CNN International Announces 9/11 Anniversary Coverage Plans

On the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11th, CNN will broadcast live from New York, Washington, D.C., Shanksville, Penn., Afghanistan and Pakistan.

CNN’s special live coverage will air across CNN U.S., CNN International; CNN.com and CNN Apps will live stream events throughout the day.

On Sunday, Sept. 11, beginning at 1:30pm WAT, CNN’s global broadcast will be anchored by Anderson Cooper and Candy Crowley from New York City’s Ground Zero, joined by CNN International anchor Becky Anderson, chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien. Wolf Blitzer will anchor from the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., joined by Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. John King will anchor from the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Penn. Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh will contribute from Pakistan, and anchor Suzanne Malveaux and senior international correspondent Nic Robertson will contribute to CNN’s coverage from Afghanistan. On Sept. 11th, 2001, Robertson was one of the only Western television journalists in Taliban-held Afghanistan, and reported on the Taliban response and the attacks by the Northern Alliance on Kabul live via satellite videophone.

At 6pm WAT, a special broadcast of Fareed Zakaria GPS will feature an interview with former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and anchor Fareed Zakaria.

Leading up to Sept. 11, CNN will broadcast special programming:
Beyond Bravery: The Women of 9/11 will air on Sunday, Sept. 11 at 2am WAT, and profiles the sometimes overlooked female rescue workers who raced to the Twin Towers in the wake of the attack. Anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien looks at the work of these rescue workers over the decade following their life-altering experiences. Among the stories of these heroic women of New York’s Ground Zero is an African-American firefighter whose company lost seven of the 343 fire fighters who died that day. She is pushing to recruit more women to this dangerous job, even as the number of female firefighters has dropped to less than one percent of the NYFD. O’Brien also speaks with the family of decorated police officer and mother who was photographed rescuing survivors just moments before the collapse of the towers. O’Brien reports the present-day health and emotional struggles of these unsung heroines and hears about their determination to be prepared for the next attack –and to restore hope.

On Sunday, Sept. 11 at 1am WAT, CNN will air Footnotes of 9/11. CNN investigative correspondent Drew Griffin reports on the people who went to work on 9/11 – and unexpectedly became part of history. Each of the eight people profiled by investigative correspondent Griffin for this documentary is mentioned in The 9/11 Commission Report – their unique experiences are drawn from the 1,742 footnotes of that report and offer critical detail to the tragic events of that day – they are literal and figurative footnotes to one of America’s darkest days. They include ticket agents who checked in some of the terrorists, a maintenance technician who answered a call from one of the planes under attack, and the Lt. Col. in the Massachusetts Air National Guard – also a pilot – who scrambled to provide defense to New York, and faced possibly having to shoot down a passenger plane.

On Wednesday, Sept. 7 at 4am WAT (replay on Saturday, Sept. 10 at 2am WAT), Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports: Terror in the Dust, will examine how responders who breathed in the toxic dust and noxious fumes at New York City’s Ground Zero are coping with the health effects of the attacks. The environmental hazards at the World Trade Center disaster site – mercury from fluorescent light bulbs, dioxin and benzene emitted as the jets burned, asbestos from the building materials, and more – have caused severe respiratory ailments, immune problems and, some suspect, a greatly increased cancer risk. Ten years after the attacks chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta speaks to first responders who continue to experience emotional trauma Dr. Gupta’s investigation includes never before broadcast footage of the collapse of the Twin Towers, the medical consequences of the killer dust, and safety recommendations for future crisis responses.

On Friday, Sept. 9 at 4am WAT (with replays on Saturday, Sept. 10 at 1am WAT and 4am WAT), CNN will broadcast from TIME in association with HBO, Beyond 9/11: Portraits of Resilience, featuring untold stories from 40 women and men who led and sacrificed for America in the hours, days, and months that followed the attacks.

Kathleen Johnston, Brian Rokus, and Bud Bultman produced FOOTNOTES of 9/11, Stephanie Smith and Roni Selig produced TERROR IN THE DUST, and Rose Arce and Geraldine Moriba produced BEYOND BRAVERY.

CNN.com’s coverage of the anniversary will reflect on what has changed since Sept. 11th and where the country is going next through a series of original editorial and opinion pieces throughout the site. On Sept. 11, CNN also will live-stream the first few hours of coverage from ten years earlier on CNN.com/live and on the CNN Apps, as well as coverage of live events throughout the day beginning at 12:30pm WAT.

For the first time, CNN.com has also commissioned digital and visual artists to interpret the ripple effect of Sept. 11th, from a global scale to a personal level. Using artist photography and video, CNN.com will tell the story of the effects Sept. 11th had across the world in a unique, visual way.

CNN iReport is exploring how the events of Sept. 11th united the country by pairing up several iReporters who shared similar stories from that day. iReport, the network’s global participatory news community, is connecting these iReporters (who have never met), but nonetheless have strong connections and they will talk about their experiences over the past 10 years. Through the September 11th assignment, iReport will showcase their conversations, along with many other 9/11 stories in a special interactive on CNN.com.