at the world trade center, who died trying to save others. it was given to me by his mom arlene as a proud memorial to her son. it s my reminder of a life that ended and a task that does not end. and here is the thing that the president did not mention about george, he he was off that day. he didn t have to come in that day, but he did that day. and like so many other heroes trying to rescue folks running away from those collapsing buildings, he died that day. his mom arlene is here and we re very, very honored to have you, arlene. thank you. neil: every time i hear this story, i m amazed. did your son call you up and say, mom, i m going in or did you find out later. no, i was having my car repaired and i saw it on the tv and when i got home, my daughter called up, she was out in colorado and said, what s going on in new york, where is george?
neil: good seeing you again. hope we get the updates from the imf. they re worried in europe and we are he sadly commemorating an anniversary and they re worried about the financial worries to come and we re stuck in the middle of that and we ll see if it s catching on and is a worry as we look back, we ll be looking forward as well. when we come back, arlene howard. you might not remember the name, but i bet you remember the speech and the badge. we ll explain and we ve also got john ashcroft and former attorney general on the new terror threat. all of that after this. [ male announcer ] each of these photos was taken by someone on the first morning of their retirement. it s the first of more than 6,000 sunrises the average retiree llee. as we re living longer than ever before, prudential s challenge is to help everyone have the retirement income they ll ne to enjoy every one of their days.
murdered, the criminal gets and, of course, thanks to the navy seal who shot him in the face, we can say ok, and then he got a navy burial at sea although it was a muslim custom but i feel that you killed my son so you re going to pay for it. and god will take care of you because sunday when i was in church, the priest was talking about forgiveness. and you know, it takes me 10 years to say to god, you and i have to get together on this forgiveness. and i said, well, god, you ll take care of him. i know you will. i ll leave it up to you and that night, he did. i was concerned when i heard the news. arlene howard, thank you very much for telling your story. thank you very much. and and for raising such great kids. oh, yeah. i have my son robert just retired from the navy. and hi, robert. my daughter lives out there in colorado with the air force. she s chief of protocol.
major part of that task has been accomplished and now we re joined by arlene howard, mother of late port authority police officer who the president of the united states was just talking about, george howard. good morning to you. good morning. when you heard the news that bin laden was finally killed, what was your reaction? yippie! hooray! let s celebrate. and i went and sent out e-mails to all my friends and relatives and said let s celebrate. and that s what my son called me from south carolina and said he sure is celebrating. even though you said you felt kind of bad about celebrating. being a christian, you re not supposed to celebrate anybody s death like that. but but. this one, i think we ve got a pardon on that one. here s your son, he s at home. the attack happens and what does he do? he rushes in. like he did in 1993 on the first bombing. he rushes in. right. it s his day off that day. he was supposed to go play golf with his partner. did you know he
she s an air force veteran. my grandson stevie just came home from korea. he s an air force veteran. my son timothy is down in washington. he s an air force veteran. my son patrick s a retired nypd. a family of service. yes. well, some my husband was navy and i was navy. all right. thank you very much. arlene, thank you very much. thanks for coming in, arlene. no traffic on the way back! don t worry. don t forget 9/11. thank you very much. straight ahead, what if water boarding led the c.i.a. to usama bin laden? president obama s homeland security advisor john brennan facing some tough questions. he s our guest live from washington next. plus, american muslims react to the assassination of bin laden. will they stand behind the white house s decision? aaah!