Synopsis
The terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001 on the United States sent shockwaves throughout the world and NATO was no exception. It was the first time that the Alliance invoked one of its founding principles, that an attack against one Ally is considered as an attack against all Allies.
Sixteen years after that historic day, NATO is intending to move to its new headquarters. In the new building, this key date will be commemorated by displaying a piece of the Twin Towers, loaned to the Alliance by the United States.
Following the journey of the piece from New York City to Brussels, a former NATO Secretary General, officials and Allied Ambassadors recall what they went through at NATO Headquarters during those first frantic hours, along with how the decision to invoke Article 5 was taken.
Transcript
VISUAL DESCRIPTION
Various shots- first tower surrounded by smoke, people running away
GRAPHIC – Jamie Shea, Former NATO Director of Information and Press (2000-2003)
TEXT ON SCREEN –
New York City, September 11, 2001 8:46:40 AM
Shots of the first tower surrounded by smoke
GRAPHIC – Nicholas Burns, Former United States Ambassador to NATO (2001-2005)
TEXT ON SCREEN –
New York City, April 12, 2016
Shots of a piece of the Twin Towers, identified as C-26, being loaded into a container in a warehouse, The Bronx, NY City
GRAPHIC – Douglas Lute, Former United States Ambassador to NATO (2013-2017)
TEXT ON SCREEN –
New York City, September 11, 2001 09:03:02 AM
Shots of the second tower being hit by the second plane
GRAPHIC – Robert Bell, Former NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment (1999-2003)
GRAPHIC – Navy Captain Arcangelo Simi, Former Head, NATO Naval Armaments Section
==GRAPHIC==
This piece of twisted metal belonged to the North Tower of the World Trade Center
It has been loaned to NATO to mark a key date in the Alliance’s history
Close up shots of the piece of the Twin Towers
TEXT ON SCREEN – NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson invokes Article 5, September 12, 2001
== GRAPHIC ==
Article 5 commits Allies to protecting each other: an attack against one is considered as an attack against all
TEXT ON SCREEN –
New York City, National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, April 12, 2016
Shots of a piece of the Twin Towers, identified as C-26, being loaded into a truck, NYC.
Shots of the piece inside the truck, leaving the warehouse
==GRAPHIC==
Invoking Article 5 had various practical consequences
Including the launch of NATO’s first ever counter-terrorism operations
Various shots- the truck with the piece of the Twin towers arrives at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, New York City
Various shots of delegates in the North Atlantic Council room during one of the first meetings in which the discussion on NATO’s response to the terror attacks began.
==GRAPHIC==
Lord George Robertson
Former NATO Secretary General (1999-2003)
==GRAPHIC==
This is a symbol of Allies’ unity against any threat
TEXT ON SCREEN –
Brussels, New NATO HQ, March 1, 2017
GRAPHIC – Jan Ramirez
Chief Curator of the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum
Various shots of C-26 piece inside the truck leaving the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum, on a ship leaving New York and its arrival in Belgium
Close up shots of C-26 piece
Shots of the C-26 piece being lifted on a second truck in the New NATO HQ
Various shots of C-26 piece arriving in Antwerp, Belgium
Various shots of the piece being installed in the New NATO HQ
ENGLISH SOUNDBITE – Nicholas Burns, former United States Ambassador to NATO (2001-2005)
ENGLISH SOUNDBITE – – Jamie Shea, former NATO Director of Information and Press (2000-2003)
Various shots of the C-26 piece installed in the new NATO HQ.
GRAPHIC
ITN SOURCE DISCLAIMER
AUDIO DESCRIPTION
==SOUNDBITE== Jamie Shea, former NATO Director of Information and Press (2000-2003)
“I was having lunch with a visiting delegation from Finland. Everybody remembers where they were on 9/11, and then somebody rushed in to say that a plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center.”
==SOUNDBITE== Nicholas Burns, former United States Ambassador to NATO (2001-2005)
“I frankly thought, ‘accident, storm?’ I imagined a small plane.”
==SOUNDBITE= Douglas Lute, former United States Ambassador to NATO (2013-2017)
“We had just flown over New York a few hours before. It was a beautiful, clear blue sky morning. We thought, ‘how could this possibly happen?’”
==SOUNDBITE== Robert Bell, former NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment (1999-2003)
“I went to my office first which was deserted, and there was one of my senior military action officers, an Italian captain in full dress uniform sitting at his desk.
==SOUNDBITE== Navy Captain Arcangelo Simi, former Head, NATO Naval Armaments Section
“I intended to give my solidarity to America, which so many times in the last century intervened in support of our countries.”
==SOUNDBITE== Robert Bell, former NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment (1999-2003)
“So that set the tone, if you will, for that whole day that followed. A woman, who I never met, came up to me and gave me a note that said: ‘We are with you today’.”
==SOUNDBITE= Douglas Lute, former United States Ambassador to NATO (2013-2017)
“Within 24 hours, the Council took a decision which was the first time in the long history of Alliance.”
==SOUNDBITE== Lord George Robertson, former NATO Secretary General (1999-2003)
“The Council agreed that if it is determined that this attack was directed from abroad against the United States, it shall be regarded as an action covered by Article 5 of the Washington Treaty.”
==SOUNDBITE== – Jamie Shea, former NATO Director of Information and Press (2000-2003)
“I think that’s a very positive signal for the Alliance. It’s not just rhetoric. We are prepared to actually do it when we are in that situation where we need to defend ourselves.”
==SOUNDBITE== Lord George Robertson, former NATO Secretary General (1999-2003)
“This was something absolutely, dramatically historic. This had never happened before in the history of this huge and important Alliance and you began to get that sense.”
==SOUNDBITE== Douglas Lute, former US Ambassador to NATO
“We wondered about how we could mark, how we could commemorate some of the key historical points in the long history of the Alliance. And we thought, ‘well what about something, an artefact of some sort that came from the Twin Towers’.”
==SOUNDBITE== Jan Ramirez, Chief Curator of the 9/11 Memorial Museum
“Actually the skeletal remains of the Trade Center have gone far and wide in the world to be used for memorials. But this is really a particularly significant instance of that because, I think, of NATO’s invoking of the Article 5.”
ENGLISH SOUNDBITE – – Nicholas Burns, former United States Permanent Representative to NATO (2001-2005)
“9/11 is a point of demarcation because it threw us into a more uncertain world.”
ENGLISH SOUNDBITE – Jamie Shea, former NATO Director of Information and Press (2000-2003)
“It wasn’t just that NATO did something on the day, but the NATO that we live in now is the NATO that was created on the 11th of September 2001.”
#ENDS#
