The Foreign Service Journal, February 2003

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 17 F O C U S O N D A N G E R Z O N E S n the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, the Watch in the Executive Secretariat’s Operations Center beat everyone in the U.S. — including CNN — to the facts of what was occurring at the World Trade Center. Even before the major media began publicly speculating about crop dusters and unusual wind currents, the Watch knew that a commercial jet had deliberately flown into the tower. A former Ops Center employee, who happened to be working in the second tower, saw that first plane hit. He immediately called the Ops Center, identified himself, and reported exact- ly what he had seen: a commercial jet drove into the tower, and there was no question of the plane being out of control. O Russell Charpentier O PS : S TATE ’ S N ERVE C ENTER FOR C RISIS R ESPONSE I N THE O PERATIONS C ENTER , THE W ATCH AND C RISIS M ANAGEMENT S UPPORT UNITS WORK IN TANDEM TO PLAY THE CENTRAL ROLE IN CRISIS MANAGEMENT FOR S TATE . B Y S USAN M AITRA