I was at the Karlsruhe University on this day, September 11th, a year ago. It was the second day of a BizTalk workshop that we run regularly in cooperation with the University. The day started with theory, which was at a presentation room in the university's guest house. We were scheduled to move to a regular class room at around 3:00pm (9:00pm EST). When we walked across the street around that time, one of the participants got a phone call: "The World Trade Center is burning!".
I lived in New York city for roughly 2 years. My best friend and business partner, Bart, lived in NYC for 8 years until mid-2000. We both worked in the Wall Street area and know a lot of people there -- of course. "The Trade Center is burning"... how bad can that be? We couldn't see any pictures, had no TV. I can remember that I really didn't expect it to be any bad and that a fire in the WTC would be a critical thing, but nothing to really worry about from a distance.
The machines in the class room had Internet connectivity -- and the first thing we noticed is that America was practically cut off -- no US website could be reached. We tried around at well-known German sources. Some bits dropped down the lines -- and sometime someone got a few chunks of text that started to reveal what happened: Planes crashed into the Twin Towers. I called Bart -- he was at work (in Germany) and similary cut off any information and had already tried to call someone in NYC, but said he'd go home and try to reach people in NYC (at least that's what I remember). Doing that proved almost hopeless -- NYC was basically isolated from outside calls.
Needless to say that the workshop didn't happen. Everyone was just trying to acquire bits of information and making calls. And I got calls. I hadn't been in NYC for about 6 months, but I got about 10 calls from people checking in on whether I am okay. Everyone was scared to death. When we learned that the Pentagon was burning and that -- according to reports at that time -- the state dept. was on fire as well, I started to be worried well. Karlsruhe is home to a some significant federal institutions for Germany and by all information we had, this looked like a wholesale attack on the western world. The German news media that we could access were reporting in news tickers about all the precautions and evacuations that were done around the country. What would the Americans do? How would they react?
I talked to Bart again; he managed to get through to a few people, not all of them. We were worried about our friends who we used to share an office with at Hanover Square. It's just a five minute walk away from the WTC. We couldn't reach them. At around 6:00pm, a call got through to our host, a university professor. One of his best friends was on American 11. I remember that we decided at some point that we couldn't do anything about all this and should try to use our day -- it was my turn to talk -- I managed to do some 45 minutes, but it wasn't the time for it. When I got back to my hotel I switched on the TV. Until then, I did not believe that the word "collapse" would really mean that both towers vanished.
In the end, none of my or Bart's immediate friends were hurt. However, it took only one degree of separation from people who did get hurt or even died. We were thousands of miles away, but the terror reached us. That's what the terrorists wanted.
I am still amazed by the sense of timing that was in the coordination of the attacks. They knew that all cameras would be on the towers instantly one the first plane had hit. Giving the news media 15 minutes to go on-air with live pictures so that everyone will see the second impact live was the most cruel abuse of live news coverage yet seen. The same timing seemed to have been planned for Washington. Hit the Pentagon first and then, as the grand finale, blow up the White House or Congress while everyone is looking. The brave people on the fourth plane took that last triumph away from the terrorists -- they hit the symbols of economy and the military, but they didn't hit the symbols of democracy.
My thoughts are with those whose lives were taken or destroyed on that day, a year ago. Today is a day to remember. This is why I wrote this down.
9:57:37 AM 
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