Click a name at left
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SEPT11_watn_060829[i++] = new Array("","Bob Beckwith
(NYC fireman embraced by President Bush)","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_beckwith_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Paul Richards", "AFP", "210", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_060829[i-1].body = "
THEN
When retired New York firefighter Bob Beckwith stood at President Bush’s side at the still smoldering Ground Zero just days after 9/11, he quickly became an iconic image of the nation’s strength and resilience in the wake of the attacks.
Beckwith was inspired to help in the rescue efforts at Ground Zero after he learned that one of his former colleague’s sons was among the hundreds of missing firefighters. He donned his old helmet, made his way downtown and convinced authorities at the heavily guarded perimeter to let him join the efforts.
And when, a few days later, Beckwith heard Bush was coming to the site to see the devastation first-hand, he scrambled up on top of a burned-out out fire truck to get a better look at the president.
Next thing he knew, Beckwith was helping Bush onto the back of the truck as the crowd chanted “U.S.A., U.S.A.” As the cheers died down, Bush pulled Beckwith near and began speaking.
Someone from the crowd yelled that they couldn’t hear him. Bush, with his arm draped around Beckwith, shouted into his bullhorn: \"I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”
The president’s words were met with wild cheers from the crowd. The whooping and the hollering – and the sight of a elderly fireman doing his best in the face of tragedy -- reassured people across the country that the spirit of the nation was bruised, but not crushed.
NOW
Beckwith, now 74, is back to his retirement, having left the Ladder 164 firehouse in Queens in 1994 after 29 years on the job.
But it hasn’t been shuffleboard and senior centers for the father of six and grandfather of ten. Not only has he visited Bush at the Oval Office, but he now travels the world speaking and raising money for the New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation.
-- Petra Cahill
";
SEPT11_watn_060829[i++] = new Array("","Rudolph Giuliani
(Mayor of New York City)","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_guiliani_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Robert F. Bukaty", "Pool via AP", "209", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_060829[i-1].body = "
THEN
By the later summer of 2001, Rudy Giuliani was generally viewed as a lame duck. First, there was the plain fact that his office was covered by term limits, which meant he had only a few months remaining as New York City’s chief executive. Then there was the perception, seven years after bursting on the national scene with a reputation for making the city’s streets safer, that he had in many ways worn out his welcome.
Most visibly, there were the almost daily headlines and stories in the city’s voracious tabloids detailing the ugly split from his second wife, Donna Hanover. And then there was a widely held belief that the crime-fighting zeal that had made him famous (and ensured this 1997 reelection) was divisive.
That, of course, was all to change in the space of a few hours. Within minutes of the strikes, Giuliani – who happened to be downtown at the time of the attacks – took charge in a way that brought strength both to the city and to the nation.
His sense of shock, sadness, anger and determination to rebuild mirrored – and validated – New Yorkers’ emotions. At the same time, his poise, calm and ability to effectively coordinate city, state and federal rescue and recovery efforts reassured the shaken city.
“Tomorrow New York is going to be here,\" he said. \"And we're going to rebuild, and we're going to be stronger than we were before. ... I want the people of New York to be an example to the rest of the country, and the rest of the world, that terrorism can't stop us.\"
His efforts transformed his image. From a local politician largely seen to be on a decline, he became a national figure, a status confirmed when he was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2001.
NOW
The attacks of 9/11 fell on the same day as the primary election for Democrat and Republican candidates to succeed Giuliani. The voting was immediately postponed for two weeks; meanwhile, Giuliani appealed for an unprecedented three-month extension of his term in order to help coordinate the city’s recovery from the terror attacks.
Giuliani’s critics immediately cried foul and accused him of trying to profit politically from the situation; meanwhile, supporters of the extension argued that his leadership was key to ensure the city’s recovery from the attacks. In the end, the State Assembly and Senate decided that the extension was not necessary, and Michael Bloomberg, who won both the Republican primary and the November general election, was sworn in as the next mayor in January 2002.
After leaving office, Giuliani created a security consulting and investment business, Giuliani Partners, of which he remains chairman and CEO. The firm is made up largely of key members of his former administration – such as Thomas Von Essen, New York’s fire commissioner under Giuliani – and large companies such as Nextel and Ernst and Young hire the firm to advise them on logistics, security and disaster preparedness.
The former mayor also travels widely as a speaker-for-hire and is said to command up to $100,000 per speech.
In addition, Giuliani has become a prominent voice of the GOP and is often touted as a potential Republican contender for the presidential race in 2008. Many point to the fact that as the national mid-term election races heat-up Giuliani has been hitting the campaign trail, stumping for fellow Republicans, including Maryland senatorial candidates Michael Steele of Maryland and Virginia’s George Allen.
If he is testing the waters for a presidential bid in 2008, his tactics appear to be working. According to a recent poll of Iowa GOP caucus-goers, Giuliani is their top pick for president, receiving support from 30 percent of Republicans expecting to attend the 2008 caucuses, as opposed to 17 percent for Sen. John McCain.
-- Petra Cahill
";
SEPT11_watn_060829[i++] = new Array("","Lisa Beamer
(Widow of Flight 93 victim)","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911wherethey_beamer_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Linda Spillers", "AP", "298", "237", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_060829[i-1].body = "
THEN
In the aftermath of 9/11, it seemed she was everywhere. A 32-year-old blond woman whose calm, articulateness and grace belied the fact that she had just lost her husband on Flight 93, the only one of the four hijacked planes that did not reach its target.
The reason, of course, that Flight 93 did not crash into the U.S. Capitol or another site in Washington, D.C., was due to the heroic acts of many of its passengers, among them Lisa Beamer’s husband, Todd, whose words “Let’s roll” to a telephone operator just before the plane went down near Shanksville, Pa., summed up the can-do bravery of the ordinary men and women who fought back against the terrorists.
This spirit – and the strength shown by the many widows of 9/11 – became embodied in Lisa Beamer, who was five months pregnant at the time of the attacks. President Bush spotlighted her during his address to Congress on Sept. 20 and she appeared in just about every corner of the media, from the “Today” show to “Larry King Live” to “People” magazine.
Beamer, who grew up in Shrub Oak, N.Y. graduated from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. with a bachelor’s degree in economics. It was at Wheaton that she met her husband; they were married in 1994.
NOW
After giving birth to a daughter, Morgan, Beamer went on to write a book, “Let’s Roll!: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage,” about her husband and her struggle to deal with her grief after his death. In addition, Beamer, also the mother of two sons, David and Drew, helped create the Todd M. Beamer Foundation, a New Jersey-based charity with the goal of helping children deal with trauma. It has since been renamed Heroic Choices.
In recent years, Beamer has pretty much dropped out of sight, perhaps because she has found herself the subject of controversy. Some accused her of profiting from the tragedy with the publication of her book and frequent media appearances. She was also criticized for the foundation’s successful attempt to trademark for the phrase “Let’s Roll,” which has since been licensed it to Wal-Mart, the Florida State Football team and others.
Her publicist declined repeated requests for further information. The Heroic Choices Web site says that after serving as chairman of the charity’s board, she became one of its trustees and that “a large portion of proceeds” of her book were directed to its work. The site also states that she continues to live in New Jersey, where she and her children are active members of their church.
-- Petra Cahill
";
SEPT11_watn_060829[i++] = new Array("","Andrew Card
(Whispered news of attacks to Bush)","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_card_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Win McNamee", "Reuters file", "253", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_060829[i-1].body = "
THEN
White House chief of staff Andrew Card was the man who broke the news of the enormity of the attacks to President Bush. A much-published photo showed the president reacting with much surprise.
During Bush’s visit to the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., news had reached him that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in what appeared to be an accident involving be a single-engine aircraft.
When the second tower was struck, Card approached the president and whispered, “A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack.” Card then stepped away and waited for the president to excuse himself, which he did after several minutes of listening to second-graders reading a book.
NOW
As the Bush administration dipped in popularity as the war in Iraq dragged on, Card – one of the longest serving chiefs of staff of all time and key to those wanting to get the ear of the president – announced he would leave office in March 2006. Card had served in the first Bush administration as White House deputy chief of staff and later as transportation secretary. His resignation took effect April 14, 2006, after six years in a notoriously tough job.
A former executive at General Motors, Card returned to the private sector on July 27, 2006, when railroad operator Union Pacific elected him to its board of directors.
-- Bruno Navarro
";
SEPT11_watn_060829[i++] = new Array("","Ed Fine
(World Trade Center
‘dust man’)","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_edfine_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Stan Honda", "AFP - Getty Images file", "298", "231", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_060829[i-1].body = "
THEN
A businessman who worked at New York-based Intercapital Planning Corp., Ed Fine became widely known on 9/11 from a photograph that depicted him covered in dust, napkin held to his nose and mouth while still clutching his briefcase. Head bowed and his dark suit turned a light gray, Fine shuffled through ankle-deep debris from the tower that had just collapsed. A clock behind him displayed the time: 10:14 a.m.
Fine was waiting for an elevator on the 78th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the building. Thinking a bomb had gone off, Fine and others made their way down the emergency stairs. Fine reached the street and began to walk away from the World Trade Center when the South Tower collapsed at 10:05 a.m., engulfing everything in the area in a cloud of smoke and debris.
There, photographer Stan Honda of Agence France-Presse took his picture, an image used by Web sites, newspapers and magazines around the world. Days later, a friend told Fine his photo was on the cover of Fortune magazine.
“I was focused in on: I must get uptown, I must keep surviving, I must walk,” Fine told the “Today” show. “And I wasn’t looking or thinking about anything other than surviving.”
NOW
Fine, who is married and has two grown children, lives in suburban New Jersey. He operates two businesses with his son Stuart, EIF Capital Services and consulting firm Carpe DM, a play on “carpe diem,” Latin for “seize the day.”
“I believe I was saved for a reason, but I don't know what that reason is,” Fine told the Toronto-based Globe and Mail newspaper. “I believe that everything is in some way interconnected -– all the inches and seconds of our lives. You don’t know how, but they are.”
-- Bruno Navarro
";
SEPT11_watn_060829[i++] = new Array("","Howard Lutnick
(Cantor Fitzgerald CEO) ","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_lutnick_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Bebeto Matthews", "AP file", "196", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_060829[i-1].body = "
THEN
When Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick decided to take his son to his first day of kindergarten, it saved his life. No one who was in the company’s offices on floors 101-105 of the North Tower of the World Trade Center before 9 a.m. on Sept. 11 survived.
The bond-trading company lost 658 out of 960 employees, the biggest single group in the attacks, among them Lutnick’s brother and almost all of Cantor’s traders, accountants, lawyers and human resources personnel.
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the notoriously tough corporate titan wept on TV and promised to take on a new mission in life: to take care of the families of his dead employees. His compassionate side appeared to be short-lived, though, when on Sept. 15 he stopped the paychecks of all the employees who had died. The victims’ families were outraged.
Lutnick stood by his decision, saying it was necessary to show the company’s competition and the banks that they intended to stay in business. But it was a public relations disaster, and by Sept. 19 Lutnick had announced a plan to help the victims’ families – a promise to share 25 percent of profits with families for the next five years plus 10 years of health insurance.
NOW
By all accounts, Lutnick has made good on his promise. Quickly relocated to Midtown Manhattan, Cantor Fitzgerald soon became profitable again and the company continued its expansion into online trading. And through its relief fund, the firm has distributed 25 percent of its profits every quarter since 9/11 – more than $175 million to the families and loved ones of the 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees killed in the 9/11 attacks.
And while the 25 percent contribution of Cantor’s quarterly profits to the victim’s families will cease at the end of 2006 -- the fund anticipates that the total will be about $200 million -- it will continue to provide health insurance for another five years as well as provide legal, economic and emotional support to the victims’ families.
Cantor Fitzgerald currently employs about 1,200 people at its headquarters on 59th Street, with another 1,800 worldwide.
-- Petra Cahill
";
SEPT11_watn_060829[i++] = new Array("","Three firemen with flag
at Ground Zero ","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_flag_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Thomas E. Franklin", "The Bergen Record file", "298", "208", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_060829[i-1].body = "
THEN
It is one of the most enduring images from 9/11: Three New York firefighters -- Daniel McWilliams, George Johnson and William “Billy” Eisengrein -- hoisting an American flag in the midst of chaos and ruins of the destroyed World Trade Center late on the afternoon of Sept. 11.
The photo, captured by Thomas E. Franklin, a staff photographer for The Record in Bergen County, N.J., was quickly picked up by newspapers, magazines and television networks. Reminiscent of Joe Rosenthal’s iconic image of U.S. troops raising a flag on Iwo Jima during World War II it struck a chord with editors and readers everywhere.
The photo, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and won numerous national photojournalism awards, was used for a special U.S. Postal Service stamp released in March 2002 to raise funds for families of emergency workers killed or permanently disabled as a result of the 9/11 attacks.
NOW
All three of the firefighters featured in the iconic image are still working for the New York Fire Department.
McWilliams, 40, a 15-year veteran is now a lieutenant with Battalion 37 in Brooklyn. He lives in Massapequa Park, Long Island.
Johnson, 41, is a captain with the NYFD and works out of Division 13 in Queens, where he also lives.
Eisengrein, 42, is a firefighter at the Rescue 2 unit in Brooklyn. He has been with the NYFD for more than 20 years.
-- Petra Cahill
";
SEPT11_watn_060829[i++] = new Array("","Coleen Rowley
(FBI whistleblower)","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_rowley_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Carlo Allegri", "Getty Images file", "250", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_060829[i-1].body = "
THEN
The FBI’s chief legal adviser in its Minneapolis office for more than a decade, Coleen Rowley was involved in the investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was already considered a potential terrorist threat because of flight training he had received in the U.S. Rowley pushed for a search warrant for Moussaoui’s laptop computer, a request repeatedly denied by FBI headquarters.
Eventually, Moussaoui, who would be known as “the 20th hijacker” after 9/11, was arrested for an immigration violation on Aug. 15, 2001, and his ties to radical fundamentalist Islamic groups were soon confirmed by the French Intelligence Service. Rowley would later call Moussaoui’s arrest a “missed opportunity” for American investigators to unravel and possibly prevent the 9/11 plot. (Moussaoui was later convicted for his role in 9/11.)
In 2002, Rowley testified before the 9/11 Commission and the Senate Judiciary Committee about what she considered critical lapses by the FBI. In a 13-page memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller, Rowley wrote: “I feel that certain facts, including the following, have, up to now, been omitted, downplayed, glossed over and/or mischaracterized in an effort to avoid or minimize personal and/or institutional embarrassment on the part of the FBI and/or perhaps even for improper political reasons.”
As a result of her public testimony, Rowley was among the three whistleblowers named Time magazine’s “Persons of the Year” (along with Sherron Watkins of Enron and Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom).
NOW
Stepping down as chief legal adviser in the FBI’s Minneapolis office to become a special agent once again in 2003, Rowley retired a year later after 24 years with the agency.
In June 2005, Rowley announced her candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives, and will run as a Democrat, challenging incumbent Republican John Kline in Minnesota’s 2nd District.
-- Bruno Navarro
";
SEPT11_watn_060829[i++] = new Array("","Bernard Kerik
(New York police chief)","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_kerik_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Beth A. Keiser", "AP file", "213", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_060829[i-1].body = "
THEN
Though somewhat in the shadow of Mayor Giuliani, New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik was central to coordinating the city’s response to the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center.
Kerik, already an experienced, highly decorated law enforcement officer before being tapped to head the largest police force in the United States, was widely praised for his handling of the crisis, as well as continuing to cut crime in New York and improving police relations with minority communities.
However, Kerik, who testified before a Senate subcommittee and pushed for legislation that would help the FBI share information with local officials, announced a month later that he would not remain in his position when Giuliani left office in January 2002.
“'I have to look at what I have done throughout my life,” Kerik said in a November 2001 news conference, “and what I have been through in the last eight years, most importantly the last year, and then the last eight weeks. I think you have to set priorities in your life, and my priorities right now are focused toward my family and the future.”
NOW
It was a future that appeared bright. Immediately after leaving office, Kerik became a senior vice president at Giuliani Partners and was selected to oversee reconstruction efforts in post-invasion Iraq.
And then in 2004 President Bush nominated Kerik to lead the Homeland Security Department, praising him as a “dedicated, innovative reformer who insists on getting results.”
That’s when things started to unravel. Very soon after, several issues come to light that ultimately doomed the nomination, including tax and immigration violations regarding a former nanny, questionable timing in the sale of stocks, rumors of an extramarital affair, allegations of misusing police property for personal gain and improper reporting of gifts.
As a result of the disclosures, Kerik withdrew his nomination and resigned from Giuliani Partners.
He now heads The Kerik Group, a New York-based consulting firm focusing on crisis management, risk management and security. -- Bruno Navarro
";
SEPT11_watn_060829[i++] = new Array("","Osama bin Laden
(Terrorism mastermind)","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_osama_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "", "AP FILE", "221", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_060829[i-1].body = "
THEN
Head of the al-Qaida terrorist organization, Osama bin Laden was soon named the prime suspect in the 9/11 attacks and President Bush quickly vowed he would be captured “dead or alive.”
Already wanted for his alleged role in the 1998 coordinated bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, as well as the 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, bin Laden was the subject of a $25 million bounty offered by the United States.
NOW
Despite repeated speculation that bin Laden might have perished while on the run, al-Qaida’s leader has continued to issue audio tapes referring to current events. CIA analyses of the tapes verify they have been made by bin Laden. Various theories have speculated he might be hiding in a variety of locations, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan or Saudi Arabia.
In July 2006, National Public Radio and The New York Times reported that a decade-old CIA unit named Alec Station – whose mission was to hunt bin Laden and his top lieutenants – was disbanded in late 2005. While a former official in charge of the unit, Michael Scheuer, calls the move a mistake, a CIA spokeswoman said “the efforts to find Osama bin Laden are as strong as ever.”
Bin Laden remains at large.
-- Bruno Navarro
";
// END editorial data