Reunions: Alumni panel examines 9/11, bin Laden's death

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On Sept. 11, 2001, Jeff Smisek ’76, then the chief executive of Continental Airlines, was headed into a board meeting when an aide told him that a commercial jet had just struck the World Trade Center.

“I said to her, ‘That’s impossible,’ ” Smisek said. But when it became clear the crashes were intentional, he said, “I told our board, ‘Forget the budget.’ ” Smisek then headed to the airline’s operation control center and grounded every Continental airplane in the world.

Smisek shared his story as part of a forum titled “10th Anniversary of 9/11: Remembering the Past, Imagining the Future,” which was held on Saturday in McCosh 28 as part of the weekend’s Reunions programming.

Moderated by Dean of Religious Life Alison Boden, the panel included Frederick Hitz ’61, a lecturer in law and public policy at the University of Virginia, Smisek, now the president and CEO of United Continental Holdings, Inc., Amy Weisser ’86, the director of exhibition development for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, and Barbara Sude GS ’75, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation.

In addition to sharing personal stories of their 9/11 experiences, the alumni reflected on how the killing of Osama bin Laden could change America’s approach to counterterrorism.

Hitz began by praising the work of the officers who executed the risky but successful raid on the bin Laden compound, and the commander-in-chief who have the go-ahead.

“Make no mistake about it, President Obama was making a very, very difficult decision,” said Hitz, a former member of the CIA’s clandestine service who was on duty during the failed 1980 Iran hostage rescue. “But it worked like a charm.”

Hitz explained that bin Laden’s death could potentially provide an ending to the al-Qaida threat.

“I hope this permits us, as a nation, to turn the page,” he said. “We closed out that account. We got the guy that got us.”

“We have to end that period of sort of fear, looking under the bed ... and get onto other issues,” Hitz added.

Sude discussed her experience in the 1990s as part of the CIA’s small team of “bin Laden analysts” and her own reactions to 9/11.

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“When the second plane hit, we went into our boss’ office and we knew instantly it was terrorism and we knew who did it,” Sude said.

She said that bin Laden’s death marks a “major blow” to al-Qaida, which is simultaneously facing both increasing pressure in Afghanistan and Pakistan and revolutions in the Arab world.

Still, Sude cautioned, al-Qaida’s “slow reaction in the Middle East does not mean the group has permanently lost out.”

“Is there still a threat?” she asked. “Are they capable of attacking the United States? It’s possible, unless the organization is completely destroyed.”

Sude also noted the delicate balance of keeping the public sufficiently aware of the terrorist threats while not playing into the propaganda goals of terrorist groups.

“Politically, too much has been made of the fear and the threat, when you really want to denigrate these people because propaganda is half the battle,” she said.

Sude and Hitz both discussed various challenges faced today by the intelligence community. Sude focused on the new proliferation of information post-9/11 that is not only flooding intelligence analysts but the public as well, making it difficult to determine which threats and warnings are credible and which are not.

Hitz noted the challenges faced by the CIA, the State Department and the military in trying to compete for employees against better-paying private contractors.

Smisek explained the attacks of 9/11’s powerful impact on the airline industry, which forced several major airlines to declare bankruptcy and lay off tens of thousands of employees.

While the 9/11 attacks were on the nation, he said, “it was [also] a direct attack on the U.S. aviation industry.”

“The terrorists were really, really clever,” Smisek added. “They struck at the heart of U.S. aviation demand, [and] passengers were afraid to fly.”

However, he noted, the average American has consequently grown more vigilant against potential terrorist threats.

“Having people who notice something wrong with smoke coming out of an odd vehicle in Times Square prevented a tragedy, and I think that’s a very positive development,” he said.

Smisek also explained that he hopes that bin Laden’s death can alleviate lasting fears among Americans that resulted from the attacks of 9/11.

Weisser discussed the challenges of addressing the powerful emotions elicited by 9/11 in documenting the attacks, as the memorial museum is slated to open in September 2012.

“In telling the story of what happened, we must recognize that 9/11 is a historical event that many of us witnessed and feel we know,” she said. “We must also help our visitors bridge memory and history.”

The museum is committed to sharing share lesser-known aspects of the attacks, such as harrowing survivor stories, she said, while also trying to explain the political agenda of the attackers “without being apologists for that agenda.”

Even with the death of bin Laden, Weisser added, “the legacy of 9/11 is not over” and lives on through the difficult balance between freedom and security.

“I just think we can’t live in fear,” Hitz said of that balance. “Nobody’s going to conquer the United States,” he added.