Condoleezza Rice recalls ‘out of the blue’ attack on 9/11published at 15:01 BST
15:01 BST
Bernd Debusmann Jr
White House reporter
Image source, Getty Images
Back at the Pentagon 9/11 ceremony, we’ve just heard from former National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who spoke of the significance of the “out of the blue” assault on the United States.
“I was at my desk at the White House that day when my executive assistant, a young army officer, told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. What a strange accident, I thought,” she recalled.
She was then moved to a bunker here at the White House once it became clear an attack was under way when the second aircraft struck in New York.
Rice paints a picture of chaos as the attacks unfolded, unable to get in touch with then Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in the wake of the attack on the Pentagon.
“Behind every name that we recite, there is a story, a life that mattered, a future unfulfilled, a void, a vast empty space in the heart of a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter, a sibling, a colleague, or a friend,” she said.
“We come together today to say that they will never be forgotten. forgotten, and to honour their memory.”