The collapse of the World Trade Center has been subject to intense public scrutiny over the 20 years since the centre’s twin towers were struck by aircraft hijacked by terrorists. Both collapsed within two hours of impact, prompting several investigations and spawning a variety of conspiracy theories.
Construction on the World Trade Center 1 (the North Tower) and World Trade Center 2 (the South Tower) began in the 1960s. They were constructed from steel and concrete, using a design that was groundbreaking at the time. Most high-rise buildings since have used a similar structure.
The FBI released declassified records from its secretive investigation that explored potential links between the Saudi government and 9/11, with some of the long-anticipated documents released on the 20th anniversary of the al Qaeda terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Families of the 9/11 victims have sought a host of details tied to possible Saudi government involvement in the attacks. Last week, President Joe Biden issued an executive order directing the Justice Department to declassify information stemming from an FBI inquiry into possible Saudi-9/11 links.
The 20th anniversary of 9/11, September 11, 2011, coincides in the same week with two other manifestations of Islamist terrorism: the capture of power by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the group whose objective is to create an Islamic State, and the opening of the trial of Islamist terrorists in the 19th-century Palais de Justice in Paris, a venue to accommodate the large numbers of people interested. The events are reminders, like others, such as the July 7, 2005, coordinated suicide attacks in London that targeted commuters traveling on the transport system; train bombing in Madrid in 2004; Christmas day 2020 in Berlin; and in Vienna November 2020, that the democratic West is involved in a global struggle to defeat Islamist extremism and terrorism.
On Friday, September 10, 2021, the Philadelphia chapter of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is presenting a panel discussion entitled “Remember Pearl Harbor to Never Forget 9/11: Teaching Japanese American and Muslim American Histories.” There in a nutshell is much of what has gone wrong in our nation’s response to the 9/11 jihad attacks, and why we are so drastically on the wrong path now.
On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, let’s remember the brave men and women who fought back against al-Qaeda.
It’s the 20th anniversary of one of the darkest days of modern times. We all know what happened. We’ve witnessed it over and over, on a loop, the gleaming machines of the modern age transformed into weapons against the greatest city on Earth. That spectacle of death is once again everywhere. Once more we are invited to feel the only thing you’re meant to feel about 9/11 – shock, dread, a visceral sense of powerlessness in the face of this most apocalyptic of terror attacks. But there’s something else we can feel too, and which we should insist on feeling today especially: pride. Pride in the heroes who, in their various different ways, stood up to the Islamist death cult that visited America that day.
Jenn M. Jackson, an assistant professor at Syracuse University’s political science department, took issue with the way people are discussing the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.
Jackson, who has a verified Twitter account and describes herself as “a queer genderflux androgynous Black woman, an abolitionist, [and] a lover of all Black people,” tweeted that she was “really disturbed by how many white pundits and correspondents talk about” 9/11.
But for the activity of the rescue and recovery personnel and the rumbling machinery they used, it was a still, quiet night. Too still and quiet for Manhattan at any hour. This part of the city was closed for blocks around to all but those with passes indicating they should be here.
I was one of them, and at this moment I stood atop FDNY Engine 10 Ladder 10 looking out on what had once been the World Trade Center as one of the firefighters explained the operations taking place before us under something like stadium lights.
It’s almost a cliche, hackneyed even. A big event happens, and people say they will never forget where they were when they heard about this or that.
But I suspect nearly everyone around the world above the age of 30 really does remember where they were when they heard about, then watched in real time, the most audacious, most dreadful terrorist attack on the United States unfold.
Over the past few days, I have been talking to people not only who remember where they were, but how it upended their lives
By 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, roughly one hour after the North Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed in that morning’s second slow-motion cascade of dust and debris, Ottawa firefighter Barry Blondin was already heading for the nearest border crossing.
Bundled in the trunk was Blondin’s bunker gear, the protective clothing firefighters wear when responding to emergencies — the same gear hundreds of New York City firefighters were wearing when they rushed into the Twin Towers after the terror attacks.
“You’re watching the news and you’re hearing all the reports [that] a lot of firemen are down, buildings are down. You know there’s people [in] there,” recalled Blondin, who is now 62. “They needed a lot of help, so I thought I could do something.”
Blondin — who retired two years ago after a 27-year career with Ottawa Fire Services — didn’t stop to ask permission. He just went.
Have you ever wondered what American schools teach about 9/11? Here is a partial answer. I’ve reviewed five of the most popular American history textbooks for high school.
At the Twin Towers, cops and firemen showed they really were New York’s Finest, New York’s Bravest.
From the very first moments of the World Trade Center horror, the valor and élan of New York’s firemen, together with that of the city’s police and emergency forces, have transfixed the whole nation—especially us in rural America who rarely see the real Gotham. Danger was nothing to them, courage and honor everything. They responded instantly to the explosion and fire, all drawn to, rather than repelled by, the inferno—and without regard to their own safety or the consequences of their possible incineration upon their loved ones at home. We now know their last radio cries: “Move away from the towers! Everyone move away from the towers!” Silence. . . .
President Donald Trump sent a message of support and criticism to mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
“For the great people of our country this is a very sad day,” Trump said at the start of the minute-and-half long video shared online. “September 11 represents great sorrow for our country.”
911 will never be forgotten. We hope. The lessons it should have taught us are being lost thanks in no small part to an elite bent on civilizational murder, ours not theirs. The MSM and our political class sings their song at every opportunity – Islam is the religion of peace. The smart money knows it’s not no matter how many Magic Totem Malala’s they trot out.
I remember where I was. The first reports I heard spoke of a “small plane” crashing into the World Trade Center. I made my way to a nearby hotel and picked up a corporate rep for the software I sold and we headed to Vancouver’s airport for a meeting with a client.
That meeting never happened. On our way into the airport traffic had already backed up. The only things moving were the Black SUV’s, all unmarked that roared past us.
Soon we learned the airport had been closed down and on our way out, still lacking details, we marveled at the number of passenger jets being “parked” side by side.
At a nearby hotel we stopped for coffee and watched CNN as events unfolded. I still remember the stricken faces of the American’s I spoke with. Bewildered shock and anxiety overwhelming us all.
Fast forward a decade and Kathy and I were off to attend the 10 anniversary of 911 in New York. The pic above is one I took from West Broadway.
911 was for me a painfully significant eye-opener to the wickedness of this world if not a watershed moment in my life. For Kathy it marked the dividing line that spawned the woman so many of us came to admire, an event that blessed us all.
Kathy and I made the pilgrimage to Manhattan for the 10th. We attended the SIOA rally featuring Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, Ezra Levant and many others as featured speakers. It was a passionate event well attended and well worth the trip to NYC alone.
Kathy and I stayed at the Wall Street Inn, a boutique hotel near to the anniversary memorial grounds. Kath was great at picking hotels, we enjoyed our stay and Kathy loved nearby Stone Street, essentially an open air restaurant featuring multiple establishments and good eats.
It was a whirlwind of activity and I remember how tired we both were but we never stopped. We didn’t have clout to enter the official seating area so we gathered as so many others to pay our respects in the surrounding streets. And this gave rise to Kathy’s encounter with the execrable “Westboro Baptist Church” protesters and the memorable photo below of Kath flipping them the bird as they walked past. Moments afterward she attempted to trip one of the Westboro loons who made a snide comment. He was a pretty big guy too. That’s my gal.
My beloved at her best.
It may seem a bit off to speak of good memories from attendance at such a sad memorial but they are my history with Kathy and sacred for that. Here’s Kathy and Terry Jones, I recall how pleasant he was to chat with and how charmed he was by Kathy.
I still chuckle at Kathy naming this “Doggie Of The Cross”. He was the companion of the street person who carted the cross around, guess his owner was getting a coffee.
A few have remarked that Kathy’s service was scheduled for September 9th at 11 am – 911. The choice of that time and date was entirely accidental on my part and frankly I did not note its significance as I busied myself with arrangements.
On reflection I suspect this was Kathy’s hand at work. Perhaps reminding us to pick up the torch.
She was always one step ahead me. Good on ya Shortcake.
A West that thinks it deserves to be attacked cannot defend itself.
As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, we are being confronted once again, on news broadcasts, in documentaries and online, with that footage. With the images of those planes striking the Twin Towers, of survivors covered in blood and dust, of heroic first responders saving the lives they could amid unimaginable carnage. It still shakes us to this day. But amid all the acts of commemoration and remembrance one thing risks getting lost. That in the wake of that act of barbarism, an attack not just on New York and DC but on the West and what it stands for, there were many members of the British intelligentsia who, after the dust settled, were struck with more or less the same thought: maybe America brought this on itself.
