Did 9/11 put the US on a permanent war footing?

James Rubin (0:02)

This is a Global Production.

Christiane Amanpour (0:05)

It was really, really, really, really, really quite scary, quite extraordinary, and you just were filled with this sense of absolutely not knowing what was going to happen next. Even though my whole job and your whole job was reporting on crises, and the world wars, and famines, and disasters, somehow this was something completely different. Really, really extraordinary time. And I just couldn't believe it. I mean, even now.

Wow, I didn't expect that reaction from myself. Very, very, very emotional. Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest episode of The Ex Files with me, Christiane Amanpour, in London.

James Rubin (0:53)

And me, Jamie Rubin, here in Amsterdam, the lovely country of the Netherlands.

Christiane Amanpour (0:58)

And an important one when it comes to US allies, and we'll talk a little bit about that concept coming up. But this is our episode which will drop about three days before the actual anniversary of 9-11, 25 years on. So we're going to tell you about where we were, how we experienced that day, and we're going to ask a very vital question. Is 9-11 and the aftermath shaping the world today a quarter century on?

I think it is, and we'll discuss. So Jamie, let's go back to the very beginning. The truth of the matter is that I was on a foreign news assignment for 60 Minutes at a time when I was still doing my joint work between CNN and 60 Minutes, Chief International Correspondent, and this thing was happening and CNN couldn't reach me. I was in Sierra Leone, Jamie, as you know, because you were at home manning the fort, and then you were pressed into action in terms of commentating and trying to make sense of what was going on. But I just remember it so, so vividly and I'll get into it in a second. What do you remember, Jamie, as a first reaction?

James Rubin (2:10)

Well, I remember to tell you the truth, it was your sister who called me up because she was working for one of the other channels and she said, Jamie, turn on the TV, there's an attack in New York. And I was minding the store, meaning Darius was home or he was, I don't know what he was, one year old at the time, not a year and a half. One and a half, yeah. It was morning New York, so it was afternoon in London, and she was rushing back to work. She asked where you were. I told her where you were, that you were off on an assignment. And then I turned on the TV and it was stunning because, let's be clear to our audience, Osama bin Laden wasn't a new figure for me or for us, because during our wedding, the week of our wedding, there was the first major attack, major attack by Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda on two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. And I was working in the government at the time for Madeline Albright, and she had come to the wedding, flown to Italy to attend our wedding.

And because of this tragedy, she turned around and flew right back to Washington and allowed me to continue doing what we thought was right, which was to continue the wedding. We had hundreds of guests. Osama bin Laden genuinely interfered with our wedding.

So I had my eye on Osama bin Laden. I had begun to be made aware of him in government. So the moment I saw this attack on the World Trade Center, I just knew this was Al Qaeda because they had once tried to attack the World Trade Center, I think, in 1993, a decade earlier. And I knew that they were on a mission now to attack the United States. And the attack to me wasn't just an attack on the United States. It was an attack on the world. One, the World Trade Center. Two, the people who were in the World Trade Center were from all over the world. New York is and was a real world capital. And as it turned out, many of the thousands of deaths were not Americans. They were non-Americans from all over the world who were working in that building. And I felt it was important to make clear that this was an attack on the heart of Western civilization.

And in a sense, that was my diplomatic instinct kicking in because I thought it was important that the world see this as not just an attack on the United States.

Christiane Amanpour (4:38)

Exactly. And so you went on to do your commentary. I was blind to what you were doing. I couldn't get any calls out of Sierra Leone. I remember my producer, it was Pierre, was on the ground with me in Sierra Leone.