tv PBS News Hour PBS September 7, 2021 3:00pm-4:01pm PDT
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captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, taliban takeover-- the militant group announces a new government amid protests and an economic crisis. then, the recovery continues-- some gulf coast residents regain power but many remain stranded in sweltering conditions as the president surveys the damage in the northeast. and, 20 years later-- the new jersey town that lost more residents in the 9/11 attacks than anywhere else outside new york city, reflects on that tragic day. >> the wounds of 9/11 are never going to fully heal, and i think this community has embraced the families, and 20 years later, it
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still holds firm. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life, well-planned. >> consumer cellular offers no-contract wireless plans that are designed to help you do more of the things you enjoy. whether you're a talker, texter, browser, photographer, or a bit of everything, our u.s.-based customer service team is here to learn more, go tos you. consumercellular.tv
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>> the john s. and james l. knight foundation. fostering informed and engaged communities. more at kf.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the taliban takeover of afghanistan continues, as the group
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announced today leaders of what it calls a "caretaker" government. atop that structure, this, man, habiatullah akhundzada, the emir of the taliban. he will serve as what's being called "supreme leader." meantime both the u.s. secretaries of state and defense were in the gulf region today, in qatar, where the american evacuation mission is headquartered. and the white house requested $6.4 billion for both the evacuation and resettlement of afghan refugee yamiche alcindor begins our coverage. >> alcindor: today the taliban's head spokesperson ushered in an interim government void of women. >> ( translated ): our country needs comprehensive activities and services in various fields to address the legal, econic and social rights of the people and prevent losses. the islamic emate decided to appoint and announce an ting cabinet to advance important matters. >> alcindor: key roles in the government include veterans of the group.
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mullah hasan akhund, the interim prime minister, headed the taliban government in kabul during the last years of its previous rule that was ended by the u.s. mullah abdul ghani baradar is deputy prime minister. the trump administration pushed pakistan to release him from prison in 2018 to jump start the doha peace talks. baradar led talks with the united states and signed the deal that led to america's final withdrawal from afghanistan. sirajuddin haqqani was appointed acting interior minister. he's the head of the haqqani network group, a branch of the taliban. haqqani has an american bounty on his head. he is wanted in questioning by the f.b.i. for a 2008 attack on a kabul hotel. amir khan muttaqi as acting foreign minister, and mullah mohammad yaqoob has been named as defense minister. he's the son of taliban founder mullah omar. the taliban said these men would form an interim government, but it did not say how long they
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will remain in power or if elections wi be held. at the press conference today taliban spokesperson mujahid celebrated the withdrawal of foreign troops >> ( translated ): thank god our country regained its freedom from occupation. all the causes of the wars were destroyed. >> alcindor: but today on the streets of kabul, hundreds of women came out to protest the taliban takeover and what they say is pakistan's interference in the country. >> ( translated ): we do not want the intelligence services of pakistan to establish a government for us. afghanistan has always been and will remain an independent country. >> alcindor: pakistan has historically deep ties with the taliban and many afghans accuse it of playing a role in bringing the group back to power. in the northern city of mazar-e- sharif, planes chartered to fly out more than 2,000 people sit on the tarmac. several hundred, including american citizens and green card holders, say they have been waiting for more than a week for
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taliban permission to leave. the taliban says anyone with the correct paperwork can board the flights. on a visit to qatar today, secretary of state antony blinken also denied the taliban was blocking americans from leaving. >> they said that they will let people with travel documents freely depart. we will hold them to that. so will dozens of other countries. the international community is watching to see if the taliban will live up to their commitments. >> alcindor: for the pbs newshour, i'm yamiche alcindor. >> woodruff: who are the men the will lead the new taliban government in afghanistan? we turn to two mew who have tracked the taliban for a long time. ahmed rashid is a journalist who has covered afghanistan, pakistan and central asia for decades. his book "taliban: militant islam, oil and fundamentalism in central asia," which came out in 2000, was the first one on the taliban. and douglas london had a 34 year
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career in c.i.a.'s clandestine service where he focused on afghanistan, south and central asia, the middle east and else where. he is the author of the new book "the recruiter: spying and the lost art of american intelligence." welcome to both of you, mr. rashid, mr. london, thank you very much. ahmed rashid, let me start with you. what does the naming of these individuals say to you about what the taliban has in mind for the future of afghanistan? >> wl, i think, overall, i mean, they have -- they hae not done anything what the western untries have been asking for. it's not a diverse cabinet. it's a very solidly taliban cabinet that they had chosen. the gornment has not taken on board any of the non-taliban politicians in afghanistan. they have chosen not to take any
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women into the cabinet for the time being. now, this is the government they've set up today. they've said that there will be additions and changes and presumably there will be a full-time government at some state. but it looks at the mment that this is going to continue the hard line that we've seen so far, with beating up women, demonstrators and not tolerating any kind of dissent. >> woodruff: is that what you see, doug london, a hard-line cabinet? and what do you see in terms of their attitude toward the west? >> i think it reminds us we're best judging the taliban by what they do and not what they say. the majority of this cabinet trace their roots to being close to mullah omar starting out the taliban in the '90s, the named prime minister hakun, the
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decision making body operationing in pakistan. they've given room for the haqqanis to have good portfolio for themselves, the interior minister being a wanted felon with a $10 million award for his capture. and sirajuddin haqqani, i think the united states trade for those, all received good jobs but not necessarily the to be jobs in the cabinet, and i think it's interesting that i see the number two intelligence official is an individual named tajmir who was an explosive specialist the a got detained in pakistan but the pakistanis released due to his poor health and apparently he's made quite a ricover. >> woodruff: and mr. rashid,
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you mentioned no women in this lineup of leadership. what does that say to you? do you see anything here that tells you there may be some give? because they have been saying they want women to have a role in society. >> they have been saying that, and, but, you know, women have been out in the streets in kabul and haran and other places demanding theirights and the slogan today was "freedom" and it seems the women are literally leaving the young male students and men also to show dissent against the taliban. so -- and the taliban admit that they don't hve people trained in crowd control, they don't know what to do when masses of people come into the street, and, so, what we've seen, of course, is that there have been beating up people quite frequently, as they were doing outside the airport when people
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were trying to leave kabul. >> woodruff: what about what should we expect in terms of whether they are -- what they're going to -- what their attitude is going to be toward al quaida, toward i.s.i.s.? we're told they are enemies, but what should we expect? >> well, i think it's interesting, if you look at the statement released today under habitullah akhundzada,o who is the emir of the taliban, who is now the self-proclaimed leader, much perhaps like in iran, the individuals in the cabinet are those who have historic good and positive relations with al quaida and there's even language in the statement that thanks all the muslims and mujahideen. i think that was intended to the united states and the groups in the west, certainly al quaida and partner groups, but who are considered to have brought the taliban victory. so i think it a suggestion
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they're not planning to cut ties. >> woodruff: it's coming across as a group of individuals certainly to be feared. ahmed rashid, and finally to both of you, the naming of this as a caretaker government, suggesting it's temporary. how do you read that? >> well, they don't seem to be at the moment having any political plan for the future. thethey've already said we don't believe in elections, so that's out, but how are they going to put in place a permanent government without giving the public some kind of choice or some kind of ability to choose who they want. they won't allow political parties because that's against islam, according to them. their whole interpretation is going to be, i think, based on what you've seen -- how we've seen al quaida in the last few years and other organizations where you have a top man who is
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endorsedby basically the shira or the council and there's very little left to the public or the people and very little dissent, either. >> woodruff: and finally, to doug london, we have been told that this new government is going to need desperately aid from the west, but do you see anything here that suggests that they are making any concessions at all that would put them in a better place in terms of receiving aid? >> there are some clues, i think, in akhundzada's statement and it's important to realize he's in charge in calling the shots, despite is it fact taliban does have to rely a lot on consensus. there's language about self-reliance, there's language about afghans not leaving because they need them, there are suggestions to me that this leadership, as i would expect,
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is loathe to integrate globally with the west and thus make itself vulnerable to sanctions and vulnerable to information that they can't control. i don't see much to hope for a taliban that, though there are some early indications and language from the white house professes this a taliban 2.0, that they want more than subsistence to keep people under control and consent. there was language about respecting human rights. nothing about women, if you notice. respecting minorities, though there are 33 cabinet members include three ethnic minorities o all go back to the '90s except for the army chief. so i think reading them for their actions better than their words will be more helpful for us in forming our decisions on what we can expect and what actual limited leverage we will have over the taliban though we think their interest in economic
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aid and technical development is what they seek, that does not seem to be in their plans by virtue of their cabinet and the language in the statement put out by their amir. >> woodruff: we're watching closely. we thank you, douglas london, ahmed rashid, we appreciate it. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, the u.s. death toll from covid-19 reached 650,000, out of nearly 4.6 million worldwide. and, the nationwide delta variant surge forced new, emergency measures. idaho imposed crisis standards for overwhelmed hospitals. doctors in coeur d'alene said they'll focus on covid patients deemed most likely to survive. non-covid patients will have to wait. >> we're havg to make some tough decisions delaying
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surgeries that we normally would do that day or the next day, we're havingo delay those until we have staff that's available. it's nothing i've ever experienced in our, in my career. >> woodruff: infections in idaho have skyrocketed, while the state's vaccination rate is among the lowest in the nation. more lights are coming back on in louisiana, nine days after hurricane "ida". by late today, crews had restored power to some 700,000 customers, out of 1.1 million who lost it. meanwhile, predent biden surveyed storm damage in new york and new jersey. we'll get details, after the news summary. in texas, a republican bill to overhaul state elections is now law, despite protests that it's designed to suppress minority turnout. g.o.p. governor greg abbott signed the measure today, banning all-night and drive-thru voting and limiting mail-in balloting. he dismissed lawsuits already being filed.
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>> i'd be astonished if a law like this was not challenged in court. i feel extremely confident that when this law makes it through the litigation phase it will be upheld in a court of law because exactly what we've said. >> woodruff: abbott also defended a new law that bans most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. it took effect last week. the supreme court of mexico ruled today that imposing punishment for abortions is unconstitutional. the decision directly affects coahuila state, along the texas border. but, it also sets a precedent. 28 mexican states penalize abortion, while four allow it in mo circumstances. the plight of syrian refugees is raising new alarms. amnesty international reports that syrians who've returned home have been jailed, tortured and even killed by security forces. the group criticizes nations that claim it's safe for the
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refugees to go home, and have pressured them to leave. mass demonstrations unfolded across brazil today, in support of embattled president jair bolsonaro. in brasilia, the capital, tens of thousands turned out with flags and banners as bolsonaro helicoptered in. he blasted judges for jailing some key supporters on charges of supporting violence. >> ( translated ): we don't want disruption, we don'tant to fight with any branch, but we can't accept anybody efforts to distort our democracy, we can't accept anybody who puts our freedom at risk. >> woodruff: bolsonaro has said he might reject the results if he loses his re-election bid next year. leaders of three major branches of christianity appealed for action on climate change today in their first-ever joint statement. pope francis along with the archbishop of canterbury justin welby and ecumenical patriarch
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bartholomew the first, leader of orthodox christians, came together today. they urged an upcoming u.n. climate summit to "listen to the cry of the earth." back in this country, thousands of firefighters in northern california have made more gains against the giant "caldor" fire. their progress in the lake tahoe region is being bolstered by cooler temperatures, higher humidity and easing winds. the fire is now about 50% contained. and, on wall street, tech stocks made small gains, but the rest of the market gave ground. the dow jones industrial average lost 269 points to close at 35,100. the nasdaq managed to add 10 points, inching to anoth all- time high. the s&p 500 slipped 15. still to come on the newshour: how the gulf coast and the northeast dig out from ida's wake. the director of the african centers for disease control
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discusses global vaccine inequity. a new jersey town heavily impacted by the 9/11 attacks reflects on that tragic day. plus much more. >> woodruff: for the second time in less than a week, president biden visited communities hit hard by the ida storm system. today, the president made several stops in new jersey and new york to see the damage. at least 50 deaths from virginia to massachusetts were associated with the storm. in louisiana, at least 15 deaths were linked with the hurricane. prident biden said extreme weather events have made it clear the country must take meaningful action. >> for decades, scientists have warned of extreme weather would
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e waves crashed through the streets testing the aging infrastructure and taking lives. more lives were taken here than down in louisiana. climate change poses an existential threat to our lives, to our economy, and the threat is here, it's not going to get any better. the question, can it get worse. we can stop it from getting worse. >> woodruff: while president biden >> woodruff: while president biden visited new york and new jersey, hundreds of thousands of residents and businesses in louisiana have not had power, water or other basic needs for over a week. our community correspondent, roby chavez, is in new orleans and he joins me again tonight. so, roby, very good to have you there on the ground for us. the president was in the area where you are last week. he promised federal resources. now we know that the state is promising to get the power back on by the middle of this week. where does it stand?
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>> judy, it's day nine of the recovery and people of louisiana are still struggling. the things in new orleans are getting a lot better. 70 to 80% of the people have their power back on. there are less lines at the gas station. more of the gas stations are coming online, grocery stores are opening, mail delivery started, by it's a different story along the gulf of mexico where they got a direct hit from hurricane ida. 98% of the people without power and the basic needs. they need clean clothes, water, communications, power, housing. so it's really, really stuff for them. the word here on the ground is once things start to move into that rebuilding phase, it will be just as tough because there's a shortage of supply, a slornlt of labor. that was the case before, during the pandemic and now after the hurricane it's even worse. >> woodruff: roby, as so often the case, after these major storms, deaths taking place after the storm has passed.
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there were more deaths announced today in louisiana. tell us what you've learned about that. >> yeah, the most recent death we heard about is a man who didn't have power, didn't have enough oxygen, and, so, he passed away. in louisiana, mississippi and alabama, there have been 17 deaths due to hurricane ida. a lot of those due to carbon monoxide poisoning after the storm. we've seen four people, according to the louiana department of health die from using these generators improperly. nearly 140 people went to the hospital from improperly using the generators. we're also continuing to see problems with those vulneble populations, our snior citizens, those with special needs, those on low and fixed income, those also with medical challenges, they're just trying to get basic resources to keep them alive and it's tough. >> woodruff: the challenges are enormous. how are people dealing with all this? >> make no bones about it. it has been a tough last few
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days for everyone in southeast louisiana. but, you know, the spirit of louisiana, t spirit of new orleans is alive. it warms yore heart when you see strangers walking up to strangers and helping each other to fix their homes, to fix meals. some of the restaurants in the area hve donated all their food. there have been mass barbecues to feed folks, and that allows them to have a hot meal, but also get together as a community and start to talk about some of the experiences they have had w --with hurricane ida. >> woodruff: one of te thing we have been reading about today and that is cemeteries affected by this. >> a big problem, the cemeteries, the tombstones in louisiana are above ground because most of the area is below sea level. when we get the floods, caskets will pop up from the tombstones, and end up down the street in
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people's yards cluttered with debris. there's a task force in louisiana th tries to get the caskets back to the place of burial. it's not an easy task. after katrina, they mandated there be identification inside the case cetsz. after hurricane laura last year they're still right locate some of those caskets to the final resting place. >> woodruff: so difficult. roby chavez reporting to us from new orleans. thank you so much. >> ththank you, judy. >> woodruff: as the u.s and other western countries discuss the rollout of covid vaccine boosters, in africa and other parts of the world, millions are still waiting for their very first shot. covid has killed 200,000 people across africa, where there are nearly eight million confirmed cases. while south africa is on track to have a majority vaccinated by the end of the year. for many other sub-saharan countries, less than 3% of their
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populations have been vaccinated. earlier today, william brangham spoke with the head of africa's c.d.c., dr. john nkengasong. >> brangham: dr. john nkengasong thank you so much for joining us. i wonder if you could briefly just give us a sense continent wide, how is the pandemic going in africa right now? >> unfortunately, we are not winning the war against this pandemic in africa. as we speak, at least 32 countries are going through a very severe third wave and about four or five other countries are actually witnessing a fourth wave. and the background of this is that we have very limited vaccines that have been introduced on the continent. a population of 1.2 billion people have only seen one about 3% of the population fully vaccinated, which is unfortunate if we imagine that our goal was
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to at least vaccinate up to 60% of our population by next year. so i think it is a very unfortunate situation we are witnessing in africa. >> brangham: i would love to talk about the vaccines in just a moment. before then, though, is it your sense that the delta variant is the primary variant of the virus across africa now? >> it is. as we speak, over 30 something countries have now reported the delta variant and africa as a continent of 55 member states, so at least about 20 countries have not yet reported the delta variant. but the speed at which the variant is evolving suggests naturally that in the next couple of weeks or months, it will become the predominant variant. >> brangham: i know that testing is not as widespread across africa as it is elsewhere. do you think-- do you share the concern that you might be possibly missing even more cases simply because you don't have good eyes on the ground?
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>> oh, we are absolutely missing cases. there's no doubt about that, because of lack of broad testing, as we would love to. and it's not because countries don't want to do testing, i think, is lack of really access to large scale testing. and we have made significant progress. if you compare it to where we were last year, last year around april as a continent of one point two billion people, we had just tested on that 300,000 people. so but today we are way past that marker. but testing has to be the cornerstone of the rest of the continent, because if we did not test, we did not find. >> brangham: on this vaccination front, the global covax, the effort in many western nations-- they say that they are doing everything they possibly can to try to increase production and get vaccines elsewhere into the world, but it sounds like you clearly don't believe that effort is happening fast enough.
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>> well, let's admit it, i mean, the spirit of covax and the principle were sound and they were based on our need to cooperate and to express solidarity. the reality is that it has not translat into action where in africa, where as we speak, as i indicated earlier, just under 3% of our population of 1.2 billion people have been vaccinated. if you recall when this was set up, it was very clear that we wanted to have a basket where vaccines will be dped into and the vaccines that are effective will be accessible at the same time to everyone in the world who need the vaccines. but that is not what we are seeing today. >> brangham: and certainly here in the united states and in other parts of western europe and in israel, they're talking about introducing booster shots and giving booster shots, which could be hundreds of millions of third doses going to wealthier nations while you all are still
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waiting for so many of your first doses. >> that is absolutely correct. my greatest concern with the concept of a booster is that i have not seen the signs yet that justify that. for example, there are at least a couple of conditions that or scenarios that evidence to that is a better word that i'm looking for. one is that we should be able to define that when vaccine protection actually wanes to the point that somebody actually needs that a booster, we haven't seen that level, that data. second is that even if the immunity of that vaccine drops to a certain level in people that have received it, do you still get protection from disease or hospitalization? if the answer is that you get enough protection, then you don't need urgently to get a booster, okay? >> brangham: and certainly within the u.s., pfizer and moderna, which are two of the most commonly used vaccines
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here, the evidence, as you say, does seem to indicate that we are still getting good protection from hospitalization and death with those two vaccines, which seems to reinforce the point that you're making, that it is not that urgent for western nations to be giving boosters when you compare it to continents, entire continents like africa that are waiting. >> no, absolutely. i think if we look at the united states and also look at israel, i mean, israel was one of those countries that perhaps the first country that vaccinated at least 60 to 70% of its population. okay, but the beauty of the situation in israel is that even the most people that have received the vaccine were infected, they were not hospitalized and they wereot having severe illness there. so that is so the situation in israel teaches us two things. one is that by vaccinating your entire population and neglecting other parts of the world from being vaccinated, you are not safe because it will bring new
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variants and the variants will challenge even your own vaccines that you receive. i think that is one. lesson number two is that vaccines do, of course, but that those are the vaccines protect from disease and that they do not protect them from infection. so i think that is just very, very clearly messages that we should be taking home and that we truly don't know when if we need a second dose and how soon we need that solid booster those and how soon we need it. >> brangham: all right, dr. john nkengasong, director of the africaenters for disease control and prevention, thank you so much for your time and best of luck to you. >> thank you. thank you for having me on your program. >> woodruff: now, let's turn to the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which we are marking all week.
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tonight, we do that in two parts, beginning with the many ways that lives were impacted in a new jersey town-- a place that was disproportionately affected back in 2001. ali rogin returns to middletown, where she grew up, to see how residents and neighbors coped over the past two decades. >> reporter: middletown, new jersey: a suburb about an hour's train ride from manhattan. it's a community that was deeply affected by 9/11. it also happens to be my hometown. so i returned a few weeks before the twentieth anniversary of the terror attacks, to see how people have moved forward, even as they look back. first stop: a scenic overlook that's now home to the county's 9/11 monument-- an eagle clutching a beam salvaged from ground zero. i'm here at mount mitchill in atlantic highlands, which happens to be the highest point on the atlantic seaboard. people come here to admire the sweeping views of the new york city skyline. but on september 11th 2001, many
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people, my own family included, came up here to bear witness to the horror that was unfolding across the river. >> it's very difficult to convey the chaos that ensued. the disbelief, the fear. >> reporter: jodi molisani was my fourth grade teacher. >> i can remember being on my driveway days after and smelling the smoke fr ground zero. >> reporter: 147 county residents died that day, their names inscribed on the monument's base. 37 were from middletown, the most of any municipality outside of new york city. >> i had the television on, he had called me twice that morning. >> reporter: molisani's husband jude worked for the financial firm eurobrokers, on the 84th floor of the south tower. >> he was crying. and he said, i'm watching people jump out of the north tower, and that's when i panicked and i said, get out of there, come home.
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he said, okay, hung up the phone. i looked at the television and that's when the second plane hit. so i knew right then and there that he wasn't coming home. >> reporter: jude molisani's body was recovered quickly. months later, some personal effects surfaced, including his account card for the car service he used. >> this was in his wallet, which was in his desk, and this was recovered at fresh kills landfill. >> reporter: more importantly, his wedding ring. it's incredible how you can see the half of it that's pt its shape and the half that was misshapen. >> we know that he was thrown from the building because he was found on the ground. he was the 13th body recovered. and that is just illustrative of what he physically went through. it took 20 years to be able to be very matter of fact about things. and now, when i think of him, i'm good.
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>> you know i went to work with grandma kathy one time? >> daddy rode the train. >> yeah. she worked in a really tall building. >> reporter: matthew casey, an engineer married to my kindergarten classmate, elise, has no artifacts from grnd zero. but he does have his daughter, kate, named after his mother, kathleen, who was killed in the south tower. she ran the equities trading desk at sandler o'neill. >>ou had to be strong to work on wall street, especially as a as a female back then. she took her career very seriously. >> reporter: but his memories are of a loving mother who would do anything for her only child. just 14 when she died, he's worked long and hard at learning to live with his grief. >> the pain, pain doesn't go away. it's just that it's a different kind of pain. >> reporter: casey often seeks solace in middletown's memorial gardens, where each victim has a stone. >> it's peaceful. i feel her presence there and if i just need a place to go to talk to her i find that's the best place.
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>> reporter: the gardens are right next to the train station, which many of the victims used to get to work. today, the trains rush by as always, but steps away is an oasis-- a reminder that people here live in the present, but never forget the past. along the walkway, friends and family members leave mementos, engraved inscriptions tell a story of who their loved ones were. >> her love was bouness, her laughter contagious, her generosity legendary and her friendship a precious gift. those four lines are, that's who my mom was. >> reporter: the gardens are a living memorial. opened in 2003, they've been expanding ever since. this year, they're adding a monument to first responders, many of whom suffered health complications due to exposure at ground zero. tony perry is middletown's mayor. >> this memorial is growing because the wounds of 9/11 are never going to fully heal, but
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this community has embraced the families the day that that those tragic attacks occurred. and 20 years later, it still holds firm. >> reporter: for some, staying in this community was more painful than comforting. >> i left middletown because it was just too much of a reminder every day of what was so missing in my life and my daughter's life. >> reporter: kristen breitweiser's husband ron was a senior vice president at fiduciary trust. he died in the south tower on 9/11. she and her daughter moved to new york years ago. >> i wanted caroline to not sort of be walled in by all of the horror. she nearly made it through high school without anyone ever knowing that her dad was killed on september 11. >> reporter: but her goal was not to forget the events of that day. rather, breitweiser, a lawyer, became immersed in them. >> the reality is my husband left for work one morning and never came home, and i just assumed that the government
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would give me answers, and so when we received so much resistance from at that time the bush administration, we started doing our own research, we learned that o intelligence agencies were clearly following the hijackers. they had every bit of information that they needed to stop the 9/11 attacks. and for whatever reason, the 9/11 attacks weren't stopped and three thousand people were murdered in broad daylight. >> reporter: breitweiser was one of the so-called “jersey girls”; four widows who kept the pressure on congress. they helped make the case for the 9/11 commission, which in 2004 concluded that there had been, “failures of imagination” across the government. but breitweiser thinks those lessons remain unlearned. >> we went into several wars based on 9/11. we have scaled back privacy rights, constitutional rights of americans based on 9/11. we tortured, we extrajudicially killed. we had renditions all based on 9/11. >> reporter: in your mind, what
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has it all amoted to? >> i think it's just created more of a morass on the backs of, you know, my dead husband and others. >> reporter: she will recognize the 20th anniversary quietly, as usual. >> i've never gone to a memorial service. i kind of like to keep that date private for caroline and me. >> reporter: back in middletown, officials are planning a larger than usual ceremony. >> i have the easy job of remembering and ensuring that r community remembers. but i have a one year old daughter, she doesn't know any of this. >> reporter: for molisani, who still teaches fourth grade, educating the next generation about 9/11 is complicated. >> the children always have a lot of questions about what happened that day. and where were you, mrs. molisani? and i'm very candid in saying that i was at home. but at that point, that's where
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i stop the discussion. >> reporter: what do you hope other people who may not have a personal connection to 9/11 remember on this 20th anniversary? >> how our nation came together and how we were kind to each other and how there was no political party that you were affiliated with? everybody was just an american. >> reporter: a reminder that you don't need to be from middletown, new jersey, or any town that lost lives on september 11, to honor the people and the places that did. for the pbs newshour, i'm ali rogin, in middletown, new jersey. >> woodruff: now, amna nawaz widens the lens with a conversation about how september 11th and its aftermath changed the direction of the country. >> nawaz: judy, two decades later, we are still learng how the september 11th terror attacks shaped our politics, military and sense of national unity.
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garrett graff is the author of the book "the only plane in the sky: an oral history of 9/11". he also hosts a new podcast called "long shadow" about lingering questions after the attacks. he joins me now. garrett graff, welcome back to the "newshour". always good to have you here. when you first wrote the week and we talked about it, you said your goal wasn't to recount the facts of the day, but it was to remind everyone what it felt like on the day. 20 years later, do you think it's still as important to remember viscerally what that day felt like? >> absolutely. and i think part of this is, you know, here we are 20 years later, a generation later, we are seeing thievent slip from memory into history. i mean, of the 13 marines and sailor killed in kabul in august, you know, only two of them were actually old enough to be out of diapers on 9/11. and, coo so, the story that we tell them and the future generations about what this day meant to our country can't just
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be about the facts of the day, it has to be about the way the humans and u.s. government and citizens across the country lived the day because so much of our reaction as a government and as a people and a country afterwards was driven by the emotion of that day, the fear, the chaos, the confusion, the trauma, as much as as it was the facts and the actual events of that day. >> reporter: yeah, your remarkable book includes over 480 american stories in recounting that day. i'm curious, previously when we talked about it you said one to have the things that stood out as aonstant theme was the idea of luck, that it was a matter of one decision over another as to whether people lived or did not that day. does that still stand out to you? >> yeah, even more so actuay as we look at the small decisions that day -- went to step out for a cup of coffee, place a telephone call, which
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bus to ride or plane to catch -- determined ultimately life and death that day. it remains to me one to have the most important and most poignant themes of that day, and the way that the other thing we have to remember even all these many years later is that, you know, we have no idea what tomorrow will bring, and that's an important life lesson that many of the survivors of that day and the victims of that day that i talked to still talk about. >> reporter: and in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, we all remember the sense of national unity. i think it's fair to say we are not there today. garrett, when you look over the last 20 years, how did that happen? >> yeah, and, unfortunately, i think that they are very much related. you know, one of the challenges of taking stock of this war on terror 20 years in this week is to realize how much we got wrong
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as a government, as a nation, in the way that we responded in the west, the way that n.a.t.o. responded globally, you know, sort of step by step, we squandered the global unity and the sense of purpose that brought us together after 9/11 and, and, in fact, time and again gave into some of the darkest, worst angels of our nature. you know, when you look at the war in iraq, the c.i.a. torture program, the black sites, you know, here we are 20 years later, guantanamo bay still there, none of the 9/11 plotters have actually been brought to trial yet, and there's actually a very direct line between the unity that we experienced after 9/11, the decisions that we made as a government, and our sense of partisanship and polarization that continues to this day now.
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>> reporter: garrett, there is now an entire generation of americans who can vote, who have graduated college, who are young professionals starting their own families, who have no firsthand memory of that day. i'm curious how you think this day res naitsz with them, what place in history it holds for them. >> so this is going to be the huge difference of the next ten years is that we're going to be seeing a generation who has never known the nation as it existed before 9/11 but has spent their entire life growing up in the country shaped by it, and i think one of the things that most stands out is that america is much more afraid today, that when you look back on 9/11 and you see that 17-minute period between the first and second crash, 8:46 to 9:03, you see just how innocent a nation we were, that we all defaulted to believing that this was an accident, a mechanical
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prlem, a pilot having a heart attack, a small plane, a helicopter, that there was no way that this could be an attack or war on our country. and, now, of course, with 20 years past, we are a country that sort of that fear of being in public spaces, that fear of an attack coming in the places where we feel most safe is a daily presence in our lives. >> reporter: that is garrett graff, author of the best-selling book "the only plane in the sky: an oral history of 9/11". garrett, thank you so much for being with us. always good to talk to you. >> amna, thank you so much for helping to remember this week. >> woodruff: as we know, the sea can be the source of terrible storms or summer escapes. special correspondent jared bowen of gbh-boston explores how it has also inspired american art. its part of our canvas series.
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>> reporter: artists throughout american history have always been drawn to the glittering, sun-dappled sea. they've been seduced by sumptuous sunsets, majestic masts and still waters. not to mention the spitting, tempestuous opposite. >> they wander the beach and they look out to sea and it's an imaginative place. and so they think about how they can generate that kind of feeling in their paintings. >> reporter: like the valor of an unyielding naval commander, oliver hazard perry, the solitude of abandonment, marooned. or the feeling of just traveling by ferry on a gray day. >> it's a very mundane scene. but it is steeped in sort of the maritime environment, with the mist, with the thick air, but it isn't a grand story of a fabulous voyage that was world changing in any respect whatsoever. >> reporter: that's the point of this show that longtime maritime art curator dan finamore has been wanting to do for years- featuring work that, well, rocks the boat when it comes to
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perspectives in marine pnting. >> kay walkingstick is an artist who has always visited the new england coast. basket motif. but then it's overlain, as you can see, in the lower right, by her design of a native american basket motif. so she is simultaneously sort of looking at her own experience of the sea while also declaring this coastline, uh, as indigenous land, uh, in the >> reporter: here you'll also find a seascape abstracted, ocean park, immigrants, the immigrants, anticipating hope on the horizon and a departure from that denizen of the desert, georgia o'keeffe. >> what she saw at night, in particular, making it even more challenging is the beach before her, the far distant horizon with a lighthouse, the wave rolling at her and the vacant space that is everything where the narrative should be. >> reporter: it's a fitting show for the peabody essex. the nation's oldest continuously operating museum, it was founded in salem, massachusetts in 1799-
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just blocks away from what was then one of the world's most thriving ports. today, in this exhibition, the romance of the sea often washes away-in norman lewis's roiling sense the ocean's fury and in this rare depiction of a slave ship. >> it was chased by an anti- slaving squadron off the coast of africa, but it arrived safely in south carolina and all of the survivors were dispersed throughout the landscape, the crew was brought up on charges and they were all acquitted by a charleston jury. >> i hope that that makes people >> reporter: sarah chasse is one of the show's co-curators. her specialty: portraits where the sea floods the background as it does in this gilbert stuart image of george washington painted as a gift for alexander hamilton. or ithis painting of the roman goddess diana by way of maine. i'm just mesmerized by this portrait.
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>> it's also very mysterious. this is by the artist marguerite zorach. the rowboat is full of crustaceans, starfish, crabs, lobsters are sort of her bounty as diana the huntress, this painting by amy sherald, who created first dy michelle obama's official portrait, is about the everyday american-ness of a sunny day at the beach. >> there's so many layers of complexity to it in terms of america's, you know, black experiences with the beach, and segregated beachesn the past. so it's just really, really, really poignant. >> reporter: and pointed. as we also find in the show's final work. it's by early 20th century artist marsden hartley, a maine native who frequented the peabody essex museum and here, renders the maine coast at night. >> it is simultaneously calming and threatening. we wanted to end the show with
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that kind of a message, that the sea is many things, but it is definitely something to be wary of, to take note of, and it has an impact on everybody's life. >> reporter: for the pbs newshour, i'm jared bowen in salem, massachusetts. >> woodruff: the official u.s. response to 9/11 unleashed a series of missteps and mistakes, spanning across four presidencies. these two decades of failures are the subject of a new pbs "frontlinedocumentary, "america after 9/11," airing tonight. the following excerpt looks at how a single moment launched >> just four months after 9/11 in his first state of the union address, the president decided to dramatically widen the war. >> north korea has a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction. iran aggressively pursuing these weapons and exports terror.
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iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward america and to support terror. >> when you do hear that, you perk up and it's kind of surprising because here yohad president of the united states addressing congress and then naming these countries and putting them, lumping them together as this axis of evil. >> states like these andheir terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. >> for a frenchman to speech about the axis of evil is simply impossible to understand. you know, it's really coming from another world for us. we said axis of evil. what does it mean? >> i will not wait on events while dangers gather. i will not stand by as peril draws closer and closer. the united states of america will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us
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with the world's most destruive weapons. ( cheers and applause ) >> what had begun with this attack in new york and washington had now grown into this much larger and graver attack on america in the political language. >> our war on terror is well begun, but it has only begun. >> thedea that we weren't at risk just of terrorism, but in fact we were at risk of a nuclear attack, w.m.d., and that was an entirely new realm of conceivable combat. >> woodruff: you can watch "america after 9/11," a "frontline" documentary, tonight at 9:00, 8:00 central, on pbs. earlier this year, we spoke with 61 black women in politics about the harassment and threats they
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face in office. tonight on the pbs newshour's twitter account, join us for a special event. beginning at 7:05 p.m. eastern, amna nawaz will host a twitter space, where you can listen to her live conversation with three lawmakers from across the nation about their experiences and what needs to change. you can participate, too. send us questions at: #asknewshour. all that and more is on our and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshourank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:
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>> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org
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♪ hello, everyone. and welcome to "amanpour and company." here's what's coming up. as the taliban are accused of killing a pregnant police officer, what lies ahead now for afghanistan's women? then -- >> the alarming roll back of women's rights in the united states. i ask forr senator carol mosley brawn about the texas test case. is america done with being exceptional? discussion with correspondents. there will be a lot of turmoil and change. >> a vision of tomorrow. a scientist imagines a world
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