0:04 it was the day that shook the world
0:07 September 11 2001 the date that will
0:13 911 now we have several situations go
0:17 going on here it's escalating big a big
0:21 time on that day 19 men armed only with
0:24 box cutters hijacked four fully fueled
0:27 passenger Jets and attacked America in
0:31 its very Heartland the World changed in
0:34 a couple of hours in a very profound way
0:41 Center building by the time that
0:44 terrible morning was
1:02 future Terror I am watching thousands of
1:06 people dying right now 20 years on we
1:09 identify the lessons learned that day
1:12 and how we failed to heed them didn't
1:14 really resolve a lot of the problems in
1:16 the Middle East the war on terror
1:19 removed figurehead Osama Bin Laden but
1:22 the ultimate goal to destroy terrorism
1:26 is further away than ever and with a
1:29 resurgent Taliban now ruling Afghanistan
1:31 the world may be at greater risk than
1:34 when we started they want to make us
1:36 afraid of one another tonight we'll
1:38 investigate what went wrong and reveal
1:42 what experts fear is Yet to Come the
1:44 Americans know that if terrorists ever
1:47 get their hands on a nuclear device they
1:50 will be the target as we return to the
1:53 very moment the world
1:56 changed good evening I'm Liz Hayes and
2:05 joining me James Dorney who was then a
2:07 25-year-old Management Consultant
2:10 working on the 92nd floor of the South
2:13 Tower and who miraculously survived to
2:17 tell us his extraordinary tale former
2:19 Australian prime minister John Howard
2:21 who was in America and sheltered with
2:24 his family in a Washington bunker as the
2:26 Pentagon came under
2:31 attack Professor Simon Jackman CEO of
2:32 the United States studies Center at
2:35 Sydney University who was working in
2:37 America when the attacks
2:40 occurred in Brisbane Yolanda Jetton
2:42 professor of psychology at Queensland
2:45 University and an expert in
2:49 trauma and from camra Dr Anne Ali a
2:52 counterterrorism expert and Australia's
2:55 first female Muslim member of federal
2:57 Parliament thank you very much for
3:00 joining me
3:02 for those of us alive at the time we all
3:05 remember where we were on
3:09 911 it was late night in Australia those
3:11 of us with the television on would have
3:14 seen the news break around 1 p.m.
3:16 welcome to the special edition extended
3:19 edition of National 9 news as we try to
3:20 come to terms with the almost unbelievable
3:26 events an aircraft had just struck the
3:30 World Trade Center its 110
3:33 Twin Towers highly visible symbols of
3:36 American Financial dominance surely an
3:37 accident we [Applause]
3:39 [Applause]
3:41 thought they just think there's going to
3:44 be another but no it was the first
3:47 direct Act of war against the United
3:50 States in over 50 years [ __ ] we going
3:53 in there bro get out America was under
3:57 attack but by whom [Applause]
4:00 [Applause]
4:01 hey you
4:04 okay the terrorist group Al-Qaeda and
4:07 its leader Osama Bin Laden were
4:09 generally unknown to the public and
4:12 fatally underestimated by intelligence
4:15 services in the
4:19 west that is until 8:46 a.m. when
4:23 American Airlines flight 11 a Boing 767
4:26 with 92 passengers and crew on board
4:28 struck the World Trade Center's
4:37 [ __ ] James Dorney had been working in
4:40 New York for nearly 3 years and was at
4:43 his desk on the 92nd floor of the South
4:45 Tower and James you were in the thick of
4:49 it that's right Li is my office was
4:52 looking North and I remember I got off
4:54 the phone and I was looking straight at
4:55 the building in front of me when it
4:57 essentially exploded so it happened
5:00 right in front of my eyes basically
5:03 10 floors exploding straight in front of
5:05 me and you had no idea at that point
5:08 what that was I never actually saw an
5:21 [Music]
5:25 Flames slips of paper floating on the
5:28 breeze I assumed that a pipe had
5:29 exploded that's all I could come up with
5:33 with but at that particular time uh it
5:42 [Music]
5:45 mayem to quell the Panic an announcement
5:47 instructed James and his colleagues
5:50 who'd seen what had happened next door
5:54 to stay at their desks I was I think in
5:56 a State of Shock and wandering around on
5:59 the 92nd floor when that particular
6:01 announcement M was made that the South
6:04 Tower was Secure and that you could stay
6:07 put for some reason it had the exact
6:10 opposite impact on me and I thought you
6:12 can tell me that when my feet are on the
6:16 ground I'm out of here and I got into a
6:19 fire escape in the Northwestern fire
6:22 escape in the South Tower which turned
6:25 out to be the furthest stairwell from
6:26 where the plane was about to crash into
6:30 the building at 9:03 a.m. scarcely 20
6:33 minutes after the North Tower was hit
6:35 United Airlines flight
6:40 175 another Boeing 767 carrying 65 men
6:42 women and children crashed into the
6:47 South Tower between the 77th and 85th [Applause]
6:56 floors I wasn't too many floors down I
6:58 soon to recall I was at around the 70th
7:00 floor when the next plane came crashing
7:16 building so I was stack in a very narrow
7:18 stairwell when that occurred probably
7:19 just a little bit below the point of
7:21 impact but did you know that that was a
7:23 plane no no idea I I didn't know for a
7:26 long long time what had happened it
7:28 looks like a movie I saw a r plane like
7:31 a V B immediately headed directly into
7:33 the World Trade
7:37 Center you have a Boe 767 crashing into
7:39 a building it's very difficult to put
7:42 into words the force that I felt I had
7:45 to catch myself I thought I was dead
7:48 then it turned out that I wasn't and the
7:51 building stopped shaking and I said I
7:53 better keep going down here something
7:55 else just hit a very large plane at that
7:58 point people started to fill into these
8:01 stairways I really remember the piles of
8:04 shoes being left at at every turn people
8:06 kicking off their shoes and I remember
8:09 standing still in the
8:11 50s because there were then that many
8:13 people in the stairs and you couldn't
8:15 move and I remember thinking to myself I
8:20 just can't get out those stairs were the
8:23 worst absolute worst it really uh brings
8:26 back some some some pretty horrific
8:28 memories when I think about it it was
8:30 the worst because every everybody was
8:33 trying to do what you were doing well
8:34 you couldn't really help yourself and
8:37 it's probably very lucky that I didn't
8:41 know what had happened to be honest
8:42 because that really would have set
8:45 people off I think there were people
8:47 sitting down on the stairs waiting to be
8:51 rescued and I I just had to get out uh I
8:53 had to get out of
8:55 there oh [Music]
8:56 [Music]
8:59 my even while James Dorney and thousands
9:02 of others trapped in the Twin Towers
9:04 were still fighting for their lives the
9:07 terrible truth of the attack was sinking
9:11 in in Florida President George Bush was
9:14 visiting a class of second graders when
9:17 his chief of staff interrupted Bush was
9:20 told of the attacks as TV cameras rolled
9:22 I walked up to him and leaned over and
9:27 said a second plane hit the second tower
9:29 America is under attack and I I think
9:32 that's the day he really recognized the
9:34 great burden of being president Freedom
9:36 itself was attacked this morning by a faceless
9:38 faceless
9:41 coward and freedom will be
9:44 defended 9/11 was New Territory for
9:47 everyone nothing like it had ever
9:49 happened in military history and the
9:51 world had to quickly come to terms with
9:54 a horrifying new
9:57 reality Yolanda from your perspective
9:59 this is the beginning of the trauma from
10:02 the moment we saw what was happening the
10:04 trauma began I guess what it actually
10:08 did is that the world changed in in in a
10:10 couple of hours in a very profound way
10:12 and I guess it really left us with the
10:14 sense of what's next or who are we going
10:16 to become at that stage I don't think
10:19 any of us knew really what the magnitude
10:21 of it was or what it really would mean
10:23 for the future and Ally you were in
10:25 Australia and like many Australians I
10:27 was watching television and this came on
10:31 the screens we were were all witnesses
10:35 to this tragic event unfolding live
10:38 before our eyes we were all placed in
10:41 the position of witness Simon where were
10:45 you it was early morning in California
10:48 our NEX door neighbor came pounding on
10:50 our front door saying they've blown up
10:52 New York I've been in those buildings
10:54 myself you know how many thousands of
10:56 people work there and you're just
10:59 thinking to yourself I am watching the
11:02 thousands of people are dying right now live
11:03 live [Music]
11:04 [Music] [Applause]
11:06 [Applause] [Music]
11:17 TV it was only 9:30 in the morning but
11:19 already hundreds of innocent people were
11:22 dead and the financial district of New
11:24 York had become the first field of
11:28 battle in a terrifying new war [Applause]
11:29 [Applause] [Music]
11:35 [Music] [Applause]
11:56 unfolded Mike and IA can you hear me
11:57 first of all let me first describe the
11:59 scene this is the west side of the p
12:01 Pentagon of the Hort side off a Washington
12:02 Washington
12:06 Boulevard at 9:37 a.m. Washington time
12:08 the shock and scale of the al-Qaeda attack
12:10 attack
12:14 intensified American Airlines flight 77
12:17 plummeted into the Pentagon piercing the
12:19 heart of the US
12:22 military it was aama Bin Laden's
12:25 ultimate humiliation of this
12:29 superpower all 64 people on board and
12:33 125 inside the building died folks we
12:37 got to leave chaos gripped the capital
12:44 walk the White House was evacuated then
12:46 the capital
12:48 building and in the midst of this
12:51 escalating National crisis was our prime
12:55 minister John Howard I just say how
12:59 horrified I am at what I've just heard
13:01 regarding um what's happened in New York
13:05 it appears to be a most horrific awful
13:08 event that will obviously entail a very
13:10 big loss of life John Howard joins us
13:13 now from lockdown in his Sydney home you
13:15 would remember that quite vividly I
13:17 would think Mr Howard was during that
13:20 news conference that third plane slammed
13:23 into the Pentagon I went back to my room
13:25 and within minutes George Edwards who is
13:28 the head of my security American
13:30 Security detail said you're getting out
13:31 of here and I said what do you mean he
13:33 said I haven't lost anybody yet and I
13:40 today this rarely seen footage captures
13:42 the tense moments in which Mr how was
13:44 rushed to safety at the Australian
13:47 Embassy while authorities desperately
13:51 tried to track down his wife and
13:54 son I wanted to know about my wife and
13:56 Elder son
13:59 Tim he and and his mother were heading
14:02 in fact towards Pentagon because they're
14:04 going on a bit of a sseeing visit when
14:06 they heard about what had happened that
14:09 changed very rapidly and they were
14:12 directed to the to the bunker underneath
14:15 the stent Embassy in Pennsylvania
14:17 Avenue as the Howard sheltered in the
14:21 bunker outside the US military was in
14:24 disarray its leaders in hiding the
14:26 Pentagon in
14:29 Flames well it's not just the symbol
14:31 it's far more than a symbol it's the
14:33 central nervous system of the American
14:35 Military where the Secretary of Defense
14:37 works the very top of the military
14:39 leadership The Joint Chiefs the idea
14:41 that that could be hit in the way it was
14:44 and taken offline um uh for a time at
14:48 least just a remarkable thing for people
14:51 with box cutters um to be able to pull
14:54 off Mr Howard uh this wasn't just any
14:57 old building was it they struck the two
14:59 great American symbols between Towers
15:01 were a symbol of economic Supremacy and
15:04 the Pentagon was a symbol of military
15:06 Supremacy it had all the symbolism it
15:09 had all the audacity it's always
15:10 difficult to say this without being
15:13 misunderstood but as a calculation
15:16 designed to humiliate it couldn't have
15:19 been better as far as the terrorists
15:21 were concerned and quite extraordinary
15:25 really you have this idea that America
15:27 is absolutely Invincible no country is invincible
15:30 invincible
15:32 meanwhile James Dorney was out of the
15:35 South Tower but he was not out of
15:39 trouble I vividly remember coming to the
15:41 bottom of the world trade tower there
15:43 looking out through the glass the sky
15:46 was black there was debris
15:48 falling I thought to myself what is
15:55 here running up the other way were all
15:57 the fies they were knocking themselves
15:59 out to get up into that building and
16:02 rescue people and fight that fire all I
16:04 could think of was going the other way
16:07 these amazing people were going into the
16:10 building I can't imagine uh what you
16:13 thought was happening to
16:17 you I didn't know we came out a block
16:19 away when we finally emerged on the
16:21 street level and I remember that our
16:25 fully grown men screaming and
16:29 wailing it was a complete War war scene
16:32 there was screaming there was
16:35 sirens there was horrific scenes all
16:38 over the street of body
16:41 parts I looked up people jumping out of the
16:42 the [Music]
16:54 [Music]
16:58 towers it was like a seen Out of Hell basically
16:59 basically
17:01 and I remember getting about a block
17:03 away up on the Broadway and finally
17:07 looking up over my shoulder and seeing
17:09 essentially two burning towers and I
17:11 thought to myself I need to put that
17:14 much distance between me and them and I
17:16 took off up town and it's just as well I
17:18 did because I hadn't been out very long
17:22 when the South Tower fell
17:25 down on a morning that was already far
17:28 beyond the bounds of comprehension came
17:38 unimaginable at 9:59 a.m. less than an
17:40 hour after it had been attacked the
17:48 Center the South Tower collapsed the
17:50 immense structure disintegrating in less
17:52 than 10
17:56 seconds at 10:28 less than 30 minutes
17:58 after the South Tower Falls the North
18:00 Tower our collapses as [Music]
18:02 [Music]
18:14 God in that moment the Twin Towers cease to
18:28 exist coming down and James Dorney that
18:32 is obviously a moment that you can't
18:34 forget no I look I'll never be able to
18:36 forget that yeah
18:39 M we were traumatized watching it when
18:41 you hear what James went through it's
18:44 unimaginable yeah look I I think what
18:46 James experience is indeed a very deep
18:48 personal trauma and it is clearly
18:51 lifechanging and at the same time I also
18:53 think that there's it's clear that this
18:55 is a trauma it's a collective trauma it
18:58 resonates doesn't it in all of us there
19:00 is a little of that traumatic day in all
19:03 of us that's right it represented
19:06 American identity you could say and when
19:08 that is possible when you actually see
19:10 on your screen that it's possible to
19:13 destroy that in such a way that goes
19:15 quite deep not just at a very personal
19:17 level but also at a very Collective
19:19 level it affects societies and and
19:32 Mr how did you think at that moment that
19:35 the world has just changed now I me look
19:39 I don't pretend to foreseen how it was
19:41 going to change but I knew that this was
19:45 a lifechanging event it was an even more
19:48 brutal assault audacious assault on
19:50 American sovereignty than Paul haror I
19:53 immediately thought well you know this
19:56 has clear government and political
19:59 consequences obviously the initial
20:01 response had to be from the United
20:05 States but overall um I you you do start
20:08 to think fairly quickly of of how you should
20:13 respond there is not anything
20:15 recognizable of what were the two Trade
20:17 Towers nothing the aircraft crashed
20:19 right through to the central Courtyard
20:21 killing all 64 on board yeah we're
20:23 looking at it with this pictures here
20:25 which are just horrific this looks like
20:29 downtown Beirut a few years ago
20:31 with the destruction of the World Trade
20:35 Center nearly 3,000 people are
20:38 killed only 16 survivors will ever be
20:40 rescued from the
20:43 rubble in the days that followed
20:45 Americans lived in constant fear of further
20:47 further
20:50 attacks Australia's intelligence Chief
20:53 at the time AO boss Dennis Richardson
20:57 says this attack was a failure of the US
21:00 and its allies to imagine the scale
21:03 Effectiveness and Ingenuity of their
21:06 enemy if you had have asked me to write
21:11 down the 50 most likely terrorist
21:14 challenges that we might have in 2001 I
21:16 wouldn't have written that down we were
21:20 so focused offshore we were so focused
21:23 on where our vulnerabilities might be
21:26 globally that we forgot our own
21:28 vulnerabilities domestically the bottom
21:31 line was that it was a failure of
21:37 imagination the intelligence World
21:39 quickly focused on the little known
21:42 terrorist group Al-Qaeda and its shadowy
21:45 Mastermind Osama Bin Laden who operated
21:48 from a stronghold in
21:50 Afghanistan this was an entirely new
21:54 breed of enemy one with no rules of
21:56 engagement and whose weapon of choice
22:00 Was Fear the images that were broadcast
22:02 on our televisions kept it in the
22:06 collective memory part of terrorism is
22:09 that surprise element it's that media
22:11 coverage it's capturing the
22:14 international imagination yes it was
22:16 very calculated it was a very calculated
22:19 mood it is also the unimaginable of
22:21 using something that is part of our
22:25 everyday an airplane to conduct such a
22:28 heinous terrorist attack if I could
22:30 bring in yolando here seeing those
22:32 Towers crumble the pentagon's being hit
22:34 the psyche of the world has shifted
22:38 hasn't it the symbolic humiliation that
22:40 this attack represented should not be
22:42 underestimated in the sense that it sort
22:45 of it is an attack in a heart of a
22:48 country that thought it was invincible
22:50 that this would never happen on American
22:52 soil and so in that sense it is indeed
22:55 something that is a very deep wound
22:58 collectively you could say James you
23:01 live this you breathe this you survive
23:07 this just did you get angry or did you
23:09 just think thank God I got
23:12 out I never really felt any anger about
23:14 it Liz my overwhelming sense throughout
23:17 all of this was one of sadness and I
23:20 just remember this Eerie feeling in New
23:22 York of shock on people's
23:25 faces was like the oxygen had been
23:27 sucked out of New York and that was not
23:29 probably unique to New York I think all
23:30 around the world people were either
23:33 waking up or going to bed thinking
23:35 what's happened here and what's it going
23:38 to mean the American Homeland had been
23:41 attacked as never before the shock and
23:43 the casualties far greater than the
23:45 Japanese surprise bombing of Pearl
23:48 Harbor which propelled the us into World
23:51 War II Americans wanted revenge and
23:54 their President George W bush had been
23:56 elected by the bearest of margins less
23:59 than a year before suddenly became a
24:11 you I can hear you the rest of the world
24:19 people and the people who knock these
24:39 [Applause]
24:42 I knew that the Americans would
24:45 respond and
24:47 instinctively thought to myself will'll
24:50 have to be alongside them I did go to
24:53 Congress that day on the wedes day and
24:55 it was probably one of the most
24:58 emotional moments I've had uh I had as
25:01 prime minister the chair wishes to
25:03 acknowledge the presence of the Prime
25:06 Minister and then that afternoon I said
25:08 that we would stand beside the Americans
25:10 in any
25:13 response I hadn't discussed that with my
25:15 cabinet or um but but I knew
25:18 instinctively that was what the feelings
25:20 of the great majority not everybody the
25:23 great majority of the Australian people would
25:23 would
25:26 be you can be assured of Australia's
25:30 Resolute solidarity with the American
25:33 people true to his word when America
25:35 invaded Afghanistan on the hunt for
25:39 Usama Bin Laden a month after 911 John
25:43 Howard ensured we were there and you
25:45 have no regrets about that Mr Howard no
25:48 no i' had no regrets about that at all
25:51 there was an almost United view in
25:54 Australia that we should join in the
25:58 initial intervention to deny Al-Qaeda
26:01 the Safe Harbor of Afghanistan to mount
26:03 a future attack because one of the
26:06 immediate reactions of people was this
26:08 could be the beginning of a series of
26:10 attacks around the world was there any
26:13 other option other than war that was no
26:15 way the United States could stand for
26:18 this there's a sense from the American
26:20 Security establishment we couldn't
26:22 protect our people they had to fend for
26:25 themselves on that day so damn right
26:27 they were going to go after someone we
26:28 know where they are
26:30 now how are we going to go get them well
26:33 given he was so pivotal to this whole
26:35 group and Ali would it have been better
26:39 just to go for Osama Bin Laden military
26:42 strategists rightly pointed out that the
26:45 mistake was utilizing conventional
26:49 Warfare against an unconventional enemy
26:53 you may have uh Used military might to
26:55 uh destroy terrorist training camps but
27:03 terrorism but 911 gave President Bush
27:07 virtual C blanch to strike anywhere at
27:10 will under the banner of the war on
27:12 terror it will not end until every
27:16 terrorist group of global reach has been
27:24 defeated but there was one country and
27:26 one dictator in the Bush Administration
27:29 sight almost from the the first moments
27:40 Hussein the invasion of Iraq was
27:43 justified by intelligence reports that
27:46 Saddam was stockpiling nuclear weapons
27:48 and that he could pass them to the
27:51 terrorists only after Australia joined
27:54 the invading forces did we discover
27:56 Iraq's so-called weapons of mass
28:11 [Music]
28:13 exist and Australia under your
28:16 leadership Mr Howard was Central to the
28:18 Coalition of the Willing do you accept
28:22 that oh yes obviously the decision to
28:26 join the Americans and the British um in
28:29 the Iraqi campaign was very contr veral
28:32 I remain unrepentant so to speak about
28:34 our decision to join it I know you
28:36 defend it and I understand why you
28:38 defend it but are you proud of it given
28:42 all that you do now know my answer is
28:44 that when I look back the accumulated
28:45 view of the
28:49 entire um American intelligence
28:53 establishment late in 2002 that Iraq did
28:55 have re of mass destruction I understand
28:58 that but it but ended up being wrong and
29:00 that's the hard bit isn't it
29:03 intelligence can often be wrong the
29:05 problem is is that if you wait if you
29:09 wait for PL perfect proof that
29:11 something's going to happen you can have
29:14 another pear Harbor I think Australians
29:16 just really didn't understand the
29:20 reasons why we were partaking in the
29:22 Iraq War was it weapons of mass
29:26 destruction was it to depose Saddam
29:28 Hussein was it because
29:31 of terrorism perhaps the question is did
29:34 we go to war with Iraq because of 911
29:37 well deep down I didn't think Iraq was
29:40 responsible I thought though that if
29:42 Iraq did have weapons of mass
29:45 destruction there was a real risk that
29:46 those weapons would be handed to a terrorist
29:47 terrorist
29:50 organization and I think that was a
30:02 the lessons of 9/11 were proving hard and
30:03 and
30:06 costly even when Iraq stock piles of
30:10 wmds proved to be non-existent the war
30:28 [Music]
30:31 now in two protracted conflicts without
30:34 real result America's anger turned [Music]
30:36 [Music]
30:39 inwards numerous conspiracy theories
30:42 emerged accusing the government of the
30:44 ultimate inside
30:48 job two events on 9/11 became Central to
30:49 the conspiracy
30:52 claims the first was United Airlines
30:56 Flight 93 the last of the four planes
30:58 hijacked supposedly hitting for the
31:00 White House aircraft is moving away
31:03 moving away from the White House yeah we
31:04 we believe just we just know it's a VFR
31:06 aircraft we're not sure who it is the
31:10 captain I would like to C we have board
31:12 and we are going to back to the airport
31:15 and we have our
31:17 demand United 93 understand have a bomb
31:20 on board go ahead exec 956 did you
31:21 understand that
31:23 transmission affirmative he said there
31:26 was a bomb on board Air Traffic Control
31:29 recordings and calls from those on board
31:31 told of an horrific but doomed attempt
31:34 by passengers to seize back control of
31:37 the aircraft before crashing into a
31:47 Pennsylvania did you hear fo screaming
31:52 did but despite all the evidence
31:55 conspiracy theories began to circulate
31:59 that the jet had been shot down by us
32:01 forces then a second event occurred
32:03 amidst the devastation of the Twin
32:06 Towers in New York when another building
32:07 that formed part of the World Trade
32:12 Center complex known as Tower 7 suddenly
32:14 and without warning collapsed hours
32:17 after the attack we're going to roll
32:18 that tape for you this is World Trade
32:21 number seven collapsing just it's 47
32:24 floors disintegrated almost in free fall
32:34 conspiracy theorists claimed Tower 7 was
32:36 brought down deliberately by a
32:38 controlled demolition an allegation
32:42 backed by a group of 3,400 building
32:44 professionals called Architects and
32:48 Engineers for 911 truth the leader of
32:51 the group is Richard Gage the truth
32:54 about 9/11 is a wakeup call for all of
32:57 us the explosive evidence and eyewitness
32:59 testimon ony reveals to us not only
33:03 control demolition but a massive false
33:06 flag operation a massive series of lies
33:07 from our
33:09 government well I spoke to Jonathan
33:13 Barnett CEO of basic expert and one of
33:15 the world's leading fire Structural
33:18 Engineers Barnett was an expert witness
33:19 in the US government's Central
33:21 investigation into the collapse of the
33:25 twin towers and gave evidence to the US
33:28 Congress in all the investigations and
33:30 you said you looked deliberately any
33:32 evidence for a controlled demolition
33:34 what would you have needed to have found
33:39 we would have looked for um steel that
33:41 had been pre-cut we would have looked
33:45 for steel that had been damaged in an
33:47 explosion which is different than steel
33:49 that's been damaged from the forces
33:52 induced by a falling building we found
33:55 nothing and if you'd seen a conspiracy
33:56 you would have called it out of course
33:59 we would have and and and it's it's
34:02 something that all of us were strongly
34:09 truth barnet's team also established the
34:12 complex preparation that would be needed
34:14 for a controlled demolition in a
34:16 building like Tower
34:19 7 that kind of work doesn't happen in an
34:22 hour or two it takes many days and in
34:24 some buildings weeks to do well none of
34:38 [Music]
34:40 Yanda can I bring you in in here
34:43 conspiracy theories just abound after
34:47 9/11 what happens what's going on that
34:49 people with high intellect you know
34:52 expertise decide Something Something
34:54 Fishy is going on basically what a
34:56 conspiracy theory is is is an attempt to
34:58 regain some sense of of control and
35:01 whenever something big happens right
35:03 like 9/11 but even Co so we want to have
35:05 an explanation about us because our
35:07 worldview is seriously sort of
35:09 challenged at that moment so we saw that
35:12 with the Princess Diana was it MI5 who
35:14 killed her and there are so many
35:17 conspiracy theories about why JFK how he
35:19 was murdered and the same is actually
35:22 the case with 9/11 we cannot accept
35:24 psychologically almost that something as
35:28 big as this was just caused by a handful
35:31 of terrorists and by actually embracing
35:33 The Conspiracy Theory we feel that we're
35:35 back in control we understand why the
35:38 world is and why all of why all of this
35:39 happened the way that it did you must
35:42 find this ging James to think that
35:46 people do think this wasn't an attack by
35:48 an enemy yeah and look it's I've I've
35:50 obviously heard all the conspiracy
35:52 theories about that that building
35:54 falling down to be completely honest
35:55 this I'm actually flabbergasted more
35:57 buildings weren't knocked down um I'm
35:58 surprised that anything was left
36:01 standing within 10 blocks of the joint I
36:03 mean for 20 years now I've had people
36:06 that didn't happen it was an inside job
36:08 well I'm sorry but I'm here to tell you
36:11 that it did happen while conspiracy
36:13 theorists muddied the waters world
36:16 leaders were struggling to contain a far
36:18 more divisive backlash against the
36:22 Muslim Community as our prime minister
36:24 Mr Howard spoke to Parliament about the
36:26 attacks immediately after returning to
36:30 Australia and said this and I say to my
36:33 fellow Australians of Islamic faith or
36:36 of Middle Eastern descent I extend to
36:39 you the hand of friendship you are part
36:41 of our Great Society you are part of the
36:44 fabric of the great decent Freedom
36:47 loving fair-minded Australian
36:51 nation and they are as entitled to share
36:54 my outrage and my sorrow and my anger
36:55 and my
37:00 sadness as s within our community Mr
37:04 Speaker because wouldn't it be a
37:09 terrible tragic obscene irony if in
37:11 responding however we do it as
37:14 individuals or as nations in
37:17 responding to these um terrible terrorist
37:19 terrorist
37:23 attacks we forsook the very things that
37:26 we believed had been assaulted that last
37:30 Tuesday in New York I can sense that
37:33 it's one of those things that you deeply
37:35 regret that's come from this that
37:38 Muslims have suffered terribly
37:41 unnecessarily as a result in no way did
37:44 I want the Muslims of Australia to be
37:47 made scapegoats for this and Ali the
37:50 backlash that affected you
37:53 personally very much so I'm I'm not
37:56 visibly Muslim you know I don't wear the
37:58 hijab but I'd been going to this coffee
38:01 shop and then one morning after 911 I
38:05 had a necklace on um and um someone
38:07 behind the Cy said oh you Muslim and the
38:10 Barista who I was on first name terms
38:11 with heard that and looked at me and
38:13 said what do you think about you know
38:16 9/11 and and innocent people getting
38:19 killed I said well I I abhor violence
38:22 against innocent people
38:25 everywhere and he said good and then as
38:27 I was walking out of the coffee shop he
38:30 yelled out look out everybody she's a
38:32 Muslim she's going to bomb us all and
38:34 the whole coffee shop just went silent
38:37 it was it was just shocking and I went
38:38 up sat in the toilet and cried into my
38:42 coffee cup that was my response well and
38:44 and was was precisely the intent they
38:46 want to make us afraid of one another
38:48 but that was precisely one of the goals
38:51 of the attacks was to enrage it was to
38:55 bring on this apocalyptic sort of
38:57 contest and the the challenge for the West
38:58 West
39:00 was to resist that yeah uh the challenge
39:02 for the West Was to reach for the higher
39:04 ground James did you have a feeling
39:07 about who had done this did you develop
39:10 a feeling about Muslims for example no
39:13 not at all I grew up in Australia proud
39:16 Multicultural Society it's very easy to
39:18 get angry and and go looking for
39:20 something to scapegoat and my my view
39:21 has always been to try and rise above
39:24 that and uh and I think if that's a very
39:26 important place to be or else it just it
39:27 consumes you
39:29 you can't let that [Music]
39:40 happen within minutes of the attack on
39:43 that Dreadful morning of September 11th
39:46 2001 America as we knew it and our
39:48 belief in its invincibility crumbled
39:50 with the Twin [Music]
39:54 [Music]
39:57 Towers Wars followed in Afghanistan and
40:01 Iraq but in the US there remained a
40:04 sense of Unfinished Business the leader
40:07 of al-Qaeda ass Bin Laden had not been dealt
40:09 dealt
40:11 with the United States has conducted an
40:14 operation that killed Osama Bin Laden
40:16 the leader of [Music]
40:18 [Music]
40:22 al-Qaeda 10 years ago on May the 2nd
40:25 2011 AMA Bin Laden was finally hunted
40:28 down and killed in Pakistan
40:30 by sealed tame SS a terrorist who's
40:33 responsible for the murder of thousands
40:41 children on nights like this one we can
40:43 say to those families who have lost
40:46 loved ones to al-qaeda's Terror justice
40:47 has been [Applause]
40:55 done tragically any benefits the
40:57 Coalition forces battled to bring to
41:01 Afghanistan are being obliterated as we
41:04 speak within days of the withdrawal of
41:07 US troops a reinvigorated Taliban had
41:10 seized control of the Capitol Kabul and
41:12 the world could only watch and wonder
41:15 what was achieved as the people of
41:18 Afghanistan found themselves back where
41:29 began if you lived through one one thing
41:32 you won't do is fail to imagine the
41:35 possibility of another and indeed it's
41:38 it's important to think Beyond another [Music]
41:41 [Music]
41:44 911 among the lessons the Stark warning
41:47 that for everything that has happened in
41:49 the 20 years since 9/11 something like
41:52 that terrible day according to the
41:55 experts will happen again the Americans
41:58 know that if if terrorists ever get
42:00 their hands on a nuclear device they
42:03 will be the Target and it's important
42:06 for us to understand that terrorists
42:10 will use whatever Weaponry they can to
42:13 cause Maximum Destruction and death
42:15 they're chilling words Mr Howard what do
42:17 you think are the lessons we can take
42:21 from 911 I mean we are as a nation
42:24 United uh in behind certain values and
42:26 that's the most important thing about
42:28 our country our common values and it's
42:31 the thing that binds us to the United
42:33 States more than anything else we have
42:38 the same values and values are are more
42:40 important than trade they're more
42:42 important than economic systems they're
42:45 more important than anything else and we
42:47 got to hold on to them very tightly I
42:49 find it unfortunate that it led to lots
42:51 of actions and regardless of whether
42:54 they were effective or not in in uh sort
42:56 of the fight against terrorism it led to
42:58 a lot of hardship it didn't really
43:00 resolve a lot of the problems really in
43:04 the Middle East and Ali terrorists are
43:08 opportunists uh much like many criminals
43:10 they will exploit weaknesses and
43:12 vulnerabilities individuals can be
43:15 inspired to carry out a terrorist attack
43:19 with extremely low Tech weapons a car a
43:22 knife and then we also have the very
43:26 real Prospect of cyber terrorism so I
43:28 think that terrorist ISM has changed and
43:30 the way in which we respond to terrorism
43:34 also needs to change I would point out
43:37 that after 911 there hasn't been a 911
43:40 uh and why is that um because the US
43:44 using its intelligence tools primarily
43:46 made it a very dangerous thing to be to
43:48 be a leader of a of global terrorist organization
43:51 organization [Music]
44:02 there were thousands of victims of 9/11
44:04 and many more who have suffered in the
44:07 20 years since that terrible morning the
44:10 world will never be as it was but From
44:13 the Ashes of Ground Zero New York has
44:16 rebuilt and so have the many survivors
44:26 there in one sense Li 20 years seems a
44:28 long long time ago to me but on the
44:32 other hand it just feels like yesterday
44:34 and for me personally it probably
44:37 doesn't um fill me with a great deal of
44:39 Joy going back and going through the
44:42 events of that day and but I think at
44:45 this time it's really important that the
44:48 story is told because I don't want this
44:51 to be shots on a television screen
44:53 there's a human side to this of which
44:55 I'm a very small part and I think um one
44:56 of the themes that's washed through
44:58 today is that that everybody has a a
45:00 role to play to ensure that these type
45:02 of things don't happen again in the
45:06 future and that is my uh very firm hope
45:08 well said well thank you all very much
45:10 for joining us to remember a day that we
45:12 need to learn from and one the world
45:16 must never forget hello I'm Liz Hayes
45:19 thanks for watching 60 Minutes Australia
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