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Tal Afar: 400 terrorists dead or captured
Today's Headlines
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Britain
Al-Qaeda plotted to kill Blair in 2002
TERRORISTS linked to the Al-Qaeda organisation were suspected of plotting to assassinate British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a parade in 2002, the country's former senior police officer has admitted in a newspaper interview. John Stevens, who headed London's Metropolitan Police until earlier this year, told Blair about the feared threat against him and his wife, Cherie, according to his memoirs, serialised in the News of the World newspaper.

Mr Stevens said that he was informed about credible intelligence of a plot to shoot the Blairs using snipers at a June 2002 parade in London to mark the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne.

As soon as he heard of the threat, "I went to see the PM at Downing Street and warned him we had come across something potentially dangerous", Mr Stevens wrote. "To his credit, he immediately said he put duty before his personal safety and that he intended to take part in the ceremonies as planned. Cherie was equally resolute."

Both Blairs refused offers of bullet-proof vests, the Sunday newspaper reported.

The couple were surrounded by "covertly-armed" officers during the celebrations, but Mr Stevens said he was worried as the dignitaries gathered near Buckingham Palace, the Queen's London residence. "I felt acutely nervous as the procession approached," he said. "I was constantly scanning faces in the crowd for signs of trouble and thinking: 'I hope to God nothing comes from somewhere.'

"The fact that nothing untoward did happen was again a tribute to our intelligence gathering and the precautions we took."

Mr Stevens, who served in the post for five years, has previously said eight terrorist attacks were thwarted during his tenure, but given no details. Both Downing Street and the Metropolitan Police refused to comment overnight, saying they did not discuss security matters.
And Mr. Stevens knows better.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/11/2005 00:35 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This really shouldn't come as a surprise. We face a mortal enemy who is hell bent to strike a serious blow to us.

It's kill them before they kill us, let's get on with it.
Posted by: Captain America || 09/11/2005 2:40 Comments || Top||


UK police have finally found an al-Qaeda link to 7/7
I say Holmes, how do you do it?
British intelligence officials in Iraq are questioning an al-Qaeda operative after information relating to the 7 July London bombings was allegedly found on his computer drive. The man, who has not been named, was captured by US forces last month. He is understood to have had a portable computer drive on him that showed 'knowledge' of the attacks that killed 56 people. Colonel Robert Brown, commander of 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, in Mosul told a reporter in Iraq working for the news agency UPI about the arrest, but refused to discuss the specific nature of the information. However, a spokesman for US forces in Iraq confirmed that the information on the drive 'related to the London bombings and showed knowledge'.

Lieutenant-Colonel Steven Boylan confirmed that both British and US intelligence are questioning the individual. Boylan said he was not yet in a position to confirm if the information on the computer amounted to plans of the intended attack drawn up prior to the bombing. If it does emerge that the al-Qaeda operative in Iraq had detailed plans of the Tube bombings, it could provide an important breakthrough in the investigation and provide more evidence of a direct link between the attacks and al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Last week the Arab satellite television channel, al-Jazeera, broadcast a video of Mohammed Sidique Khan, the ringleader of the 7 July attacks, justifying the atrocities and praising Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the leader of the the Iraqi insurgency, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The video was interspliced with claims by Zawahiri that al-Qaeda was responsible for the bombings.

Saudi intelligence services have also claimed that the attacks might be linked to the insurgents in Iraq. Last month they claimed that a Saudi Islamic extremist captured returning to the Gulf kingdom from Iraq in December told them of plot to bomb the London Underground using four men. The Saudis said they warned British and US intelligence of this plan. British investigators still searching for a potential mastermind behind the London attacks are continuing to focus on Pakistan. At least three of the 7 July suicide bombers - Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer and Hasib Hussain - are believed to have travelled to Pakistan before the London attacks. There has been close liaison between the British and Pakistani authorities and intelligence services over what three of the four suicide bombers had been doing and who they had met in the months before the London bombings. On Friday, President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan confirmed for the first time that Tanweer, 23, attended a religious school in Lahore linked to militants, but played down reports that he had been indoctrinated in Pakistan.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/11/2005 00:04 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Caucasus Corpse Count
Two Russian soldiers and a Chechen police officer were killed and eight others injured in clashes with separatist fighters in Chechnya, an official from the pro-Russian administration said yesterday.

One soldier was killed and three others wounded in seven skirmishes with guerillas in the past 24 hours, while a soldier was killed and another injured after their four-wheel-drive vehicle came under fire near the southeastern town of Bamut.

Four other soldiers were injured in an explosion while carrying out mine-sweeping operations in the eastern town of Alleroi, the official said.

The bullet-riddled body of a Chechen police officer was also found yesterday on the outskirts of Urus-Martan, south of the capital Grozny.

Two roadside explosions in Russia's Ingushetia region near Chechnya injured a police officer yesterday, and a separate blast targeted a major regional gas pipeline, regional officials said.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/11/2005 00:24 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Down Under
Al-Qaeda video threatens Melbourne & LA
A VIDEOTAPE televised on ABC News in America, purportedly from a US-member of al-Qaeda, has threatened Melbourne and Los Angeles as their next target. "Yesterday, London and Madrid. Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, God willing. At this time, don't count on us demonstrating restraint or compassion," the tape warns.

"We are Muslims. We love peace, but peace on our terms, peace as laid down by Islam, not the so-called peace of occupiers and dictators."
"You'll do as we Allan sez!"
Australia's intelligence agencies were last night assessing the threat. A spokesman for Attorney-General Philip Ruddock said US intelligence agencies contacted their Australian counterpart yesterday to warn them that the tape had been received.

Officers in the National Threat Assessment Centre in Canberra decided last night that they had insufficient information at this stage to warrant a change in the threat level, the spokesman said. But "they are not dismissing it," he said. He said the Australian agencies had not seen a copy of the tape.

Inspector Craig Walsh, of Victoria Police, said they were aware of the tape. "We are working in conjunction with our Federal and international counterparts to obtain a copy," he said. "Once obtained, the tape will need to be authenticated and its contents analysed and considered prior to making any further comment."

American intelligence officials believe the man on the tape is Adam Gadahn, of California. Last year, Gadahn delivered a similar tape for al-Qaeda. That tape was later deemed authentic.

On the new tape, delivered to ABC News on the fourth anniversary of the September 11 bombings in the US, Gadahn's message contains a very pointed al-Qaeda threat against Los Angeles and Melbourne. The taped message lasts 11 minutes. Like past tapes, it appears to include the same graphics and production techniques recognised by US officials as part of al-Qaeda's standard propaganda production.
Posted by: Groluns Snoluter6338 || 09/11/2005 11:57 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  LA is definitely worth all of Pakiwakiland, Mecca, Mediana and all Saudi Oil.

Gov should say so!
Posted by: 3dc || 09/11/2005 16:29 Comments || Top||

#2  Al Quaeda doen't threat or warn when it can kill.
Posted by: JFM || 09/11/2005 18:13 Comments || Top||

#3  At this time, don't count on us demonstrating restraint or compassion
as though I would!
Posted by: Jan || 09/11/2005 18:28 Comments || Top||

#4  Bring it on monkeys
Posted by: Oztralian [AKA] God Save The World || 09/11/2005 19:51 Comments || Top||


Europe
Radical Islam on the rise in Europe
At a pleasant café in this downtrodden corner of Paris, Mahor Chiche interrupts the conversation to point to a bald, bearded, tunic-wearing teenager passing on the sidewalk. "Look," he says, "there's a Moussaoui."

The 30-year-old law student was born to Tunisian parents in this tough neighbourhood, and he knows the particularities of its dress code. Such young men, he explains, model their appearance after Zacarias Moussaoui, the immigrant to France who was charged with being the would-be 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Mr. Moussaoui, to a surprising number of young French men here in the 19th district of Paris, is a role model. We know this not just because so many French teenagers here from moderate or non-religious North African families are now sporting the beards and tunics of the true believer and attending 5 a.m. prayers at fringe mosques, but also because many of them have followed more directly in the footsteps of their al-Qaeda role models.

In the past few months, at least eight young French-born men from this district have blown themselves up in Iraq. Another is believed to be the leader of a cell of insurgents within Iraq. A number have been arrested on their return from Iraq, and authorities believe they were planning to commit terrorist attacks within Europe.

Four years ago this weekend, the grubbier neighbourhoods of European cities produced an unprecedented threat to the world, after a Hamburg-based group of young North African and Middle Eastern immigrants organized the Sept. 11 attacks.

That first wave of al-Qaeda terrorists were all immigrants from Muslim countries to Europe or North America; they included Canadian terrorists such as Ahmed Ressam, the young Algerian man now in jail for trying to bomb the United States on Jan. 1, 2000.

But something has changed dramatically in the past four years. Across Europe, and possibly in North America, the new Mohamed Attas are coming not from immigrant enclaves, not from people raised in Muslim countries where religious extremism is part of the political culture. They are native-born citizens of their host countries, fluent in its language and culture, usually from families that are neither impoverished nor religious.

As the popularity of radical Islam has declined dramatically in Muslim countries -- not a single international terrorist figure has emerged from Iraq, Afghanistan or Palestine in the past four years -- it is becoming a fully European force in France, Britain, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands, forged in the bland concrete housing projects that ring the cities of Europe.

"It's not the ones from religious families who are turning into jihadists," said Rosa Tandjaoui, the daughter of Algerian and Tunisian parents who owns a bookstore here in the 19th district and whose children attend the same schools as the French suicide bombers.

"It's people from families like mine -- secular, patriotic French, educated. I worry about my son a lot -- I hope he doesn't become religious, and I will never let him go to prayers by himself. I've seen what happens to them."

At the centre of this neighbourhood are several complexes of huge apartment buildings, 22 to a block. At the centre of one of those blocks yesterday, a group of young Muslims leaned against the wall, passed around a joint and passed the time -- about the only activity available for a great many young men around here. Unlike their parents, they are not struggling in casual labour to build a future: They feel fully French, own name-brand clothes and have everything but a future. They discussed rap music and the forces that had turned several of their friends into jihadists.

"You can tell when they've gone over, because they were delinquents and all of a sudden they start acting very good, going to church, not smoking the hashish," said Mehdi, 21, whose parents came from Mali. "And they get really strict, telling people that they're infidels if they don't go to the mosque. They're being told things that sound really good -- it's like a cult."

The 19th district was once a surprisingly harmonious place, with halal and kosher butchers happily sharing sidewalk space. Then something abruptly changed.

Many people here say that occurred two years ago, when the leadership of the largest mosque was taken over by Algerians who had been members of the Islamist insurgency there. Others say it was the arrival of recruiters -- severe men in beards and tunics -- who set up a string of Middle Eastern sandwich shops along one street.

"Radicals are getting control of the mosques, it's true, but these are kids who don't even go to the mosque," said Mr. Chiche, who has formed a group to oppose extremist influences in the 19th district.

These listless and naïve youngsters, he explains, end up "buying the salad," to use the local expression.

"So this man comes to visit, from a Muslim group, and he sets up in the back room of one of the halal sandwich places - you get the sandwich for free, and then you get the intellectual salad on top of it. So he sells his salad -- and the young man has had no idea of these concepts; they sound good, so he eagerly embraces it."

French scholars of Islamic society now argue that radical Islam, which began as an export from the Middle East and Africa, is now an entirely European product, utterly devoid of links with actual Muslim countries.

"There is a kind of pan-European underclass that has formed, of young Muslim European citizens who have no real links with either European society or any real Muslim societies," said Farhad Khosrokhavar, a professor at Paris's School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences who has recently compiled his field work in Muslim extremist communities in a book titled The New Martyrs of Allah.

"Across Europe, there are similar patterns of this exclusion -- in France in these cites [housing projects], in England in poor inner cities. They feel that this exclusion is not really economic, but cultural."

The recruiters move across Europe, homing in on cities where the deprivation seems to have created the largest numbers of disaffected young Muslims.

The Muslim community centres of Leeds seem to have been deliberately targeted. And many people here in the 19th district say that the recruiters arrived en masse, in what seems to have been a deliberate experiment in radicalizing a whole generation. They work fast: It only takes two or three days, people say, to turn someone's head around. Within months, they can be blowing themselves up in Iraq -- or in London.

"This gives birth to a kind of imagination that is very disconnected from the reality of Muslim countries," said Prof. Khosrokhavar. "These recruiters construct an imaginary world of Islam. It is globalized, refashioned, and not referring to the actual reality of Muslims in the world. . . "

The response has varied. In Britain, the government has declared an end to its policy of multicultural tolerance. In the Netherlands, the population lashed out at Muslims. And here in France, there is a very serious proposal to start building government-funded mosques with government-trained and certified imams, as a typically French way to bring Muslim youths more closely into French society.

In the 19th district, the guys who escaped the lure of the recruiters look askance at this.

"These guys, the jihadists and extremists, are making it bad for all of us -- they're telling Europe that all of us blacks and Muslims are people who could turn into suicide bombers at some point," Mehdi said. "There's no point having government mosques or anything like that -- it's up to us, here in the projects, to do something about this. We have to show them a better path."
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/11/2005 00:20 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The recruiters move across Europe, homing in on cities where the deprivation seems to have created the largest numbers of disaffected young Muslims.

Myth#1.

As the popularity of radical Islam has declined dramatically in Muslim countries

Myth#2.



Posted by: gromgoru || 09/11/2005 10:20 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Charges tossed out against defunct Oregon Islamic charity
A federal judge has dismissed criminal charges against the U.S. branch of a defunct Islamic charity that was accused of helping al-Qaida, but prosecutors said new charges are possible.

The Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation Inc. branch in Ashland was indicted last February on two tax charges for allegedly helping to launder $150,000 in donations five years ago to help al-Qaida fighters in Chechnya.

Federal prosecutors had asked last month that the charges be dropped, saying the case would be a waste of time because all that remains of the organization is its corporate shell.

However, the two men who ran the Ashland branch are still considered international fugitives.

At a hearing Thursday in Eugene, Marc Blackman, the attorney representing the Al-Haramain branch, asked U.S. Magistrate Thomas Coffin to reject the government's motion to dismiss the charges.

He argued that the case should either proceed to trial with the current indictment or be dismissed with prejudice, which would prevent the government from reviving it.

However, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Cardani countered that the Al-Haramain investigation continues and involves "very serious charges." He did not give any details about those charges.

The foundation was based in Saudi Arabia until the Saudi government ordered it dissolved in a crackdown on terrorist financing following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The United States and other countries said it was suspected of funding the al-Qaida terror network led by Osama bin Laden.

The indictment against the foundation also charged Pete Seda and a Saudi named Soliman Al-Buthe with tax crimes involving the $150,000 in donations.

Seda, an Ashland tree trimmer also known as Perouz Sedaghaty, established the Oregon charity in 1997 with support from the Saudi operation. The charity operated a prayer house and distributed Islamic literature to prisoners.

The indictment alleged that the two men had a bank convert money from an Egyptian donor into traveler's checks and a cashier's check that Al-Buthe took back to Saudi Arabia without reporting it, as required by federal law. Seda is accused of trying to hide the transaction from the Internal Revenue Service by claiming the money helped pay for a mosque in Missouri.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/11/2005 00:25 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
Tal Afar wrapping up, 400 terrorists dead or captured
Much of the article is a duplicate of the one Dan Darling posted I tried to just include the new stuff.

Fighting eased Sunday, the second day of a U.S. and Iraqi sweep through the terrorist militant stronghold of Tal Afar near the Syrian border, as terrorists insurgents melted into the countryside, many escaping through a tunnel network dug under an ancient northern city.

The 8,500-strong Iraqi-U.S. force continued house-to-house searches, and military leaders said the assault would push all along the Syrian frontier and on to Damascus in the Euphrates River valley.

Cities and towns along the fabled river are bastions of terrorism the insurgency, a collection of foreign fighters and disaffected Sunni Muslims, many of them Saddamites Hussein loyalists.

About 5,000 Iraqi soldiers, backed by a 3,500-strong American armored force, reported 156 terrorists insurgents killed and 246 captured. The force discovered a big bomb factory, 18 weapons caches and the tunnel network in the ancient Sarai neighborhood of Tal Afar, 60 miles east of the Syrian border.

"The terrorists had seen it coming (and prepared) tunnel complexes to be used as escape routes," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said in Baghdad.

Lynch said operations in Tal Afar were part of a much larger, nationwide plan to destroy terrorist insurgent and al-Qaida bases, which included ongoing operations in Mosul, Qaim and the western town of Rutba.

A group claiming to be an offshoot of al-Qaida said it would retaliate against the government and security forces in the capital.

"The Taifa al-Mansoura Army has decided to ... strike at strategic and other targets of importance for the occupation and the infidels in Baghdad by using chemical and unconventional weapons developed by the mujahedeen, unless the military operations in Tal Afar stop within 24 hours," the statement said.
How could they do that, since there were no WMD in Iraq and no outside country is supplying weapons?

It was not immediately possible to determine the authenticity of the statement, which was posted on a Web site known for its pro-terrorism militant contents.

Iraqi Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi said the sweep of Tal Afar was carried out at the request of city residents and would be a model as his forces attacked other insurgent-held cities in quick succession.

"After the Tal Afar operation ends, we will move on Rabiyah (on the Syrian border) and Sinjar (a region north of nearby Mosul) and then go down to the Euphrates valley," al-Dulaimi said.

"We are warning those who have given shelter to terrorists that they must stop, kick them out or else we will cut off their hands, heads and tongues as we did in Tal Afar," al-Dulaimi said, apparently using figurative language. That's what you think...
Posted by: Jackal || 09/11/2005 19:31 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This may be the last great offensive needed. The terrs who probably bugged out to Syria will not find the door closed behind them, with the border sealed, and any efforts to cross it will be met with instant death. Those who stayed in country are now restricted to fewer and fewer towns, and have to dash between them one step ahead of the Iraqi army and police.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/11/2005 20:01 Comments || Top||

#2  I like the way al-Dulaimi sounds.

Maybe he would agree to run for Prime Minister. It would be a big improvement.
Posted by: mhw || 09/11/2005 20:38 Comments || Top||


Notes from the Sandbox: Broadhead6, reporting
We are grateful for your report and glad you have Net access and time to write. Take care, dear BH6!
Hey Fred & fellow Rb'rs, had to use a thread w/Iraq in it to give you an update. I'm formerly known as "JH" by the way.

Been in country about 4 days. I'm going to be real careful as to what I say because I'm using gov mail right now & I'm not real sure yet about all the restrictions. Our internet cafe on base is down, I can use my personal email there and be a little more explicit - though I will never compromise future ops or troop movements.
That a side, I will give you a good feel for what life is like at a semi-REMF/Pogue base here in camel land, though everywhere is a frontline here.

Anyways, 113 degrees today, hot and windy. Our camp is nicknamed TQ. You all should be able to figure out where that is.

We're 8 hours ahead of EST. Down to brasstacks -The assholes threw IDF (indirect fire, i.e. rockets/mortars) at us twice today but our counter-battery was quick on them. I don't have any BDA's to give you unfortunately. Sounds like distant thunder and you can feel the earth shake a bit.

I was homesick real bad yesterday for the first time in my career, I got a little boy now I didn't have the last time I left home, he's hitting the terrible two's and giving Mrs.BH6 some fits. I miss them both but it's a lot harder having a kid. My wife and I have been through this enough to be solid. Thoughts of mylittle man really tugs on my heart strings though. I'm hoping to get through the initial blues real quick because my devil dogs here need me at 100% full tilt balls out. Which I am on the surface right now as far as they can tell. Just getting my head together on my own time has been harder then I'd thought it would.

My tour will be 7 months, no more. That's good but seems like a long time to April now. I pray it goes by swiftly but safely. I want to thank Trailing Wife for the thoughts about Mrs. BH6 last time. She's gonna need more support in the following months then me. I just need some encouraging words now and then to remind me of the big pic.

Other then that the chow is good but the living conditions suck ass- electricity & Phonecon is half-assed at best. Some Grunt bases have much better living conditions which is good and a reverse of the stereotype of pogue units.

My unit does a lot of convoys, but due to my rank and billet I'm not a normal guy to go on these anymore. Each night convoys find IED's, & the asshole terror-fucks are changing up their tactics but we adapt to them. I hate the islamonuts with an intensity I've not known before. I guess your first IDF experience will do that to ya. I hope we kill as many of them as possible.

Our young Marines are doing great things out there. Handling business like total professionals, don't let anyone bullshit you. I've seen young kids stepping up - and it makes me damn proud. Anyways, that's all for now, I'm rambling a bit and still a little jet lagged. Take care y'all and I'll get back soon. Out.
Posted by: Seafarious || 09/11/2005 14:17 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Our camp is nicknamed TQ. You all should be able to figure out where that is."

Can someone let me into the club? What does he mean by TQ?
Posted by: Penguin || 09/11/2005 14:26 Comments || Top||

#2  TQ (Camp Taqqadum) is the former Al Taqaddum Airbase in Central Iraq.
Posted by: ed || 09/11/2005 14:53 Comments || Top||

#3  Thanks for the report BH6. God Bless you.

If you want to know more, Penguin GOOGLE: Iraq "TQ". There are pictures from TQ at this link.
Posted by: GK || 09/11/2005 15:13 Comments || Top||

#4  Thank you BH6! Stay safe, take care of those fabulous young Marines in your command, and please let us know if we can do anything to help you or Mrs BH6 (I can babysit if she needs a night out).
Posted by: Steve White || 09/11/2005 15:16 Comments || Top||

#5  How can we get goodie box's to you?
Posted by: raptor || 09/11/2005 15:21 Comments || Top||

#6  Seconding that on goodies box for you and your unit.

Maybe you can email delivery address to Fred?
Posted by: rkb || 09/11/2005 15:29 Comments || Top||

#7  BH6, Thanks for the report. Please let us know if your your Marines need anthing. How can we get goodie box's for you and your Marines over there.
Semper Fi
Jack Bross
Cpl USMC 1961 - 1965
Posted by: Jack Bross || 09/11/2005 15:51 Comments || Top||

#8  BH6.

We salute you.

Unfortunately no break in the weather forecast for the next week on wunderground.
Posted by: mhw || 09/11/2005 17:38 Comments || Top||

#9  amen JH....er BH6
Posted by: Frank G || 09/11/2005 17:50 Comments || Top||

#10  What a wonderful letter to receive on this day of all days! Thank you, BH6 -- you've given me smiles through my tears. Stay strong for your Marines, for Mrs. BH6 and your little man... and for all of us back home.

(A side note to Mrs. BH6: the Terrible Twos only last about 5 months. 2 1/2 to 3 is a wonderful, happy, easy time period. So hang tough, and the hard bit will be over soon. I promise!

your friend, TW)
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/11/2005 18:35 Comments || Top||

#11  Like I said before here to somone else:

Incoming fire has a way of clearing and focusing the mind quite sharply. Be it IDF or SAF.

Eyes open, ass down, and weapon always at hand. You'll do fine.
Posted by: Oldspook || 09/11/2005 18:41 Comments || Top||

#12  That's for cutting into your precious sack time to give us an update. We're all behind you, and I bet several of us would like to be right next to you. Keep up the good and necessary work.

This is just a suggestion. Rather than all of us buy separate things and duplicate/omit items, what if we all threw some specially-tagged contributions to the tip jar (or someone else's blog) and then Fred (or whoever) went on a shopping spree? We'd save on shipping, too.
Posted by: Jackal || 09/11/2005 19:50 Comments || Top||

#13  wow that was fast BH6. In country, at camp "Sandbox" . please tell the Marines there, that they are greatly appreciated. Looking foward to your reports and pics.

The assholes threw IDF (indirect fire, i.e. rockets/mortars) at us twice today but our counter-battery was quick on them.

Fight smart, drive safe. thanks.
Posted by: Red Dog || 09/11/2005 20:33 Comments || Top||

#14  Godspeed and good luck, BH6. We need to get together on sending goodies to him. Maybe a post on the main page for those who don't get to RB everyday? I like the idea of specially marked donations to the tip jar for Fred to go on a spending spree.
Posted by: BA || 09/11/2005 21:05 Comments || Top||

#15  Take comfort in the fact that the individuals you are fighting are as deserving of meeting your bayonets as they come. And, I would add, that by your efforts you are not only giving a tremendous and lasting gift to the Iraqi people, you are removing a pestilence from a dozen other countries as well.

Every one of those villains that can be lured to your guns will be one less to torment innocent women and children elsewhere, and none shall morn their passing. They will have learned what it means to cross swords with Marines.

You gentlemen have freed a nation, and loosened the bonds in many others. You have done well.

May you and your comrades continue to be safe and know that America looks forward to your return with open arms.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/11/2005 22:11 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Close shave for Dawood
India’s biggest fugitive, Dawood Ibrahim, escaped an attempt on his life in Karachi recently. Government sources in Delhi confirmed there was an attempted hit, but claimed that the details were sketchy. Sources in the Gulf, however, said the underworld don was shot at while leaving his Karachi mansion on September 2. Furthermore, the bid on Dawood’s life, say sources, was made by insiders. Apparently, Dawood was leaving his house to board an aircraft that he uses for travel in Pakistan when persons from his own gang made the attempt to kill him. Government sources said he was not seriously hurt.

Gulf sources say the Dawood syndicate suspects the assassination was undertaken at the behest of Pakistani authorities. Though he is an honoured guest of the ISI, Islamabad is under pressure to hand him over to India, which seeks to prosecute him for India’s worst terrorist incident, the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 09/11/2005 05:35 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq-Jordan
5,000 Iraqi, 3,500 US troops sweep into Tal Afar
More than 5,000 Iraqi army and paramilitary troops backed by U.S. soldiers swept into this insurgent stronghold near the Syrian border Saturday, conducting house-to-house searches and battering down stone walls in the narrow, winding streets of the old city.

Late Saturday, the prime minister ordered the Rabiyah border crossing closed in an attempt to stanch the flow of insurgents from Syria, which is about 60 miles from Tal Afar.

While several hundred insurgents using small arms initially put up stiff resistance in the city's ancient Sarai district, Iraqi forces reported only two men wounded in the day's fighting. The U.S. military issued no casualty report for the 3,500 Americans in the operation.

Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said 48 insurgents had been captured.

As the day wore on, fighting quickly died down, said Col. H.R. McMasters, commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. He said the joint force found the Sarai neighborhood nearly deserted once the shooting ended.

"The enemy decided to bail out," he said, adding, however, that 150 insurgents had been killed the last two days. Jabr put the number at 141 and said five government soldiers died and three were wounded in the same period.

McMasters said the vast majority of insurgents captured in that period were "Iraqis and not foreigners." Iraqi officials said Thursday that they had captured 150 foreign fighters.

South of Baghdad, police made the gruesome discovery of 18 men who had been handcuffed and shot to death after being abducted two days ago from their Shiite Muslim neighborhood in Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of the capital.

In recent weeks, dozens of bodies have been recovered, the apparent victims of tit-for-tat vengeance killings by Shiite and Sunni Arab death squads.

Baghdad International Airport reopened Saturday after a 24-hour closure, begun when a British security firm stopped working because it had not been paid for seven months. After overnight negotiations, the government agreed to pay half of what it owed, and employees of the London-based Global Strategies Group were ordered back to work.

With the Tal Afar offensive under way, the Iraqi defense minister signaled his U.S.-trained forces would not stop after this operation and vowed to move against insurgent bastions throughout the country.

"We say to our people ... we are coming," said Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi.

The latest drive against the stubborn insurgency began with just over a month to go until Iraqis vote on adopting a permanent constitution

Wrangling during the drafting of the charter, which faces stiff opposition from the country's Sunni Arab minority, highlighted distrust among Iraq's volatile ethnic and religious mix as well as worries that Iraq might eventually split apart.

Sunnis claim the document favors the long-oppressed Shiite majority and the Kurds, who have run a semiautonomous state in the north since the end of the first Gulf War. Both Shiites and Kurds appear eager to set up a loose confederation of mini-states after decades of repression by a centralized government in Baghdad.

The offensive in Tal Afar, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad, is especially delicate because of the tangle of ethnic sensitivities.

About 90 percent of the city's 200,000 people - most fled to the countryside before the fighting - are Sunni Turkmen who have complained about their treatment from the Shiite-dominated government and police force put in place after the U.S. invasion in 2003.

Addressing that complaint, Jabr announced Saturday that 1,000 additional police officers would be hired in Tal Afar after the offensive and that they would be chosen from the Turkmen population.

The Turkmen have a vocal ally in their Turkish brethren to the north, where Turkey's government is a vital U.S. ally and has fought against its own Kurdish insurgency for decades. Tal Afar is next to land controlled by Iraqi Kurds.

Turkey voiced disapproval of U.S. tactics when American forces ran insurgents out of Tal Afar a year ago. The Turkmen residents complained that Iraqi Kurds were fighting alongside the Americans.

U.S. and Kurdish officials denied the allegation, but the Turkish government threatened to stop cooperating with the Americans. The siege was lifted the next day and insurgents began returning when the Americans quickly pulled out, leaving behind only a skeleton force of 500 soldiers.

For those reasons, U.S. forces stood back during the new sweep through Tal Far, allowing Iraqi forces to break down doors in the search for insurgents. The Americans followed behind, securing positions while the Iraqis advanced.

"I can see why the terrorists chose this place for a fight, it's like a big funnel of death," Sgt. William Haslett of Rocklin, Calif., said of the twisting streets and alleys Tal Afar's old city.

Twelve hours after the offensive began, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said insurgents had been trying to "to isolate Tal Afar from the political process as we are preparing for the referendum on the draft constitution."

Al-Dulaimi, who joined al-Jaafari at the news conference, said he expected the offensive to last three days, and complained Iraq's neighbors had not done enough to stop the flow of foreign fighters.

"I regret to say that instead of sending medicines to us, our Arab brothers are sending terrorists," al-Dulaimi said.

Jabr, the interior minister, read al-Jaafari's order closing the border on Iraqi television late Saturday. The decree indefinitely shut the Rabiyah crossing to all transportation, including the railroad, except for vehicles with special permission from the Interior Ministry.

The order did not affect the frontier crossing near the insurgent stronghold of Qaim or the major highway into Syria.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/11/2005 00:37 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Don't care so much for the house-to-house. Liberal use of bombs are best, me thinks.
Posted by: Captain America || 09/11/2005 1:00 Comments || Top||

#2  The Turkmen have a vocal ally in their Turkish brethren to the north, where Turkey's government is a vital U.S. ally and has fought against its own Kurdish insurgency for decades. Tal Afar is next to land controlled by Iraqi Kurds.

Turkey voiced disapproval of U.S. tactics when American forces ran insurgents out of Tal Afar a year ago. The Turkmen residents complained that Iraqi Kurds were fighting alongside the Americans.

vital?
The money and support *we give them* is vital


"I can see why the terrorists chose this place for a fight, it's like a big funnel of death," Sgt. William Haslett of Rocklin, Calif., said of the twisting streets and alleys Tal Afar's old city.

hee hee..a raisin funnel!

Posted by: Red Dog || 09/11/2005 1:07 Comments || Top||

#3  About 90 percent of the city's 200,000 people...are Sunni Turkmen

I think this is a point that deserves more attention, regarding who is actually doing the fighting in Tal Afar.
Posted by: Paul Moloney || 09/11/2005 2:10 Comments || Top||

#4  If the Iraqi forces are doing the house-to-house and have bagged 141 - 150 with a loss of only 5 KIA and 3 WIA then they have come a looooong way and learned well. Excellent news.

As for Turkey and, apparently, their Turkmen "allies" - this is Iraq, not Turkey. Turkey can fuck the fuck off and so can the Turkmen. The Kurds are real allies - and we should not stiff them to please assholes like Yippie & Co. Fuck Turkey - and the Turkmen. With a pitchfork.
Posted by: .com || 09/11/2005 10:37 Comments || Top||

#5  are the fighters sunni turks or sunni arabs?

either way, why are there "captures"? Kill them
Posted by: Frank G || 09/11/2005 10:44 Comments || Top||

#6  Sealing the border is particularly good right now. Before, you had to "approach and question", unless they were obviously acting up. Now, anyone in the KZ can be lit up without further ado.

Personally, I would set up 81mm mortar positions alternatively with heavy machine gun positions, with forward observers on high ground, along with some handy FACs and snipers. Plenty of rear area security to boot. This would make for a fine augumentation of the permanent outposts already there. Not terribly manpower intensive and would seal that border like a drum.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 09/11/2005 11:01 Comments || Top||

#7  Apparently they found a tunnel complex under the city that allowed a lot these vermin to escape (A/P has just GLEEFULLY posted this)

It is (way past) EXAMPLE TIME! Level the f***ing city, and herd the "Turkmen" back to Turkey!

And as for the Kurds...it is also (way past) time to back them 100% One way would be to tell the Sunnis that IF the upcoming referendum fails to ratify the Iraqi constitution then we are going to form and SUPPORT the country of Kurdistan on our way out of Iraq. The result? A free Kurd people, and a decimated (by the Shiites) Sunni people. As they say in Hold-Em: we should go ALL IN!
Posted by: Justrand || 09/11/2005 12:36 Comments || Top||

#8  Wonder if Zarkboy is there himself. Look what Debka is reporting:


US forces in Iraq and Baghdad threatened with a chemical attack unless they halt Tal Afar offensive in 24 hours.

September 11, 2005, 4:01 PM (GMT+02:00)

The threat was issued by the “Organization of the Victorious� linked to Abu Musab al Zarqawi. The chemical agent was described as self-produced by the group. The statement was released at the same moment as the Ground Zero ceremony was held in commemoration of the victims of al Qaeda’s attacks on New York and Washington four years ago.

The US military reports 141 terrorists killed in Tal Afar and 211 captured with arms caches since the offensive was launched by thousands of troops at the end of the August. They expect it to be over by Sept. 15
Posted by: 3dc || 09/11/2005 16:38 Comments || Top||

#9  Simultaneously, Zark is moaning that the US is using chem weaps on his flock ...
Posted by: Omort Gloluse2712 || 09/11/2005 18:50 Comments || Top||

#10  We must be doing something right if Zark is threatening Chemicals of Doom™. Keep it up, and take 'em out.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/11/2005 19:40 Comments || Top||

#11  What we have been doing is a classic military maneuver: moving up the river and roads from Baghdad, along the ratlines supplying the insurgency, and pushing them closer and closer to the border.

Now the border is declared closed, which gives authorization to shoot those coming over it. And one by one we are taking the towns they've used as bases.

I'm not saying they can't wiggle out of this alive, at least Zark and his inner circle. But while we want him, more than anything we want Iraq stable and able to defend itself. The effective presence of Iraqi troops at the front of this effort is a signal to Iraqi citizens that their government can protect them and a signal to baby Assad that his days are numbered because the Kurds are going to be free to turn their attention to their relatives in eastern Syria soon.
Posted by: lotp || 09/11/2005 19:49 Comments || Top||


Islamic Army urges Iraqis to vote against constitution
The Islamic Army in Iraq, an extremist Sunni group known for kidnapping and killing foreigners, issued an Internet statement yesterday, urging Iraqis to vote no in October’s referendum on a new constitution.

The group’s Shariah law committee said that “voting no ... will result in a rejection of the constitution, the failure of (enemy) plans and the fall of the government which is in the pay of the occupier.”

The statement on an Islamist website differs from declarations made by other militant Sunni groups which have threatened Iraqis with death if they participate in the October 15 vote.

“Saying yes would be to pass an impious constitution ... which seeks to divide Iraq into different districts submissive to the occupier and replace most Islamic laws by impious laws and take the Islamic and Arab identity away from Iraq,” it said.

“Boycotting the referendum and preventing citizens from taking part ... is in the enemies’ interest ... because thus, brother Muslim, you will have diminished the voice of those who reject the constitution and favoured (the victory of) those who want it.”

The Organisation of Al Qaeda in the Land of Two Rivers of Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and the Ansar al-Sunna, also linked to Al Qaeda, have called on Iraqis to boycott the referendum on pain of death.

Leaders of Iraq’s disempowered Sunni minority have voiced objections to certain aspects of the draft constitution, which was passed over their heads by parliament in August.

The document will need to be rewritten and resubmitted if two-thirds of voters in three of Iraq’s 18 provinces say no, numbers the Sunni community could muster.

The Islamic Army notably murdered Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni last August and kidnapped French journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot, who were released in December after four months detention.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/11/2005 00:19 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Rock the Vote?
Posted by: Captain America || 09/11/2005 3:09 Comments || Top||


Afghanistan/South Asia
Pakistanis arrest 3 hard boyz near Afghan border
Three suspected foreign militants were arrested after a shootout with Pakistani forces in a remote tribal region near Afghanistan, a security official said Saturday.

The suspects opened fire from a car Friday when security forces asked them to halt, said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to media.

A bystander was killed and her son wounded by stray bullets during the clash near Miran Shah, the main town in the northwestern region of North Waziristan,the official said.

The suspects' identity and nationality were not known, and no government official was immediately available for comment.

Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its war on terror. Last week it imposed a nighttime curfew in tribal areas to stop remnants of Taliban and al-Qaeda from crossing over to Pakistan or going back to Afghanistan.

Earlier Friday, Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf told The Associated Press that Islamabad has proposed setting up a barbed-wire fence along the Afghan border to help keep militants from crossing freely.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/11/2005 00:14 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Assassination attempt raises tensions in Afghanistan
Armed men in military uniforms opened fire on the defense minister's car on Saturday morning as it was leaving the airport here, in an attack the ministry called an assassination attempt.

The minister, Gen. Abdur Rahim Wardak, was not in the car when it came under fire, but a bullet hit the window where he usually sits, a Defense Ministry spokesman, Gen. Zaher Azimi, said in a telephone interview.

Nine men were arrested after the incident, including one who was wounded when soldiers intervened. General Azimi said the men were being checked to establish whether they were actually soldiers or were wearing uniforms in disguise.

"The shooting was by men wearing military fatigues," he said. "It is not clear if they were from the National Army or not. An investigation is under way."

A government official quoted by The Associated Press suggested that the attack was carried out by soldiers angry over a pay dispute.

Even before the shooting, the security situation was already tense in Kabul, which is preparing for parliamentary elections just a week away.

General Wardak was on his way to attend a memorial ceremony for the resistance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud in the Panjshir Valley. Mr. Massoud was killed on Sept. 9, 2001, by attackers thought to be members of Al Qaeda.

In a separate incident, several ministers and the military chief of staff were injured when their helicopter crash-landed after hitting a tree as it was taking off in the Panjshir Valley after the ceremony. The helicopter burst into flames, but all aboard were able to escape, General Azimi said.

More violence was reported in western Afghanistan, where an election candidate, Ghulam Nabi Balouch, came under gunfire, the state news agency reported. One of Mr. Balouch's bodyguards was killed, and one of the attackers was wounded and arrested by police, the news agency said. Six parliamentary candidates have been killed, and several have come under attack during the monthlong campaign.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/11/2005 00:13 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I hope the interrogations are both painful and successful.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/11/2005 14:15 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Jaafari orders all-out attack on insurgent strongholds
Iraqi and US troops pressed with an all-out offensive to wrest control of a town from Sunni Arab insurgents, with the Iraqis reporting nearly 150 rebels killed and with the mayor resigning in protest.

The fighting raged as Jordanian Prime Minister Adnan Badran arrived in Baghdad for talks with Iraqi officials after months of often strained relations between the two neighbours.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said Friday he had given the go-ahead for a major assault on Tal Afar after days of deadly clashes failed to dislodge the rebels from the town.

Fighting has been raging for more than a week in Tal Afar, a town between the main northern city of Mosul and the Syrian border that US commanders say has become a major staging post for foreign fighters infiltrating Iraq.

Iraqi Defence Minister Saadun al-Dulaimi said Saturday that 141 insurgents had been killed and 197 captured in the previous two days.

Later Saturday, Interior Minister Bayan Baker Solagh announced that Iraq was closing the Rafia border crossing near Tal Afar, imposing an overnight curfew in the area and banning the carrying of weapons.

Jaafari insisted that the offensive was not aimed at any particular ethnic group in the town, which is divided between Sunni Arabs and Shiite Turkmen, some of whom have fled the town in recent months complaining of persecution by the Sunni rebels.

Iraqi and US troops were acting "on behalf of all the different religious and ethnic elements in Tal Afar and in response to their appeals for help," the premier said.

"They (the rebels) have driven people from their homes. They want to deny the citizens of Tal Afar their future in a democratic and peaceful Iraq. We want to guarantee those rights.

These operations are being conducted precisely for that purpose." But the town's Sunni Arab mayor, Mohammed Rasheed, disagreed, tendering his resignation in protest at what he described as a sectarian operation.

"The operation is targeting Sunni neighbourhoods," he complained, adding that he did not believe the assault would solve the town's problems.

"The problem is sectarian," he said.

"It cannot be solved through military operations.

It should be done through negotiations and cooperation with the leaders of Sunni and Shiite tribes."

Badran is the highest-ranking Jordanian official to visit Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003.

The Jordanian premier stressed the importance of strengthening cooperation between the two neighbouring countries and emphasised the "strong position" of Iraq within the Arab world, after he held talks with Jaafar.

He told a joint press conference that the common borders with Iraq are secured and that "security and stability in Iraq are linked to the security and stability of Jordan."

Jaafari praised the visit by his Jordanian counterpart as "a new and sharp turn in the relations between the two countries."

Ties have been strained since Saddam's ouster.

King Abdullah II had voiced concern that the empowerment of Iraq's long oppressed Shiite majority might open the way to greater Iranian influence in the Arab world.

And Iraq's Shiite-led government has in turn complained of the number of Jordanians fighting alongside Sunni insurgents, including Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

In Washington, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said late Friday that he hoped the US troop presence could be reduced to a few small bases within a couple of a years.

"I say there is not a need for a huge number of American forces.

But I think there will be a need for two, three small bases for frightening others not to intervene in our internal affairs," Talabani said at a press conference with US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Meanwhile, 14 Iraqis were killed and 10 others wounded in several rebel attacks in Baghdad and north of the capital, security sources said.

The Baghdad airport reopened after a one-day shutdown following a pay dispute between the government and the London-based firm in charge of security.

And the Iraqi parliament is due to convene on Sunday when it is thought a final draft of the new constitution might be presented after last-minute changes to the wording were proposed to appease disenchanted Sunni Arabs.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/11/2005 00:07 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Mohammed Rasheed(D-Tal Afar), dusts of his John Kerry talking points.
Posted by: john || 09/11/2005 9:23 Comments || Top||


Senior al-Qaeda facilitator killed in safehouse strike
Coalition officials reported a senior al Qaeda terrorist may have been killed when fighter aircraft dropped precision-guided munitions on a terrorist safe house in the western Iraq city of Ubaydi today.

The senior al-Qaeda terror consultant and foreign fighter facilitator known as "Sheik" is believed to have been in the house at the time of the attack. Sheik has been linked to other senior al-Qaeda in Iraq and foreign fighter facilitators operating throughout the Euphrates Valley, officials said.

Intelligence sources confirmed that Sheik was specifically brought in to the Husaybah area to consult with Abu Islam, thought to have been killed in a recent coalition air strike, and Abu Ibrahim, Islam's brother and successor to manage terror operations in the area, officials noted.

Sheik has been known to have extensive connections throughout the Middle East to include Yemen, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Syria. From those countries his connections recruited and financed foreign fighters, who were later smuggled into Iraq, usually through Syria, and subsequently delivered to various terrorist groups in western Iraq, officials said.

Officials said the type of munitions used and the timing of the air strike to destroy the safe house lowered the risk to civilians in the local area.

In other news from Iraq, Task Force Freedom detained 13 suspected terrorists in operations in northern Iraq Sept. 8 and 9.

During a raid Sept. 9, soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, detained a terror suspect in western Mosul.

Multinational forces and Iraqi army soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 3rd Division, detained seven terror suspects after receiving small-arms fire in Ganus Sept. 8.

In another raid, soldiers from 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, detained five terror suspects during separate operations in eastern Mosul.

In Tal Afar Sept. 8, Task Force Freedom soldiers killed nearly a dozen terrorists engaged in movement of arms and other operations.

Coalition aircraft flew 47 close air support and armed reconnaissance sorties Sept. 9 in support of ground troops, officials reported today. These missions included support to coalition troops, infrastructure protection, reconstruction activities and operations to deter and disrupt terrorist activities.

U.S. Air Force F-16s performed a strike against a building used by insurgents in the vicinity of Al Qaim.

Other sorties included U.S. Air Force F-16s and Navy F/A-18s that provided close air support to coalition troops in the vicinities of Al Mahmudiyah, Al Mansuriyah and Baquba. Ten Air Force and Navy intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft flew missions to support operations in Iraq. U.S. and Royal Air Force fighter aircraft also performed in a nontraditional ISR role with their electro-optical and infrared sensors.
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/11/2005 00:06 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Shiek indeed. There is only one.
Posted by: Rudy V || 09/11/2005 7:15 Comments || Top||

#2  The Shiek indeed. There is only one.

how'd he know that? It's been in my wallet since 1989.
Posted by: hopeful || 09/11/2005 11:50 Comments || Top||

#3  More "people" killed in safe houses. They keep using that term, and I don't think it means what they use it to mean.
Posted by: Jackal || 09/11/2005 19:51 Comments || Top||


We Remember ...
This is an open thread. For this thread, I ask you to post, in comments, what you were doing the moment you heard about the World Trade Center on 9/11.

I was driving to work on the Eisenhower expressway in Chicago. I listened to the radio for the usual traffic report, and they broke in to talk about how 'an airplane had struck the WTC'. Dang, I thought, how in the world does that happen? Then the radio voice broke in and said that a second plane had hit the WTC. And then I knew how. As I continued my drive I kept looking at the Sears Tower, straight ahead of me.

This was Rantburg on 9-11-01. The original format wasn't as pretty as it is now, but the content's unchanged. This is the world the day before. These are my memories of the day. These are the Days of Our Lives...
Posted by: Steve White || 09/11/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Does anyone remember the sparkly perfect wweather that day? It was a beautiful early fall morning in DC, crystal blue sky, no wind, simply fabulous, and not a care in the world, until 8:48 am. I was home, just having left a bad job situation. (For the record, August '01 was a great time to be looking for work, September '01 sucked.) I don't remember how my attention was called to the teevee, except that once I turned it on, I was glued. The early parts of the reports were honest and emotional; Peter Jennings was anchoring when the Towers fell and he was gracious and respectful. Only later did the snide digs at the Administration begin...
Posted by: Seafarious || 09/11/2005 0:08 Comments || Top||

#2  I was driving into Queens NY from Long Island when I first heard the reports on the radio. It was a crystal clear blue sky and when I realized I wasn't having a "War of the Worlds" moment I glanced toward the direction of NYC and noticed the smoke on the horizon.

Although I didn't know it at the time, my brother was already on his way into the city from the NYFD Queens base. He and his squad of fire marshals got to within 100 feet of the north tower on the way to the ill-fated command post when the tower started to collapse. He lived only because they ran back to the shadow of the NY Telephone building where they were shielded from the falling steel.

He spoke afterwards of the blast of hot air, the sudden zero visibility, the suffocating dust and the sound. The metal raining down reminded him of the biggest bells you could imagine clanging all around you in a bell tower. We were blessed that he survived.

Many of our friends and neighbors did not.
God rest their souls.
Posted by: DanNY || 09/11/2005 0:21 Comments || Top||

#3  I wasn't doing anything special, but my sister in law was walking to work in New York. When she asked what the commotion was about, she was told that the plane crashed into the tower. She told me how she looked up and thought how could a plane crash with the sky so clear out.
Posted by: Jan || 09/11/2005 0:24 Comments || Top||

#4  I had been at work about an hour, a co-worker mentioned that a plane hit the World Trade Center, I thought it was a small plane. I brought up the CNN website, it was blank except for some headlines and one picture. I remember coming home and seeing the long lines at one of the gas stations and I also remember all the planes at the airport and how quiet it was without the air traffic. I will never forget that day.
Posted by: djh_usmc || 09/11/2005 0:31 Comments || Top||

#5  I was getting gas early in the morning on my way to work at HP near Sacramento. I heard the news on the gas station radio, and could not believe it. I started asking other people getting gas if it was for real, and they nodded with a look in their eyes I will never forget. I went on into work and no one was at their desk ... thousands were in the cafeteria with their eyes on the wide screen TV showing the news.
Posted by: Beau || 09/11/2005 0:35 Comments || Top||

#6  I was living in Sydney, Australia. I was about to go to bed, but I was playing Tetris for a bit while watching Star Trek ("Return of the Archons"). A crawl came across the bottom of the screen: "...terrorist attacks in the United States..." Since I'd just got the cable installed a few weeks before, I didn't know how often they did those crawls (never, as it turned out), so I was prepared to be unimpressed at the "terrorist attack". But I turned on the news anyway. Holy Howling Hell.

If I hadn't got the cable installed, I'd have been watching a videotape, and wouldn't have known about the attacks until the next morning, probably. No, that's right: my parents called. I didn't know for sure who was calling, but I answered the phone with, "I see it."

I called my boyfriend, who was on a business trip to Hawaii. It was about four A.M. there. "Turn on the TV," I told him. "Turn on CNN. The world is crumbling."

The next morning I bought the Sydney Morning Herald. The letters column -- just hours after the incident, remember -- was full of letters along the lines of "they deserved it". That I will never forget.
Posted by: Angie Schultz || 09/11/2005 0:37 Comments || Top||

#7  I had been up all night and just gotten to sleep when I heard a pounding at my front door. Still half asleep I opened the front door and a friend of mine said "the assholes just flew two jets into the Twin Towers" [they hadn't collapsed yet].

Disbeliving for a second, I came to and asked..again? they hit them again?
Posted by: Red Dog || 09/11/2005 0:41 Comments || Top||

#8  I was driving to work on 267, the road that connects I-66 with the toll road to Dulles airport near Washington, DC. It was a perfect day. I had the top down on my convertible and actually had the heater on just a bit as the morning was a a little cool at 70mph. I learned that a plane - then another - hit the towers from Robin Quivers, Howard Stern's sidekick. Believe it or not, I yelled F*** bin Laden at the top of my lungs because I knew 2 planes was not a coincidence and that this was al Queda.

I called my wife, who was still home, and told her to turn on the TV. She was working on wall street for the first WTC bombing and had seen the IRA in action in London so she decided to go to work, which was near the Whitehouse, from our apartment 3 blocks from the US Capitol.

By the time I got to work, we had just heard the Pentagon had been struck and CNN was spreading rumors about bombs near the capitol and whitehouse. It was a few hours before I got in touch with my wife and knew she was ok. Phones really did not work, expecially cell phones, as the network was saturated. I recall that AOL IM worked great.

Many of us knew people in the Pentagon and a lot of my company was ex-military, so they had a lot of people there. We also had several former colleagues who had been laid off and gone back to Morgan Stanley for training that day in the WTC. We spent much of the day assuming they were dead. Thankfully, they were saved by Rick Rescorla.

Travel was reportedly restricted so I spent most of the day at my office. We went to the Red Cross to give blood but they actually do not collect it at their offices.

Driving home was surreal. There were almost no cars on the road. I drove on the beltway to 295 North because I figured driving down Constitution Ave would be restricted. There were almost no other cars at 5pm, which is normally rush hour. I saw the burning Pentagon to my left and a lot of military aircraft.

After that, my neighborhood was full of trailers used in the anthrax decontamination of the Senate and there were national guardsmen on every corner. It was clear we were at war. Now, I am concerned people are beginning to forget.
Posted by: JAB || 09/11/2005 0:41 Comments || Top||

#9  I remember being at work and hearing there was an "attack" at the World Trade Center. I figured it was a shooting and the police would bring things under control. A little later someone said it sounded "serious". A bunch of us dragged out an old TV set and rigged up an antenna. We turned on the set and a few minutes later the first tower came down. We were all speechless. My thoughts at the time were "Oh my God! This is horrible! Those poor people". Followed shortly by "I don't know who did this - but the bastards are going to pay!". Four years later and I know who they are, and I want payback, but beyond that, I want victory.
Posted by: AJackson || 09/11/2005 0:57 Comments || Top||

#10  Here in Portugal was slighty before lunch time for some reason in small graphics firm i was (only one room) we had the TV on. The TV said a plane strucked
My 2 co worker friends said that was an attack right on, i said that was probably a mistake in auto pilot (i didnt saw at that time the images of the pilot directing the plane to the building. Then another struck at that time the attack was more evident. Then i saw the video of plane changing trajectory and any doubts were out. I was really surprised that the towers fell.
Posted by: Hupomoque Spoluter7949 || 09/11/2005 1:08 Comments || Top||

#11  Dressing for work and flipped on the tube right after first tower was hit. Remember the confusion as cable newscasters first thought it was an errand aircraft like one that had hit the Empire State Building several decades prior.

Being glued to the coverage, seeing a second aircraft rapidly approaching the other tower in real time, everyone immediately realized that it was a terrorist attack.

Then, jumping in my car to a business appointment and hearing about the Pentagon and later Flight 93.

This was the longest day since losing my brother to terrorists in 1995.
Posted by: Captain America || 09/11/2005 1:08 Comments || Top||

#12  It was a beautiful autumn afternoon in Kaiserslautern German, when the first reports started trickling in over the television, then thru official Intel channels. We immediatly stood up the team, had the outer security forces secure the command building, and went into a FPCON Delta posture with our Principles. As we were in the Arms Room drawing out our weapons, commo, and ammo, the armorer broke into tears. The team and I had practiced all the procedures many times, so implimenting the Threatcon Delta mission went well. After the Towers fell, the whole thing sank in, and I knew that I wouldn't be in safe, quiet Germany for very much longer...
Posted by: Bodyguard || 09/11/2005 1:10 Comments || Top||

#13  wuz in san jose. woke up to em nyoos offn me radio alarm clok. thawt em mornin dj's (lamont an tonelli) were jus screwin arownd.
Posted by: muck4doo || 09/11/2005 1:17 Comments || Top||

#14  I was watching CNN 9pm in the evening in Singapore when the story broke. I listened to the anchor blather on how the WTC must be causing navigational problems in the aircraft before yelling "Shut up you f***ing idiot".
Posted by: phil_b || 09/11/2005 1:29 Comments || Top||

#15  It was about 5AM here in Alaska. My wife and I were sleeping. She had left the radio on that evening. I heard the news break that the first tower was hit. That got my attention. Then there was a live feed. A woman newscaster was talking about how she saw the first plane hit. She was extremely animated and describing the events, then suddenly the second plane hit. My wife asked what was happening. I said without hesitation, "We are under attack. Hijacked planes hit the twin towers in New York." Then came the Pentagon hit, followed by Flight 93 in PA. The flights were all grounded. I was going to head down to a village with my plane. Nobody was flying. At work the sky was empty. 2 interceptors scrambled. A jetliner coming in from the North Pacific list com. Transponder set wrong. It was eery at work. We knew that this was a major event in our history.

Never the same after that. And they are still gunning for us. We have a two front war on our hands: external and internal. We have a tough road ahead.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/11/2005 1:52 Comments || Top||

#16  I was tel-commuting from home that day.

Finished a meeting to Oz and wandered downstairs for a coffee. The wife was in the kitchen about to leave and I glanced at the TV - Saw the first video of the plane hitting. Told the wife it was an islamic terror attack. She told me to quit being racist. Then we saw the second plane hit. She said she was sorry. Told everybody at work and didn't go in until the next day. A bunch of friends put together some portable CDMA basestations to locate cellphones and were rushed by the company to NYNY. They found lots of cellphones but no people. I had noticed strange cellular traffic patterns (mid-east) in the prior weeks but we discussed it and thought maybe the Pals were getting ready to do something to Israel. Nobody thought we were the target or that the strangeness was important.
We had lots of muslims at work and TVs everywhere so the tension was really visible. Then most were either deported or lost their VISAs followed by massive layoffs of US citizens.
Some of these big companies still don't get it.

Oh well,
Posted by: 3dc || 09/11/2005 2:58 Comments || Top||

#17  I was walking my dog on the Jersey side of the Hudson. I turned around and there was all this smoke coming from the WTC. As I was watching I saw a huge fireball, and I thought it was a "secondary" explosion. I did not realize it was the 2nd plane hitting the second tower, as the 1st tower obstructed my view of the 2nd tower. As I walked into my building someone mentioned 2 planes hitting the 2 towers. At that monent I knew it was Al-Qaida. An associate called and asked if I had any theories about who could have done it. I told him only and only Al-Qaida.
Posted by: Glereper Craviter7929 || 09/11/2005 3:19 Comments || Top||

#18  sum pre 9-11 pics of those byootiful buildins:

hudson view

view frum jersee city

eestern dawn

frum em ferry

pics curtesee me frend wil frum mrr.

Posted by: muck4doo || 09/11/2005 4:18 Comments || Top||

#19  Nothing noteworthy here; the tube is always set to turn on in the morning to wake me up for work. I managed to see the second jet strike the south tower live.
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama || 09/11/2005 4:19 Comments || Top||

#20  wun last wun frum her. grate top down pic:

heer
Posted by: muck4doo || 09/11/2005 4:20 Comments || Top||

#21  I was in the Sierras, trout fishing in the Grey Eagle area...Sardine Lakes. An elderly lady came upon us and said that a plane had crashed into one of the twin towers. By the time we got back to our cabin, both planes had struck. I went into Grey Eagle and winessed the carnage on TV at a local tavern. The place was full...and silent. The next day, we couldn't help but notice that the skies were empty. I listened to the radio. We were pretty much cut off. My brother in law was Air Force at the time....at the ..Mini Pentagon. He eventually got a message to us....very short...that things the situation was in hand. My parents left this morning for the annual trip to the lakes. I haven't been back since.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 09/11/2005 4:23 Comments || Top||

#22  yeah rex. umthin ima remeber alot is em san jose skyes empty of planes for sevral nites.

im lived by em airport.

was veree eerie...
Posted by: muck4doo || 09/11/2005 4:36 Comments || Top||

#23  I was at work, someone came into our office and said that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Centre, and it was being shown live. I thought it was a small plane, and as I had lost my Dad just a few weeks previous, I wasn't too focussed on other peoples problems.

Then the second plane hit - we saw it live on TV and it was obvious what was going on then.

We left early that day and some of us went to the pub - all the TVs were showing the hits and the Pentagon. The atmosphere in the pub was very subdued - people drinking and glued to the TV. I said to a friend "They'll use nukes for this", they looked incredulous, but I was just voicing what everyone was thinking.

The next few days were horrific, the magnitude of what had happened, coupled with my own fragility of losing my dad, hit me very hard. I spent a lot of time on LGF and was literally crying my eyes out when I saw the photos of the jumpers and read the stories of survivors.

I've learnt a lot about our enemies (both foreign and domestic) and am totally convinced that we are at war.
Posted by: Tony (UK) || 09/11/2005 4:47 Comments || Top||

#24  Coming back from a customers site in my car and heard it on the radio. When the 2nd plane hit I stopped everything and went round my folks house and sat there mostly in silence and disbelief watching the TV. All I can remember is my dad who has now passed away saying "bastards" over and over. Shistos UK
Posted by: Shistos Shistadogloo || 09/11/2005 5:01 Comments || Top||

#25  I was wrestling with the collective will (and losing) of 27 8th graders while filling in for the regular computer lab teacher. The 2nd strike caused a collective mass oh shit which I should have kicked butt about, except I was the loudest.
Posted by: Shipman || 09/11/2005 7:05 Comments || Top||

#26  Learned about the attack through the Nasdaq website.
Commented it to a coworker, told him that this was too big for America letting this unpunished and would go to war. He was incredulous. I told him: "You don't know Americans, they are not Europeans who live in America, they are made from anothzer stuff". I think I was thinking in Admiral Yamamoto who has warned the Japanese leaders Americans were not soft and decadent but tough and determined when stirred.
Posted by: JFM || 09/11/2005 7:18 Comments || Top||

#27  I was working at home, Fox News on in the other room, and heard a change in the tone of voice of the commentator. A plane crash into a building? I walked in, saw a tall building smoking, stood and listened to the ongoing confusion. Moments later I saw a plane arc into the second tower, and knew that both crashes had been deliberate acts. Then the towers collapsed in on themselves, the clouds of dust looking like a slo-mo blast wave. I didn't make the connection for almost another hour that I had lost three friends in Tower 1, and that the thing I was working on at home this morning was now dead as well. I kept working on it anyway.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 09/11/2005 7:30 Comments || Top||

#28  I was at work in a meeting when one of the secretaries walked in and told us she'd heard on the radio about the first plane hitting WTC Tower 1. A few minutes later she came back in to tell us about the second plane. Then the boss sent someone across the street to buy a TV, and we watched as the towers collapsed. People were pretty quiet. I remember thinking, "Well, I wonder if we're going to start taking these bastards seriously now-- and get it through our thick heads that when they scream 'Death to America' they really MEAN it."

My son (in the National Guard) called early that afternoon to tell me they'd already been warned by the Army: Don't know where, don't know when, but you're going to war. So get ready.
Posted by: Dave D. || 09/11/2005 7:36 Comments || Top||

#29  8:45AM Wondered what happened

9:03AM Realized what happened

9:04AM Resolved to NEVER forget and NEVER forgive.
Posted by: Hyper || 09/11/2005 7:59 Comments || Top||

#30  I was at home. We'd moved to NY a year prior and I was doing some consulting from home, with a 1 yr job waiting when I finished.

For some reason I turned on the AM TV ... I think for the weather ... and saw the film of the first plane hitting. Then they broke to show the 2nd hit.

Our daughter was working in the city, about a mile from the WTC. As she went into the building, she saw smoke and fire down the street. By the time she got to the 34th floor where she worked, the 2nd plane had hit.

It took me an hour to reach my husband by phone, since all the switches were overloaded. We were unable to get through to our daughter until late the next day, but at one point she managed to reach her grandparents on the west coast.

She walked north to the Queens bridge and half way down to Brooklyn before she could catch a train the rest of the way to the apartment she shared.

It took us nearly 2 days to learn that friends in the Pentagon wing that was hit survived okay.

A few weeks later I went to work for the Army.
Posted by: rkb || 09/11/2005 8:13 Comments || Top||

#31  I was living in Al Khobar, about 20km NE of Dhahran, SA. I had just come home from work at Aramco's Core Area and sat down to watch CNN - which was the "best" of the news offerings on the Orbitz satellite service. My housekeeper, a nice Ethiopian woman name Mimi, and I used to regularly watch the news together when I got home - on those days she came - and she would practice her English with me.

CNN picked up coverage a few minutes after the first plane hit - I didn't see the private video of that plane actually hitting the North Tower until a day or two later. We sat there looking at the screen - and then each other, stunned. At that point, everything was speculation and mindless blather - but they kept the cameras on it.

Then the second plane hit and Mimi gave out a little shriek. When that second plane came into view, well, it was clear that 95% of the blather had been wasted air - we were being attacked. Mimi's eyes were as big as silver dollars, but she was no quiet little mouse and we spent a couple of hours talking about what it meant - and what the US would do - and to whom.

Funny thing is, looking back, she got it far far better than our own Moonbats. I'll always remember that afternoon (in SA) and Mimi's endless questions and complete shock - no jaded fool, she believed in an eye for an eye and wanted to know who we would obliterate for this attack. She was the first of us to call it cowardice to kill randomly like that. Yep, she got it. She'd make a fine American. I'd trade the DLC & DNC for just one Mimi.

That shoe hasn't yet hit the floor.
Posted by: .com || 09/11/2005 8:58 Comments || Top||

#32  I was out in the plant investigating some problems we were having in a build process when someone went by our team yelling "a plane just flew into a building in New York". Yea, I thought, little planes get into trouble. People were pulling TV sets (hockey.fans@work.com)out of lockers and plugging in to watch. I went back to work. I noticed people working but nobody was talking.

When I got back to the office, it was empty. Everyone was in the cafeteria watching CNN. The wife called and filled me in. I sat at my desk alone. Did not want to talk to anyone.

The memory of those days was a blur now, but one line from Ground Zero is etched in memory: "We can't hear you!". I have been a George Bush fan ever since. Everything the MSM and the LLL have thrown at him since then is measured in his resonse to that firefighter.

God Bless America.
Posted by: john || 09/11/2005 9:17 Comments || Top||

#33 
I live in South Hackensack, New Jersey. My daughter works as a model, and she was the lead model in a fashion show scheduled to take place late that afternoon in the Fashion Week shows in central Manhattan. She had arranged for the agency to get tickets for me and my wife. We had never seen our daughter participate in a fashion show, so this was going to be a great occasion.

In addition, a TV crew had selected my daughter as a typical model and intended to follow her around all day and do a mini-documentary of her activities. This film would be shown on a local cable channel that devoted heavy coverage to Fashion Week.

My wife had been excused from work for that day so that she could attend the show, but I had to do a part-time job I did a couple times a week at a weekly Polish-American newspaper. I typed and formatted articles for the printer, and this job could not be postponed for a day. I figured, though, that I could finish by noon.

I was working in the newspaper office with the editor, and we were listening to a radio. The newspaper is a family business, and the adjacent room is a living room with a television. The editor and I heard on the radio that an airplane had hit the World Trade Center.

I assumed it was some small private airplane that held only a couple occupants. However, a man being interviewed on the radio said it was a big airliner. I told the editor that this goes to show how "eyewitnesses" can often be very wrong.

The editor's mother turned on the TV in the other room and then came in occasionaly to tell us what the TV was showing. The editor and I never went to watch the TV; we only kept listening to the radio. Soon the other airline hit the other tower and then that another airline had hit the Pentagon, and then we all realized this was a terrorist attack.

The editor's parents, who both are quite anti-Semitic, now came into the room and yakked a lot about how, finally, this event would turn the US public against Israel, because our support of Israel brought this attack on us, blah, blah, blah. I argued with them, as I always did.

A while later the mother came in and said that one of the towers had fallen down. Then a while later she said the other tower had fallen down.

Still hurrying because I wanted to rush home and go with my wife to see my daughter's fashion show, I still did not take any time to go look at the television, continuing only to listen to the radio. I imagined that the towers had toppled over sidewise.

As soon as I finished work, I rushed home. I was surprised to see that my daughter was still home, watching TV with my wife. My daughter said that all the fashion shows had been canceled and that all travel into Manhattan had been stopped. The biggest day in my daughter's life had been ruined.

Now I watched the events on TV for the first time. I was so surprised to see how the two towers had collapsed straight down, not over sidewise as I had imagined.

The 9/11 attack was a terrible blow to the fashion industry, since it happened in the middle of Fashion Week. A huge amount of the industry's investment, planning and effort went right down the drain.

A couple months later the dress designer who featured my daughter presented her own show individually. A lot of designers did this, because they still wanted to show their work, even though the show was now not a part of a huge festival. The designer still gave tickets to my wife and me, and we went and saw my daughter star in the show, and we had a great time. We still regretted, though, that we had not been able to attend the show during Fashion Week.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 09/11/2005 9:19 Comments || Top||

#34  I was working, nice day, with the radio on; heard about a small crash in the WTC around 3 PM IIRC; story was kept on air and we all slowly realized something big was happening. When the towers collapsed, with the 10s of thousands feared dead, general reaction was that WWII had just started, and everybody was convinced muslim terrorists were to blame.

When I went home, I plugged to tv, and was mesmerized by the news, couldn't believe it, there was a sinking feeling I clearly remember (as a matter of fact, I remember pretty much everything, up to small details like the title of the Simpsons episode I was originally going to watch this evening).
After that day, I gradually became disgusted by the french MSM reaction to that horror, like the Guignols (an influential puppet show on a leftist channel, don't laugh) who couldn't help but indulge themselves in vulgar anti-americanism just right after the attacks, what a shame. Now internet, with foreign media and special interest websites (jewish, anti-islam, and non-idiotarian), is my main source of info, I've really divorced from the french media. My worldview has completly changed.

My regards and sincere salute to the american people, and especially to thoses who serve, either at home, firefighters, EMT or cops, and abroad.
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 09/11/2005 9:20 Comments || Top||

#35  I was at JPME in Norfolk. We were running a planning session and the news came on with the first plane. As I watched I wondered how an accident like this could happen, the second plane came into view and someone in the class said "Oh god we're under attack!" I went home to wait for the call to leave school and get back to the unit. I was told to hold for a few days and while sitting on the beach that afternoon watching the subs and ships leaving Norfolk, I lived on Willoughby spit, I knew that right now the firemen and police were doing their very best and shortly we would be doing ours.
Posted by: 49 pan || 09/11/2005 9:31 Comments || Top||

#36  I was on a commercial airliner, taxiing away from the gate in Philadelphia. A guy near me took a cell phone call and all-of-a-sudden bolted up and announced that the WTC had been hit by a commercial airliner. We were stunned for a few seconds. I had a strong urge to get off the plane, but I was afraid to act on it since we had just started backing away. I was still undecided on what to do when the plane stopped and the pilot announced that for some unknown reason all taxiing planes had been ordered back to their gates. I was leaving baggage claim to go home when I learned that multiple planes were involved and both towers had fallen. I couldn't even walk for a few minutes.
Posted by: Darrell || 09/11/2005 10:01 Comments || Top||

#37  I got up at the usual time and for some reason, decided to actually look at the news on the computer. I saw a picture of the burning building and the headline (no story) about a plane crash. I thought "How in the world did that happen?" and figured it was a commuter plane or something. I then took Coco and Cami for their morning walk. A neighbor asked if I'd heard about the attack. "Attack? What attack?"
"The World Trade Center."
"That was just a crash."
"No. A second plane hit the other tower. A big 747[sic]."
"Really? Why would they...?"
I stopped the walk and headed back home and did a quick refresh. I saw the two burning buildings and got angry. Then a new headline showed up mentioning the Pentagon. I thought "That's it. We are going to bomb the hell out of Iran."
Normally, I would never listen to the news when driving in to work. It was always so stupid and trivial. Shark attacks, idiots still talking about the election 9 months later ... who cares? This time was different.
I got in to work and there was a huge line at the gate. The guards were checking everyones badge very carefully and checking the back seat and having you open the trunk. Normally, they did that for 1 car in 20. That morning, it was every car.
I was the first one in our area, so started to work. Bill came in a little later. I looked at him. "You heard?"
"Yeah. I think I'm going to the factory for a while. I want to touch the units before they go to the shipping dock." (We make missiles.)
Others came in later, saying that both of the buildings had collapsed and people had jumped off to their deaths. I asked "couldn't they have used helicopters or something to take them off?" not realizing the extent of the smoke and fire.

We got some eMails on the classified side that gave us some updates on who did it. I was surprised how quickly they figured out the group and where the terrorists came from.

Later, the VP for the plant site came on and told about the Raytheon people killed. The Boston-LA flight had several people, including one of her close friends. Her voice broke as she spoke.

I had to run an errand and drove past Davis-Monthan AFB. The through lanes on Golf links were a little crowded because a lane was closed. The turn lanes into the base were backed up a mile. As I waited at the light, I saw a Humvee come up to the gate, several men get out, and pull out a machine gun. I saw F-16s flying overhead.

I can remember thinking "Well, this is terrible, but at least we're going to be united now. This isn't Bosnia or Haiti. We were attacked and are at war."

I was wrong. There are many who want to drag down our leadership no matter the cost. There are others who are actual traitors. They want us to lose.
Posted by: Jackal || 09/11/2005 10:09 Comments || Top||

#38  Yes. And it's time we called them on it openly.
Posted by: Omerens Omaigum2983 || 09/11/2005 10:21 Comments || Top||

#39  It was about 6:15am(Az time)I'd just gotten out of bed,was working on my first cup of coffee,and awakened my son for school.Then walked into the living room and turned on CNN(couldn't get Fox at the time)saw the first tower burnning and hearing that an air liner had crashed into the tower.The phone rings and it's my ex,she asked"Do you have the news on".My answer"Yes",thats when the 2nd jet slammed into the 2nd tower,my next words"This ain't no accident".The veiw of plane 2 hitting the Tower is seared into my memory forever.

Never Forget
Never Forgive
Posted by: raptor || 09/11/2005 10:26 Comments || Top||

#40  I was working at a client site, in London. Got an email with a picture of the burning tower after the first crash, from a colleague working across the river in NJ.

I couldn't understand how a plane could fly straight into a tower like that. It just doesn't happen. What could have gone wrong? (my specialty was risk mgmt)

I emailed my brother. Look at that horrible accident. Watched the news online. A colleague was IM'ing with a friend of hers in the second tower. BUT THEN we saw the second plane crash. All I could think was THIS IS WAR. This. Is. War. Another World War. And I wished I were younger so I could serve again. We switched a TV set on. Watching the towers fall broke my heart. It still does. We all went out to a pub, watched tv, smoked, swore eternal vigilance, until closing time. I went home feeling that many people were just not aware of the scope of what had happened. Not just the tragedy. The significance. The meaning of this attack on the symbol of freedom, prosperity, the pursuit of happiness. How much toil and blood was ahead of us.

A bit later I discovered Rantburg and LGF, and found that I was not alone and that the Internet would be crucial in keeping us focused on our enemies, both foreign and domestic.

Last year, my wife and I moved to the US. 9/11 changed everything. There is one land of the free and home of the brave, and I don't want to live anywhere else. This is the land I love, and this is the land I will defend in every way I can.
Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) || 09/11/2005 10:47 Comments || Top||

#41  I had just gotten to work, at the Mercantile Building, in San Antonio--- first in at 8:30, opening up the office, clearing the phone messages... I had been listening to the classical music station during the commute, and my radio at the office was tuned to it, too, so I managed to miss all the initial reports. The first I heard of it was when the first appointment of the morning called to cancel; the woman was almost hysterical. She was crying on the phone, telling me that an airplane had struck the WTC, everything was on fire and people were jumping from the windows. I switched over to the the NPR station, just in time to hear the studio announcer insisting that no, it was just the one tower that had collapsed, and the on-scene reporter repeating very calmly, that the other tower had fallen too, that both of them were down.
A horrible, endless day, it seemed to go on for a week. I went to the Whole Foods grocery store on my lunch break; there were radios tuned to news stations at the checkout stands, and everyone there was walking around like zombies, straining their ears to hear the news.
On my way home, I spotted a pickup truck at 410 and Broadway, zipping around a corner with a flagpole mounted at the back of the cab, and a huge American flag flying in the breeze. It was the first one I spotted (aside from the usual ones at federal buildings and such) and seeing it was oddly comforting.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom || 09/11/2005 11:30 Comments || Top||

#42  I had a late schedule that day and was still at home, puttering around, when my daughter called me from Chicago.
She is an architect and had just arrived at her office in the Sears Tower. It was just her second day on the job there. She told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I stayed on the phone with her and turned on the TV, to catch the loathesome media beast Bryant Gumbel blathering about incompetent pilots.
I saw the second plane hit. My daughter said, "Er, daddy, this is not an accident."
I said, no, it isn't, and told her that I thought she should get out of the building as quickly as she could.
About that time, her boss came in and said that they were all leaving. She called back on her cell-phone from the street. She was watching on a portable tv someone had set up. She said, "Dad, those buildings are going to come down."
I thought she meant they were too badly damaged to repair and would have to be demolished.
She said, "No, they are going to collapse and it won't take long." She explained about the monocoque construction, with all the strength in the walls.
I was shocked. I would take her word for anything, especially in her professional field, but it just didn't seem possible.
I told her to get out of the Loop and back to her home in Waukegan as soon as she safely could.
She was on the phone with her husband when the first tower collapsed so I didn't get to talk to her right away.
She had been at the WTC just a few weeks earlier and had almost taken a job there.
I felt a strange chill, the fluttering wings of some unspeakable and unseen horror. I knew that for thousands of parents, the chill had not passed but would forever be embedded in their hearts, the leaden weight of loss and despair.

I swore justice for this obscene atrocity and we will have it if it takes 5 years, or 50, or 100. The wheat is being separated from the chaff now, with the decadent and the weak-willed, the callous, the foolish, and the slavish adherents of the media culture falling away or, in many cases, actively opposing this struggle for survival. They condemn themselves and their progeny to extinction, and that will be the final outcome.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 09/11/2005 11:55 Comments || Top||

#43  I've moved this out of raptor's comment above to a comment of my own, to make clear it's my personal opinion and not necessarily those of the Management.

Mike S. serves a useful function here. He reminds us what idiocy we're up against in the long fight to defend western civilization from barbarism.

He also reminds us of the need to defend it against inanity and shallow self-absorbtion as well.


As the parent of a young woman asked to model when she was younger, I'm sure Mike is proud of his daughter as well.

But I agree with those who find his focus on THAT as the main content of 9/11 to be .... inappropriate. unfortunate. and a bunch of other words that come to mind ....
Posted by: lotp || 09/11/2005 11:56 Comments || Top||

#44  I'm not pissed at Monkey
Spits pride in his child,a parent should be proud.His priorites and lack of a sense of right and wrong,and Patriatisam I call into ???
Posted by: raptor || 09/11/2005 12:26 Comments || Top||

#45  I was attending an Opto-Electronics trade show in Kwangju, South Korea. The entire show basically shut down - everyone gathered in front of two huge LDC screens, and just watched the events in New York in stunned silence - played over and over again. There were not many westerners at the show - I'm not sure how I was identified as an American, but countless Koreans came up to me and told me how sorry they were for my country/people. I didn't know what to say. Then - on my way out of Korea the following day, via first a domestic and then an international flight, I noted that Korea has basically shifted to war footing - a transition at which they are pretty good at executing - there were entire companies of troops deployed INSIDE each airport terminal.

In the aftermath of 9-11, I hvae two overiding memories. One was an interview I saw on cable - I think it was the BBC - interviewing the US Air Force Colonel who was the airspace control officer for the northeastern USA that fateful morning. The lead-in showed a brief clip of some Washington press conference, in which the MSM parasites were grilling the Secretary of Defense, extracting from him the admission that the White House had approved having the air force shoot down civilian airliners that appeared to be undr the control of hijackers. OK, that was simply a practical decision. Then they shifted back to the interview with the airpsace controller. What emerged was the fact that on the morning of 9-11-01, there were no US Air Force aircraft in the Northeastern USA that were armed with munitions to shoot down an airplane. It was a peacetime morning - and it was not policy to have armed aircraft around to shoot down invaders. But - that airspace controller was given the order to identify all large civilian aircraft presently airborne, and then vector the most readily available military aircraft to intercept those flights, shadow them, and - on order - take them down. I had not been paying too close attention, but I was now rivetted to hear that bthis Colonel had done as ordered - and basically contacted military aircraft that were in flight - fighters, tankers, trainers, active duty, Reserve, National Guard - WHATEVER - and given them what must have been almost unbelievable orders - considering that they were just making routine flights - telling them to assume a specific heading, and move at maximum speed to intercept a civilian airliner - and to then take up a position above the "target" - and - on order - to basically commit suicide by crashing their aircraft into the civilan airliner - to take it to the ground. I was stunned - this had never come up in the analysis I had seen previously. The BBC piece addressed how the aircraft commanders had responded - and the basic story was that they had - reluctantly - done as ordered. Amazing.

The other memory that has stuck with me is one from 2003 that is still available on-line - at http://members.accessus.net/~tmcdonld/lighthse/Texas.htm - and every time I look at this, I cannot help but spill tears. This is as it should be, in time of war. But - I fear that this happens to little these days.

We are now engaged in World War III - which started at either the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, or in 1979 at the US Embassy in Tehran - and which will last into the 22nd Century. It is a battle of annihilation, between radical Islam, and all other human beings (including non-radical Muslims). 'May the best culture win. Amen.
Posted by: Lone Ranger || 09/11/2005 12:35 Comments || Top||

#46  Pompeii Italy.
And a Little Italian boy listen to a radio and they saying "boom America..boom"...
We were living in Switzerland at the time and on vacation in Naples.
After getting back to Naples from the day in Pompeii we spent the rest of the day sprinting around town looking for a TV to watch what was happening.

3 days later when we returned to Switzerland we were greeted with crap like this "You know you the USA kind of deserved this....." Not just from the Swiss, but Germans, Belgians French pretty much everybody on the continent of death except for the Italians and the English.

I am pretty bitter about Western Europe and our so called allies..
Posted by: Long Hair Republican || 09/11/2005 12:43 Comments || Top||

#47  This photo montage says it all!
Posted by: 3dc || 09/11/2005 12:50 Comments || Top||

#48  Mike's just another failed careerist. His superiors didn't understand his nuance.
Posted by: CNN || 09/11/2005 13:03 Comments || Top||

#49  I'd just returned home from taking my daughter to school, and come downstairs to get on the Internet - a normal morning practice. I heard about the first jet, turned on the television, and woke my wife. We watched mezmerized until the second jet hit and the reports of an aircraft crashing into the Pentagon. About that time my daughter called from school, saying she wanted to come home. The entire school had shut down.

We live in Colorado Springs, and about a quarter of the town is either active, reserve, or retired military. The entire town was almost eerily quiet that afternoon. Later that evening I emailed the Pentagon, volunteering to return to active duty immediately. My disability rating stopped me. I still want to do something to make those responsible for 9/11 pay, including those that were actively involved, and equally to those who were passively involved: that agreed we "deserved it", that aided and supported those behind this atrocity, and even those that just plain refuse to accept that we're at war.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/11/2005 13:34 Comments || Top||

#50  I remember perfectly the sparkly perfect weather that morning. I was having my home painted; I was on line when I read that a plane had hit a building in NY. (on Drudge, I think.) I went downstairs and turned on the TV news for updates and learned it had not been a private aircraft (as I had thought/hoped) just as the second plane hit. I remember going outside, half in shock, into the perfectly beautiful sparkly perfect weather and telling the workers "we're at war." I had them knock off, and we all came inside to watch the live video. After news of the pentagon hit I sent them all home to be with their families. I was in an evil, foul mood that afternoon and was, god help me, fully ready (for the first time in my life, including over 20 years in the US Military) to actually use nuclear weapons. A bunch.
Posted by: Dave || 09/11/2005 14:01 Comments || Top||

#51  Same here, but I am too old and fat to fight. The only thing I can do is to keep searching for ways I can help. That is all I can do.
Posted by: badanov || 09/11/2005 14:05 Comments || Top||

#52  In Switzerland: "You know you the USA kind of deserved this....." LHR

In France...”the Guignols...indulge themselves in vulgar anti-americanism just right after the attacks”...Anonymous 5089

In country after country, lust for American blood was spoken aloud. One might even argue that that is a major reason the war on terror is only gruelingly inching forward today. People are torn between which of 2 outcomes is more attractive-stopping terrorist acts or seeing America sullied or ruined.

Lone Ranger, I agree with you-this is WWIII. Does the rest of the world know it?

On 9/11/01, I was two months into a new job in NYC. I was in a taxi on the way to LaGuardia airport when the plane hit. The radio announcer said something like “it looks like a giant run going down the side of the tower”. I wondered aloud what the person on the radio was saying-it sounded like a grotesque comedy scene. The taxi driver put me straight.
Posted by: jules 2 || 09/11/2005 14:18 Comments || Top||

#53  The day was as beautiful in Germany as it was in New York. I was working in the garden and came in for a coffee break. By sheer coincidence I turned on CNN and the first picture I saw was a tower of the WTC in smoke. It was 2.46pm local time. I had about 20 minutes left to believe that this was an accident. When the second plane hit I looked at my wife and she just nodded. We knew what it meant.

15 minutes after news about the Pentagon had broken I got a call from an old friend working in NATO headquarters. “You are watching?” “Yes.” “What’s your take?” “War, what else. And a war unlike any other.” I can’t talk about the rest of the conversation but I know those guys got ready for more.

When the towers had crumbled we went into the garden to fly the Star Spangled Banner. It used to be flown on two days a year at least before. Now it’s three days.

Night broke, we just took it down.
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/11/2005 14:27 Comments || Top||

#54  I've removed Raptor's two comments. I understand he's angry, and I agree with lotp. This is a memorial open thread, however, and I'm not going to have the usual infighting in it. Put it in another thread and I'll let it go. AoS.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/11/2005 15:00 Comments || Top||

#55  Then you're confused -- it's not an open thread.

I object to deleting an honest and obviously truthful post. Anger is not "wrong", nor is indignation generated by an asinine mocking "it's all about meeee!" asstard post. Raptor was spot-on.

Pfeh.

Gonna delete this, too?
Posted by: .com || 09/11/2005 15:16 Comments || Top||

#56  Thank you, TGA.

This is indeed a war unlike any other. It will last a long time and will be fought in ways that are not very satisfying, for it does not primarily involve armies battling it out openly.

We all must choose where we stand in this frustrating, long and critically important fight. I choose to stand for the value and worth of my culture, my country and my civilization and to fight for them as I am able.
Posted by: rkb || 09/11/2005 15:37 Comments || Top||

#57  I was at an Aging Aircraft Symposium in Orlando. The NAVAIR exhibit had a large screen TV which they tuned to CNN. When the second plane hit, there was no doubt that we were at war with someone. The Navy guys immediately went to the Hilton management and told them that they were securing the building. The doors were secured by uniformed military officers until the situation could be sorted out. There was a sense of sadness mixed with terrible anger. If clear targets could have been identified, the consensus was to nuke the bastards, to eradicate them and everyone associated with them from the earth. Mixed with that was thankfullness that George Bush was the Commander in Chief rather than Al Gore.
Posted by: RWV || 09/11/2005 15:39 Comments || Top||

#58  I was working from home that morning exchanging emails to finalize itineraries and class syllabi with a colleague in England. In 2 days I was to fly to several Euro counties and India for customer meetings and classes. I turned on MSNBC before the market opening. In a few minutes, news came of a plane hitting a WTC tower. My English colleague had neither radio nor TV in the office so I was sending him play-by-play details. Then the second 2nd 767 came into view and slammed into the other tower a few seconds later. All on live TV. At that moment I told my colleague the US was at war.

I watched on live TV the towers burn and then to my horror collapse, all the while describing to my English colleague what was going on. I wrote about the Pentagon attack, the Pennsylvania Flight 93 crash, and reports of missing airplanes (including a 747 full of people that thankfully turned out to be false). When the towers collapse, I expected 10-20,000 dead because of where the planes hit and I did not think 50,000 could evacuate in that time. Thankfully, later it came out that the towers were not full that early in the morning and if there was any good news, it was the number of dead came down from 10,000 to 6,000 to the final 3,000.

Watching and describing what was happening gave me a burning hatred of the people who did this and the societies that produce and feat them. That evening I saw the celebrations in the muslim world, the ululating women, the men passing out candy. Far as I am concerned, they are dead to me.

All flights were cancelled, which was just as well. After reading the filth coming out of Europe only a few days after Sept. 11, I am sure I would have been arrested if anyone even hinted at some of that crap. I used to travel to Europe several times a year, but haven't been back since. I also have not spent a dime on anything made on the Western European continent. It became apparent the alliance was a one way street, dependent on the US spending blood and treasure for the comfort of the continent. From my view, the alliance is dead.

The next day at work, my colleagues and I discussed what should happen. I recommended invading Saudi Arabia. Even though the identities of the terrorists were not known, it was apparent from previous attacks muslim, and specifically Saudi, ideology was the driver. By taking and clearing the Arabian Peninsula, it will hurt and embarrass the muslims as never before, turn our greatest strategic vulnerability (oil) into a strength, provide an extremely defensible peninsular base to act as a meat grinder to any muslims who wanted to fight, and provide a base to strike out at the rest of the muslims. My colleagues were not at that place, nor did it seem, the public or political elite. Even now, I see no sign that our leaders are turning away from the Kumbaya School of Warfare. It won’t this generation, esp. our leaders, that have the will to win.

Though democratization is going better than I expected, primarily through the hard work of our troops, I don’t believe it will survive the subversion, assassinations and takeover when out troops leave. Instead Afghanistan and Iraq will fall to dictatorship or theocracy, in accordance with islam’s winner take all philosophy.

Never forgive. Never forget. Victory.
Posted by: ed || 09/11/2005 16:32 Comments || Top||

#59  I was working early 6AM (PST) in San Diego, went doen to the deliin the basement level of our 25 story bldg. The owners are Indian Tamils. Watched the first crash and we four people watching were discussing what stupidity it took to crash a jet into a skyscraper...when the 2nd hit, we knew.... Everyone else showed up at work at 8AM PST....they finally closed all San Diego high rises and sent everyone home at 10AM. Watched non-stop TV and blogs...
Posted by: Frank G || 09/11/2005 16:47 Comments || Top||

#60  Steve,my answer is no.Do what you want,I meant said what.If you want to delete my words and feelings while at the same time letting Monkey Spit get away with his crap,then there is something sadly wrong.
Posted by: raptor || 09/11/2005 16:55 Comments || Top||

#61  excuse my typos....

I didn't see Raptors comments other than what was saved above. His anger, I understand, his derision, I share..... unfreakingbelieveable
Posted by: Frank G || 09/11/2005 16:55 Comments || Top||

#62  I park and ride the bus into Madison, and enjoy being out of communication with the rest of the world for a while. That day I'd not a clue what was happening until I walked in the hall and M (a nice guy and a total moonbat(*)) said "Jim must have done it!" "?" "Somebody crashed a plane into the World Trade Center." There were no TV's handy, so I turned on the radio in time to hear of the second crash. The NYT and BBC sites were frustratingly slow, but I finally saw what was happening.
I thought "Oh my God, its war," and thought about my youngest son and where he'd be in a few years, and how long the time of relative peace had been. The quiet couldn't last--peace never does; too many people don't want it. But knowing that peace has to end sometime doesn't make it easier to think of sending a child off to war.
I've thought a lot about the attack since, but this was what I thought of first.

(*)Moonbat and nice guy are not incompatible: If he were in charge of the city I'd move the next day; but he's always there to offer help and share from his farm.
Posted by: James || 09/11/2005 16:58 Comments || Top||

#63  #33: 9/11 summed up as "a terrible blow to the fashion industry".
Tell us, Steve White, why you didn't edit that. I feared for New York and Washington. I feared for my neighbor who commutes to New York. I feared for what my country was going to have to do to retaliate. I feared for my children's futures. I feared for my teenage boys who might be compelled to serve in some anti-American Middle Eastern snake pit. Never in the last four years have I been concerned about the 9/11 blow to the fashion industry. Censoring Raptor was inappropriate.
Posted by: Darrell || 09/11/2005 17:10 Comments || Top||

#64  To those who question my deletion of two comments: I left Mike S.'s comment in because 1) it's a remembrance and 2) it's very useful, especially to us regulars. Mike: we had you pegged before, we especially have you pegged now.

Raptor: nothing personal; this was a remembrance thread and not a place for the usual 'let's go after Mikey' comments. Put the same comments in another thread and I'll let it go. If I'm wrong in that I'll take my lumps. I've already been delivered a few in private.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/11/2005 17:57 Comments || Top||

#65  He's not worth going after, SW. His use on this planet is obvious, as are the worth I will give his posts/comments, and I've got a daughter who models too. She also dodged shots at Santana High School on her 16th birthday. She is as disgusted at MS's focus as I am
Posted by: Frank G || 09/11/2005 18:30 Comments || Top||

#66  Everyone has different ways of dealing with events like this even if we don't appreciate it.

Diary of Franz Kafka, entry for August 2nd 1914:

"Germany declared war against Russia - Afternoon swimming school."
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/11/2005 18:47 Comments || Top||

#67  One thing that sticks in my mind is driving from Orlando to Robins AFB a few days later and listening to the memorial services at the National Cathedral on the radio. That was the first time since the Civil War centennial in the 60's that I had heard all 5 verses of the Battle Hymn of the Republic sung in public. It summed up the mood of the nation and how we were going to respond to the attack:

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,
He has loosed the fateful lightening of His terrible swift sword

His truth is marching on....

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps
His day is marching on....

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnish`d rows of steel,
"As ye deal with my contemners, So with you my grace shall deal;"
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel
Since God is marching on....


He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on....


In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.


The word Crusade is politically incorrect, but that day the cross was raised and war declared against the evil that had attacked us.
Posted by: RWV || 09/11/2005 18:56 Comments || Top||

#68  STAY THE COURSE!
Posted by: bgrebel9 || 09/11/2005 19:01 Comments || Top||

#69 
I certainly didn't intend to offend anyone with my remembrances of September 11. I didn't read what Raptor wrote, so I don't know exactly what his objection was.

Manhattan is the center of the world's fashion industry, and the 9/11 attack occurred during the middle of Fashion Week, which is that industry's biggest convention of the year. Because of my daughter's particular participation, my wife and I were paying a lot of attention to that event, watching the local cable channel that covered it and looking forward to watching our daughter star in a fashion show (she was the lead model). We all were going to be together in central Manhattan that very afternoon at this fashion show, but it all was canceled because of the attacks.

Steve White, since you invited us all to tell about our personal experiences of that day, please explain to me here what your problem is with what I wrote.
.



Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 09/11/2005 19:11 Comments || Top||

#70 
Just for the record, I also had all the same thoughts as every one else about all the destruction and death and that now we were at war. I intended in my remembrance here to write how the events of that day immediately and directly affected my family in particular and the business where my daughter worked.

I'm sorry if that upset people here.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 09/11/2005 19:21 Comments || Top||

#71  Mike, do you really need a detailed explanation to help you understand that 9/11 was more than a "terrible blow to the fashion industry"? Let me help you: When I was standing stumnned at the airport, I was thinking about all the people in those buildings and planes and all the people below. You would seem by your own description to be have been totally self-absorbed and oblivious to the carnage, even months later. Even now.
Posted by: Darrell || 09/11/2005 19:29 Comments || Top||

#72  Mike, your comments were and are pathetic. NY is also the capital of the finance industry here. Lots of us thought of that at the time. I certainly did - my half-sister's husband is a securities lawyer and worked closely with some of the firms in the towers. I didn't learn of his safety until late that night. And we talked about the economic impact of the attacks, a little.

But somehow the fact that hundreds of people he knew well were dead among the ashes in lower Manhattan took precedence. For us, at least.

Fashion??? good lord, FASHION is what is foremost in your mind about 9/11, a day when we were attacked treacherously and thousands of people died ???

The fact that you even considered writing about the fashion industry - and only that, with quite an emphasis on how relieved you were to make it next to the runway FINALLY, after the inconvenient events of 9/11 interrupted your family's celebration, is .....

pathetic. Just pathetic.
Posted by: lotp || 09/11/2005 19:33 Comments || Top||

#73  thanks RWV.
Posted by: Red Dog || 09/11/2005 19:50 Comments || Top||

#74  Mike, 9/11 was the "worst day of your daughter's life" because her modeling gig was interrupted.

It was the worst day of their lives for thousands of other people because they died or lost loved ones that day.

Compare. Contrast.
Posted by: Omerens Omaigum2983 || 09/11/2005 19:54 Comments || Top||

#75  I back .com and Raptor on this one, Steve. I do want it to be a rememberance of 9/11, and to show the shallowness of those moonbats who still don't get it (and edit other's comments who reply to said moonbat) should be a part of this rememberance. That said, here's my personal story:

8:58 or so: co-worker came over to tell me a plane had hit the WTC in NYC. His wife had called to tell him that. I didn't think too much of it, assumed it was a small plane. I work for EPA in Atlanta Fed. Center.

9:15 or so: Co-workers talk of 2nd plane hitting other tower. We have no TV to watch so I try to get info from CNN's website. Our building is just 2 blocks from CNN's HQ, and i couldn't get anything up from their website.

10:00 or so: After hearing the Pentagon was hit, I said, that's it, I'm heading home.

On the drive home, it was eerie. Not much traffic, but to see the overhead traffic signs, that always tell you how long it takes to get to I-285 on I-85 and I-75 were now reading:

"National Emergency: Airports shut down. No flights in or out of Atlanta"

Get home, watch CNN, then find Fox News. Haven't looked back since. Fox News, Rantburg and many other websites (townhall, newsmax, Neal Boortz, etc.) are my only news sources (Rantburg being #1). Being young (28 at the time), I immediately thought, this is my WWII, and I pray my generation steps up to the plate to defend what we've been given by the previous "Greatest Generation."

Oh, and P.S.: I completely learned about moonbattery and bureaucracy the very next day (9/12/2001). Since there are many other Federal agencies in our building, there had to be a decision made that day about whether or not to send people home. That decision wasn't made until 3:30 pm or so that day (9/11). Ever since I've told people What idiots...I was home, watching live coverage before lunch. No waiting for some bureaucratic committee to make a decision for me. I've seen the difference between the individual and the groupthink/bureaucracy of the Fed. Gov't ever since. Thank GOD our military is run differently, for the most part, under this administration. Let the dogs loose and let them do their job!
Posted by: BA || 09/11/2005 20:12 Comments || Top||

#76  Wenn ihr's nicht fühlt, ihr werdet's nicht erjagen
(If you don't feel it you won't catch it)

(Goethe)
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/11/2005 20:20 Comments || Top||

#77  ...I had just gotten home from work, and that particular morning I went online first instead of turning on the TV. The first thing I saw was an ICQ message that said "Planes are crashing all over the country." That's when I turned on CNN, just in time to see the second strike. I watched it for a few minutes, then went to the back window, which looked out at the flightline at Shaw AFB. Seventy F-16s, all just sitting there, and all I could think of was, "Where the hell is the Air Force?" They were there that night, taking off directly over the house in full burner and loaded for bear...and I remember thinking that this is what the Brits must have felt like when they watched the Spitfires and Hurricanes roar overhead to take on the Luftwaffe.

We are winning, fear not. If we fear anything, it must be the Fifth Column that would gladly sell us out for personal political gain. Sadly, I believe that before we finish the job of dealing with a homicidal Religion of Peace, we may have to fight off out own citizens.

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 09/11/2005 20:34 Comments || Top||

#78 
I'm sorry that here on Rantburg I bothered to share my own personal experiences, which were insignificant when compared to other people's much more significant experiences on that day.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 09/11/2005 20:35 Comments || Top||

#79  Today is not the day to lay into each other. Remember and grieve for the dead.

Never forgive. Never forget. Total Victory.
Posted by: ed || 09/11/2005 20:38 Comments || Top||

#80  I spent the evening of Sept 10th in the Borders bookstore in the base of the WTC north tower. We had lived three blocks north of the towers for seven years and I was in town visiting the old neighborhood. As our apartment building was directly in the shadow of the north tower, it's sheer unbelievable bigness was part of my everyday existence. Always thought "for sure they will get hit someday," and then wonder if they would fall on my building. Not a crazy thought as there was (and still is) an enormous amount of low flying jet traffic over Manhattan. Sometimes it felt and sounded like the planes would land on the roof of my building. Also after the 1993 bombings lower Manhattan felt like a big target. My husband and I joked often that we lived at Ground Zero, thinking lower Manhattan would eventually be the recipient of a nuke. Prophetic with a twist.

Morning of Sept 11, I hit the internet and the news sites are jammed. Finally see headline "terror plane hits tower" and I run to the TV. Turn on Fox, see the first tower burning, the second one hit and both fall live. Sitting on the floor of my bedroom, speechless, actually unable to believe what my eyes are seeing on TV. Burning red hot anger and the only thought screaming in my mind was that those fighter jets better be in the sky loaded and ready to completely annihilate whoever did this.
Posted by: Crish Ebbiting9113 || 09/11/2005 20:50 Comments || Top||

#81 

These were honoured in their generations, and were the glory of the times.
Posted by: Fred || 09/11/2005 21:31 Comments || Top||

#82  Mr. Wife had gone to Europe for 10 days of business meetings that Sunday. Got the trailing daughters off to their schoolbuses, and was desultorily starting the day's housework when the announcer on our local National Public Radio station said, "Oh my God, the Twin Tower's been hit. If you are listening to this, go turn on your TV NOW." So I went upstairs and turned on the television in the bedroom, where CNN was showing repeats of the first Tower being hit. I started stripping the bed (saving only Mr.Wife's pillowcase, as I always do when he travels -- he's too often walked away just before someone blew something up, and I'm afraid I don't completely trust him to come home from one of his trips), in order to be efficient, when the second Tower was hit. Then the Pentagon, then Flight 93 was crashed. I called Mr. Wife's mother to let her know we were ok (she's a worrier, and besieges Heaven with her prayers -- I figured God had other things on His mind that day), the Mr.Wife to let him know what was happening, and that he might not be able to come home as planned. Then my mother, and his mother again to say that he was safe. Then I stood in front of the television, waiting for a declaration of war -- against whom, I didn't know, but there was no question in my mind that this was WWIV.

It's amazing the little things that stick in the mind at moments like that -- I clung to that stupid, dirty pillowcase like it would protect me from the evils of the world until Mr. Wife made his way back from the other side of the world, on his original ticket, no less. I'm not surprised Mike Sylwester focussed on his daughter's debut -- for some of us it is the mundanities of normal life that enable us to get through the unimaginable.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/11/2005 21:40 Comments || Top||

#83 
Re # 74 (Omerens Omaigum2983) 9/11 was the "worst day of your daughter's life" because her modeling gig was interrupted. It was the worst day of their lives for thousands of other people because they died or lost loved ones that day. Compare. Contrast.

I wrote: "The biggest day in my daughter's life had been ruined."

She was 19 years old, it was the biggest day in her life, which we her parents intended to share with her, and it was ruined.

Of course, it was a relatively insignificant disappointment for our ordinary family on a day when thousands of people were murdered. I mentioned it because I thought this thread was for the purpose of sharing personal experiences about that day.

The Rantburg Rabble views itself as morally superior, damning me as pathetic. Since I mentioned this little aspect in this thread, it proves to the Rantburg Rabble that I consider my daughter's trivial disappointment to be more important than the thousands of deaths and the imminent war.

It proves to me again that Rantburg is a place where the discussion is dominated by relentless ad hominem attacks on anyone who disagrees on just a couple issues (in my case, about the treatment of captives and about the UN). Those dissidents are hounded personally until they leave. The monitors watch this process, and they participate in it.

If the dissidents ever bite back, then they are banned. That is why Rantburg is an echo chamber, a mosque.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 09/11/2005 21:41 Comments || Top||

#84  Good try.

Didn't work.
Posted by: Omerens Omaigum2983 || 09/11/2005 21:46 Comments || Top||

#85  MS: She was 19 years old, it was the biggest day in her life, which we her parents intended to share with her, and it was ruined.

Of course, it was a relatively insignificant disappointment for our ordinary family on a day when thousands of people were murdered. I mentioned it because I thought this thread was for the purpose of sharing personal experiences about that day.


MS is right. On a practical level, apart from people who died, lost loved ones or signed up for the military, most of us weren't really impacted by 9/11. We were angry, but emoting isn't really a practical impact. Some people were afraid to fly, but that's a phobia. I guess we can all wallow in anger about the occasion, but the practical impact on us personally was limited. MS was simply giving us a sense of how, from a day-to-day standpoint, his life was affected.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/11/2005 21:52 Comments || Top||

#86  Everybody has his own way of seeing things. Let's leave it at that.

M.S., if on the "biggest day of your daughter's life" (she was 19 so there should be more coming for her) your wife/her mother had died and she had been bitching about that this ruined her modeling gig...

what would you have said?
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/11/2005 22:00 Comments || Top||

#87  dissident? Tell TGA that what you did was being dissident (I don't wanna see the remains after)
Posted by: Frank G || 09/11/2005 22:24 Comments || Top||

#88  Frank G, if M.S. thinks he's an American dissident...

There can't be much wrong with the United States.
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/11/2005 22:28 Comments || Top||

#89  weakness of the oppo? Got it - thx. You I admire
Posted by: Frank G || 09/11/2005 22:36 Comments || Top||

#90  Several nights later my mom told me about a 2nd cousin I had never heard of.

Seems he was a retired col. double dipping as a civilan at the Pentagon.

That morning he had a headache, took some pills and was running late to work. The plane hit the pentagon when he was about 1 mile away. It hit right where his desk was.

He was royally upset. Got on a flight to some test place to work on some new weapon to use. DIDN"T TELL HIS WIFE OR FAMILY. They thought he died! One week later when he contacted them he was almost divorced!

Posted by: 3dc || 09/11/2005 22:39 Comments || Top||

#91 
Thanks, Zhang Fei.

Re: #86 (TGA) M.S., if on the "biggest day of your daughter's life" (she was 19 so there should be more coming for her) your wife/her mother had died and she had been bitching about that this ruined her modeling gig... what would you have said?

I did not write that the cancellation of my daughter's show was the biggest thing that happened that day for my daughter or for my wife or for me or for anyone else.

I wrote that the day was supposed to be the biggest day of my daughter's life up to that point, and it was ruined. That's all.

If, however, TGA, my innocent remarks about my day give you an opportunity to wallow in a feeling of fake moral supermy along with the Rabble here (and I thought you were above that), then go ahead. Be a full member of the club here.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 09/11/2005 23:11 Comments || Top||

#92 
... fake moral superiority along ...
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 09/11/2005 23:12 Comments || Top||

#93  I was at the gym working out. The talking heads on CNN were going on about a Cessna hitting the WTC, when the live shot of the second plane came on. I could see from the size/shape of the turbofans that it was a 767 or 757 and I started blabbing to no one in particular "This is a coordinated attack. Ground all civil aviation." My first thought was that they were staged out of North Africa. It never occurred to me that they might be hijacked. I went home and finished showering and dressing in time to see the towers collapse. Then I went to work.

I put myself on the volunteer list for activation and have served one tour essentially shoveling shit in Missouri. I was scheduled for a second tour when it was cancelled due to the politics of the last election (backdoor draft and all that crap... yes the left wing moonbattery has affected some of us personally). To make a difference, I recruit kids for USMA and am an individual mobilization augmentee on a staff I would rather not reveal.
Posted by: 11A5S || 09/11/2005 23:20 Comments || Top||

#94  Mike, I will not judge anyone's moral condition here. Maybe you got the Kafka reference, maybe not.

As you know this is a forum dedicated to the War on Terror, so people might think that 9/11 was a bit more important than ruined model gigs.

I will not judge the way you or your family thought on that day and what it meant to you.

It's just sounds a bit like: "Terrorists attacked Amerca and because of that my wife ruined dinner. The bastards!"

A model gig might be more important but still. If your daughter had had a bad cold on this day her gig would have been ruined as well.

I'm sorry, it just sounded a bit like the "Omygod" Valley Girl to me.

But for the dissident status you will have to try a bit harder than that.
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/11/2005 23:30 Comments || Top||

#95  I had just left for my job in NYC. I live about 30 miles north of the city, and turned on the traffic report only to hear the report of the first plane hitting. They had an old man from Greenwich Village (about 1-1 1/2 miles north of the WTC) on saying he saw a DC-3 (WW II-era plane) fly low over his apartment and crash into the WTC. I immediately called my wife and told her to turn on the news. I also recalled something I had witnessed about a week earlier -- an old, DC-3 looking plane flying low down the Hudson River towards lower Manhattan -- and thought it might be a terrorist attack. A few minutes later, the WCBS-AM traffic helicopter was reporting live from the scene when the reporter -- Tom Kominsky (who later wrote up his observations of that morning) -- reacted to the second plane hitting. I immediately called my wife a second time and asked her what was going on. She hadn't turned the TV on yet as the baby was just getting up, but she rushed to the family room and turned on Fox News. I hung up and continued on my way to NYC. I then called a client/friend who worked at 7 WTC to tell him to get out but got his voicemail. (It turns out that his company ordered an immediate evacuation. He left so fast that he didn't take his wallet or car keys.) As I continued southbound, my wife called to tell me her sister was heading to work in NJ from Queens, NY and could see the smoke. Her sister was trying to decide whether to continue on her way to work. My wife tried to convince me to come home, but I pressed on. At the moment I arrived at the George Washington Bridge it was being closed -- Manhattan was being locked down. I continued south past the GWB along the Hudson River watching the smoke from the WTC. The whole time, I was looking through my open sunroof thinking "where are the G*ddamn fighter planes." When I got pretty close to the Lincoln Tunnel area (Weehawken, NJ), I pulled off the road and stood outside my car with the radio blaring. The were dozens of other cars stopped in the area, and every car and truck that passed featured a driver craning towards the NY skyline and the radio blaring the news. My wife called several more times and asked me to come home, especially when the Pentagon was struck. (She was so nervous, felt so insecure, that she locked the front door of our house after the Pentagon was hit.) I ignored her for a while, and like every other human being that is not gripped by an evil, nihilistic ideology, I was stunned when the first tower fell. I was relieved briefly when I saw the fighters streaking overhead, but was horrified a second time when the North Tower fell. It was then that I finally headed home to hug my wife and my 3-month old son.

I tried to give blood that day, but the donation center was shut down by the big crowds. I succeeded in donating the next day. I returned to work on Thursday, but nobody got any work done. Every conversation was about "where were you?" "What did you see?" "Do you know anyone who is missing?" Friday was like that, too. I listened to the National Cathedral service in my office. My firm had several dozen people scheduled for interviews that week, and all but one cancelled. I did a lunch interview with this one guy and was appalled that he even showed up. The conversation was about the attacks, of course, but I kept on thinking "How could you possibly drive from Cornell to Manhattan for an interview three days after the worst day in America's history?" I don't remember whether this clown got an offer, by I certainly negged him.

That afternoon, the skies above the city were full of fighters and Blackhawks. President Bush was visiting Ground Zero that day, and I went to the lounge to watch on TV. When he said "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked down these buildings will hear all of us soon." I got chills. I thought "this is going to go down as one of the most powerful extemporaneous remarks ever by an American President" (and very impressive coming from W). I also remember joking with someone else watching that Bush was orbiting around Congressman Jerry Nadler.

I rember driving in over the GWB those first few days (actually, the first year) looking down at the skyline and seeing the hole where the WTC should have been. I also remember the smell. My office was miles north of Ground Zero, but the island of Manhattan had a sick, burnt plastic smell for weeks. Finally, I remember the panicked evacuations of Rockefeller Center and other places, the armed troops patrolling the streets and public spaces, cops running to and fro in response to the latest rumor, teh out of states firefighters and rescue workers stayiing at the two Sheraton hotels near where I worked, the fighrt planes in the sky, and the virtual lack of crime. (Actually, I thought the official return to normalcy for NYC occurred the night I was driving home at about 3 a.m. and saw the cops arrest a stark naked man on Tenth Avenue.)

It turns out that I knew 6 guys (all within a year or two of my age) who were killed. One was a NYC firefighter and childhood baseball teammate who had 1-month old twins. Another was the brother of a childhood friend (and a friend in his own right). Two others were high school classmates and soccer teammates. Another was a guy I played soccer against all through high school. The last was a guy I had some classes with in college. Beyond that, I knew of a half dozen other guys, including several firefighters and a NYC cop. Again, they were all guys around my age.

Since that day, I have felt guilty about not being an active participant in the War on Islamofascist Terrorism. I looked into joining the National Guard, but was rejected on account of my age. They have since raised the age to make me eligible, but my wife got wind of it and threatened divorce. I do what I can by keeping up on events on Rantburg, Winds of Change and other sites. I also contribute $ to Soldiers Angels and similar charities that benefit wounded soldiers or the families of dead soldiers. My church and my son's school have shipped items to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, I feel like I have not done enough. Maybe my work situation will change and I can do something to help -- maybe the CIA can use someone not inclined to get bogged down in bureaucratic CYA crapola. We used to live in DC, and my wife liked the area. In the meantime, it's praying for our troops and our political leaders and supporting military charities and milbloggers (Michael Yon is a current favorite).

Peace, and thanks for the opportunity to reflect.
Posted by: Tibor || 09/11/2005 23:41 Comments || Top||

#96 
Well, TGA, I didn't say that ruined modeling gigs were more important than 9/11, did I?

But, join the group. If that's what everyone else said, then join in.

If you don't like the word "dissident" then what's the right word for people who are personally hounded here for disagreeing with the Rabble on a couple of issues. Suggest a better word and I'll use it.
.
Posted by: Mike Sylwester || 09/11/2005 23:47 Comments || Top||

#97  Cunt would be good.
Posted by: .com || 09/11/2005 23:52 Comments || Top||

#98  LOL
Posted by: 11A5S || 09/11/2005 23:55 Comments || Top||

#99  Crybaby maybe?
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/11/2005 23:55 Comments || Top||

#100  Extreme lack of judgement and common sense is how I would write it up on a review.
Posted by: 11A5S || 09/11/2005 23:57 Comments || Top||

#101  Btw if you call the company your discussing with "rabble", don't be so surprised.

It's a bit like walking into a truck stop yelling... you know what I mean?

And please check out Wikipedia to learn about "dissidents".
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/11/2005 23:58 Comments || Top||


Iraq-Jordan
Iraqi police defuse huge truck bomb in Karbala
KARBALA, Iraq - Iraqi police in the Shia Muslim holy city of Kerbala said they found and defused a huge truck bomb on Saturday, days before a religious festival. “The truck was packed with high-explosives in 16 gas canisters, two 200-litre barrels full of gasoline and explosives and two large rockets as well as a large artillery shell,” police officer Karim Sultan Al Hasnawi told Reuters.

In total, it carried about a tonne of explosives.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/11/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Afghanistan/South Asia
Maoists abduct over 100 students in west Nepal
KATHMANDU - Maoist rebels have abducted over 100 students from schools in the west Nepal district of Myagdi, a television report said on Saturday.
So much for the ceasefire.
The report comes amid allegations by the Nepalese government that Maoists were not observing a ceasefire they announced a week ago. Privately-run Kantipur television reported that the students had been Thursday afternoon taken from at least three schools located in remote parts of Myagdi district, about 220 kilometres west of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu. The whereabouts of the abducted students were unknown. Maoists have in the past abducted civilians and students to take part in their indoctrination programmes, or to use them as human shields when attacking government installations, army and police posts.
Posted by: Steve White || 09/11/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Maoists, in the 21st century.

Jesus

Posted by: john || 09/11/2005 10:34 Comments || Top||

#2  No surprise, we got Islamists too.
Posted by: CNN || 09/11/2005 13:05 Comments || Top||

#3  Yeah, but at least most of the Arabs still believe in their moon god Allah.
Mao's slowly rotting carcass lies in Beijing while Chinese ignore his ideology.
Posted by: john || 09/11/2005 13:10 Comments || Top||


9-11-05
Another year goes by. Memories dim. Attention spans drift onto new topics. The honored dead become merely the dead.

Among the weak-willed, the enablers, and the fifth columnists there never has been any support for our war. With the passage of four years even those of us who've supported the war run into the problems of fatigue. One of the regulars in the O Club summed it up the other night:
I'm just burnt out anymore: burnt out on the war, and burnt out on politics.

Frankly, I don't believe anymore that we have a snowball's chance in hell of attaining any kind of acceptable outcome in this war so long as the Left is allowed to continue its sedition. They run the Democratic Party, they run the mainstream media, they run Hollywood, and they run our universities. They are relentless. They are shameless. They are doing EXACTLY what they were doing in the Sixties, and they are succeeding again.

They have become an outright menace to the very survival of our country, and the socialist threat they pose to my future, my childrens' future, and my grandchildrens' future, is every bit as dire as the threat from radical Islam.

I'm no longer content merely to have these people out of office: I want these evil bastards GONE.
Now we're in the danger zone. We've been carried for four years by the anger we felt at a cowardly attack on our country, on a pretty September morning when we were at peace with the world. We fed on our rage at the death of innocents, fueled it by recalling men and women jumping from the Towers, chosing one form of death over another. Things were clear at the beginning, the steps we needed to take were obvious to all.

Some of that clarity is gone now. A part of that is because of the large number of options now available to us that weren't there four years ago. A part of it is because the fifth column wants to obscure it. Still another part of it is because the ideologues don't pay attention to the detail of events unfolding. They're big picture people, and they chop off the parts of the picture that don't fit their conception of what it should look like. We tend to lump the two streams together because they often bray the same things; they go to each other's parties, they show up at the same rallies, sometimes they even marry each other.

But there is a difference between the two: the former is evil, bent on our destruction, hating Western civilization for their own twisted reasons. The latter is stupid, venal, corrupt, wrapped in their own immediate political game. They oppose for the sake of opposition, dissent for the sake of dissent, and can no more imagine us losing the war than they can imagine their constituents voting them out of office. Their goal is to be in charge, not to lose. The actual war we're fighting with an inimical culture is only one factor to them, given the same weight and to be exploited in the same ways as health care, social security, "a woman's right to choose," and a host of other issues that will evaporate if we were to lose. They're merely a domestic battle, biting our ankle as we try to fight the real war, the war to preserve both sides.

After we win the war, our side will probably be burnt out. We'll be tired. We'll be bereft of ideas. We can only hope that in the years ahead — we have lots more years to go on the WoT — that the adversarial Democrats start coming up with some workable ideas of their own. To date, it doesn't look so good, but we have to hope.

Will we win?
I'd have to answer "yes." We'll win because the other side has made it a clash of civilizations, and if we don't want to see Zarqawi's black flag flying over the White House we'll have to win. Once the necessity's accepted we'll do what we have to do, and we have the heavy artillery, despite the efforts being made to weaken us. It won't be any easier than it has been, occasionally it will be harder, and it's going to cost a lot of money. When it's all over, we'll have to accept the fact that we may not be the world's remaining superpower. We're not going to be popular, we're not going to be liked, and we may well be reviled in our own history books. Necessity is like that. Those are problems for another day.

Our victory is necessary because our enemy hates the things that make us what we are. Quoth Naveed Qamar, of Pakistan's Markaz ad-Dawa:
Democracy is a wretched tree which was planted by the Jews. This tree has very bitter fruit, its roots make the soil barren and its branches are thorny. It is a tree that has only poisonous effects. The Jews have designed the philosophy of democracy to destabilize other societies particularly Muslim Ummah.
That lays it out pretty baldly. Zarqawi has sounded the same theme, as has Zawahiri, and probably a few dozen lesser lights of terror that don't immediately spring to mind. For instance, as Somali Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys recently put it:
“Democracy is contrary to Islamic teachings... Democracy originated in Greece and it allows the public to control the government.”
Sheikh Aweys' philosophy, echoing Zarqawi and Zawahiri, is to put aside all man-made laws. Democracy, freedom, is un-Islamic. He advocates using the Koran as the supreme constitution of the nation. He attributes Somalia's problems not to anarchy, tribalism, warlords, and too much Olde Tyme Religion, but to Ethiopia.

As I've mentioned in these pages before, "democracy" is being used by both sides as a shorthand for "freedom," and individual freedom is the antithesis of Salafist Islam. It's a religion that advocates killing people who decide they would rather be Lutherans or Unitarians or even Shi'ites. There is no freedom of religion in Salafism. Without freedom of religion there is no freedom of thought. Without freedom of thought there is no freedom of action.

Are we winning?
We are winning the war, despite the weeping and gnashing of teeth from the adversarial Left. I wish that by now bin Laden had been killed, Mullah Omar had been killed, and Zarqawi had been strung up by his own intestines, but those things haven't happened yet. On the other hand, the Taliban have been tossed out, never, despite their fantasies and those of certain segments of the press, to rule again. Abu Zubaydah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad have been captured, as have numerous lesser lights. Even more are now cavorting with Himmler and Heydrich, some ushered on their way spectacularly, some with less fanfare, and some anonymously. The dear departed include not only cannon fodder, but middle managers, regional big shots, money men, and even a few holy men.

Afghanistan was Phase One of the war. Iraq was Phase Two. Saddam Hussein has been run out of office, his two loathesome offspring killed, and he's awaiting trial himself. His henchmen have for the most part been rounded up or killed. Baathism in Iraq is gone in just the same manner as the Taliban in Afghanistan, maybe moreso. If we were to leave today, the Baathists wouldn't resume power. Instead, Iraq would break apart into three or four states: one Shia, one Kurdish, and the Sunni areas likely split between a Baathist city-state in Tikrit, with Salafists ruling the rest.

The Salafists represent Phase Three of the war. They're a distinct phase from the Baathist phase, even though there are now Baathists infesting the insurgency. Aligned with the Salafists, for purely tactical reasons and because Moqtada isn't the brightest knife on the tree, are the Sadrists. Because Phase Two and Phase Three blended together almost imperceptibly, we now find ourselves in a Quagmire™ if you read the papers.

Because journalists, unlike generals, always fight the last war, Iraq is expected to be Just Like Vietnam©. There are, in fact similarities: by the end of Tet 1968 the Viet Cong were effectively wiped out. That war became us (and our allies, to include notably the South Vietnamese) against the North Vietnamese. Consider the Baathists the Viet Cong and the Salafists and their Sadrist allies the North Vietnamese. It's kind of like if we'd demolished the NVA and the Viet Cong had sprung up in their place. The war in Vietnam ground on because the North Vietnamese had safe havens in Laos and eastern Cambodia. That was where their supply system was located, with a long series of troop encampments located about a hard day's march apart. We couldn't go into those countries to pry the NVA out. Syria and Iran represent the safe havens to the Salafists. We can't go in there, either. Yet.

Since 1968 a lot has changed. Technology has advanced. The armed forces have been restructured and re-equipped. Most importantly, we won the Cold War. The Soviet Union and China were the bucket on each military foot during the Vietnam era. Today we have more freedom of action, and therein lies the difference.

The diplomatic war is just as important as the shooting war, just as important as the intelligence war, just as important as the financial war. And we've achieved major victories in the diplomatic and political arenas. The most dramatic was Libya, which was as significant a victory as Baathist Iraq. Just as important was turning Pakistan, which allowed us to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan. That victory took place in the course of a phone call. Perv didn't quite spin on a dime, but he's kept, however erratically, on course ever since. The cesspool of Pak fundamentalism hasn't been drained, but against all odds he's lowered the level by at least a few feet. But notice the nature of the progress he's made: it's been incremental, three steps forward, two steps back, punctuated the while by gunfire and explosions.

The other political-diplomatic advance we've made has been in demanding that democratic reforms be introduced in the Middle East. Some places have gotten the idea: Saleh isn't going to run for office again in Yemen, which will make him the only Arab elder statesman. Bahrain quietly became a constitutional monarchy. Most of the Gulf States are on track toward something that might be described as diwaniyah democracy. Morocco's introducing reforms. Algeria's democratizing. Sudan's sharing power — however unwillingly — with the southern Sudanese. Afghanistan and Iraq both have constitutions, and Afghanistan is actually getting some sort of political life going. Lebanon has stepped away from its status as Syria's colony. Yasser Arafat's last days were mighty uncomfortable because he was an old-fashioned dictator and couldn't abide the thought of sharing power, and his successor faces either some sort of power diffusion or complete anarchy. Even the Saudis are making pro forma reforms that they will have difficulty backing away from.

There are at present only two states that present a direct danger to us: the two safe havens, Syria and Iran. Iran's enmity is long standing and naked. Syria's is half-hearted, its regime shaky. I'll be surprised if Assad lasts another year. That leaves Iran.

Phase Four.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt || 09/11/2005 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thanks Fred. I don't know why you are not on President Bush's cabinet as Secretary for Long Attention Spans.

I just stopped by the Internet Archive to see if there were any archived web pages from that day. I couldn't find any with 2 quick searches, but I didn't come away empty-handed. I found instead that the IA are fouled with dozens if not hundreds of lefty loonbat agitprop films, conspiracy theorist manifestos, and enough bile to power Quetta for a year. Absolutely sickening.
Posted by: Seafarious || 09/11/2005 1:42 Comments || Top||

#2  You said it best, as always.

Fred Akbar!
Posted by: Dan Darling || 09/11/2005 1:43 Comments || Top||

#3  Great summary, Fred. Makes one think. We are fighting this war of survival with one hand tied by the LLL around our backs. They are hell bent on destroying this government. I saw the same thing in Berkeley in the 60s. The Left used Vietnam as a tool to bring down the govt. They are using the exact same playbook. We will have to fight them, too. We are in a long haul war, folks. Courage, everyone. We are playing for keeps.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 09/11/2005 2:03 Comments || Top||

#4  I'm just burnt out anymore: burnt out on the war, and burnt out on politics.

just one point.
IMO..War on Terror, we're [sane rational folks]light years better off than we were during the Vietnam years.[60's 70s]

Plz remember that the lowest parasitic life form on the planet, the Left/MSM, sheltered in the host, our Constitution, who relentlessly infect and feed off any wound it can exploit in our Nation, don't have a monopoly anymore!

Thank you Rantberg, cable, WWW, talk radio. We now have a place to meet, gather our strength, ideas and influence policy [w/money, votes, and pressure]. Together we are more focused & way stronger.
will it be easy? no.
Are we winning? YES

/Phase 10..we elect Joe for president. <<:
Posted by: Red Dog || 09/11/2005 2:43 Comments || Top||

#5  AP - The Berkley experience you mention gives me unpleasant flashbacks (no, not LSD induced).

On a positive note, the moonbats who protest today are literally toothless and gray haired. Fortunately, the generation that has emerged with 9/11 are not to be found in the 60's era bat cave.
Posted by: Captain America || 09/11/2005 2:43 Comments || Top||

#6  Fred, you're the man.

I bet if Fred were mayor and we were in need of evaculation, he would send in the school buses instead of holding back for the Greyhounds.

Fred for New Orleans mayor!
Posted by: Captain America || 09/11/2005 2:45 Comments || Top||

#7  Hey! Where's the link? I want to read the rest of it.
Posted by: Shipman || 09/11/2005 7:09 Comments || Top||

#8  Ever notice that you never see Fred Pruitt and Victor Davis Hanson in the same place at the same time?
Posted by: Mike || 09/11/2005 8:33 Comments || Top||

#9  Heh, Mike - you're prolly onto something there.

Fred - Word. The chrome may be showing, but the contents are intact and the output razor sharp. Thx.
Posted by: .com || 09/11/2005 9:12 Comments || Top||

#10  The Left is part of the enemy's forces, whether they accept or acknowledge their part. I refer to them as "facilitators" - they're not directly involved in evil, but they work very hard to make evil possible, and do nothing to stop it. There's a special place in Hell for such people. I wish them a speedy journey!
Posted by: Old Patriot || 09/11/2005 14:06 Comments || Top||

#11  This conflict will go on along time in various battlefields.It's a safe bet that the Left will have a "Bourbon Restoration" in the near future, in which their candidates promise a "return to normalcy". And the war effort will go into abeyance for a time.

It will be painful and frustrating, but we should use that time to take a close look at the enemy at home (MSM, loony academics seditious State Dept types, the various LLL-funding foundations,monarchical jurists, the culture industry etc.)and create a reformist agenda which deals with those groups.

Only then will we be ready to deal with foes like the Islamicists or the PRC or narco-states or whatever challenges the future brings.

This will be a long hard slog in any case, and we'll have our setbacks, but I think history is on our side.
Posted by: dushan || 09/11/2005 14:26 Comments || Top||

#12  I pray that my generation and younger generations will protect what they have been given. Just when I think there's not much hope for the "young punks" I see everyday (and I'm only 32, calling them young), I go and find solace in Rantburg and in actions of others who give a damn. Went this weekend to Bay St. Louis/Waveland, Mississippi to take supplies (a long 24 hour trip from Atlanta) with 2 buddies. Get there, and everything is pretty much back up and running well after Katrina (she made landfall very near here). Ran in to kids younger than me in several areas trying to help out. 2 kids (I'd guess High School) and their 2 moms drove up from Cocoa Beach, FL to cook for people there (actually, in Kiln, just north of I-10). Amazing. I saw the goodness of America there. Dropped goods off at a church who was taking supplies, and we noticed something....a couple of military were there (they were all over Waveland/Bay St. Louis), but they were packing up, left just 2-3 pallets of MREs. Looking around the grounds there were 3-4 pallets of EVERYTHING else that was donated by private citizens (diapers, wipes, canned veggies, canned fruits, tons of clothes, first aid stuff, hygenie products, even bikes and kids toys). THAT is what makes America great...we will take care of our own...with or without the gov't. A GREAT weekend...seeing hope in action in the wake of Katrina, and then seeing the hope in the aftermath of 9/11 (NEVER forgive or forget for me).
Posted by: BA || 09/11/2005 20:48 Comments || Top||

#13  Thank you, Fred. Sometimes I need help keeping perspective. So long as we melt down in turn, rather than all at once, we'll be ok.
Posted by: trailing wife || 09/11/2005 21:43 Comments || Top||

#14  Thank You, Fred - Accept my Paypal contribution as your outlet's help to mental stability
Posted by: Frank G || 09/11/2005 22:40 Comments || Top||

#15  My lefty wife laughed the other day when I suggested that this country might possibly fall within our lifetimes. She cried when I told her why I thought so. The thing is, I look the people around me, those wonderful liberals, and I don't see a people worth defending. She says that people have a right to live the way they want to. I agreed but pointed out that, by living the life they want they risk alienating those who might be willing to take up arms for them. That this country may die because those who choose to protect it might look around and see nothing worthy of protection. That's where I'm heading. I hate the left - about half the population of this country - almost as much as I hate the Islamofascists. I'm a Marine veteran and proud of my service, but would I put the pack back on if my country asked me? I'm not sure I would. I told her that if something on the scale of 9/11 were to hit the predominantly leftist coastal cities, I probably wouldn't feel much about it. My suspicion was confirmed when NO was demolished. I felt very little. I suppose I'm a total bastard for feeling this way, but I'm burnt out as well. Sorry.

Posted by: BH || 09/11/2005 23:09 Comments || Top||

#16  BH: I agreed but pointed out that, by living the life they want they risk alienating those who might be willing to take up arms for them. That this country may die because those who choose to protect it might look around and see nothing worthy of protection. That's where I'm heading. I hate the left - about half the population of this country - almost as much as I hate the Islamofascists. I'm a Marine veteran and proud of my service, but would I put the pack back on if my country asked me? I'm not sure I would.

I fully understand your sentiments. I think we're pretty safe, though - we are sheltered by two oceans, not to mention weak powers to the north and south. It's our "allies" around the world that will feel the pain. I think they're due.
Posted by: Zhang Fei || 09/11/2005 23:27 Comments || Top||

#17  They just have it coming ZF, now haven't they?
One of those "allies" at this very moment is helping to pump New Orleans dry.
Posted by: True German Ally || 09/11/2005 23:36 Comments || Top||



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On Sale now!


A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has dominated Mexico for six years.
Click here for more information

Meet the Mods
In no particular order...
Steve White
Seafarious
tu3031
badanov
sherry
ryuge
GolfBravoUSMC
Bright Pebbles
trailing wife
Gloria
Fred
Besoeker
Glenmore
Frank G
3dc
Skidmark

Two weeks of WOT
Sun 2005-09-11
  Tal Afar: 400 terrorists dead or captured
Sat 2005-09-10
  Iraq Tal Afar offensive
Fri 2005-09-09
  Federal Appeals Court: 'Dirty Bomb' Suspect Can Be Held
Thu 2005-09-08
  200 Hard Boyz Arrested in Iraq
Wed 2005-09-07
  Moussa Arafat is no more
Tue 2005-09-06
  Mehlis Uncovers High-Level Links in Plot to Kill Hariri
Mon 2005-09-05
  Shootout in Dammam
Sun 2005-09-04
  Bangla booms funded by Kuwaiti NGO, ordered by UK holy man
Sat 2005-09-03
  MMA seethes over Pak talks with Israel
Fri 2005-09-02
  Syria Arrests 70 Arabs Attempting to Infiltrate Iraq
Thu 2005-09-01
  Leb: More Hariri Arrests
Wed 2005-08-31
  Near 1000 dead in Baghdad stampede
Tue 2005-08-30
  Leb security bigs held in Hariri boom
Mon 2005-08-29
  Will Musharraf ban Jamaat-e-Islami and JUI?
Sun 2005-08-28
  UK draws up list of top 50 bloodthirsty holy men

Better than the average link...



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