102 Minutes

“Flight 11 turned unexpectedly south, toward the World Trade Center. It was a journey that had started some twelve years earlier.” 

These two brief sentences are packed with historical resonance. The journey referred to is the one a group of mujahideen warriors, fresh from the turning back the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The warriors took over a mosque in Brooklyn, and in November 1990 made their first strike in the U.S. It’s this group that becomes responsible for the 9/11 attacks. This quote shows that the 9/11 attacks resulted in long-term planning by those who wanted to destroy symbols of American capitalism and democracy.

“‘It’s a bomb, let’s get out of here.’ And he was sure he knew how it had gotten up there. Moments earlier, a messenger had arrived with a trolley of documents for Jim Connors in the real estate department. Surely that was how the bomb had been wheeled in, Gaeta thought; the boxes of ‘documents’ had been a Trojan horse.” 

This quote expresses the lack of factual information inside the World Trade Center towers on 9/11, as many workers inside, as well as emergency rescue workers, lacked clear information as to what happened and when. Here, Gerry Gaeta, a member of the team that oversaw trade center construction projects, has no idea a plane has smashed into the north tower. Gaeta thinks the plane crash is a bombthat makes it inside the building hidden in real estate documents for the soon-to-happen change in ownership from the Port Authority to private developer Larry Silverstein. 

“The bank’s assets, the memo said, were its people—more valuable than any reports that were being written, more important than tickets for trades that were outstanding, more vital than any project that would be disrupted. In an emergency, they were to drop their work and go.” 

Here, Dwyer and Flynn refer to the emergency procedure practiced by Mizuho Capital Markets, and its corporate affiliate, Fuji Bank, which had space on every floor between 78 and 93 in the south tower.