Obama:

Last week I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action and authorised an operation to get Osama Bin Laden and bring him to justice. A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a fire fight, they killed Osama Bin Laden and took custody of his body.

Speaker 2:

Today is a day to put aside R and D's, liberals and Democrats and celebrate yes, celebrate the death of a mass murderer. I'm back in a second.

Speaker 3:

What were you saying?

Speaker 4:

In 93, I was in the bomb, February 28th. In September at 8:42, I was in the north tower. It was ... I'm glad he's dead.

Speaker 5:

The fear that you went to bed with every night as a New Yorker ... In some ways, it'll never end, but in most ways it feels like it's finally come to rest, just because we found him. Even though it's gonna insight another whole world of issues, it's still bringing the peace for a lot of New Yorkers, a lot of firemen. It's a proud moment. Unfortunately, it's a proud moment.

Speaker 6:

In my home country, Pakistan, a lot of Pakistani people are suffering due to these terrorist attacks. So many families lost their loved ones.

Speaker 3:

[inaudible 00:02:00] has killed a lot of people with drones, trying to get at this man.

Speaker 6:

Yeah of course. They did. I guess this was the only possibility. If they have to do it, they have to do it.

Speaker 3:

You're glad it's done now.

Speaker 6:

Yeah. Of course, I'm very much glad.

Speaker 3:

You served in the US army.

Speaker 6:

Six years. 2001 to 2007.

Speaker 3:

How are you feeling right now?

Speaker 6:

Right now I'm ecstatic. You know how many people's of mine lost their life, put their life down over there in Afghanistan. I had to see these people's wives, their children, mothers, grandmothers, cousins, nephews, friends, acquaintances even, and have to explain to them why they didn't make it back on the same flight that I did. You know what I'm saying? Why they had to lay down their life for a mission that we didn't have any intention on finishing in the first place. Now, this redeems all of them. I'm sure all of them are looking down from heaven or looking up from hell and smiling their asses off.

Speaker 3:

By morning, there isn't a person in New York, who hasn't heard the news. The streets aren't so much celebratory, as actually quieter some how, as if the whole city is lost in thought.

Speaker 7:

It was sort of shocking. I mean, I heard the president was gonna make an announcement. I joked around that, "Oh, maybe this is about Bin Laden." I didn't actually expect that, that would be it. I was pretty surprised. I mean, it's hard to say how important he was to Al Qaeda. I don't really know that. I think it's important psychologically to New Yorkers and to a lot of people, to be able to move on.

Speaker 3:

At ground zero, I find not the families of victims or the wounded responders, but people's whose excitement is as mixed with loss.

Speaker 8:

Bullet hole in his head. Get the one with the bullet hole in his head. There. You can have it. Take it.

Speaker 9:

Thank you.

Speaker 3:

Can I ask you why you made them?

Speaker 8:

Why I made 'em?

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 8:

Cause I'm glad he's dead. That's why.

Speaker 3:

Do you have any personal connection to it?

Speaker 8:

I'm just the United States. I was in the Marine Corp. I'm an iron worker here in the projects. I'm so glad he's dead today.

Speaker 10:

I watched the towers come down on 9/11 on TV. I was so depressed and distraught about it. I couldn't even come down to this area for two years after that. Now I go to all the memorial services on 9/11. I'll be at the next one in September.

Speaker 3:

How did you feel last night?

Speaker 11:

I saw the news. I was watching TV, when it came on. I was happy, but yet, at the same time I knew that it was just the beginning of something else. I mean, like they said, everyone has to be vigilant. Now, they might strike back. They're patient. They wait.

Speaker 3:

Everyone looks up and thinks back, to the almost unimaginable destruction of 10 years ago.

Speaker 12:

Holy shit.

Speaker 3:

The single worst act of violence in the city's history. For most New Yorkers, Ground Zero has stood as a glaring reminder of unfinished business. The rebuilding effort caught up in endless delays, the responders who later became sick, still fighting for health assistance from the government. Most of all, the man responsible for the carnage, still on the loose. His legend growing with each passing year.

Speaker 13:

[Foreign language 00:05:59].

Speaker 3:

The death of the legend is what's drawn the crowds.

John:

Those who were truly affected by 9/11 weren't in that large crowd. They might have been some, but for most part everybody was more sombre, more sober, more ... I think to me, it gave a larger group of 9/11 responders and family members a chance to reflect over the last 10 years of 9/11, to now, of what they've been missing, and what they're gonna miss the rest of their life, because of this man.

Speaker 3:

John [Feal 00:06:43] was one of the first responders to 9/11, a construction workers helping to put out flames and rescue survivors, until he was maimed by falling steel. He spent the last decade pressuring Washington to pass a bill, to take care of all those men and women, who were hurt in the response effort, or later became ill from the toxic smoke. For John, the death of Bin Laden is just one page in a long, long story.

John:

We have more sad stories than we have good stories in the 9/11 community. It's that one good story, that we see once in a while that keeps you doing what we're doing. That was not only a good story, it was a great story. I have no problem admitting that I cried. I don't cry often. I cried for ... I cried for all of those, who aren't here today to witness this.

Speaker 3:

You said you had been to a number of funerals.

John:

Sure. 51.

Speaker 3:

51 funerals.

John:

Sure. I paid for 12 of them. These are people that lost their benefits, or they can't get their benefits. They've been fighting for years. They have to prove they got sick from 9/11. I have the mindset now, we no longer have to prove we got sick from 9/11, the government has to prove to us that we didn't get sick from 9/11. Senator Collins called the capital police on us.

Speaker 3:

It took John Feal, 10 years of pressuring Washington to get the Zadroga Law passed, that would pay for 9/11 responders healthcare. When it did pass a few months ago, he celebrated. He didn't celebrate this week.

John:

I can't jump up and down in joy for Osama Bin Laden dying. People were telling me to do a press conference. People were telling me to have a party. They can do that. I'll stay here and continue to work and helping people. Just not my gig.

Speaker 3:

Back on the street, all day you hear people suddenly remember a feeling 10 years ago, when the city came together under one great and tragic cause, and how that feeling was slowly lost.

Obama:

September 11th, 2001. Our time of grief. The American people came together. We offered our neighbours a hand and we offer the wounded our blood. We reaffirmed our ties to each other, and our love of community and country. On that day, no matter where we came from, what God we prayed to, or what race, or ethnicity we were, we were united as one American family.

Speaker 3:

At the end of the week, President Obama comes to visit Ground Zero. The crowds are out again. Most, just to catch a view of the man, who slew New York's monster.

Speaker 15:

I think it's about time. I think he deserves recognition for a good job.

Speaker 3:

One can't help but feel that an epic chapter in this city's history has come to a close, and that millions of New Yorkers are now cautiously turning the page.