I remember I was in a doctor's office at the time I heard the news. I felt numb - it seemed unbelievable. I was used to terrorist threats from the IRA when I was growing up, but America always felt invulnerable. Now we had an attack on American soil.

I remember going into work that day. I worked for a newspaper at the time, and it was so quiet when I arrived, everybody stunned and working onsetting an extra afternoon edition out with what information we had available at the time.

I had music jobs around that time at Borders, a chain of bookshops. It was so strange going to play music for people who were equally stunned by the events they had witnessed. Nobody really knew how to react to what had just happened.

The 9/11 attacks changed everything here in America. The USA Patriot act was soon passed that paved the way for so much of the surveillance that American society has to endure now. The powers of the Presidency were expanded in ways that have affected society today in so many ways.

If the Al Qaeda Islamists' intention was to disrupt American society, they certainly achieved their aims.

America is a very different country now to the place I moved to in 1999. 😢