BREAKING: Expert Reflects on 23 Years Since 9/11, Examines the Possibility of Another Attack

and welcome back here to live now from Fox we just want to close out this hour uh reflecting remembering uh on this very solemn and somber anniversary of the 9911 Terror attacks it's been 23 years more than a generation removed now uh in our historical memory since that horrible fateful day in American history Fox News correspondent Alexis McAdams looks back it's been 23 years since the terror attacks on September 11th and for the families not a day goes by without thinking of the loved ones who lost their lives that day our lives were changed forever that day we look at the world differently nearly 3,000 people were killed when Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked airplanes crashing into the World Trade Center in New York City the Pentagon in Washington DC and crashing in Shanksville Pennsylvania in Shanksville a remembrance ceremony honoring the heroes of United flight 93 the 33 passengers and seven crew members on that flight fighting back against terrorists forcing the plane to crash into this field preventing it from reaching its intended target a federal government building in DC their decision to fight back against the terrorist who had hijacked their plane demonstrates the power of individuals to come together in a time of Crisis to make a Monumental difference this year's commemoration coming during an intense presidential campaign but today politics were put aside President Biden vice president Harris former president Trump and Senator JD Vance starting the day off in New York City at Ground Zero listening for the annual reading of the names if I come here and I speak his name out loud and you hear his name he will never never disappear and standing in that field in Pennsylvania more than 20 years after Flight 93 went down not far behind me the families of those who lost their lives that day say every single day that goes by it doesn't mean that they'll ever forget their memory or that this will ever be any easier reporting in Shanksville Pennsylvania I'm Alexis McAdams Fox News uh Alexis thanks so much Alexis there uh at the now 911 memorial uh in the field there in Shanksville Pennsylvania uh where former president Trump uh President Biden vice president Harris All participated today in these commemorations as well at the Pentagon and at Ground Zero uh we have these very moving images coming to us from New York City there you can see the entire Skyline that was changed so dramatically on 911 I remember it well I was only 10 years old it was one of the first major news headlines that I can vividly remember recount hour by hour that day even at 10 we also have this live picture of the tribute and light uh emanating over the nighttime sky of lower Manhattan bringing in Hal keer yet again uh Hal thanks for being with us here uh I just wanted you to reflect as well of course I was only 10 years old at the time I still remember it uh quite vividly here um where were you well I was actually in Souther California and uh I got the call we we knew things that I won't get into all the details but we knew there was a possibility of a of some sort of activity by terrorists and I I literally got the call that morning it was like they they hit they hit the uh they hit the World Trade Center which uh was really the second time that the World Trade Center had been attacked right and uh and and because of what I was doing I was connected in some civil military ways that were a little unusual so I ended up spending I think the next 24 hours something like that I don't know it's until 3:00 or 4 in the morning so however whatever it was uh uh working here in Southern California with my inter agency counterparts my civil military counterparts uh tracking threats uh working with them to support them on tracking threats to uh Southern California but uh but the the irony is uh that that I was here I was actually supposed to be in the Pentagon on the morning of 911 and there's a better than uh even uh chance that I was supposed to be in a meeting at 8:00 in the section of the Pentagon that was hit now um a is as good as a mile as far as I'm concerned but uh uh let's just say uh I've know a lot of people that that did not survive that day and uh and uh so it hits kind of hard yeah hell I had no idea uh wow we've spoken for so long I had no idea about that anecdote there uh on 911 hell in the meantime though um it's been 23 years uh you now have a generation uh who was not born uh before 911 and so they don't remember anything obviously uh or some were too young to recognize or acknowledge and so you're talking about never forgetting you're talking about keeping this alive this is why at each and every uh anniversary here at live now we show these commemorations at Ground Zero at Shanksville at the Pentagon in full so you can hear the names read out aloud uh to to just grapple with the immeasurable toll uh that was loss there on 911 23 years ago but I want to talk with you because you study you train about uh the terror posture not only here Stateside but but worldwide as well these threats that emanate from so many of these hot spots around the globe and you know how I think it's safe to say since The Botch withdrawal from Afghanistan in August of 2021 now 3 years on um at the time in the immediate aftermath of that questions started being asked about whether or not Afghanistan and the surrounding areas would become yet again a safe haven or Terror groups here uh leading some to say General Mark Millie at the time uh you know Secretary of Defense Mark esper at the time also uh Secretary of Defense Austin at the time and others FBI director Christopher Ray that the opportunity is right for these Terror elements if they want to pull something like 911 off not that they have the resources or the support um but that it could grow o over time with this vacuum in Afghanistan specifically here Ohio Senator JD Vance Donald Trump's runny May uh he was on the Fox News Channel he echoed some of these similar sentiments let's watch go back to 911 that cost $500,000 for Al-Qaeda and the Taliban to plan and execute that operation we have given the Taliban just since the fall of of of the Afghan government hundreds of millions of dollars in direct American taxpayer Aid if they can do 911 with $500,000 what can they do with hundreds of millions of dollars of American taxpayer money KLA Harris has done nothing to stop that flow of money to the Taliban at the same time she's opened the Border Allowing God knows how many of those Fighters military age males to come into our border completely unchecked and uncontrolled so I I really do believe as tragic as today is that we are as a greater risk of a terror attack in this country as we've been since 911 okay Hal I want to ask you uh do you believe that do you agree with that sentiment here and I just want to you know for the viewers sake it is somewhat um peculiar maybe even bordering on disrespectful to ask this question on this day but I'm going to ask it h you know is another 911 even possible in the imagination at the time remember the failure of imagination standpoint philosophy was at play you couldn't even conceive of something like this happening but with what JD V just said there is it plausible well it's plausible with one exception okay uh 911 caught us by surprise because it never been done before uh whatever happens next that would be of that size will be something uh that will also uh be something that probably wasn't quite done before it'll take different elements of things that have been accomplished uh one thing with terrorists is they tend to be somewhat conservative that may sound strange but they they tend to be very conservative tactically and operationally speaking they tend to do it works that's why a lot of times you'll see terrorists do these very simple attacks they go in and shoot a place up or they drive a big truck into a crowd or something you go wow what a what a kind of you know not a very sophisticated attack well that's because they go with what works and they and they tend to do that now 911 was unusual because they went with something that had never been done before and didn't know there was no proven record had been done and it and there were some assumptions on could it be done that it it really upended and it really changed from what was possible to what might be probable and that's what has had us for the last over two decades leaning forward looking at a lot of other things of course one of the areas is weapons of mass destruction uh chemical biological radiological weapons has us very very concerned as we talked uh you know um about this attack that just you know the strike that just took place where the IDF went in and took out a chemical uh facility uh it's pretty clear that that was to uh to probably uh uh you know under you know to to take out a potential wmd type of capability there which makes me wonder what was some of the other intelligence tied to choosing that strike and we have seen uh a number of operations you know when California we just saw uh literally this week uh White uh white supremacist extreme rightwing uh terrorists were indicted for a big plot we saw another one where terrorist Isis inspired was stopped from going into uh the US that was going to do attacks on on Jewish facilities in New York and and we've seen other plots like this but everyone is leaning forward so the answer in short is yes but don't expect it to be a a copy of 911 something yeah H just lastly um do you worry that the relevant agencies and entities that were set up the post 911 architecture um could possibly take their eye off the ball as we get farther and farther removed from that day or or no is this straight shooting here every day I am worried about that all right the longer look bu bureaucracies are bureaucracies okay and and organizations tend to walk work with a certain optempo and and and I have to tell you that that every large bureaucratic organization whether it's a government or or or corporate um uh tends to get locked into reinforcing the status quo and unless there is a uh something a threat a risk something out there that forces them to to move quickly forces them to be more adaptive uh they will tend to fall into a certain regimen if you will a certain bureaucratic Norm and that worries me and that's something as an intelligence professional that's something we've always had to fight against which is we always get with our our analysts we get with our our intelligence collectors if you will and we're always trying to say what if what if what if and think about what they might do as opposed to what they have been doing in order to stay uh one step ahead of them all right Hower we're going to have to leave it at that and thanks for sharing your memories uh on this really really tough day in our recent past how we'll talk soon okay thank you Andrew