tagged w/ World Trade Center
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The Freedom Tower is being built with Chinese plate glass and German steel, and Oli Garch points out how the outsourcing of these materials makes everyone more deeply connected to the former site of the Twin Towers.
You know I was reading the story about how the Liberty Bonds are financing the Freedom Tower. The site of the Twin Towers. So the US Taxpayer is invested heavily in this magnificent new structure. And I noticed that the Freedom tower is being built with German Steel and Chinese plate glass. And that reminded me of my very first job on Wall Street. I am 22 years old and I am learning the ropes and, if I do say so myself, I was pretty good at my job. This got me noticed and they start sending me around to handle things that normal associates wouldn't necessarily get to handle. Well we found an opportunity for some Chinese officials who were looking to buy manufacturing equipment and some clients to go with it. I found a nice plate glass company in Pennsylvania with a couple of guys who were ready to cash out. So a deal was struck and to clear the way I had to fire my first 1000 workers. Nothing in this world makes a man's balls feel so powerful as to fire your first 1000 workers. And it paid well too. So off to China goes this equipment...now, years later, that glass is coming back to the good old US of A—courtesy of the taxes paid in part by those thousand workers I laid off years ago. And I am sure, when I see that Freedom Tower go up, I am probably going to get a little choked up. Because I know that inside that tower, inside that Chinese made glass, there is a little piece of me in there.
And here is the fun part, the 1000 people I laid off, they are in that glass too...because they are paying for it with their taxes.
http://www.thenakedemperor.com/oligarch/freedom-towerThe Freedom Tower is being built with Chinese plate glass and German steel, and Oli... more
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Audio interview (and transcription) with Washington Post reporter Philip Shenon, who discusses his 9/11 book, The Commission. http://www.mrmedia.com/?p=375Audio interview (and transcription) with Washington Post reporter Philip Shenon, who... more
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New HD footage of world trade centre attack on 9/11 from New York Harbor
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PBS Frontline details FBI Special Agent John O'Neill's efforts to sound the alarms about al Qaeda's growing reach and threat to the U.S., only to be branded a maverick and roundly ignored. O'Neill left the FBI in the summer of 2001 and took a new job as head of security at the World Trade Center, where he died on September 11th.
The 9/11 Commission's investigation revealed that America's $30 billion intelligence community, spread over more than a dozen agencies, was disorganized, fractured and impaired by organizational and legal restrictions on the sharing of information.
These disclosures directly relate to John O'Neill's story. He came tantalizingly close to possibly uncovering the 9/11 plot. But his investigations into the USS Cole terrorist attack and into Al Qaeda's presence in the United States were both undermined by the CIA and FBI's failure to share information with each other.
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And if I may add to that by Mr. O'Neill's own admission, the thwarting of him doing anymore work on this in pursuing Bin Laden by the Bush administration. The Millennium Plot that was thwarted by the work of O'Neill led to the total ignoring of this threat under Bush. I suspect due to their ties to the Saudis. I wonder exactly how much Mr. O'Neill may well have uncovered about the money behind this and how far it actually went up the ladder in his own government. There is so much more to this that we may never know, but one thing we do know is that there was at least one man with the tenacity to do what was necessary to pursue the truth, and he paid for it ironically in the WTC with his life today ten years ago.PBS Frontline details FBI Special Agent John O'Neill's efforts to sound the... more
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A slide of Twin Towers before 9/11
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SPECIAL REPORT: Poor fireproofing brought down the World Trade Center, a top NIST adviser says. Ten years after 9/11, some of the nation's leading engineers speak out for the first time, saying the spray on foam insulation used on the Twin Towers simply wasn't thick enough. If enough material had been on the building, it would still be standing today, they say. "One could say the building was poorly designed."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGBR149eD3wSPECIAL REPORT: Poor fireproofing brought down the World Trade Center, a top NIST... more
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On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, the U.S. came under attack when four commercial airliners were hijacked and used to strike targets on the ground. Three of the planes hijacked by al-Qaeda on that day hit their high-profile targets: the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Nearly 3,000 people tragically lost their lives. Because of the actions of the 40 passengers and crew aboard Flight 93, who fought back against their hijackers, an intended attack on the U.S. Capitol was thwarted.
Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Vice-President Biden, state officials, bereaved relatives, artists and members of the public gathered Saturday to open a 1,500-acre national park on the outskirts of Shanksville (PA) that includes the partially completed Flight 93 National Memorial, in honor of the 40 passengers and crew members who died on United Airlines Flight 93.
The dedication of the memorial on Saturday, provided an opportunity for the two former presidents to appeal for unity. Neither George W. Bush nor Bill Clinton specifically mentioned the fractured state of relations in Washington. But their sharing of a stage and their comments here in the field where Flight 93 slammed into the ground stood in sharp contrast to the current state of divisive political discord.
This piece includes photographs and three documentary short films.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/09/10/remembering-the-heroes-the-flight-93-national-memorial/On Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, the U.S. came under attack when four... more
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SARASOTA — Weeks after terrorists brought down the World Trade Center, FBI agents swarmed into a Sarasota gated community to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a wealthy young Saudi couple who apparently had ties to some of the hijackers.
The couple and their two children abandoned their home abruptly, just a week or so before Sept. 11, leaving behind cars, furniture and food on countertops.
According to one published report, the FBI discovered phone calls between the house and at least two of the hijackers and several other terrorism suspects stretching back a year.
Yet until a Fort Lauderdale website reported the news this week, no mention of the couple has ever appeared publicly — not in the Sept. 11 commission report, nor in FBI briefings to congressional investigators, former Florida Sen. Bob Graham said Friday.
Graham called on President Barack Obama to reopen the case.SARASOTA — Weeks after terrorists brought down the World Trade Center, FBI... more
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The National September 11 Memorial is a tribute of remembrance and honor to the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center site, near Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon, as well as the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993. The Memorial’s twin reflecting pools sit within the footprints where the Twin Towers once stood. The names of every person who died in the 2001 and 1993 attacks are inscribed into bronze panels edging the Memorial pools, a powerful reminder of the largest loss of life resulting from a foreign attack on American soil and the greatest single loss of rescue personnel in American history.
This piece includes colorful illustrations and an animated short film depicting The National September 11 Memorial.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/09/10/a-tribute-of-remembrance-and-honor-the-national-september-11-memorial/The National September 11 Memorial is a tribute of remembrance and honor to the nearly... more
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The disaster that occurred on September 11, 2001 was the worst in the history of New York City. Not only were nearly 3,000 people killed in Manhattan, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania on that morning; they were victims of a premeditated act of mass murder that pioneered the use of hijacked passenger jets as suicide bombs and then reordered and distorted the decade that followed.
For those in the immediate vicinity, the horror was immediate and unmistakable; it occurred in what we have learned to call real time, and in real space. Those farther away, whether a few dozen blocks or halfway around the world, witnessed the horrors through the long lens of television.The sense of grief and shock, a terrible roaring in the mind of every American, made it impossible to assess the larger damage that Osama bin Laden and his fanatics had inflicted, the extent to which they had succeeded in shattering our self-possession. In the years after 9/11, many still can hardly erase the vision of the wreckage of the two towers, the twisted steel and sheets of glass, the images of men and women leaping from ninety-odd stories up and the knowledge that thousands lay beneath the ruined buildings.
This piece includes a number of high resolution color photographs, a photo-gallery, audio, a documentary short film and the full version of the movie, “The Saint of 9/11.”
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/09/10/september-11-never-forget/The disaster that occurred on September 11, 2001 was the worst in the history of New... more
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In this new film commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, children who lost a parent speak for the first time as adults.
Although all of them experienced the same tragedy each one has responded in a remarkably different way.
The film features four families who, between them, lost three fathers and a mother.
Network premiere
Children of 9/11: Revealed
Saturday 10 September 9PM & Sunday 11 September 11:30PM.
In this new film commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks,... more
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On March 11, 2002, 88 searchlights were trained straight skyward in two brilliant, four-mile-high beams. They were two of the most powerful beams of light ever created, illuminating the New York night, visible throughout the city and up to 60 miles away. Relief workers nearby, who had been plowing through rubble for six months, stood and wept. The art installation was both an act of commemoration and a symbol of resilience. It was the first attempt to fill the void in the city’s skyline and it neatly bypassed the debate over whether the site should be rebuilt or left as consecrated ground. The tribute ran every night from dusk till dawn until April 14, 2002, and has returned for a single night each subsequent September 11th.
This piece includes a number of color photographs, a photo-gallery and a three-minute documentary short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/on-the-10th-anniversary-of-911-tribute-in-light/On March 11, 2002, 88 searchlights were trained straight skyward in two brilliant,... more
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The best view in New York belongs to the fearless ironworkers who are stacking the top floors of the new 1 World Trade Center. The top of 1 World Trade Center, as it stands in mid-August, is just shy of 1,000 feet above Lower Manhattan, higher than anything else on the island’s southern end.
Even among the most elite class of ironworkers that specializes in raising high steel, the 40 or so men who are performing the most dangerous work at 1 World Trade are a kind of special forces. Some of them were among the first wave of volunteers on Sept. 12, 2001, brought in to extract steel from the ruins of the twin towers and who have returned to the site as members of the plumb-up gang. The ironworkers’ almost classically curved human forms of arms, legs and backs express the perseverance that has powered the rise of this new tower, a structure whose symbolic importance is undisputed even if its cost and commercial justification remain dubious.
This piece includes a number of high-resolution black-and-white photographs, a photo-gallery and the two-minute documentary short film, “The Sky Cowboys.”
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/ironworkers-at-one-world-trade-center-the-sky-cowboys/The best view in New York belongs to the fearless ironworkers who are stacking the top... more
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Public Television’s StoryCorps oral history project is premiering “The StoryCorps 9/11 Series,” three new animated films commemorating the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The three-minute animated short films by the Rausch Brothers animators were created to preserve the memories of those who lost loved ones that tragic day. While the films are presented in a vintage cartoon-style, they carry deeply emotional heft due to the tragedy inherent in their stories. They are simple works, befitting the everyday lives that were nonetheless changed forever nearly 10 years ago. A major reason that 9/11 is such a tragedy is that it happened to people not unlike you or me, and these films do an amazing job of crystallizing that central truth.
This piece includes a number of colorful illustrations, as well as the three animated short films, “John and Joe,” “Always a Family” and “She Was the One.
”http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/the-10th-anniversary-of-911-the-storycorps-911-series/Public Television’s StoryCorps oral history project is premiering “The... more
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The New York Times...
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September 7, 2011
Newly Published Audio Provides Real-Time View of 9/11 Attacks
By JIM DWYER
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PART ONE...
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For one instant on the morning of Sept. 11, an airliner that had vanished from all the tracking tools of modern aviation suddenly became visible in its final seconds to the people who had been trying to find it.
It was just after 9 a.m., 16 minutes after a plane had hit the north tower of the World Trade Center, when a radio transmission came into the New York air traffic control radar center. “Hey, can you look out your window right now?” the caller said.
“Yeah,” the radar control manager said.
“Can you, can you see a guy at about 4,000 feet, about 5 east of the airport right now, looks like he’s —”
“Yeah, I see him,” the manager said.
“Do you see that guy, look, is he descending into the building also?” the caller asked.
“He’s descending really quick too, yeah,” the manager said. “Forty-five hundred right now, he just dropped 800 feet in like, like one, one sweep.”
“What kind of airplane is that, can you guys tell?”
“I don’t know, I’ll read it out in a minute,” the manager said.
There was no time to read it out.
In the background, people can be heard shouting: “Another one just hit the building. Wow. Another one just hit it hard. Another one just hit the World Trade.”
The manager spoke.
“The whole building just came apart,” he said.
That moment is part of a newly published chronicle of the civil and military aviation responses to the hijackings that originally had been prepared by investigators for the 9/11 Commission, but never completed or released.
Threaded into vivid narratives covering each of the four airliners, the multimedia document contains 114 recordings of air traffic controllers, military aviation officers, airline and fighter jet pilots, as well as two of the hijackers, stretching across two hours of the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.
Though some of the audio has emerged over the years, mainly through public hearings and a federal criminal trial, the report provides a rare 360-degree view of events that were unfolding at high speed across the Northeast in the skies and on the ground. This week, the complete document, with recordings, is being published for the first time by the Rutgers Law Review, and selections of it are available online at nytimes.com.
“The story of the day, of 9/11 itself, is best told in the voices of 9/11,” said Miles Kara, a retired Army colonel and an investigator for the commission who studied the events of that morning.
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CONTINUED...The New York Times...
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September 7, 2011
Newly Published Audio Provides... more
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“Twin Tower Cameos” is an epic collection of movie scenes from Hollywood films that featured the Twin Towers at New York City’s World Trade Center. With the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 just days away, the three-minute short film was created by New York-based director and cartoonist Dan Meth to pay homage to the Twin Towers. The film spans 1969 to 2001, with a perfect decade-by-decade soundtrack. It’s a love letter to New York, and to the iconic towers that once defined its skyline.
This piece includes a number of high-resolution color photographs, as well as the memorable short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/on-the-10th-anniversary-of-911-cinematic-cameos-of-the-twin-towers/“Twin Tower Cameos” is an epic collection of movie scenes from Hollywood... more
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On Sunday, September 4th, marchers turned out by the hundreds in New York City to honor the memory of the Rev. Mychal Judge, the beloved FDNY chaplain killed on 9/11. Firefighters and their families, friends of the Franciscan priest, and well-wishers from near and far, all came together for a four-hour Walk of Remembrance through the streets of Manhattan. Father Judge, commemorated as The Saint of 9/11, was killed while giving last rites to a firefighter at the World Trade Center. The group walked from midtown to Ground Zero, stopping at firehouses and police precincts along the way to pray and read the names of the 9/11 dead.
Father Mychal Judge was a Franciscan priest who served everyone that he encountered with the passion and spirit of St. Francis. Those who knew Mychal Judge have described him as carefree, open-eyed, laughing and humble. Some of his greatest friends were alcoholics whom he had saved from street corners, a mother who lost her daughter on TWA Flight 800 and a disabled former policeman whom he wheeled across an embattled Northern Ireland in an attempt to persuade the people there of God’s healing power of forgiveness.
Mychal Judge was also the dedicated official Chaplain for the New York Fire Department. He rushed to be with the FDNY firefighters at the site of the 9/11 World Trade Center tragedy, and as he was kneeling to give Last Rites to a fireman who had just perished there, Mychal was struck by falling debris from the burning towers and killed.
Father Judge was gay, which he knew would have caused him to be barred from the priesthood under the current Pope. He kept knowledge about his sexual orientation closely guarded, because he was acutely aware that it could become an obstacle to his work with some of the beloved firemen to whom his ministry was so dedicated.
In addition, many people have a special remembrance of Father Judge for his labors with and on behalf of persons who were suffering with AIDS during the early years of the crisis. Beginning in the early 1980s, when HIV really began to emerge with its fury of terror, Father Judge was one of the first persons to courageously devote himself to caring for those who were stricken, mostly alone, isolated from society and totally abandoned by their families. His steadfast kindness continues to stand as a role model for us all.
This piece includes a number of high-resolution photographs, a video and the full movie, “The Saint of 9/11.”
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/on-the-10th-anniversary-of-911-remembering-the-saint-of-911/On Sunday, September 4th, marchers turned out by the hundreds in New York City to... more
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Twin Tower Cameos from Dan Meth on Vimeo.
From 1969 to 2001, the Twin Towers made countless cameos in Hollywood films. Sometimes featured prominently in the foreground, sometimes lurking in the distance. This montage celebrates the towers' all-too-short film career with songs that capture the passing decades. Man, I miss them.Twin Tower Cameos from Dan Meth on Vimeo.
From 1969 to 2001, the Twin Towers made... more
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Phyllis Rodriguez lost her son Greg in the attack on the World Trade Center. In the years since that terrible loss, she has formed what many consider to be an unusual friendship with Aicha el-Wafi, the mother of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted of playing a large role in the attacks. He is currently serving a life sentence for his crimes.
Back in December, the two spoke at a conference for women, where Rodriguez talked about their mutual admiration for each other. Rodriguez remarked, "When I saw Aicha in the media coming over when her son was indicted, I thought, 'what a brave woman, someday I want to meet her... when I'm stronger.'"
Watch the video at the linked site to see what happened when these women met.Phyllis Rodriguez lost her son Greg in the attack on the World Trade Center. In the... more
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