At 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 11, Jim Margolin '78, spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation's New York office, was sitting at his desk on the 28th floor of 26 Federal Plaza, eight blocks north of the World Trade Center.
"At 8:48 we heard a very loud but deep rumbling noise."
Outside of his north-facing office windows, clear blue sky and glistening sun shone upon the reflecting glass skyscrapers. Margolin could only speculate on what the noise might be.
"It sounded like a large prop plane. Then, we felt a concussion in our building."
In an instant, the world was turned on its head.
"A colleague and I went to the assistant director's office, which looks south. We saw a big hole in the north tower of the World Trade Center. It covered the width of the building."
Then, as millions of other Americans, they turned to the television for information.
"CNN was on in our boss's outer office and had a correspondent on who thought that it had been caused by a commercial aircraft. We surmised out loud that the plane had been hijacked."
Moments later, as if to purposely shake the world from its malaise of disbelief, a second airliner crashed into the other World Trade Center Tower.
"I may have looked out the window at the instant the second plane hit. We both saw what appeared to be a very large outward explosion blowing out the windows of the east wall of the south tower. Then we saw the reports that two planes had hit."
At this point, the state of things came dangerously into focus for Margolin and his colleague.
"We both had the same thought at the same time. We had to get the people out of this building. After the second plane, it was obvious."
Obvious, that is, to a 13-year veteran agent of the FBI. To men such as Margolin, terrorist threats are part of daily existence.
After graduating from the College and joining the bureau, Margolin spent five years in the organized crime division. For the last five years, he has been the public affairs spokesman for the FBI's New York office.
As spokesman, Margolin acts as the bureau's media liaison.
"I regularly speak with the New York and international media. A typical day consists of talking to reporters and answering inquiries from screenwriters looking for material."
Margolin has dealt with threatened attacks before.
"In 1995, another plot had been thwarted to blow up the tunnels under our building. We uncovered a conspiracy to destroy New York City landmarks planned in Jersey City by a man named Omar Abdel Rahman, alias 'The Blind Sheik.' So we knew that our building had been a target in the past."
Once Margolin and his colleague had advised others to vacate the premises and had made it safely out of the building -- into the chaotic mass of bewildered refugees -- they began walking southwest, in the direction of the towers.
"Agents were already down there. We got as far south as Chamber Street, four blocks north. I immediately got messages from the media. I received 10 pages within the first five minutes. My cell phone wouldn't get through to anybody. People on the street were trying to call friends and family. It was overload."
As the two made their way to West Broadway, they received word via a bureau radio that the south tower had collapsed.
"Looking south on West Broadway, we saw Mayor Giuliani and the police commissioner exiting a building and heading across the street in search of a temporary command center."
Mayor Giuliani would spend the greater part of that morning shuffling about in search of a secure headquarters.
Meanwhile, Margolin and his colleague held their ground on Broadway.
"Soon, the flow of people got faster and cops began yelling at us to move."
Perhaps this should have told Margolin something. But the clock was ticking.
"Fifteen seconds later we saw the aerial on the north tower begin to sway. Then the entire tower started to implode. It seemed to happen in slow motion, and appeared unreal, as if choreographed in a movie."
After the collapse of the second tower, Margolin and his colleagues spent all that afternoon and evening at 290 Broadway, where the FBI had reestablished itself after having been dislocated from its offices.
"There are many far more heroic tales. I still worry about not immediately heading down to the World Trade Center with the rest of my colleagues."
Since Sept. 11, though, nothing has changed and yet everything is different.
"The New York headquarters has been moved to a parking garage, and all calls now deal with the same subject."
Margolin has daily contact with the FBI Assistant Director of New York, Barry Mawn. Most of the content of that contact is classified.
He contends that it is too soon to assign responsibility for the failure in national defense and intelligence on Sept.11th to the FBI or CIA.
"We will learn lessons and make changes based on what happened. I do not know enough about this to know whether we could or should have known. People who know what we do actually know that we're pretty good at this. True successes in counter-terrorism are the things you don't read about because they don't happen."
