This recording that your husband left you, is it okay if we play it and share it with yours?
It's okay. It's a very peaceful message to me now.
Thanks so much. This is the message left by Brian Sweeney.
Message 1.
If things don't go well and it doesn't look like they will. He knew, didn't he?
Oh absolutely. He would have never called if he didn't know.
Interestingly enough, he also spoke to his mother and he told her that he was going to try and do something about that situation in the air.
He was going to try and attack the hijackers. We will never know exactly what happened on that plane.
Rick Sanchez in Boston, Lester, back to you.
Rick, this tragedy has certainly hit some harder than others. I'm joined now by Nicole Lerner who lost her father, Frederick Hoffman, also her sister Michelle Hoffman.
She joins me right now. Nicole, thanks for joining us. Your father and your sister both worked at Canada Fitzgerald. They were in Tower 1.
What is it about anniversaries? We feel this need to mark this. Do you feel a need to mark Wednesday?
I think in a private way. I don't know if I, I won't be doing it publicly. We'll be keeping to our family together.
I think everyone obviously is going to be emotional that day and everyone needs to grieve in their own way and I think they'll remember their people in their own way that day.
We all look back and we all remember where we were, what we were doing with these vivid memories.
Play it through in your mind, how you reflected a year later on what happened that day.
That morning I was at work. My mom had called me, asked me if I heard the news. She said a plane hit one of the towers. She wasn't sure which tower it was.
She was actually in her car going to meet one of the guys that my dad worked with, his wife, to play golf. So she said that she would continue to the golf course to meet her.
Phone calls back and forth. She hadn't heard from my dad or my sister at that point.
And we should note your husband also works at Canterbury's. He was homesick that day. And you have a cousin that also works there.
My cousin Tommy was on his way. He was walking when he saw the second plane hit. Going to work. Going to work, yeah.
How long before you had an answer? Well, actually my mom had called me at school. I stayed at school and she said that someone spoke to my dad and that my dad was okay.
We hadn't heard from my sister at all at that point. And it turns out that the man that spoke to my dad had spoken to him at 850.
He was a client in a different building, a friend. And it was at 850 that morning. And that's the last that we had heard from him.
We actually got the tape later. So we were able to hear the conversation. So there was a tape of the conversation. There was a tape of my father and his friend.
Haunting or comforting? A little of both. It was nice to hear his voice again one last time.
He was calm. You could tell that he was shaken though. I remember the man asking him, are you okay? And the first thing my father said was, we can't get out of here.
Now you're ten stories above ground zero. What are your thoughts when you look at that? If no one knew, it's just another construction project, but it's not just another construction project.
It's not. And it's hard. They did find my father. They haven't recovered any of my sister remains yet.
So it's a little comforting to be here because this is where she might be still, you know, part of her. This is where they were last. It's hard, but it's...
How do you reconcile the fact that she's not been recovered and that they're already starting some infrastructure work there? They're building there. Something will be built there.
I only hope that they don't replace the towers. If they could replace all the lives that day, then go ahead and build the towers again. I don't think they should be rebuilt.
I think it should be a park setting, maybe with a statue with everyone's name on it, and just a place where people could come and reflect. You know, a few small buildings would be okay. I don't want to see the towers rebuilt.
Nicole, how has our country done in the last year? I'm not talking about our spirit. I'm talking about the way our government has responded, the way all the various funds that have been set up. What are your thoughts?
Well, I think the funds have really been distributed well. I don't... I can't say that we've had the problem that I've heard other families have had. You know, my mom's always been asked if she needed help.
People were calling her. She didn't have to make phone calls. And I think the government's doing what they could do now. I don't know if they did their job right on the morning of September 11th, but now they're doing what they need to do.
Nicole, we know that Cantor Fitzgerald was just devastated on that day. How is your husband? What is it like for him to get up every day and go to the office?
It's hard. It was really hard at first. You know, all the guys that should be sitting next to him aren't there. But he wanted to stay at Cantor. He knows that they're helping the families. He gets up in the morning and he does what he has to do.
Nicole, our thoughts are with you. We're so sorry for your loss. We thank you for sharing your time with us at this very poignant time. Appreciate it. Still ahead, we're going to continue our coverage of America. Remember, as we'll hear more from Vice President Dick Cheney, he was a guest of Tim Russert on Meet the Press this morning talking about a possible U.S. attack against Iraq. And as we head to a break, we'll give you a different perspective on terror images from space at the World Trade Center before and after 9-11.
This is Paul on MSNBC.
...is up and running. On September 11th, there will be thousands of workers who are back in their positions at work. It has been a remarkable project and something that I think all the people here are proud of. Let's get... All right. Thanks very much, Forrest Sawyer from the Pentagon. We are constantly reminded in many ways of what happened on September 11th. If you ever catch an airplane, if you fly, you're reminded every time you walk up to security, the faces of the security officials a bit more grim. Maybe someone in a National Guard uniform and the checks on the
security are a lot more thorough. Aviation security has been center to the discussion in the last year. Two of the airplanes that attacked that day were hijacked after leaving Boston's Logan Airport. Our Rick Sanchez is in the Boston area today to bring our coverage. Rick?
You're absolutely right, Lester, and that's why officials at Boston's Logan Airport are adamant about coming up with a way of fixing the system. In fact, you know, the government's put a deadline on airports across the country to come up with a way to screen bags for explosives, and most airports have been saying, no, we can't do it. It's an unreasonable expectation. But not officials at Logan Airport. They're saying, by golly, we're going to do it. We're going to come up with a sophisticated way that puts these bags through a conveyor belt where they're checked not once but twice and sometimes thrice.
Three times even using CAT scans. It's an interesting concept that they've come up with, but it's not the only thing that they're going to do. They've also come up with a system at Logan Airport where they hope to do what is called a facial recognition detection system where they're actually going to be able to look at people's faces with this most complicated network of systems and then compare them to a database to see if those people have some type of history that would make officials at the airport want them to check or screen them.
A little bit more carefully. And one other system that they're considering at Logan. It's an erratic behavior detection system. They look at people. This is similar, by the way, to what's been used in Israel. They look at people at the airport on that given day for a particular period of time to see how they're behaving. If they see something that fits a certain pattern, which they have now matched to what maybe terrorists or others have done in the past, then they screen them as well. So they really
are trying to get a handle on security here at Logan Airport. And of course, it all goes back to what happened on September 11th. People here at Boston, you can be sure, heard the criticisms of their airport. Heads rolled and now they're fixing things. And then we want you to know that we're also going to be focusing while we're here throughout this day on other security aspects. Buildings, part of the infrastructure, even garbage cans that have now been made in such a way so that if
someone were to put a bomb into them, it would actually enclose the area so the bomb wouldn't affect the surrounding area. We're going to tell you about that and a whole lot more while we're covering the story from here in Boston. I'm Rick Sanchez. Lester, back to you.
Rick, we'll be talking to you throughout the morning and afternoon. Rick, thanks so much. Still ahead on our special coverage of America Remembers New York City then and now. Coming up, we'll be talking to an Emmy Award winning filmmaker about the history of New York and the significance of this anniversary.
And as we head to a break a different perspective on the cost of terror images from space at the Pentagon before and after 9-11.
You watch MSNBC on September 11th. We'll let you experience the day without too much of, well, us. MSNBC's team of journalists will bring you the events from Pennsylvania, the Pentagon, and ground zero in Manhattan with only limited interruption and not so much talk through the day.
On Wednesday evening, we'll help put the year in perspective. You should be able to pay tribute to our heroes and celebrate the spirit of America in your own way. And we'll be right here to help you do that. Thanks.
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For a full timeline of the events of September 11th and the days following the attacks,
go to the 9-11 timeline on the America Remembers page of MSNBC.com.
Track the events of that day in the air and on the ground.
As air traffic control, the military and emergency services responded to the attacks.
See how the nation's political leaders responded in those first days and how the attacks affected the financial markets.
That's all on the 9-11 timeline on MSNBC.com.
As we near the one-year anniversary of the attacks on America,
Americans are asking how much of a threat is Saddam Hussein in Iraq?
If he has weapons of mass destruction, is it necessary to go after him?
And if the U.S. were to do that, would it take vital resources away from the war on terror?
A short time ago, I posed that very question to New York Senator Hillary Clinton. Here was her response.
Everyone, certainly among my colleagues, is united in the goal of trying to remove the danger
that Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction pose to the entire world.
The questions are about the best way to do it, when to do it, whether we do it alone,
what the consequences of such an action would be.
But the goal is one that everyone is united behind.
Is it in your opinion though, or should it be the top priority?
The war on terror is still underway. We still don't know about Osama bin Laden
and many key al-Qaeda players. Priority-wise, should we be dealing with Iraq at this point?
Well, I think there are a lot of priorities in the war against terror.
Clearly, we have unfinished business in Afghanistan,
and with respect to rounding up and eliminating the al-Qaeda network, it is true.
We don't know the fate of Osama bin Laden, which is an important question for us to answer.
But I never believed that that was the only part of this important mission
that the United States undertook following September 11.
There are other areas of our world that we need to be looking at in order to try to contain and eliminate terror.
The President obviously believes, along with his advisors, that moving now against Saddam Hussein
is part of that overall effort to make the world safer, to defend our interests at home and abroad.
That case has to be made. But I don't think there is only one priority.
I would not, however, want to see that we shift priorities, that we go from, you know,
the policy that we currently have of trying to seek out and destroy the terrorist network and forget about that.
I don't think we can afford to do that. The adversaries who attacked us on September 11 are the al-Qaeda.
They are the ones who plotted and planned and carried out such a horrific terrorist attack on our nation.
We can't possibly shift completely away from that priority.
So it's a question of whether we're going to be operating on several different fronts at once.
We can't ever give up on the terrorist front, and particularly with respect to al-Qaeda.
Senator Hillary Clinton, my guest, a bit earlier this morning.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani called September 11 the worst day in the history of New York
and also the greatest day. The city has been praised all across the world for its resiliency and courage in the face of destruction.
It's a spirit that Rick Burns was trying to create when he created his six-part documentary series, New York,
which broke all kinds of records when it aired on PBS last fall. Rick joins us now. Rick, thanks for being here.
Good to be here.
There was a slogan in the city in the days and weeks after 9-11, I love New York now more than ever.
A year later, reality has sunk in of financial issues, all the things that come with tighter security.
Do we still love it more than ever?
I think we do love it more than ever. I think an amazing thing happened on September 11.
You know, the 50 years before the events of last fall saw a major falling off of feeling for big cities everywhere.
New York was really thought of as a kind of Sodom and Gomorrah for 40 or 50 years after the Second World War.
That had begun to fade in the 1980s and the 1990s, but I think one of the things that happened when the towers fell
was the last of that affectation that you feel ambivalent about New York just fell to the ground with the towers.
People realized that New York for so long seen as the least American of American cities by so many Americans
suddenly was understood as what it is, which is a unique vessel of all the impulses that we consider most American.
What about the rest of the country's view toward New York? There was a lot of sympathy, there was a lot of money.
Is that goodwill wearing thin now?
I think it's not so much that the goodwill is wearing thin, but you know, like the people, like anyone who bears the brunt of a tragedy most,
time goes on for the people who don't live there, but for the people who live near ground zero, for New Yorkers themselves,
and of course for the victims of the families, you know, we're caught here. We can't put it behind us,
and I don't think we won't put it behind us for a generation or two. I mean, every time we look up at the skyline,
we're reminded of something that's not there, and we feel the loss of those buildings viscerally in our guts every day.
We also, and maybe I'm alone, I don't think I'm alone, every time you go through a tunnel, every time you walk on a subway,
you know there's a big target that's painted over New York City. We knew it in 93, we knew it a year ago.
How much more can this city take?
You know, it's hard to say how much more the city can take. I certainly know that that feeling of vulnerability really hasn't abated.
Who can look at a plane passing behind the profile of a New York skyscraper and not feel vulnerable?
We see them very low, right over us.
You know, Manhattan is on a skyway to three major international airports, and we see them every day.
They were symbols. New York has been the symbol of modernity for a very long time, in elevators, in skyscrapers,
and in airplanes especially, and in the media. In all those ways, those aspects of life in New York are now part of a modernity
that has been turned against the city so dramatically and so cataclysmically that I think especially for New Yorkers,
we sort of, we vibrate with a kind of anxiety about modernity now. Will it happen again?
I was in this building right over here, at one Liberty Plaza the other day, and looking down on the site, and I looked.
People are just buzzing by this site again. I mean, New Yorkers, you know, headlong, going to work.
It looks like everything's back to normal. Is it a facade? Is it really a false sense of we're back to normal?
You know, I think it's not so much a false sense of being back to normal, but I think the truth is that underneath it all, we're still heartbroken.
I mean, what happened was unprecedented and is not something that you can recover from in a handful of months or a handful of years.
I mean, we have to go on with life, and of course, as New Yorkers, we're used to change. We're used to cataclysmic change.
These buildings have been rising and falling for generations, and there's nothing that New Yorkers are more used to than that kind of change.
Nevertheless, although we're used to change, it doesn't mean that our hearts aren't tremendously scarred by this
and that we don't need something, for example, in this site behind us that will mend a broken heart
and that will soar emotionally and imaginatively and help us find our way through this jungle of the morning process,
but it's really only begun. It's going to take decades, I think.
Have you learned something more about New York in the last year that you would have put into that documentary if you only knew the way this was handled?
You know, I think one thing we've all understood is that New York is really a village.
I mean, it became instantly the biggest small village in the world on 9-11, and in many ways, that remains the case.
All those small differences between people, which sort of provoked small confrontations on the streets, screaming at cab drivers,
that's sort of a routine, characteristically New York incivility.
Boy, that turned out to be something which New Yorkers were willing to shed in a heartbeat on Tuesday, the 11th of September of last year.
I think that's something that New Yorkers and people around the country and around the world learned about this city,
so famous supposedly for its incivility and for its lack of community.
Boy, did people realize that there's a hell of a community here that, you know, beneath the surface really, really means a lot.
But there was some strange comfort in the first time somebody stole a cab from you again
or the first time somebody snapped at you after 9-11. It was like, OK, we're getting back to normal here.
We're getting back to normal. I think, and I've screened at a cab driver once or twice in the last 12 months,
but with nowhere near the frequency before 9-11.
And I think it's important that a remaining legacy of this event will be that sense that, you know what, what's going on for other people matters.
Perhaps that kind of unique self-absorption of New Yorkers that makes them sort of shoulder each other out of the way metaphorically and literally,
you know, that still seems to be on a kind of hold that I think might, if not be permanent, I think it's going to go on for some time.
We've got about 10 seconds left. How hard or is this going to be hard for you with Wednesday?
Oh, you know, I think that it's going to be tremendously hard for all of us, but I'm very glad about what's happening.
I think all the attention is appropriate. You know, tremendous cataclysms, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln,
the assassination of John F. Kennedy, 9-11, are moments that really sort of call forth both a ritual and an improvisational response.
And I think we're making it up as we go along. And I think I'm very proud of the response publicly and privately,
the media and our political leaders to this event as we've tried to sort of find a path through this tremendously difficult event.
Rick Burns, New Yorker, thanks so much for coming on and talking with us.
Thanks for having me.
Still ahead on our special coverage of America Remembers, we'll hear more from Vice President Dick Cheney.
He appeared with Tim Russer on Meet the Press talking about Saddam Hussein at Iraq.
The president will decide and will on Thursday address the United Nations, and that's when we'll know what specific course of action,
that's when the country will know and the world will know what specific course of action we've decided upon.
Morning, Joe. New haircut?
No.
New shoes?
No.
Hey, Joe. You've been working out?
No.
Hey, Joe. Should I do a mustache?
Nope.
You sure you like my new haircut?
Yes.
You just get back from vacation?
No.
Did I?
No.
What's different? He finally asked his doctor about Viagra. Ready to ask your doctor about Viagra for the first time?
This week in jail has been like Jonah getting swallowed by the whale.
It's turned me right around and I know I need to do what the Lord wants me to do with my life and I'm deeply sorry and nothing like that's going to happen again.
Appreciate it. So there's Emmanuel, king of the bums. Does he belong in jail or a mental hospital?
I mean, be honest with yourself. Do you want people like this poor guy marching around the streets?
I don't. And this never would have happened if the liberals hadn't dumped their human trash on the streets. I'm sorry. That's the way I see it.
If it hurts you, you know what? It hurts Elizabeth Smart even more for what happened to her.
Do you know how many countless crimes are committed by these people, deranged on the street because your liberals said it's a human right for them to live in cardboard boxes?
Forget about it. I don't want to talk about him anymore. We'll talk about all the other topics. Could you get that face off the screen?
It freaks me out. Remember, there was a guy I knew in Hawaii who looked like that. He was another nut, walked around with the Bible, ripped everyone off, tried to screw everyone's wife, robbed you of your money.
But he was a religious guy. You know that type? All right. We're going to take callers. We're going to run the video. We're going to read from the book.
It's another savage nation in America. By next week, I have a feeling it's all going to be about Iraq. OK.
Pam, welcome to the Savage Nation. What's your topic, please?
Hello?
Yes. What's on your mind, Pam?
Oh, hi. I just wanted to make a comment about people that are opposing war. First of all, they seem to forget that we live in America, and thank God this is a free country where they can say what they want.
Right.
And second of all, even though I'm a Democrat and I really did not like President Bush at first, I respect the fellow because he's been through a lot. First, we had 9-1-1, which I haven't forgotten, and many people seem to have forgotten about it.
Well, let's run 9-1-1 again up here. I mean, while this lady's talking, run that footage again so we don't forget the World Trade Center. That's what you're talking about. Thank you for calling. Thank you very much for that call. I appreciate it.
Yeah, run that footage. Maybe America and the world can remember who are watching now that that's why we fight.
Do we have any of that footage of Frank Capra's great movies from World War II? You know what's interesting to me?
In World War II, Hollywood was so patriotic. They did a whole series of movies that were directed by Frank Capra, Why We Fight.
We've gone in one generation from that to these Hollywood idiots who are out there trying to put a knife in America's back at every turn.
How did that happen that we went from Rosie the Riveter to Rosie O'Dumbbell in one generation?
Is that going now? That's cute. It's almost like a syphilis movie in the 19th. Remember those syphilis movies? Boys, when you go out there, make certain that you wear a jacket.
Is this what I asked for? What is this? Is there any sound? There's no sound? We almost lost the war at the beginning. I can see why.
Yeah, play it up. Let's hear it. Come on. Let's hear the Long Ranger. I want to hear that voice like in the theaters. This is what I want to see.
Raise the volume. Let's hear that. I want to hear that stuff. Come on.
Well, this isn't any art canon. Forget about it. That's not what I needed. Oh, let's hear it. There we go.
What are the causes? Why are we Americans on the march?
There we go. Is it because of...
Aha. Why are we Americans on the march? Is it because... See, that's what we need. This is exactly what we need. Why are we Americans going to war?
That's what I'm trying to do here. It's a one-man operation. You know, I can only do so much. The Savage Nation means you. All you savages and savage jets out there, I invite you to understand what I stand for.
Maybe you think I'm a very intolerant man. I'm going to invite you to go to my website, which is shown on the screen on my personal website, which is michaelsavage.com, and see my nine-point program for saving America, okay?
Let's take some nice callers now. If they're nice, I don't know. If you disagree with me, fine. Angelo, welcome to the Savage Nation. Question or comment, Angelo? What is it?
It's a comment.
Go ahead.
It's a...
What's your comment, Angelo?
Angelo, talk.
It's a comment. It's about these celebrities siding against America. They forget. Hello?
All right, turn him off. He forget... No one forgot that. Jack, you're on the Savage Nation. What's your question or comment, Jack? No one forgot that's what you're doing.
How you doing, Mike?
Go ahead, Jack.
First of all, we're all behind you, Mike, and don't worry about all these advertisers who are leaving you. We're going to stand up to them, and I think you want to sue Proctor and Gamble.
Wait, wait, wait. Hold, hold, hold. I'm not worried about any advertisers. In fact, we have more advertisers...
Jack, take a walk. Take a walk, Jack. I'm not worried about anything. I have more people lining up to be on this show than you could ever, ever, ever put on the show.
Let's forget about those gutter groups that don't happen to like me. We still live in America, you know? We don't live in the Taliban world where they like to put us. You know? That's what it's all about.
There are groups that don't like me. They don't have to like me. But I'm one man trying to make a living. You understand?
Now, I can get into this if you want. I really shouldn't, but I will. During the 1930s in Germany, when the Nazis wanted the Germans to stop buying at certain stores, they painted Judah in the window.
That meant Jew. And that told the good Germans not to buy in that store. To me, the people who are trying to knock me off the air are descendants of those brown shirts. Okay? That's how I see it.
Hey, have a nice week. I'll be back next week with another Savage Nation. Be sure to tell all your friends about it and visit me on the web.
Ah, here we go. Here comes the train. I'm going to get a slice of pizza today and a beer. That's what I want. Oh, do I want a slice of pizza and a beer in that train?
I don't think they have that in Japan, though, do they? The Japanese fully train. That is a beautiful train.
A look at the current radar right now shows that we have some wet weather for the west coast, and some of that's now moving inland as well.
Meanwhile, showers and thunderstorms across parts of the southeast and southern Texas. A few flurries depart at northern New England.
A few other forecast to shower here and there in Honolulu. Showers and thunderstorms for Houston. We're looking at some wet weather with showers and thunderstorms in Miami and some showers in Los Angeles.
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