9/11

[spammityspam]

How are we feeling about it?

[Trazalca]

Like I wished it had never happened. :(

But really, SO much has been said about it over the last
6 years, what else can be said that hasn't already been
talked about? Still, the first line of this post holds true, and moreso,
with each passing day.

[Kaeos]

Perhaps if we shared where we were?

We were living in Cleveland at the time. I worked downtown, I was a Supervisor in a customer service call center. Our building was the historic MK Furegson Postal Building. You'd probably have to have lived there to get the picture. Certainly not the tallest building in the city, at only 6 stories.

I woke that morning and turned the TV on momentarily to catch the weather and saw the first tower on fire. I had the sound off so as not to wake anyone else and the image passed in and out of my vision without a second thought. I recall mentioning something about the building being on fire to Mrs. K as she awoke. Again, the significance of the image had not gained a foothold in my attention.

I worked a late A Shift in those days, 11am to 8pm, and I rode the bus into work in those days. As the family began to stir awake, Mrs. K called out to me from the living room as I prepared my lunch for the day.

"Is this what you were talking about? The World Trade Center?"

"Yeah." I called back.

"It's been hit by a Jetliner." She called again.

At the time, all of the local and National News Anchors were moving on the line that this was some sort of pilot error, some terrible mistake. That's when the second plane crashed. Right then as I walked into the living room to see what she was talking about. I can clearly remember thinking this is impossible. This is impossible.

I called into our corporate disaster notification number to see if work would be canceled. The recorded message advised to report to work.

Very reluctantly, I boarded a bus at about 9:20 am. I had, at the time a radio walkman I would listen to during the bus ride while I read. The walkman was great becuase it would also pick up local television signals. I tuned over to NBC to hear Katie Couric speaking with Jim Miklaszewski, who was reporting on the 3rd plane hitting the pentagon. I listened in stunned silence. I didn't own a cell phone then. I remember wishing I could call home and talk to my wife.

I arrived at work, the call center was a large, open room, roughly 1/2 the size of a football field. All of the desks had low walls and were arranged in neat rows. As one of a supervisors, I sat at the head of my team's rows. When i walked into the office, I could see looks of dispair and panic on people's faces. Many of them were standing at thier desks. Some had radios at their desks which normally needed to be kept at a barely audible volume. Many of those were turned up.

Not suprisingly, we weren't getting many calls.

Within something like 20 minutes I had no concept of time at this point, we recieved a call from our managing office in Columbus Ohio that we were to shut down operations, move our staff to designated fire emergency meeting locations outside and await further instructions. I suck a quick call home to let her know what were were doing.

Once everyone was outside and a head count was completed, all of the management team was called to a common area. We were given instructions that 5 of us to were to go back into the building and shut down the phone center and activate the emergency closing recorded message. I was one chosen to go in.

We were going desk to desk, 180 desks in all checking that phones were logged out and computers were shut down and powered off. There were 6 of us supervisors. 5 managers above us. 2 of them and 3 of us went back in. We were about 1/2 way through when one of the managers was a guy named Chase. Out of no where he came bursting out of his office yelling.

"Get the fuck out of here now, there's a plane over Cleveland that's turning around." The moment was surreal. I think all 5 of us turned and looked out the windows at the same time just then. I think all 5 of us expected some impossible image of a plane that simply wasn't there. Chase was muttering holy shit holy shit holy shit over and over.

I ignored him and kept shutting off phones and computers. Just a tad bit faster than before. As we finished up, an order had come from the Cleveland City Hall that all downtown business were to shut down and send their employees home.

When we got back outside, the streets were jammed. Traffic was barely moving an every cop, sherrif and state trooper in Cleveland was on the streets, keeping order. There was a stunned silence in the crowds. No panic. No disorder. Just people, slowly moving to parking garages, waiting in line for buses.

It took me better than 3 hours to get on a bus and get through my normally 15 minute bus trip. When I got home I found Mrs K right where I'd left her. On the couch, a box of tissues in her lap. We only had two kids then. Spencer was only 3. Gideon not yet 2. They were playing with their toys in another room.

We say there, together on the couch for the entire rest of the day unable to turn off the television. Unable to stomach what we saw, but unable to look away.

The images are burned in the conciousness of America and the world. are you like me? Are the moments and events of that morning clearer than most moments?

Where were you?

[omicron]

I had only been in Dallas for about year. I was living in a 2 bed/1 bath apartment with my younger brother. He got ready for work before me, so he was gone. I got up, went to the bathroom to 'take care of business' and turned on the radio. The Bob and Tom show was broadcast back then down here and instead of the usual shenanigans I heard them talking about a plane hitting the WTC. :eek:

I quickly finished my business and went to the living room and turned on the TV. I was watching NBC (I believe). I was watching it live when I saw a plane come in from the right side of the screen and thinking "what's that plane doing???" and then a huge explosion. I remember just sitting on the couch in my pajamas going, "HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHIT" just like John Belushi in Animal House. I couldn't believe I saw it.

I sat around for about an hour watching the coverage, and then relunctantly showered and going to work. I passed by 2 airports on the way, a small commuter and Love Field. There were absolutely no flights, which was highly unusual. I got to work and I remember every news site was swapped and not responding as everyone was trying to see what was going on. The little cafe in the lobby had a crappy 12" tv hooked up to some rabbit ears, and every one was down there watching.

I really don't remember much after that, other than a couple of weeks later I had a couple of friends coming to Dallas to go to a Cowboys game, and all their wives didn't want them to go because they figured that Texas Stadium would be a good target.

[Space Tycoon]

I just want to know:

What did the Israelis know, and when did they know it? (http://www.antiwar.com/israeli-files.php)

Israel's spies in the US (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWpWc_suPWo)

Israel had foreknowledge of 9/11. (http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=2506)

Israel's spy operations within the US (http://cryptome.org/dea-il-spy.htm)

Israeli WTC employees warned beforehand of 9/11 attack (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=77744&contrassID=/has%5C)


And that's the tip of the iceberg.


After 6 years, it is time for us to ask some difficult questions.







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[spammityspam]

Aah, Space, where would we be without you? There was a 9/11 conspiracy rally on the West Mall today, which is what made me remember what today even was. One of my friends had been talking about "the anniversary" today, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what today was until I accidentally walked into the protesters.

I was in middle school still when it happened. I used to go the library every morning because it was better than getting stuffed into the tiny cafeteria, and I'd barely walked through the double doors when this girl I knew jumped out at me and told me a plane had hit a building in New York. I looked up at the TVs... and saw the second plane hit, right then.

I went and called my parents from the office phone and then went back out to the cafeteria to ask my geography teacher, Mr. Lane, why the World Trade Center was important. He asked me why I wanted to know, and when I told him, I remember he just went kind of funny and asked me if I was sure, so I took him over to the library and showed him CNN replaying the second strike, and he went dead white. It was the freakiest thing. I didn't figure out what the World Trade Center even was until a few hours later, when we were all in class. We all just watched CNN all day long, even in gym -- we all sat in the basketball court and Coach Miller borrowed a TV and we just watched the coverage all day long.

[Bill_the_Pony]

I was pretty speechless the entire day, between tv and internet. Already there was catfighting online.

Today, I have no faith in our government and the direction they seem to be taking. I don't feel safe, and it's because of our government.

[omicron]

I just want to know:

What did the Israelis know, and when did they know it? (http://www.antiwar.com/israeli-files.php)

Israel's spies in the US (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWpWc_suPWo)

Israel had foreknowledge of 9/11. (http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=2506)

Israel's spy operations within the US (http://cryptome.org/dea-il-spy.htm)

Israeli WTC employees warned beforehand of 9/11 attack (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=77744&contrassID=/has%5C)


And that's the tip of the iceberg.


After 6 years, it is time for us to ask some difficult questions.
.


Yeah, it's the JOOOS fault

Why is it so hard to accept that 19 suicidal Islamic fundamentalists planned and did this?

[rappites]

Because that is the easy way out. No thinking to it all. Out of sight out of mind.

Just like the JFK assasination, Area 51, Flag on the moon etc..

We just take their (government) word for it.




I remember that morning pretty good. Not as good as Kaeos. I was getting ready for work. We were living with Outy's dad in L.A. at the time in his pool house. I remember watching the news and seeing the second plane hit and was just dumbfounded. I could not beleive what was happening. I went to work. I was working at the federal export import building at LAX. It was chilling. They sent us back home after all the planes were grounded.

But, what I remember most is how patriotic everyone became. American flags were everywhere.

Not anymore.

Strangers where hugging strangers and consoling each other.

Not anymore.

Crime was down for a long time.

Not anymore.

It is like the movie Independence Day where the whole world comes together to fight evil. That is what I liked most about that movie. It would not take much for us to to that.

Anyway. 9-11 is two days after my birthday. I will always remember it.

And thank goodness that I live in a country that lets us have choices and freedoms.

[Space Tycoon]

Yeah, it's the JOOOS fault

Criticism of Israel is not necessarily anti-semitism, duuuh.

I am aware of the 19 hijackers and the threat of al Qaeda.

It is also very obvious by now that there is an even bigger threat from governments of various stripes who will use the public's fear of terrorism to push forward their own crazy agenda.




And if Israeli intelligence knew about the 9/11 plot and failed to alert US agencies, then someone, somewhere has got to pay.






.

[omicron]

Personally, I think it's more the US government's fault for failing to believe there was a credible threat by fringe groups.

I still have such a hard time understanding how conspiracy theorists can't believe a small group of determined radical terrorists did 9/11 but can easily accept that a vast governmental cadre put together an intricate plan to put explosives into multiple floors of the WTC, arranged military and civilian authorities to ignore ongoing events and warned their Israeli/Jewish/Neocon allies to avoid the attacks, and still cover up all their manipulations.

[Space Tycoon]

Never said anything about the government planting explosives. You have me mistaken for someone else.

I have always accepted that a hijacked, fully fueled jetliner would be capable of producing the kind of explosion that would bring down the towers. I just find it impossible to ignore the mountain of evidence that suggests that certain other players knew something was up all along.


The world isn't that simple or random. Things don't just happen, there are usually powerful interests at work pulling the strings.






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[Trazalca]

This morning I'm sleeping while my wife gets the kids ready for school.
At 6:30am, she wakes me up to say that our 6 yr. old daughter asked
a hard question that came out of the blue-
"Mommy? Why did that mean man kill those Mommies and Daddies with the airplane?"

She was stunned. We hadn't introduced the topic to her, but apparently,
the teacher did a couple of days ago, which included showing a few pics
on the internet. What those were, I had no idea. But still, with my mind
fogged in half-sleep, I had to come up with an answer.

I won't share the answer I gave to her here, as it was personal,
and in line with our faith. But in addition to this,
our daughter was concerned since the attacks happened in New York City,
and since she knew I was from there, thought that I was caught up in it
at the time. I quickly told her no, I wasn't. I hadn't been to NYC in over 2 1/2
decades.

But really. I was dumbfounded trying to answer to a 6 year old such questions.

How would you have answered it? :confused:

[neglet]

My son was 7 when the planes hit the two towers, and he saw bits on BBC while I was changing channels. At that age, his questions were pretty simple and boiled down to the personal--does it mean someone might hurt me or my family? Is it safe to fly on a plane? (As we did frequently while living overseas, including in early Oct. 2001). We assured him we were safe, and we would all be as safe as we could make ourselves. (Life is always fatal, after all.)

As for the "why," it boils down to the usual--there are bad people who do bad things. They don't make sense to us, but they happen and we try to cope with them the best we can.

[colmatrix]

The only thing I can really say about 9/11 is that the world seemed like a much easier place to live in before those bastards (whoever they may be) crashed the planes into NY. I'm not sure if any plane hit the Pentagon, watch a few videos on the net and your perspective changes a little. I have less trust in others now, which sucks. Our country is not the same place it was before. I watched a KFC commercial where everyone freaked out because some lady was using a knife to eat...is that how we are? I hope not. Little stuff like that adds up and annoys me.

[DarkJedi]

I was in a SBC Central Office (Hub for cities, towns, etc) in Jasper, Texas. It's a shitty town near the outskirts of East, Texas and I couldn't wait till the job was done and finished (been there 2 months already, dammit)...We were installing some new routers, servers and a fiber optic interface into one of the bays when the 1 SBC employee stationed in that shitty town comes to my team and says...

"Hey guys, a plane hit the WTC".

We sat in silence..Then one of my crew members made a joke..."How fuckin drunk can a pilot be if he doesn't see the WTC?!?"

Other crew member on my left asked the SBC employee..."Was it a small plane? A pilot getting his license, Jim?"

SBC Jim: "We don't know yet.."

We continued the fiber optic install.

(1 hour later)

SBC Jim comes up to us..."Uhhh, guys. Another plane has hit the tower......"

Our 4 man crew sat there in silence for a bit now. There goes the drunken test pilot theory...

Crew member sweating his nuts off up in the rack pulling a cable said "Fuck!" and it wasn't because he was tired and sweaty.

SBC Jim: "Yeah, I know." and walks away...

30 minutes later...he walks back up to us...

"A plane has hit the Pentagon. SBC has just contacted me. You need to get out of this central office immediately because SBC is locking down every office in the country."

We drop our tools and get the hell out of the CO. We head to our hotel, a shitty hotel in a shitty town...Turn on the news and stare at the television in horror for 10 hours straight.

Crew Member #3 at around 11:00 pm: "Those Mother#%&^%$$!" ....and then goes to bed.

Next morning, we're ordered home and no work is done for two weeks at any SBC office.

[Bill_the_Pony]

Here's an interesting youtube video, from of all places, Fox Network. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQyYuWXp3E8) It's a clip from:

March 4, 2001....6 mos. before 9/11... The Lone Gunmen series aired on FOX TV.
The pilot episode of this X-Files spinoff was about a commercial airliner having its navigation system hijacked and being flown into the World Trade Center via remote control by a covert group within the US government in order to create an alleged terrorist attack on the US.
This pilot episode was filmed between March 20 - April 7, 2000, 19 months before 9/11.

[rappites]

Wow that was chilling.

[Space Tycoon]

I remember thinking Lone Gunmen was actually going to be a great series when I saw that episode. Very compelling and very plausible.


I seem to recall Fox Network was the "go-to" network for iconoclastic, anti-government programs during the Clinton years.

After the Bush Junta took office, different story. They became the government's cheerleaders, especially post-9/11.. :OhWell:






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