Kirk Lippold was commander of the USS Cole when it was attacked on October 12, 2000, while refueling in the port of Aden, Yemen. Lippold was in his office when the attack happened, and recalls rushing to open the door of his office: “This huge cloud of grey smoke just … Continue reading
“Just like Al Qaeda, they are very very destructive”. In 2012, Ikenna Nzeribe was the sole survivor of a Boko Haram massacre at a church in his hometown of Mubi, Nigeria. Boko Haram is a militant Islamist group that operates out of northeast Nigeria, and is estimated to have killed … Continue reading
Granddaughter of a newspaper tycoon, victim of a kidnapping and a member of the FBI’s most wanted list–Patricia Hearst’s life is one of the most bizarre and unpredictable in American history. In her own words, Hearst talks about the time between her kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) in … Continue reading
Ten years after American domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski–known as the “unabomber”–was arrested on April 3, 1996 in Montana, FBI agent Max Knoll discusses finally unscrambling the coded journal discovered among Kaczynski’s belongings. Knoll says the U.S. National Security Agency described the code as “one of the most sophisticated codes they … Continue reading
Rory Murray’s husband John worked in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. On the morning of September 11, 2001, he was running late for work and almost missed the ferry from Hoboken, New Jersey to Manhattan. Later that morning, the hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 was flown into … Continue reading
Grammy-award winning artist and New York city resident Questlove, born Ahmir Khalib Thompson, speaks about hearing the news on the morning of September 11, 2001, and its impact on him. During the first couple of weeks following 9/11, he says he “never felt like a third class citizen.” Weeks later, … Continue reading
Shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks began, Amer Ahmed remembers thinking, “I hope this wasn’t a Muslim.” As the spokesman for the Muslim Student Union at Indiana University, Amer recounts the harrowing experience of being a voice for a community that instantly made him a target of suspicion. Since 9/11, … Continue reading
In this compilation video, Witnify interviewed witnesses and other victims of the September 11 attacks in New York City. In 2001, Al-Qaeda-affiliated hijackers flew two planes into each of the two towers of the World Trade Center complex–an act of terrorism that killed 2,753 people. Check out our featured page … Continue reading
Sportscaster Jim McKay recalls being off-duty from covering the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, when he was quickly ushered back on air to report live on the Munich massacre. He shares stories on what reporting on the crisis was like for him and his crew. To this day, … Continue reading
Author and diplomat Samantha Power discusses the legacy of Sérgio Vieira de Mello, a Brazilian United Nations (UN) diplomat, who was killed in the Canal Hotel Bombing on August 19, 2003 while serving as the UN’s Special Representative in Iraq. Specifically, Power addresses what lessons one can learn from de … Continue reading
