In the minutes and hours following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Globe journalists flew into action – some heading immediately for the U.S. border from Toronto, others surveying the landscape in Ottawa and elsewhere.
asserted
others → follow → Ottawa
It was a day when their professional responsibilities had to outweigh their personal concerns as the world changed around them.
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world → have → them
Twenty-five years later, they can still remember every detail.
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they → remember → detail
Here, they recollect those moments.
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they → recollect → moments
On Sept. 11, 2001, I was among a team of Globe reporters who drove from Toronto to New York City.
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who → drive → City
We crossed the border in the afternoon and arrived at midnight.
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We → cross → midnight
I remember it being the first time I ever saw the Manhattan skyline.
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I → remember → skyline
As big as it was, it was absolutely dwarfed by an enormous smoke plume that was still growing.
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that → dwarf → plume
To see this was to feel as if New York had been hit by an inscrutable bolt from the blue.
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York → see → blue
The strike was actually affected by Boeing 767s commandeered by a handful of terrorists armed with box cutters.
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strike → affect → cutters
A quarter century later, my impressions of the aftermath remain.
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impressions → remain → aftermath
I remember a sun-dappled Sept. 12 spent partly in a midtown playground where a group of moms pointed at a playing four-year-old, saying he was unaware his firefighter dad had likely perished.
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dad → remember → old
I remember the people who began posting myriad photocopies of their missing loved ones’ faces around town, holding out all hope against odds.
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who → remember → odds
I remember the resigned families starting to queue around the block, bringing hair and toothbrushes to forensic officials for future DNA matches of whatever might eventually be exhumed underneath the burned and collapsed wreckage.
uncertain
whatever → remember → wreckage
I remember that week’s shock and grief, and also the rage that was starting to brew in America, as a counterpoint to a document I acquired several months later.
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I → remember → document
In small-town Florida, I obtained a copy of the lead al-Qaeda terrorists’ flight school invoices.
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I → obtain → invoices
These itemized bills showed the enemy agents had methodically embedded in America for months, patiently logging their hours flying Cessnas.
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agents → show → Cessnas
This was done in preparation for their eventual terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
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This → do → York
I turned on the TV to see smoke coming out of the World Trade Center.
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smoke → turn → Center
Then I watched the second plane hit.
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plane → watch → ?
The phone rang, and my colleague Jeff Sallot asked, “Are you watching this?”
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you → ring → this
I said yes, and he told me to go to the American embassy.
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he → say → embassy
Employees were leaving the U.S. embassy on Sussex Drive en masse.
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Employees → leave → Drive
Staff at the Revenue Canada building next door left, too, worried they might be close to a target.
uncertain
they → leave → target
I walked to the office past the Prime Minister’s Office, where the Mounties were shutting down the street across from Parliament.
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Mounties → walk → Parliament
I remember seeing a Mountie from Prime Minister Chretien’s protective detail furiously directing traffic away.
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Mountie → remember → traffic
And that he looked scared.
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he → look → ?
– Campbell Clark, political writer
At TIFF in Toronto
It was just before 9 a.m. and I was in the TIFF press office, chatting to other journalists and publicists, getting ready for a day of back-to-back interviews.
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I → chat → interviews
A rumour started that a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Centre.
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plane → start → Centre
The room, which had been buzzing, started to go quiet.
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which → buzz → ?
Everyone looked confused.
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Everyone → look → ?
A person beside me asked if it was some kind of joke.
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it → ask → joke
A television was turned on to CNN.
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television → turn → CNN
Smoke was billowing from the side of the first building.
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Smoke → billow → building
While we all stood there trying to make sense of the impossible, a second plane flew across the screen, smashing into the second tower.
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plane → stand → tower
The room went deathly still.
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room → go → ?
One woman, a journalist from New York, screamed that her husband worked in that building.
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husband → scream → building
Then the first building started to crumble.
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building → start → ?
Over the next few hours, the room filled with journalists, actors, directors, and their handlers – no one knew where to go or what to do.
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one → fill → what
They only knew they did not want to be alone.
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they → know → ?
…and 30 more, not listed.
The Aporia
