Views: 1. From office window pre 9-11 average day. 2. From my Kitchen window just around 9:15am. 3. From office window 9-11 after WTC 1 fell.
We won many battles but now are LOSING the "war" on terrorism. The new White House is waging "self-jhihad" [MORE->] on the country! It's official. 'War on terrorism' is over 'Jihadists' and 'global war' no longer acceptable terms [-Jon Ward and Eli Lake WASHINGTON TIMES] The U.S. is no longer engaged in a "war on terrorism." Neither is it fighting "jihadists" or in a "global war." President Obama's top homeland security and counterterrorism official took all three terms off the table of acceptable words inside the White House during a speech [Thurday] at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank." As early as March 2009, Obama/ Holder US Dept of Justice the Bush doctrine" term "enemy combatant" will no longer be useed justify holding prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. They are coming 'here' for civiliain trials. *I* wrote 9-11-2006 [I did not know then about BHObama!]: Five years later. Except for you 'Kool-aid' drinkers, the credibility of the US Govt particularly is shot to hell. The Press has NONE.
And no matter which position you take in ALL this, to nearly everyone there is some domestic establishment - the GOVT [-BOTH parties], CIA-FBI, the PENTAGON, the PRESS, ACADEME, HOLLYWOOD, are WRONG, f__up, and plain evil. In the vacuum of leadership and integrity, the mythmakers have taken hold. We may yet see the stability of the US itself threatened, NOT at the hands of terrorists but from within after 5 years burden of groping for some truths and clarity. SEPT 2007 looks to me like Pres. Ahmadinejahad of IRAN is embodiment of something as ugly and dangerous as we have ever faced gaining power from these seeds of doubt and division.] But let's go back...WTC site clearance finish ceremony was held MAY 30 2001. May 29 2002: 1.6 million tons of debris cleared marked the end of sifting debris at the WTC. A solemn ceremony was held two days later. Demolition of remains of the entire WTC complex was over May 28 2002 and the last structural column left standing symbolically was cut down. The clearance was done by a group of noble and dedicated men 24-hours a day [3 months ahead of original schedule at less than $1Bil of $7Bil estimated]. The last truckload of debris from the site was hauled away on JUNE 28 2002. July 2 2002 - materials removed from the WTC site were finished being sorted at Fresh Kills and the operation there was finished in August. July 15 2002-the landfill crew at Fresh Kills S. I. landfill were silent at a ceremony marking the end of tedious poking through the debris. More quietly, the Port Authority moved some larger surviving WTC elements to [Tower Air] Hanger 17 at JFK airport for long-term storage until moves to permanent archives or display.
1,500 IDs were painstakingly made by mid-June 2003. The adjusted final [Jul 2008] official death toll with new ID's is 2,751 [including victims in the planes and on the ground], thankfully, because it is estimated 17,400 people were in the WTC at the time. There was 343 of FDNY dead, 23 missing NY Police, also 37 Port Authority Police and other uniformed men and women. The most massive DNA ID program ever cleared duplications from the list. A handful of missing people were also found, even real amnesia victims. In Washington DC, 125 people in the Pentagon, 59 people on the plane 7 the 5 terrorists died and caused 6% of the Pentagon to be needed to be demolished for the reconstruction, readied for the Sept. 2002 ceremonial opening. In the first press reference to it I've seen, [Washington Post 9-12-2006] firemen, 11 guests and two workers of the WTC Marriott died, 14 people survived IN the partly destroyed hotel the fall of BOTH towers! Early Sept. 11, 2002 five processions headed toward the WTC from each Borough. From St. Patrick's and throughout the day memorial masses were held around town. Small simple ceremonies were held outside of Manhattan but the spotlight was be at the WTC site with families of the killed, rescuers, and schoolchildren and heavily on politicians; the Mayor first starting off a group of all kinds of people reading the list of the dead, the Gov. of NY reading from the Gettysburg Address, NJ reading from the Declaration of Independence, and Pres. Bush in the afternoon on the last stop of his paying his respects at each attack site. At sunset an eternal flame was lit at Battery Park at the foot of the damaged original WTC plaza globe sculpture.
*People died on the ground before the WTC fell and IN the nearby buildings from huge pieces of building debris broken off by the planes and some plane pieces falling. No pictures of body parts on the street -there must be some- were shown, picture of jumpers from and those falling from the towers [in the AIR- there was never any pic of gory ground scenes ever in the media as far as I can tell..] disappeared very quickly. The attack was sanitised. This may partly be out of respect, but there are official BANS on showing them by some TV networks. To this day even on the 9/11 anniversary in 2008, media talking heads scolded [FOX, I believe] for daring to show a bit of these scenes, and S. Palin for speaking of the deaths! The talking heads of NBC-ABC-CNN- etc mindlessly, P-C-ly barked 'oh how dare they traumatise the people by rubbing their faces in this' This self-censorship made the event seem 'bloodless' to many people and just an attack on *buildings* that activists- lefties- neopeaceniks- blame*America*firsters make the attacks out to be! The media are more eager to show the suffering of OVERSEAS civilians by mistakes made or *NOT* made by our forces.
"Cries for help go unheard on edited tapes"-DailyNews 3-31-06. BLOOOMBERG and the Fire Department wanted to block ANY release to families of the tapes of the calls! Censored versions of 911 calls from people in WTC released under by court order to the public Mar 31 2006 with only dispatchers voices to be heard. Even some FAMILY sued to get full release, others just want to keep it to themselves-but also had to demand to hear those calls. Some think it was motivated by a NYC cover-up of what dispatchers told these people to do just before they died or to protect the reputation of Mayor Giuliani. It is TRUE that 128 of the 130 callers-in these tapes- were told to stay where they were. There was a public address announcement in the SOUTH TOWER at 8:49am just three or so minutes after North Tower was hit and of course before South Tower [WTC1] was hit at 9:03am, for people who were leaving to go BACK to their offices. Some lucky people did not hear it. Whatever..the city went to court several times. Beloved Fire Dept Chaplain Father Judge was killed by a falling [jumping?] body while giving last rites, and others were also. Hundreds of thousands of people had to escape, and ALL residents of lower Manhattan also had to leave for days. Thousands walked east across the East River bridges during daylight before lower Manhattan went black. 300,000 people estimated were evacuated by "all available boats" as called for by the Coast Guard. They were taken west to NJ [even those who don't live in NJ but were in the WFC-Bat Park City area and couldn't go east]. 160,000 people went from the 38th St. ferry terminal alone. I live and worked ['til OCT. 2001 office move near to the site] in nearby Brooklyn and did not go into Manhattan at all for nearly a week.
A final report of CAUSE of collapse of 7 WTC? AUG 21 report after 3 years study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology does conclude the fire[s] led to a critical failure of 'Column 79' pushed over by expanded girder just above the heart of the fires. The conspiracy-istas make a point of mindlessly repeating that NO other steel hirise imploded thru fires, the report says yes this is the first time a steel skyscraper failed in a fire! The amount of damage and fires on the side facing the WTC is not clear in video released to the public. The site was cleared and steel taken away very fast! 9/11 Commission report did not deal with WTC7. There is LOTS of room for suspicion and even with the report there is still doubt because the umm dead bldg was treated like JFKs dead body! Will the politicians ever learn? The debris did fall exactly as in a controlled demolition; ALL the lower columns had to umm go at once, or else the asymmetry would have made the tower fall over / tip - is it impossible to happen ANY other way? Best evidence AGAINST the conspiracy-istas? Bomb[s] they say - NO ONE there heard, no recordings of ANY explosion that would have had to be a big one. AGAINST that- [100 lbs.?] of thermite could have done it in the right place, but that was not investigated! I think it is a misquote from the Fire Dept or Silverstein saying "pull the bldg" order to evacuate firemen from the hopelessly burning building; NOT an order to blow it up!
Re the WTC towers-"And after more than two years of investigative research, investigators uncovered what they said was an elementary shortcoming in the trade center towers: neither building had enough staircases to meet any of the major building codes in the country, including New York City's" [-"Staircases In Twin Towers Are Faulted NYTimes 4-6-2005] and a couple of each the 4 stairs, the stairwalls were lightweight drywall. The WTC structural exterior hit by planes had a large portions destroyed, the hot fires weakened everything adjacent, weight from more intact sections of the two 110 floor towers above pushed down, and the structural facades broke apart and 'peeled' down and outward over a large area. It was NOT a real implosion, but at least they went almost straight down. But there was NO design flaw leading to the collapse. The death toll from the attack in mid day estimated would have been over 14,000! What had the Port Authority [exempt from NYC code] and Rockefeller wrought? These stairs had a throng going down and hampering efforts of firemen going up. NYC emergency services SYSTEM also did not work well enough. Approx 1,000 people DEAD above 91 fl in North tower survived plane crash but could not exit. Rescue workers included hardhats from all major construction projects in NYC, and workers with true heavy equipment such as from the NY Transit Authority to move heavy pieces of the fractured bldgs. out of the way. There were few injured people brought to the emergency rooms. Only 26 victims were brought to the large burn unit at the NY Cornell Med. Center. *5* people in the WTC buildings were found alive - that's it. -Genelle Guzman, Port Auth. employee from the 64th floor going downstairs as far as 13th floor of a WTC tower, found 27 hours later, was interviewed on TV on 9-27.- All others who did not escape were crushed or vaporized. Some bodies continued to be found as the site was being cleared and nearby building decontaminated. A Navy hospital ship was brought to the city for several weeks docked on the west side, and became a haven for the emergency workers as there were no masses of injured needed emergency medical services. F-15-16s began to patrol air space over the metro area; now aided by AWACS, and Coast Guard patrols the waterfront and checks incoming shipping.
Giuliani acted decisively-to save his own neck. Anything contradicting the coming-up reputation as "America's Mayor" persona was locked away...and Bloomberg kicked it up a notch, but more stealthily! The wider public should know it by now. Errol Louis [Daily News AUG 22 2006] said "Time to downsize Rudy 9/11 Myth" since new book "Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11" [HarperCollins, Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins] documents it more clearly than ever. The biggest shortcomings besides the location of the Emergency Command Bunker in 7WTC and its big fuel tanks which stoked the flames of the collapse of 7WTC were incompatible Police and Fire radio and poor radio repeater system in the towers PLUS having the separate Police and Fire command posts in DIFFERENT PLACES, with no intervention by the Mayor. The lack of information about the complicated, rapidly changing different conditions in the TWO towers kept the firemen in the north tower after the south tower fell, from getting out, The order to evacuate before the second collapse was useless with the old, not suitable for the conditions "handi-talkie" radios forced to still be used as updated ones were on order [and still going to be late and not fully effective anyway as it turned out]. Actually only 3 of 58 out heard an evacuate order. - This info from secret transcripts of interviews with survivors, had to be gotten by NYTimes suing NYC. The Mayor and Police Commissioner and entourage of some many of the top officials of NYC did not even use the 7WTC "bunker" were directed away from it before opening up the Command Ctr there by Kerik who saw it was too close for comfort to the WTC fires, so they headed just 1 more bldg away to the DC37 HQ bldg. to set up a Police Command after he stopping along the West St site of the Fire Dept command. They stayed in Barclay [this bldg survived collapse of even neighboring 7 WTC and got cleaned up in a few weeks] but evacuated after the collapse of the South Tower. Giuliani never considered a remote back-up command center. Their next stops on search for a new Command site was the Police Academy, then Pier 92 finally got set up - three days later! Kerik, Police Commissioner was disconnected from authority over the Police Dept while acting as Giuliani's personal bodyguard on 9/11. The POLICE DEPT has helicopters and could get the bigger view of the disaster, while the FDNY did NOT and STILL does NOT, was also some factor in the great loss of firemen's lives. NONE of these top Police commanders stayed with the FDNY but were taken along with Giuliani and Co. The Mayor and all fled for their lives. A wrong turn and they could have been dead, and much of city government leadership would have been incapacitated. The Mayor was told near the last minute that there was no danger of collapse. So besides lack of coordination between FDNY and Police and poor radio comms in the towers, roof doors were locked and NO rooftop evacuation plans existed anyone going up top was doomed and further details from 9-11 Commission hearings and Giuliani papers becoming accessible show OEM was not even involved in any preparation or training for any terrorist attack even on the scale of the 1993 WTC bombing. NO drills were held by OEM for ANY high rise fire ANYWHRE [-Wayne Barrett, Rudy Giuliani's Big Lies About 9/11.., Vil Voice Aug 8-14 2007] let alone any kind of scenarios approaching what actually happened in 2001.. **See that Voice article, among others, for more damning notes on the diversion of 9/11 call ctr upgrade funding, poor radio comms, lack of unified command structure, real estate connected Republican interests stroked Giuliani desire to have a command center walkable to City Hall put in 7 WTC. and more..**
ANOTHER RUDY actually deserves a huge part of the glow on Giuliani. Rudy WASHINGTON, Deputy Mayor at the time, got to CITY HALL just after he got caught in the debris cloud of the fall of the first tower. HE made critical contacts and gave important orders that helped the city carry on and later went back to the site, developed illnesses and asthma soon afterward. NYC denied a medical claim for what we could call WTC disease [-see NYPost 5-17 and 5-18-2006] Washington is most well known of MANY cases of this type of exposure. Bloomberg told city lawyers to drop the fight against Workers Comp Board as the story became public and even Giuliani criticised him. Going into the WTC while as many as people as could or would flee down the stairs, NYC firemen went upstairs and stayed.
Many were off-duty and came from MILES around.
The "911" system had no big picture of what was going on. They put people in the WTC on hold. Other uniformed deaths not as heralded were from EMS -ambulance-. Info. is more clear now showing that most people below the crash floors were evacuated. *17* of the fireman killed were new guys -'probies'- just on the job since July [NY Daily News 10-1-01.] On Sept. 16, 168 FDNY officers and firefighters were promoted "..to rebuild the command structure.", and later in the a class of over 300 men became new probies...to serve, but not make up for the lost heroes. On NOV. 2 tensions in the FDNY rose high as the Mayor scaled back the no. of firemen allowed on site doing the searching for their brothers -and anyone's- bodies [calling it too hazardous] they demonstrated loudly and were in a nasty confrontation with the POLICE; -ALL CHARGES dropped by prosecutor DEC. 18- a FDNY official openly calling the MAYOR names that previously were used in the press by only such as gay community used. 18 firemen and FDNY union leaders were ultimately arrested, by about a week later chargers were dropped for all but one who was accused of hitting a Police officer, plus the Mayor OK'd increasing the no. of firemen on site to 50, then 75. Aftermath of 9-11 on firemen- retirements and illnesses and prob the rising tide of alcohol related public incidents and accidents esp in 2004 lead to random drug testing and fire house inspections.
The Emergency Command Center for NYC, various State & Federal agencies relocated from downtown all along the Hudson River to the piers, a school, and the docked Intrepid aircraft carrier museum was home to the FBI for 5 weeks. The Secret Service and the NYC emergency command center offices were in destroyed 7 WTC. They said the INTERNET made everything different. Now everything really is different and the kicker is that world-wide mass media, cheap international travel, high-tech and the net made the attack possible.
The fire-cladding of the building code is weaker now than for the old masonry reinforced classic skyscrapers of the 1930s. There has not been talk now of changing it!- developers DO NOT WANT IT! There is no sophisticated fire fighting plan, [no helicopters with foam, etc.] for the tops of skyscrapers other than fireman climbing the stairs!!! NOT for the WTC, not even in the new security plans made after the bombing of 1993, which was an attempt to knock over one WTC tower on the other! Just increased surveillance and checking of persons entering the towers and garages. [Next, please continue]
