Free Republic

I receive a lot of strange information from a wide variety of sources. Some of it is intriguing. Some of it is flat-out weird. I try (and frequently fail) to temporarily set aside my own personal prejudices to objectively as possible consider the merits of both the intriguing and weird. Recently, an interesting French website has been asking questions about the crash of American Airlines Flight 77, which reportedly crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11. The conventional wisdom has been inculcated into us that there were four terrorist hijacked airplanes that tragic day. But there are refutations for each...

Earlier this month, the FBI released a new set of never-before-seen images of the aftermath of the 9/11 attack against the Pentagon.

(Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers Hani Hanhour (right) and Majed Moqed (left) at an ATM machine on Sept. 5, 2001.) (CNSNews.com) - The number of Saudi Arabian students in the United States has increased by more than 500 percent since Sept. 11, 2001--when Hani Hanjour, a Saudi national who came here on a student visa flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, killing 189 people. According to the Institute of International Education--whose numbers on foreign students in the United States are used in official reports published by the U.S. Department of Education--there were 5,579 Saudi nationals enrolled in U.S....

I'll start. Everytime I saw you on TV, whenever I picked up your book for a quick reread of a chapter, I drew strength from your convictions and your resolve. I know you are in a better place now, but, I will still miss you. God speed fine lady.

For those who joined post 9/11, I would ask you to pause and reflect on the two FReepers we lost on that day.John Moran FDNY, North Tower WTC, FReeper handle BCMHere is his tribute thread.Barbara K. Olson, conservative author, Flight 77 the Pentagon, FReeper Handle BKO.Here is her tribute thread.

The FAA's report of the hijacked flights on 9/11 (2001) reveal something quite interesting. www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB165/faa7.pdf Air traffic controllers controlling Flight 77 processed Flight 77 AS A CRASHED AIRPLANE -- NOT A HIJACK. ONE OF THE MANY REASONS THAT FLIGHT 77 WAS NOT INTERCEPTED WAS BECAUSE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS BELIEVED IT HAD CRASHED IN OHIO OR WEST VIRGINIA Looking at pages 27 and 28 -- 8:40 AM Flight 77 crossing West Virginia was handed off to Indianapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center, and instructed to climb from 17,000 feet to 35,000 feet. Flight 77 reached 35,000 feet sometime between 8:40...

FYI to interested persons.

A group of family members, survivors and first responders shared their thoughts about 9/11 while visiting the nearly completed Pentagon Memorial here on Aug. 28. Pentagon Memorial Fund manager Jim Laychak visits the Pentagon Memorial, Aug. 28, 2008. Laychak lost his younger brother, David, an Army civilian employee, during the terrorist attack on the Pentagon. The $22 million memorial, Laychak said, is a culmination of years of effort and hard work. “It is a great feeling of pride and accomplishment. Everybody has worked together on this over the past five and a half years,” he said. Tom Heidenberger, 62, lost...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25, 2008 – Fifteen minutes before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack at the Pentagon, two sisters, both Defense Department employees, sat in the building’s five-sided center courtyard to talk about their family’s newest development. “We discussed her daughter’s first day in kindergarten,” said Kathy Dillaber, recalling the conversation with her “baby sister,” 41-year-old Patricia Mickley. As they spoke, the sisters watched an airplane streak above the open-air courtyard, and their discussion shifted to early reports that morning about a pair of planes crashing in New York City. About 10 minutes later they walked together toward their...

On Friday, just outside of Dallas/Ft Worth International Airport, the first national memorial to 9/11 heroes was dedicated. Shirley Hall, who is a Flight Attendant and the Vice President of the 9/11 Flight Crew Memorial Foundation, explained the memorial sculpture's symbolism during the memorial's July 4, 2008, dedication ceremony: As volunteers on this project, we have each spent time describing this statue in our attempts to raise funds to turn Valerie’s dream into a reality. From Bryce Cameron Liston’s original interpretation to the final magnificent piece of art you see here today, each of us has shared our ideas on...

At 9:37 a.m., on 9/11, those aboard Arlington Fire Department Engine 101 were headed north on I-395 for a training session near the Pentagon. Firefighter Jamie Lewis saw the American Airlines Flight 77 first. “Hey, look at the plane!” he shouted. “What’s he doing?” Nearby, on the Columbia Pike, Paramedic Claude Conde was loading a stroke victim into an ambulance when a plane roared overhead. “He had never seen a plane so close. Something wasn’t right. The airport wasn’t far away, but the plane was already at treetop level, well below the glide path it should be on for National...

Fresh Air from WHYY, May 22, 2008 · After American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, it took firefighters three days to extinguish the flames. Firefighter Patrick Creed and journalist Rick Newman join Fresh Air to talk about the Pentagon blaze and the book they wrote about it, Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon on 9/11. Firefight tells the stories of the people inside the Pentagon when the plane hit, the rescue efforts that followed the attack and the three-day battle to extinguish the blaze. Firefighters faced unique circumstances, Creed and Newman write,...

Over 100 witnessed the plane fly over Washington and/or into the Pentagon. However a couple days ago, I debated a young French guy who brought up three points (propagandistic beliefs) that I don't have the documentation of my answers for. His claims: 1) No body parts were found of any of the crew or passengers. 2) No parts of the huge engine were found. 3) No one took pics of the plane. I answered: 1) The temperature of the explosion was so high that all the bodies burned. 2) I had no answer. 3) At 600 mph no one had...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16, 2007 – Representatives of Fairfax County, Va., donated $100,000 today to help build the Pentagon Memorial that will honor the 184 people, including 20 county residents, killed during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the building. County Supervisor Penelope A. Gross presented the check that brings funds raised so far to more than $15 million, Pentagon Memorial Fund spokesman Jerry Mullins reported. The memorial fund committee’s goal is to raise $22 million to build and maintain the memorial. “This makes everyone excited,” Mullins said of Fairfax County’s gift. “We have a big team of folks...

ORONO, Maine -- Charles Frank Burlingame III was the pilot flying American Airlines Flight 77 on Sept. 11. Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon with 64 people onboard. It is believed Burlingame helped divert the plane from its original destination -- the White House -- by literally fighting off the terrorists in the cockpit. In an FBI report released after the crash, it was revealed that the pilot died of injuries sustained before the plane hit the ground. Burlingame's family has requested that he be buried in Arlington Cemetery in Virginia, an honor bestowed only on soldiers and their families. ...

<p>Six years ago, I turned on my television and saw the sickening image of an airplane flying directly into the south tower of the World Trade Center. I did not know that at precisely that moment, somewhere in the skies over the Ohio-Kentucky border, my brother was fighting for his life in the cockpit of his commercial airliner. It would be another 35 minutes before his plane crashed into the Pentagon's west side.</p>

Terror attacks were an act of war, not simply a tragedy to be mourned Six years ago, I turned on my television and saw the sickening image of an airplane flying directly into the south tower of the World Trade Center. I did not know that at precisely that moment, somewhere in the skies over the Ohio-Kentucky border, my brother was fighting for his life in the cockpit of his commercial airliner. It would be another 35 minutes before his plane crashed into the Pentagon's west side. Though the term "9/11 family member" had not yet become part of the...

I didn't know if there was a west coast version of this thread. It didn't make sense to post on thread for the show that was almost over on the East Coast.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The acrid, awful, haunting smell of charred flesh still returns sometimes, without warning. They're phantom smells, five years old, but that doesn't make them any less real to Mark Dodge. Same with the nightmares, which are less frequent now but no less jarring. "Certain nightmares will always probably be there," Dodge said. When you have been where Mark Dodge has been, seen what he has seen, smelled what he has smelled, you don't forget. When you have bagged incinerated bodies and carried them to a morgue truck, the experience lingers. When you have spent days raking...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2006 – Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld talked about the nature of terrorism as part of Radio Day at the Pentagon today, the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Sept. 11, 2001, was the greatest loss of American life from a single attack in U.S. history, he said. The death toll that day was nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. But the purpose of terrorism isn’t to kill, but to terrorize, Rumsfeld told Charlie Brennan of St. Louis’ KMOX. Fear causes people to alter their behavior, the secretary said. “As free...