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September 11 remembered, Nat Geo airs Giuliani’s 9/11 Sept. 6

By April MacIntyre Sep 5, 2010, 18:25 GMT

07/31/2010 - Rudy Giuliani - Super Saturday 13 to Benefit Ovarian Cancer Research Fund - Arrivals - Nova\'s Ark Project - Water Mill, NY, USA © M Van Niedek / PR Photos

One of the most visible leaders on September 11, 2001 was New York's own Rudy Guiliani, who took to the streets and stayed with his fellow citizens well into the night, all reeling from the devastation and act of warfare from Islamic terrorists that fateful morning.

“I probably didn’t have all the facts, so I would say a little prayer … close my eyes and say, ‘Dear God make it right.’”  So recounts former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the immediate life-or-death decisions he was forced to make in the midst of the worst terrorist attacks ever on U.S. soil.
 
On the eve of the ninth anniversary of September 11, 2001, NGC presents a compelling first-person portrait of the man at the helm of a vast metropolis In shock and under siege — a leader who struggled to calm terrified citizens and respond to unprecedented challenges in the minutes, hours and days following the attacks on the World Trade Center. 

In Giuliani’s 9/11, premiering Monday, September 6, 2010, at 9 PM ET/PT, he opens up in a series of revealing new interviews about where he sought strength, motivation and perspective. 

The documentary traces the former mayor's tactical decisions even as he grappled with emotions that eventually moved him to tears.
 
Then, stay tuned for the premiere of Witness: D.C. 9/11 at 10 PM ET/PT, which reconstructs the attack on the nation’s capital moment by moment entirely through home video; fire, rescue and police footage; and news coverage. 

From National Geographic:

Footage from the Pentagon crash site taken shortly after impact captures a raw view of the devastating aftermath.  Meanwhile, cameras throughout the city document the chaotic evacuation of congressional leaders and other officials from the Capitol and White House. 

Go inside Air Force One, where reporters watch news coverage of the towers burning; relive how the confusion, rumors and misinformation alarmed citizens on the ground; and listen to air traffic control grapple with the potential of another hijacked plan targeting the White House.
 
In Giuliani’s 9/11, the mayor explains, “I have a theory about managing an emergency, when you get to see it, you get your own sense of what it’s actually like and I believe you can make better decisions.”  Indeed, at a 7:45 a.m. breakfast with colleagues, Giuliani is told a twin-engine plane has crashed into the World Trade Center.  He immediately heads for the site, feeling instinctively that it isn’t an accident; “If I hadn’t seen it … I’d have made all the wrong decisions.”
 
The show lays out the mayor’s earliest responses needed to marshal the NYC Office of Emergency Management, ensure supply lines and coordination for responders, and decide how tightly to coordinate command structures between police and fire departments.
 
It isn’t until the second plane hits that Giuliani realizes New York City and the nation are in “some kind of war.”  And later, when he sees a man jumping to his death from the burning towers, Giuliani says, “That was the moment at which I realized that we were into something that was way beyond anything we had ever had to handle before … we didn’t have a plan for this … there wasn’t time for fear.”
 
Personally vulnerable, Giuliani recounts the unfolding events and decisions he wrestled with throughout the terrifying ordeal.  He opens up on the need to stifle his own emotions in the midst of crisis, even as word reached him of the deaths of personal friends and the very colleagues he would have turned to for counsel.  And, he reveals how he finally gave himself permission to cry.

In Giuliani’s 9/11, the mayor details the harrowing experience of how he and his entire City Hall team huddled inside the basement of an office building in the Financial District, until being led to safety.  And he describes his urgent efforts to establish a safe command post for the city’s leadership team; protect sites like the Statue of Liberty, bridges and subways; marshal doctors and nurses; and conduct a press conference to let people know the leadership of the city was intact and working on protecting the city.  Throughout these steps, he says, “You don’t have a chance to stop and reflect … you just have to go on to the next decision.”
 
Giuliani concludes, “I’ve been changed spiritually, I’ve got a much deeper belief in God ... I think I understand mortality better, much better than I did before, and how precious life is.  And I’ve become … convinced that you’ve got to deal with terrorism from strength, not weakness.” 
 
For more information visit www.natgeotv.com/giuliani.