The Brian Lehrer Show

When the smoke clears....

As we approach the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we’re taking the opportunity to look back and ask ourselves, “What Have We Learned?”. Over the course of the next month we’ll ask that question on different topics and on different levels, about the policies, the politics, and the personal.

From the Archives:

Michael Bronner, Vanity Fair writer
- on his access to NORAD's tapes from September 11th
Listen

Marian Fontana, president of the 9-11 Widows' and Victims' Families Association and author, A Widow's Walk: A Memoir of 9/11 (Simon & Schuster 2005)
- on her new memoir about September 11th and the loss of her husband Dave, a firefighter who died that day
Listen

Elaine Scarry, professor of English at Harvard University,
- says top-down hierarchies may actually be worse than a more democratic system in handling an emergency situation
Listen

What Have We Learned: Family Members and Survivors

The Brian Lehrer Show

September 08, 2006

Dr. Elaine Valdov president of the International Institute for a Culture of Peace and director at Finding New Hope, an organization that offers counseling to survivors of the 9/11 attacks
and
Christopher Baumann, first responding NYPD officer, injured in the attacks
-stories from family members of 9/11 victims and what they've learnt in the last five years

» Dr. Elaine Valdov

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What Have We Learned: Environmental Effects of 9/11

The Brian Lehrer Show

September 07, 2006

Lorna Thorpe, deputy commissioner, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Division of Epidemiology
and
Dr. Jacqueline Moline, principal investigator of the WTC Monitoring & Treatment Program at Mt. Sinai;
and
David M. Newman, hygienist, New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health
and
Fred Mogul, WNYC reporter
-discuss the public health effects of the 9/11 attacks

» abstract of the Mt. Sinai report
» David Newman’s February 2006 City Council testimony
» NYC Health Department

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What Have We Learned: Muslims in America

The Brian Lehrer Show

September 05, 2006

Geneive Abdo, liaison for the Alliance of Civilizations at the U.N. and author, Mecca and Main Street: Muslim Life in America after 9/11 (Oxford University Press, 2006)
-talks about life for American Muslims in the post 9/11 world.

» Mecca and Main Street: Muslim Life in America after 9/11 (Oxford University Press, 2006)

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What Have We Learned: Wahhabism and Militant Islam

The Brian Lehrer Show

September 01, 2006

Fawaz Gerges, Christian A. Johnson Professor in Middle East and International Affairs at Sarah Lawrence College and author, Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy (Harcourt 2006) and The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global (Cambridge University Press, September 2005)
and
Charles Allen, historian of the British colonial period and author, God's Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad (Da Capo Press, 2006)
-on the roots of the so-called Wahhabists and their influence on al Qaeda

» more on Journey of the Jihadist
» more on God’s Terrorists

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What Have We Learned: Cities at Risk

The Brian Lehrer Show

August 30, 2006

Bob Kerrey, president of The New School, former Senator (D-NE), and former 9/11 Commission member
and
Clark Kent Ervin, former inspector general of the United States Department of Homeland Security, director of the Aspen Institute Homeland Security Initiative, and author, Open Target : Where America is Vulnerable to Attack (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2005),
and
Michael Brown, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
and
James Lee Witt, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
and
Martin O'Malley, Mayor of Baltimore (D)
- discuss the ability of urban areas to handle crisis whether man-made or natural

» Bob Kerrey (The New School)
» Clark Kent Ervin (The Aspen Institute)
» Michael Brown (The White House)
» James Lee Witt (James Lee Witt Associates)
» Martin O'Malley (The City of Baltimore)

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What Have We Learned About Osama bin Laden?

The Brian Lehrer Show

August 23, 2006

Peter Bergen, CNN's terrorism analyst and author, The Osama bin Laden I Know: an Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader (Free Press,2006)
- discusses what we have learned about Osama bin Laden in the last five years

» Peter Bergen's website

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What Have We Learned? The Costs of the War on Terror

The Brian Lehrer Show

August 14, 2006

James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly
- argues we should declare victory in the War on Terror

» Read the follow-ups to "Declaring Victory" from The Atlantic Monthly

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What Have We Learned: Memorial

The Brian Lehrer Show

August 08, 2006

James E. Young, Ground Zero Memorial Jurist, Professor and Chair of the Department of Judaic & Near Eastern Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and author, At Memory's Edge: After-Images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Architecture (Yale University Press, 2002)
and
Michael J. Lewis, teaches at Williams College, and author, American Art and Architecture(Thames & Hudson, 2006)
and
Paul Goldberger,Dean of Parsons School of Design and the architecture critic for the New Yorker and author, Up from Zero: Politics, Architecture, and the Rebuilding of New York(Random House, 2004)
-on the process of memorializing and the Ground Zero Memorial

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What Have We Learned? The Bush Administration's Response

The Brian Lehrer Show

August 02, 2006

Ron Suskind, journalist and author, The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of its Enemies Since 9/11 (Simon & Schuster, 2006)
-on what we have learned about the Bush Administration’s response to 9/11 in the 5 years since the attacks

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