"I will execute great vengeance upon them with wrathful chastisements. Then they will know that I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon them!" ... Ezekiel 25 - 17

I fear that all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant, and fill it with a desire for vengeance." ... Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto -- December 7th 1941

Skyline symbols of economic might
Engineers shocked by towers' collapse
By Blair Kamin
Tribune architecture critic

September 11, 2001, 12:18 PM CDT

The World Trade Center, a symbol of American economic might, survived one terrorist attack in 1993. It was designed to withstand the impact of a jet, but both its towers collapsed this morning after planes rammed them.

The structural engineer who designed the towers said as recently as last week that their steel columns could remain standing if they were hit by a 707.

Les Robertson, the Trade Center's structural engineer, spoke last week at a conference on tall buildings in Frankfurt, Germany. He was asked during a question-and-answer session what he had done to protect the twin towers from terrorist attacks, according to Joseph Burns, a principal at the Chicago firm of Thornton-Thomasetti Engineers.

Burns, who was present, said that Robertson said of the center, "I designed it for a 707 to smash into it."

Burns, whose firm did the structural engineering for the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia -- the world's tallest buildings -- said Robertson did not elaborate on the remark. Robertson could not be reached early today.

Completed in 1972 and 1973, the 110-story twin towers were the fifth and sixth tallest buildings in the world. One World Trade Center, finished in 1972, was briefly after its construction the world's tallest building. The towers have been called "a monumental gate to New York and the United States."

They withstood the 1993 attack, when a bomb-laden van exploded, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000.

Closely spaced steel columns that ringed their perimeter held up the World Trade Center towers. Chicago's Aon Center (formerly the Amoco Building), completed in 1973, uses a similar support system, known to structural engineers as a "tube."

Shocked by the building's collapse, structural engineers pointed to fire as the likely cause of the structural failure.

"Fire melts steel," Burns said. In addition, he said, the impact of the plane could have severely damaged the building's sprinklers, allowing the fire to rage, despite fireproofing supposed to protect steel columns and beams.

"You never know in an explosion like that whether they (the sprinklers) get cut off," Burns said.

Architects Minoru Yamasaki and Associates, in association with Emery Roth & Sons, designed the World Trade Center.

The structural engineers were the firm of Skilling, Helle, Chrstiansen, Robertson. The developer was The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Today's attack marked the second time that a plane has crashed into a New York City skyscraper, although the first incident was an accident.

In 1945, a B-25 flying at 200 miles per hour slammed into the 78th and 79th floors of the Empire State Building, gouging an 18-by-20-foot hole 913 feet above the streets of Manhattan. The pilot, Lt. Col. William F. Smith Jr., had been heading from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Newark, N.J., when he became disoriented.

Fourteen people died in the crash and the fire that followed -- three people in the plane and 11 in what was then the world's tallest building.

Like the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, which also was struck by a plane, provided a sizable and symbolic target.

The Pentagon is the world's largest office building, with a total of 6.5 million square feet, serves as headquarters for the world's most powerful military. Sears Tower, by comparison, has about 3.5 million square feet of office space.

Terror Attacks Hit U.S.

Posted: September 11, 2001

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Terrorists struck the United States Tuesday morning in harrowing, widespread attacks that included at least three commercial jet crashes into significant buildings.

o In the first attack, a plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan shortly before 9 a.m., followed by another plane into the second tower about 20 minutes later. Both towers later collapsed.

o About an hour later, a plane crashed into the Pentagon, part of which later collapsed.

o Building hit by debris near the World Trade Center is on verge of collapse.

o American Airlines told CNN that it lost two planes, both en route to Los Angeles: American Flight 11 from Boston with 81 passengers and 11 crew aboard was lost. This is believed, but not confirmed, to have been one of the planes that crashed into the trade center. ... American Flight 77, a Boeing 757 from Washington Dulles airport to Los Angeles with 58 passengers and six crew is unaccounted for. The jet that crashed into the Pentagon may have been this one, but that is still unknown.

o United Airlines lost two planes: United Airlines Flight 93 airliner headed from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco, crashed near Somerset, Pennsylvania -- police said initial reports indicated no survivors. ... United confirmed the crash of Flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles with 56 passengers and seven crew aboard. It's possible, but not confirmed, that this is the second plane that hit the World Trade Center.

o The Pentagon, the White House, the State Department, the Justice Department, the Capitol, the CIA and all other government buildings in Washington are evacuated.

o President Bush calls the crashes "apparent terrorist attacks" and "a national tragedy." Bush is to issue a statement from Barksdale AFB in Shreveport, Louisiana.

o In the first-ever national ground stop of aircraft, all flights nationwide have been stopped at their departure airports.

o International flights had been diverted to Canada; FAA says later, however, that 22 U.S.-bound international flights would be allowed to land.

o Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, said in reaction to the news of the terror attacks that "we want to tell the American children that Afghanistan feels your pain and we hope that the courts find justice."

o In New York, more than 10,000 rescue personnel rushed to the scene. Lower Manhattan is being completely evacuated.

o Israel has evacuated all its missions around the world.

o The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta was evacuated. CDC was preparing bioterrorism teams in case they become necessary.

o Philadelphia landmarks were also evacuated.

o In Chicago, the Sears Tower was evacuated; United Nations in New York evacuated.

o The New York Port Authority said it had closed all bridges and tunnels into the city.

o U.S. stock markets were closed after the New York attacks. o NATO sent home all non-essential personnel from its Brussels, Belgium, headquarters.

o The Immigration and Naturalization Service has put the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada on highest state of alert.

o Los Angeles International Airport has been evacuated.

o All Disney parks in Orlando, Florida, and Disneyland in Anaheim, California have been closed.

GUARDIAN

Who attacked the World Trade Centre?

Tuesday September 11, 2001

The Saudi dissident, Osama bin Laden, warned three weeks ago that his group would carry out an unprecedented attack on US interests for its support of Israel, an Arab journalist said today. Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper, said Islamic fundamentalists led by bin Laden were "almost certainly" behind the attack of the World Trade Centre.

"It is most likely the work of Islamic fundamentalists. Osama bin Laden warned three weeks ago that he would attack American interests in an unprecedented attack, a very big one," Mr Atwan said. "Personally we received information that he planned very, very big attacks against American interests. We received several warnings like this. We did not take it so seriously, preferring to see what would happen before reporting it."

But Professor Paul Rogers, of Bradford University's peace department, warned against assuming Middle East extremists were behind the tragedy.

"We've been here before. With Oklahoma, everybody assumed it was Middle East [terrorists], then it turned out to be home-grown Timothy McVeigh," he said. "Again with the pipe bomb in Atlanta, it turned out to be domestic."

The World Trade Centre has been targeted before, and was the scene of a massive van bomb that killed several people in February 1993. Prof Rogers said: "Since it is such a prestige building and has been attacked before, the symbolism is very strong. It suggests a well-organised paramilitary group is involved seeking to inflict great financial and psychological harm on the US. The World Trade Centre is hugely symbolic. It is a giant financial complex with great psychological and political prestige."

The attacks bore all the marks of a well-organised group. As President George Bush announced the FBI, CIA and national security experts were throwing all their resources into hunting down those responsible, experts pointed to a number of suspects, including Bin Laden.

Another group suspected is the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, but the group has denied an early report it was behind the attacks. The group blames Americans for "siding" with Israel in the escalating Middle East conflict but has never committed an atrocity on this scale.

US air chiefs will now have to completely rethink their security systems in the light of the World Trade Centre tragedy, said Phil Butterworth-Hayes, the civil aviation editor for Janes information group.

"When you get people determined to commit acts of terrorism, it is almost impossible to stop them," he said. "The whole civil aviation system works on trust.

"In America, security systems are the responsibility of the Federal Aviation Administration. The first thing the FAA are going to have to do is completely rethink some of the security systems they have in place at the moment.

"Aviation thought that it had sorted out the bombs-in-holds problem after Lockerbie but now there is a fresh problem to resolve. But it could be some time before new measures take effect."

He continued: "Terrorists are always one step ahead of the institutions that really need protection. Once you defeat one aspect of terrorism, you have to battle against something else." --Guardian, 9/11/01

Ray Berry wrote: National Day of Mourning. My story this morning!

At a loss of what to do with myself at this moment as are millions of people here in NYC and the nation. I want to share the last three hours with you from inside the Big Apple.

Twelve Noon, Tuesday, 11, 2001

My mother from SC called about at nine a.m. telling me about the planes hitting the World Trade Center. I turned on the TV and all the channels were out! I found one channel transmitting, CBS. ( The transmitters for TV were on top of the World Trade Center )

I saw the horror. I immediately left the apartment to go VOTE in our mayoral race a block away in a school. People were stunned! Not knowing what was happening. I actually voted quickly and went to 8th Avenue and 25th Street, (Midtown) and gathered in a cluster of people in total shock as we looked up at the World Trade Towers on Fire in clear view. The smoke was massive and billowing over all of downtown. We could see the towers on fire and a fireball billowing out the top of One World Trade.

I tell you- this group of about 100 people on the corner were chain smoking and silent except for the constant ringing of cell phones. People were staring in disbelief, holding their stomachs and wiping away the tears. We didn’t know what was going on. The terror in people’s eyes was something I will never forget in this lifetime. A Puerto Rican guy pulls up his truck and turns the radio on full blast for us to get the news as we watched in disbelief. No one really had any solid information at that point. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing.

Then the smoke got so huge we couldn’t see the second tower. Then the wind shifted and the tower was GONE!

IT was JUST GONE! We all looked at each other in disbelief from what our own eyes were seeing. It just would not register in my head. I like others was just shaking my head and rubbing my eyes thinking I was hallucinating and it couldn’t be happening as the radio in the truck confirmed our worse fears.

Rumors started spreading rapidly in the crowd from people on their cell phones. The Pentagon was attacked, truck bombs, bridges and tunnels closed. We all stood on the corner not moving, not knowing what to do and still just watching the single tower beginning to burn and billow huge orange fireballs from the top floors. A little while later as we were watching, the second tower disappeared and all we could see was bright gray smoke. The radio basted the second tower had collapsed. After a few minutes we became quietly mobile and startled people took off in ever direction. I was left on the corner trying to think about what to do. I was shaking and extremely upset as the sirens blared in all directions heading downtown.

Confused I walked into the grocery store, knowing the city was in for it for quite a while. I had such a stomach ache I almost puked when I smelled the food in the deli. There was only two customers in the giant store. One checker. I gathered some staples and started walking home past people scurrying around on cell phones in ever direction.

When I got to the school, I saw the workers shutting down the voting for the day with dazed eyes. No one was talking. Yet no one in the streets was panicking either.

I came home to a slew of phone messages of friends in shock. Long Distance is out, many of the transmitters were on the World Trade Center. I turned on my TV to the last station transmitting, and have been sickened ever since. Sirens are still going off in the distance like a cacophony of screams. It is a perfect sunny cloudless day in Manhattan. The Red Cross is begging for blood all over town on TV and New Yorkers are lining up in droves in such a short amount of time. The Bridges and Tunnels and Subways are closed. People are orderly and walking everywhere. The confusion is rampant. Offices are closing in midtown with millions from the suburbs who can’t get out of town. Every important building in this city has been evacuated.

Tens of thousands of people are walking, walking, walking in every direction.

The city of Manhattan right now is an island jail unto itself, you can’t get on you can’t get off. I am getting very little news about the rest of the nation on my ONLY station left on the actual airways. Our mayor is speaking on TV now on his cell phone. His voice is shaking, as is the rest of the city. We have no clue how many people are dead, or what is going to happen now. Chaos abounds on TV. Some are saying on TV there "may be" biological agents like anthrax involved in the explosions. They just don’t know at this time. Asbestos is flying all over the city from the wind.There may be fifty thousand dead they are suggesting.........

More tomorrow.

I am still in emotional shock at this moment............

I am shaken for our way of life in this great nation and the greatest city in the world. But I am okay....

:( Rayberry © Live: 12:30 PM. Tuesday, 11, 2001 A morning of mourning that will never be forgotten.

Just a couple thoughts.

I just have a couple thoughts on this strangest of days to lay on you. One can not imagine the amount of destruction in Manhattan today. I’ve been on the phone trying to track down my daughter who lives there and fortunately she is all right. My heart goes out to all the parents, sons and daughters of those who perished. What an incredible waste, mere words can not describe your loss, your grief, your anger, and your love of your loved ones. Together America we will over come this terrible tragedy.

To the scum sucking sons of pigs of whores who are responsible for this outrage give your souls to Allah as your asses belong to the United States. We will find you where ever you go. We will never stop until your heads are on stakes. We will hunt you down and bring a terrible wrath upon you and all that help you. Osama bin Laden you fucked up big time, this time. If you aren’t dead already prepare to go to hell muther fucker. Your money won’t save you, your friends won’t save you, the Talaban won’t save you, there is no place to run, no where to hide. You will never have another moment’s peace until we run you down and slaughter you piggy boy. Be thankful it’s the government that’s after you and not I. If it were up to me I’d start laying H-bombs on the shores of northern Africa and not stop till I reached the Indian Ocean. Kabul, Baghdad, Tehran would all be ground zero from Afghanistan in the north to Saudi Arabia in the south. From Morocco in the west to Pakistan in the east and everything in between would be one giant self-lit 8-foot deep glass parking lot with a radioactive half-life of 200,000 years. You fucked over the wrong people and from now on it’s no more Mr. Nice Guy. I know how insane this sounds and I’m sure by tomorrow my sanity will return and I’ll settle for the heads of those who are responsible but tonight I’m happy to be mad.

We will continue to update with news and photos as they become available.

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