Today is the 10th anniversary of 9/11:

A clarion call to defeat terrorism

By Pramod DE SILVA

While trawling through the Net last week, I came across an interesting question posed by a newspaper in the US. It simply asked ‘where were you on 9/11?’. There was no need to mention a year or say anything more. The term 9/11 is firmly etched in the collective memory of the world population that there is hardly any need to elaborate on it.

Everyone can remember where they were on September 11, 2001, at the time when two planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. That was exactly 10 years ago.

I was in office, in the Daily News editorial, reading the next day’s page proofs, when someone from the foreign news section tapped me on the shoulder. The time was around 7 p.m.

“Take a look at this,” he said, giving me a wire printout from Reuters. It simply said that a plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York. It also said that it was not a normal route for civilian planes. I immediately switched on the television and tuned into CNN. The plane story was being telecast.

A few minutes later, another wire alert came. This time, the report said it was believed to be a terrorist attack. This was already turning in to a nightmare. We were all glued to the television as live pictures of smoke bellowing from one of the WTC towers were shown. And then it happened and we could not believe our eyes!

A memorial for the fire fighters who died on 9/11

Another plane flew straight into the other tower, as we gazed disbelievingly at the live pictures on the TV screen. There was a massive explosion.

Having been to New York and to the WTC several times, I had a personal bond with the Big Apple. I felt a lump in my throat as the twin towers began to collapse. It was horrifying to see people jump out of the burning buildings.

The shock was mind-numbing, the carnage unimaginable. We watched in horror as the twin buildings, a symbol of New York and the US itself, crumbled.

More crashes

Over the next few minutes and hours, more news trickled in. CNN reported that another plane had crashed into the Pentagon, the heart of the US military establishment. We learned that yet another plane (United Flight 93) had crashed on to the ground, possibly as a result of passengers overpowering the hijackers piloting it. The plane’s would-be target was widely believed to be the White House or even Air Force One.

As the evening wore on (it was morning in New York on the other side of the world), it became clear that nearly 3,000 people had perished in the single biggest terrorist attack against a civilian target; that it was most probably perpetrated by al-Qaeda operatives who had hijacked United and American Airlines planes; that it was masterminded by Osama bin Laden and that the US – and the world – would never be the same again.

The events of 9/11 strengthened the resolve of the world to combat terrorism and in fact, led to the birth of a worldwide war on terror. Bin Laden was killed with just a few months to go for the 10th anniversary of 9/11, in an action widely seen as one of the biggest victories in this war against terror.

They also led States to adopt, however reluctantly, certain measures that impacted on personal freedoms to ensure the security of the greatest number. However, it also directly or indirectly led to wars in places such as Iraq whose purpose was not exactly clear.

Greatest tragedies

The Pentagon after it was hit

Ten years on, it is still not easy not to get emotional about one of the greatest tragedies in recent memory. Ground Zero is almost a holy place for many people. Should it be left alone as a memorial in itself? Or is building another structure to show the world’s determination to literally rise against terrorism the right thing to do? These matters have been endlessly debated. In the midst of all these, families of 9/11 victims still grapple with the cherished memories of their loved ones.

In fact, curators are said to be making hard choices at the museum memorialising the attacks at the site of the World Trade Center's toppled twin towers, aiming to convey the horror of the event without trespassing into ghoulishness. The exit of the museum has been designed so that visitors emerge at the heart of the 9/11 Memorial - waterfalls set into the footprints of the fallen towers surrounded by bronze panels bearing the names of the dead.

"We're not here to traumatise our visitors," says Alice Greenwald, director of New York's 9/11 Memorial Museum due to open in its underground home at the Ground Zero site next year on the 11th anniversary of the attacks. "Monumental artefacts are one thing, but we also have a human story to tell," Greenwald says.

Some of the most potentially disturbing exhibits are being set aside from the main exhibition spaces in special alcoves to allow visitors a chance to decide whether or not to view them. It is here that museum curators have placed material such as images of people plummeting from the burning towers and a recording of the measured voice of flight attendant Betty Ong, aboard American Airlines Flight 11, who relayed details of the bloody hijacking to colleagues on the ground in the minutes before the plane crashed into the North Tower.

Ultimately, our greatest memories of 9/11 should not be of the destructive designs of the terrorists, but of the countless sacrifices made by ordinary people facing an extraordinary situation. And some of them died while trying to save others.

Innovative ways

If the world learned one thing from 9/11, it is that terrorists are always thinking of horrendously innovative ways to attack the very values that we cherish, the very lives that we strive to protect. And even after 9/11, they have succeeded on several occasions. But mostly they have failed, thanks to greater intelligence sharing and active cooperation by world governments. But danger still lurks.

It is in this light that we should focus on the pronouncement by US Pentagon Chief Leon Panetta that the US could again be hit by a terrorist attack similar to 9/11.

Panetta said citizens must remain 'vigilant' and that the threat of a repeat of an event such as September 11 was 'very real'.

His comments can broadly be applied to most other nations facing a terrorist threat. Incidentally, his comments came during a visit to Ground Zero, where he walked through the National September 11 Memorial Park and Museum with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Yes, eternal vigilance is the only answer to terrorism. Terrorists must not be allowed to destroy our hard-won freedom, values and democratic societies.

As the world marks the 10th anniversary of 9/11 today, the time has come to increase global cooperation to eliminate all forms of terrorism.