9/11 Attack Quotes

Eleven days before 9/11, I was on a plane with the 9/11 hijackers who were carrying out a dry run.

The people who perpetrated the terror of the World Trade Center and Pentagon bombings are something different because these people were obviously not desperate and poor refugee dwellers. They were middle class, educated enough to speak English, to be able to go to flight school, to come to America, to live in Florida.

I was in New York on September 11 when those planes hit the World Trade Center. At the time, it seemed like it was a local thing. But three or four days later, by the time we drove across the country in the bus, we realized it wasn't a local thing. You could really feel the states become united. We became the United States of America.

I think a lot of programs, policies have been put in place since 9/11, have prevented a 9/11-style attack. On the other hand, I think the threat has become greater, not lesser.

New York was not attacked because the terrorists had something against New York. New York was attacked because it is the symbolic capital of the country

As far as the targets hit by the Islamic attackers, I do not consider the WTC a U.S. institution, but the headquarters of most that's wrong with our present masters.

I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile.

First and foremost is to not allow the reestablishment, if you will, of an extremist sanctuary that can export the kind of terror that ended up with terrorists taking down the World Trade Center and plowing into the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. That's the point: We started this war because the Sept. 11 attack came from this area. And we do not fight alone, but with some 40 allies who share that view.

The wort terrorist attack in American history also brought out the best in our country...We are United as Americans.

When we were attacked on Sept. 11, we knew the main reason for the attack was that Islamists hated our way of life, our virtues, our freedoms. What we never imagined was that the free press - an institution at the heart of those virtues and freedoms - would be among the first to surrender.

In 1995, we had evidence of the brother-in-law of Osama bin Laden being in the Philippines, living in the Philippines. We had evidence of front organizations set up in the Philippines. And we uncovered evidence about, which would help the U.S. with - about the perpetuators of the World Trade Center bombing.

For weeks after 9/11 you could smell the dust and pulverised concrete in New York, and the National Guard came in, so there was a military presence on the streets. It was intense. Overwhelming. Heartbreaking.

Osama Bin Laden is not well read and he's not sophisticated, but he will have worked out very coldly what America would do in response to this attack 9/11. I'm sure he wanted America to attack Afghanistan. Once you do what your enemy wants, you are walking into a trap, whether you think it's the right thing to do or not.

Remember the picture of the president in the classroom, being told of the attack by chief of staff Andy Card? The American people thought they were seeing a man suddenly thrust into a grave challenge no one could have anticipated.

At the time, I was living pretty close to Ground Zero. I had to grab some necessary equipment, put it in my backpack, and flee the immediate proximity on my bike.

I was an Army intelligence agent and a veteran during the Cold War, assigned to West Germany. I was the chairman of the National Commission on Homeland Security and Terrorism for the United States for five years. I was a person who has dealt extensively with these homeland security issues. I was a governor during the 9/11 attack.

Anything Can Happen is also, incidentally, a poem that arose from teaching. I'd talked about the Horace Ode (I, 34) [on which the poem is based] in a lecture I gave at Harvard in the fall of 2000 entitled Bright Boltsand remembered it after the Twin Towers attack.

Initially, I had two thoughts. First, this is a very large conspiracy; and second, our children in Washington. We knew there were a few unidentified planes that may have been headed for the White House or the Capitol Building.

Osama bin Laden organized an attack that was carried out against the United States, New York, Pentagon, and the other aircraft, with 19 attackers, 19 guys with box cutters. An attack that probably cost almost nothing.

I was at Ground Zero, and it was, to me, such a graphic illustration of what terrorism has done to our world.

Who was behind the attack on America of 2011? 15 of the 18 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia and the ideology that they followed was from Saudi Arabia …. Saudi Arabia has supported the Taliban and Al Qaeda before the United States was attacked. Most of their funds came from Saudi Arabian individuals. But more important, the ideology that they followed came from Saudi Arabia.Who was behind the attack on America of 2011? 15 of the 18 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia and the ideology that they followed was from Saudi Arabia …. Saudi Arabia has supported the Taliban and Al Qaeda before the United States was attacked. Most of their funds came from Saudi Arabian individuals. But more important, the ideology that they followed came from Saudi Arabia.

Congress has funded numerous programs to provide care and compensation to 9/11 victims, spending several billion dollars on extraordinary and unprecedented efforts.

Russell Defreitas plotted to commit a terrorist attack that he hoped would rival 9/11.