Michael Cascio SVP, Special Programming, National Geographic Channel
Executive Producer, Inside 9/11

You know exactly where you were on September 11, 2001. It’s the most famous date in American history. Yet it still amazes me how much people DON’T know about 9/11 more than five years later, such as:

- How al Qaeda meticulously planned the attack years before it happened.
- What the U.S. knew in advance of 9/11.
- What went on inside the airplanes just before they crashed.
- How an amazing portion was captured on video, audio and still photos.
- Why the survivors of 9/11 are still heroes.

And the story isn’t over yet. With war raging in Iraq, and Rudolph Giuliani a serious contender for President on the basis of his handling of 9/11 in New York City, it’s clear that 9/11 is defining public life in the U.S. But people are still amazed when we try to answer the question: What really happened that day?

When we asked our producers at Towers Productions to investigate 9/11, it became clear that even though this was the most important story in modern American history, no one had put together the whole story on television from start to finish. Compiling our four-hour documentary required endless primary research. Our team talked to hundreds of people, and the producers were quickly awash in details, many of them left out of the 9/11 Commission Report. We had to face the fact that our program would not just be a story, but a historical record of a cataclysmic event. Most viewers knew some of the pieces of the story, but not the complete picture or the full background, and they were looking for answers.

So, we began to put together a mosaic of facts. Chilling details emerged:
- Radical Islamists were preaching jihad in the United States in the late 1980s – our team unearthed video of these meetings.

- The U.S. came close to attacking Osama bin Laden at one point but pulled back, fearful of killing innocent victims nearby.

- Some conversations directly from the flights that crashed were recorded on audio tape, with brave flight attendants keeping their cool under incredible pressure.

- The attackers bought their knives at Wal-Mart.

- There are photos of the attackers going through security at airports.

- At least one of the attackers ordered a pornographic video from his motel the night before 9/11.

- That there are still alarming rumors that the Pentagon crash never happened

The reaction to the program has been profound. National Geographic Channel viewership reached historic highs when it first aired the program in 2005 – and updated versions continue to draw high ratings and strong interest. A congressman ordered copies of it sent to every member of the U.S. House and Senate. We held screenings in New York City and Washington, D.C., with passionate debates lasting long into the night. Many of us involved in the program were interviewed by journalists and talk show hosts. I personally found myself in wide-ranging discussions with everyone from Bill O’Reilly to a Minnesota caller to a radio show who insisted that the Pentagon attack was a hoax, even thought there are photos, video and hundreds of witnesses. It’s clear that both survivors and observers are still grappling with what happened that day.

The survivors are the real heroes. They saw their colleagues and family members die, sometimes right in front of them, in an event seen around the world. They have a burden that the rest of us can only imagine. And for them, the answers can’t come soon enough, and are only now beginning to emerge.

As our production team discovered, there are many details we need to know to put this event into proper context. The emotions over 9/11 are still so raw, that it’s almost a relief to look at the facts, just the facts, of 9/11, to help us figure out what happened. It turns out, though, that the facts and context of 9/11 are more dramatic than a movie or fictionalized account. In this case, reality is far more revealing and relevant. And it just might help us figure out what to do to prevent another 9/11 from happening in the future.