[angelize56]

I thought it would be nice to have a thread dealing with the 3rd anniversary of the WTC/Pennsylvania/Pentagon tragedies. I don't think I'll be viewing any TV specials on it this year...especially if they continually show videos of the 9-11 events over and over. One time seeing them was horrific enough. It sure doesn't seem like it's been three years....

FBI Whistle-Blower Warns Too Much Information

Friday, Sept. 10, 2004

WASHINGTON - Coleen Rowley, the FBI agent who famously challenged her agency's pre-Sept. 11 intelligence gathering, is retiring this year with some
parting advice for the bureau: Don't get overwhelmed by trying to track down every lead.

"By saying, 'No lead will go uncovered,' that will clutter the picture," she said in an interview. "We need a way to weed through the information."
Story Continues Below

Rowley was at the center of a storm of questions over the government's handling of intelligence after she criticized the agency for ignoring her pleas in the weeks before Sept. 11, 2001, to investigate terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui more aggressively. He was the only person charged in the United States in the attacks.

But now, Rowley said, the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction.
"Now that we have solicited more tips, the downside is it's more difficult to find the more significant things," she said. "We still need to use good discretion, old gumshoe detective work."

Rowley was in Washington to promote "Patriotism, Decency and Common Sense," a book published by the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation for which she wrote a chapter on dangers to civil liberties. Contributors include Ralph Nader and former Democratic presidential candidate Gary Hart.

Rowley said she is not getting paid for the chapter and won't accept any money for post-FBI speeches that draw on her career. She said it would be unethical to profit from her public service.

Instead, she plans to live off her pension, which she becomes fully eligible for when she turns 50 in December.

Rowley was legal counsel in the Minneapolis field office of the FBI when, she said, top agency officials blocked her efforts to investigate Moussaoui. Last year, she became a special agent, with some of her duties focusing on intelligence gathering.

Former FBI counterterrorism chief Larry Mefford, who worked with Rowley in the Minneapolis bureau from 1992 to 1995, questioned her credentials to speak as an expert on terrorism, saying that was not the focus of her career.

"In today's world, with the threats we face today and the danger those threats pose, I don't think I'd ever say we have too much information," he said. "I do agree the challenge is what you do with the information once you get it."

Rowley said that she worked on terrorism issues both as legal counsel and special agent.

Rowley also said events in Iraq have shown she was correct in her 2003 letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller warning that an invasion could heighten terrorism threats in this country.

"Unfortunately, new enemies have been created," she said.

[LANMaster]

Also September 11, 1812 The battle of Plattsburg Bay.

I'll never forget 9-11-01

[MightyQueenC]

Well, my kids and I planted a garden in an old 1/2 wine barrel, last year to commemorate that awful day. We were (and still are) quite troubled by what happened to our American friends; as well as being very sad about all the women and children of Arabic descent losing their lives in this war.
I was born in Arabia (actually Awali, Bahrain, a tiny island in the Persian Gulf).
This year, the boys bought hardy white and gold mums to replace the summer flowering perennials. This afternoon, there is an assembly at my youngest son's school, and there will some sort of 9/11 ceremony presented.

Peace

Carolyn

[angelize56]

That's nice Carolyn! On the first anniversary of the tragedy my son's entire middle school formed a heart outside on the school property and held hands...also sang patriotic songs! I attached the picture of it that was in the newspaper on the event! The middle school does that every 9-11 anniversary as they will tomorrow. My son is in the 10th grade now and I'm not sure what his high school has planned. Take care and peace! angel

[MightyQueenC]

I just checked the on-line newspaper for my town's activities, tomorrow:

Memorial services will mark 9/11
Local News - Friday, September 10, 2004 @ 07:00

Tomorrow organizations will hold memorials marking the third anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States.
The local Legions, police and firefighters will all hold memorials to remember the victims and rescue workers who died when terrorists flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.
Royal Canadian Legion No. 9 is hosting a special commemoration starting at 11 a.m.
Branch vice-president Connie Raymond said the members wanted to do something special on the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
“A lot of people called asking if we’re going to mark the day, so we all pitched in,” she said.
The commemoration will start with a wreath-laying ceremony at 11 a.m., followed by a full day of activities including a silent auction, refreshments, music and activities, with all money raised going to the General Hospital’s burn department.
Representatives of the Fire Department and Police will lay wreaths at the Legion’s cairn at the ceremony, as will Legion branches 9 and 60.
Wreaths will also be laid in memory of the children and volunteers who died in the attacks.
Firefighters plan a ceremony of their own.
Fire and rescue stations will mark the 9/11 anniversary with a minute of silence at 9:59 a.m. Firefighters will assemble at attention in front of the station flagpole or in the centre of the fire hall.
At 9:59, the time the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed, fire vehicles will turn on their emergency lights for the minute of silence.
The services are open to the public and all are welcome to attend and participate, said deputy fire chief Neville Murphy.
Police will not have a formal moment of silence as the department will be run off its feet this weekend, said spokesman Mike Weaver. Besides the usual weekend policing, the department is monitoring University Frosh Week activities in the student ghetto, the police horse show at the Memorial Centre and the huge Tragically Hip concert on Sunday.
“We’re stretched very thin,” Weaver said of the coming weekend, but added that officers will be remembering their fallen fellow police in their hearts.
At tomorrow’s horse show, the police will present a cheque from the city’s police department and police association to the 9/11 widows and orphans fund.
Organizers are trying to arrange for a New York Police Department officer to accept the cheque.

[angelize56]

9/11: Lingering Questions

NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2004
(CBS) By CBSNews.com's Jarrett Murphy

Sept. 11 began and ended with questions — questions that started while the attack was in progress (How many planes?) and multiplied as the towers fell (How many dead?), questions asked out loud to no one in particular or posed silently to television screens (How could it happen?).

Since the attacks, even as the United States launched a wide-ranging "war on terrorism" overseas and created a sprawling Homeland Security complex at home, an equally intense effort by victims' kin and some investigators has hunted answers.

For Saturday's third anniversary of the attacks, some of the questions have been satisfied by the recent final report of the Sept. 11 commission.

Other mysteries remain. Some concern whether the necessary changes are being made to improve U.S. terrorism defenses. Others pertain to intelligence information that is still kept classified by the government. A few concern details of pure historical interest.

The most vexing questions, and the least answerable, deal with exactly what happened on Sept. 11 at the top of the towers and in the four doomed planes. These are the facts known only to those who perished, the victims and killers.

"There are still some unanswered questions because obviously the people who were at the heart of the plot are dead," the commission chairman, former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, said when releasing the report, which he called "the definitive work" on the attacks. "If we capture Osama bin Laden – when we capture Osama bin Laden, I hope – and he answers questions, there may be new information."

Bin Laden may know, for example, whether the target for the fourth plane was the Capitol or the White House. That detail may seem trivial, but it completes the story of what the passengers of Flight 93 accomplished by forcing that plane down in Pennsylvania.

It also could help address one of the unknowns in the Sept. 11 report — whether the military would have been capable of shooting down Flight 93 if it approached Washington.

"NORAD officials have maintained that they would have intercepted and shot down United 93," the report reads. "We are not so sure."

The circumstances of the shootdown order itself are unclear. Some witnesses recall hearing Vice President Dick Cheney getting authorization from President Bush to tell military pilots to shoot down suspicious aircraft; other witnesses do not record that conversation. Also unclear is how the shootdown order was transmitted through NORAD.

Other questions concern the plot and plotters, such as whether the 19 hijackers had a support network in the United States as they prepared their scheme. The Sept. 11 report offers no conclusions on this count, but does cast doubt on the notion.

"The evidence is thin — simply not there for some cases, more worrisome in others," it reads.

Also unknown is why hijackers Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar traveled to California in 2000, the identity the man named "Khallam" whom Hamzi and Midhar met with in San Diego or why hijackers Mohammed Atta and Abdul Aziz Omari went to Portland, Maine on the eve of the attacks. Because there were no surveillance cameras, no one knows for sure if the hijackers who boarded plans in Boston or Newark set off metal detectors or were searched.

As for the biggest question of all — whether the attacks could have been prevented —the Sept. 11 panel made no ruling.

"I can’t say we are sure," Kean said. "We do not know. We think it's possible, but we have not drawn that absolute conclusion because we don't believe that absolute conclusion is justified by the facts."

At the World Trade Center, there is no certainty as to when people in the North Tower were told to evacuate, or if emergency phones were operating.

It is unclear why tenants in the South Tower were initially told to return to their offices after the other tower was hit. That puzzle may never be solved, because the person who made that announcement, like so many witnesses to the most graphic details of the day, is dead.

Dead too are the people who could tell exactly how the hijackers gained entry to the cockpits of the planes they seized — or the other specifics of the last moments of the hundreds of passengers and crew.

"There is information that is unknown, that we will never know, that will always be a subject of speculation for me, and regretfully, I will always think the worse," said Donald Goodrich of Bennington, Vt., whose son Peter died aboard United Flight 175, which struck the World Trade Center's South Tower.

"It's hard for me to stop imagining the images that were unfolding before my son's eyes in his final minutes, and putting them in a horrific light. I try not to but it's very hard not to, and because of the pure absence of information those speculative and, in an intellectual sense, admittedly unreasonable images will continue to haunt me."

Much is also unknown about the fate of victims at the World Trade Center. Of the firefighters who died in the North Tower, some never heard the evacuation orders issued after the South Tower collapsed. Others might have heard the order and ignored it, perhaps to assist an injured civilian. Some rescuers may have reacted to the order but simply did not get out in time.

Among civilians, it cannot be known for sure how many died when the planes hit the towers. Reports of what happened on the floors above the crash area are incomplete, based largely on phone calls from people who died there.

That record, while patchy, is enough for some victims' relatives.

"I have a pretty clear idea of that picture," said Connie Taylor of Westport, Conn., whose son Brad Vadas, 37, died in the South Tower. "The 9/11 commission helped a little. They described it pretty clearly, that plus communication we had at the time (from Vadas). That's pretty clear to me — pretty sad and pretty clear."

For all the details that will never be known, there are some lingering questions that could ultimately be answered.

Goodrich hopes to eventually learn about information, now classified, pertaining to "the hijackers, their associates, their funding sources, the means by which they gained entry into the country, the nature of the weapons that were available to them and how they were able to get past security."

"Of course, there is an insatiable desire on my part to have this information," Goodrich said. "I want to know what is known."

And many family members are focused on the question of what has been done to shore up defenses against terrorism, and what will be done going forward.

"I'm mostly concerned with what has happened – what really concrete changes have been made to make our world a safer place," said Taylor, mentioning the confusion among air traffic controllers, the scarcity of fighter planes to track suspicious jets and the communications problems that affected New York City cops and firefighters. She has heard of little progress.

"It just smacks of everything that seems to go so slowly with our government," Taylor said. Goodrich agrees.

"There is no reason other than institutional inertia and self-interest that will stand in the way of making changes which are broad in their scope and dramatic in their effect to protect the public," he added.

[linskyjack]

Tomorrow, I wll go out and buy Senator Graham's book and I will read it cover to cover (I'm a fast reader). I suspect that much is being covered up. I trust Senator Graham.

[LANMaster]

By Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald

We'll go forward from this moment

It's my job to have something to say. They pay me to provide words that help make sense of that which troubles the American soul. But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to say, the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author of this suffering.

You monster. You beast. You unspeakable ba$tard.

What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed.

Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause.
Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve.
Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.

Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial, social, political and class division, but a family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae - a singer's revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse. We're wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent, though - peaceful, loving, and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and to do it. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith, believers in a just and loving God.

Some people -- you, perhaps -- think that any or all of this makes us weak. You're mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals.

IN PAIN

Yes, we're in pain now. We are in mourning and we are in shock. We're still grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did, still working to make ourselves understand that this isn't a special effect from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn't the plot development from a Tom Clancy novel. Both in terms of the awful scope of their ambition and the probable final death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts of terrorism in the history of the United States and, probably, the history of the world. You've bloodied us as we have never been bloodied before.

But there's a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us fall. This is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought us such abrupt and monumental pain. When roused, we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by this level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of justice.

I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I know my people, as you, I think, do not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me to tremble with dread of the future.

In the days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation, fingers pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We'll go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But determined, too. Unimaginably determined.

THE STEEL IN US

You see, the steel in us is not always readily apparent. That aspect of our character is seldom understood by people who don't know us well. On this day, the family's bickering is put on hold. As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish.

So I ask again: What was it you hoped to teach us? It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred. If that's the case, consider the message received.

And take this message in exchange:
-You don't know my people.
-You don't know what we're capable of.
-You don't know what you just started.

But you're about to learn.

[angelize56]

I wasn't going to do it...but I ended up watching a special on 9-11 and feelings I thought were hidden deep inside myself long ago resurfaced! As I watched the 9-11 attacks, the towers fall, the Pentagon burn, the flight 93 crash scene, the people's reactions, the words of survivors and the words of the loved ones of those murdered I felt angry again! I despise terrorists!! Those evil, cowardly bunch of maniacs that would do such a thing to innocent men, women and children! Not just the 9-11 cowards....all terrorists! Especially with the children of Breslan fresh in my mind! Terrorists have no place in this world...the only place they belong is far in the depths of the netherworld with their insane cohorts and satan! I don't care what their excuse, what their cause, what their religious beliefs, whatever excuse they have to kill...they are all evil! It's too bad they can't all be weeded out all at once and banished from the face of the earth! But I know for every one of those vile men or women terrorists captured or killed....there will always be many more like them to take their place! Cold and unfeeling....plotting their next murderous plan of attack...high fiving each other...slapping each other on the back! I can almost picture these pathetic, unfeeling creatures laughing it up today as they themselves watch the specials on what happened 9-11-01. But now I am going to send these feelings back where they belong....deep inside myself and focus instead on remembering the victims of 9-11, the loved ones they left behind and the survivors. May God bless each and every one of them....and God bless each of us. Take care. angel

[iltos]

i'm not sure those feeling belong back down inside you angel....

[angelize56]

I know what you mean iltos!

Saturday, September 11, 2004
3 YEARS LATER, PAIN REMAINS
The anniversary finds NYers resolute to remember, to forestall another 9/11

September 11, 2004

We know the liturgy now. The program at Ground Zero begins at 8:40 this morning. A moment of silence - to mark when the first plane hit the North Tower - comes at 8:46. Another moment of silence - to commemorate when the second plane hit the South Tower - comes at 9:03. The names of the victims are to be read.

And if the day is as clear as it was on that awful morning in 2001, sunshine will cast the melancholy pit of the World Trade Center in a golden glow as the ceremony proceeds - providing a much-needed symbol of hope to a region and nation that still feels a sharp pain in the core of its soul.

Forget about closure.

This pain will persist as long as Americans are alive who can recall the rage and loss they felt as terrorists brought down the World Trade Center, smashed a jetliner into the Pentagon, crashed a plane into a field near Shanksville, Pa., and - in all - snuffed out 2,973 lives.

And yet, we have moved on.

Yesterday's fight over the kind of memorial that should arise from Ground Zero has pretty much been settled. So have myriad other disputes over the best way to honor the victims of 9/11 - our loved ones, our co-workers, and our fallen police and firefighters and ambulance workers.

The challenge today is to remember their sacrifices as we work to prevent another terrorist attack. The challenge now is to grieve quietly and act decisively.

New Yorkers seem to understand this implicitly. How else to explain their patience in long bag-check lines at major public buildings? Or at toll plazas as police officers check out the undercarriages of vehicles? Or at rail stations where camouflage-clad sentries with automatic rifles are now a familiar part of the scenery? Or at airports where delays and inconvenience have become a way of life?

Like Americans everywhere, we do what we can without complaint in hopes that it will make our lives safer. There are no guarantees our actions will prevent a new attack.

But one of the best ways to honor the fallen is to renew our resolve to build the safest post-9/11 world possible.

[LANMaster]

This is amazing.......

These are pictures of an independent trucker who has painted his cab and trailer with the names of all those who lost their lives in 9/11. The trucker 's name is John Holmgren from Shafer, Minn. The trucker has been "pulled over" numerous times just so the troopers can get their picture taken with the truck

Be on the lookout for the truck, it might just come through your state.

Pic #1 of 7

[LANMaster]

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[LANMaster]

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[LANMaster]

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