| MUMBAI: Five years have passed since America got the shock
of its life on 9 September 2001 when hijacked planes crashed into the twins towers
in New York. The National Geographic Channel (NGC) will air a series of specials
in September under the initiative Terror Struck Month. Aircrash Pal 434
airs on 3 September at 11:30 pm. It shows how on 11 December 1994, an international
terrorist sneaks bomb ingredients past airport security and assembles them inside
the bathroom of Pal flight 434. He calculates to make sure that his seat lies
directly over the plane’s fuel tank, and plants the bomb under his seat before
disembarking at a stopover in the Philippines. The plane takes off a second
time and is headed toward Tokyo when an explosion jolts the plane, creating panicked
chaos as the blast kills one, injures ten, and leaves a gaping hole in the plane’s
floor. Not knowing the extent of the damage, 292 passengers pin their hopes of
survival on their captain, who expertly manipulates the damaged steering system
and manages a masterful landing despite all odds. But when new evidence
links the Pal culprit to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, investigators realize
that the danger is far from over. Alarming documents reveal that Pal 434 was only
practice for a more deadly plan, and that the safety of thousands rests on the
success of a worldwide manhunt for the globe-trotting terrorist. The special
Al Qeada Calling on 4 September 2006 at 10 pm notes that since 9/11, terrorism
has gone global. Al Qaeda is now a brand name or logo used by anti-American Muslim
extremists around the world. They don't need Osama Bin Laden's organisation any
more to finance or organise mass attacks on civilians. And their methods don't
need to be high tech, very complex or ambitious to have a lethal impact. Ubiquitous
technology - the mobile phone - has become a weapon of choice for some of today's
terrorists. The small handset does not only allow them to communicate, take reconnaissance
pictures, but also to trigger bombs simultaneously, causing indiscriminate killing
on a mass scale. Al Qaeda Calling looks in detail at the Madrid train bombings
of March 2004, when 10 explosive devices triggered by mobile phones on four busy
trains killed 191 commuters, only three days before the general election.
Against the stories of survival and loss from relatives and witnesses, the special
follows the frantic efforts by the police in tracking down the perpetrators of
March 11th. Their key evidence: a mobile phone found in a bag in the wreckage
wired up to explosives. The tiny sim card found inside soon leads police to track
down the terror cell. The film examines the indiscriminate killing on a
mass scale that Al Qaeda pioneered with simultaneous explosions in the 1990s as
well as the post-9/11 terrorist cell by looking at other attacks that have shocked
the world. Unique interviews with the Bali bombers illuminate the meticulous precision
with which these attacks are planned, mostly with the help of mobile phones. As
survivors and relatives come to grips with their loss and trauma, the film looks
to the future, in which mobile phones will be able to do much more than detonate
bombs. Soon terrorists using mobile phones will be able to become their own broadcasters
- recording and transmitting live the atrocities they have engineered. Zero
Hour on 7 September at 10 pm recounts what happened on 9/11. In the early
hours of this historic morning, 19 Al Qaeda soldiers pass through airport security,
ready to enact Osama bin Laden’s carefully orchestrated “Plane’s
Operation". The group is led by four men who have received extensive
flight training and are prepared to crash passenger jets into chosen targets.
Once the hijackers board and take control of their four separate planes, they
begin their descent on what they perceive to be symbols of American oppression.
At 8:46 am American Flight 11 crashes into the upper portion of the World
Trade Center’s North Tower. Less than twenty minutes later, United Flight
175 crashes into the South Tower, making it clear that this is an intentional
attack. Hundreds of lives are lost and injuries sustained as the disaster
escalates—and it is about to further intensify as the other two hijacked
planes rapidly approach the Pentagon and the capital city, Washington, DC. At
10 pm on 10 September, the channel will air Triple Cross. The two-hour
documentary shows how Mohamed survived more than 14 years as Al Qaeda’s chief
“mole” inside the US, helped his boss, Bin Laden, to move in and out
of Afghanistan and how he helped plan the operation in Somalia that downed two
US Blackhawk helicopters. Also shown will be how he helped plan the 1998
African embassy bombings, and even wrote part of the Al Qaeda terror manual. And
finally, how Mohamed confessed to his crimes, cut a deal with the US government
that has never been explained to the public and soon after, just plain disappeared.
To this day Mohamed’s whereabouts are a complete mystery. Before these specials,
the channel will have a Second World War Week in August. One special Pearl
Harbour: Legacy of Attack will air on 6 August at 10 pm. 60 years after fire
and death rained from the skies as Japanese warplanes attacked American forces,
NGC takes a contemporary look at the surprise raid that signalled America's entry
into World War II. Underwater explorer Bob Ballard combs the waters off
Pearl Harbour for the remains of a secret Japanese midget submarine that could
have changed history. Pearl Harbor survivors share their painful and poignant
stories. National Geographic and the National Park Service also capture the first
images from inside the sunken battleship U.S.S. Arizona and examine the ecological
risk the sunken ship and the half a million gallons of oil that may still be contained
inside it. On 8 August at 10 pm the channel will air a documentary on Bridge
On The River Kwai. This tells the story of the greatest engineering project
of World War II - the building of the Thailand to Burma railway by Allied POWs
of the Japanese. While Allied soldiers slaved in miserable conditions to construct
this 260 mile railway through near-impossible terrain, under the most savage working
conditions and with only primitive tools, the Americans were developing a bomb
called Azon - the first Allied "precision guided munition". This
bomb wouldn't simply be dropped - it would be carefully guided by radio control
towards the target to ensure maximum accuracy and destruction. The Azon bomb was
used to destroy the remote railway and the famous Bridge over the River Kwai.
The event became famous in part because of a classic film made by David Lean. Death
Before Surrender airs on 9 August at 10 pm. This two-hour special examines
the final year of World War II in the Pacific, including the rationale for using
the atomic bomb, and features the first-hand recollections of both American and
Japanese civilians and soldiers - even a kamikaze pilot who survived his fated
mission. It gives a rare glimpse at Japanese decision-making in the waning months
of the war. Emperor Hirohito had to intervene twice to break deadlocks in his
war cabinet. The channel will also air the two part special 10 Days
To Victory at 10 pm on 11 and 13 August. 10 days, 10 characters, 10 overlapping
stories - coming from all points of the compass - bearing down to the same moment:
the end of the biggest war the world has ever known. Combining large-scale reconstructions
with traditional documentary storytelling, 10 Days to Victory evokes the
climactic last moments of the Second World War. The program interweaves the stories
of ten very different people caught up in the liberation of Europe from the grip
of Nazi terror. Their diaries, letters and interviews provide an insight
into the dramatic events of the days leading to the end of the war. For these
individuals, as for millions of others, the German surrender on 8 May 1945 marks
the end of everything that had consumed their lives for six years. | 
