September 11, 2001: The September 11, 2001 Show
Callers pour in from New York, Australia, Taiwan, the Philippines, Mexico, and Canada, sharing eyewitness accounts and raw emotion. Craig Kitchen, president of Premier Radio Networks, describes the eerie silence that fell over Manhattan as millions of commuters were stranded on the island. Whitley Strieber calls from Texas, and Major Ed Dames reports that his remote viewers have pinpointed what they believe is the command and control center for the attacks in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Art repeatedly asks callers a single question: how will this change America? The responses range from willingness to sacrifice freedoms for security to warnings against directing anger at Arab Americans. Throughout the broadcast, Art reflects on the contrast between Pearl Harbor and this attack on civilians, noting the profound silence in skies now empty of aircraft.
Key Moments
Art opens by ceding the mic to America: After being awake all day watching the attacks, Bell decides he cannot out-expert CNN and will instead open the lines and let America speak to America.
More dastardly than Pearl Harbor: Bell frames the attack as another day of infamy but, in his view, far more dastardly than Pearl Harbor because it deliberately targeted civilians.
Ed Dames pinpoints a Kandahar bunker: Hours after the attacks, Major Ed Dames tells Bell his remote viewers have located the command authority - a bunker complex beneath Ahmad Shah Durrani's tomb in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Bell on what comes next: Bell reads CNN's bulletin that legislators are being told the U.S. is reasonably sure of bin Laden, and predicts retaliatory action within hours.
All those souls at once: In a quiet moment between calls, Bell pauses on the human scale of the loss - 'all those souls at once' - and on the apparent absence of any motive.