By CBS.MarketWatch.com 6:39:00 PM BST Sep 11, 2001
NEW YORK (FTMW) - Here is a timeline of the events in what President Bush called an apparent terrorist attack on the United States in which hijacked jets were crashed into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.
8.45am - First plane crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center
9.03am - Second plane crashes into the south tower of the WTC
American Airlines [US:AMR] later confirms that one plane involved in the crash was flight 11 from Boston to LA carrying 92 passengers, while the other was flight 77 from Washington to LA with 64 people on board - flight 11 is believed to be one of the planes that crashed into the WTC
9.21am - New York City Port Authority orders all bridges and tunnels in New York City closed
9.43am - First reports of a commercial airliner crashing into the Pentagon, completely destroying one side of the building
9.45am - White House evacuated
9.50am - All airports across the U.S. are shut down
10.07am - First tower of the WTC collapses
10.13am - The United Nations building is being evacuated
10.22am - State and Justice departments in Washington, World Bank are being evacuated
10.27am - North tower of the WTC collapses
10.30am - Reports emerge about a plane crash near Pittsburgh
United Airlines later confirms that flight 93, a Boeing 747 with 45 people on board crashed 80 miles outside of Pittsburgh, and that a second plane was involved in today's attacks
10.45am - All federal office buildings in Washington are being evacuated
10.54am - Israel evacuates all diplomatic missions
For more coverage see CBSMarketWatch.com
For Global markets reaction see FTMarketWatch.com
Attacks take what was left of our innocence
"Freedom itself was attacked this morning and I assure you freedom will be defended," President Bush said in an address to the nation shortly after Tuesday's attacks.
By Howard Fineman
SPECIAL TO MSNBC.COM
WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 — Today, a crisp, gloriously clear fall day in the East, is the Pearl Harbor Day of the 21st Century. It is too dangerous for the president to return to Washington.
REMEMBER THIS day, for on this day life in America changed forever, not for better. We are at war, and the war may never end. The death toll is unimaginable, the worst (and almost the only) domestic war casualties in our history. But we’ve lost more than lives. We’ve lost what’s left of our innocence. Remember what life was like before today: freedom to travel, the right to privacy, a sense of ease and security in our homes and in our cities and towns.
All these freedoms are diminished now. We can and will get them back. We will win this war as we have won the others, including World War II. But victory will not be easy, and we may have to give up some measure of freedom to preserve what’s best of the rest.
THE IMPORTANCE OF POLITICS
We are lucky beyond imagining in America. In most of the rest of the world, you ignore politics at your peril, often literally at the risk of your life. But here, for most of our history, our citizens have had the luxury as citizens to ignore politics. No one can ignore it anymore.
We are lucky to have democratically elected leaders and institutions that are trusted by the people. Now they will be tested as they have not been since the early days of the last World War.
There are justifiably angry questions about the quality of counterintelligence, the skill of our diplomacy, the weaknesses of what was supposed to be a hijack-proof air transport system. As was the case 60 years ago, the question is: How Could We Have Been So Catastrophically Unprepared?
On Tuesday, Washington was a world capital under siege. At my son’s elementary school, children on the playground hid under trees and behind bushes when they heard the news of the attack on the Pentagon. For kids, all terror is local. They had no reason to think that what happened down the Potomac could not happen closer to home.
At the Capitol, people exchanged rumors, none of them verified. It was said that a bomb had been found in the Rotunda, that there was an explosion in the vicinity, that the plane that hit the Pentagon had originally been circling Capitol Hill.
Incredibly, sources told me, police continued to allow people into the Capitol until about 9:45 a.m. I was told there was no evacuation or protection plan in place for members of Congress, even those, such as the Speaker of the House, who are constitutionally in line to run the government should catastrophe strike the president and the cabinet. “It was every man for himself,” one top Hill aide told me. One by one, leaders on the Hill decided to get out.
WANTED: LEADERS
The non-fiction bestseller lists have been heavy with books about great leaders and great days: the Founding Fathers, the Greatest Generation, the world-beating CEOs of business.
It’s almost as if we were unconsciously aware of the fact that we would need real leadership again.
And now we do. President George Walker Bush won a disputed election by the narrowest of constitutional margins. He got fewer popular votes than his foe. I know the man. He has more skill and savvy than most observers give him credit for. What we don’t know is whether he has the guts and determination — and the vision — to lead us in this war.
Now we will find out.
Howard Fineman is Newsweek’s chief political correspondent and an NBC News analyst.