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The 700 Club Remembers 9/11

By Lee Webb
CBN News Anchor

CBNNews.com – September 11, 2001. On that morning, the life of the nation changed during the broadcast of The 700 Club. Much of our format tossed aside as Pat Robertson and I, like you, watched the nightmare unfold.

"Ladies and gentlemen,” Pat said, “there has been an absolute tragic incident taking place in New York at the World Trade Center…What looks like a passenger jet has hit into the top floor. It's conjecture to say precisely what it is, but there is a possibility, and we don't know this as a fact, that it could be some terrorist act."

The pictures were hard to believe, and impossible to accept. Together we realized this was no freak accident, but a deliberate and cunning attack.

Just eight days earlier, during our Labor Day staff prayer meeting, Pat said he feared a terrorist attack against America was imminent.

He said, "We're looked upon as the defender of Israel. And when that word gets out, we're the great Satan. And the money of Iran and the money of Iraq...the forces are going to start directing toward America.”

“So I would not be surprised if, in about a year from now, we didn't see some serious civil disruptions. Whether it will be bombings, whether it will be attacks of biological weapons, whether they'll be something about...I don't know if anybody is going to carry a suitcase nuclear weapon over here, but it could happen. But we will see America become a target."

The world watched in horror as New York's lower Manhattan turned into a war zone, the ground littered by fallout of suffering. Many were overcome with disbelief.

One attack survivor said, "I've never seen nothing like it in my life."

There was fear and panic.

“Everyone was bleeding, bodies everywhere...I've had enough," said another 9/11 victim.

By 10:30 that morning, the Pentagon was in flames. The Twin Towers were dust and rubble.

And a forth hijacked plane had crashed in a lonely Pennsylvania field. All told, the lives of close to 3,000 people were gone.

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