Posted on 09/11/2001 9:17:10 AM PDT by t-shirt
This sounds like a good patriotic American pilot being threatened by a terrorist. He most likely crashed on the helo pad to avoid hitting the pentagon. He deserves a posthumous medal of honor, if I'm right.
May God rest his soul.
By TODD SPANGLER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SHANKSVILLE, Pa. (AP) -- Two United Airlines jetliners crashed Tuesday morning, one near Pittsburgh and the second at a location the airline did not immediately disclose. A total of 110 people were aboard the two planes, the airline said.
One plane, United Flight 93, crashed north of the Somerset County airport, a small airport about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
''It shook the whole station,'' said Bruce Grine, owner of Grine's Service Center in Shanksville, about 2-1/2 miles from the crash. ''Everybody ran outside, and by that time the fire whistle was blowing.''
United said that flight, a Boeing 757, left Newark at 8:01 a.m., headed for San Francisco with 38 passengers, two pilots and five flight attendants.
The airline said United Flight 175, a Boeing 767, also crashed but it did not give a location. That plane left Boston at 7:58 a.m., bound for Los Angeles with 56 passengers, two pilots and seven flight attendants, the airline said.
Because of attacks Tuesday at New York's World Trade Center, the Federal Aviation Administration had ordered all departing flights canceled nationwide, and any planes already in the air were to land a the nearest airport. The Pennsylvania crash came after the order was issued.
According to Somerset County dispatchers, Flight 93 crashed about 10 a.m. about 8 miles east of Jennerstown, WPXI-TV in Pittsburgh reported.
Earlier Tuesday, terrorists crashed two planes into the World Trade Center and the twin 110-story towers collapsed. A plane also hit the Pentagon in Washington.
In Chicago, United CEO James Goodwin said the airline is working with authorities including the FBI. United said it was sending a team to Pennsylvania to assist in the investigation and to provide assistance to family members.
''Today's events are a tragedy and our prayers are with everyone at this time,'' Goodwin said.
At Boston's Logan Airport, Joseph Lawless, director of public safety for the Massachusetts Port Authority, said a family assistance center had been set up and families were arriving at the airport.
I wish them painful and untimely deaths!
By KATHY GANNON
Associated Press Writer
Posted September 11 2001, 5:17 AM EDT
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's ruling Taliban say they had no hand in a suicide bomb that targeted Ahmed Shah Massood, the legendary leader of the country's opposition to hard-line Islamic rule.
Conflicting reports persisted Tuesday over whether Massood survived the bombing Sunday that killed his aide, Asam Suhail, as well as the bombers, two men posing as television journalists. The Russian news agency Itar/Tass reported that Massood had also died.
An opposition spokesman and Massood's brother in London have said he was gravely injured in the attack, but was not killed.
Massood, 48, has no obvious successor. His loss would devastate the opposition, already a fractured collection of groups who fought each other when they ruled much of Afghanistan for four years until the Taliban took control in September 1996. Their deposed government still holds Afghanistan's seat in the United Nations and operates embassies in several capitals.
The opposition blamed the bombing on the Taliban and neighboring Pakistan, which they say supports the Islamic militia with money and military training.
Massood's spokesman in Paris, Mehrabodin Masstan, suggested the bombing could be the work of Osama bin Laden, who is living in Afghanistan and is accused by Washington of blowing up two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998.
The Taliban denied any role in the attack.
"He was our direct enemy in the bunkers on the frontline, because we believe he is an enemy of the Islamic emirate of Afghanistan, but we had no hand in this terrorist attack," Abdul Rehman Ottaq, a senior foreign ministry official, said Tuesday.
The attack occurred at Khodja Bahauddin in northern Afghanistan, according to an opposition spokesman, Abdullah, who uses only one name. The explosives were concealed in a television camera belonging to the bombers, believed to Arabic-speaking North Africans traveling with Belgian passports. They claimed to represent a news organization identified as Arab News International, Abdullah said.
Three people were wounded -- Abdullah's young nephew and the opposition's ambassador in India, in addition to Massood.
"Massood received the most serious injuries," Abdullah said.
Massood's brother, Ahmed Wali, the opposition's representative in London, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday that Massood's condition was critical. He said Massood had undergone surgery for shrapnel wounds to the head and had not regained consciousness since the operation.
It was unclear where Massood underwent surgery. Some reports said it was in a Russian field hospital on the Tajik border with Afghanistan. Others said Massood was too badly wounded to be moved from northern Afghanistan.
Wali left Britain late on Monday for Tajikistan.
Massood's northern alliance, called the United Front, is made up of smaller groups largely representing the country's minority ethnic and religious groups.
Former enemies who fought bitterly against each other when they ruled Kabul between 1992 and 1996, they rallied together under Massood's charismatic leadership to try to stop the Taliban from gaining full control of the country.
Successive battlefield victories by the Taliban forced Massood's alliance out of key strongholds and restricted them to pockets in the Panjshir Valley and a handful of provinces in northern Afghanistan. Massood is often referred to as the "Lion of the Panjshir."
In the beleaguered capital of Kabul there was sadness at the news of the suicide bombing and the prospect of Massood's death.
"Even if you don't support him, he was someone who could maybe force the Taliban to soften their attitude toward the people," said Mohammed Idrees, who runs a small ramshackle shop tucked away in a narrow dusty lane.
This sounds like a good patriotic American pilot being threatened by a terrorist. He most likely crashed on the helo pad to avoid hitting the pentagon. He deserves a posthumous medal of honor, if I'm right.
May God rest his soul.
Sky News
Sept. 11, 2001
Iraq has shot down a second unmanned American spy plane in the southern no-fly zone.
The Pentagon confirmed it had lost contact with the reconnaissance Predator drone which had been on a mission in southern Iraq.
"We have lost control of the aircraft. We no longer have a data link," said Rear Admiral Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman.
Spy data
Iraq claimed it had shot the aircraft down hours before the Pentagon revealed it had lost touch with the drone during one of its patrols.
Last month another Predator was shot down by Iraq's air defence crews.
The aircraft fly slowly over the zone they are observing and beam live information back to mission control centres.
British and American warplanes have stepped up attacks in the no-fly zones which were set up after the Gulf War to protect Kurds in the north and marsh Arabs in the south.
Dangerous mission
So far no manned aircraft have been shot down but the US has warned the chances of this happening have increased as Saddam rebuilds his air defence systems.
Last Modified: 13:44 UK, Tuesday September 11, 2001
http://www.sky.com/skynews/storytemplate/storytoppic/0,,30200-1029100,00.html
Capitol, Disney, closed, local officials on alert after attacks
By KEN THOMAS
Associated Press Writer
The state Capitol, Walt Disney World, airports, courthouses and public universities across Florida were shut down and President Bush cut short his trip to Sarasota following the attacks Tuesday on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Federal, state and emergency officials gathered to assess potential safety threats in the state as attacks in New York and Washington caused a ripple effect of concern for public safety throughout the nation.
''We do not have a credible threat to the state of Florida,'' Mike Delorenzo, Florida's emergency response chief said after briefings to emergency operations center staff in Tallahassee.
Security was increased for Gov. Jeb Bush, who said it was ''appropriate'' to evacuate the Capitol ''given the randomness of the attack and the fact it is a high profile building.''
''This is a very, very sad day. We're doing what we need to do with the state to prepare for this,'' said Bush, the president's brother. ''I don't anticipate this going on for a long period of time. That's what these terrorists would like.''
Disney World, one of the world's most popular vacation destinations, closed its theme parks and sent employees home, spokeswoman Rena Callahan said. Busch Gardens in Tampa, Sea World Orlando and Discovery Cove in Orlando also closed. Universal Studios said it was evaluating security.
Security was heightened at military bases across the state.
Officials at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, home to U.S. Central Command, responsible for military operations in the Middle East, said it was in ''a state of increased security vigilance,'' in response to a directive from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
All personnel not assigned to the base or not living on base were told to leave. Only those holding Department of Defense identification were permitted on base.
The nationwide airport shutdown disrupted some of the country's busiest airports in Miami, Orlando and Tampa.
Twenty-five commercial flights were diverted to Jacksonville International Airport, stranding passengers -- including tennis star Venus Williams -- and swamping rental car booths.
Passengers at Orlando International Airport were riveted in the restaurants and bars as they watched the attacks unfold on television.
''It's despicable and horrific,'' said Ned Grace, 50, of Windermere, waiting for a friend to arrive from Boston. ''This is the worst act of terrorism in world history. It's beyond belief.''
The Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport was closed and officials at Miami International Airport advised passengers to call their airlines before going to the airport.
The last flight to land at Miami International was an American Airlines flight that had departed Miami for Port au-Prince, Haiti. It had nearly arrived in Haiti when the pilot announced weather problems were forcing it to turn around.
When the plane landed, passengers were told about the attacks.
''When passengers learned of the real reason, ''People just got quiet,'' said Leroi Woods of Broken Bow, Oklahoma.
The attacks brought residents to a standstill.
''When I heard it, I froze. The whole gym just stopped and everybody gathered around the televisions,'' said Beres Baker, a personal trainer at Gold's Gym in Pembroke Pines. ''The music stopped and everybody was calm, just confused.''
Scott Coogler, a bus supervisor from Hialeah Gardens with Dollar Rent-A-Car, was being questioned for jury service in a Miami courtroom when a marshal told potential jurors to go home.
''The federal building, you just don't know,'' Coogler said. ''I'm on the 11th floor. Something happens, I'm toast.''
President Bush was reading to children at Emma Booker Elementary School in Sarasota when an aide told him about reports of the attack.
Before boarding Air Force One, the president vowed to ''conduct a full-scale investigation to hunt down and find those folks who caused this act. Terrorism against our nation will not stand.''
The Kennedy Space Center was under an ''enhanced security awareness.'' NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin in Washington was speaking with Kennedy Space Center management and Patrick Air Force Base officials about what type of threat condition to go into here.
Federal courthouses in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Key West were closed for the rest of the day Tuesday and Wednesday. State courts were closed in Miami and Orlando.
The state closed its 11 public universities and officials said a decision will be made on whether they will remain closed on Wednesday.
In Tallahassee, the governor and the state Cabinet met for an hour Tuesday before they adjourned and Bush left to meet with state emergency management officials.
From:
http://www.gainesvillesun.com/articles/2001-09-11jj.shtml
Sky News
Sept. 11, 2001
Israeli tanks have blocked the town of Jenin in an apparent response to a spate of suicide bomb attacks.
Tanks rolled up to the edge of the town in the early hours of Tuesday - four Palestinians were seriously wounded in exchanges with Israeli troops.
'Terrorism nest'
Jenin is seen by Israel as a key Hamas town and a launchpad for the suicide bombers that have brought death and destruction to Jerusalem and northern coastal towns.
Israel said the operation, which involved about 17 tanks, was to prevent suicide bombers leaving the town. It did not say how long the operation would last.
"Access roads to the city have been blocked and they are under the full control of the Israeli army, in order to prevent the movement of terrorists into Israel," an Army statement said.
The move follows another bloody weekend in which a bomber killed three Israelis and injured dozens more in the northern town of Nahariya.
Arafat talks
The operation has overshadowed a planned meeting on Tuesday between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. No time or location has been set for the talks.
It is hoped the two men can secure a ceasefire as a springboard to more talks and an end to the year of violence which has left 559 Palestinians and 165 Israelis dead.
But the signs are not good. Previous ceasefires have lasted just hours before the sound of gunshots can be heard echoing around Gaza and the West Bank.
In separate incident, two Israeli border guards were killed and another wounded when Palestinian gunmen fired on their base in northern Israel.
Last Modified: 08:55 UK, Tuesday September 11, 2001
http://www.sky.com/skynews/storytemplate/storytoppic/0,,30200-1029046,00.html
Tuesday, September 11, 2001 By DAVID BAUDER
AP Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- A chaotic scene of devastation unfolded on national television Tuesday with cameras catching a plane crashing into the World Trade Center and the subsequent collapse of both of the towers.
Television networks began live coverage of a morning of terrorism at the time the first plane hit the New York City landmark. With cameras trained on the smoking skyscraper, television caught the second plane crashing into the other tower, footage replayed several times.
As the terror spread, CNN showed a split screen view of the smoking World Trade Center and the Pentagon, where smoke billowed from another plane crash.
Reports spread as fast as television could detail them -- planes grounded across the country, the White House evacuated, an apparent explosion on Capitol Hill -- while commentators tried to keep calm.
''This may be one of the worst tragedies ever to strike this country,'' said MSNBC's John Siegenthaler.
A producer from CNN, Rose Arce, reported people jumping from the World Trade Center and described the chaos gripping lower Manhattan.
Cameras then caught the collapse of both of the twin towers, showing white smoke billowing throughout the streets of lower Manhattan. A shaken Ashleigh Banfield reporting on MSNBC described debris showering around.
''Oh, my God,'' a breathless Banfield said. ''It's just unbelievable.''
C-SPAN took phone calls from shaken citizens. One caller from California said: ''This is a sign to America: We think we are the strongest country and they hit us; they knew where to hit us.''
By LISA SINGHANIA AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street shut down Tuesday after two separate planes crashed into the World Trade Center.
Much of the downtown district, including the nearby Financial Center. It was also difficult to make phone calls to the downtown business district and throughout Manhattan.
Trading was suspended at the New York Stock Exchange, and officials were deciding whether to shut for the entire day. The Nasdaq Stock Market said it was still considering an 11:30 a.m opening, but no final decision had been made.
Other markets did close: the American Stock Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The nearby World Financial Center, which houses the NYMEX, was also evacuated.
An apparent similar attack on the Pentagon in Washington and reports of the collapse of one of the World Trade Center skyscrapers in Washington added to the paralysis and terror already engulfing the financial district.
''The two explosions were incredible and at the point of explosions all you could see outside were personal belongings and office supplies raining outside,'' said Bob Rendine, an American Stock Exchange spokesman, whose office is down the block from the NYSE. ''We're staying here. We think it's safer to stay inside then go outside at this point.''
Business and trading in other parts of the country also were affected. The Chicago Board of Trade also suspended all trading effective, 10:15 a.m.
Around the country and world, the investment community was focused on the fate of people working in the buildings affected by the apparent terrorist attacks.
''I'm just worried about people who are there,'' said Robert Harrington, head of listed block trading at UBS Warburg's office in Connecticut.
New York City Shuts Down
New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Transportation Information (September 11, 2001)
NEW YORK -- Terrorist attacks at the peak of rush hour paralyzed Manhattan, shutting down subway lines, crippling cellular phone service, and forcing evacuations from Wall Street to the United Nations.
The mayor closed lower Manhattan to make way for emergency vehicles. Thousands of people left by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.
The election was called off. The airports were closed. Trading on Wall Street was suspended. The United Nations building was evacuated. Offices throughout Manhattan closed. Children were kept in their schools because their parents could not get to them.
Victims from the attack on the World Trade Center -- many suffering from extensive burns -- began arriving at hospitals in New York City about an hour after the two planes slammed into the twin towers, witnesses said Tuesday.
"Hundreds of people are burned from head to toe," said Dr. Steven Stern at St. Vincent's Hospital in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of lower Manhattan.
About 50 or 60 doctors and nurses were standing in scrubs and uniforms waiting for the next wave of ambulances to come in. The first wave arrived around 10 a.m. EDT, doctors said.
The entire entrance to the emergency room was lined with stretchers covered with white sheets.
Doctors said the victims mostly had burns.
"So far we've received a few patients, mostly second-degree burns," Dr. Gary Fishman at St. Vincents said. "We are expecting the brunt of the people to arrive soon."
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who was forced to evacuate from his building, told New Yorkers to remain in their homes or businesses, unless they are located south of Canal Street. People in the downtown area are advised to head north and clear out the streets.
"Remain calm and try to assist in the rescue effort and pray," Giuliani said. "The main thing is having these streets open so we can move people out of there."
Most of the early patients were being sent to New York University's Downtown Hospital and to St. Vincent's.
At about 8:45 a.m. EDT, a plane struck one the north tower of the landmark complex in lower Manhattan, and the building was soon engulfed in flames. Moments later a second plane struck the south tower.
Both towers of the complex collapsed, the first falling about 75 minutes later and the second crashing half an hour after that. The entire south end of Manhattan was engulfed in smoke and airborne debris.
"The whole of lower Manhattan is coated in half an inch of dust," Reuters reporter Daniel Sternoff said.
People were fleeing the area in a panic.
At St. Vincents, hospital staff appealed for blood donors in the street, Reuters reporter Ian Driscoll said. The line to give blood was over 100 people long.
"We expect smoke inhalation, trauma, and burns," Dr. Bernd Reisbeck said. "I expect we will be working non-stop for at least the next 24 hours."
At every pay phone, people were lined up a dozen deep to call loved ones, but many ended up hanging up in frustration at the profusion of busy signals. At one pay phone in Greenwich Village, a woman was sobbing into the phone, saying she didn't know whether a loved one was OK.
Cell phone service throughout Manhattan was interrupted. Regular phone service was congested, forcing many callers to dial repeatedly to get through. AT&T shut down its entire phone and communications system in Manhattan, according to a spokesman, who declined to give his name.
Bridges and tunnels leading also were closed, a Port Authority spokeswoman said, leaving hundreds of trucks and cars stuck as they tried to enter the city.
All subway lines stopped running, said Bob Slovak, spokesman for NYC Transit.
Rockefeller Center, the complex of offices and shops that is a favorite tourist destination in the heart of the city, was among the buildings where property managers urged tenants to go home.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/11/nyregion/11CND-NYC.html
10,000? No one has tried to even come close to a casualty figure, but my feeling is, that 10,000 is a very, very low number. I think the figure will be much, much higher. 20 times worse than Pearl Harbor.
Computer World
IDG News
Sprint ran 27 wideband circuits through the World Trade Center
By BOB BREWIN
(September 11, 2001) The collapse of the two World Trade Center towers in New York this morning has already started to take its toll on the nation's communications backbone, with Sprint Corp. reporting traffic disruptions caused by the collapse of the towers on 27 DS3 circuits and switches housed in the basement.
Spokesman for the two other carriers, AT&T Corp. and WorldCom Inc., couldn't be reached. Calls placed to AT&T offices in Basking Ridge, N.J., and WorldCom offices in Washington couldn't get through, potentially indicative of a larger problem.
Mark Bonovia, a spokesman for Sprint in Kansas City, Mo., said the company didn't "know the extent of the traffic disruptions" as of 10 a.m. EDT or whether the company's nationwide network had started to "shunt" itself from the New York circuits.
Sprint has all but evacuated its Washington office, according to spokesman James Fisher, although the evacuation was on a voluntary basis. Fisher said, "We're right across the street from the FBI building. ... No one really wants to stay here."
The nationwide Defense Department communications network appears to have survived the terrorist attack on the Pentagon. Lt. Cmdr. Greg Geisen, spokesman for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR), with headquarters in San Diego, said SPAWAR has "full connectivity" with the Naval and Marine Corps Intranet operated by Electronic Data Systems Inc., with circuits provided by WorldCom. Geisen added that SPAWAR has increased its security level to ThreatCon Charlie, one of the highest states of alert, with the highest level ThreatCon Delta.
http://www.idg.net/crd_idgsearch_2.html?url=http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_STO63712,00.html.html
And I agree is likely much larger.
This massive massacre should be enough to divert attention of, subvert the enforcement the Subpoena that ordered the release of Clinton's criminal investigations to Congress.
When Clinton need a bombing or catastrophy he still gets one.
It did happen during the Clinton Administration. The same building was bombed in 1993. WHERE"S YOUR OUTRAGE AGAINST CLINTON ???????
This is what happens when you destroy human intelligence organizations and abandon the assets. It is what happens when one refocusses the remaining assets on domestic and even political surveilance, and massively politicize every aspect of government from FBI, to NSA, to armed forces, to secretaries.
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