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COVER STORY: TERRORIST STRIKES
Sixty Minutes Of Hell
More than 10,000 feared dead, twenty billion dollars of
property destroyed, one per cent of GDP lost in work stoppages and a nation's
psyche scarred forever. The myth of fortress America Lies demolished.
By Ashok Malik with Lavina Melwani in New York
Kabir Rekhi was
lighting a cigarette. Standing outside his office on Broad Street, just
off Wall Street in New York, this India-born Ernst & Young executive
had stepped out with his boss just before 9 a.m. on a perfectly everyday
Tuesday morning. As the two took their first puffs, one of the towers
of the World Trade Center-hosting 155 businesses and 50,000 people-erupted.
Rekhi thought it was a bomb. His boss, who had witnessed the 1993 WTC
bomb attack, was remarkably unruffled: "It's a terrorist attack."
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BRIDGE ACROSS FOREVER: Terrorists targeted
the symbols of the American dream. When the smoke cleared, the twin
towers of the World Trade Center were no more.
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They began to walk back when they heard the second
blast. This time it was the South Tower that was on fire. A second plane
had struck and Rekhi was beginning to panic. His wife Gunjan would be
at the train station below the WTC, he realised, changing trains on her
way from their home to her office in Upper Manhattan. The train's departure
had already been aborted but Rekhi did not know that. He ran towards the
towering inferno looking for his wife amid a confused, chaotic and terrified
mass. He was stuck in the WTC complex when the South Tower began to crumble
some 45 minutes later. He began to run, part of a concourse of humanity
rushing away from the crashing steel, concrete and balls of fire. "I
saw somebody jump from God knows which floor. Bodies were flying like
pinballs." Today, at home with his wife, Rekhi can't believe he got
away without a scratch. Gunjan calls it a miracle. The Rekhis will never
forget the day. Neither will New York. Nor America.
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THE PLAN THAT HIT AMERICA
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# Four hijacked planes used as the weapons of
destruction.
# Only long-distance flights with full fuel loads
selected.
# To evade radar tracking, flight transponders
disabled.
# Devastation caused by the explosion of full
fuel tanks.
# Attacks aimed at and timed for total panic
and full publicity.
# Conspirators numbered 50 while 18 carried out
operations.
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In a land devoted to trivia and statistics, the
most singular reflection of terror appeared on the most unlikely mirror.
On September 11, 2001, the day four hijacked aircraft shattered what a
newspaper called the nation's "feeling of invincibility", the
US was forced to cancel every Major League baseball game. The last time
this happened was on June 6, 1944, the day of the Normandy landings in
World War II. It revived memories of why the US had gone to war at all.
The destruction of WTC was "this generation's Pearl Harbour".
But whereas the surprise Japanese attack on the US naval base on December
7, 1941 claimed 2,390 lives, the casualties from September 11 may well
cross 10,000.
The assault (see graphic) was as horrific as
it was audacious: four commercial aircraft were hijacked and turned into
airborne bombs, carrying a full load of aviation fuel-the two Boeing 767s
headed for New York carried 90,770 litres and two Boeing 757s 42,680 litres-and
deliberately crashed into the heart of the American financial and military
establishment.
Across America, the reaction was swift. In city
after city, the downtown areas were cleared out. The 110-storeyed Sears
Tower in Chicago was evacuated as a precautionary measure. Schools ended
early, people drove home. They were distraught, searching for answers.
Simmering deep within was a rage for revenge. The VOX pops on radio stations
and TV channels were seething. Some wanted to enlist or re-enlist in the
Marines. "We need to go to war and eradicate these terrorists,"
said one radio interviewee. A World War II veteran captured the popular
mood, "As I see the smoke and dust, I'm glad the Statue of Liberty
is still standing." The most crippling moment for a country that
cherishes its civil liberty came the day after. On September 12, armoured
cars and soldiers with assault rifles patrolled Manhattan, an image without
parallel. It could happen elsewhere, in Africa and Asia or even in Paris
in 1968. Like Jean-Paul Sartre, Americans had long believed hell was other
people. No longer.
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