Any quotes used must be attributed to Sky News, Murnaghan 

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

The focus for today’s 9/11 commemorations in New York will be what became known as Ground Zero of course, the former site of the Twin Towers and this is the scene there right now, early in the morning of course. The memorials will begin with a minute’s silence, at the moment the first plane hit the North Tower of the World Trade Centre and here in Britain the 67 British victims of the attacks will be remembered in a service at St Paul’s Cathedral and amongst those in attendance will be the US Ambassador to the UK, Louis Susman, who is with me now.  A very good morning to you.

LOUIS SUSMAN:

Good morning.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

Ambassador, take us back will you to your experience of that dreadful day.  You were personally affected weren’t you, you lost colleagues in the attack and your son was working nearby.

LOUIS SUSMAN:

Yes, I was flying in on a private plane to New York, coming in to an airport in New Jersey across the Hudson and the pilots told me the first plane had hit and I thought, how could that happen?  I went up to the cockpit and as we were landing we saw the second plane hit, actually saw it.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

You saw it, you didn’t see it on TV, you saw it hit the tower?  What did you think at that point, when people were in total confusion?

LOUIS SUSMAN:

You were bewildered, you were shocked, you didn’t know what to think, you obviously were aware it was a terrorist attack after the second plane hit.  I landed and of course as you will, as a father, I was worried about my children.  My son worked across the street from the World Trade Centre at Merrill Lynch and I had a granddaughter at school in the area so I immediately tried to find out if everybody was safe but it was stunning and it took a day and a half to get into New York because they closed the tunnels and the bridges.  Finally when I got in my company had been working furiously, we lost a building at Six World Trade and we lost six people.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

This was Citibank?

LOUIS SUSMAN:

Citibank, yes.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

Today, remembering the 67 British victims amongst others, that was the other nation that suffered on a grand scale, of course nothing compared to the number of Americans but it highlights doesn’t it the number of economic, personal and social links between the two countries?

LOUIS SUSMAN:

Well yes, it does but you know, the incredible support and sympathy that we got from the government and the communities of the United Kingdom, from the Queen, they were so supportive at this time of peril and of course we hoped we hoped we were able to be supportive with the 67 lives you lost.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

What’s been achieved in the 10 years that have passed in terms of making America, making the UK, making so many other parts of the Western world safer?

LOUIS SUSMAN:

Well I think something needs to be noted and that is the incredible resiliency of the American people, the British people and others, that we don’t allow either 9/11 or the terrorism acts to win, to win they would change our way of life and we’d live in fear.  We don’t live in fear and our lives haven’t changed and our businesses run, our churches are open, our societies are working and we go through moving ahead and I think one, we have moved ahead as a society. Second, I think we’ve made enormous progress with our international partners in thwarting terrorism.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

But are we different as societies in that we are now aware of what they can pull off?  Are we more nervous?

LOUIS SUSMAN:

The world changed on 9/11 and sure we go through airports, we take our shoes off and we take our belts off but  I think that change, whilst it is certainly important, hasn’t affected the basic way of life and that’s the key because if these attacks were to change our way of life, for us to live in fear, and I don’t see that. 

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

What about politically because I remember at the time and you’ll remember it better than I, there was a great discussion about a coming together amongst the politicians, how a new politics had to hold sway and of course that’s broken apart and if you look at the situation now with American politics more divided than ever before between the Republicans and the Democrats.

LOUIS SUSMAN:

Well I think we experienced during 9/11 an immense time of unity among all politicians, among all walks of life that we can have.  As usual, the famous Prime Minister McMillan said ‘events, my boy, events’, they all changed it and we are going through a very, very difficult time which is being forced upon us because of the terrible state of the world economy.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

A difficult time which is threatening President Obama’s chances of re-election.  I remember being in Chicago back in 2008, people were talking about well let’s cancel 2012 because he’s going to be a shoe-in, he’s so popular but look at the situation now with just a bit more than a year to go.

LOUIS SUSMAN:

Well I would suggest to you that two and a half months ago President Obama’s rates were over 50%, now they are down around 40% and there is approximately 18 months or 16 months to the election, we’ll have our ups and downs but I think President Obama has a 59% approval rating of people that trust him and I think it serves him well.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

And in terms of what he is trying to do to kick-start the economy, with that huge budget deficit does he have much room for manoeuvre if he doesn’t put up taxes?

LOUIS SUSMAN:

Well I think you have to have a combination of really important cuts to get the deficit but you also have to have a balance of some revenue raising and that may not include raising taxes in some ways but creating … there is a $100 billion of oil subsidies which may go away but I think President Obama is committed.  I don’t think, I know, that he is totally committed to reducing the deficit and he has offered to put entitlements on the table to be looked at and everything and we’ll see how it plays out.  I think the Special Commission is crucial for America, I believe there will be a deal.  I don't know what the deal will be but the consequences of not having a deal with the automatic cuts are so draconian, I think both sides will have to come together.

DERMOT MURNAGHAN:

Well Ambassador Susman, thank you very much indeed for your time and coming in to talk to us about the commemorations of 9/11, Louis Susman there.

LOUIS SUSMAN:

Thank you.