FED:AAP reporter's account of a 9/11 attack

AAP General News (Australia)
08-24-2011
FED:AAP reporter's account of a 9/11 attack

By James Grubel

CANBERRA, AAP - Prime Minister John Howard's press secretary Willie Herron was first
with the news.

"Did you hear that a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center in New York," she
said as we met on the way to a media suite in the Willard Hotel in Washington.

Howard was in Washington to mark the 50th anniversary of the ANZUS alliance, the centrepiece
of Australia's international security arrangements, and to meet President George W Bush
for the first time.

It was around 9am on September 11, 2001. Journalists travelling with Howard went to
the media rooms in time to see the second plane smashing into the south tower. This, clearly,
was no accident, but the scope of the unfolding attacks was still unclear.

Howard had a scheduled media conference at which he was able to offer Australia's sympathy
for the tragedy unfolding in New York.

As he spoke, emergency sirens began wailing outside. By the time he finished, a third
plane had crashed into the Pentagon a few kilometres away.

When the curtains were opened, there was a clear view of smoke billowing from the US
military headquarters. A fourth plane crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania a short
time later.

By then, American cities were being evacuated, phone lines were jammed and all flights
were grounded in the wake of the worst attacks on US soil since Pearl Harbor. About 3000
were killed, including 22 Australians.

Like all the political reporters covering the Howard trip, I soon found myself covering
a country under siege.

The streets of central Washington were clogged as tens of thousands of people evacuated
government buildings and headed home. Intersections were guarded by police wearing helmets
and flak jackets, and military vehicles patrolled the city.

I joined a small group of reporters who pushed through the crowded streets to the Australian
Embassy, where I could be assured of access to Howard and information about Australians
killed or injured.

The following days were a blur of activity as I wrote about the aftermath in Washington,
before finally making it to New York, where US fighter planes regularly buzzed the shell-shocked
metropolis.

The day before the attacks, Howard had his first meeting with Bush at the Washington
navy shipyards, where there was a brief ceremony to mark the ANZUS anniversary.

As AAP's representative, I was given the rare privilege of riding in Bush's motorcade
from the White House to the Navy yards.

Howard ended the day with a long dinner with News Corporation boss Rupert Murdoch.

An election was due in Australia any time, and Murdoch emerged from dinner to say Howard's
government deserved another term. That story would normally have filled any front page.

But with what followed, it went largely unnoticed.

I also covered Howard's surprise visit to the US Congress, where he offered Australian
support for any retaliation, and his Washington media conference before he was flown home,
leaving on Air Force Two, the plane normally reserved for the Vice President.

As Howard flew across the Pacific to Australia, he had time to ponder the impact of the attacks.

By the time he landed in Sydney, he had decided Australia would for the first time
invoke Article V of the ANZUS Treaty, which states an armed attack one country would be
deemed an attack on an ANZUS partner.

Australia was among the first nations to commit troops to the war on terror in Afghanistan,
where the Taliban leadership was accused of harbouring the al-Qaeda masterminds of the
attacks.

Nearly a decade on, that war continues with no clear sign of a victory.

AAP jlw

KEYWORD: SEPT11 WITNESS

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