WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.339 Imagine holding a puzzle piece, right? Like a 00:00:03.339 --> 00:00:06.080 piece that could literally save 3 ,000 lives. 00:00:06.200 --> 00:00:08.160 Right, a crucial piece of information. Yeah, 00:00:08.460 --> 00:00:11.480 but you are legally blindfolded. You're completely 00:00:11.480 --> 00:00:13.300 forbidden from showing it to the person sitting 00:00:13.300 --> 00:00:15.119 right next to you. It sounds like a bad movie 00:00:15.119 --> 00:00:19.039 plot, honestly. It really does. But today, we 00:00:19.039 --> 00:00:20.960 aren't just looking at the tragedy of September 00:00:20.960 --> 00:00:25.210 11th. We are looking at the... catastrophic blind 00:00:25.210 --> 00:00:28.070 spots, the wrong buttons pressed, and even the 00:00:28.070 --> 00:00:30.269 everyday flight delays that actually changed 00:00:30.269 --> 00:00:33.490 the course of global history. Exactly. So welcome 00:00:33.490 --> 00:00:35.890 to today's Deep Dive. We are taking a massive 00:00:35.890 --> 00:00:38.390 stack of historical research, government commission 00:00:38.390 --> 00:00:41.710 reports, timelines, and we are just breaking 00:00:41.710 --> 00:00:43.549 it all down for you. And our mission for you 00:00:43.549 --> 00:00:46.549 today is to cut through the sheer overwhelming 00:00:46.549 --> 00:00:49.530 scope of this event. I mean, it's a huge topic. 00:00:49.649 --> 00:00:52.210 It's massive. Yeah, so we are going to explore 00:00:52.210 --> 00:00:55.590 exactly how a plot that was years in the making 00:00:55.590 --> 00:00:57.890 managed to slip through a multi -billion dollar 00:00:57.890 --> 00:01:00.509 intelligence net. We'll walk through how that 00:01:00.509 --> 00:01:03.509 Tuesday morning unfolded minute by minute. And 00:01:03.509 --> 00:01:06.310 finally, how the resulting shockwaves fundamentally 00:01:06.310 --> 00:01:10.170 rewired global security, public health, and the 00:01:10.170 --> 00:01:12.569 society you and I live in today. OK, let's unpack 00:01:12.569 --> 00:01:15.129 this. Because to actually understand the morning 00:01:15.129 --> 00:01:17.730 of September 11, we have to rewind the clock. 00:01:17.870 --> 00:01:20.280 Like, we can't start in 2001. No, not at all. 00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:22.000 You have to go way back. Right. We have to go 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:24.019 back to how this plot was even conceived in the 00:01:24.019 --> 00:01:26.719 first place and the systemic failures that allowed 00:01:26.719 --> 00:01:29.099 it to grow in the dark. I think a lot of people 00:01:29.099 --> 00:01:31.560 immediately picture Osama bin Laden and he is 00:01:31.560 --> 00:01:34.319 the catalyst, specifically with his public declarations 00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:38.739 or fatwas in 1996 and 1998. Those were huge turning 00:01:38.739 --> 00:01:40.700 points. He was aggressively focused on the United 00:01:40.700 --> 00:01:43.400 States military presence in Saudi Arabia, American 00:01:43.400 --> 00:01:45.700 support for Israel and the crushing international 00:01:45.700 --> 00:01:48.390 sanctions on Iraq at the time. Yeah, bin Laden's 00:01:48.390 --> 00:01:50.510 ideology was really rooted in the belief that 00:01:50.510 --> 00:01:53.049 the U .S. was waging an act of war against Muslims. 00:01:53.650 --> 00:01:56.689 His strategy was to strike at the literal symbols 00:01:56.689 --> 00:01:59.409 of American economic and military power to make 00:01:59.409 --> 00:02:01.629 a statement, to inflict enough pain that the 00:02:01.629 --> 00:02:03.750 U .S. would entirely change its foreign policy. 00:02:03.989 --> 00:02:06.390 But here is a crucial distinction. And a lot 00:02:06.390 --> 00:02:09.030 of people miss this. While bin Laden provided 00:02:09.030 --> 00:02:11.669 the leadership. the money, and the final green 00:02:11.669 --> 00:02:14.650 light, he wasn't the actual architect of the 00:02:14.650 --> 00:02:17.629 9 -11 plot. Wait, really? So someone else entirely 00:02:17.629 --> 00:02:20.469 designed the mechanics of the attacks? Yes, exactly. 00:02:20.849 --> 00:02:23.530 The principal architect was a man named Khalid 00:02:23.530 --> 00:02:26.270 Sheikh Mohammed. Oh, wow. He was the one who 00:02:26.270 --> 00:02:28.849 first approached Bin Laden back in 1996 with 00:02:28.849 --> 00:02:32.830 this highly specific, very radical idea of hijacking 00:02:32.830 --> 00:02:34.930 commercial airplanes and flying them directly 00:02:34.930 --> 00:02:37.289 into buildings. That is, I mean, that is just 00:02:37.289 --> 00:02:40.129 a terrifying leap of imagination. was. Bin Laden 00:02:40.129 --> 00:02:42.569 eventually approved it, but the operation required 00:02:42.569 --> 00:02:44.949 a very specific type of operative to actually 00:02:44.949 --> 00:02:47.569 pull it off. You couldn't just use anyone. Right. 00:02:47.810 --> 00:02:49.770 Which brings us to the Hamburg cell, because 00:02:49.770 --> 00:02:52.169 you can't just send anyone to infiltrate American 00:02:52.169 --> 00:02:54.370 flight schools, right? You need people who won't 00:02:54.370 --> 00:02:58.250 raise red flags. Exactly. So Bin Laden specifically 00:02:58.250 --> 00:03:00.469 selected a group of young men living in Germany, 00:03:00.969 --> 00:03:03.310 including Mohammed Adda, who would go on to pilot 00:03:03.310 --> 00:03:06.780 the first plane. These men were highly educated, 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:09.599 they spoke fluent English, and they already knew 00:03:09.599 --> 00:03:12.080 how to navigate Western society. That was the 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:14.919 key. They could rent apartments, open bank accounts, 00:03:15.159 --> 00:03:19.699 and just sort of blend into mundane. everyday 00:03:19.699 --> 00:03:21.960 American life. They were basically the perfect 00:03:21.960 --> 00:03:24.139 operatives for an infiltration mission. They 00:03:24.139 --> 00:03:26.719 were, but what makes reading the history of their 00:03:26.719 --> 00:03:29.340 preparation so agonizing is that they weren't 00:03:29.340 --> 00:03:32.139 entirely invisible. Right. It wasn't a total 00:03:32.139 --> 00:03:34.419 ghost operation. No, it wasn't a stealth mission 00:03:34.419 --> 00:03:36.960 that left no trace. American intelligence agencies 00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:39.219 actually had multiple fragments of information. 00:03:39.319 --> 00:03:41.319 They had the dots, you know, they just couldn't 00:03:41.319 --> 00:03:43.180 connect them. And this is the part of the history 00:03:43.180 --> 00:03:45.699 that just leaves you completely baffled. To go 00:03:45.699 --> 00:03:48.000 back to that puzzle analogy I used earlier, it's 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:50.719 like two doctors treating the exact same patient. 00:03:51.020 --> 00:03:52.780 That's a great way to look at it. Yeah, one doctor 00:03:52.780 --> 00:03:54.419 has the blood test results, the other doctor 00:03:54.419 --> 00:03:57.039 has the x -ray, but hospital policy strictly 00:03:57.039 --> 00:03:59.020 forbids them from looking at each other's charts. 00:03:59.740 --> 00:04:02.699 The symptoms are all there, but a diagnosis is 00:04:02.699 --> 00:04:05.099 literally impossible. What's fascinating here 00:04:05.099 --> 00:04:07.500 is that this wasn't an accident, it was actually 00:04:07.500 --> 00:04:10.659 by design. By design? Yeah. The tragedy wasn't 00:04:10.659 --> 00:04:13.460 a lack of data. It was a catastrophic failure 00:04:13.460 --> 00:04:16.399 in sharing information, driven by a bureaucratic 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:19.720 structure called the wall. The wall. Right. Back 00:04:19.720 --> 00:04:23.079 in 1995, the Justice Department established policies 00:04:23.079 --> 00:04:25.500 that legally segregated criminal investigators 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:27.779 from intelligence agents. But why on earth would 00:04:27.779 --> 00:04:30.180 they do that? Like, why wouldn't you want your 00:04:30.180 --> 00:04:32.379 intelligence agencies talking to your law enforcement? 00:04:32.800 --> 00:04:34.839 It seems so counterintuitive. You really have 00:04:34.839 --> 00:04:37.240 to look at the historical context there. Post 00:04:37.240 --> 00:04:39.800 Watergate and following the revelations of programs 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:43.079 like COINTELPRO in the 1970s, there was a massive, 00:04:43.160 --> 00:04:46.420 highly justified fear of the government using 00:04:46.420 --> 00:04:49.180 CIA intelligence to spy on American citizens. 00:04:49.319 --> 00:04:51.480 Oh, I see. So it was a privacy thing. Exactly. 00:04:51.620 --> 00:04:54.040 The wall was built to protect civil liberties. 00:04:54.680 --> 00:04:58.439 But in practice, by 2001, it meant a CIA analyst 00:04:58.439 --> 00:05:01.399 could uncover a terrifying foreign plot, but 00:05:01.399 --> 00:05:03.639 be legally hindered from walking down the hall 00:05:03.639 --> 00:05:06.360 and telling an FBI agent who actually had the 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:09.100 badge and the authority to make an arrest. Man, 00:05:09.199 --> 00:05:12.019 that is frustrating. And the warnings were absolutely 00:05:12.019 --> 00:05:13.680 blaring, weren't they? They were. They really 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:16.500 were. For example, the CIA was actively tracking 00:05:16.500 --> 00:05:19.500 two known al -Qaeda operatives, Nawaf al -Hazmi 00:05:19.500 --> 00:05:22.350 and Khalida. They tracked them to a high -level 00:05:22.350 --> 00:05:24.569 meeting in Malaysia. They knew these men had 00:05:24.569 --> 00:05:26.949 multiple entry U .S. visas. And yet they didn't 00:05:26.949 --> 00:05:29.629 put them on watch lists. Exactly. And they didn't 00:05:29.629 --> 00:05:32.329 alert the FBI when these men flew into Los Angeles. 00:05:32.949 --> 00:05:36.029 Then you also have the Phoenix memo in July 2001. 00:05:36.449 --> 00:05:39.319 Oh, the Phoenix memo is chilling. It is. That 00:05:39.319 --> 00:05:42.060 was where a frantic FBI agent explicitly warned 00:05:42.060 --> 00:05:44.860 his superiors about an unusual number of Middle 00:05:44.860 --> 00:05:47.060 Eastern men enrolled in American flight schools. 00:05:47.500 --> 00:05:50.139 Right. And we can't forget the presidential daily 00:05:50.139 --> 00:05:53.000 brief on August 6, 2001. Oh, right. The one handed 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:56.209 to the president. Yes, literally titled, Bin 00:05:56.209 --> 00:05:59.089 Laden Determined to Strike in US. I mean, the 00:05:59.089 --> 00:06:01.290 system was blinking red. But because of those 00:06:01.290 --> 00:06:04.290 deadly bureaucratic silos and a fundamental failure 00:06:04.290 --> 00:06:07.829 of imagination, just the sheer inability of leadership 00:06:07.829 --> 00:06:10.129 to picture domestic commercial airplanes being 00:06:10.129 --> 00:06:13.069 used as dited missiles, the hijackers faced virtually 00:06:13.069 --> 00:06:14.949 no friction when they arrived at the airports 00:06:14.949 --> 00:06:16.689 that morning. Which brings us to the morning 00:06:16.689 --> 00:06:19.490 of the attacks. Because those intelligence dots 00:06:19.490 --> 00:06:22.250 remained unconnected, the hijackers just walked 00:06:22.250 --> 00:06:24.790 right through existing aviation security. Yeah, 00:06:24.949 --> 00:06:29.040 they just bought tickets and boarded. I still 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:32.040 just can't wrap my head around is how 19 men 00:06:32.040 --> 00:06:35.019 managed to completely take over four massive 00:06:35.019 --> 00:06:37.819 commercial flights. American 11, United 175, 00:06:38.199 --> 00:06:41.040 American 77, and United 93. Right. How do you 00:06:41.040 --> 00:06:43.480 take over four planes without firing a single 00:06:43.480 --> 00:06:45.759 bullet? Well, they did it by exploiting the loopholes 00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:48.000 of the era. They didn't use firearms. They used 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:51.279 mace. Mace. They claimed to have bombs and their 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:54.120 primary weapons were locking blade utility knives. 00:06:54.500 --> 00:06:57.560 Basically box cutters. Box cutters. Just... crazy 00:06:57.560 --> 00:07:00.180 to think about now. It is, but the chilling reality 00:07:00.180 --> 00:07:03.879 is that in September 2001, a blade under four 00:07:03.879 --> 00:07:07.240 inches was perfectly legal to bring onto a commercial 00:07:07.240 --> 00:07:10.459 airplane. They didn't smuggle weapons past security. 00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:13.240 Security let them walk right through. But even 00:07:13.240 --> 00:07:15.560 with the box cutters, how do you keep a plane 00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:17.699 full of 100 people from fighting back? I mean, 00:07:17.779 --> 00:07:20.939 it's a small blade against dozens of people by 00:07:20.939 --> 00:07:23.800 weaponizing the passengers own psychology. How 00:07:23.800 --> 00:07:26.319 so? Once the hijackers breached the cockpits 00:07:26.319 --> 00:07:28.519 and took control of the planes, they got on the 00:07:28.519 --> 00:07:31.439 intercoms. They told the passengers to sit down, 00:07:31.620 --> 00:07:34.300 stay quiet and remain calm because they were 00:07:34.300 --> 00:07:36.680 returning to the airport to make ransom demands. 00:07:37.079 --> 00:07:39.439 So they gave them a false sense of security. 00:07:39.560 --> 00:07:42.060 Exactly. If we look at the history of hijackings 00:07:42.060 --> 00:07:44.500 in the 1970s and 80s, that was the established 00:07:44.500 --> 00:07:47.360 protocol. The old rules were you cooperate. You 00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:49.540 don't play the hero. The plane lands. in Cuba 00:07:49.540 --> 00:07:52.079 or somewhere else, negotiations drag on for a 00:07:52.079 --> 00:07:54.220 few days, and eventually everyone goes home alive. 00:07:54.480 --> 00:07:56.339 The hijackers were relying on the passengers 00:07:56.339 --> 00:07:58.600 to follow those old rules to buy themselves time. 00:07:58.779 --> 00:08:01.379 Pretty much, yeah. But here's where it gets really 00:08:01.379 --> 00:08:05.000 interesting. Pilots Mohammed Adda on Flight 11 00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:09.920 and Zia Jah on Flight 93 both made massive technical 00:08:09.920 --> 00:08:12.160 errors. Huge errors. When they tried to make 00:08:12.160 --> 00:08:14.139 those soothing, manipulative announcements to 00:08:14.139 --> 00:08:16.699 the passenger cabin, they hit the wrong switch 00:08:16.699 --> 00:08:20.000 on the console. They accidentally broadcasted 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:21.720 their threats directly to air traffic control 00:08:21.720 --> 00:08:24.579 on the ground. It's a grim, incredible irony, 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:27.379 isn't it? The hijackers' own lack of expertise 00:08:27.379 --> 00:08:29.339 with the comms systems tipped off controllers. 00:08:29.459 --> 00:08:31.800 They essentially told on themselves. Right. Ground 00:08:31.800 --> 00:08:34.419 control heard the threats, realized this wasn't 00:08:34.419 --> 00:08:36.980 just a standard mechanical failure, and understood 00:08:36.980 --> 00:08:39.600 almost immediately that they had multiple hijackings 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:42.820 underway. But the other crucial, completely uncontrolled 00:08:42.820 --> 00:08:46.679 factor that morning was time. Just mundane, everyday 00:08:46.679 --> 00:08:49.940 airport delays. Right. Flight 77 and 93 were 00:08:49.940 --> 00:08:52.940 stuck on the tarmac. Flight 93 out of Newark 00:08:52.940 --> 00:08:55.559 was delayed by 42 minutes because of routine 00:08:55.559 --> 00:08:57.639 morning traffic. And those 42 minutes literally 00:08:57.639 --> 00:09:00.220 changed history. Because the plane took off so 00:09:00.220 --> 00:09:02.740 late, by the time the hijackers made their move, 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:04.820 the World Trade Center had already been hit. 00:09:05.399 --> 00:09:08.659 The passengers on Flight 93 used air phones and 00:09:08.659 --> 00:09:10.779 cell phones to call their families. And they 00:09:10.779 --> 00:09:13.049 learned the horrific truth. They realized the 00:09:13.049 --> 00:09:16.330 ransom story was a lie. Yeah. Their plane wasn't 00:09:16.330 --> 00:09:19.330 landing. It was a missile. Imagine the psychological 00:09:19.330 --> 00:09:22.169 shock of that moment for those passengers. In 00:09:22.169 --> 00:09:24.610 a matter of minutes, they had to completely discard 00:09:24.610 --> 00:09:27.690 the old rules of hijackings and invent a brand 00:09:27.690 --> 00:09:30.389 new paradigm of resistance in midair. They took 00:09:30.389 --> 00:09:33.460 a vote. They mounted a revolt. rushing down the 00:09:33.460 --> 00:09:35.539 narrow aisle of that plane to breach the cockpit. 00:09:35.759 --> 00:09:38.620 It's just unbelievable courage. They fought so 00:09:38.620 --> 00:09:40.379 fiercely that the hijackers realized they were 00:09:40.379 --> 00:09:42.460 going to lose control of the aircraft, forcing 00:09:42.460 --> 00:09:45.320 them to pitch the plane into a nosedive, crashing 00:09:45.320 --> 00:09:47.480 in an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. 00:09:47.940 --> 00:09:50.379 And Flight 93 was roughly 20 minutes away from 00:09:50.379 --> 00:09:53.379 Washington, D .C. Its intended target was believed 00:09:53.379 --> 00:09:55.299 to be either the Capitol building or the White 00:09:55.299 --> 00:09:58.740 House. It's just... Those passengers made a conscious 00:09:58.740 --> 00:10:01.740 collective decision to sacrifice their own lives 00:10:01.740 --> 00:10:04.440 to prevent a strike on the seat of the U .S. 00:10:04.600 --> 00:10:07.659 government. It stands as a profound moment of 00:10:07.659 --> 00:10:10.639 civilian heroism amidst a mourning categorized 00:10:10.639 --> 00:10:13.279 by systemic institutional failure. It really 00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:16.379 does. So you have these four planes transformed 00:10:16.379 --> 00:10:19.940 into weapons in the air. But how did the city 00:10:19.940 --> 00:10:22.549 on the ground? which was entirely unprepared 00:10:22.549 --> 00:10:26.029 for a military -style attack, actually respond 00:10:26.029 --> 00:10:28.710 in those first few chaotic minutes. It was pure 00:10:28.710 --> 00:10:31.190 chaos. The resulting destruction triggered a 00:10:31.190 --> 00:10:33.809 complete, unprecedented shutdown of American 00:10:33.809 --> 00:10:36.350 infrastructure, but it also revealed devastating 00:10:36.350 --> 00:10:39.460 communication flaws among first responders. Let's 00:10:39.460 --> 00:10:41.139 look at the World Trade Center itself, because 00:10:41.139 --> 00:10:43.440 the physical collapse of the towers defied a 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:45.919 lot of initial expectations. It did. If we break 00:10:45.919 --> 00:10:47.519 down the mechanics of the collapse, there is 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:50.159 a detail that often confuses people. The south 00:10:50.159 --> 00:10:53.000 tower collapsed first at 9 .59 AM, even though 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:54.840 it was the second building to be hit. Wait, how 00:10:54.840 --> 00:10:56.539 does that happen? Why did the second tower to 00:10:56.539 --> 00:10:58.919 be hit fall first? It entirely came down to the 00:10:58.919 --> 00:11:00.980 physics of the impact. The plane that hit the 00:11:00.980 --> 00:11:03.840 north tower struck very high up between the 93rd 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:06.940 and 99th floors, and it hit dead center. But 00:11:06.940 --> 00:11:08.990 the plane that hit the south tower struck much 00:11:08.990 --> 00:11:12.149 lower between the 77th and 85th floors. Oh, so 00:11:12.149 --> 00:11:13.690 there was more building above the impact zone. 00:11:13.929 --> 00:11:16.929 Exactly. It was also flying much faster and it 00:11:16.929 --> 00:11:20.009 struck off -center near the corner. This angle 00:11:20.009 --> 00:11:22.269 severed more of the load -bearing columns on 00:11:22.269 --> 00:11:24.490 one side and blew off the fireproofing on the 00:11:24.490 --> 00:11:26.450 steel tresses. Right, making it structurally 00:11:26.450 --> 00:11:29.929 weaker. Yeah. Because it hit lower, the South 00:11:29.929 --> 00:11:32.789 Tower had a significantly larger, heavier block 00:11:32.789 --> 00:11:36.009 of upper floors pressing down on a severely weakened, 00:11:36.070 --> 00:11:39.350 burning structural core. It simply couldn't support 00:11:39.350 --> 00:11:41.549 the sheer weight, causing it to collapse after 00:11:41.549 --> 00:11:44.429 burning for 56 minutes. The North Tower held 00:11:44.429 --> 00:11:47.429 on for 102 minutes before it fell. That makes 00:11:47.429 --> 00:11:49.350 total sense when you break it down. And in those 00:11:49.350 --> 00:11:51.409 agonizing minutes before the collapses, we see 00:11:51.409 --> 00:11:53.610 incredible instances of leadership. Oh, absolutely. 00:11:53.809 --> 00:11:57.029 Take Eric Eisenberg. an executive at AON Insurance 00:11:57.029 --> 00:11:59.629 in the South Tower. When the North Tower was 00:11:59.629 --> 00:12:01.549 hit, the official Port Authority announcement 00:12:01.549 --> 00:12:04.429 over the PA system told people in the South Tower 00:12:04.429 --> 00:12:06.429 that their building was secure and they should 00:12:06.429 --> 00:12:09.009 return to their desks. Which is terrifying in 00:12:09.009 --> 00:12:12.409 hindsight. Right. But Eisenberg ignored that 00:12:12.409 --> 00:12:15.669 official advice. He trusted his instincts and 00:12:15.669 --> 00:12:17.809 ordered the immediate evacuation of his floors, 00:12:18.029 --> 00:12:20.950 which were way up above the 90th floor before 00:12:20.950 --> 00:12:23.149 the South Tower was even struck. He didn't wait. 00:12:23.289 --> 00:12:26.750 No. His decision saved over 900 of his employees, 00:12:27.309 --> 00:12:29.830 though, tragically, he stayed behind to help 00:12:29.830 --> 00:12:33.279 and did not make it out. His actions really underscored 00:12:33.279 --> 00:12:35.720 the total chaos of information that morning. 00:12:36.179 --> 00:12:38.299 Nobody on the ground had a clear picture of what 00:12:38.299 --> 00:12:40.700 was happening. At the federal level, the government 00:12:40.700 --> 00:12:43.360 enacted Skatana, the security control of air 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:45.899 traffic and air navigation aids. Right. For the 00:12:45.899 --> 00:12:47.840 first time in American history, all domestic 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:50.100 flights were grounded. Which is mind boggling 00:12:50.100 --> 00:12:51.700 when you think about the logistics. I mean, we 00:12:51.700 --> 00:12:53.779 didn't have the digital automated airspace tracking 00:12:53.779 --> 00:12:55.940 we have today. Not at all. You had air traffic 00:12:55.940 --> 00:12:58.460 controllers looking at radar scopes, frantically 00:12:58.460 --> 00:13:01.639 screaming into headsets, ordering over 4 ,000 00:13:01.639 --> 00:13:04.159 commercial planes to drop out of the sky and 00:13:04.159 --> 00:13:06.460 land at the nearest possible runway immediately. 00:13:07.279 --> 00:13:09.440 Exactly. They had to clear the entire sky to 00:13:09.440 --> 00:13:11.639 figure out which dots on the radar were friendly 00:13:11.639 --> 00:13:14.440 and which ones were hostile. And because international 00:13:14.440 --> 00:13:17.559 flights couldn't enter US airspace, Canada stepped 00:13:17.559 --> 00:13:20.100 up in a monumental way. Operation Yellow Ribbon. 00:13:20.419 --> 00:13:23.600 Yes. Through Operation Yellow Ribbon, small Canadian 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:26.360 towns like Gander, Newfoundland suddenly took 00:13:26.360 --> 00:13:30.139 in 226 diverted international flights, housing 00:13:30.139 --> 00:13:32.480 and feeding thousands of stranded passengers 00:13:32.480 --> 00:13:34.980 for days. It's an amazing story of humanity. 00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:38.120 But back on the ground in Manhattan, the communication 00:13:38.120 --> 00:13:41.039 breakdown was just catastrophic. NYPD helicopters 00:13:41.039 --> 00:13:43.519 were hovering near the burning towers. Right. 00:13:43.799 --> 00:13:45.700 From their vantage point, they could physically 00:13:45.700 --> 00:13:47.980 see what no one on the ground could see. The 00:13:47.980 --> 00:13:50.159 buildings were structurally failing. They saw 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:52.659 the steel literally glowing and bowing outward. 00:13:52.919 --> 00:13:55.539 They saw the imminent danger, and NYPD commanders 00:13:55.539 --> 00:13:58.659 issued urgent evacuation orders over their radios. 00:13:58.980 --> 00:14:01.179 Most police officers heard the call and managed 00:14:01.179 --> 00:14:03.259 to get out of the buildings. Thank goodness. 00:14:03.460 --> 00:14:06.519 But that critical, life -saving warning never 00:14:06.519 --> 00:14:08.740 reached the fire department commanders operating 00:14:08.740 --> 00:14:12.100 inside the very same towers. So what does this 00:14:12.100 --> 00:14:14.820 all mean for the people managing the crisis? 00:14:15.379 --> 00:14:18.039 How do you command a rescue when the entire grid 00:14:18.039 --> 00:14:20.879 of communication is essentially speaking different 00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:23.740 languages? You can't. You are operating completely 00:14:23.740 --> 00:14:27.730 blind. The NYPD and the FDNY had separate command 00:14:27.730 --> 00:14:30.389 posts set up, and they were using entirely incompatible 00:14:30.389 --> 00:14:32.289 radio systems. They literally couldn't talk to 00:14:32.289 --> 00:14:34.350 each other. That is just heartbreaking. Furthermore, 00:14:34.629 --> 00:14:37.590 skyscrapers act like giant metal cages that block 00:14:37.590 --> 00:14:40.710 radio signals. The FDNY relied on specialized 00:14:40.710 --> 00:14:42.990 radio repeaters installed in the towers to boost 00:14:42.990 --> 00:14:45.830 their signals, but those repeaters were malfunctioning 00:14:45.830 --> 00:14:48.250 that morning. Oh, man. So you have this absolutely 00:14:48.250 --> 00:14:51.440 tragic irony. Everyday civilians were successfully 00:14:51.440 --> 00:14:53.759 leveraging their cell phones to call the outside 00:14:53.759 --> 00:14:56.019 world and coordinate their own escapes, while 00:14:56.019 --> 00:14:58.960 the city's most elite, highly trained first responders 00:14:58.960 --> 00:15:02.259 were crippled by incompatible 20th century technologies. 00:15:03.179 --> 00:15:05.419 The evacuation warnings simply didn't reach the 00:15:05.419 --> 00:15:07.500 firefighters who were climbing the stairwells. 00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:10.340 And the result was the deadliest day in history 00:15:10.340 --> 00:15:14.279 for American first responders. 343 firefighters 00:15:14.279 --> 00:15:17.879 and 72 law enforcement officers were lost. The 00:15:17.879 --> 00:15:21.149 scale of that shockwave on the ground is just 00:15:21.149 --> 00:15:23.809 devastating. It really is. This raises an important 00:15:23.809 --> 00:15:26.350 question, though. How does a nation respond when 00:15:26.350 --> 00:15:29.190 its physical, financial, and military hearts 00:15:29.190 --> 00:15:32.570 are struck so violently? Because once the literal 00:15:32.570 --> 00:15:35.450 dust of the collapsed building settled, the political, 00:15:35.669 --> 00:15:38.389 physical, and cultural fallout began to aggressively 00:15:38.389 --> 00:15:41.269 reshape the globe. And that long shadow rewired 00:15:41.269 --> 00:15:43.269 the world for the next two decades. Let's start 00:15:43.269 --> 00:15:45.169 with the immediate physical health consequences, 00:15:45.190 --> 00:15:47.389 because for thousands of people, the tragedy 00:15:47.389 --> 00:15:50.049 didn't end on September 11. Not even close. When 00:15:50.049 --> 00:15:52.519 those massive towers pancakes, they pulverized 00:15:52.519 --> 00:15:54.940 concrete, glass, computers, and airplanes, releasing 00:15:54.940 --> 00:15:57.220 hundreds of thousands of tons of incredibly toxic 00:15:57.220 --> 00:15:59.120 debris into the air -heavy metals, especially 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:02.059 as burning jet fuel. Despite this, the Environmental 00:16:02.059 --> 00:16:04.399 Protection Agency prematurely declared the air 00:16:04.399 --> 00:16:06.399 in lower Manhattan safe to breathe. They did. 00:16:06.600 --> 00:16:09.039 The agency cited national security and the intense 00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:10.879 economic pressure to get Wall Street running 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:14.100 again, but the air was absolutely not safe. Right. 00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:17.919 The data shows that an estimated 18 ,000 people, 00:16:18.399 --> 00:16:20.840 first responders, cleanup crews, and residents 00:16:20.840 --> 00:16:23.419 have developed respiratory illnesses and cancers 00:16:23.419 --> 00:16:26.500 directly linked to the toxic dust at Ground Zero. 00:16:26.960 --> 00:16:29.399 The statistic that really stopped me on my tracks 00:16:29.399 --> 00:16:32.940 while reviewing this. Today, the FDNY has actually 00:16:32.940 --> 00:16:36.360 lost as many members to 9 -11 -related illnesses 00:16:36.360 --> 00:16:38.639 as they did on the actual day of the attacks. 00:16:38.779 --> 00:16:41.460 It's staggering. The pile kept taking lives years 00:16:41.460 --> 00:16:43.720 after the fires were out. And right alongside 00:16:43.720 --> 00:16:45.860 that public health crisis, there was a severe 00:16:45.860 --> 00:16:49.120 societal fracture. We saw a massive documented 00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:51.679 spike in hate crimes across the United States 00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:53.240 in the months that followed. Right, there was 00:16:53.240 --> 00:16:55.399 a lot of fear. There were numerous incidents 00:16:55.399 --> 00:16:57.919 of harassment and violence directed at Muslims, 00:16:58.179 --> 00:17:00.340 South Asians, and people simply perceived to 00:17:00.340 --> 00:17:03.299 be of Middle Eastern descent. One highly documented 00:17:03.299 --> 00:17:06.039 tragedy was the murder of Belbir Singh Sodhi, 00:17:06.220 --> 00:17:08.940 a Sikh man in Arizona. I remember reading about 00:17:08.940 --> 00:17:11.180 that. He was fatally shot while planting flowers 00:17:11.180 --> 00:17:13.700 outside his gas station just days after the attacks, 00:17:14.180 --> 00:17:16.420 simply because his killer ignorantly mistook 00:17:16.420 --> 00:17:19.119 his turban for a symbol of Islam. It was a period 00:17:19.119 --> 00:17:22.420 of intense societal anxiety. Domestically, the 00:17:22.420 --> 00:17:24.539 U .S. government underwent the largest restructuring 00:17:24.539 --> 00:17:26.960 since World War II. They created the Department 00:17:26.960 --> 00:17:29.559 of Homeland Security. They created the Transportation 00:17:29.559 --> 00:17:32.700 Security Administration, the TSA. Yeah, air travel 00:17:32.700 --> 00:17:35.019 changed forever. Every time you take off your 00:17:35.019 --> 00:17:37.099 shoes and empty your liquids at the airport today, 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:40.660 you're experiencing a direct mechanism of 9 -11's 00:17:40.660 --> 00:17:43.839 legacy. Congress also passed the Patriot Act, 00:17:44.099 --> 00:17:46.059 which fundamentally changed how intelligence 00:17:46.059 --> 00:17:49.200 operated. Massively. It allowed for roving wiretaps, 00:17:49.519 --> 00:17:51.519 bulk collection of telecommunications metadata, 00:17:51.980 --> 00:17:54.460 and easier access to financial and even library 00:17:54.460 --> 00:17:57.099 records, sparking massive debates about the balance 00:17:57.099 --> 00:17:59.599 between national security and civilian privacy. 00:17:59.819 --> 00:18:02.380 If we connect this to the bigger picture, 9 -11 00:18:02.380 --> 00:18:06.400 proved a terrifying new reality. A small, underfunded 00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:08.940 group of non -state actors could force global 00:18:08.940 --> 00:18:11.220 superpowers to fundamentally alter their legal 00:18:11.220 --> 00:18:13.720 frameworks, their daily economies, and their 00:18:13.720 --> 00:18:16.079 military priorities for generations. The whole 00:18:16.079 --> 00:18:18.200 system shifted. Right. For the first time in 00:18:18.200 --> 00:18:21.640 its entire history, NATO invoked Article 5, the 00:18:21.640 --> 00:18:23.599 mutual defense clause, stating that an attack 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:25.859 on one member is an attack on all. It was like 00:18:25.859 --> 00:18:28.259 the country's immune system went into massive, 00:18:28.640 --> 00:18:31.559 unprecedented overdrive. It mobilized every resource 00:18:31.559 --> 00:18:34.509 to fight off the immediate infection. resulting 00:18:34.509 --> 00:18:37.289 fever, the new surveillance laws, the airport 00:18:37.289 --> 00:18:40.289 friction, and specifically the wars, caused systemic 00:18:40.289 --> 00:18:43.109 changes that altered the host permanently. And 00:18:43.109 --> 00:18:46.130 those wars carried a staggering human and financial 00:18:46.130 --> 00:18:49.569 toll. The U .S. launched the War on Terror, initially 00:18:49.569 --> 00:18:52.289 invading Afghanistan to dismantle al -Qaeda and 00:18:52.289 --> 00:18:54.769 remove the Taliban, which later expanded into 00:18:54.769 --> 00:18:57.319 the invasion of Iraq. Looking strictly at the 00:18:57.319 --> 00:18:59.640 data provided by the Costas War Project at Brown 00:18:59.640 --> 00:19:02.000 University, the scale of those two decades of 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:04.359 conflict is immense. The numbers are hard to 00:19:04.359 --> 00:19:06.619 fathom. They really are. They estimate that the 00:19:06.619 --> 00:19:09.140 post 9 -11 wars cost the United States roughly 00:19:09.140 --> 00:19:12.619 $8 trillion. The conflicts displaced 38 million 00:19:12.619 --> 00:19:14.619 people across multiple countries in the Middle 00:19:14.619 --> 00:19:17.000 East and North Africa. And when you factor in 00:19:17.000 --> 00:19:19.259 the ripple effects of war, the destruction of 00:19:19.259 --> 00:19:21.180 hospitals, loss of infrastructure, and disease, 00:19:21.579 --> 00:19:24.019 they estimate the conflicts led to 4 .5 million 00:19:24.019 --> 00:19:27.279 indirect deaths. It is a profound and sobering 00:19:27.279 --> 00:19:30.440 legacy. A failure of imagination and communication 00:19:30.440 --> 00:19:33.640 within a few intelligence agencies allowed 19 00:19:33.640 --> 00:19:36.339 men to shatter the global status quo in a matter 00:19:36.339 --> 00:19:39.980 of hours. It left a legacy of unimaginable civilian 00:19:39.980 --> 00:19:43.559 and first responder, heroism, profound tragedy, 00:19:43.920 --> 00:19:46.420 and a deeply, deeply rewired world. Absolutely. 00:19:46.579 --> 00:19:48.819 Thank you to you, the listener, for taking the 00:19:48.819 --> 00:19:51.759 time to journey through this dense, heavy, but 00:19:51.759 --> 00:19:54.680 absolutely vital deep dive with us today. It 00:19:54.680 --> 00:19:57.019 is not an easy subject to unpack, but understanding 00:19:57.019 --> 00:20:00.170 these exact structural failures, the wall. the 00:20:00.170 --> 00:20:03.410 ignored memos, the old hijacking rules, is crucial 00:20:03.410 --> 00:20:06.150 for understanding why the world we live in operates 00:20:06.150 --> 00:20:08.410 the way it does right now. It is without a doubt 00:20:08.410 --> 00:20:10.470 the defining event of the modern era. Which brings 00:20:10.470 --> 00:20:12.690 us to one final provocative thought to leave 00:20:12.690 --> 00:20:15.130 you with, drawn from the cultural analysis in 00:20:15.130 --> 00:20:17.470 our research. We've talked a lot about structural 00:20:17.470 --> 00:20:19.450 collapses today, buildings falling, intelligence 00:20:19.450 --> 00:20:21.869 failing, communication lines breaking down. Right. 00:20:22.109 --> 00:20:24.150 But the attacks didn't just breach physical borders 00:20:24.150 --> 00:20:26.950 and change our laws. They fundamentally fractured 00:20:26.950 --> 00:20:29.740 our collective reality. Think about the massive 00:20:29.740 --> 00:20:32.099 rise of 9 -11 conspiracy theories that followed. 00:20:32.420 --> 00:20:35.480 Oh, they were everywhere. When a trauma is so 00:20:35.480 --> 00:20:38.099 massive, so visually incomprehensible, and the 00:20:38.099 --> 00:20:39.880 institutional failures of the government are 00:20:39.880 --> 00:20:42.619 so glaringly obvious in hindsight, it creates 00:20:42.619 --> 00:20:46.019 incredibly fertile ground for paranoia. We want 00:20:46.019 --> 00:20:48.960 you to ponder this. 9 -11 wasn't just the beginning 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:51.440 of the war on terror. Perhaps it was also the 00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:53.579 starting point for the modern crisis of institutional 00:20:53.579 --> 00:20:56.539 trust. That day didn't just birth the TSA, it 00:20:56.539 --> 00:20:58.700 was the birth of the internet misinformation 00:20:58.700 --> 00:21:00.740 age we are all frantically trying to navigate 00:21:00.740 --> 00:21:03.519 today. Something to think about. Until next time.