Posted on 09/11/2001 5:56:49 AM PDT by hellinahandcart
Just in. I am looking at a picture of the WTC with smoke pouring out of the western tower. Looks like a huge amount of damage. Debris raining down on people in the street.
C.H.
Reading this thread leaves me with the overwhelming impression that it's later than any of us think.
On other 9/11 threads, HalfIrish named OBL at 9:08 & I named him at 9:09. It was a gut instinct guess, based on past history, notably the prior terrorist attack at the WTC in 1993.
What else do I have for you? Only what a few commentators have said: OBL has this obsessive-compulsive side. He & al Qaeda will select targets (primary, secondary, possibles) and try repeatedly to hit it (the WTC is a prime example), using a variety of tactics, coming at it from different directions, misdirection, using the unexpected. The WTC was bombed the first time & was probably prepared for a bomb in a vehicle driven into its underground parking garage. It was not prepared for hijacked planes flying into the buildings, terrorism coming from the sky.
The other thing is that there is about an 18 month interval between terrorist acts from OBL. However, because we know this, it could be longer or shorter. In other words, we can never let down our guard until bin Laden and al Qaeda are wiped from the face of the earth. Toss in some of the Palestinian terrorist groups, who hate us as much as they hate the Israelis (note that more than one Freeper named Palestinians on 9/11), and I don't think we'll be safe for quite some time.
This statement is so true and one a vast majority of Americans understand. Which begs the question.....why don't those idiots in the DNC understand it? To me, it's criminal that they are obviously more concerned with a D*MN election than they are in doing what is necessary to protect this country. If, G*D forbid, the terrorists manage to nuc D.C. or any other American site, who wins an election won't matter. All the whining by Dashcle, Old fools Byrd and Hollins and others, are proof positive THEY DON'T HAVE THE BEST INTEREST OF AMERICA AS THEIR PRIMARY INTEREST.
Anger at the Dems is one thing--and I'm not all fond of them myself, even though I have a few family members who are D's and chalk it up to a character flaw--but suggesting politicans stop politicking is not realistic. Heck, I enjoy elections. I love watching grown men and women making fools of themselves, spending millions for a job that pays $150,000, more or less, a year. I'd only wish the push polls would stop. Now THOSE are really annoying.
You should read some of the other WTC attack threads. They caught on to the fact that it was terorism about five or six minutes before we did. It truly didn't dawn on me until I saw the second plane hit.
I might have posted "close the airports" here once that day, but I was screaming it over and over here in my apartment. Of course I meant "close the Northeast corridor" because that's where the planes seemed to be coming from; I never dreamed they'd shut them ALL down, so quickly and for so long. No telling what else was prevented
It's hard to read this now, not least because I was so naive back on 9/11.
After reading the Wash Post series on the situation behind the scenes in the first few hours, I was impressed with how Mineta handled it. From the WP story:
"Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, summoned by the White House to the bunker, was on an open line to the Federal Aviation Administration operations center, monitoring Flight 77 as it hurtled toward Washington, with radar tracks coming every seven seconds. Reports came that the plane was 50 miles out, 30 miles out, 10 miles out-until word reached the bunker that there had been an explosion at the Pentagon.
Mineta shouted into the phone to Monte Belger at the FAA: "Monte, bring all the planes down." It was an unprecedented order-there were 4,546 airplanes in the air at the time. Belger, the FAA's acting deputy administrator, amended Mineta's directive to take into account the authority vested in airline pilots. "We're bringing them down per pilot discretion," Belger told the secretary.
"[Expletive] pilot discretion," Mineta yelled back. "Get those goddamn planes down."
Sitting at the other end of the table, Cheney snapped his head up, looked squarely at Mineta and nodded in agreement."
I wasn't a big Mineta fan when he was named, but my admiration went up a few notches when I read this.
It was a good thing to bump this thread, especially on a day where it looks like we may have lost some men.
At first I thought your question was silly - but you did redeem yourself with your observation of them spending millions for a $150,000/yr. job!
But what I find so distasteful in the DNC/Carville/McAwful game plan is they don't offer any constructive ideas - they only know how to play dirty politics of "tear down" their opponents. IF they were smart, they would be campaigning on PLANS instead of politics as usual. They just don't get "it" and never will........ever more evident since 9/11.
To me, it's the "politics as usual" game played in a world that changed forever on 9/11. I do hope no politician, no matter how tempting, no matter what party, uses anything related to 9/11 in their campaigns. That'd be degrading those who died to a campaign slogan and it'd be insulting.
Smartest thing Norm Mineta ever did. Who knows how many lives he saved that day.
Amen.
On 9/11 My hubby was working 2nd shift and putting in quite a bit of overtime. He saw very little of 9/11, simply because all he did was work & sleep. Last night he was riveted to the tube because he had seen very little of that horrorific day. At the end of the show, with tears in his eyes, he turned to me and said, "now I know why...."
He didn't need to say anymore.
Never forget, America.
My wife called my office when the first plane hit. I turned the radio to the local NBC station and heard about the second plane. Someone from my office called her husband to bring a portable TV from home and he showed up just in time to see the first tower collapse. About the same time we start hearing LOTS of sirens and emergency vehicles. Of course, living in a small town you assume it is your imagination.
I guess about 10 o'clock the rest of my morning patients had cancelled so I started driving home. On the way home I heard the local report about a plane going down in Shanksville, PA, which is about 20-25 miles as the crow flies from my house. I was listening so intently and trying to make sense of things that when I looked down I saw I was doing 85 MPH on a residential street!
It turns out all the sirens were because the local airport had been alerted to expect the Shanksville plane, because it was heading in that direction. Once I got home I called the office and sent everybody home. Best decision I even made, everyone needed to be home at that time. Scary stuff.
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