tv Capital News Today CSPAN September 9, 2011 11:00pm-2:00am EDT
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panelists to remember a date that is not only for your country but for the whole world. my question first for the concept of the multi dimensional security not only the traditional threats like the war and terrorism, but when you develop your strategy of the border protection do you think it is a consideration problem that is no longer in the terms of the problems like the universal problems of the gang activity and the national trafficking persons of miners and that type of challenge to security because the border country has enjoyed with [inaudible] >> one of the things of the priority was the terrorist threat that all of these systems and process these that we put into place in partnerships apply
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and can apply to any kind of threat whether that is the movement of illegal drugs and and the i.t. staff issues, and i believe that as we have moved forward in time cbp has made and is making good progress in terms of using this risk management essentially system to better identify and reduce the haystack with respect to other issues that are more traditional burba of customs and immigration control. >> if you observed cbp as a single threat organization, that wouldn't really be a fair representation. as the commissioner said, you know, this is all threats. the men and women on the border
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have no idea what is coming at them. so they've got to be prepared. they have to have evidence to information. the ports of entry, someone driving a car can represent any type of threat. we want to change this one from terrorism and check this one from drugs and human trafficking that's just not the way for word, and so the information, the processing of the information, the actual intelligence that comes out of information that is what a screen to help us succeed in this mission. cdp is responsible for all threats of the border, and it should be seamless and recognized. >> terrorism is a species of the transnational crime and when you see all of this in the context
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of the trends nationalism, you begin to understand why you have to see these interrelated problems and it focuses on the fact we need to build a partnership and gather the intelligence and is using the multi dimensional risk and threat what we think that cbp and the reason we adopt the strategy is yes our primary obligations since 9/11 is to stop the terrorist weapons from coming into the nation. these are flow probably catastrophic consequence events we have to avoid and we believe that by developing our capacity to intercept all kinds of transnational criminal the activity and we put ourselves into the position to the will to do with a low probability, the
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catastrophic consequences we treat dangerous people and dangerous things away from the american public. >> to of the dumbest things i was presented with one eye was the commissioner was to build a 2,000-mile cents and second was to inspect every maritime container coming into the country before it left the point of origin which would totally shut down the world trade. yet the commissioner here is still under that mandate. [inaudible] [laughter] >> i'm not pointing. [laughter]
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>> commissioner boehner referred to expanding the security envelope of the united states beyond our own borders to whatever distance possible abroad. i would like to hear commissioner bersin's comments on how we're doing that specifically with regards to mexico at this time. >> it is authentically historic and for the first time in the history of the bilateral relationship we actually view the problems that we face of the border as the common problems we
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point fingers of the mexicans for not being able to employ their people or for harboring organized criminal gangs that bring drugs across the border. mexicans pointed up the guns were out of control in this country and that the drugs were being consumed at rates that were beyond anything seen in human history that we were responsible for the bombs of the border. what's happened in the last decade but increasingly in the last two or three years in particular is we recognize the flow of the people coming north and the cash going out are actually part of one single vicious cycle of criminology and that's provided us with the ability of the political space for the president obama and called around to actually take a
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genuinely coordinated and collaborative effort to deal with the problems of organized crime in mexico. seeing that crime is being a national security threat not only to mexico but to the united states as well, and the cooperative activity respected sovereignty as it should be respected has gone beyond anything that would have been contemplated a decade ago so that we see ourselves as very much involved in this but in a way that respects the mexican sovereignty and remarkably the mexican people appreciate that involvement with the distance between them maintained in the respect in the process of the collaboration pure kucinich yes,
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sir second row in the end. >> my question as did with the southwest border. everything i read is in the mexican side of the southwest border and it's never been more insecure and violent and on the u.s. side of the southwest border along the border we've never been safer and more secure commendable goal law enforcement in the southwest also confirmed that. however, there are certain politicians we spoke about and a product of this institution and claim that all of these facts are not fact, they are wrong and not secure on the southwest border on our side what are the facts that show? >> that's ambassador jones i work with in the various
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capacities to read jim, as you know, the notion that there has been a spillover violence from mexico into the u.s. is greatly exaggerated. there's been practically virtually no spillover violence from what is going on in mexico into the united states as witness to the fact killed casseaux and san diego are among the safest cities in terms of crime in the united states. nevertheless, of course there's a very difficult battle going on in mexico that is being courageously faced by president calderon and in the institutional reforms that he has put into place to to be able to easily defeat and eliminate the powerful drug cartels of mexico, and i know that the commissioner bersin and cdp as well as other agencies to the united states government are playing a collaborative role in supporting the mexican government to achieve that objective and in fact much better progress has been made by the calderon government against
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the they're beginning to have serious impact in destabilizing and eroding the power and the influence and the grip of the cartel's over the legitimate institutions of the mexican government in my opinion. islamic i would like to say we can't lose sight of the fact the the border patrol is fighting a vicious battle down there as witnessed recently with the death of the agent. there is still a tremendous risk out there to the men and women both between the ports and at the ports of entry, and i believe we have to continue to find the resources and the tools to provide these men and women with the ability to not only protect the country, but to protect themselves and the cowardly assassination of the agents down there on the border
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is unacceptable. the rest of the issues allen can talk to, but i just hope we don't lose sight of the fact that we have got to give them the right tools. >> so, part of the question that the ambassador to raise this is how do we have this disconnect, this dissidents between the facts on the ground and the facts as they proceed by most media outlets in the united states? i think it is a function of those who were on the border know the crimes, the crime statistics from the fbi reflect which is that we haven't had a safer set of border communities from brownsville to san diego in the last 30 years when we do now at the same time, we have
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violence in northern mexico in part because of the heroic decision by president calderon and the mexican people to come from the mafia of their country and i point of parenthetically that it took us 30 years in this country to beat as i put it to turn them into the sopranos and it will take time, it will take time in mexico, but that process as the commissioner indicates is actually well under way. but what is the exploitation of the violence in northern mexico and i should say that to deny the spillover violence is taking place is not to deny that we have the incidence of the violence caused by organized criminal the activities based in mexico, we do, the killing of
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brian carry to the contrary, the shooting of the rancher robert krenz. all of these events are elements of violence but if we held chicago with detroit and philadelphia or phoenix to the standard of one criminal even to meaning the city was out of control we would hardly have a city that was sent out of control in the united states, so the question is why exploit, how can this be exploited and i think this is part of the aftermath of 9/11 is this notion that the borders, the former devotees we felt that day were brought to borders are taken advantage of by those who would exploit fear and for that i would offer some bits of wisdom for the history. the first is to quote mark twain again as first let's get the
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facts straight and then you can distort them as much as you would like and the second as the reminder to us the only thing the american people have to fear is fear itself. >> let me turn it back over. >> couldn't have a better sort of dialogue for the session than the last words of the commissioner. this is an illuminating conversation we've heard what the steps taken to implement to call deterrence by denial making a much harder target even as we mark the tenth anniversary and the takedown of osama bin laden and is a kind of cathartic point inflection for the country when they imagine what would be like if we purchase the tenth anniversary and we're still kind of at large, but we have heard today what has been done to secure the homeland.
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we thank the commissioners for appearing today. bruce hoffman for serving as the moderator, thank you. i would also like to thank david, chief historian at the u.s. customs border protection for his help and organizing today's session. for those attending and watching, i will alert you to a meeting here another in the wilson center's knute conversations series on monday come september 12th from noon to 1:30 p.m. in this auditorium but we would look ahead to the next decade. the panel will be chaired by "the washington post" david ignatius and include michael lighter the former director of the national counter terrorism center in representative mike rogers on intelligence and jim zogby of the american arab american institute and bruce hoffman will return to the stage not as the moderator but as a panelist will look forward to
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that session and check for details on the wilson center website, www.wilsoncenter.org as it will be webcast. thank you for those attending and watching and please join me in thanking the distinguished panel for today's excellent discussion. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> [inaudible conversations]
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the discussion of former news anchors on how they covered the 9/11 attacks with charles gibson, dan rather, brit hume and frank sesno. the joint moderator marvin kalb harvard kennedy school of government professor to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the september 11 the tax. hosted by george washington university from the national press club this is about one hour. >> from the national press club in washington, d.c. this is the kalb report with marvin kalb. [applause] hello and welcome to the national press club and to another edition of dhaka kalb report i am martin kalb and the program tonight entering 9/11, the day and the decade. the pull from the pew research center says that 97% of the
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american people, 97% can tell you where they were and what they were doing to with a first of the september 11 terrorist attack on the united states. people my age that a certain vintage can even remember december 7th, 1941 the day that the japanese attacked pearl harbor the assassination of president john f. kennedy is another one of those clear critical moments in american history. it is often said that 9/11 changed everything. maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration but it changed a lot. it was a defining moment in american history. most of you learn about 9/11 from television, radio and perhaps the telephone call of a parent or a friend alerting you'd the fact something dreadful has just happened in new york turn on your tv set it when you did you probably saw an
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anchor in part in some of the information and telling you what's been happening to read in a moment of national crisis and importance, the anchor helps knit the country together to creating a sense of shared experience, the one that dan rather once said who holds the people's trust in a crisis to sort through the hurricane of the fact, rumor, information, misinformation, interviews and new reports. the huge responsibility. we all accept that. tonight we need a number of the anchors who held and committed the country together on 9/11. but introduce us to the world of global terrorism. to my right, a geographical distinction only -- [laughter] charles gibson had anchored good morning america on abc from ton 1987 to 1998, and then returned a year later in 1999 to share
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the anchor responsibilities with diane sawyer. he was on the air when the planes flew into the twin towers. to my left, frank sesno, now director of george washington school of media and public affairs. but then still washington bureau chief for cnn, where he had worked for 21 years. on the 9/11 he was looking out on the pentagon and seeing what he called gigantic clouds of smoke. the plane had just crashed into the pentagon. to my immediate right, brit hume now an analyst for fox news has been in the business for more than 43 years. on 9/11 he was responsible for the fox news coverage in washington on air she spoke about the capitol being evacuated, warplanes controlling the skies and the ships towards the potomac river, washington he
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said were not even the president of the united states was considered safe and to my immediate left my old colleague dan rather now with hd net but for 43 years with cbs news. on 9/11 he was on the air for 16 hours in a row, the first 04 days of such saturation coverage. at one point, he said this is all so unbelievable, we have to double and triple checked that. can it be true? are you absolutely sure that a second plane has just hit? brit hume, let me start with you. when did you first hear about the attacks on 9/11? >> i was at a restaurant on the ground floor where the fox news bureau is located at capitol street hall of states and i was having breakfast with a
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washington reporter who was looking to come to work and there was a television set in there and they came over the tv set and we got up from the table and went over and watched and of course in the early going it was thought possible this was an accident and then of course when the second plane hit, we knew we and before that they called me from upstairs and said you got to get up here. it was before the pentagon was hit, so we didn't know whether washington would be a major center of news on this or not. >> frank sesno, opening questions where were you, what was your first reaction? >> i was with my wife and son to have surgery at the time and i was in a waiting room and there was a television on and the same thing, saw the picture, the first plane had gone in. sunny skies, claire bloom, and then the second plane went in
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and i realized something terrible was happening and i explained to my wife and others that i was leaving. but the most horrible thing was as i drove a and i was coming from the virginia suburbs and i came on to the 14th street bridge. i'd been listening to the radio and was on the phone with the bureau of the way and talking to reporters on the end said no, no, not yet we don't know where this is going let sit tight for it. and i came up on the 14th street bridge, and as i did, there was no mention of this i see this black smoke you talked about coming out of the pentagon, and i didn't actually know what to think except this is a huge, and i recall to this day trying to call to the bureau to explain stopping my car on the bridge and getting out to report it and realized the would be very stupid thing to do but my hand
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was trembling as i tried to dial the number a and we went from there. charlie gibson from a year earlier when the planes attacked the world trade center. how did that work, an anchor on myriad to get the news. estimate the first plane hit at 8:46 and 54 seconds to be exact and we were in a commercial break and we had run over the previous segment we had to get on good morning america at 855 and we had just a few minutes and we had to get in another commercial break and we were discussing what we would do. of the stage manager have yelled one man at and the producer in the control room said in the year something has happened to the world trade center there's fire coming out of the building. we have the traffic and please on the building you are on the air, go. [laughter]
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and you at that moment have to acknowledge yourself you don't know what the hell was happening and i knew from the size of it this was not a small plane that had hit the world trade center as a had occurred in the empire state building back in the 40's i guess. and we begin to fill in and the pictures went to the traffic kim we knew right away we were going to have to go to the special reports so we broke for the list as the nation to join and we said we don't know what's going on, and we were filling in and talking to one of the reporters who lived in the shadows and he heard a high wind before he heard something hit the building and he was questioning whether it could be a shoulder fired missile but it looked too big for that petraeus connect he said that on air?
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>> on the air and we were writing notes about how many people work of the world trade center and we have people running to try to get this information. the second plane hit at 9:028 it is amazing how fast your brain works. i saw it coming into frame and i first thought was this was forest fire season in california and i thought maybe it's one of the planes for the bucket hong underneath and then i thought where did you get that in new york? [laughter] my second thought was a busy traffic copter, those thoughts went to my head and then it hit and you saw, you couldn't see the building but to solve a five-year coming out of the other side. and i will forever think to myself of my reaction on the air. dalian was the first to react and she said oh my god. and i sit now we know what's going on. we are under attack. we were in the chair until peter got in place in new york, and
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the ibm -- >> peter jennings to estimate and die and went to get as close to the building as she could. i was told to go to 72nd street on the hudson river and we had a boat that was going to take a store to get shots on the river. we got as far as 50 something street and the police stopped us. i remember going back to the studio and i remember david westin who was president nces -- cbs news said you have to steer by for peter because you're going to be on the air six or eight hours straight this is big and i remember saying jam david, we are going to be on the air for six to eight days or weeks. i remember in an earlier interview you were just getting out of the morning shower when you heard the little radio. so what did you? i assume after you got dressed. laughter to >> actually that is true i stepped out of the shower and the radio was on and the radio
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people on the news radio 88 they had not much but obviously very cautiously and my recollection was the first thing i heard was that an airplane possibly hit one of the world trade center's. but when you're in the news when something like this happens, alarms go off in your head. alarm bells are not necessarily justified what is the planet the empire state building in the 1940's i was a child when that happened but even in rural texas that was huge news so i went on the upper east side of new york not far from cbs broadcast center which is on the west side we have a small balcony and it faces the south and west and i
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could see smoke coming out of the world trade center and so i told my wife, to whom i've been married 55 years never bored she said i will help you get dressed and she threw me my shirt and shoes. i dressed in the elevator going down on the 26th floor. [laughter] restart of the building conner raced to the cabot to read about an incredible time. ten years later it's hard even now to get my head around but by the time that i got to the broadcast center on 50th street between tenth and 11th avenue and jumped out of the cab i could see way down on tenth avenue what looked like people already in the streets with the smoke coming out of the towers and people in the streets almost took the hinges of of the doors of the cbs broadcast center to get in.
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as soon as i got inside the broadcast center come at the beach begin hooking me up to go to the anchor chair, which is a raised area in the cbs newsroom. i remember three things. one, i said a short prayer. to, it delayed a virus named foran will be at dinner tonight. always repeated the word study. he thought it was the most heard were to great britain when he was covering creep written when it is under attack by the germans. second think that is quickly home to gene because there is worry. she said he only took about 12, maybe 15 seconds. she said dan, i've got everything covered. to what you have to do and do it well. end of the anchor chair. what an incredible time.
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there was within meet a certain disbelief as he had the pictures of all of it happening. this can't be happening. there's something wrong with the story as it's developing. it is reporters listing to say what appears to be sometimes says that. but unfortunately, it was. >> what i'm listening to your speak about is an extraordinary kind of broadcast, where something huge is happen. you're in the middle of it. your reporting is is your thing, charlie, you're not absolutely sure that what you're saying this rate and yet you are aware of the immensity of the story. it's going to your gut as a journalist at this point? >> well, you have to level with the audience if you don't know any more than they do. we are experiencing this together. indeed, that was in my head for
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weeks afterward. i was mentioning to you at dinner before he went on good morning america, we basically worked out a division of labor, good morning america would hold on from 6:00 a.m. until noon. we run for six hours. peter did knew it until about 1:00 a.m. and then we had someone covering overnight. but i remember we worked all day on the 11th as to what we do the next morning and i remember taking 20 minutes before the show and thinking to myself, it doesn't make any difference, the status that we have for one, weren't going to have great stories. everybody has unbelievable experience. what matters is the tone we adopt on the news. you think about covering things. you don't think about tonally how will i respond. i remember thinking to myself, we need to be reassuring. we are going to get through this paper going to get to this is a
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country and as individuals. as horrible as that so many people experience. there were 4000 planes and that air that morning. we'll get through this and you need to be reassuring. i went in and said to diane that this was my thought and she agreed. and i said, if one of us starts to cry come at the other has to pick it up because we can't do that. it's not going to be right. we need to be strong. >> your own view is that? >> i second that completely. i remember thinking at the time, the minute the second plane hit, it was pretty clear we were under attack. then comes the pentagon. i was thinking, this story was enormous in the proper meaning of that word, how do we measure up in her coverage did not quite you think about whether you've got the right picture on the air, whether you're showing them
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happening, whether in every piece of the story. you're also thinking at the time about -- i remember thinking the country is not going to be the same again, maybe ever after this. this changes everything. this is the biggest thing i've ever been involved in as a journalist i remember thinking. but i felt as charlie did come in this country will do this. this country will not be brought down by this. you also have the need with so much information coming at you come you don't know whether there will be four planes or 44. you don't know any of that. you do have the feeling you need to be calm and you do have to feel you need to be reassuring. and you know, i tried in my town employees and you said earlier that you might see an aim her. clearly what you saw and on most news channels in all channels that have any use capacity
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coming or seen the pictures. the anchors were disembodied voices on the air, but i was very conscious of trying to be calm and assuring a mother with the audience about things we knew and things we didn't know. on the other hand, you want to pass things along. i can't resist telling this story about how pompous at least i can sometimes get. i had to broadcast in one ear and i had the briefing telephone line, where reporters calling and report what we've got in the other ear. and brian wilson, who was covering capitol hill called and said the capitol police are back in the capital asked the pentagon had been hit. there's a painting of the potomac river warp speed and they weren't sure what it was. they thought it might be heading to the capital. a duly appointed as a caveats about this is a report from the police, but they don't know, so it's not definite, but this is
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what's going on. my wife who is pure cheese at fox news comes in the studio and says, we are moving you. now i sit in the studio fox commotion haven't seen fox coming probably seen the shadow c-span and the capitalist out the window. it's right behind us. it's embarrassing to tell this come about this is the work i find it to do and i should be here. and she said for it, if that plane hits the capital, we need to have the shot. [laughter] mortified, i moved. >> frank, this idea already expressed by two of these panelists that do not see it come in that kind of story come you are already thinking not just of the story, but if the context of the impact of the story on the united states of america that we're going to to survive this. you're already thinking that kind of thought.
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>> i anchor for several years at cnn. cnn you go on the air at the drop of a hat and don't come out for hours on end. and you have to deal while you're sitting there with information coming to you that you can't confirm, you can't get on the phone attack to anybody else. it's coming to reproduce reporter, it's what i call the language of life that you have to speak. there was no time that was more acute for people he spoke the language of life in this day because you have to acknowledge what she don't know, which is most everything beyond what you can see. you have to have an inverse relationship with the emotion of the moment. i think the biggest challenge that we face at least in our bureau was the human emotions colliding with the journalistic duty. we have people crying because we had many people in our newsroom who were from new york or her new people in the pentagon. when the pentagon was first taken we did not hear from our
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correspondents were not time for what seemed like a long time. we didn't know where that plane had hit precisely at first. when the plane was unaccounted for because we've been talking to dfa to do this come you got statues of people on the desk and their sources like you can't believe and attract the stuff in real time. we initially had seven airplanes when they were all grounded, seven planes unaccounted for. we moved the camera to the roof of our building trained on the capitol dome, fearful that we were about to see the capitol building had. you have all this stuff swirling around. and then you have to talk as if you know some thing with no commercials, no rakes in managing the information and the emotion and knowing that -- i don't know if you come up or broadcasting internationally. we're broadcasting globally, so we were speaking to the planet.
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it is a remarkable, very humbling and scary thing. >> , i remember that night on cbs news, but a couple of days later on a david letterman program, if i'm not mistaken, you're asked about what we are going through right now discussing. but time on their, the tears began to flow down. >> that's true. >> it was actually the week afterward. >> look, you know, however it may seem when you are anchoring, you are not a robot. the same kind of emotional sledgehammer to the heart that when the country realized we were under attack and what had happened. you know, it struck me. it struck every other person in our newsroom. and there is that battle,
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particularly in the beginning to suppress your own emotions. you know, this is unworkable probe. everything in you wants to cry out increase, what's happening to your country and be so angry as to curse the perpetrators. you push that down deep inside you. and in a second scum that goes through your head. can't do that. got to get focused. everything is focused. you want to give zero dead, what they called stoned on on this story. this is a story. maybe think to myself for a shortly after the broadcast center, maybe the biggest story a lot better in my lifetime, second thoughts at pearl harbor went to my head, lots of the kennedy assassination. the suppress these feelings.
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once i nehr, once you get around, i speak for myself, but i know this is widely shared by almost everybody that's anchored news work. what is my goal here? by rule is to be an honest broker of information. and that means something that frank referred to. be totally candid with the audience. say this is what we know and be absolutely certain you know it. this is what we now, but folks, what we don't know is so much greater than what we know. we want to remind you of that. i was on the air almost constantly. and there are no excuses here, that david letterman was coming back on the air on monday. someone on his staff calls nystatin says you know, david wants in on the air. i agree to do it and to think more about it. the time came to do it.
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he said are doing but remained coming already late. i got in the chair before the broadcast happened and we were going to discuss 9/11. i was trained to repeat one of several line for america the beautiful. everything i suppress before,, with the rush -- it surprised me. there wasn't any? for it. i don't apologize for it because one does not apologize for greece, but it was the delayed reaction, once i was on another turf, somehow it all came out. >> is the line about the alabaster city. i remember seeing that. and i appreciated that. >> i know my time, just thinking back as a reporter was the kennedy assassination, which you covered. i was at the state department then. listening to radio broadcast by alan jackson, who did newscasts at that time. he spoke about president kennedy having been in shock.
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but he didn't say killed. but in my gut, i felt he probably was dead. and any that may bureau chief, bill small, would be calling us. i couldn't podcast that and i knew it. and so i walked around the state and country in state department twice. i walked around the building twice. by the time i got back i knew i could do just about anything. i couldn't have done it at that moment. so my hats off to you guys to be doing it absolutely lives. >> charlie, what question has to do with patriotism, individual american patriots and, with the reporter or not, but the border is supposed to be totally objective and detached about the story being covered. and yet come you said he fuller and all of you were saying, that really was impossible. >> sure, you react as an american whose country is under
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attack, but you have to, i think as we have all alluded to in different forms, you have to stay as objective as you can be. david brinkley used to say there is no such thing as objectivity come there's only lesser degrees of subject tbd. but you have to strive for that as much as you can. and what everybody is talking about here in terms of not really knowing fully what's going on, we all had our suspicions. i was thinking of the fact that my first reaction after oklahoma city was this was overseas terrorism. of course it turned out to be domestic, which are quick to think this has got to be some sort of an overseas act directed at the united states. but you don't know. and you have to -- i remember for instance that the morning before we went on the air on the 12th, said let's get rid of
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the desk. that's but a roundtable in the middle of the studio and we will stay there throughout the broadcast. and i thought that because we are basically the same position everybody is at home. we're sitting around the breakfast table and we are learning a lot with u.s. going on. >> they are depending on you to tell them what's going on. >> i know, and strangely enough and i thought about this sense, and maybe it's hubris on my part, but i suppose in some people up there with the a tendency to think to yourself, i am not up to this. and yet, i remember thinking essentially my entire professional life has been in preparation for this moment. and i felt honored. it's a strange thing to say, but i felt honored to be there and i wanted to be there. >> the balance of patriotism and
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professionalism. >> this was an experience we shared as americans. i remember sitting in the aftermath, the fairness and objectivity became a much sharper issue in the weeks and months that followed 9/11 than it was on that day. this was a hideous thing. it's often called a tragedy. i don't think is a tragedy. as a monstrous act of evil. i think that on that day and i still feel that way about it. in the aftermath, there was a lot -- i think "newsweek" magazine had a cover called why do they hate us? my sense was that was created sync with the attempted self and the way the people of this country reacted to it. and i didn't think i was the story. i think the story was to do that, where are they and what are we as a nation going to do about it? some people said you were supposed to be a jack did. i suggest perhaps, but were supposed to be fair.
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i remember saying fox news is not based in switzerland. most of us are not natural about this. i'm not seen as a journalist don't need to be fair. we certainly do. but there's a time to be drawn. >> to lead to one of the most interesting and difficult issues to be confronted at the time and in some ways since. as you recall, within the first few days, several of the anchors on fox, cnn and others were red, white and blue and anchors started wearing lapel pins. i recall the nasty speech country in speak -- to speak in san diego. you are americans. you should be making a state and where you are. you are speaking to the nation. i have no problem with people wearing their parents.
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we truly were reporting to the world. were we martians looking down on the earth completely objective? were we americans craving for our country? or were we charring to talk to the whole audience? it like to send very, very difficult questions about who the we were in all of this. >> i would take a minute to introduce ourselves to the many audiences around the u.s. and around the world. this is the kalb report. we have brit hume, frank sesno and discussing 9/11 and the decade. and, you wanted to comment. >> i am an american and i take a backseat to no one in my patriotism. and in texas, with the same untruths and can you question my patriotism you don't do it sitting down. and that's the way i feel. i don't have a dilemma and myself about who i am, what my
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country is and how i feel about it. i don't need to wear a flag on my lapel. i have no argument with anyone who does. football coach used to say you are what your record says it is. i've been around long enough i think people know what my record is. my record is what it says it is. and i didn't have any of this. i was an american reporting to an american audience. cbs, nothing with cnn, but in a worldwide audience of its own broadcast. but that day, i don't remember lecturing myself. it's just bringing to you over the years of the experience, that the patriotic journalist tries to be what i called earlier the honest broker of information. this is my role. this is my duty. compared to first responders, firemen and policemen that they
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come in miniscule, but had a role. and my role was to be as candid with the audience as possible by what we know in what we didn't know. i didn't have any argument with them myself but my country is that we were bound to this. >> we didn't need to do that as people on air. people were doing that around the country and our pictures told the story to peachtree. remember the construction workers reaping the flags over? flag sales are everywhere. their flags immediately appeared on cars around the country. there was the congress singing america the beautiful on the steps of the capitol. >> of national patriotism -- >> it really spoke for where the country was. we didn't need to do that. would you show the pictures of it happening. >> let me ask this question. if we were -- she was a modestly describe where you were at that
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time and your feelings both professional site and personal site, but that essay for a moment, god forbid, 9/11 were to happen again next weekend we were to be hit again, how would the journalist on of the coverage of the second 9/11 be different from the coverage of the first 9/11? and i ask you to take into account that only the immensity of the story, but the technological changes that have taken place in the last 10 years. >> well, also the first thing that would have been if we would have the technology and the participation of the audience in a much more profound way than we had at the time. i would hate to think, because we heard from the cell phones, the desperate cell phone calls people made as they were in that burning tower, but we are now
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connect it with text, it treats, facebook pages. so first of all, would have to contend with that. who would have the public as a correspondent. >> contends such estimates in opposition to what it is you're doing. >> is a challenge. what is real, but it's not, what's an invasion of privacy, how quickly do you share it? what tone to use use without? imagine that people are experiencing and what they don't know and what they are potentially communicating. so we would have to contend with that most or most of god forbid there something else today, we would also have to contend with the story, which is being hit again. >> the country is much better prepared. we americans and i do not exempt myself from this criticism, we
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have a certain invulnerability out wasn't insularity about her country. we have become complacent in many ways. i stand for hypothetical it happened tomorrow, the country is much better prepared tomorrow. we are tougher we were. >> journalism is tougher. >> is a better equipped to handle that new story? >> no, because resources are way down. there are fewer professional experienced journalists working today than there were in 2000. >> may just disagree briefly? i think there are fewer, but because it does come with those who remain are tougher and better prepared. >> exactly, but i stick to it, harvard once called the iron core of journalists and the smaller, but logically and frank
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touched on this, there was no twitter, no facebook. every cell phone now not only has a camera, has a camera to catch video. can you imagine inside the tower today you had people transmitting figures of what was happening on the floor? technologically were deftly better equipped. >> let me give you a real-world example it's one of the reasons i was happy to retire. because what happens now scares me. >> what happens now -- >> scares me and turns that the way we report things. when that muslim shot up fort hood and your member i think he was in a medical area or whatever and he started shooting. i was in the comments they say. i was anchoring. i went on the air and talked about what little we knew and i had the military's first reactions to what it gone on.
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there were two shooters. i have forgotten fully, but if somebody the other day said to me, first reactions that things are almost always wrong. but then young kids on our staff began renting a tinny and handing the twitter messages from inside the room at fort hood. and i have no idea whether those were correct or not. they were diametrically different than what we are getting the military. you go on the air and say this is what we hear from the military and this is twitter and what we got from twitter was much more accurate. but i am on the air talking to the country and i don't know. i don't have a clue as to whether what i'm saying came from howard stern or whether it came from inside that room. and that's frightening to me. and yet the pressures that have come from 24 hour cable and we don't have time to absorb this stuff anymore. it's getting more and more
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immediate and we know blessedness. >> that dave really was the day when we all might as well been cable channels. you're ready to go on the air and don't have commercial breaks to collect your thoughts and so on. >> i certainly share your sensibility but there's no respin icemaker then to be about to report something truly major when you have some doubt about it. and if you do, it's the most uncomfortable, agonizing feeling you can have. i particularly remember being the first to report that bush had won ohio in 2004 and all i can remember wes i hope we are right because i set it on the air. i went to michael barone. i'll never forget this and michael perrault delivers this unbelievable disposition on the
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state of iowa and i said i love michael go-round. it is that kind of assurances sevigny said that is very big, potentially very controversial as is the most wonderful feeling in the world. >> let me share you some new polling information from george washington university battleground question asked in a times of crisis such as what we are talking about now, we're place to turn for information? answer: according to this poll, television still 48%. number one by far. number to come at the on your desk. 23%. radio, 11%. iphone, black areas, that type of communication 9%. information from family and friends, fight. newspapers, 1%.
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>> .height? [laughter] >> it's not immediate. >> there is immediacy to each one. >> "washington post".com. that goes into the computer. so you pick it up in that way. but what this suggests is that people depend 100 to 11 television. >> marvin, that's true. i'm not surprised at that. but let's keep in mind increase in the television is on the computer. so those two are going to move forward. i don't know about most, but many if not most fresh mint college students don't bring a television set to college anymore. they bring their computer. >> they don't bring their computer. >> i want to make a point that those two will merge because
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increasingly people get their television on their computer. the big change that number i suspect if we took it today would be the movement of the mobile apps, as the iphone's comments as my tablet and his students that we've got in my classes and elsewhere to some extent, my first stop is my device. and it's not in many cases cbs news or cnn. it's twitter or facebook. there were tens of thousands of people who learned about the earthquake in washington via twitter all over the world. that's what's changing. >> i think once they learn, they go to a video source. demott video and i fetch you the high numbers of computers are going to video sources as opposed to "new york times".com. when you want immediacy, you want video.
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>> that's the 48. that's the one out of two. what interests me a great deal is about the rise of the new technology, but the fact is that having on our journalism? is in making it better? >> in some respects it makes it better because it gets a access to a broad set of material to practice their craft with. >> to gadget to frank uses the first thing in the morning. they walk around with the sinks and they're always looking up to. you walk around and look at that. what is that based on? >> if it's video, it is what it is. look, we'll have every three century manus vigilant in skeptical as we've always been there should be about the sources of their information. and charlie is right. it turned about people who are feeding information to his teammates at abc on twitter were
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right and the military officials had it all wrong. but you got to be very careful about that. you have to say what the officials say. it is true we are going to be receiving about that information that we don't know whether to trust or not. and we've all got to get good at that. and we also have to be good at presenting in a way that we convey the audience will be canned in conveyor appropriate skepticism about it. that's than a job at the anchor for as long as there's been such a thing. >> dan, do you believe -- you've been around for a while now, do you believe the journalist and you're imparting today to the american people is better journalist than, is a more reliable form of journalism, more enriching our journalism then you are doing time, 20, 30 years ago? >> is so hard to generalize, marvin. a lot of needless to say no, i don't think that's true. the old order is gone.
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the new order is not yet in place. we don't know how things will shake us out. so the old world is not yet in place. so i do think that we have it be and we have to teach to be very skeptical, not cynical, but skeptical about things they report because the potential to manipulate the media to a degree that we haven't had before, that someone wants to flood the twitter some with misinformation for one reason or another. it really comes down in terms of anchoring, an experienced person who has watched the ground, who knows it happens in a police station after midnight on saturday, who knows what the emergency room looks like in the wee hours of the night has an experienced person he was built by his or her record of her reputation for being the honest broker of information. i do think people will find the
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question of journalism is better, there's more to a day. but you have to be my select is now because the audience is fractured. there was a time of cbs, nbc and yes, abc were considered the national heart as to what happened in 2001. now it still exists, but is much smaller. the answer to your question is it's hard to tell. i hate these kinds of answers for journalism today, but i'm optimistic about the future. we will get this interregnum. the internet is obviously going to be a big part of the future in terms of information. a mattress the audience. members in 60 years as a reporter has taught me trust the audience. the audience will find people they believe the contrast. and overall and in the main they will be trustworthy.
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>> which is essential part of all days, that we have one thing to sell another stressed. and what scares me as with all this information coming in and that you have to process so fast, it is hard to interest, but you can visit very fast. and therefore i don't know how you teach people to be discriminating in to be about to sit through all of it. >> so, if you get sick, first thing you may do today is go online and try to learn everything you can, but ultimately go back to your doctor, someone you know and trust to sift through that. if we think about the amount of information to subsequently had us on 9/11, we are from planes to the people in them, to al qaeda. the amount of learning and information. so the twitter and not the kind of business, i might try the distinction between reporting and journalism. the twitter stream is create another video in people's songs is great at the reporting.
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here's the picture. here's what i can bring you. journalists, the the explanation, exploration, investigation takes discipline and time and people who have done it. not in a daily -- with a story like this? >> we are talking it seems to me in this war and of minute to minute immediate reaction. and there is one thing that really helps and that his experience of the kind that dean was talking about. experience we've covered we've covered the beads come you've been on the street come you know how things work. if you have a long tour of duty as a street reporter and you are in an anchor chair in some explained something happening out there, there were things that just won't ring true to you. you may not be able in an incident to explain that, but your bs antenna will go up in a shy away from going with it. and there's no substitute for that. you can't teach in the school.
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you can't get it from an anchor chair very well. there's just no substitute for street. and in my view, all the really good makers have added over the years. >> charlie, remember i was on the air and i was one of the first report i think that latin for it was looking for two people, two men of apparent arab descent. i was wrong and we widely criticized for that. i reported that because i was told that by exceptionally senior officials who are following it on leave. i reported what i was told in an accurate way. so we have always had this to sit through an risk being wrong with their sources. i think and i hope if we handle it right and professionally, the social media that are now one of our sources will be handled in the same way.
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>> one of the things that's interesting about this particular case and dan of the two right at the beginning, there were some way things are experience can prepare us for her. nobody that i know i've imagine you could use an airplane as a weapon against a building. i could not believe that people would jump from 100 stories. and when i first heard that, i thought i can't believe that. when i was in the car and they said in my ear, and the second trade tower has gone down, that was beyond my preacher lady. i couldn't believe it. and the next morning when we had people at all the hospitals and they kept saying there are no injured here, you know, when we cover tragedies, there's injured. there's dead and injured. it was tiny. he lived or he didn't. and all of those things we have to get used to and we had to realize this one is different. >> let me ask all of you a question because we are
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approaching the time and decided that three, four minutes left. we've been talking about how journalism may have changed and they think i'm listening to other view, saying that technology changes, but the responsibilities remain essentially the same. as america changed in the last 10 years, i read a different place now? had seemed to suggest a little earlier in our discussion that we have changed, that we are more sophisticated country and are more aware of things. do you share that, charlie? >> yes. we lost our innocence or not. >> we lost our innocence and 9/11. >> dick cheney gave a speech shortly after that in which he said, and i thought it was very profound, he said this is a war for the first time we americans will lose more people and
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domestic soil that we will boost overseas. we have always been protected by russians. and of course that turned out not to be true because we bust our people in iraq and afghanistan and that sort of ignore the civil war, but that's okay. [laughter] but i thought that statement was very profound. basically what is said to me and i kept in mind in the weeks and months afterward. whenever you drive to the lincoln tunnel, whenever you get on an airplane, whenever you put your kid on a school bus, whenever you kissed her cake tonight, it's a little act of courage now. and that was something i don't think without prior to that date 10 years ago. >> i don't disagree with charlie, but what i think has to strike has to strike a pose we have been able to go and i don't think there's something any of us would've imagined after 10 years ago that we would come to this day, 10 years later, without having been hit by another major attack on our homeland, but it hasn't
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happened. i don't think it was an accident. we are, stan suggested, better prepared, better fortified in all of this. that's a major contributing grimness. but what's remarkable to me is despite the inconveniences we all notice in our lives, particularly air travel is so inconvenient, that america is -- we haven't had a great retrenchments of our liberties. we hear complaints, but most people live their lives as they have. our freedom hasn't been diminished. we've gotten much closer to back to normal than i thought we afterward as quickly as we did. >> dan, 30 seconds and then frank. >> i think it has changed radically, tremendously. among the ways we have changed is that we have always been a resilient people, but we are more resilient now than we've ever been in terms of dealing
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with this kind of catastrophe, we are more confident than we've been. and i also think we are more courageous because of 9/11. >> thank you him again. i would agree with all of that. they think we live in an area of vulnerability and we understand that in new and scary ways. i got a text to the other for my son among westerners during a terror alert, he lives in new york says dad, do you think we should do something differently? i said no, the -- be vigilant, but to what you need to do. i think this is the country is done. spent a lot of money making sure that doesn't happen again, but we need to do what we need to do. >> i noticed that the clock we have run out of time. i want to think this wonderful audience for being here with us at the national press club around the world by way of our website. let me thank our terrific panel
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of anchors, who were so helpful to all of us in that difficult time of 9/11. and let me thank all of you out there who still believe in the verlag, independent media as the best guarantor of a free and open society. that's it for now. i'm marvin kalb, good night and good luck. [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, this is the second half of the program. in the second half of the program involves questions from you. and there are microphones on both sides. both files, one day and one
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mayor. but i would appreciate you doingcome at the city who would like to ask a question, go over to the microphones. when you ask a question, please make it a question. if it is a speech, i'm going to cut you off and i don't want to be impolite. so why don't we start over here. tell me if you're at the university of where you are and ask a question. >> steve lutnick at the university. i do question to the extent that anchors pretty much symbolized by the whole comments also defined by the sum of its parts. so brian wilson, britt hume, jean reserves and john taylor and john miller, could you guys get an assessment of the value added in correspondence that you had that morning in the mornings after 9/11 in your broadcast?
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>> what i would say about correspondences i always thought that people nationalize newscast even before the age of the shows which are all about one person. even in the days when it was huntley brinkley or the cbs evening news that walter cronkite referred to people in the business of walter cronkite evening news. people tend to think of a newscast in terms of the person of the anchor. but i always thought that whoever's in the anchor chair benefited from the fine work that was being done by everyone, including correspondence. everyone admires walter cronkite and i'm not disputing any of that. what i would say is walter cronkite was backed up by marvin kalb and bernie and dan and robert bennett indic war correspondence until that moment in the business had no equal. and that was what made the cronkite evening news but it was and that's what made walter
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cronkite would've us in many respects. he was good with his work, poetic cats. but i would say about the correspondents that in any news organizations, if you're an anchor and have a of sense, you are appreciative of the work done by your correspondence. sears might list by your team but that was then a fledgling disorganization on 9/11. >> dan, i have a feeling you agree with that. >> absolutely. cbs news come and keep in mind that every moral gives the gives the funny thing to electronic journalism as we now know it to radio and television, that morrow tried to hire and with incredible success, did how your without exception to this string of what he called scholar correspondents. he wanted to hire the smartest people he could draw into pledging radio. those who wrote the best. and i think that tradition and fun playing it for another is cured all the way through the
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growth of electronic journalism, that the cbs morning news, whether it was steve douglas, walter cronkite or your neighbor was built on the foundation for the correspondents in the quality of the correspondence takes nothing away from doug akers walter cronkite in the chair, but it's right on the money. the reputation of cbs news have and may still have was built on having, if not the best correspondents in every place, overwhelmingly having scholar correspondents, who are well-known for their experience and being the best at what they did. >> thank you, dan. >> thank you, gentlemen. i am a former colleague of yours. my question has to do with combat v. handle the influx of new information when it comes to admitting that there's been an error? i was in austria, conducting media training for the state department on september 11th. we got a report and their people
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from around the world that were in the trade towers. a lot of people forget that, but there were people from around the world. we got a report on cnn that the car bombs have exploded the state department. i was never corrected. journalist friends of mine said were too busy reporting what was happening and what didn't. the problem is i guess its more information coming and, how do you get back to letting people know there is then an error? >> frank says i'm quite sure what is correct. >> it was last tuesday. [laughter] >> twice. i remember that. there were a lot of bad reports. and we have a flat-out policy safely put that information on the air, which was not something we wanted to do, that we had an obligation to correct it. in fact, with conversations that related to that moment, but others, should be go back to the precise minute 24 hours, but the audience turns.
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you can't be sure that every vcs abounds information is going to know that you've corrected it. that information should be correct day. i think that all networks should have almost been the equivalent of public editors and it's her controversial and a lot of people really disagree with me. but i think we owe as much transparency to the public as we demand of other institutions and i'm afraid were still not doing it. that when i know is correct. >> question please. >> my name is a gw alumni, but not a journalist. of of the show and i want to ask all of you, what has been your favorite positive story that she's covered in your careers? >> positive story, charlie gibson, come on. >> let me refer to the others for a moment. boy, there's many, many. we tried when i was anchor of abc's world news two and each day with something that
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basically reflect did the strength and resiliency in wonder of the human spirit. and i think there are so many stories and collect if we are just loved that, to retry sending every day at the end to find them and they would really be. in some respects, this story, as horrible as it was, again the resiliency of this country and that the public was as inspiring to me as almost anything i've ever covered. >> the story that moved me more than any story ever covered, at least up until that time was the 50th anniversary of d-day. with the allied military and especially the military accomplished on that day under withering fire, at a time in the history of the world is at a critical juncture, with a remarkable story. and to go back into stand at the united states military cemetery in colville, overlooking the
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point is that, per the attack occurred, deviation occurred and see the rows and rows of american gravestones and recognize the american military in the 20th century left for death all over the world and did no case did they go there for purpose of conquest and every case for the purpose of deliberation. the deliberation of europe by allied forces was an enormous triumph for the world and for mankind really, humankind. in that critical moment on that beach in which the allied commander almost called them back and yet they fought through it, thought the weekend and is a great, great story. an inspiration. i urge anybody was a chance to go there to go there. it will bring tears to your eyes as it did mine. it was the most moving story i ever covered. >> expression, thank you. >> and in a slip of a recently qualified journalist from the u.k.come as a bit of a change.
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my question is this. you touched on social media. the problem is in the u.k. especially at a journalist that come into an era where there's not chubs at the moment for me to get one, i have to work for years, maybe longer to get a job at all. so having to turn, like many like myself to social media. the problem of social media, would you draw the line between that makes a journalist and what doesn't? were what you see the line as china regards to journalist? >> i draw the line right around you. in fact though, i joke that you will draw that line. you will decide how you want to define yourself. is interested in the social media and the kinds of things that can happen now is to become your own brand. if you will create your name. so it depends on the kind of persona and the kind of fact and the kind of point of it. if you want to be all about opinion and rant and rave, are you journalist?
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you certainly will be an opinion player come up if you're going to go find information and break information and be reliable and credible and others with them pick you up in retreat you and pass you around, you will become your own brand until and unless you join forces with an existing news organization. >> at our third and december brands that can still legitimately be defined as journalists? >> know, there are not and you're going to have another real problem. how are you going to pay the rent? we had tina brown as a part of a panel at couple years ago at jw and we talked about the need to have jobs for people like you. you can only do this as a hobby for a while. and she said, you know, we may be in the tens of, not jobs. well, that works for a while, but not very long and that's the thing we need to worry about. >> which you give me an intelligence? >> anytime. >> my conscious thought is they were talking about the strength of correspondence a moment ago,
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i should have pointed out there were at least two of the best correspondence of their generation, renard kalb is in the audience. [applause] >> thank you very much, guys. >> next question. >> at evening, and james reid can a student at uw. my question concerns the media has emerged as result of the tax prepares documentaries, movies and books written about the attacks. those are knit those forms of the media that have emerged after the attack, did they capture the events of the day as they have been life? t. think as journalists those after-the-fact reporting and analysis, have they really captured the heat of the moment per se? you want to try that?
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>> at the answer to it. i'm sorry. i can't help you. >> i think the single most valuable thing to do is read the 9/11 commission report, which is a heck of a piece of reading. it's a fascinating document to read. but as they read it, one of the things that impressed me was sent a whole lot that was in that document is not an unearthed and then reported by documentarians since. and there are -- you can quibble with documentaries at times. they may, something in trying to make a point that may not be totally objective or may reflect the point of view of the documentarian. but i think a lot was reported subsequent to 9/11 did a terrific job. i think that's borne out by the fact that the 9/11 commission report, there was not a whole lot in their can't even with all this peanut powers et cetera coming up a whole lot in there
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that had been previously reported. >> we could go on with that, but the way in which the commission report dealt with 9/11 reflects the concern of the writers of the report, about not offending certain people. in other words, they made a point of saying were not going to deal with individual plane. but, they didn't do with individual blame because it would have created a huge political storm so that the report itself is inadequate and that it didn't in the waco fire in us. >> , my name is hugh grantsaponin to go into let adina of 9/11 events. fun was had most of the intelligence two days ago. i went to the end of the program and said as a president, obama has been in support of anything that the intelligence wants to do. since 9/11, americans stovepipe their information.
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and when something happens, when president barack hussein obama is president, the first thing you're going to hear i'm social media and other things is that obama didn't do the right job. and there are certain broadcasters, i'm not going to name any, that would really attack obama for not doing the right thing is president, even though his own intelligence cities doing a great job. >> i'm not sure that i hear you -- >> people like rush limbaugh, i.e. to do this. >> what's your question? >> my question is we are still typing the information now. i still think after 9/11 wouldn't be the same now. >> i'm a bit lost on that i'm afraid. >> i don't really understand the thresh of the question. >> americans are stovepipe dinero for information.
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across the broadcast business and they are separate and distinct and the people who actually watched fox news can tell the difference. there are many people who don't watch fox news or watch something else who have ideas about what we do. but i would say is if you watch the hard news programs on fox and the recordings that is an abundance, you will find a pretty straightforward reflection of the news and you will also find an emphasis at times the story is media are ignoring and approaching, a wholly legitimate way of approaching stories together media are doing. i don't think we are in a crisis because certain people tune in these opinion shows and listen to the opinions they read editorial-page columnist for the same reason the nation has survived that for hundreds of years now and i respect your concern about it it just isn't one of mine.
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>> another question which may in fact be the last but we are running out of time. >> my name is scott, i'm not a journalist and a student at gw. my question is as reporters your sort of like accounts of history and i was young during 9/11 and i heard one thing and you talked about this resilience of the american people what words i remember my favorite commercial ever is the one where you but all people of races, ages, genders and religions that said american about two weeks after if but nowadays it seems like everything is so politicized was there a point in american history since then where we sort of fell off the bandwagon unity or was a gradual and where we go from being so you might after that to how we are now? >> it's a really interesting question and a lot of people tend to feel the u.s. the last
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ten to 15 years has an effect gone on a downward spiral as an argument about that but it is a question that i've heard many times. >> i want to tell you a story of the most poignant moment of my experience around the size of flu the first day of the flights had resumed and i took a united flight from washington to boston, boston was one of the places the flight originated from and they were quietly weeping and have to turn away from us as we got on the planet and there were not that many people there and the captain got on just before we took off and he said ladies and gentlemen may we have your attention, please and? we are flying and we are doing it because we believe you will be safe, but i ask you to look
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around at one another. if someone tries to hijack this plame, tackle them, stop them, throw something on them. remember, we are all in this together and we are all americans. it was an unbelievable -- i mean, i took out my notebook and i was writing everything down. [laughter] but it was an incredible thing. you can't maintain that intensity of emotion out of an experience like that. but i do believe that ten years later whether you remember it brilliantly or not, the world of your growing up in has been affected and shaped by that for a buddy, by conversations like this. i do think we are a more resilient place and conscious. we feel the world in different ways. but we are america. we debate and i disagree with
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brit and about what he said about fox and we will yell and scream about that later. [laughter] that's what we are supposed to do, and that means we are okay. i don't like what is happening in washington more than anybody else, but this is what we do. and a democracy is a noisy and messy business and we should be proud of that, too. >> it's an interesting thing in the 20 minute segment in the book as part. therefore there is an impression about how strong we are, but we are in so many other ways quite vulnerable and quite weakened by an economic condition which nobody seems able to master and a political climate is more than we experienced in the long, long time, so while we live with a joyous of the sense that we are americans and things can only get better, the fact is they are
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by the host to the american airline passengers whose flights were grounded after the terrorist attacks this is about an hour courtesy of cpac. it's been ten years since they carried out the worst terrorist attacks on history when they flew the hijacked planes into the twin towers of the world trade center in new york and into the pentagon in washington. another crashed in a field in pennsylvania. so shaken and some of the world that eve ensler been known forever by just the date on which they occurred, 9/11. each of us can recount where we were and what we were doing when we saw the horrifying images of the day. ten years later, 9/11 still evokes feelings of sadness and loss and anchor and revenge. because of 9/11 and we went to war and afghanistan, we toughened are laws and we tightened the borders of.
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the event of that day changed our world forever and change the way we live. over the next hour we will look at what happened that day and how the events of a decade ago have changed our society whether we like it or not. this is 9/11, ten years later. ♪ >> september 11, 2001 the sun was shining and the skies were clear over new york city but the same would soon be filled with horror. the eyes of the world would be drawn to the manhattan island and the twin towers of the world trade center. this is a story of unimaginable tragedies and a devastating loss. >> i knew in my heart that ken was dead.
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a story of how the worst of human behavior brought out the best in a people with a tiny community of the elder most edge of north america. >> your heart goes out to them, each and every one of them. it is also a story of the coming together of two nations in a time of need. >> it is very clear to me that there was no doubt we could count. >> and how a few unforgivable days lead to a decade of change for canada and for the world. >> maureen is marking the tenth anniversary of 9/11 just as she has all the others, with painful memories. >> as i was watching the planes go to the tower on tv, on cnn, it affects me because i've been
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a flight attendant for over 30 years and i new planes didn't just go into towers, and of course i knew where ken was. islamic on september 11th her husband, ken, was in new york city for a business meeting. >> ken called our son on a sunday night before 9/11 to say that he was on top of the world and that he had a great new job and a wonderful family and he was planning a future where he could share time with all of us. he spoke about being at this particular conference that was scheduled for the morning of september 11th and that he would be revisiting on the 106th floor his conference was in the north tower of the world trade center, the first of the twin towers to be struck by the hijacked
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airliner. >> at first was thought to be a tragic accident, but when 20 minutes later united airlines flight 175 plowed into the side of the south tower, there could be no doubt america was under attack. today we've had a national tragedy. two airplanes have crashed into the world trade center in an apparent terrorist attack on the country. news of the attacks to lacher of the world. and maureen was on duty as a flight attendant in germany on 9/11 when she got news of the tragedy unfolding in new york. when i realized something horrible was happening, i decided to call my mother, and i said have you heard from ken? she said yes he called his
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mother to say that he was on the 106th floor, the room was filled with smoke and he didn't know how he was going to get out. the line went dead shortly afterwards. >> ken was one of 24 canadians killed in the attacks on that day, each with a family, each with a life to live, each dearly loved and dearly missed. >> he had his priorities straight, family. family was the ultimate top priority for ken. islamic at 9:59 a.m. the south tower of the world trade center collapsed into a cloud of ashes and debris to the horrified astonishment of people on the
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street. estimate so huge most of the people are standing and can't understand what happened. the standing around talking to each other, nodding their heads. oh my god. we got to go, we got to go! an hour later the north tower also came crashing down taking along with it ken and 12 other canadians presumed to be trapped inside the building. >> i knew in my heart that ken was dead but i also knew how physically fit he was coming and if anybody could have gotten down 106 floors, then surely it would have been ken. >> ken's body was never
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recovered. only a few pieces of bone. ten years later she keeps the what she calls her memory room. she holds in her hand a piece of the world trade center, a remnant offered to her by workers cleaning up the ground zero site. >> he says i've been waiting for the right person to give this to me and i want to give it to you, and i cannot tell you how much that touched me. it's in the shape of a cross, which is very significant kind it's very, very meaningful to my family and we are very honored that the laborers gave this to us.
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>> the 9/11 attacks transformed the skyline of new york leaving a gaping hole in the heart of the city. ten years later the memories of the day are still fresh. especially for those who lived their like canada's former consular general in new york, senator pamela wallen. >> when i first got in the morning and turned on the television, it was the day before i was scheduled to have cancer surgery, and my family was visiting me and my mom and dad were there and we turned it on and watched i guess in silence for a couple of moments and my father was a world war ii that probably as insightful as most and said of since pearl harbor have we seen anything like this, and this will be bigger because it's on the mainland. >> pearl harbor wasn't even part of the united states, hawaii was a territory then, but here you have one of the world's great
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financial centers, the heart of the american society in effect being bombed. >> this was an act of war and so i think that's how i've always seen it. david was canada's minister of transport when the 9/11 attacks took place. >> the day itself was traumatic for the officials of my department and for me and my personal staff, and looking back i would say that it was probably the most traumatic, significant event that i went through in government. >> ten years later that even in his role in them are still fresh in his mind. >> i flew in early that morning to montreal to give the opening address to the airports council international, and i was well going towards the end of the speech one of the officials put a note in front of me and said there's been a tragedy, speak to us, don't speak to the media
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before we want to brief you. >> as soon as david was briefed on the attacks come he and his staff immediately left montreal and raced back to iowa by car. >> all the key decisions were made on the phone on a cell phone on the 417. >> he gave the order to close the canadian air space on the stages and to their destinations canada did an incredible job with the aviation authority and of the minister in an sec over cell phones and communicate to a number of people to pilots over the atlantic. >> 1700 kiloliters east the air traffic controllers at the
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canada's area control center where about to have the busiest day of their career. >> when i arrived at work the westbound flow coming from europe was just starting to hit the coverage in eastern canada, and the air space in the united states has been closed and these aircraft or a device they would have to live and as soon as possible, so a lot of them. >> canada's controllers are responsible for directing all air traffic in the western half of the atlantic airspace. the busiest air corridor in the world. on a 9/11 like any other day there were hundreds of planes approaching newfoundland on route to canadian and u.s. destinations. >> some had enough fuel to go back to europe and those are beyond the point of return and decided they were going to land in canada.
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is back this recorded on 9/11 redials the tracks of the aircraft on the approach to north america. the trees is marked in yellow are landing at the gander international airport. islamic most people are aware it is a fairly big airport for the size of the town that it serves and we have the facilities to handle the aircraft and the main difference between the normal day and 9/11 as we had more aircraft to one or two larger aircraft so 138 at the time. >> 224 flights carrying more than 33,000 passengers >> no one can sue the united states government would do. it closed its airspace and said nothing could go over the united states and by a understand why the americans did that, but what about us? we are the neighbor. we found ourselves in the circumstance of having to
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scramble. we were informed after the fact and we had to really scramble to deal with the closure and the fact so many planes were routed to the canadian tourist mecca 39 airliners from all over the world were jammed onto the runways surrounding the gander airport. more than 6600 stranded passengers stayed inside their planes to await processing by the canadian officers. >> we have to be sure before we let anybody off the planes that there were not terrorists on board and that was tough because we didn't have security officials or customs officials, we didn't have enough people to fly people into those places like defender and deduce bay to supplement the regular personnel. >> at that time i don't think we really had any concerns about who or what might be on the aircraft. we had a lot of police and
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security presence from that particular day. our main focus that morning was to get their planes safely on the ground and what the crew and the other people in the airplane deal with the situations they have on board. >> of the terror attacks that date of the canadian capital absent of almost every cabinet minister. the prime minister was in a breakfast meeting at his official residence 24 suffix with then premier. someone broke into the meeting and he was told of the attacks to we estimate we were a form there was something tragic and we [inaudible] i opened the tv had received phone calls and i had been in touch with ministers and with the head of the armed forces --
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>> the crisis would force them to make some of the most difficult decisions of his political career. one involved the corrine n jet flying a four northern canada and heading for the u.s. in the hours just after the attacks on new york and washington. ag coded signal suggested the plan may have been hijacked. >> the americans wanted to shoot them down and by that time, the flight it was highly unusual to allow the u.s. to carry out that kind of an attack if he will over the air space. it can be done but you have to have agreement. >> he gave the go ahead to shoot down the airline and its 207 passengers and crew if they didn't plan as ordered by the
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evacuated. employees here at cpac were among the thousands ordered onto the streets for some unknown the pending attack. by late morning cpac personnel were permitted to return to resume coverage of the unfolding events in the united states in concert with our american colleagues at c-span. >> we will return to c-span's continuing coverage of the terrorist attacks and new york and washington. but we also want to give you a sense of how canadian officials have reacted to today's event and in a few minutes we will hear from the rcmp commissioner but first let's listen to the prime minister. >> i would like to speak to in the last few hours and we will
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come to a more moral to quickly. spent in the hours after the attacks she was on the phone with key cabinet ministers formulating a response to the attacks. canada's chief foreign affairs minister at the time was john manly on september 11th he was on board the air canada 747 returning from the g8 summit meeting in frankfurt germany. >> when we were out over the atlantic, the flight attendants came and asked to speak to me and the ultimately took me into the cabinet and flight deck and i sat with the pilots and we were able to hear the bbc radio report on what was going on in the united states. i spent much of the flight out there. >> while other aircraft were being redirected the minister's flight was given special permission by the transport
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minister to continue on to the toronto destination. >> somebody took me to a room where it was to be connected to the prime minister and there was a television there for the first time i saw the images and by then the towers collapsed, and there was no way to visualize that from the audio reports. >> i was in calgary actually on my way to the airport. >> another found himself stranded far from iowa was the u.s. ambassador to canada at that time, paul. >> he sent a canadian first challenger jet to fly my wife ??? and i am not sure it was one of the areas like the flight for
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the only plan moving and probably one of the only a few airplanes out of military aircraft flying in north america at that time. >> how would you characterize the canadian response to the events that unfolded that they? >> the canadian response was overwhelming. we had about 25,000 americans in addition to several thousand from other countries that arrive in canada unexpectedly because the u.s. airspace was closed like a been gander there were more stranded airline passengers and people who lived in gander. estimate by the afternoon of september 11th the curious onlookers lined the roads by the airport to view the dozens of planes now parked on the runway. >> the first day was a lot of uncertainty because we were not sure so once they landed we were
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not sure of the would be here for three hours, five hours, six hours or six days. we didn't know because the americans, the aerospace shut down and there was just a waiting game to see if they were going to open it up and was a lovely 12 to 14 hours after the first plane landed before they decided that the aerospace was going to be shut down for awhile to get people all of the plan. >> of the gander airport gradually filled with more and more exhausted passengers the need to find food and shelter was growing. cooper is a long-term volunteer with the royal canadian legion. islamic i was more than surprised. i never realized there were so many planes i think there's something like 37, 39 planes and i saw where are they going to put them all? that's almost double the population of gander.
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islamic as the thousands of travelers began to flood in and surrounding towns and villages the enormous scale of the humanitarian crisis began to hit home. >> we started using the churches, organizations like the lions club, the legion, the masonic temple, anyplace we could find the trade school, the community colleges and that. >> one of the places the passengers were taken was the gander campus of the not the atlantic where mack was the school web administrator. >> this is the room we assembled all of the passengers when they got off the aircraft we didn't see a lot at the airport of what was going on. and when they came here and saw the television for the first time. cnn kept replacing old a long.
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300 people came here and the place was deathly quiet because they were watching, this was the first time they knew why they were detained at the airport and couldn't go. so there was the motion that was tremendous. stomach every hallway, every classroom would soon be transformed into makeshift dormitories for nearly 400 weary and frightened travelers. they asked their families of the and blankets, sleeping beds, air mattresses, what ever come to give to the campus. >> thousands of stranded travelers were desperate to make phone calls to reassure those back home they were safe. phone the services were set about side community centers to help meet the demand.
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[inaudible] to make international calls to everyone we have people calling all continents of the world. >> so many worried travelers needed to call home. >> put yourself in their shoes. they didn't know what was going on back home or if any of their families were involved. some of them when they first came and, you know, part yourself in their shoes and think how would you feel? and your heart goes out to them, each and every one of them. >> cooper was the one to limit the hall where the phones were in constant demand. so she decided to take matters into her own hands. the three ladies i took were the three that stayed here. >> it wasn't long before she had befriended the women and they
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accepted her invitation to stay at her home as long as the need to. >> she was from brooklyn, new there's another this one here from niagara falls new york and this one was from seattle washington. >> the idea was to keep people out as you didn't know who was going in but don't tell that to the way they saw semidey walking down the street they would take them into their house and feed them and let them sleep and let them shower that is just the thing to do. >> i would love to take the whole works appear. if i had the room i would have brought them up here. the thousands of stranded travelers settled into their terrie homes with just the clothes on their back. soon donated clothes began to flow into the shelters.
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with food, shelter and clothing now taken care of, many of the guests had other more serious concerns. many of the medications were and the nurses took the medical or drug requirements and worked with a hospital in the local pharmacy. the local pharmacies provided the emergency medical care ready and waiting at the local hospital. even the town stores open their doors to the air travelers telling them to take items off the shelf free of charge. >> the clerk invited us to the house to take a shower. it's phenomenal. we can't think you enough for what you've done.
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>> the outpouring of concern by the people of gander their dennis overwhelm with gratitude. estimate the people have just been absolutely amazing. >> we are so appreciative that carpet for us and we feel almost like celebrities. >> you are. >> i can't believe it, you know, incredible how generous and friendly and just downright nice everyone has been. >> i don't believe how out of the way people have gone to be kind to us and in a circumstance like this you can't ask for anything more. >> while the people of gander and other cities and towns were struggling to assist the travelers the canada u.s. border was all but shut down. >> right after the attacks the
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border pretty much came to a standstill. we got special buses to get them across the border because they just couldn't get across the border. john manley could see an economic disaster in the works for canada. >> i knew that this could have serious repercussions for the canadian business and employment and many canadians across the border on a daily basis because they work in the u.s. or vice versa. >> do you have any fear that the americans can put pressure -- >> border security concerns mounted when canada and the united states began reporting that some of the suicide terrorist may have entered the u.s. from canada. >> as far as i am concerned with this activity that occurred in new york and washington this week there is no indication at
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this moment that those perpetrators were coming from canada. if we thought some of them came in from canada and some through the united states i think that is going to suggest we need to work together to make sure this doesn't happen again. i don't think we are going to blame either country. >> given the shock of the attacks think the americans were looking for a way to say it wasn't just our security system that failed us on that day, there were others and the canadiens were the europeans were to blame for having a role in this for failing to help protect the united states. it was unfounded but remains a even in the minds of some american politicians to the estimate we have been working against terrorism for a long time. estimate your urged upon minister to keep the government solidarity with the united states but some of his cabinet colleagues wanted him to say
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little about the attacks and be cautious in citing. >> my view was we are in this with the united states and we need to strongly assert our willingness to stand with them against the forces that have been so devastating in new york and washington. it any reluctance to side with the americans quickly failed. three days after the attacks some 100,000 people gathered on parliament hill to pay their respects to the victims and show solidarity with the united states. >> the thing i will never forget walking out of the parliament i expected to see about 20, 25,000 people of front of the building and there were 100,000 people
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wearing canadian and american flags singing both of national anthems. something i will never forget ♪ >> canada's best friend and neighbor had come under attack. canadians stood shoulder to shoulder some weeping, some of praying and many still in disbelief. estimate we held the largest memorial event on friday of that week on parliament hill. >> the prime minister of canada. >> he was the one who decided we would do the outdoor memorial. we are not calling to let her wrists drive us. >> the prime minister kept it very simple and he was i think very eloquent in what he said.
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>> mr. ambassador, we are assembled before you here on parliament hill and right across canada people united an outrage in compassion and resolved. people of every faith and nationality to be found people that are a result of the atrocity committed on the united states september 11, 2001 feel like neighbors but likhbors but. at a time when this words fail us. before the terrible reality of what we have just witnessed. [applause]
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>> and the freedom loving nations of the world we will win a war against terrorism. [applause] three days after the memorial service the government held a debate to deal with the crisis. spec might i suggest the fed members observed a moment of silence. >> the prime minister was firm and his results that canada's reaction would be measured. >> we want to stand with americans as neighbors, as friends, as family. we will stand with our allies and do what we must to defeat terrorism. but with our action be guided by a strength of wisdom and perseverance. the government and people of
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canada have demonstrated solidarity with the united states would ever get takes. our commitment is total and we will give our undivided support to the united states. [applause] >> there was no doubt which side canada was on. canada doesn't have a history of a pacifist or neutral country. canada has soldiers. oliver europe because we fought in defense of liberty and we are not about to back away from a challenge now because we think somebody also might get hurt. >> after all he said u.s. was critical of the response of the citizens because the gap between rich and poor countries and because the u.s. foreign policy. a decade later has anybody seen any improvement? >> if i see a change there had
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been no change of all on these things and in fact that's less money going for the country. i don't hear that anymore. that was a value canadians cherish and now nobody talks about sharing. in the wake of 9/11 canada move to deal with counterterrorism and any u.s. concern that this country might be soft on security. within months canada joined the united states and other countries in the operation enduring freedom in afghanistan. canada was at war to wipe out the terrorist training ground of al qaeda and the taliban. >> it was the first time under the charter that one of our members had been attacked. we thought might have been the
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old soviet union but it happened to be the u.s. attacked by a terrorist group based in afghanistan. >> mcclellan was the minister of justice when it brought in the anti-terrorism act be read the act gives law enforcement agencies sweeping powers to arrest and detain suspected terrorists even before any crime had been committed. >> first of all one must have a reasonable belief that interest act will take place and then in addition you must have a reasonable suspicion that the rest of this specific person as necessary to prevent that act. >> the normal police purchased wheat for the defense to be committed and then deal with that. of course and counterterrorism you don't want to be committed you want to stop it ahead of time so it is a completely different approach and then of
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course there was a series of terrorist related activities going on in canada some quite open the we couldn't do anything about. it wasn't illegal to raise funds for terrorist groups or potential targets. it wasn't illegal to recruit people to join a group so the police would monitor but they couldn't do it anything unless the first blonde to get a bomb had been planted than they could spring into action. islamic the legislation passed and was controversy of the time has proven its work that it's capable of being fitted in to the framework of the charter and portable in terms of a high profile and a significant. >> those high-profile trials resulted in lengthy terms for the seven area muslim men who were a part of the toronto 18.
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the members were arrested for plotting to storm the hill and a blow up landmarks including the towers. the surveillance data captured them gathering materials they planned to use to make a massive bomb to be a bomb with the same at this test range. five years after the anti-terrorism act became law to of those controversial clauses were allowed to lapse. one allowed police to hold suspects without charges for up to three days and the other compeled suspects to testify behind closed doors in front of a judge. the concern is later tried and failed to win the parliamentary approval would now with a majority of the government that shouldn't be a problem. juanita of the canadian islamic
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congress made suggestions to the committee urging it to make changes to the legislation to moderate its more controversial powers. it is in such a wave that any activities they are emboldened -- involved in. guess we should have security and guess the government has and measures we may not like. but to have the measures in place and identify only one group, i don't think that they are. >> the issue of the racial profiling comes and i don't even have a problem with it. >> on the day of the attack the author was on the streets of toronto where he experienced a sudden backlash of antimuslim sentiment firsthand. at that particular time a couple of hours after the planes were
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headed towards different cities and just it was dramatic. >> being shocked by the experience she doesn't believe that canada's muslim community has experienced widespread prejudice or that it has been unfairly targeted by the security agencies. >> the muslim population at home across the border and i've come in and out of canada much of the time. we look like the terrorist with a muslim name, [inaudible] >> if the chances of someone who looking like me has a bigger
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probability of being a terrorist then i have absolutely no problem if i am but dhaka without having someone take usia and talk to you. >> the idea of the secondary screening procedures of the border crossings to high-risk individuals racial profiling is one that travis expert enthusiastically support. political correctness is setting the expense. our refusal to focus our attention on people should be interesting but you have chinese grandmothers and then jamaicans to strip searching and everybody else, they are not the problem. there are some members of the muslim community that say this
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new legislation, these members and affect target. do they feel like they've been targeted? what do you say? >> i don't think so. i think the people that we've targeted, the organization's we've targeted have always had an object of factual basis for which we have done that. this hasn't been cut preachers or discriminatory and we focus our efforts on certain types of groups because of the dangers that they pose. >> since 9/11 the canadian government has faced a challenge to balance the right of its citizens with of the need to reassure the united states that it takes border security seriously. >> rye think we have been very careful to ensure the civil liberties are respected while at the same time ensuring that the security interests that have been expressed or voiced are
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also met. i think that canadians recognize the importance of security both to the americans and consequently to us and have been actually quite understanding of changes that we have to make. >> mr. president. >> in december 2001 came to meet with him and point my first meeting was to work in collaboration to coordinate as best as possible the means with which we can provide mutual security of the borders but also given the enormous dependence of the mutual economies on the continuing a free flow of the business service across the border is that it's called the u.s. and canada partnership
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became the elements of the smart to border accord and was principally our idea and tom ridge cannon and the 12th of december so barely three months after 9/11, and we had to work. to me the most important thing i could do in the protection of canada's national interest to achieve some understanding of how we conduct ourselves in, border. there were four main pillars it was to secure the number of flow across the border while also an expert like to the flow of goods a commitment for made to invest in security infrastructure such as airport passenger screening technologies and smart technologies to secure the trucking industry.
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the most controversial element was the joint coordination of law enforcement agencies and an agreement to share intelligence data. >> we wanted more emphasis on the openness of the border continuing trade and movement of people. in my sense there is much more emphasis on security and there is no week to find that the medium because the struggle was the idea of the north american security perimeter which we haven't quite seen. >> my view of the time is of the security perimeter around north america was the most affected way to deal with this. we need to -- you need to put this sense up there and say let's keep the bad guys out. but your energy and resources in a place they might be boarding planes or trains because if you try to do it internally then becomes endless and very costly.
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>> i was the first to mention the security. i said it shortly after the 9/11 attacks and i got a call from the prime minister who said some canadians to diffuse a perimeter of the border is going to use of here. i said i don't mean that all. let me cone op -- called the conference i started calling it the zone of confidence. that's kind of funny ten years later to the perimeter security. >> in north american security perimeter has been under negotiation for almost a decade driven largely by the desire of the industry to satisfy the americans that the canadian border is secure. the man who was foreign minister now speaks for the giants of canadian business. >> don't have a problem with the fact they are becoming very concerned. it is ultimately the principal role of the government to ensure
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the population can live with a degree of security and fees in their country and their homes, and given that they are by a huge degree of largest customer it's legitimate for us to be concerned about the customers are worried about. the americans are after the vision of complete security at the borders still corresponding to the shock of the attacks, canadians are trying to say to the americans the border of the security is not too much. never elect an official of that kind. you have a damaging trade and let's focus on what we are agreeing are the threats and target measures against the threats and that's where we can find the point of harmony. estimate of the intersection of the human smuggling ship, off the coast of british columbia in august of 2010, raised fear that among the hundreds of would-be refugee seekers on board were
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members of terrorist organizations. >> the incident was just the kind of red flag of the lawmakers in washington could raise, calling for canada to toughen its borders and revise its refugee and immigration policies. >> the issue is one some see as an infringement on the canadian sovereignty. >> i share that concern because i'm an old-fashioned canadian and i make no apologies for it. i believe in the canadian way of life at the way that we govern ourselves and very strong about the need to protect our sovereignty. estimate of three disagreement are you talking about the geneva accords or climate change agreements or anything there's always a compromise of sovereignty so sovereignty is not in absolute concept, it's constantly compromised. >> there isn't going to be any surrender of sovereignty in this
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process, they're just isn't. it is clear in the vision of the president and the prime minister. i've been involved as i say in many discussions the last several months. that is just not an issue. >> to put it in perspective 80% of our goods traveled into the united states. obviously, millions of canadian jobs depend on that trade relationship. we want to see the trade relationship continue as to americans. americans understand that relationship as very important for their citizens as well. the prime minister has made it very clear that if this is somewhat of a security issue and will just create another layer of security without any benefits in terms of the flow of trafficking people between the two countries, then the agreement isn't worth pursuing. so for us, there are discussions and interests that we need to
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resolve, and we will do that. estimate i have a very high degree of confidence the we are going to get there. this time there is a dedication on both sides of the border by people with the highest levels in both our governments that we have to get this done and i think that if a friday just kind of takes a deep breath and waits to see how this plays out and comments on the actual action plans and proposals as opposed to what people fear, may be the actual proposal will be a little bit more comfortable.
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that it in the future that is trouble from a different part of the world that is the most difficult problem. of the anniversary of so much destruction what will all the people think about that day? we are still saddened by the loss they carry that burden but we have to remember the fight against terrorism is ongoing. we should be reminded of that. of these terrorists are not simply against one country
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but to a way of life. hof that includes the values and the life that canadians have. that is a concern about zero home-grown radical terrorism. why this happens in canada were individuals come here and are here second and third generation then become radicalized. and it is not understandable but to we do have to continue to be vigilant to make sure those types of activities are rooted out. >> i would love to say i think the worst is behind us of some of bin laden dead. many key lighted -- leaders of al qaeda are dead and maybe we can begin to relax
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but i don't think that is the case. >> going back to 9/11 but if you talk hot they saw the best of mankind left with a new sense of hope and pride there is still people left in our society. >> i will have these memories i will have with me forever. with the overwhelming response of the canadian government and people in our time of need.
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discusses porter challenges since the september 11th attack. this is about an >> good morning from the woodrow wilson and senator breaux and the center's vice president for programs. we welcome you in attendance today ast well as those watching on c-span. the wilson center was thewils official memorial to the 20th president, it brings together in wilson'semor phrase, the thinkers andth doers and the hope and believe the informed open and civil dialogue leads to better understanding andess
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cooperation and betterof public policy. it provides experts of every kind to address the major challenges facing the united states and to have their views tested in a rich program of events open to the public. today marks the tenth anniversary of the septemberpend september 112001 terror attacks on washington and new york we will address border security with a conversation of three commissioners of borderbith protection. we will examine how the t federal government consolidated border security and 21 cbp and how the rest has evolved over the decade. in sponsoring today's events the woodrow wilson center and is happy to be part none with the history program todo educate the public to
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exhibitions and publications and programs. let me introduce our distinguished panel. when week after the attacks may and as the appointed first commissioner of the border production unified agency within homelandmela security and mr. bonner is a wh former head of d.a. and a federal district judge in los angeles. after serving as the head of the secret service and mr. sesham designed and implemented the takeover of security operationsta nationwide and on my who are left mr. bersin wasbe appointed from customs
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importer protection in 2010 and previously served as assistant secretary international affairs and four border affairs for department of romance security as well as california secretary of education. leading the conversation is one of the preeminent specialist, bruce hoffman professor of church and y's ersity's school of foreign isspty service and dired of the piece and security studies. and is author of the nowis a classic book inside terrorism and also a senior scholar at the woodrow wilson center ritchie's form. the professor hoffman will initiate a conversation with the commissioners that after 25p minutes will open toe t questions on the floor.o that me turn the floor over
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to pr bruce hoffman. >> let me say what an extraordinary privilege it is here to be with these gentlemen today to have the honor to engage the discussion. note security and counterterrorism is the evolutionary process. we are fortunate to have those three commissioners of cbp here to underscore the process.how i thought we may ask the sequence that they served. what were the gaps in the security and immigration in our borders they had to address immediately uponat assuming office and what was the main challenges during office.nure in let's start with mr. bonner. >> has pointed out i literally started reported for duty september 10thing september 10th, 2001, had not been confirmed but was essentially serving as a
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consultant to the secretary of treasury when the attacks occurred in new york and washington. the one of the very first thing this that i approved as the acting commissioner was to go to the highest alert at theyt nation ports of entry and border.ve i think if nothing else itd was apparent there were huge gaps.it first of all,, the first recognition i had on the morning of 9/11 that we hadorni to be essentially coming to radically change the priority mission of the united states customs service as one of the principal border agencies of the country to change from the introduction ofco contraband in the regulation of trade to national prevent mission to terrorist and terrorist weapons from entering the united states.
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i am sure before the morning and did it occurred to me as it did too probably everybody else that we had to change our priority mission. the results going to level one alerts i found out i was probably the second commissioner of customs toone shut down the nation's borders because they went ton virtually one 90% this section of people, vehicles, trucks, ca rgo containers coming into the uniteds states and the reality was the wait time at the canadian border and major points of entry went from an average of 10 fr minutes to about 12 hours literally overnight. 12 that is when the second
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came to me on the second or fourth day that lee did have to ratchet of security given the threat of global terrorism, but inouye without choking off the flow of legitimate trade and travel without shutting down the country's economy.ch h essentially that net developing what i very often call thoseg twin goals which were to provide a level of security to make it stormy difficult for weapons to get into the united states but do that without staunching the flow of legitimate trade and travel. what we found out working with extraordinary people of the u.s. customs service thate those things are noter mutually exclusive. if you put into place the programs and initiatives, which we did.
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not immediately but it took some time, you could provide a genetically increase in security of terms of people and goods into the united states but at the same time that in some cases do it faster and more efficiently than before which means put into place partnerships withme trade and partnerships ite with other countries aroundnd the world the container security initiative to put officers to target high-risk cargo containers that foreign seaports before they move to the u.s. that was in partnership with other countries. we've mandated advance information on every person and cargo shipment whethereth containers, trucks, rail in
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advance so we could essentially evaluate, the very small fragment that presented a potential risk to show we gave scrutiny and inspection but on the other hand, most of those that did not present a risk to facilitate or move them through more quickly across the ports of entry and obviously put into place a lot of technology. aalk about gaps. customs did have large scale non intrusive four tractor-trailer trucks every single one was that thera southern border with mexicocthe because of the drug issue. we had nothing at the northern border. everything had to be at physically inspected without miami nothing at the seaports and expanded the, w use of technology to all of ports of entry so when weo t decided something needed to
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be looked at or inspected we could do it faster and more efficient rain and taking a look too physically inspect and also radiation and portal monitors every port of entry and it is amazing in a tribute 220 lot of people in the room and someop whole aren't who could rulere a that out. now, and free car, truck, cargo containere container, every single one goes through a radiation portal monitor in terms of potentially defecting against the worst kind of weapon which is the weapon of masst destruction in. a there were a lot of issues to dos westvaco -- to deal with. we put into place five key initiatives that are interrelated at -- and related to allow us to risk manage the process and a way
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by the way, important point*. we could do this without congressional mandates. how to redo this, the smartest way to do this in terms of protecting against the terrorist threat without shutting off the trade and travel and i think we came up with sound solutions that my successor is have built upon. no doubt about it but we put in place the important building blocks to secure the country against a further potential terrorist acts. and potential asymmetricalsymm attacks while the cia and the military went on attack overseas. >> host: mr. basham you
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took over 2006 then the challenges increased. >> i will just save my time to mr. bonner. [laughter] actually, i have to say when i was approached to be considered to be the commissioner here addsac b cbp fam ise director of secret service and some of a daunting responsibility. but i can tell you what i was a little concerned about following 55 efforts here at cbp and what he was challenged with since then a levin at cbp. i can tell you today the foundation of cbp is based upon your efforts that you made immediately after 9/11. when i arrived i already had a foundation to work from
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with a tremendous staff. i can tell you i can imagine doing it to her without the people in the room and their efforts and building on what commissioner bonner had done i looked at what i thought had potential. the very first thing that i'vethe hat recognized, it did s we had to build thehav confidence, capable intelligence process. we had to find a way toot reduce the size of thec haystack and not concentrate our incredible resources on an 99.9% of the people so, we had to be an intelligence driven organization and could not get it done any other way. one of my first efforts was
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to create and build a more robust intelligence process. second, my concern and i know commissioner bonner concern before me and the men mr. bersin after was the insider threat. all of the incredible efforts that have been put into place by thee ge agency following 9/11 could be brought down by the effortso of 1% who decided to not perform their function of our mission and whether it is drugs or illegal aliens are someone coming here to find a job or a terrorist we could not allow that threat to bring us down.ted so we created a and builds a mores of robust internal affairs
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office that some not that we did not have our issues. [laughter] and third, building upon the commissioners efforts on the partnership, i knew from my years and the secret service b job done get the c s a loan. i don't care how thank you areng or how will funded it takes working together not just the foreignri partners but department of, and security. building upon the incredible efforts better going on around the department i thought we pa needed to worka more closely with our partners year as well as overseas.r that is why i tried to focust on my time here but in in
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comparison withssi september 102001, it is awesome and the foundation end that you lay that we are a much safer nation. and i was happy to turn this job over to commissioneren bersin when i left.tate you are in good hands as allstate would say. [laughter]s t >> commissioner bersin your challenges today go beyond terrorism but the violencehi that has now escalated across the border coming into the united states. what are your challenges and your plans are as well? >> in the presence of much of the family -- it sounds
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like a family. [laughter] to a acknowledged to colleagues who are now trusted friends they even minowledge the efforts -- - in in leadingd bu many of the people of this room to build the c institution charged with border protection it is extraordinary to think in ao 10 years since 9/11 that the first quarter management agency that has ever been created across the world and world history to take the traditional functions thatman
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takes clearance and immigration admissibility and agricultural inspection to create a joint border management under the rubric of national security. it was a massive alteration. history had quite an ecological series of arrangements to govern the border. but they were rooted inve history and real political dynamics that could not have beenkind reversed of send the cataclysmic change that was created in the wake of 9/11. and cbp is that the four french with a whole notiono of a homeland americans were never comfortable of the concept of the homeland but
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we were s mr. basham has said we were protected by two massive oceans with two nabors that were friendly to the north and to the south with canada and mexico.awce in the case of canada we have not fought a war since the 18th century andd mexico the middle of the 19th of century so we had no concept of homeland security in our borders were relatively open. we did not think in terms of borders then suddenly since the sense of violation withf 9/11 was a genuine violation and invasioners of our country and of our borders. think of a doctor and we
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started to do that. move leadership today that the commissioners have led the four not only the lines on a map but beginning where the cargo and when a passenger gets on a plane that is where the bordersf began and the challenges that we face in terms of securing the flows to develop the doctrine of homelando security of a species has evolved the concept of advanced information to risk is lessan
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than a real attempt to segment the traffic that in the last line of defense the 300 ports around the country all lot day's work must begin far in advance. with those gaps that were exposed this wheeler in both with the case isn't given 2009 and bed cargo plot from yemen 2010, we did need to do much more work to enlistdo time and space in ways we had not been able to do before because the cbp officers had identified who
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would have been denied admissibility upon arrival in detroit and nds of the cargo would have been identified for inspection coming from young men or -- yemen with our search engines at the national e targeting center but that would have been too late the northwest airlines flight would have flown over detroit and the ups o.r.e fedex plate would have loaded up over chicago if they had their way. so the idea to secure ande use the tools our predecessors had divided to has been a major focus. but defending the actual physical line, yes, has been a major
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