>> it's important. >> bs middle and high school students to a fe to six minute video and we want to know in the next 20 years, what's the most important change you'd like to see in america or over the past 20 years what is the most important change in america. we show important perspective as we do each year with $100,000 in total prizes for the grand prize of $5,000, and because we are celebrating 20 years, students will participate in this year's competition and has the opportunity to share a portion of the $50,000. the deadline for students to submit is friday, january 19, 2024. for more information about this year's project, visit our website at studentcam.org.

>> healthy democracy doesn't just look like this, it looks like this, where americans can see democracy at work with citizens are truly influenced in the republic thrives. get informed straight from the source on c-span. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word from the nation's capital to wherever you are to get the opinion that matters most. this is what democracy looks like. c-span, powered by cable. host: we are back now with a former 9/11 commission staff member and a current center for strategic and international studies transnational threat project senior fellow. welcome to the program. -- senior fellow, daniel byman welcome to the program. what is the legacy of 9/11 and the broader war on terror? just: -- guest: 9/11 shaped the

nation and had profound impacts on policy at home. when we think of foreign policy, two things stand out. one is the war in afghanistan, the taliban right after 9/11, and the other is the 2003 u.s. invasion and occupation of iraq. the first directly went to 9/11. the second politically was only made possible in the in environment where americans were thinking about terror and iraq became, for better or worse, he matched in that. it also had an impact on u.s. day-to-day foreign policy with many countries around the world where the primary issue wasn't trade, it was in russia or china, the primary issue was, would you work with united states against al qaeda and then starting over 10, 15 years

later, would you work with united states against the islamic state? every aspect of u.s. foreign policy has had a profound effect. looking back over 20 years now, the war in afghanistan ended up with u.s. withdrawal. the taliban back in power, i think the vast majority of americans look at the effort in iraq and see it as a mistake. shaped americans attitude toward intervention abroad in the extremely heavy cost paid not only in trillions of dollars, but also in american lives. i think it makes many americans very leery of intervention, especially in the middle east. the 9/11 attacks also shaped america at home. it created an environment of concern and fear about the next terrorist attack. for several years, especially right after 9/11, the bush administration was operating with the concerned that the next attack was around the corner and many policies put in place were

put in place with that concern in mind. it shaped things like various fbi and broader government programs to go after suspected terrorist suspect in the united states. it shaped americans attitudes towards immigration, especially from muslim countries and muslim fellow countries. the effects i really think shaped degeneration, but it's important to look back at this because i think we are moving on from that. both in our foreign policy and domestic concerns. i'm not sure how enduring this will be. host: you talked about how this really shaped america's fear of a terrorist attack, do you think americans are safer now from international terrorism then we were on 9/11? guest: yes. let me explain why. really using the 9/11 attack itself as an example. if you go back to what we now know about 9/11, it was an

attack that was plotted from safe havens in pakistan, in afghanistan where al qaeda was able to gather a mini army. in the 1990's, thousands of people trained in al qaeda training camps that al qaeda was able to take what it saw as the best of these to use for terrorist operations. the al qaeda leadership, osama bin laden, they had safe havens. individuals would come and go from these areas without disruption from the world intelligence of law enforcement services. and for 9/11 itself, they were able to recruit -- recruit people not only from the arab world but also from germany and they were able to travel to afghanistan. they subsequently held meetings in malaysia and spain and other countries without interference. and of course they travel to the united states where there was, at vet -- at best, it confused and limited to try to discover

jihadis linked terrorists in the united states. if we fast forward five years later, we see all that has changed. it was disrupted by the u.s. invasion, even the invasion, havens around the world were under pressure and this could be in the form of drone strikes taking out terrorist leaders. as happened a year ago with the killing of our cowardice -- with the killing of al qaeda's leader. it could be in the form of special operations that are happening around the world to go after suspected terrorist. the united states is training allied governments to go after various groups linked to al qaeda and the islamic state and perhaps most importantly, there is an intelligence campaign where the u.s. government where they are coordinating around the world to put pieces of the puzzle together so when people go to and from war zones, they are on the war screen -- radar

screen, they are being watched and arrested before they go or when they return. in the united states, there is a more aggressive effort by the fbi to go after suspected jihadists. so all the aspects of a terror attack like 9/11 become a charter for a group like al qaeda. i want to be clear we are talking probabilities. each step will most likely be discovered, but the chances of success for a group like al qaeda to do a terror attack in the united states are greatly diminished. host: let's talk about the role of the usa patriot act in government surveillance in general. guest: after 9/11, one of the concerns that the u.s. government had was that there were large numbers of americans, in this case, american muslims who were linked to al qaeda or somehow trained afghanistan, and that concerned said this was an

operation perpetrated by people coming from abroad in the american muslim community in contrast to what people feared turned out to be exceptionally loyal to work very closely with the fbi, but the changes that the patriot act and other legislation did were actually quite profound and in many ways quite necessary. a lot of the u.s. apparatus or surveillance was very dated, just to pick one example. used to be that when you had a warrant you got up by the phone rather than by the person. in old age, which some of your viewers may recall, before cell phones, a used to be that. if i had a phone, i had one phone. people may have buildable cell phones, you can easily change numbers. so part of the changes in legislation were just catching up with that. but a lot of the -- a lot of the changes were concerned with the access the government had to information gleaned by american

took knology companies. these are giant companies and they have huge reams of information that was designed to give the government easy access to that. also relates to these changes was resources. there was a lot of effort at the fbi, especially, but also the department of homeland security to put resources to the problem of individuals in the united states who might be linked to terrorist groups. not only was more information available, but there were far more people available to analyze the information and act on it. so this meant that there were a lot of programs in place that enabled the government to get information to americans much quicker and to keep it in ways that would help the u.s. government go after suspected terrorists. host: section 702 is going to expire at the end of the year, there is a reauthorization going on. first explain what is section

702, what does it do and where are we with that reauthorization? guest: section 702 of the foreign intelligence surveillance act was a very large change that enables the u.s. government to collect information on foreigners living abroad without a warrant or any sort of traditional oversight if there was national security. and this was allowed fast amounts of information. what makes this controversial is that those foreigners living abroad might be in contact with americans. so, that person abroad might have 100 phone calls and 90 of them are two other foreigners, but 10 of them might be to americans, at this sort of question is called incidental collection. it wasn't the target. if the goal of the united states had been initially to go after those 10 americans, the u.s.

government we need to go to a judge and get a warrant, however, there is now concerned because though tenant -- those 10 americans are now in contact with someone who is on the radar screen of american intelligence, presumably for some concern, let's say terrorism, in our case. 702 is incredibly powerful because it gives the government access to this information and now the government can query about those americans who showed up on the radar screen about their name, their social security numbers, whatever information they have and learn more about them. this is tremendously controversial right now, and for good reason. 702 is set to expire at the end of this year. it has been renewed in the past, usually in a bipartisan way. because it's so incredibly important to both intelligence and general and counterterrorism in particular.

gives information not only on suspected terrorist but also on unknown people who might be linked to them. that's one of the biggest challenges and terrorism is not finding someone who is already on your radar screen but finding someone who you don't even know is a danger. and this often reveals it. the problem is that this collection has tremendous potential for abuse. one thing they are about is that it could lead to expedition. instead of going after her going to a judge to go after an american to getting a warrant that the government instead uses this ability to have a link to a foreign terror suspect and avoids the judge through 702 authority, and there have been uses that are clearly inappropriate depending on what side of the political spectrum you are on. there have been reports that this is been misused to go after

people in black lives matter. there have been reports of misused to go after people involved in the generally sixth insurrection. in these sorts of cases, the fbi should've gone to a judge to get approval rather than use 702. the fbi claims that yes, it has made mistakes, but a put in very significant safeguards, and that in recent years, the number of queries has gone down by 93% of the extremely large number. so these safeguards are having a big impact but there is a question of if there should be further restrictions on the types of queries that might be done on american citizens and on some degree of judicial approval. so this is an example of broad power given to the government in the years after 9/11 that is being reconsidered in a very different light given the current threat environment. host: i will let our viewers

know that if you want to weigh-in, we've got our guest daniel byman until the end of the program, a little before 9:00 eastern. if you would like to call, if you're in the eastern or central time zone. if you're outside the united states you can call us on 202748 8002. you are a special staff member on the nine election -- 9/11 commission. can you remind viewers of what the commission concluded about what happened that day, intelligence failures and the recommendations? guest: 9/11 commission had a large number of recommendations related to the threat itself. urging the united states to focus not just on terrorism in general, but instead on al qaeda and movements in particular. rather than treat this as a broad danger where there is

enemies everywhere to focus, but a lot of the response concerned integration. one of the problems in the pre-9/11 era was a distinction between threats at home and threats abroad. and it seemed like the fbi focused primarily at home. organizations like the cia and national security agency focused abroad, and there would be some sort of handoff. but what the 9/11 attack showed was that's short -- that sort of distinction didn't -- it was operating in the united states and there was concern that there were terrorist networks in the united states there were extensive that were responding to direction. one of the goals was to integrate domestic intelligence, and that was done to a fair degree. we just talked about 702, that's one example where there was greater power to go from abroad and individuals who suspected terrorism abroad to investigating at home.

organizations by national counterterrorism center. that had wide range of terrorism that brought together people to work together to work more effectively. one of the hopes is better broad coordination. related to that was better datasharing. one of the problems was investigation found was -- there were parts of this that were bureaucratic. the fbi had different field offices that often were keeping information to themselves and then the fbi as a holes often not sharing information with other parts of the government in a timely way. at the time the fbi had their information system and part of it was simply a technical issue. there had also been an emphasis,

and you have to go back to the 1990's and look at things like winco where the fbi's efforts were seen by many americans as abusive and infringing on civil liberties. there was a term that the fbi shouldn't be sharing information probably until it was proven to a very high degree. the fbi simply gathered some information on americans, it should not treat this as something it should share widely throughout the u.s. government but guard carefully. one thing the 9/11 attack showed was that had consequences for national security. one of those would integrate that information. another recommendation was on foreign policy, and that was the recommendation that counterterrorism be elevated as an issue of importance. that it would really shape american foreign policy around the world. i think with the rights of china, russia's brutal nation of ukraine, that there has clearly been a shift in their recent

years. in the aftermath of 9/11 itself, and then with the rise of the islamic state, there was a strong sense that this is the primary foreign policy in the united states and america needs to optimize itself. host: just stand by, because we will show viewers the beginnings of the ceremony happening right now in new york city at ground zero. ♪

>> lawrence christopher merrill. host: that is the beginning of the ceremony happening right now at ground zero. reading of the names. if you'd like to watch that, that's over on c-span2 right now. you can also catch it on c-span.org and on our free mobile video app. we will go back to daniel byman and start taking your calls for him. staff member of the 9/11 commission. kingston, new york, good morning. caller: good morning. i'm a 9/11 first responder and i got disabled from those events. this is a day for me never to

forget. and when terrorism went down, i was there within 24 hours of the buildings collapsing. the buildings were still collapsing for 5, 6, 7 days. silent -- sirens were going off and people would start running all over again. really rough. i worked 16 hour shifts and i was in the army national guard. we were stuck at for hamilton. they stuck us in rooms. we did not have time to take showers, we were so exhausted. it was a sad day for the people that died. i worked a station at the morgue. the body parts totaled in the tens of thousands. there are three things i would like to see happen. one, i would like to see saudi arabia pay up to the victims in the first responders. number two, i would like the airline companies to meet their

right and they walked scot-free away from any lawsuits. they were given a blind pardon. the third thing i would like to happen is, i would like to see all the federal funding that has been given out, to stop giving it all to the lawyers and doctors and start giving it to the responders. and i worked at homeland security after that. i have plenty of briefings, i understand that the world trade center is actually a financial center that did not belong to the united states, that's why it was part of port authority. i understand the structure of a society economic structure. but saudi arabia has not been our friend, they been cutting gas prices -- gutting production with russia -- cutting production with russia to hurt us. i think they need to start paying these families. that's what i feel. host: what do you think of that, dan? guest: let me begin by saying

thank you. one thing that i think all americans learned or relearned was how much we rely on our first responder community for so many things. to see the heroism of people like you and many people you work with, even many years later, still -- to me. and one of the outreaches of post-9/11 has been invoked again and again, this terrible attack. but many of the people who did the most to respond to the immediate aftermath of the tragedy are suffering health effects, psychological effects and they are not getting the support they need. they are often invoked in rhetoric but in practice we need to do more. on saudi arabia i do have a slightly different view than the caller. this saudi situation is quite complex. assuming the saudi arabia government did not finance the attacks and the investigations

have shown that. however, al qaeda itself got considerable support from wealthy citizens in saudi arabia and other gulf states. so, it might be what saudi arabia failed to do was cracked on the known danger, and there is good news here where in post-9/11, especially after 2003, when there begin to be attacks on the kingdom itself, saudi arabia became more aggressive on terrorism financing and still has a long way to go. we saw that where there was funding from a number of goals states -- gulf states. it was outrages. it wasn't from governments, it was from people. one of the responsible's of government is to ensure that people under the jurisdiction are behaving appropriately. so, in my view, the proper response is u.s. pressure on saudi arabia to stop terrorism

financing, and there has been some efforts and i will stress this across the ministration so it's not a republican or democrat thing, but more needs to be done. i do think it's important to recognize that saudi arabia is both an important partner, but also has many differences with united states and we have seen this on russia, and we need to recognize that the u.s.-saudi relationship is complicated. in my view it's necessary, but it's also that we should recognize significant differences in the united states and saudi arabia will be on different sides of the issue. host: john is in germantown, maryland. caller: i think the best thing that ever happened with the whole situation in the middle east was when president trump started drilling for oil and drill, drill, drill, and took us off this saudi oil.

i do think this saudi's were involved in 9/11. the prince was the bad man that gave the money to the pilots who flew into the buildings. now i believe he is the king of saudi arabia. in the families who tried to sue that give information about 9/11, the victims here have been rebuffed by our own government. now the saudi's wanted take the world off the u.s. dollar and give it some other currency. guess what, we thought all the wars. host: sorry to interrupt, but we are running very low on time. can you give a brief response, dan? guest: i will stress the saudi government was not funding 9/11. the saudi government did not.

more broadly, i do think that the united states needs to recognize that the energy market overall is something that has tremendous national security vulnerabilities, and i think president biden's efforts to encourage a wide range of alternative energy is one of the best things we can do, not just for the environment but for national security. host: daniel byman the former 9/11 commission staff member. he is also at the center for strategic and international studies, transnational threat project, senior fellow. dan, thank you so much for joining us. guest: my pleasure. washington journal. government, politics, and public policy. from washington and across the country. tuesday morning, we will discuss the houses returned from august recess and depending deadline to fund the government with a politico guest.

then a law professor talks about the lawsuits being filed in several states seeking to disqualify former president trump from the presidency. aced on the 14 men -- amendment insurrection clause. then i guest discusses campaign 2024 and recent polling among latino voters. washington journal joint in the conversation live on tuesday morning on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. >> c-span studentcam documentary competition is back and this time, we are celebrating 20 years with looking forward while considering the past. >> students of today are leaders of tomorrow. it is imperative that we take care of them. to help them succeed as they progress through life. >> we can work together to

prevent fentanyl from becoming the world's next pandemic. >> is important to understand the ramifications of allowing it to go out of control. >> we are asking lent high school students to cree video addressing one of two questions. in the next 20 years, what is the most important change you would like to see in america or over the past 20 years would have been the most important change in america? we are giving away $100,000 in total prizes. the grand prize of $5,000. because we are celebrate in 20 years, every teacher who has students participate in the competition has the opportunity to share a portion of an additional $50,000. the deadline for students to submit documentariesiday, january 19, 2024. for re information about this contest and rules, visit our website. studentcam.org.

c-span is your unfiltered view of government funded by these television companies and more including charter communications. charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers and we are just getting started. building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. charter communications supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. president biden mark the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks from a military facility in anchorage, alaska. in his remarks, the president reflect it his experiences that day as he served as a u.s. senator.