is very

hard to watch the bagpipes without thinking firefighter? >> yeah, particularly, as i said before, if you had a family member or friend that died in the line of duty because that's the sound you hear generally speaking at the beginning and at the very end of the funeral mass, and usually at the burial site. it's soothing and at the same time it brings back a lot of strong memories. but it also has a dignity and honor to it that i think is soothing, you know. >> we're a couple of minutes from the official start. the bagpipes will start out the

ceremony, which will include some entertainment or memorial performances. brief remarks from some politicians, but not political remarks. we will also hear some of the stories of those who lost a loved one. there will be the reading of the names that died here, and those who also died at the pentagon and in shanksville and then the first world palming in the early 1990s. >> and then it was just minutes away when everything began to change. let's listen in.

the president isabout to head on the stage. i want to thank dennis leary for dropping by today. >> thank you for having me.

>> unfold! ♪ oh, say can you see ♪ ♪ by the dawn's early light ♪ what so proudly we hail

♪ as the twilight's last gleaming ♪ ♪ whose broad stripes and white stars ♪ ♪ through the perilious site ♪ for the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ♪ ♪ and the rocket's red glare ♪ the bombs bursting in air ♪ gave proof through the night ♪ that our flag was still there ♪

♪ oh, say did that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ for the land of the free, and the home of the brave ♪ "oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ for the land of the free, and the home of the brave ♪

of the brave ♪ [ applause ] >> the flag which had flown at the world trade center was recovered from the site. [ bagpipes playing ] [ bagpipes playing ]

>> forward march!

>> ten years have passed since a perfect blue sky morning turned into the blackest of nights. since then we lived in sunshine and in shadow, and although we can never unsee what happened here, we can also see that children who lost their parents have grown into young adults, and grandchildren have been born and good works and public service have taken root to honor those we loved and lost. in all of the years that americans have looked to the ceremonies, we have shared both words and silences. the words of writers and poets help to express what is in our hearts and the silence has given us a chance to reflect and remember, and in remembrance of all those that died in new york in 1993 and in 2001, at the

pentagon and in the fields near shanksville, pennsylvania, please join in observing our first moment of silence. [ bell rings ]

god is our renlg refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake when it's swelling and there's a river whose stream shall make glad the city of god, the holy place of the taborn

anchtcle of the most high. god shall help her, just at the break of dawn. the nation's raged and the kingdoms moved and he uttered his voice and the earth melted. the lord of hosts is with us and the god of jacob is our refuge. come behold the works of the lord was made decemberlations in the earth. he makes wars cease to the end of the earth. he cuts the bow and cuts the spear in two and burns the chariot of fire. be still and know that i am god. i will be exsalted among the nations and among the earth. the lord of hosts is with us, the god of jacob is our refuge.

>> they were our neighbors, our friends, our husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, children and parents. they were the ones that rushed into help. 2,983 innocent men, women and children. we have asked their families to come here to speak the names out loud, to remind each of us about the person we lost in new york, in washington and in pennsylvania. they each had a face, a story, a life cut short from under them. as we listen, let us recall the words of shakespeare, let us not measure our sorrow by their worth, for then it will have no end.

>> gordon amoth junior. >> andrew anthony abate. >> vincent paul abate. donald law roy adams. shannon lewis adams. steven george adams.

christy a adom. my beloved son, we wish you and love you forever. you're always in our hearts. >> my sister, march lean batista, we love you and miss you. you're always in our hearts. >> terrance edward addly jr. >> lee adler. >> daniel thomas aflito. amanu amanual. david scott agnes. >> brian g. ahurn.

>> jeremiah joseph ahurn. >> joanne marie ablotus. >> true dem.aljero. >> my uncle, firefighter, dennis m. kerry, sr. big d, we love you and miss you and your light shines through your three grandchildren, grace, jewelet and allen. >> john leslie albert. >> peter alderman. >> jacqueline deelane.

>> eric allen. >> jason allen. >> richard dennis allen. >> richard allen. >> christopher e. allingham. >> janet murray alonzo. >> antonio javier alvarez. >> victoria alvarez. >> and my uncle, james samuel jr. we miss you. >> and my daughter, laurie, we miss you and love you. >> so you have watched the beginning of the reading of the names. anderson, it's hard to say you love this part of it, but to me

9/11, yes it happened to a nation. yes, it shook the world. but this was a story about an uncle, an aunt, a mother, a father, a daughter, and when they say "and my uncle," this to me is one of the more poignant thing. >> it's personal obviously. it's not just something we are seeing from a vantage level from the ground level, but the human cost. so many people focus on this day on 9/11, but people reading those names now live with it every single day. >> in the end, 9/11 is a big story. inside it are so many individual stories that make up, you know, the entirety. >> and one of the things you have been working on, something that has not been told. >> i find remarkable always

about the events on 9/11 is the response by ordinary people was so extraordinary, and so many people responded and were there. i know you will talk to and about the heroes that we know of, but we found so many of these individual heroes and individual participants in this day who have become literally footnotes in the 9/11 commission report. we tried to focus on the heroes among them, and those that have been carrying guilt among them for ten years for not trying to stop what they thought could have stopped, and telling their stories really for the first time, feeling that now is the time. >> you actually went through the footnotes of the 9/11 commission report to find these people. who are some of them? >> well, it's so poignant right now. we had a commercial pilot flying down here, racing to the speed

of town trying to get downtown to intercept american airlines 911, and suddenly he switched into fighter pilot mode and was defending manhattan for the next five hours, and he would patrol the skies and watch as the towers fell beneath him not understanding what was going on. remarkably, in a resilience, two days later this guy got on an airliner and flew to tokyo, rebuilding the airlines. >> i am fascinated by the ones who live with the guilt, who say maybe if i had done this, this would have been different. i talked to so many people that sort of gave me the details of their loved ones death, why they were in the building or maybe if they had the loved ones survive,

why they were not in the building. it came to the little bitty things. did you find the details is where peoples' stories were told. >> the airline ticket agents that checked in the hijackers, because both had the same reaction. these are bad guys. one said look if these two were not arab terrorists, what are they? what they repressed that. they pushed it aside and said i am just being a racist, i need to get these people on their planes. they have carried incredible amounts of guilt for ten years. and they have told us their stories, and are still struggling with it, because at that moment they could have just denied them entry into the airplane and perhaps, perhaps, this would not have happened. >> well, after any loss, any death, those who survive are

left wondering what could i have done differently. a small little decision. one thing changing could have affected things in a whole circle of events might not have occurred. it's obviously impossible to go back. but to live with that for so long, it's -- >> there's a united airlines dispatcher in chicago, he was in charge of 16 flights going from the east coast to the west coast, including the two united flights that crashed. he knew there was a hijack in progress, and he sent out a text message to all pilots, beware of intrusion. he lived with the guilt thinking those are the wrong words, if i had said something different, united 93 might have locked their door right then, and then the flight would not have gone down. he has been sailing on a sailboat and has never flown again. >> amazing stories.

tell us when your special is airing. >> 9:00 tonight, eastern time here on cnn. there is up lifting stories. there are sad stories. there are real stories that you have just never heard before, and on the tenth anniversary, these people have decided to share their history with the rest of us. >> it's amazing, and can't wait to see it, drew. we're coming up to the top of the hour here. i want to let you know where we are. there will be through the course of the day, six moments of silence. we already had one when the first plane at 8:46 eastern hit the north tower. we will be coming up soon at 9:03, the time the second plane hit the south tower. remarkable moments. you will see that obviously when the other two planes hit in shanksville, and the pentagon, and then the moment the towers came down. we are coming up as we go into

the next hour, anderson, on those moments which, if you -- which we saw on live tv if we were not down here, it literally took our breath away. >> we will bring those moments to you live and in silence, as names continue to be read out, as they will be for several more hours, obviously for family members there, and so many want to be here and so many want to watch obviously around the world on television. and we have our correspondent, wolf blitzer at the pentagon, and john king in pennsylvania, and we will check in with them and show you the events as they occur there. we will stay up here, obviously, as we approach 9:03. let's just listen in to some of what those families are listening to now. >> my best friend, paul, miss you, love you. your girls are doing great.

your niece and nephew, mark and danielle are doing great, and give mom a kiss for me out here. i have been down here to watch the memorial be built, and to the first responders and to the military, thank you very much. >> to my brother, anthony edward gallagher, we love you and we miss you. >> david w. bernard. >> william h. bernstein. >> david m. burray. >> joseph john bury. >> carolyn mayor beauge. >> paul michael bare yer.

>> peter alexander baelfeld. >> my brother-in-law, steven howard burger. we all miss you and there is not a day that goes by that we don't think of you. you will always be in our hearts. we love you. >> and my brother, william reid bethkie, we will always remember you. >> gary eugene bird. >> joshua david birdbaum. >> jeffrey donald.

>> president lincoln not only understood the heart break of his country, he also understood

the cost of sacrifice and reached out to console those in sorrow. he learned a widow lost five sons in the civil war and wrote her this letter. dear madam, i have been shown in the files of the war department a statement of the general of massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. i feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to begile you from the grease grief of a loss so overwhelming. in a thanks to a republican they died to save. i pray that our heavenly father may awage your bereavement and

leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the alter of freedom. yours very sincerely, and respectfully, abraham lincoln. my name is peter agram. my father worked in the world trade center. i was 13 when i stood here in 2003 and read a poem about how bad i wanted to cry. i have tried to teach my brother all the things my father taught me. how to catch a baseball, how to

ride a bike and to work hard in school. my dad always said how important it was. since 9/11, my mother, brother and i moved to florida. i got a job. i enrolled in college. i wish my dad had been there to teach me how to drive, ask a girl out on a date, and see me graduate from high school and 100 other things i can't even begin to name. he worked in an environmental department and cared about the earth and cared about our future. i northeaknow he wanted to make difference. i admire him for that and would like to have talked to him about such things. i have decided to become a forensic scientist. i hope i can make my father proud of the young men that my brother and i have become. i miss you so much, dad. [ applause ]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

they have just begun to allow family members who have gathered here just now for the first time, beginning to allow family members into the memorial garden, and by the reflecting pools in order to be open today. >> and these family members now being let in, and for many of them it's -- for most of them it's the first time they will see their family member's name on the wall. it is in some ways reminiscent of the war memorial.

>> the names are grouped, and more than 1,000 families did request it, names are grouped together in groupings of those that worked together as often. >> and all the while you are hearing family members read off the names. here are the first family members. >> my father, john naz yoe.

we love you and miss you. you are forever in my hearts. rest in peace. >> nicholas andrew bogdan. >> daughter ren christopher bohan. >> lawrence francis boisseau. >> vincent m. bowland. >> yvonne lucia bonomo. >> seaon booker. >> kelly ann booms. >> my father, george john bishop. we love you, dad. >> my dad, firefighter, christopher joseph blackwell,

rescue 3, fndy. >> shary's bordeaux. >> krystine bordenabe. >> martin boryczewski. >> more heartbreaking than the children, some of who, by the way, were not even born when their father died. >> more than 100 children were born after 9/11 to mothers who had been pregnant when 9:nin 9/ happened. >> there is family members wanting to touch the names, and there's something tactile about it, and there's a sound, haunting, and i am not sure the television is picking it up, but

it's in the background as we hear the names read. >> this is not the only ceremony going on here today. we have both, john king in shanksville, and worth blitzer who is at the pentagon. i understand you are about to start with your ceremonies? >> yeah, the pentagon memorial ceremony here in washington is about to begin. it's about to begin around 9:30, and at 9:37 eastern there will be a moment of silence, and that's when the flight smashed into the pentagon, and 59 victims onboard, and 184 people were killed by those five hijackers. the youngest was 3 years old. the oldest, 71 years old, and there is nearly a two-acre

memorial with benches honoring all 184 who were killed. vice president joe biden will be speaking here, as the joint general of chiefs, and leon pennetta will have extensive coverage. we're getting ready for the ceremony to coincide with what is going on in shanksville as well as in new york. back to you. >> in the background, you will hear voices in the microphone, of people reading out names, including the names of their loved ones. >> we are joined by a number of people here with various relationships to 9/11. our mary madeline is in new orleans, and she was council to

vice president cheney when the attack happened. john miller who has served as former assistant deputy director with the fbi, you were a reporter at the time. >> yes. >> you were with abc news at the time. >> when the plane hit the pentagon, it seems as though the whole world was on fire. it took it out of new york, and you realized this was a huge thing. >> when did you and mr. president realize this was not just a single incident. >> i was stepping out of the motorcade, and a page said it had been hit by the aircraft.

i leaned over in his right ear and whispered we had been attacked, and then moments later somebody whispered in his left ear that there was a second attract. it was the second attack that got me, candy. >> it seemed so big to me at the time. planes were missing. there was so much confusion. where did you, john, first hear? >> i was covering that moment what was the big story of the day, which is that a hair had been found in a car that was linked to jimmy hoffa case that might be moving that case forward. the phone on my belt was ringing and the pager was going off, and

early reports was that a small plane went into the world trade center, and that report was wrong, but i heard a gasp and i saw the plane go in and i thought it was a replay. that was the second plane. i sat down with peter jennings and said, okay, we know what this is and everything is different. >> mary madeline, i understand you were with us from new orleans. you weeventually went to the bunker with vice president cheney. and the president was in florida, and then louisiana and then to nebraska, because they were worried about his safety. when you first saw the president, i thought that was a compelling story of the first

time you saw him and how you felt. >> it was one of the few emotional moments of the day. the rest of the day was devoted to work. i was in the west wing when the first plane hit in my office, and then in the vice president's office when the second plane hit. there wasn't -- i know this sounds odd. there was not an emotional reaction, but a functional reaction, and in addition to the president's safety that we were concerned about, would be an effort made to decap tate the country. the vice president all day long wanted to be back in washington when . when he did arrive, from that moment he was full of resolve and determination and courage. he knew what he wanted to say and what he wanted to convey to america.

it was a moving -- it was a moving moment. >> ari, you actually have hand written notes right now with you of everything you took that day. >> it's about eight or nine pages of single-spaced verbatim notes. the president boarded the plane, and -- >> these are the notes? >> yeah. my notes have the president talking to the vice president. sounds like we have a minor war going on. he was told there are three aircraft missing. and the air force we had on air force one, there were six aircraft that did not respond to the order to land. the president said, we're at war. that's what we are paid for, boys, we're going to find out

who did this, and they are not going to like me as president because somebody is going to pay. that was a record to history. i will loan these notes to the bush library and it will become part of the exhibit for 91nin 9. >> were you also with him when he came here to ground zero? >> yeah. that was the most difficult day i ever had at the white house. september 14th. as mary said, on september 11th, and it sounds wrong today to say it, but there was no emotion. we had jobs to do in the white house. my job was to speak for the president and tell the country what the president was doing and why he was doing it. that was my job and i wanted to be calm to do it. september 14th, this is my home, anderson. this is where i was born. i was raised in new york city, in westchester county. to come home and walk in the

rubble. the memory i have is the dogs searching for bodies, and the dogs were bloody and cut up, and then go right back in. to see a fighter aircraft on patrol over manhattan, to this day it will forever be part of the gut. >> every time i see a plane around manhattan, i cannot help but think about that day. did the president know what he was going to say on the 14th when he was at ground zero? >> no. that bullhorn moment was a spontaneous moment. i talked to the president on friday, and he said he keeps in touch with the fireman with whom he stood on the truck, and arlene howard, she gave him her son's shield. and that was spontaneous. the fireman started to get down

and the president said, no you stay here, and he picked up what the firefighters and rescue workers were feeling and reflected it back to them. >> john, you were one of the few journalists that interviewed osama bin laden. it was in the 1990s -- >> 1998. >> i think for most people, 9/11 is the first time they really honed in on that name. when you first realized what was going on here, is that the name you went to immediately? >> immediately. that is actually what i thought in the car on the way to the story. i did not have to see it. put, you know as a journalists, you try to hold back from jumping to conclusions and keep an open mind, there were other possibilities, but in the planning part of my mind, i was thinking we have to pull the old footage and figure out the al qaeda story and organize because this is going to hone to that. >> did you sense when you interviewed him that he was

capable of something this big? i think there were a lot of people -- i think peter burgen who interviewed him, he was sitting in a tent in the middle of nowhere and he did not seem all that powerful. how did he strike you? >> very much the same. i had a very good sense that as we hardened targets overseas, this would be coming back here. i was at the first bombing in 1993, and it was the scaleability. the idea of using airlines as missiles and multiple strikes on the same day, and taking 3,000 lives at one time, and that was actually beyond our concept. i think the 9/11 commission called it a failure of imagination. they out conceived this. >> you are seeing thousands of

family members who are still waiting to be allowed in. they are slowly allowing family members in at an appropriate pace to let families have some time around the reflecting pools in order to find the name of their loved one and to touch it and to spend time, and to say a prayer and to talk about their loved ones. there's a sense of community here, this terrible community that nobody wanted to be part of, of course, but of those who have lost loved ones. you see people etching -- putting pieces of papers down on the stone to etch the name of the loved one. >> and we're hear at the pentagon. i wanted to get ari fleischer to weigh in. when they heard the american

airlines flight crash into the the pentagon? what was your reaction? when the terrorists went after the pentagon, talk about how the president reacted? >> what happened was, he got that word in his vehicle, in his motorcade on root to air force one. i was in several cars behind him. i first heard about the pentagon aboard air force one in the president's cabin. he got the word from the secret service in his vehicle. i was not a witness. >> the president obviously knew this took on an additional layer and threat. once the pentagon had been attacked, ari, because there was deep suspicion, i remember watching it closely as white house officials started to run away from the white house. there was fear that the white house was about to be attacked as well. you remember that? >> yeah, i remember the video of

people running out of the white house. this moment, i am aboard air force one and we took off like a rocket ship into the sky. our thoughts shifted to military. what can we do to stop this. the president gave the debt com 3 response, and -- there was no emotion shown. it was just a question of what is coming next? we don't know. there are still three aircraft in the air. turned out to be only one aircraft in the sky and that was the flight that went down in pennsylvania. all through the military, it was what can we do to stop anything else from happening. >> john miller, when you heard not only the world trade center

had been attacked by the terrorists, but you also heard the pentagon had been attacked, you suspected it was an al qaeda bin laden type of operation, and it takes on a whole new level when the headquarters for the united states military was attacked like it was ten years ago? >> yeah, that day it didn't unfold that logically either. as we were trying to figure out the pentagon incident, there were reports of a car bomb at the state department and a lot of other traffic coming in. for a while there it really did seem like we were under attack from more directions than we were, which is hard to believe in and of itself. >> i want john king -- he is in shanksville to weigh in on this as well. there will be memorial services where you are later this morning as we are awaiting the start of the pentagon memorial service

momentarily. >> and wolf, it's fascinating, as i listen to the conversation about where we were that morning and what is happening, what makes shanksville so interesting, is the terrorists chose the pentagon of their target, and it's the actions of the heroes that puts shanksville in the books. the hijackers changed the course, flying from san francisco from newark, new jersey, and it changed its course, and they thought maybe the white house, and the heroes wrestled with the hijackers, and it came down in a fireball in the small tiny town of pennsylvania. i was going through security at the white house, walking down the driveway, when the secret service evacuated the building, because they thought this plane, the one that crashed, flight 93,

might be coming for the white house. i covered the white house for 8.5 years, and by the time i left, uniformed secret agents shouting for us to run. and some were running so fast, shoes were strewn about in the driveway. they locked their cameras, so we would have a picture of the white house. they had to guard the building. we went to lafayette park. i was trying to stand in the middle of the street so i could see the building if the plane was coming, and one of the producers grabbed me, and he said you cannot file if you are dead. he pulled me back across the street into lafayette park where we were watching it unfold. i just heard mary's story.

we knew who was with the president in florida. and garrett was our correspondent at the time who was there. the challenging question was who is making the decision? where is the vice president? and mary was with the vice president, and that day as a reporting challenge, i think ari makes an excellent point, i remember the urgency, and the panic initially, and then there was not much emotion in the sense that we were trying to find out what was happening, where were our own people? was everybody safe at the white house. this scene here, we could not see it, but then in a short period of time, the vice president was in the emergency operations center, and they were in coordination with air force one. it was a remarkable day. for me, the first emotion came late that night when i talked to my young daughter and my son and was asking them how they were doing, and my daughter asked me how i was doing? that's the first time i remember crying on 9/11 if you will.

throughout the day, the reporting challenge, amid the chaos, anderson, was unnerving and riveting. >> we are seeing a lot of emotion on display now at the memorial site where more family members are being allowed in, slowly streaming toward -- it's interesting watching, as the families are allowed into the park, there are areas to walk through, but people are gravitating towards the pools. the water fall is cascading down. explain the design a little bit. you talked to one of the architects. >> the idea of the smaller square inside each large square, because there is one on the footprint of the north tower and another one on the footprint of the south tower. the idea is first that this water continues to flow.

so that's sort of life renewed. and then the smaller square is just water that goes into this -- just disappears into this large dark square. so it both reflects back on what happened as well as gives you that sort of revitalizing nature of life and the cycle of life. i love -- i don't know a soul that doesn't like the sound of water, that doesn't find it soothing. i am sure there are some, but i have not met them. i feel the same way with the fdr memorial, where water plays a huge part of it. it's quite soothing. as they go there, they are hearing the water as well as touching the names of their family members. >> soledad o'brien is at another site where firefighters have gathered to remember those who died more than 300 new york city fires lost their lives on september 11th.

soledad, a smaller ceremony where you are, but incredibly powerful as well. >> absolutely. it's growing by the minute. we are expecting thousands of people to come here to 100th street and riverside drive. they closed off 15 blocks because they are holding their own memorial service. firefighters were not invited to the ceremony where you are. but they come here every year. and you are one of 16 people who were trapped -- >> 14. >> strapped in a stairwell when the building collapsed, and that's the moment you needed to start evacuating. what did you do? >> we started our evacuation once the building collapsed. it was not really clear that we were going to get out even just taking our normal strides down

the stairs. once we got to the 20th floor, we saw a woman in distress, and we stopped to save her. >> you thought you were going to die if you stopped? >> yeah. >> you stopped any way? >> yeah. >> you lost 343 people on that day. did you think that you would be one of them? you made it down to the fourth floor, i know, when the building collapsed around you? >> i thought we would be lucky if we got out. we couldn't pass by this woman. her name was josephine harris. she was one week shy of her 60th birthday. we could not do it. that's why we went there. we went there to save peoples' lives. and firefighters all over those two buildings were doing the same thing. >> today the memorial service are recognizing those firefighters. you are happy to be here and not down at ground zero. it's a remarkable turnout. >> yeah, they estimated there

would be 5,000 people, and i think we may have quite a few more than that. >> thank you for talking with us. we're about to come up on another moment of silence. we have the moments of silence here as well. i want to get to wolf blitzer, because that is coming up right now. >> soledad, thank you. the pentagon memorial service, it just started and within a minute or two there will be that moment of silence when that american flight number 77 went into the pentagon. barbara starr is with me, and barbara as we get ready to participate and watch and observe the moment of silence, you were here at the pentagon on that day. >> yeah, wolf, i had come to work early like the rest of the press corp. that morning, and we had watched events in new york and there was a pentagon police officer suddenly running down our hallway yelling, get out,

get out, get out. we have been hit. get out. and then hundreds were fleeing for the exits coming out of every door that they could. what i am so struck by this morning, if you were in the pentagon that day, this is not just a memory, this is what happened to you. >> and you see the vice president, the secretary of defense, and the chairman of the joint chiefs, they are getting ready for the moment of silence. the u.s. army major, donald ruterford is delivering a few words. let's listen in as we get ready for the moment of silence. ♪

♪ ♪

♪ >> this memorial service at the pentagon is just beginning here at the pentagon. there are dignitaries who gathered to remember the 184 people that died. the 184 including the victims

aboard flight 77. and the flight made a sudden u-turn and came into the pentagon. 184 people died. the sad, sad moment indeed, exactly ten years ago. let's go back to new york to the world trade center memorial. let's listen in to this memorial. >> i told you about my wife and patric patricia's mother. she ran into the towers time and time again to save as many people as she possibly could. she sacrificed all that she had and all the richness of life that still layed in front of her

in order to just save one more person. she was killed when the south tower collapsed. since that time patricia has grown and blossomed into a lovely 12-year-old. the very picture of her mother with her mom smiling and sense of adventure. and patricia has two brothers to share her zest for life. five years ago we looked back and gave words of sorrow, and today we choose to remember and share the joy that was brought to all of us, and we vow she will always live in our hearts. >> mom, i am proud to be your daughter. you will always be my hero and the pride of new york city. [ applause ]

♪ ♪

♪ ♪ you can sing this song when i'm gone ♪ ♪ it won't be long before another day ♪ ♪ yeah, we're going to have a good time ♪ ♪ and no one's going to take that time away ♪ ♪ you can stay as long as you like ♪ ♪ only close your eyes, you can close your eyes, it's all right ♪ ♪ no, i don't know no love songs, and i can't sing the blues anymore ♪ ♪ but i can sing this song

♪ and you can sing this song when i'm gone ♪ ♪ and he was larger than life. love what you do, and do what you love. >> in memory of frederick cox

and my brother, daven peterson, we love you very much. >> vincent g.dans. michael allen davidson scott matthew davidson titus davidson niurka davila ada m. davis. clinton davis wayne terrial davis >> the reading of the names, probably so simple and so emotional when you put them up against some of the pictures we are seeing of children who are

even now too young to understood what went on here ten years ago. we are joined here by anderson cooper, john miller, and mary madilin. i wanted to bring you back into the conversation, mary, we were having earlier talking about if you are a police officer or you are a journalists, your job kicks in. when was there a time -- did you ever see a time when the vice president or the president had emotions kick in? >> well, i don't know if this is an emotion, but it was a reaction to the unfathomable collapse of the towers. there's an iconic picture of that now, but we did not know what to make of it.

john king said this, too. i don't think anybody had any real emotion until they returned with their families. the vice president and his wife left, and he recounts his story of seeing washington smoldering, another unfathomable vision, and when everybody returned home in the night with their families -- now it's so emotional to see these kids and to think of ten years without their parents, and their sisters and their brothers. it's just really -- it's amazing how much emotion was not present there compared to what is present today. the country has come a long way. watching all of this, and i hope people watching around the world are catching our conveyance. we don't give up. we don't give in. this is one strong country. >> and that was something that

osama bin laden did not believe. john miller, you interviewed him. they felt that al qaeda felt they had seen what the u.s. was capable of and not capable of in somalia, and they thought united states would cut and run. >> bin laden said in the interview, we saw this in lebanon and in somalia, referring to the bombing of the marine barics, and he said -- i am quoting, he said the american shoulders are a paper tiger, will cut and run at the first sign of a fight, and we will bring this battle to you. that was back in 1998, which obviously on his part was a giant misassessment of what was to come. >> it's such an remarkable book about al qaeda. an fbi agent who early on identified bin laden as a

threat, and was kind of the voice in the wilderness talking about bin laden who actually ended up retiring from the fbi and got a job working for security at the world trade center site and perished on 9/11. >> that was john o'neal, who was one of my best friends. >> is that right? i didn't know that. >> we spent enormous amounts of time together. we were very close. i remember the mixed emotions he had. he hated leaving the bureau, and he hated leaving the hunt for bin laden. >> early on he identified bin laden before many in the u.s. identified him as a threat. >> way before anybody heard of bin laden except for a small group of people. one of the arguments was this was not resonating in the government. he said this is treating this as a crime, where we will charge somebody or make an arrest. and this is one of the things where we have to raise it in the

military operation, and in that way he was a bit of a voice in the wilderness. he took this job as director of security at the world trade center, because, a., he knew it was time to leave the bureau, and he was becoming unpopular for being the clinging bell on the bin laden story, and b., it was time to retire and get on to a bigger income. but he knew this was a target. on his second day on the job as director of security trying to direct operations for the evacuation of the building, he was killed in the collapse of one of the towers. i can remember that day knowing this is the most knowledgeable guy about osama bin laden on earth, and i getting the voice mail and my heart sank. my heart sank because i knew. >> so many stories. we're going to be talking -- remembering so many different people throughout our coverage today. we've heard from john king

earlier in shanksville, wolf blitzer now joins us at the pentagon. wolf? >> anderson, what we're seeing is u.s. troops placing wreaths, 184 people died when those terrorists crashed american airlines flight 77 into the pentagon ten years ago. 125 victims at the pentagon, 59 on board. barbara starr is watching all this unfold. she was here at the pentagon on that morning exactly ten years ago. as these troops place the wreaths at each bench in this memorial, barbara, you were there when they dedicated that memorial to the victims here at the pentagon. talk a little bit about the concept of this memorial. >> well, this is about the pentagon family, whether the victims were on the plane or in the building. there has very much been the sense here at the pentagon for the last ten years everyone was the same pentagon family victim. they don't really delineate.

you see the benches facing in different directions. that is the marker of whether you were on the plane or in the building. i want to mention that one of the victims, an extraordinary piece of history. his name was max bilkey, an army civilian, an older man working in the building. as a young man, max served in the military, fought in vietnam, was the last u.s. combat soldier out of vietnam. he came home, lived a peaceful life for so many years. here on 9/11 he was killed in the building when the plane hit. other victims, there were toddlers on the plane. there was a young navy sailor who worked in the command center. his father was a construction worker who came here for the following year and worked every day rebuilding the pentagon. he wanted to be where his son was killed. so there's so many stories.

but i think the real difference about the pentagon is it was rebuilt. everyone came back to work. we still today see many of the survive ors at work every day in the pentagon. we were back here the next morning. this is a place that never shut down. as they say in the u.s. military, no retreat, no surrender. that's what really the last ten years has been about, honoring, the place men, the firemen and all the troops over the last ten years who have served since that day, wolf. >> it's a beautiful memorial. it was opened exactly three years ago, september 11, 2008, barbara, and dedicated on that day. that day you remember well, a day all of us remember well. but is this -- it's open to the public and people come here. do they come here throughout the year in relatively big numbers? >> it's extraordinary. this is not that far from where we park and walk into the

building, and not in extraordinary numbers, but every day 24-7 there always seems to be someone walking around paying their respects. you see them here on a bright, beautiful summer morning like today. you see them in the snow in the winter, late at night. this is a very secure area, of course, since the attack ten years ago. but this one part where the memorial is, in fact, open to the public and there is access to it. and people can come and visit and pay their respects. you see that side of the building right there where the flag is hanging, ten years ago utter devastation. the dead and the wounded were tended to. people were medevacked out of here. it was an extraordinary site, and on this beautiful summer morning, very quiet, very peaceful. you still hear the planes flying from national airport very close by. but everyone is here one more

time to pay their respects, wolf. >> everyone who goes into the pentagon remembers what happened ten years ago. it's one of those seminal moments that no one will ever forget. but i assume that every world leader, defense minister who comes to visit, secretary of defense, everyone, do they just as a matter of procedure go and pay their respects to those who died? >> many do come out to the memorial and pay their respects. i should mention there is a memorial chapel inside the pentagon where there also is a wall with the names of all of those who perished here, and many people go and pay their respects there and do those now sadly very traditional en gavings, put a piece of paper over the name and make a rendition of that name. people pay their respects all the time. i think for those of us who work in the building, what is still

so extraordinary is, is those moments that catch you where it's not history. it is what happened to you on that day. even a few weeks ago when we had that heart quake here in washington, so many people were just stricken with sudden fear that something awful had happened once again until they realized it was an earthquake. it's those moments that come back to you where it's all still suddenly right there in front of you, wolf. >> the men and women not only of the united states military who remember vividly what happened, but so many civilians. a lot of people forget that it's not just military personnel that work in the pentagon. most of the people in the pentagon are, in fact, civilians. >> many are civilians. i will tell you that one of the stories that stays with me the most is there was a young army officer who crawled his way out of the flame and debris and then suddenly realized one of the janitorial workers had been in his office and he didn't see

this man come out of the wreckage. this army officer climbed his way back in under great peril to himself, back in through the wreckage, the flames, the smoke and found the man. this was a disabled man as so many of the custodial staff are, who had no ability to cope with what had happened. the guy's name was teddy, the custodial worker. he put teddy on his back and then climbed back out through the debris one more time with this young janitorial worker on his back. this was a war zone. this was a war zone. no one was left behind. everybody was looked after, wolf. >> leon panetta, the former cia director, the defense secretary right now, he's speaking. i want to listen in and hear what he has to say. >> -- generation of americans stepped forward to serve in june norm, determined to confront our enemies and respond to them

swiftly and justly. for ten years, they have carried that burden of protecting america, relentlessly pursuing those who would do us harm, who would threaten our homeland. because of their sacrifices, we are a safer and stronger nation today. and the principal terrorist behind these attacks has been brought to justice. we will never forget the human cost paid by this generation. the more than 6,20 soldi0 soldi sailors, airmen and marine lost in the line of duty. like those taken on 9/11, we will always remember that they paid the ultimate sacrifice for

america. today we think of their families who have suffered tragedy and heartbreak, that have shown extraordinary resilience and strength. we think of the thousands of veterans who carry the scene and unseen wounds of war and carry those wounds every day with them, and we grieve for those losses. out of the darkness of this grief -- >> from the pentagon we take you back here to the world trade site where at 9:59 the south tower fell, and we will have a moment of silence here as a bell will begin to be running by an official from the port authority who also lost so many of their employees on this day.

[ bell tolls ] vrnlths today as you look over the walls of remembrance, we want to share with you the words of the poet mary lee hall. if i should die and leave you here a while, be not like others

undone who keep long vigil by the silent dust. for my sake, turn again to life and smile. nerving thy heart and trembling hand to do something to comfort other hearts than thine. complete these dear unfinished tasks of mine and i, per chance, may therein comfort you. ♪

"amazing grace," very familiar song down here. we want to go to thanks ville, t shanksville. at this time ten years ago we didn't know how many planes were in the air. we just knew there were planes. wet want to go to our john king. >> we're here in shanksville, pennsylvania. ten years ago we didn't know how many planes. one of them was in the skies over pennsylvania. it had been over ohio. it was redirected by the hijackers and was over pennsylvania. they've just now tolled the bells and read the names of the 40 passengers and crew of united flight 93 that came down in this field in a fireball at precisely 10:03. we'll have a moment of silence for those heroes that changed history. the hijackers wanted to take

that plane to washington, d.c. later the government came to the conclusion they wanted to fly it through the capital dome and deliver another blow to a symbol of american power. instead, heroes aboard that plane decided they would change history after hearing on air phones from their relatives what was happening in the country. let us pause now and listen to a moment of silence in honor of the 40 heroes of flight 93 who changed history.

♪ oh beautiful for spacious skies ♪ ♪ for amber waves of grain ♪ ♪ for purple mountains' majesty above the fruited plain ♪

♪ america america ♪ ♪ god shed his grace on thee ♪ >> quoir singing at shanksville, pennsylvania. vice president biden here yesterday said they knew -- the people on that plane knew they were giving up their own lives to save the lives of others. they didn't know where. but they gave up their own lives. president bush called it the first counterattack on the war on terrorism. the vice president now at the pentagon ceremony. let's go back there live. a wonderful dancer. i'll never be able to dance with anyone else. he was a perfect partner and above all, he was a good, caring and loving man. and so, so many others are remembered this morning with the moments of silence in small towns and bustling cities all across this country.

but nowhere the memories more immediate, more vivid, more compelling, more real than in new york city, shanksville, pennsylvania and right here in northern virginia at the pentagon. although words cannot ease the pain of these losses, paying tribute by recalling not just the horror of that day, but the heroism as well, can hopefully give you some comfort and stiffen the resolve of this nation. at 9:36 a.m. thousands of patriotic americans are going about their daily business in the building behind me, in this great citadel of oufr national defense. one minute later, 9:37 an unconscionable tragedy struck. but what happened after that was far more remarkable than the damage innexted in the building

behind me. those who worked in this building, many of you in front of me and thousands more first responders across the region, firefighters from arlington county, fairfax county, montgomery county, the district of columbia and many others, they sprang to action risking their lives so their friends, their colleagues and total strangers, people they had never met might live. from corporals to cafeteria workers. right up the chain of command, top brass, secretary rumsfeld who i pay special tribute to today. i understand he's here. secretary rumsfeld did what he did as a soldier, as a young man, you and he and others streamed into the breach between the fourth and fifth corridors where the devastation was the

greatest, where death came in an instant, but also where there were some survivors to be found. special left beau dumbrowsky was so far away he never heard the plane hit but felt the commotion. he could have gone home. no one would have blamed him. but he was also a trained emt and came from a family of firefighters. so when people started streaming out of the building and screaming, he sprinted toward the crash site. for hours he altered between treating his co-workers and dashing into the inferno with a team of six men. mickey fyad a volunteer fire chief in woods borough, maryland, when he heard that

evening that the rescue workers of the pentagon needed a fire truck, small fire truck, small enough to fit through tight places, he knew he had a 54 mack which is the smallest one around. fresh off of an all-day shift he barreled down the highway and battled the blaze all night with thousands of others. and at dawn, exhausted and covered with soot, 14 hours on the job, he sat on a bench and confronted a man, a man who he said was wondering aloud why am i still alive? for had i not been at the dentist i would have been in the office, my office, totally destroyed with my colleagues gone. why me? it's a basic american instinct, to respond to crises when help

is needed, to confront the afflicted. an american instinct summoned by the collective strength of the american people that we see come to the fore in our darkest hours. an instinct that echoes through the ages from pearl harbor to bay root, mogadishu to ground zero, to flight 93 right here in the pentagon. those in this building that day knew what they were witnessing. it was a declaration of war by stateless actors pent on changing our way of life, who believed these horrible acts, these horrible acts of terror directed against innocence could buckle our knees, could bend our will, could begin to break us and break our resolve.

but they did not know us. instead, that same american instinct that sent all of you into the breach between the fourth and fifth corridors, galvanized an entire new generation of patriots, the 9/11 generation. many of them were just kids on that bright september morning. like their grandparents on december 7, 1941, they courageously bore the burden that history placed on their shoulders. as they came of age, they showed up. they showed up to fight for their country, and they're still showing up.

2,800,000 of that 9/11 generation moved to join our military since the attacks on 9/11 to finish the war begun here that day. they joined knowing in all likelihood they were going to be deployed in harm's way. in many cases, deployed multiple, multiple times in afghanistan and iraq and other dangerous parts of the world. those of you who ard mishlly command this building, turned this generation, this 9/11 generation into the finest group of warriors the world has ever known. over a decade of war they pioneered new tactics, mastered new languages, deployed and masses centered new technologies. they took on responsibilities once deserved only with those

usually with more seniority, extending beyond the base or the battlefield, to the politics of afghanistan, the politics of iraq, to the economies of those countries and to the development tasks that ultimately lay the groundwork for us to leave behind stable countries that will not threaten us along with the intelligence and law enforcement communities, they relentlessly took the fight to al qaeda and its affiliates. they were prepared to follow bin laden to heloise gate if necessary, and they got him. my god to we owe those special ops guys who got him, many of whom have lost their lives. we will not stop.

you will not stop until al qaeda is not only disrupted but completely dismantled and ultimately destroyed. one more thing about this 9/11 generation of warriors, never before in our history has america asked so much over such a sustained period of an all-volunteer force. i can say without fear of contradiction or being accused of exaggeration, the 9/11 generation ranks among the greatest our nation has ever produced and it was born, it was born, it was born right here on 9/11. as the admirable said, that generation has paid an incredible price, 4,478 fallen angels in iraq, 1,648 in

afghanistan and more than 40,000 wounded in both countries, some of whom require care and support the rest of their lives. having visited multiple times like many of you, i am awed not only by their capability, but their sacrifices today and every day. the terrorists who attacked the pentagon sought to weaken america by shattering this symbol of our military might and prowess. but they failed. they failed because they continued to fundamentally misunderstand us as they misunderstood us on that day, for the true source of american power does not lie within that

building. as americans we draw our strength from the rich tapestry of the people before me, looking at the people before me, looking at the families before me. the true legacy of 9/11 is that our spirit is mightier, the bonds that unite us are thicker and the resolve is stronger than the millions of tons of concrete that make up the etifus behind me. al qaeda and bin laden never imagined that the 3,000 people that lost their lives that day would inspire 3 million to put on the uniform and harden the resolve of 300 million americans. they never imagined the sleeping

giant that they had awakened. but you understood. you knew better than anyone because you knew every time this nation has been attacked, you particularly who wear the uniform, every time this nation is attacked, it only emboldens us to stand up and to strike back. you family members knew something else that a lot of us didn't know that day. those loved ones that you had lost who we call heroes, were already heroes to you. they were heroes to you. they were the father that tucked you in at night. they were the wife who knew your fear

fears even before you expressed them. they were the brother who lifted you up. they were the daughter who made you laugh and the son who made you proud. i know. i know in my heart and so do all the people on this stage know that they are absolutely irreplaceable, absolutely irreplaceable. as the speaker heard me say yesterday in shanksville, pennsylvania, no memorial, no ceremony, no words will ever fill the void left in your hearts by their loss. my prayer for you is that ten years later when you think of them, ten years later when you think of them, it brings a smile to your lips before it brings a

tear to your eye. my mom used to say that courage lies in every man's heart. and her expectation was that one day, one day it would be summoned. here on september 11th, 2001, at exactly 9:37 a.m. it was summoned. it was summoned from the hearts of the thousands of people who worked here to save hundreds. it was summoned in the hearts of all those first responders who answered the call. for courage lies deepest in and bee beats the loudest in the hearts of americans. don't forget it. we will not forget them. may god blez you all.

may god bless america, and most of all, may god protect our troops. [ applause ] >> the vice president of the united states, joe biden, remembering the 184 people that were killed by those five terrorists on american airlines flight 77 when it crashed into the pentagon on exactly -- exactly ten years ago. as i said before, the youngest victim at the pentagon was 3 years oath, the oldest, 71 years old. an emotional, powerful statement by the vice president recalling the heroism of what he described as the 9/11 generation. you're looking at u.s. military personnel honoring those 184 people who were killed on this very day ten years ago at this moment oral, this pentagon memorial. they're laying wreaths in honor of each of those 184 victims.

we'll continue to watch what's happening here at the pentagon. we're also watching what's happening at the memorial service in shanksville, pennsylvania and, of course, at the world trade center in new york. let's go back to new york right now. >> wolf, thousands of family members continue to stream into the world trade site here, so many of them heading immediately towards the pools in both the imprint of the north tower and the south tower where they're laying flowers. we've seen a lot of roses by left by if names of family members, a lot of young children putting a piece of paper over their father, their uncle, their mother, their aunt, stracratchia pencil over the name. the names etched in bronze over the reflecting pools. in about eight minutes from now there will be another moment of

silence as the north tower collapsed at 10:28 a.m. before we bring you that -- we'll of course bring that to you and honor that moment of silence. we'll also then hear from former mayor of new york rudy giuliani and paul simon will be singing "bridge over troubled waters." an update on the threat with susan candiotti. >> first of all, anderson, to give you an idea of how tight security is, we have a report from the new york police department that they're on the lookout for someone described as an emotionally disturbed person, a former army vet who served -- rather a former veteran who served in afghanistan who they were alerted to by his parents from the carolinas. he's in the area. they believe he may be a danger to himself and he may, in fact, be headed to ground zero.

this is something that may not necessarily raise much attention. on a day like this, it is. along with that, investigators continue to work around the clock to try to nail down that terror threat that is still out there that is now four days old, trying to determine one way or another this credible threat, that three people might be heading to new york or washington to carry out some kind of an attack on or about this anniversary using either a car bomb or a truck bomb or some other means. they have not been able to confirm it as yet. but this is something they're working on. they're looking for partial names, information coming from an al qaeda operative through a communication that was caught up by intelligence agents and tracked down. they're working on it, anderson. >> susan will be continuing to check with her sources as wed continue to watch this. we're here with john miller, also ari fleischer. and fran townsend will be with

us. in terms of safety, this is probably one of the safest areas in the world right now. lower manhattan is locked down. >> i always said to myself i was at the most targeted spot on earth when i was with the president, but also the safest spot. that's the way i feel today. there are many people who want to target this event. just getting down here was so hard, all the checkpoints i had to go through. they're not letting any cars or trucks anywhere close to the area. >> this is obviously an international event and people watching around the world on cnn international. there were many victims from around the world working in the world trade center on 9/11. what do you think the message of this is today for those around the world that maybe want to do america harm? >> the message of today from september 11 forward, and i still feel it right now, is the strength of america. the unity of this country, the

fact we have gone through adversity people. that's what i remember about the days after september 11. when the moment calls for it, this country is instantly unified and one. >> john, from a security standpoint, how do you think we have changed in the last ten years? >> we made enormous advances. that's doubtless. we have more intelligence on the adversary. we don't wait for the fight to be brought to us. between what happens with the u.s. military and special forces, the intelligence community and law enforcement, we are bringing the fight to the terrorists. if you look at the number of plots disrupted. we used to have an average of four plots a year after 9/11 targeting u.s. soil. >> credible plots that actually involved people who had plan and so on. in 2008 that jumped to nine and then ten and then 11. so we're seeing a lot more of

the terrorist message actually resonating through the internet with the so-called lone wolfs and things like that. but we're near a 100% record of detection and prevention. that wouldn't have happened before. >> when i spoke to president bush on friday, he said one of the things he's very grateful for is so much of the infrastructure that was put in place, indefinite detention, wiretaps have been left behind and are still being carried out. he cited the predator attacks as good signs that these are bipartisan actions to keep america protected. >> the number of predator attacks has risen dramatically in the last two years to remarkably successful in terms of decapitating the top leadership of al qaeda. >> it's hard to plan and have a meeting when you have to worry about what's in the sky that may listen to me or get me. that keeps them on the run.

>> if you look at just recent history, though you have the decision not to make the bin laden capture a predator strike, but to go in and get him which is a tactical decision, a right decision. but before that cakashmiri, the key planning strike, you have rachman with the predator strikes. the drone strikes have made being the number two or three in al qaeda the briefest position to hold. >> i want to bring in fran townsend, our cnn contributed tore on homeland security, also adviser to former president bush when he was in the white house on homeland security. fran, i don't think i've met anyone in your business that hasn't said, oh, we're much safer now. now the nature of the threat is different where people see not an organizational big bang, if

you will, attack from al qaeda, but these lone wolfs who are either inspired by our loosely linked to various people. and is not that threat something you can't always -- you can't be 100% right on that. i talked to general haden whom you know very well who said he doesn't think the next attack is an if. it's a when. >> that's right. as you know, those are the hardest to detect. as al qaeda core gets fractured, you do worry about these lone wolves. they're very hard to detect. >> we'll talk more about that. our attention now coming up on the moment of silence at 10:28, the moment the north tower fell, the second tower to fall for so many that this country would never be the same. let's listen.

[ bell tolls ]

the perspective that we need and have needed to get through the last ten years and the years that remain are best expressed by the words of god as inscribed in the booth of ak ecclesiastes. to everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain

from embracing, a time to win and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away, a time to rend and a time to sew, a time to keep silenced and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace. god bless every soul that we lost. god bless if familithe family m that have to endure that loss. and god guide us to our reunion in heaven and god bless the united states of america. [ applause ]

good morning. my name is debra epps. it has been ten years, and it feels like it just happened yesterday. my brother christopher epps worked on the 98th floor in the north tower. not one holiday, birthday has gone by that my four sisters and my brother and i don't think about him.

our mother takes off a necklace with his picture in it. something i have learned over the past ten years is that people come forward to help you in your time of need. and today we thank you. the people of our great nation, family, friends and neighbors. at work christopher sat next to his good friend wayne russo. the russo family has made a special request that their son's name be placed next to my brother's name. that meant so much to our family. what i know now is that the forces of good are not just in movies. it's all around us.

people really do catch you when you fall. it's been a blessing. christopher would have loved knowing that the love he freely gave to others was given back to us in his name. thank you and i business you god's speed. ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ hello darkness my old friend ♪ i've come to talk with you again ♪ ♪ because the vision is softly creeping left its seeds while i was sleeping ♪ ♪ and the vision that was planted in my brain still remains ♪ ♪ within the sound of silence ♪ restless dreams i walked alone

narrow streets and cobblestone ♪ ♪ the halo of a street lamp ♪ i turned my collar to the cold and the damp when my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light ♪ ♪ and touched the sound of silence ♪ ♪ in the naked light i saw 10,000 people maybe more, people talking without speaking, people hearing without listening ♪ ♪ people writing songs that

voices never shared ♪ ♪ no one dared disturb the sound of silence ♪ ♪ fools that i do not know ♪ silence like a cancer grows ♪ hear the words that might teach you ♪ ♪ take my arms that i might reach out to you ♪ ♪ but my words like silent raindrops fell and echoed in the wells of silence ♪ ♪ and the people bowed and

prayed to the neon god they made ♪ ♪ and the signed flashed its warning and the words that it was forming ♪ ♪ said the words of the prophet are written on the subway walls and tenement halls and whispered in the sound of silence ♪ [ applause ] kevin games haniford senior.

>> michael lawrence hannon. >> dana reihannon. >> christine lehan son. >> peter burton hanson. >> sue kim hanson. >> g.hariness. >> jeffrey pike harding. >> harvey l. harrell. >> stephen j. harrell. >> melissa marie harrington. >> aisha ann harris. >> stewart d. harris. >> and my husband, port authority police officer tom gorman. tom, bridget, patrick, laura myself, your soon-to-be

granddaughter keep you in our hearts every day. your family and friends miss you, love you, miss your laughter, your smile and your meatloaf. >> my dad, who i'm happy to honor today, a good, kind, godly man. winston grand thom. for so many family members, this is really the only place they will have where there is sort of a physical remembrance of their loved one. many of them never got any remains back. >> more than 1,100 known victims from these twin towers there's been no remains found. they have 900 pieces of remains -- joined by sanjay gupta who can probably help us with this. they're still looking and trying to find something identifiable for the victims' families.

for many of them, 1,100 folks died and there's no remains of them. so there really are -- this is the one sort of place where they can come where they are. there's nothing to have buried, nothing to have commemorated. >> there was such a process that was wholly unique at that time. there had been nothing quite like this where it was impossible to find remains. they had to do the very, very discouraging and difficult task of scouring through all these different piles of dust looking for any dna, anything that was an absolute evidence that someone had died there. as you say, a lot of times they simply did not find it. even in the dust they've collected over the years, they've looked at that dust as well as not found evidence of dna in much of that. i don't know that there's going to be an answer or any final

resoluti resolution. >> there's also huge concern over the health implications of this dust and the impact it's had on the first responders who not just on 9/11, but for weeks or months after were working on what was then called the pile. there was just a study out which looked at new york city firefighters which determined there was an increased cancer risk -- increased cancer incidences among firefighters. >> no question about it. we've been investigating this for a year. it's wildly controversial. there's a bill out there that covers lots of things out there, everything from carpet tunnel. but cancer is off the list. this paper is significant for two reasons. the fact they say it's biologically plausible this dust over here which i have some of

it. they wanted to analyze it and find what was in it. they found it was a unique amalgamation of chemicals. they've been studying this. they said it's biologically plausible that this could cause cancer they saw an 19% increased cancer risk among firefighters exposed as compared to firefighters who were not. ten years is still an early time. it can take 20 years, 30 years for cancers to develop. the fact that they've shown it now could be the beginning -- >> researchers have never seen anything like it, the composition of the dust. >> that's right. when you had what happened on that day, you had a sudden thrusting together of all these various chemicals, everything from titanium to benzine to jet fuel all put together and you saw it in the air. then it sort of coated onto the dust which remained like a mist over the city. >> i'm looking at it now. it's incredibly fine powder. >> it is.

we've got it sealed. they took special precautions. this is perfectly fine to transport this way. there's still concern that if people breathe it in, what would happen with their bodies. respiratory problems and potentially other problems. >> this study was about firefighters in particular. we see so many pike tours of that day where people -- where this huge wall of dust where people are running from it. it looks like a sci-fi movie. and then people covered in it. literally they look like clay statues almost. so are there studies being done on the risk to those people who maybe had a 12-hour exposure? >> there are stud deez being done. the problem is, and this comes up constantly with the research that you don't know, did those people have any health problems before they were suddenly exposed to all this dust? i know you may say people know if they were sick before or not, but it's not that easy. the significance of the

firefighter study is all these firefighters were screened for ten years at least before 9/11, 2011. they could compare those same people after the exposure to dust. it's hard to do that in a general population which is why oftentimes just not answers to questions that we think are obvious, smoking and lung cancer took over 20 years to develop that cause and effect relationship so you can imagine how difficult it is to do with this dust. >> there are practical reasons why it's important to know for the firefighters. >> i think this is very important. there's obviously a lot of people who have cancer now. you've heard from them today who say i'm convinced it's because of the dust. i'm convinced my loved one died of cancer because of the dust. what's even more important is people who are exposed, who have the study and go get their screenings, go do something about it. so they can prevent developing some of these awful problems that they've seen their fellow firefighters and first responders, police department

officers go through. >> just in case anyone is wondering at home, you're going to return that dust to researchers? >> that's right. this is still considered sacred material. it's a compilation of so many different things. yes, this is going to go back to a place where they're storing this, and families, victims of 9/11 sometimes go visit this particular room to look at this. honestly it's one of the few reminders of what happened on that day. >> sanjay gupta, thanks so much for coming by. appreciate it. up next, as we continue to follow the emotional events in all three cities, we want to take a look at the sacred 16 acres where we're sitting and the city that's seen its share of tragedy just this year and how some new yorkers are using this day to help them heal. [ grandma ] why do relationships matter?

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the doctor leaned over and said to me, "you just beat the widow-maker." i was put on an aspirin, and it's part of my regimen now. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. go see your doctor now. the other tower just collapsed! >> be advised we have injured on board.

[ screaming ] the reading of the names continues here at the world trade center memorial as family members, many of whom still waiting to get in to visit the name of their loved one that's etched in bronze around two large reflecting pools in the footprint of both of the towers looking at where the south tower once stood. there's the south reflecting pool and then the north one now just coming into view. the twin towers were obviously iconic parts of this city's skyline. the 16 acres that comprise the entire world trade center site also container high-rise buildings. subway, commuter train stations,

a huge shopping mall. we took it all for granted. every time we look toward lower manhattan, there's a blank space in the highlight, a horrible void. as new york skylines go, the towers were fairly new. take a look. new yorkers have been talking about building a world trade center for 20 years before ground was broken on manhattan's lower west side on august 5th, 1966. older brild dings had to be demolished. north tower started going up in 1968, the south tower five months later. the first tenants moved in in 1970, even before construction finished on the upper floors. ribbon cutting was in 1973. the towers were full of innovations. at 110 stories, they were the tallest buildings in the world, at least for a little while. each floor was about an acre of open space, their weight distributed between a central core and steel columns in the building's outer skin. high-speed express elevators and

sky lobbies on the 44th and 78th floors made getting to the top quick and efficient. the complex had its own zip code, 10048, iconic additions to manhattan's skyline, the world trade center never stopped attracting attention. in 1974 a daredevil tightrope walker crossed not just once, but eight times. >> there are somebody out there on a tightrope walk between the two towers of the world trade center. >> as the years went by, the towers, symbols of a city, a country and a way of life also became a focal point for hatered. >> in february 1993 a van packed with explosive z was detonated under the north tower. six people died and about 1,000 were hurt. islamic extremists behind the attack, were rounded up, tried as criminals and sent to prison. the international terrorists who

inspired them kept plotting and struck on that crystal clear morning in 2001. >> a plane has crashed into one of the towers of the world trade center. >> in it took eight months for bodies to be recovered and for a million tons of twisted steel and concrete to be cleared away. plans for new an even taller skyscraper were revealed quickly and changed repeatedly to make it stronger and safer. the new one world trade centerly have a reinforced center core, extra fireproofing, bio chemical filters and even green technology. groundbreaking for the main tower, one world trade center took place in 2006. >> we're going to soar to new heights and reclaim the new york skyline with this magnificent symbol of our freedom. >> today this still unfinished tower just pokes above the skyline on its way to becoming the country's tallest skyscraper, 1778 feet at the tip of the antenna, matching the year of america's independence,

1776. >> that is, of course, one world trade. formerly called freedom tower. the new tower is supposed to be finished in 2013. thanks to the folks at earthcam.com, we can show you how much progress construction workers have made. take a look at this time lapsed video, this seven years of time lapsed video. the cameras on the millennium building about 58 floors up. let's watch this. we're awaiting president obama's arrival in shanksville after tom hanks and boat captains look back on the rescue effort to help save people. >> hundreds of boats converged on the city, leaving the sun bathed harbor behind them. dead ahead, the unknown.

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what the numbers in this will be, how many people have died by the time, by the time this day is over, how many injuries have taken place. >> that was aaron brown of cnn on air at the time. each year around september 11th, jeff parness go to a disaster stricken community to help them rebuild. it's their way of saying thank you to the cities that provided help to new york after the terrorist attacks. his group has become the custodian of the national flag damaged at the world trade center site. jeff has been nominated as a cnn hero. today he's in joplin, missouri, which was devastated by a tornado last may. jeff, for you being in joplin on this day ten years after what

happened in new york, what's this day like for you? >> you know, it's a beautiful day. we can't let terrorists claim this day. we should claim it for all the kindness and the humanity, the volunteer spirit that brought all americans together, not just on 9/11, but especially on 9/12, to have all the folks in joplin hold the national flag here at their ground zero, it reminds us we're all in this together. >> and what was it -- 9/11 really changed your life. you embarked on this whole idea. when did you come up with the idea of the foundation? >> you know, it was my 5-year-old son evan. he had seen stories on cnn about the california wildfires back in 2003 and told me he wanted to send his toys to the kids across country. we drove a truck to san diego with a big sign that says new york says thank you. it was my way of paying only panel to my friend killed in the towers. i wanted to make a statement that new yorkers would never forget that people around the

country, all around the world did for us in our time of need. evan was still 5 and my son asked me, can we drive the truck if there was a tornado in iowa. today we're probably one of the biggest volunteer organizations using the 9/11 anniversary to build hope. and to just through positive action let people know today is our day, we'll go out of our way to say we'll never forget, not just what happened on 9/11, but more important what happened on 9/12. >> you hope that this anniversary and the anniversaries in the years to come are not just days of remembrance where people stay at home. you really hope they are days of action where people go into communities and reach out to others? >> absolutely. that's the best vindication of who we are, to celebrate the kindness, humanity. pick up a shovel, hand out a

bottle of water. go to places impacted by disaster and do something very simple and kind to your neighbor. we had all these children here in joplin, missouri, holding the national 9/11 flag just a few moments ago. i told the kids, i said you're the 9/12 generation. you're the next ten years. i think it's so incumbent that we never forget the tragedy, we'll never forget the images. it's so important to teach and inspire and educate and activate our children for the 9/12 generation, the next ten years, the best way to pay honor to all those who are lost is to take positive action, do something, volunteer. >> we're seeing actually people stitching, repairing that 9/11 flag. what kind of impact does that experience have on the folks who are doing it? you've been traveling around the country with this, literally physically touching the flag and being able to take needle and thread and help bring it back to life. >> anderson, it's been the most

humbling privilege as a new yorker to be able to travel around the united states and let soldiers and school kids who survived the shooting in ft. hood stitch the flag and world war ii veterans on the deck of the "u.s.s. missouri." first responders, teachers, kids, 9/11 family mem bersz. we've had over 30,000 people return this flag to its original 13-stripe format. if a few minutes, the people from joplin will take flags that survived the joplin tornado and finish and complete the restoration of the 9/11 flag. it's become our modern day "star spangled banner." it's the beauty and the fabric. it's not only about the fabric, it's about the people, the love of their country and their neighbors. >> jeff, for those who want to help your organization, what's the website? >> the website is

newyorksaysthankyou.org. it's ten years and we've just gotten started. >> jeff, appreciate you being with us on this day. >> thank you. >> fulfills the moving ahead part so much. we would like to welcome our international viewers as well as those of you here in the u.s. it is a very special, very somber day. the tenth anniversary of the terror attacks of september 11, 2001. i'm candy crowley with anderson cooper at the site of the world trade center where they're dedicating the memorial to the victims. president obama was here earlier, now on his way to shanksville, pennsylvania, later at the pentagon. this is not only a significant day in u.s. history, many countries are different because of 9/11. none more so than afghanistan. suzanne malveaux and nic robertson with us. sadly we begin with breaking news of another terror attack. at least 77 people injured by a truck bombing at a nato base in

afghanistan. taliban militants are claiming credit. we'll start with suzanne at camp eggers in kabul. suzanne, what do you know about this attack? >> this is certainly the kind of thing that people worry about, a lot of anxiety about this. this happened about 60 miles west from where we are in a province, the wardak province. essentially a car bomb, a truck bomb that pulled up at that outpost. you had two afghan civilians killed. as you mentioned, there are situation any can't numbers of injuries, at least 77 american soldiers, 25 afghan citizens who were injured in that bombing. we are told that much of those injuries, however, are minor injuries which is a good thing. candy, i had a clans this morning to talk to general john allen. he essentially is the head of the u.s. and nato mission here in afghanistan, to get a sense of how significant this is and

whether or not he believes this is a sign that the taliban has been strengthened or weakened. here is how he put it. >> this attack was a high-profile attack. it was a pretty significant suicide vehicle bomb. but they have been ejected from the population in so many places around the country that their only ability to influence the battlefield in many cases on many occasions is simply high-profile attack. >> reporter: candy, what he essentially is this is a taliban that is actually desperate, if you will, that these are the kind of high-profile attacks they have to carry out, that are expected almost, because they have been so weakened, one of the things he told me as well as many of the soldiers here is the importance, really the mission has changed here. it's a different phase. it's about training the afghans an training them quickly to get them up to speed to go ahead and conduct their own security to protect themselves, their own

country, by the end of 2014, that's when it's slated that that's when nato troops will be coming home. candy? >> suzanne, i know you'll stick with us as we look into the international implications of 9/11. >> ten years ago al qaeda's leadership was in afghanistan. today many of those leaders including osama bin laden, are dead or in custody. al qaeda still remains dangerous. senior international correspondent nic robertson spent much of the last decade in afghanistan. he joins us live in kabul. nic, word of another bombing is of great concern to u.s. authorities, nato authorities. in terms of the strength of the taliban, how would you assess it today? >> reporter: they're still active in the south of the country and in the east of the country, the pashtun part of the country which is their ethnic background and ethnic heartland if you will. they still have significance

over large parts of the community, a number -- i believe it's now nine nato soldiers have been killed this month in smaller attacks, one, two or three in different shootings or different roadside bombings. the taliban is still able to make themselves felt with deadly affect almost every day around the country and intimidate the population. the population and the nato forces very aware of what the taliban can do, even though they are small in number, even though their military leaders are being targeted every day. i was here on september 11th ten years ago. al qaeda was here at the time. the taliban were running the country. but obviously what we see now with al qaeda is very, very much a changed situation, pushed out of the country. that threat still hasn't gone away. >> kabul has changed dramatically in the last decade. it has grown fast.

and international aid has poured in to support afghanistan's fragile democracy. ten years ago when the taliban were still in power, al qaeda had a presence here in kabul. now the remnants of al qaeda are hundreds of miles away to the south and east of here in training camps in pakistan. it was in pakistan where osama bin laden was killed and where this man, moritani, a senior operative was cap dufrd last week. he was the handler of this man. a german jihadist. he had come from this nondescript mosque in hamburg to an al qaeda camp in pakistan. he wanted to fight u.s. forces in afghanistan. but moritani told him to go home and launch attacks in germany. he never made it. he was killed in a drone strike and that's become a familiar pattern. al qaeda recruits from europe,

even america, reaching pakistan's bad lands. u.s. drone attacks trying to eliminate them and their mentors. one such recrete, brian neal venis, radicalized by friends and what he read online. >> that's led to an increase in the types of material we're seeing and almost, if you will, an arms race of competing sophistication for making material more accessible. >> that's the new al qaeda. it's different branches pumping out their jihadist message online. perhaps the most influential al qaeda in the arabian peninsula and its charismatic mouthpiece, anwar awlaki. >> we know they continue to plot against the united states and other western countries as well. so the situation in yemen remains a serious one for us. >> then there's el shabaab in

somalia. the growing strength of al qaeda in north africa, a stone's throw from europe. it may yet benefit from the arrest in tunisia, libya and egypt making the job of counterterrorism even more complex. the lone wolf. >> you have all the related aq groups, all the terrorists, all the islamist groups. so we have to watch out for them and watch out for lone actors. >> times square bomber fiz sal shahzad was one of them. he had training in pakistan but came home and worked alone in building his aborted car bomb. he was an amateur at building bombs. it's an inexact science. >> the mixture i'm making is one i don't have great confidence. >> reporter: the danger is that eventually someone will have enough training and ability to build a deadly device.

najibullah as zazi in denver came close. >> if enough people get hooked on this sort of publication, this particular publication, practice what preaches, some will succeed in causing the havoc and harm that they set out to do. >> reporter: it's not just another attack that worries this former top dhs official, but the sheer volume of soft targets. malls, hotels, power plants, rail networks. >> if i was still on the job, i would be very worried about today. al qaeda exploiting those vulnerabilities because we have a lot more work to do. >> ten years on, the battle against al qaeda is very different, but far from over. not only different, but it's spread out across the globe now. somalia and north africa, yemen. the problem of the al qaeda camps in afghanistan have

metastasized, if you will. it's become a much harder issue to tackle. anderson, candy. >> nic, thanks very much live from kabul. 372 of the people who died in the world trade center attack were citizens of countries outside the u.s. and many other countries, britain, spain, indonesia and india, to name a few, have been through terror attacks in the past decade. the war on terrorism truly is a global war and like it or not, the u.s. remains the leader of that war. with us now cnn national security analyst peter bergen and from cnn international, becky anderson. welcome to you both. i think there was this feeling after 9/11, the u.s. understands what we've been through. terrorist was last to come ashore here and maybe there would be more help and understanding in certain places. do you think that panned out?

we keep seeing poll after poll that the u.s. -- particularly the muslim world is not viewed favorably at all. >> yeah. it's the place where al qaeda continues to be headquartered, one of the most anti-american countries in the world, pakistan. right now we have a 12% favorability rating in pakistan. that said, al qaeda is losing the war of ideas in the muslim world as well. the fact the united states isn't loved isn't the end of the day. the real important thing is that al qaeda isn't liked and poll after poll, bin laden and al qaeda has been losing wars in other major muslim countries. that's a good thing. that was before the arab spring happened in which they played no meaningful role. >> i think people in security now, for example, in britain are wondering just who or what might be the threat going forward. it may not be jihadist.

the irish republic in the uk. even extremists like we've seen in norway in the past. a reconsideration of what the threats are. in london, for example, where i'm from, as we move toward the london 2012 games, it's less about where the states sit now and whether they're loved for us certainly in the uk, it's what is the security planning for the london 2012 games. its alert level is severe, which means an attack is highly likely, whether it's success or not. i think there's a sense that terrorism is still out there. but who might it be now? that's changed. >> in that sense, is there a global war on terrorism or a british war on terrorism or a u.s. war on terrorism? i know there are certain places where we exchange intelligence. really how far can you go in

calling this the global war on terrorism? >> a very good point. i'm not sure it's a global war anymore. >> it depends on the example. becky was in london in the summer of 2006, the biggest 9/11 style attack that al qaeda was trying to do, bring down seven american planes, seven american british navy planes. that was interfered with because investigators, law enforcement all cooperated to stop it. so in that sense there is a sort of assenting global cooperation. is there a war on terrorism? that's the bush administration term. president obama's more narrow definition which is appropriate, names the enemy, it's not a war against a tactic. it suggesting you can deally yourself with al qaeda. what we're trying to do in afghanistan is get them no longer allied with al qaeda.

a global war against terror is open-ended, no end. terrorism has been around for 2,000 years. i think the tenth anniversary is a moment to say, look, it's time to move on. this is making this the principal frame of our national security. in my view it is. al qaeda hasn't carried out a successful attack since 9/11. central london was six years ago. they have shown themselves to not be very capable. we put a huge amount of pressure on them, not least killing their leader. >> i asked this question of general hayden at one point. is al qaeda more of an organizational threat or an inspirational threat? in other words, the name out there attraction people going, yeah, i believe in that. i know you don't like the term lone wolf. do you get the feeling as an organization al qaeda is less of a threat than it is as just the

idea of it? >> i think certainly for some elements of the -- for example, the british muslim community, there will still be the inspiration. whether there was the organization that was there in the past that might have taken some of these characters out of britain into pakistan as they were in the past. i'm not sure that's as clear as potent a force as it was in the past. i think the inspiration certainly for those who want it certainly is still there. not seeing fiery rhetoric in the mosques of britain that you were seeing in the past. that's been sort of stamped out. there's an understanding of how to challenge people and the ideas. the inspiration is certainly still there. >> peter, in 2002 you called 9/11 the largest intelligence failure in american history, no dispute. have the huge gaps been fixed?

>> yeah. there are 800,000 americans with top secreted clearances now. maybe 100,000 too many. >> does that sound safer to you? >> look at in 2006, that was a huge intelligence coup. it wasn't processed entirely by the cia and fbi weren't talking to each other. that's changed. we have a lot of -- the intelligence picture is infinitely better now. >> okay. stick with us. president obama is now on his way to shanksville, pennsylvania. that's where our john king is. john also talked to vice president biden who candidly recounted what he experienced on that day. you're watching cnn's special coverage of the tenth anniversary of 9/11. >> kind of gray, clearing away. we are -- i guess i want to know

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flight 93 descended. >> it looks like he descended there. >> on united 93 there's report of black smoke in the last position i gave you. everyone who visits this site whether it be a vip or member of the general public note how different it is from the world trade center in urban new york city t pentagon in urban washington, d.c. shanksville, a tiny town in coal country in western pennsylvania. different also because the terrorists chose to target the world trade center. they chose to target the pentagon. shanksville is in the history books because of the heroes on that flight decided to fight back. when it did, it resulted in the

plane crashing violently into the field you see behind me. this site is different for another reason. that was the beginning of a conversation i had an exclusive interview with vice president joe biden when he was here in shanksville to pay tribute. >> i'll ask you first, this is an amazing place. do you think as americans remember, that they understand the difference here? it's not just a memorial, it's the resting place of those heroes. >> i don't think they do. i don't think they realize that some of these poor people were literally vaporized, and the field that we didn't go on to -- i know you know this, that we didn't go on to where that rock memorialized where the plane actually hit. there's parts of their families all over the field. i don't think most americans know that. >> what goes through your mind as you're here on this site and remembering this. >> these weren't soldiers, these weren't military people. these were americans who knew

they were doing something bigger than just trying to get rid of a bunch of hijackers. they knew they were saving people's lives and they gave their own. >> i was at the white house that morning. when we were evacuated, people thought it was coming our way. these people saved your life. >> literally. i literally got off the train just as the pentagon got hit. i'm walking up and i found out everybody was out of the capitol. we should go back in. i get up on the steps and they say incoming plane, you got to get out of here senator. you got to get out of here. obviously no one knows for absolutely sure. it appeared as though 30 minutes out, 20 minutes out, this aircraft. i thought the president said it well -- president clinton, he said they would have not only taken hundreds of lives, but they would have taken down the symbol of what constitutes the heart and soul of the

government. >> how different would it have been -- i assume you have no doubt, i have no doubt, the country would have rebuilt and rebounded. how different would it have been if the terrorists had that image? >> i just think it would have been profoundly more difficult. i think it would have been a rallying cry to every extremist, every jihad difficult in the world and taken down the symbol in the minds of the rest of the world, our financial empire, the trade towers. it wasn't wall street, but that that was the image. to actually take down -- you could have heard it now, not just the british sacked the capital. i think it would have been a lot tougher. it would have been tougher for americans psychologically. tougher for americans. >> i want your personal thoughts on a couple of things. you're in the room when the raid is played out on bin laden.

you know when you come into the room what the goal is. i sometime you had to have -- maybe a wrong choice of words, but a serious case of the jiters about, well, we better get this right. >> well, look. my first thought was we were sending in a whole hell of a bunch of special operators, helicopter pilots, s.e.a.l.s and others who were really doing something that was absolutely, if you put it on paper which we did, we rehearsed it and rehearsed it and knew every detail of it, was remarkable. everything had to work. the first thought was for their safety. that was the first thought. the second thought was that if this were to fail, the psychological impact it would be for bin laden and for al qaeda, and the negative impact it would have in terms of our sense of

our -- the united state's sense of our capabilities. it was remarkable what they did. >> any moment when you're watching the feeds coming anywhere you start to think -- >> well, at the very beginning, as you all know, when it was relayed to us that -- look, there were five of us who had been involved in the planning of that for three months. i think it was three months before that. the last month the group was larger. so we literally -- the president and i knew every single operational move. it wasn't like we were generically informed. we knew helicopter a was supposed to land here, helicopter bhere, so and so's get out here. when the first two things didn't occur, the first thought was, oh, god. but the adaptability of these guys was astounding.

that was the one moment when it was relayed to us that it didn't go exactly as planned on the front end. >> let's rewind the tape. take me back to that moment that you talked about when you found out, you were on the train coming to washington, that's when you find out something is happening. take me back and run me through that. >> literally, i commute every day. i got on the train. i took the early train. my wife was leaving the school to teach school. she called me on my cell just around aberdeen, maryland, which is before baltimore and said, joe, my god, joe, a plane just flew right into the world trade tower. what do you think that means? i said, honey, i don't know. then she said, okay, okay. she said -- and then she said i got to get ready. she called back in a few minutes and oh, my god, joe, oh, my god, there's a plane it's running -- oh, my god, it ran right into

the second tower. i said honey this is a big problem. this sounds coordinated. with that -- by that time other people started getting calls on the train. we went into the baltimore tunnel, you lose coverage as you go into the tunnel there. by the time i came out, there was -- i had everybody in the train, all of us coming up, senator, what's going on? what happened? i said i'm not sure. we were all listening, making calls. i got off the train. i walked out of union station, i could see off in my case at 1:00, and this big plume of smoke. it was the pentagon. everybody saying it's a car bomb, it's a truck bomb. no one knew what it was. then we got up and everybody had been evacuate friday my office. i wanted to make sure everybody was out. we were standing out there in that park alongside the russell office building. i said, we've got to go back into the senate. i don't think it looks good, us leaving the senate.

i started walking back up. that's when law enforcement officer said senate, there's a report of an incoming aircraft, we got to get out of here. it was just -- it was almost unbelievable. we can appreciate -- that's why i said of president bush today, imagine being president, having that news given to you, having to react and compute all this and figure out exactly where to go. i thought the way he handled events from that moment until we took that the taliban was textbook. >> thank you. coming up, a very moving piece, i urge you to watch. we'll talk to kids who lost a parent on 9/11, their remembrances on this, the tenth anniversary of the attacks. we'll be right back. arthritis .

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welcome back to our continuing coverage, coming to you live from the world trade center memorial site overlooking the site, what an extraordinary sight it is this morning. thousands of family members who have been allowed in. today is really their day to be allowed in on the grounds. tomorrow the memorial is open to the public, but today it is for families. we have seen so many scenes of women and men and small children standing around these enormous pools. you get a sense of the size of them as we pull out. two pools on the north towers. the one i believe you're looking at right now. there's the south tower as well. we're waiting to hear from president obama in shanksville, the memorial observance there. we'll bring that to you live. as many as 2,000 children lost parents in the terrorist attacks

of 9/11. we have seen so many children out here today, some too young to even remember their parents. many children lost uncles or aunts. at least 100 september 11th widows were pregnant. their babies are now third and fourth graders. boys and girls who were toddlers on 9/11 have grown into teenagers. we talked to some of them recently. >> on 9/11 i lost my father, john robinson. >> benjamin keith, an executive chef. >> my dad is alvin romero. >> sergeant john coglan. >> nobody else has lost a parent on national television, on the news, nobody else has seen it happenover and over again. that's something we all have to live with. >> my mother sat us down and had every cop's kid's worst nightmare talk that daddy doesn't coming home. my little sister at the time screamed out loud. >> i do not remember a good two

years of my life because just emotionally blocked it out. >> i don't really remember anything about it. sometimes i think it was a better thing that i didn't know him and he was taken away from me or if it was a worse thing that i didn't get to spend the little time i would have known with him. >> when your friends complain, oh, my dad is so annoying or he won't let me go out or he won't let me do this, you get mad because you would do anything to have that, and they complain and they don't really appreciate what they have. >> if we're talking about 9/11 in class -- >> everybody would turn around and stare at me. >> they all know i was affected by it directly. >> sometimes it makes me feel a tiny bit agitated because it's not like i would want to be known as, oh, his dad died, he was dad was killed. i don't want to be known as

that. i just want them to know me as many, like for who i am. >> some of the young people we heard from just now affiliated with a group called tuesday's children, a non-profit family service organization committed to helping kids worldwide who felt the impact of terrorist incidents. sadly there are many of them. monica ike enjoins us now. on 9/11 she lost her husband michael. she's the founder of september's mission, committed to building a positive legacy out of the events of september 11. she's instrumental in building the memorial here. on a personal level, what is today like for you here? >> it's so -- i can't even put it into words. we're so proud of this memorial. i'm so amazed that it's here, it's finally here. i can finally go see michael. he's home. they're all home. we can go there any time now -- >> this feels like a place you

would want to come and you feel like michael is here. >> absolutely. he is here 100%. i know he's here. every time i come here, i feel the energy. it's powerful. and i connect with him here. this is where he took his last breath, his last step, this is where he was last -- i never had remains back. and even if i did, it wouldn't matter. this is where i want to go to honor my husband. he turned 47 on september 8th, and i look forward to coming here next year and celebrating birthday. >> where was he working? >> on the 84th floor of the south tower. >> is his name grouped with others? >> yes. >> that's something i found fascinating. that many family members could request that their loved one be grouped with people they worked with or knew. >> they came up with the design to have the names done that way because those individuals who needed to be together could be together. michael is with all his friends.

they were together trying to help another fellow co-worker. she went under the desk, and they're altogether. it's so nice to see that they were together and they continue to be together today. it's a nice way to honor them all. >> one of the things i've been moved by today is watching everybody touch the names of their loved one. there's something very powerful in that, wanting to have that tactile experience of being able to touch something. >> it's like them. you want to touch them. you feel very connected to that name. it is a powerful experience. and i highly recommend that everyone come here and see this world class memorial and can't wait for the museum to open now. i look forward to that as well, making sure the stories are never forgotten. our loved ones will continue to be here, come and honor them, reflect, just a place of hope and reverence now. it's so breathtakingly beautiful. i hope the families feel what i've been feeling when i come

here. i'm happy and honored that i can share it with the world. i'll be here tomorrow to greet some of the first visitors. it's so nice i can come here now and greet some of the visitors. >> i think this is going to become probably the most visited spot obviously in all of new york. >> 100%. >> i recommend everybody to come to new york to come here if you want to see, not just the history of what happened here, but the strength of new york, the strength of this country. >> absolutely. we're so proud of it. we are proud, to be an american, proud to share it with the world. this is the world memorial. i can't wait for people to come here and make the pilgrimage to see it. everyone will leave with some powerful experience from being just here. >> let me just ask you, because you have obviously a hugely personal affiliation here with michael having been killed here. but for the other americans that

come, what is that experience for them? what do you hope it will be? >> i think people want to just come and honor them and see what took place and feel it. i really feel they can't experience it without coming here. any time i've been at this site, and i come here, people want to come in. they're like how do we get in? we want to come and honor them and see what happened here. they can't get in here fast enough. it's mind-blowing how people really want to experience this site and pay their respects. they really do. you don't have to have lost someone to do that. they can come here and honor anyone. they want to feel it and experience it as well. >> i also think folks who are watching this on television, i don't think pictures do it justice. i think the camera is too small to take in the enormity of not just a physical space, but the emotional enormity of it. when it was in the design phase and you're seeing designs, did you have any sense of what it

was really going to be like? or was it the first time you heard the water and felt the power of it and saw the name that it really had the full impact? >> really it was the first day i came to the site and saw how large the pools were, i was blown away. pictures, tv, it just does not do it justice. it doesn't. you can't get the full scale of the power of this space. eight acres dedicated to this amazing world class memorial. the museum is going to be unbelievable as well. it's definitely something that, when you come here, you're going to be in awe of it like i am. it's breathtakingly beautiful. i'm so proud, so proud. >> we're so sorry for your loss. thank you for being with us on this day and talking about michael and about the memorial. appreciate it. >> i want to share it with the world. president bush was visiting a florida school the morning of the 9/11 terrorist attack. next "air force one" pilot who flew him back to washington but certainly not by the direct

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ladies and gentlemen, this is a difficult moment for america. two different airplanes have crashed into the world trade center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country.

>> get down! get down! >> the elevators on the 44th floor, don't use them. they're about to come down. >> former president bush made that short speech in florida. he had been at a florida school. that's when his chief of staff andrew card whispered to him that without a doubt america was under attack. the president wanted to fly directly back to washington, but because of safety concern it ended up being an uncertain day of flights and stops. military bases in louisiana and nebraska and then finally back to washington. mark tillman was "air force one's" pilot that day. colonel tillman, thank you for being here. when did you stop to say what a day that was? >> it was pretty much after we

had landed in washington, d.c. once we had given the president back to the marines, marine one to take him to the white house, at that point it gave us a point to reflect on exactly what occurred that day and analyze exactly what we had done and was it the right move. >> you were friends with president bush. you have great admiration for him. >> absolutely. >> this was very early on in his presidency, hadn't even been president for a year yet. i wonder if you learned anything about him that day. >> most definitely. there was reports we were running scared around the country, and that wasn't happening. we had tremendous communication. he was able to contact the ground. i saw a leader in action. in my mind, a military man. he had been trained in the military as well. he was able to make a lot of decisions. he had his senior staffer with him, mr. card as well as mr. fleischer. everyone was right there with him giving him the information. he was executing as a military man would do and make decisions on the fly.

>> at some point you quickly got a military escort. the first decision was to land in louisiana, then from louisiana to nebraska. was there a rationale for that that you were aware of at the time? >> the first stop in louisiana was to get him to a secure base where he could have capability to contact and address the american public. >> the closest one. >> absolutely. we were in the northern part of florida, barksdale air force base had nuclear mission, extremely secure. my recommendation was to go there. they had great security. they also could refuel the aircraft rather quickly. we filled the plane up with gas, about 14 hours' of gas. we knew we had to be airborne for the rest of the day, waiting for the decision to go back to washington. once things had settled we were ready to go back. >> why was nebraska the next stop instead of flying around? >> we couldn't get word that the washington area was safe to bring him back to, the landing zone being safe. the goal was to then get him to another base which could get him

under ground, keep him safe and at the same time give him the ability to communicate with command authority, everyone else he needed to while we saw washington and got the word. as soon as washington was safe, he was to come right back to us and we would take him back. as history shows he was there a minimum amount of time and he made the decision to head home. >> as you were flying, did you do anything out of the ordinary yourself? obviously you don't generally have those guys right off your wings and there were certain things -- you were landing places you didn't expect to be landing. were there maneuvers or anything you had to take? >> no evasive action, because there was no actual threat coming on us. all the threats were what we perceived. we knew there were hijack airliners. at one point angel was next. angel was a classified call side. we had to figure out what angel is next, were we were a target. it could be a bombing. it could be a passenger on

board. we started working up and down the manifest and made sure the bombs, there were no bombs on board. bomb-swept the aircraft one more time. >> you were sweeping the plane while we were in the air. >> our cops were working back and forth the plane. everybody gets bomb swept before they come on the plane. extremely confident everything was set. we weren't going to take any chances. >> was there a time -- when did you reach out to your family? buildings were blowing up frankly in three -- two cities and in shanksville, pennsylvania, an airline path. when did they cross your mind? when did you get a clans to talk to them? >> i didn't get a clans to talk to the family at all. i had them all take their cell phones, put them in an area, shut them all off. i didn't want to take a chance anyone would give away the location of the president. no one was allowed to contact their families until we landed

in washington i passed to my deputy to let the families know that everyone was fine but not allowed to call home. >> colonel mark tillman, now retired, thank you so much. you can find the official story in the book length report put out in 2004 by the 9/11 commission. the most vivid accounts come from the people who only made the reports footnotes. one was a fighter pilot who was ordered to find and possibly shootdown a hijacked passenger plane. cnn correspondent drew griffin tracked him down. take a look. >> 8:46 a.m., tim duffy, a commercialcod. tim duffy, a pilot for united, was working his second job on alert as a fighter pilot for the massachusetts air national guard. duffy, foot note 117, is given the order to scramble his f-15. there is a confirmed hijacking.

the order for duffy and his wingman -- take off from this now-deserted airfield. under orders to find and intercept american flight 11. so these were the two hangars. >> cells three and four. they would have jets in all of them. just depended which jets you would need that day. these were the ones that were armed up so we had hot missiles and a hot gun so they were all armed up. >> reporter: by the end of this morning, duffy will be asked if he is prepared to use those missiles to bring down u.s. passenger jets. that meant he might be shooting down a plane carrying his united airlines colleagues. >> and they just said be prepared to shoot down the next hijacked track. roger. they came on after that and said, do you have a problem with that? that kind of ticked me off. that's what sticks in my memory for that call, being in that situation, if i wasn't ready to

do whatever i was called for, i was the wrong person. >> amazing. drew griffin with us now. this is going to be an amazing hour of tv. what touched you the most? these are all people sort of heretofore unknown. >> ordinary americans doing extraordinary things that day. what struck me the most is the guilt so many of them still carry for not doing more or doing the right thing or doing that little thing that they thought they had protected one, two, or three of the planes. and they have carried that guilt with them despite the fact that the 9/11 commission cleared them, that their companies or their institutions said they'd done a great job. they just feel a tremendous sense that they were not there on the front lines doing exactly what they needed to do that day. >> drew griffin, our special investigative correspondent, tell us when we can see that.

>> tonight, "footnotes of 9/11." >> in the footnotes, kind of found these stories that were untold. really great idea. tonight at 9:00. next, what it's like to be muslim in the united states a decade after 9/11. and later, dick cheney and donald rumsfeld, andrew card was white house chief of staff. andrew card actually whispered in the ear of then president bush at that elementary school. we'll hear from each of them in our next hour. later, actor tom hanks narrating the story of a heroic boat captain, multiple heroic boat captains, who rescued nearly half a million new yorkers on 9/11. an untold story. >> the great boatlift of 9/11 became the largest sea evacuation in history. larger than the evacuation of dunkirk in world war ii. d some , yet easy to use trading tools on the planet. it's investing with intelligence and cold hard conviction. e-trade. investing unleashed.

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we're watching what's happening in shanksville, pennsylvania, obviously what's happening at the world trade center, the memorial there, also here at the pentagon. let's watch and listen for a moment as the president and the first lady prepare to lay this wrooe. >> cameras down.

[ applause ] >> usa! usa! usa! usa! >> all right. so the president and first lady in shanksville. earlier in the day, they were in new york. they'll be heading here to the pentagon later to lay a wreath, as well, and then there will be a formal memorial service at the kennedy center here in washington later tonight. we're continuing our coverage on this, the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack.

joining us now, two special guests, democratic congressman keith ellison of minnesota is joining us. he's the first muslim elected to the united states house of representatives. >> good to be here. >> also joining us is genevieve abdo, author of "mecca and main street: muslim life in america after 9/11." thanks, as well, for joining us. congressman, first to you. what goes through your mind knowing that, what, we're talking ten years ago, 19 terrorists, 15 of them from saudi arabia, all muslims attacked the united states and killed some 3,000 people? >> well, what's going through my mind today as it was ten years ago is overwhelming feeling of solidarity with my fellow americans, overwhelming sorrow for the people who we lost, but then very -- a great deal of pride for the people who ran into that burning building and tried to save fellow americans and the people who tried to rescue fellow americans were muslim, they were christian, they were jewish, they were

baha'i, they were people of no faith, people of all faiths. and they didn't care who was in that buildi ibuilding. if they could save them, they did. that's what i'm feeling today. yes, of course, we could talk act civil rights, profiling, and these things are important to discuss. but today i'm just feeling a lot of -- just remembering a lot of affection for americans lost and americans who stood up and met the moment with heroism. >> you spent the last ten years reporting on, researching muslims in america. how has the muslim community in america changed as a result of 9/11? >> well, they have become much more involved with islam. they identify more with islam. and this is true, particularly, wolf, of the younger generation. they're involved in their mosque communities. what we see anecdotally and also

according to polling results, we're seeing as muslims have become more identified with islam, a majority of americans actually have more negative feelings towards islam and muslims is since 9/11. >> that has sort of sparked this reaction because you would think that maybe after 9/11 younger american muslims would become less religious, more secular, if you will. but what you're learning is is that it's just the opposite. >> well, i think that this is true among religious muslims and among young muslims, that they feel that they have comfort now in islam because they are joining organizations, muslim students associatioassociations example, on campus colleges, eve an college in the middle of the midwest in a remote area has a muslim students association. and this wasn't true ten years ago. >> congressman, you're in the midwest. you're in minnesota right now. is that your experience, as well, that younger american muslims, younger women, for example, wearing head scarfs, a more traditional look, is that your experience, as well,

congressman? >> yeah, it is common. but i want to just caution viewers that this is not necessary -- this is not a bad thing. i mean, these are -- what i'm seeing is is muslims who want to do more volunteer work at clinics to serve people of all faiths, that they want to get more civilally engaged and offer leadership and volunteer in community organizations and get more involved in the process. so, while it is true, i think geneive is right, there is a greater identification, it's not an us versus you identification. it's people saying, you know what, this is my country and i'm going to do something about it through the vehicle i know best, which is my faith. but this is not necessarily a thing that anyone should be worried about. in fact, the people who commit acts of terrorism generally do these things for political grievances, and the people who reject them reject them because religiously it's an immoral, wrong thing to do. >> let me bring geneive back into the conversation.

do you agree with the congressman? >> yes. i didn't hear all of what he was saying actually, but i think that the muslim community has -- is much more cohesive now than they were before. i think that their leadership, for example, like congressman ellison, their leadership has become much more involved, they've empowered themselves after 9/11 and that's the positive side. >> are you worried, congressman, about american attitudes here towards the muslim community, not only in the united states but, indeed, around the world? >> you know, wolf, i'm really -- i'm really -- i'm worried, but i'm not overly distressed. and the reason why is that the people who are driving islamophobia are a fairly small group of people who spend night and day trying to whip up anti-muslim hatred. they're identifiable. they're small. they're well-known. and my experience is that even if americans who are of other faiths, you know, may have a not positive attitude toward muslim,

when they meet them, when they meet people of the muslim faith and see that people are just like them, generous, loving people, good neighbors, good co-workers, that a lot of that fear dissipates and goes away. i just think that, you know, our whole country needs to be reminded about the importance of religious tolerance, that religious tolerance is enshrined in the first clause of the fist amendment in which the constitution says congress shall make no law establishing a state religion or abridging the free exercise thereof. >> geneive, as you know, we're seeing really dramatic changes unfold throughout the muslim world in north africa and the middle east. how is this going to play out here in the united states as far as american attitudes towards muslims, concern in the u.s. with the relationship of the muslim world? >> i think what we've seen from the arab awakening, as we call it, that muslims all over the world want some form of pluralism, some form of

democracy in their countriecoun. i mean, it could take much longer than we expect for there to be, for example, a democrat system in egypt, but i think that it shows americans that muslims are -- you know, they want to become part of the modern world. they don't want to be alienated from the west. and so i think that that's a very positive story that with some luck we'll show americans that maybe the kinds of negative feelings they've had about muslims are incorrect. >> geneive abdo with the century foundation in washington, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> congressman ellison, as usual, thanks to you as well. >> thank you. >> and our coverage continues right now. >> september 11th, 2001, a brilliant morning turns dark with terror and a nation comes together. ten years later, if only for this morning, the sense of unity, determination, and sorrow is back. we've seen it, heard it, and

felt it. a morning with tears, memory, and still a morning that looks to the future, a day filled with anticipation. welcome to our viewers in the u.s. and around the world for cnn's continuing coverage of the tenth anniversary of the september 11th terror attacks. all of us have indell i believe memories of the day's events. we see more remarkable things this morning as well. the day is far from over. president obama, who was here earlier, is at the memorial in shanksville, pennsylvania, the crash site of flight 93, later to visit the pentagon. joining us is andy card, the former white house chief of staff to president george w. bush. i guess you'll always be remembered for that whisper in -- >> iconic picture, but i am not an iconic person. >> well, you know, so much has been made of that picture in terms of the president's

reaction and did he look like he didn't know what he was going to do. and i know you've been all over that. i thought i'd ask you something this way. is there anything that this president did that day that surprised you? >> well, i was a little bit surprised that he reacted so calmly when i said words that were so outrageous. but i actually was pleased with how he reacted. >> tell us the words again for people -- >> i said, "a second plane hit the second tower." america is under attack. and then i stood back from him so that he couldn't ask me a question. and i kind of thought he might turn and look at me and start to talk, and i didn't want wahim t do that. so i was pleased -- >> why didn't you want him to do that? >> first of all, it was a very, very public forum, and i think that any dialogue would have been misinterpreted probably by both of us. and it was also contrasting to me that there were these very innocent young students in a very mature, seasoned, skeptical

press corps. there were two very different autd audiences sitting in front of the president. >> how much did you think about what you were going to say? >> i didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it. i tried to be very efficient. i tried to build on what he already now. he'd been told a small twin-engine prop plane had hit the first tower. i tried to be efficient with my words and end with a statement that was unambiguous -- america is under attack. >> we've heard earlier today from other folks who were around, ari fleisher, who talked about not that it wasn't an emotional time but that sort of a workman-like -- they were surprised there wasn't more emotion. it was very much everybody had a job to do. was that your remembrance of it, as well? absolutely. i thought the president himself was extremely task driven and he was cool, calm, collected and was ready to do the homework to make tough decisions.

i tried to be cool, calm, and collected, and i tried to make sure that staff was not allowing emotions to get into the way of their responsibility to help the president meet an awesome responsibility, beyond comprehension, actually. >> was there a time, then, when the reality of it all dawned on? not the technical reality, the logistical reality, but what this means. >> i think the most searing image for me e was the image we saw as we were leaving off an air force base to come back to washington, d.c. you saw the images of the towers collapsing and the images before that of people jumping out of the world trade center. and it was just searing. this day, i don't want people to remember me whispering in the president's ear. i want them never to forget the innocent victims and the first responders that answered the call to duty and they themselves became victims and those heroes on that flight that prevented a lot of other americans from dying probably at the u.s.

capitol. >> we talk a lot about how september 11th changed america and changed the world. personally, did it change andy card? >> oh, yes. i mean, it did change me. it changed -- it -- i was much more serious about the obligations i had as chief of staff. i never viewed the job the same way i did after september 11th as i did before it. before i was focused on the president's agenda. after september 11th, i was focused on what does the president need to do for america. it did change me. and obviously it changed all of our lives in the context of new bureaucracies. think of the change immediately after the attack, america awe ewe nighted. the world actually united with america. we were chanting usa, usa, usa. we saw enemies in our neighbors. we had conflicting feelings of unity and suspicion. that was a hard thing to overcome. both the unity and the suspicion. and so relatively quickly we got

back into the partisan divides and the philosophical debates that make democracy so exciting, and i miss the unity. we're still a little bit more paranoid than i think we need to be. >> certainly in new york there was this remarkable time after the day after september 11th and even on that day of unity. i remember going by a firehouse and just people gathering there just to kind of -- they wanted to do something to show solidarity, you know, with firefighters. >> i was struck. the president visited this site on september 14th, 2001, and the crowd was chanting "usa, usa." i looked over and i saw some rescue workers chanting "usa, usa," and they had japanese flags on their uniform. there were a team of search-and-rescue dogs and the handlers were chanting and they had canadian flags on. >> you say we're still more paranoid than we need to be? i don't want to put it that way if that one the word. >> i think we still look very skeptically at our neighbors

inside the united states because we were told to be vigilant. and we are vigilant. and remember, a lot of the attacks that were thwarted by the vigilance of american citizens. someone on a plane says -- >> saying something makes you suspicious of your neighbor. >> why are you lighting your shoe on fire? what's that van doing in front of the stand in new york city? >> how do you walk that line between vigilance and yet not unwarranted suspicion? >> i think you, first of all, don't live in fear. live with respect. respect all of your fellow citizens while you may have a question. so i guess it's a fine difference between being paranoid -- in the washington, d.c., area, we were particularly paranoid as was new york over anthrax three weeks after the attack on september 11th. and then in washington, d.c., we had is the so-called white-van sniper. so those were the particularly paranoid times in the community i was living in around

washington, d.c., after september 11th. i was glad that that kind of paranoia had disappeared. we now let our kids go to the soccer field to play soccer. >> you were with former president bush last night i know down here. >> i was -- >> down here and then saw him. >> i saw him last night and watched his speech. >> what can you tell us about how he viewed these days? >> well, i honestly believe these days are not about him and that he doesn't think they're about him. he was trying to focus on the real heroes and the real victims. and the real heroes were the men and women that were on that flight that ended up crashing into shanksville, pennsylvania, and the real victims and heroes were the ones who were at this site, at the pentagon, who said i just showed up for work, or i answered the call to duty and was willing to give my life. >> andy card, thanks very much. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> actor tom hanks narrates a 9/11 story that you probably never, ever heard before. did you know that 9/11, on that

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frank, what can you tell us about what's going on there? >> we just saw what appeared to be the worst possible situation, the last thing we want to show you, in fact, people arriving here at the airport apparently friends or family members of some of the -- >> that was our coverage at this time exactly ten year ago. although a decade has passed, we are still heari ining new stori about the events of september 11th, 2001. a lot of you probably didn't realize that the largest sea evacuation in history took place on september 11th, 2001, in new york. watch now as tom hanks narrates the world premiere of that story, "boatlift," produced and directed by eddie rosenstein for

the center for national policy. >> i thought i was watching a movie, "towering inferno," at first. and then i looked real close and i noticed the it was the world trade center. i w i'm the type of person who can't stand by and watch other people suffer. and to me they were suffering. they wanted to get off the island. and there was no way for them to get off the island other than the water. and i had noticed when i was watching the television i saw a lot of -- you know, the ferries going up into the slips and taking people off. i says, fine, we can do the same thing. i can take people on my boat. get in there, take them where they have to go. and that's what we did.

>> on the morning of september 11th, when the towers came down, millions of people ran for safety. hundreds of thousands of them ran south to the water's edge. that's when they realized that manhattan is, indeed, an island and that they were trapped. >> they were feeling helpless, and that's the worst feeling in the world. what was a person on the ground going to do? buildings were down. there were people laying under the rubble of the building. firemen, civilians. my wife was there, and i turned around, i says, i've got to go do something. just like that. she looked at me, she says, what are you going to do, you maniac? i says, i'm going to take the

amber jack up into the city and help. she says, but what if they're attacked again? i says, well, then that's something that i have to live with. i says, i have to do what i have to do. i says, and nobody can stop me right now. even if i save one person or i rescue one person, that's one person less that will suffer and die. >> they were trying to evacuate manhattan because nobody knew what was going on. you didn't know if something else was going to happen. it was just a madness on one side and wanting to help people on the other side. >> they were just streaming out of the buildings, and the first mode of transportation they saw was a ferryboat. that's when i knew, this is how i'm getting out of here. they didn't even care where the boat was going.

>> there wasn't panic in new york in the beginning, just volume. it wasn't until the first building fell that there was panic. >> you heard the building go down, but we were in the slip so we can't see it. then all of a sudden engulfed. you couldn't see anything. >> people were actually jumping into the river and swimming out of manhattan. boats were very nearly running them over. >> wait, wait, wait, wait. >> these people wanted out of manhattan any way they could. >> somebody wants you to go over there. >> every mode of transportation out of manhattan was shut down. all the subways were shut. the tunnels were all closed. they closed the bridges. they closed everything immediately.

>> boats -- usually an afterthought in most new yorkers' minds -- were for the first time in over a century the only way in or out of lower manhattan. >> start evacuating people. anybody who wants to evacuate. >> the process had actually already started. there were some people that were carrying people and boats were lined up on the walls. >> on the left, on the left. >> just human nature. you see people in distress on the sea wall in manhattan, they need you to pick them up. you have to pick them up. >> they didn't know what was going on. as far as they was concerned, we were being bombed. i was wondering if they were going to come on the boat, if they had people with bombs on, if they were going to come on. we're a big orange target in the middle of that harbor. my job is to keep the boat safe, passengers safe, my crew safe. >> everybody was in shock running around. they didn't want to leave their families. they had loved ones in the city. >> does anybody have the baby?

>> there was one guy ran from the apron and jumped onto the boat, grabbed onto the metal, climbed up right next. i'm going out there to say something and he slides down to the next deck so that the deck hands got him. what are you doing? he said i'm jumping for my life. so, you know, you couldn't argue with him there. >> there was a small boat that was at the lower tip of manhattan. i thought the boat was going to flip over because so many people were trying to get on. and as i looked bee hind, they were just ten deep. that's kind of what gave us the idea. >> we decided this has to bet getter organized and we better do it, and that's what we did. >> so we decided to make the call on the radio. all available boats, this is the united states coast guard for the pilot in new york. anyone who can help in the evacuation of lower manhattan.

to the island. >> when that call came on the radio, they were coming. >> i was uncertain of who was going to respond. about 15, 20 minutes later, there were just boats all across the horizon. >> literally a hundred targets converging on the lower part of manhattan. >> when we came out of that dust cloud, tugboats, i never seen so many tugboats all at once. >> it was just like a fleet of tugboats headed to manhattan. >> if it floated and it could get there, it got there. >> all different sizes. i mean, they were zooming across this water. >> ferry, private boats, party boats. >> i worked on the water for 28 years. i've never seen that many boats come together at one time that fast. one radio call and it just came together just that fast. >> hundreds of boats converged on the city, leaving the

sun-bathed harbor behind them. dead ahead, the unknown. >> that was something i won't forget. it was just low, dark, acrid, black smoke. it's like there was a big chimney in manhattan. when we pulled in to pier 11, the dust was unbelievable. >> and then out of nowhere you just kept on seeing people coming. >> it looked like zombies coming through fog, and you knew that those were human beings. >> don't leave us. please don't leave us here. take us. >> we need help! we need help! >> at that point, the coast guard said not how many people are you allowed, how many people can you fit? >> come on, guys. anybody coming get over here now, now! come on! >> boats started hanging -- literally a bed sheet off the

bulkhead, a can of spray paint, paint their destination on. >> some of these people never been many the water, never been on a boat before. >> housewives, workers that do windows, we had executives, and the thing that was the best everyone helped everyone. >> hold my hand. come on board. step inside. >> i saw four businessmen lifting up an old woman with a seeing-eye dog, a german shepherd, and they lifted her up like a surfboard and passed her over the handrails. >> when we would carry a lot of people over and there was somebody standing there that seen a husband or wife, you know, that made us feel even better, you know? at least we got two back together again. let's keep on going, you know? >> the guy that works at the ferry, he's a welder. his son was on my boat. he actually came up -- he

thanked me. >> we went back and forth all day long carrying boat loads, as many as our boat would hold. and it's a lot of people. a lot of people. >> you couldn't have planned nothing to happen that fast that quick. >> no training. this was just people doing what they had to do that day. >> you forget all about what you're supposed to do, what they teach you in school, and you say you know what, morally, this is the right way to go, and deep down this is what i'm going to do. >> average people. they stepped up when they needed to. they showed me, you know, when the american people need to come together and pull together, they will do it. >> i do feel in a way honored that i was a part of it. >> the greatest thing i ever did with my life. >> the greatest day that i've

ever seen in all my boating. i mean, my life on the water. >> the great boatlift of 9/11 became the largest sea evacuation in history, larger than the evacuation of dunkirk in world war ii, where 339,000 british and french soldiers were rescued over the course of nine days. on 9/11, nearly 500,000 civilians were rescued from manhattan by boat. it took less than nine hours. >> look in for the hero. it's in there. it will come out if need be. >> i have one theory in life. i never want to say the word "i should have." if i do it and i fail, i tried. if i do it and i succeed, better for me. and i tell my children the same

thing. never go through life saying you should have. if you want to do something, you do it. for more on this story and others like it, go to road to resilience dotcom. we've seen all around the world in the wake of disasters and conflict of strangers reaching out and literally saving the lives of others. to know that that happened here ten years ago today is just -- it's extraordinary. >> and we kind of -- i mean, so much going on that day. that's why i love the story that drew griffin is doing. this story, just things that now sort of give us a more and more complete picture of what went on. >> in the decade since 9/11, a tattered flag found here after the collapse of the world trade center towers has been repaired by people who have lived through other disasters. that flag is in joplin, missouri, today. we're going to take you there

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welcome back to our continuing coverage of the memorial ceremonies at the world trade center site here, the world trade center memorial. it's the world trade center number one, world trade center, the tower still being built. hundreds of family members spending time around the two reflecting pools and the footprints of the twin towers

that once stood. now these enormous extraordinarily beautiful fountains, each some 200 feet, each side 200 feet with plunging water that actually have two levels of waterfall, a center square in the middle that also has water pouring into it. >> it's beautiful. it really is hard to describe, and it's even hard to take a picture of it and do it any kind of justice, i think. >> it's going to be open to the public starting tomorrow, today the first time it's open to family members and family members only who are still here, several hundred of them still waiting on the outskirts, probably about 100 or so listening to the names of the fallen being read. those names have been read since early this morning and the readings continue probably for another half hour to 45 minutes or so. most of the family members now are inside the memorial park and walking around these fountains. >> and sort of overshadowing this day, as i guess, you know,

from here forth may always be the case is current security threats. we know from some of the stuff that was taken out of osama bin laden's home in pakistan that they were obsessed about 9/11, that anniversaries are a big time to make a big splash. want to welcome our homeland security expert, fran townsend, former homeland security adviser to george w. bush. how do you make -- i was watching the traffic yesterday in new york and, you know, they squeezed it down to one lane so they could check all the trucks and some of the cars, and it was complete chaos in new york city, which will surprise people who think new york city's always in complete chaos. i wondered at the time as we were sitting there how and when the decision is made to say to the public, uh-oh, and take what are pretty extreme measures to disrupt a big city in the middle of rush hour. >> part of it, candy, is do you think that you can get an investigation and get more information yourself, but there

is a time constraint here, remember. this became public about 48 hours before, because of how late they got this information, how soon it became available to them. so they had the time constraint. they wanted to help the american people. if they had information. and then, you know, third what you hope is when the bad guy is here you're aware of the plot. it's sort of what i call a brush-back pitch. maybe they'll decide not to launch something they've been planning because they know about the police presence. there were two or three stolen trucks they were searching for, hence all of the searching on the george washington bridge and tunnels. they seem to have done an extraordinary job. we've heard some threats of lone wolves, but even that, you know, they have license plate readers, they have leads to look for those people, and none of that has disrupted this very important memorial. >> two days ago when this story broke, this terror threat, there were reports that one could be a u.s. citizen, then two, may have been on the pakistan border and

tried to fight in afghanistan. if an american is going to afghanistan or going to pakistan, how quickly would they show up on the u.s. radar? i mean, if a u.s. citizen suddenly decides to go to pakistan and disappears for a long period of time, then returns to the united states, i would think that would automatically raise red flags. >> it does, anderson, and your instincts are exactly right. there are a myriad of ways in the intelligence community that you track worldwide suspicious travel and travel patterns. so don't think you'll only come up on the radar with if you go directly to someplace like pakistan. there are other ways by using formulas in the intelligence community that you can identify people with suspicious patterns of travel. >> my passport is always gleaned over very carefully when i come back. >> you look very suspicious. >> press i.d. to preempt any questions. >> exactly. you know, there's always a phenomenon i know when murders took place when i did a lot of local tv. it was always about copycats. so when you say you're hoping to

brushback a would-be terrorist by sort of making it public, do you also worry about the other way? >> yes, you do. you worry about other people who are looking -- >> oh, that's a great idea. >> look, i'll have my 15 minutes of fame. you do worry about that. but that's why you've seen the perimeter here, the inner perimeter is very tight. and even -- i walk from canal and chambers, right, to get in here. we walked and had office of emergency management passes. the copycats are why you push the perimeter so far out. >> fran townsend, our cnn homeland security adviser, thanks for your time. >> thank you. today we are seeing ugly reminders that global terrorism does remain a threat. in sweden, a s.w.a.t. team backed by local police arrested four people overnight on suspicion of plotting terror attacks. a top security analyst tells cnn, quote, we have been able to prevent a situation. in afghanistan this weekend, two civilians died inn and 77 nato

personnel, mostly u.s. troops, were hurt when militants detonated a truck bomb at a nato base. across the united states, especially here in new york and washington, there's very heavy security because of the government's warning of specific and credible yet unconfirmed information about a possible plot. former cia director michael hayden was director of the national security agency on 9/11. >> i would say it's probably stronger as a threat in terms of its ability to inspire rather than its ability to organize. >> and that gets us to lone wolves. >> right. >> is that the biggest -- i mean, this was an amazing number of people. >> right. >> very coordinated, the 9/11 attacks. but since then, it's been people whose ties certainly philosophically, if you want to call it that, were evident, but whose organizational ties were not, the attempts. >> right. as a measure of our success, we've made it far less likely

that they're going to conduct the kind of attack they want to conduct -- complex, well organized, mass casualty, against an iconic target. never say never. but their ability to do that is very much reduced. so now we're faced with this al qaeda inspired, the lone wolf, the individual, the radicalized. that's far more difficult for us to detect and stop, and we're going to have to shift our weight in the american allied intelligence communities to be better able to detect that kind of threat. >> let me get some personal reflections from you. at what moment on 9/11, normal day you drive to work, but it was, you know, at the beginning of the day -- what moment did you think, okay? >> second plane into the tower. i was holding a normal meeting, as you suggest. plane hits world trade center. like most of us, horrible accident, probably believing it was a sport plane or a small aircraft. when the second plane hit the

tower, it removed all doubt from me, and frankly i think for all people like me in the intelligence community that this had to be an attack, and we all immediately went to, this is the work of al qaeda. about midmorning that day, george called me, george tenet, said, mike, what have you got? i said, george, it's al qaeda. we can already hear the celebratory phone calls in the network. >> and were you in a room full of people that you were watching this on television? >> no, i wasn't on my screen. i was having a meeting. my executive assistant came in, told me, when the second plane hit, when i got word of that, i certainly turned to my e.a., executive assistant, and said get the head of security in here. a few minutes later he comes walking into my office, my executive assistant is coming in the other door and she's saying there are reports of explosions on the mall. that turned out to be the pentagon aircraft. and i didn't even allow my security chief to say anything. i said all nonessential personnel evacuate immediately. >> there had to have been a time when you saw what was happening,

you saw these people jumping from buildings, parts of planes in the pentagon, when you thought, did we miss something, did we miss something or how could we miss something this big. did you have a moment of self-doubt through any of that? >> sure. sure. we all did. and in one sencion we were responsible for stopping this kind of event. i've reflected on it, candy, and let me share with you how i've kind of summarized it in my own mind. 9/11 was both preventable and inevitable. preventable in one or another specific, if we'd have done this or done that, we may have disrupted this plot. but it was inevitable in the sense that if the united states did not concede itself as a nation being at war with al qaeda and taking the necessary steps because we didn't self-identify into that category, this is going to happen sooner or later. >> was there also a moment when you sat either by yourself or with someone in your family and

thought, oh, my god, look at what's happened? >> the evening of september 11th. i told you we had nonessential people leave the the building. we tried to move all of the other personnel into a three-story building and out of the high-rises for reasons that were obvious then. one shop we couldn't move was our counterterrorism shop. it was still in one of the high-rises, actually near the top floor. as we're getting to dusk, i decided i needed to go over there and talk to those folks because they had both a professional and personal impact with which they had to deal that day. a lot of these folks were arab-americans. and so i walked into the shop and kind of a presence thing, no speech to be given, just kind of walk through, a handle on the shoulder because they were really busy. they were working very hard. and i looked up, and as i was there, as i said, it was dusk. i saw our logistics force putting up blackout curtains on those windows. i had the thought, we're putting

up blackout curtains in eastern maryland. this is going to be different. >> was there ever a point when you cried? >> woke up in the middle of the night. at some point the first week after 9/11 and was sobbing. >> and finally, what scares you now for this country? >> in terms of this topic, it's the one-off, it's the lone wolf. that's the real danger. let me add on to that, this might be a bit surprising, it's not just the attack, which obviously is going to be bad enough, and you notice i didn't use any conditional voice there, it's going to happen, we need to be careful about our response. we've got these guys in a bad place. they aren't capable of doing a lot of things they want to do. we have to be careful when the next attack takes place that we don't give them that which they are incapable of achieving themselv

themselves, in other words, that we don't take at best would be a tactical success for them and by our response turn it into some sort of strategic defeat for us. >> michael hayden a decade after the 9/11 attacks. hundreds of firefighters and rescue workers who breathed that toxic dust and the noxious fumes amid the wreckage of the world trade center are having health problems. our chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta, has been looking at what was in that dust and what's ahead for the people who breathed it. sanjay joins us now. obviously, we've seen new reports just in the last few months about cancer in -- elevated levels of cancer in firefighters in new york. >> that's right. i think the way this has progressed in the last ten years has been interesting. i think people who breathed in that dust and smelled all that acrid air knew that it probably wasn't good for them. there was anecdotal cases of it making people sick. then there was more evidence about it causing respiratory problems specifically. the cancer question has always been pretty elusive. and it does remain that to some extent, although this new study showed that there was a

relationship between the dust and cancer. exactly how significant has been in dispute depending on who you ask, but it's possible this dust that we have over here, you've seen it, could potentially be causing cancer seems to be proven out by the study, not just how many people were affected and how significant are those numbers. >> when you think about it, and i know you know what's in this dust. there's concrete particles or whatever that make the dust, then it captures bacteria and the fuel, the jet fuel and -- i mean, what's in it? >> you know, the way that it was explained to me, just about everything in the periodic table in some ways is in this dust. when the plane's jet fuel collide with these buildings you had sort of these throwing together of all these various chemicals. so benzene and titanium, things you normally wouldn't seen together suddenly fored together under very hot temperatures, and then sort of collecting in the air and attaching itself to this dust, which is why it stayed in the air for so long.

then it slowly drifted down, people breathed it in. you could smell it. there was something different about it. firefighters said to me it was unlike anything they smelled before. obviously they're in these type of situations all the time. this isn't even all of it because there were volatile gas, as well, that people breathed in for a couple days. those subsequently evaporated. this was collected, analyzed, it's been studied over the last several years and it's part of what people are using now to draw some of these conclusions. >> it was first there's just the dust and inhaling that much, but it's really what attached itself to it. >> i think more so, yeah. we looked at some of this dust under electron microscopes, really detailed images. it's jagged dust with all these various chemicals attached to it. dust was like a carrier or a vehicle for all these chemicals into the body. >> extraordinary. and where is the dust now? >> it's really interesting. there was a few people who decided to collect it at the time. i think they had the foresight to recognize this is toxic stuff, we should collect it,

analyze it. rutgers university is one of the places that has stored several pounds of it. it's in a cold room. it has to be stored under specific conditions. this is dust they've given to us and the documentary we're working on. they keep a lot of it under specific conditions to analyze again if any new evidence or new techniques of studying it should ever come out. again, that particular study about the fire department and this dust was, you know, based on looking at the dust and looking at these firefighters and recognizing there was an increased risk of cancer. >> sanjay gupta, thank you. >> thank you. >> you're looking at president obama talking to family memberm. ten years later, would you believe some afghans know nothing about 9/11 as a connection to their country? that's next.

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now over with. the president, though, of the united states getting ready to come here with the first lady to lay a wreath at the pentagon remembering those american who is died here aboard that american airlines flight as well as who were inside the pentagon. i had a chance earlier in the week to sit down with a former vice president, dick cheney, and he reflected, together with me, on lessons learned from 9/11. could it have been prevented? what was going through his mind? did you ever think your life was in danger? >> no. >> did you think your family's life was in dangered? >> no. >> did you ever say to yourself, i wish i would have done something that could have prevented these hijackers from committing this atrocity? >> such as? >> when the summer of 2001, when you got a report, the presidential daily brief, saying al qaeda was planning on launching attacks in the united states. did you take any specific action after you got that report?

>> wolf, you need to go back and relook at all the commissions that studied all of this. >> the report. >> the fact of the matter was that we did not receive any actionable intelligence prior to 9/11. >> you remember that presidential daily brief. >> there was one brief, but it did not give us any information or intelligence of sufficient validity that we could mount an operation -- >> smarter with hindsight, obviously. >> of course. you're one of the best at that. >> trust me, i appreciate that. but at the time, when you got that brief saying al qaeda is planning an attack on the united states in the united states, did anyone say, you know, maybe the cia and fbi should coordinate so the left hand of the government could talk to the u.s. government, that there could be steps taken that might have prevented 9/11? >> wolf, my attitude on it has always been that we had a lot of good people out there working very hard trying to track down the various elements in the terrorist community, if you

will. there was a lot of reporting coming in. the very first report we received after we got elected, sworn in, talked, for example, about wmd in iraq. there was constant reporting on al qaeda, on terrorist threats. i talked about terrorists in an interview i did in april of 2001 before we ever had that. but we never had a piece of actionable intelligence. it never does to say there's going to be an attack in the united states. >> you didn't do anything after you got that report. >> i didn't say that. i think there was a lot of work done by the intelligence community that created the alert posture and alert system. if anybody had had intelligence that would have let us intercept or interfere with that attack, obviously we -- >> because some of the -- >> we had no such intelligence. >> for some of the analysts, richard clark, the counterterrorism adviser at the white house, said you know what, i presented this report and

everybody basically ignored it. >> no. i don't agree with mr. clark. i don't think he provided that kind of thing. i think that's after the fact on his part. >> the former vice president dick cheney speaking with me last week about stuff that might have occurred if the u.s. would have taken action after that presidential daily brief. anderson, candy, i know you remember all those events. i know all of us have gone through the 9/11 commissions, all the other ar kls and books, studies that have been done on if 9/11 could have been prevented. on this day, though, we remember those who perished, those 3,000 people who died on 9/11. there will be plenty of time to do some additional postmortems in the years to come. guys, back to you. >> and family members here continue to not only read out names but spend a lot of time around the name of their loved one, those names now in bronze, etched and placed near other

friends they had from work or other family members who might have died alongside them. but the name sort of etched by association at the request of individual family members. >> so basically what this means is -- and i think what's interesting here is we talked earlier about people taking a piece of paper and then doing a rubbing along so that they can -- the imprint of their loved one's name comes up. and they're doing it on the programs for today. and, you know, earlier we spoke with one of those who lost her husband. and this really is the only resting place at this moment that 1,100 -- the families of 1,100 victims have, because there are still unidentified. >> many people did not have remains. >> no remains. a lot more than 1,100. >> some may have a tombstone, but they feel this is the place where their loved one is. >> they are. and that's why in some respects it took ten years, because it

was that -- because in the broader shot of what we're seeing, here are the memorials, these are on the footprints of tower one, the south tower and the north tower. but as you broaden out that picture, what you see is commerce, what you see are buildings that are being built or will be built or have been built to house businesses. and they try to find the sweet spot between this -- what many of these relatives consider, what many americans consider hallowed ground and not just that commerce is a part of america but the need for commerce in manhattan. >> right. there's a leaseholder for this space, the man who had the twin towers, ari silverstein, who wanted office space. about half of the site has been devoted to the memorial, which is what is open now to the family members, which tomorrow opens up to the public. the rest are commercial sites, mostly new -- a new subway station has been built and the

buildings are going up all around us. the construction is literally happening around the clock. 9/11 is certainly one of those rare events most people can remember exactly where they were when they first saw it. so perhaps we take it for granted that everybody knows what it is or would at least recognize it. but is that really the case, especially in some of the places that have been most affected by its consequences? a general travelled in afghanistan, showing pictures to the unbelievers and getting their reaction. helmand in afghanistan has born the brunt of the fighting. i get a first opportunity to ask a couple of young afghan men what they know about 9/11. can you show them a few more? can you ask them do they know where it is even?

break time. motorcycles coming through. two young men had never heard. but maybe the elders have more to say. >> if i'd just gotten here i would have been surprised, but having been here for six months, i'm not. this is pretty much the stone ages where we are. i thought it was fascinating. the guy who said it was kabul had clearly never been to kabul. it shows how isolated they are even in their own country. >> i do sympathize with some saying yeah, your buildings were knocked down but how many of our buildings have been knocked

down? >> amazingly, where wars have always been thought, it turns out not only were the villagers unaware of 9/11 but so were the police and some translators working with the afghan military. you don't know the history. after showing the list to dozens of gans, i only found one person who clearly recognized them and could connect them to the u.s.' initial reason for coming to afghanistan, and that was the police district chief in marjah. >> an interesting look at how people in