Remembering 9-11
By Larry Johnson on September 11, 2009 at 2:14 AM in Current Affairs
[A huge thanks to Linda and Susan for help in getting this piece together.]
Despite the passage of time the wounds opened on September 11, 2001 remain raw and festering. We were reminded of those events just this week with the resignation of Van Jones, who had aligned himself with those convinced the Bush Administration carried out the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Bush failed to take the terrorist warnings from Richard Clarke and the CIA seriously, but he was guilty of laziness, not malfeasance. No one connected in anyway with the United States Government was responsible for the horror of that day. The blood is on the hands of Bin Laden and his cronies.
The following snippet was recorded from NBC’s coverage of the attacks on that beautiful, sunny Tuesday in September of 2001. I was at National Airport preparing to fly to Long Island to play in a DEA golf tournament. I was standing in the bathroom at National Airport when the first plane hit the North Tower in New York City. I walked out of the bathroom toward my gate and stopped at the bar to watch the TV coverage. As I stared at the screen the South Tower erupted in a ball of fire. I realized at that point I was not going to New York.
Within five minutes my phone rang. It was the Today Show and Katie Couric had asked that I come on air with her. I went to the baggage area, recovered my golf clubs and got on a hardline phone. Here’s my conversation with Katie:
The images are seared in our minds.
I do not think we have learned any important lessons from the events of the last 8 years in the wake of those attacks. We are still susceptible to fear mongering by Government officials. We have not improved coordination among the government agencies that share the task of detecting and preventing terrorist attacks. We have left significant gaps in aviation security. And, like someone with the attention span of a three year old child with Alzheimers’ disease, we have moved on to other issues and tried to put this unpleasantness out of mind.
Too bad. Bush and Cheney like to take credit for no more attacks after 9-11. Well, the Emperor of Japan can take credit that there were no more nuclear explosions in Japan after the blast at Nagasaki. But both claims are a bit hollow. Bush and Cheney failed to fix the national security interagency process and the Obama Administration is not doing much to improve on their dismal record.
We were not attacked on 9-11 because we lacked Government bureaucracy and did not have enough government employees. And our prescription for dealing with the aftermath of 9-11? Grow the government, multiply the layers of intelligence bureaucracy and water down our intelligence capabilities. Swell. Recipe for future success.
What is truly unfortunate is that no one was held accountable for the failures that made the attacks on 9-11 possible. There is no one scapegoat. But the list of those who dropped the ball is fairly significant. For example, Condi Rice ignored Richard Clarke’s memo, ignored stark warnings for the CIA’s Cofer Black, and failed to rally the National Security Council to address the issue of combating terrorism. Rice, more than any other official in government at the time, has the most to answer for.
We still do not have a good explanation of why the CIA refused to share with the FBI the info it had that Al Qaeda operatives had come into the United States. I am not implying there was a conspiracy of silence. No. Having worked with large bureaucracies it is the nature of the beast. However, the CIA’s George Tenet and Cofer Black both insist they were on war footing and took the threats seriously. I know that Tenet and Black were concerned about the threats. But we still do not understand clearly why Tenet failed to convene weekly terrorist threat update meetings and why Cofer did not insist that all information about Al Qaeda operatives in or near the United States be treated as the highest priority. Those are some answers I’d like to get on the eighth anniversary of the attacks.
(Release: November 13)
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[...] Read the rest here: Remembering 9-11 [...]
A very nice look back as well as forward approach. I don’t think we have learned all that much since 9/11/2001 either. Other than the fact that we do have real enemies that mean us real harm. And I am sorely disappointed with the efforts on the part of the Obama Administration to even consider negotiating with the Taliban. Given the opportunity and the resources they would enable another attack against us.
I would like answers to your questions too. But I doubt they will ever come regardless of how important they would be in providing a clear path forward toward greater security.
I choose to commemorate this day honoring those that lost their lives on that tragic day eight years ago. Because their murders should never be forgotten or forgiven.
To Honor the Fallen
larry as always spot on,one other problem is a lot of us dont have any patience we want it now or on to other things.afganistan is case in point as unless we in the west get determined to stay the long course i am afraid our worst fears will come to pass as if we pulled out the taliban could focus all their efforts on the pakistanies and then at that time the chances of getting their hands on the paki nukes would be very high and then at that point god help us all.
Thanks, Larry. My flags have been flying all week. How I love our country. I’ll never forget and 9/11 is never just another day for me. I did not lose anyone I knew personally on that horrible day but came to feel I knew them from their stories. It’s just that on 9/11, they become vivid again. 9/11 made me realize how much I took for granted and how much we have to lose; that has intensified with this administration.
Do you believe we’ll ever bring Bin Laden to justice?
I wept for days.
Larry: let me raise a question….or perhaps ponder publicly regarding some of the issues you raise. I, myself, have often wondered why we, as a country, have been anemic regarding the move to a ‘wartime’ attitude despite all the platitudes we heard during that time. I remember well the inspiring speech by President Bush. I remember the incessant discussion dealing with the almost paranoid idea that something even bigger was on the horizon. But…..consider the past 25 years of governmental policy. More and more we, as a people, have been relegated to a position of impotence regarding the course of our country, the powers of our government, and even our daily lives. It has become horrribly expensive to live here…somehow we’ve maintained a middle class, but we have also certainly come to realize that the only real power in this nation is the acquisition of wealth.
As horrible as 9-11 was and as abhorent as the subsequent wars have been, we still haven’t had the shit scared out of us…no soldiers have hit our beaches, no bombings of our major cities, no military bases have been overtly threatened. Thus, despite our experience on 9-11, there has been little impact on us as citizens other than the inexorable increase in governmental control over our lives all in the theme of saving us from ourselves and protecting us from some freak who wishes us dead. In other words…it hasn’t become personal to the vast majority of Americans like it was in 1941. Body counts don’t appear to have mattered. Downed buildings don’t matter..we just rebuild because that’s what we do. And we go down the trail of continuing to turn our faces away from the excesses of big business, the bleeding heart, liberalism of the left; we let people like Pelosi and a bunch of actors, for christ-sakes, call us names and we don’t do anything about it.
We’ll never get the answers you and i want. You’ve been talented enough to work and know the very most knowlegable persons in the intelligence community and have been what most would consider very successful. I have been a practicing physician and academician and served my country in the USNR for 21 years. My sister (your real boss) has been in a leadership position at the most prestigious health research institution in our nation for roughly 20 years. And the rest of the country has similar accomplishments both as a body and as individuals….but what appears to really matter in this country (still ‘post WW II’) is not accomplishment, but wealth and media exposure. Nothing else matters. it’s how you look on camera….check our president for example. It’s how appealing one has become to the DNC.
I believe that the ‘fight against terror’ was mishandled from the very beginning. Who was responsible?….in the Truman administration (a Democrat, I would remind you), our parents all knew who that person was. We haven’t had a president with that type of courage since JFK (another Democrat) and Ronnie. Our country could easily rally around the leader…it wants to…it wants the answers. But when that leader is a marginal idiot who is totally unqualified for the position, whose conceipt outweighs his talent, who doesn’t even have the insight to appoint experienced advisors, results will continue to be sub-par.
I fear for this country. I fear for my kids and your kid, my nephew. they deserve to inherit better. Our parents gave us far better than they had. We haven’t fullfilled our responsibility yet. Perhaps we should bring back some of the ideas and idealism of the 60’s. Who knows? But, perhaps one of the answers to the various questions is that WE are our enemy. Our complacency has debilitated us as a populace. Does this remind you of 1930’s Europe?
TDS
Tried to comment, but it wouldn’t accept my response.
I’m very sorry to be OT….my heart was so deeply wounded on 9/11 and never recovered. I love this Country….we all do. Please look at this video someone sent me yesterday. This man speaks the truth, he looks right at the camera. I think what he says is what so many of us are so very afraid of.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hFiab7fjak
My heartfelt tears and prayers go out to everyone who died on that day. We will never forget. God bless.
~~ I will never forget ~~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9PwWkV4HQ4&feature=related
Awakened by the phone at 6:30am, like so many others, it was a friend saying turn on the TV. In shock and tears, and frightened, I didn’t know what to do. Managing a retail store on the corner of the main hub downtown, I went to the store as soon as I could get myself together and found the whole shopping center in lock down. Who knew if attacks might be ongoing all over the country? However, we had an independent entry door so I went in, called staff and told them not to come to work and found our flag…used for 4th of July. It was almost the size of our big display window out onto the main street. By the next day the entire town was covered in flags but deserted otherwise. We all knew life had inexorably changed forever, lines crossed, no going back. Past tragedies…the assassinations of the 60’s, VietNam, all faded in comparison. I feel the same today; we’re still waiting for justice.
I think its a Great idea to put ground to air missiles on top of major buildings. Would be for the greater good.
[...] Remembering 9-11 : NO QUARTER [...]
In honor of a local firefighter who told me the story of losing 5 of his colleagues on 911 – just a snippet of the article.
***********************************
Each company recovers its own men.
It’s an honor code like the military promise to leave no one behind.
It’s a code that longtime firefighter Chris Norris lived by for almost two decades before retiring to New Baltimore several years ago and running for Town Board.
It’s the reason Norris spent months after 911 searching for the five missing members of his Bedford Stuyvesant Fire Company, Engine 214, fondly knows as the “Nut House,” who made the supreme sacrifice.
A quiet, modest man, Norris recounted the tragedy and horror of those agonizing months from his New Baltimore home, his wife, Mary, by his side.
“I want to dedicate this story in honor of the 343 firefighters who died on 911 and to the five members of my company who never made it out,” he said.
The missing — firefighters John Florio, Michael Roberts, Kenneth Watson, Carl Bedigian, and Ladder 111 Lieutenant Christopher Sullivan — were young men in the prime of life ranging in age from their late 20s to their early 40s.
They all left behind wives, children and families.
It could just as easily have been Norris on that list.
Never forget 9/11 and the innocent souls lost that day. I won’t, the images, the sorrow will never go away. It was a day of sorrow and a day of bringing our country together in a way it had never been. Black and white, strangers all were hugging and crying together, we were all seeking American flags. It was something tangible that we could hold, and could fly to show our difiance in the face of hatred.
Whatever Russia has been to us in the past and whatever they will be to us in the future, a hand was held out to us in this 9/11 memorial.
A Beau Geste: the 9/11 Tear Drop Memorial
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/09/a_beau_geste_the_911_tear_drop.html
http://www.911monument.com/gallery.cfm?gallery=monument
Obama`s moment of silence today, was little more than a vote of “present”.
My first reaction to the picture I saw this morning of the Obamas with their hands over their hearts was of total disgust.
As we learn more about Obama, his minions, and his “plans” for America, it’s disgusting to think that his handlers still believe we are stupid sheep.
“Look a little more patriotic, Barack and Michelle, even though it’s phony on your part.”
I was driving to work on September 11, 2001, not too far away from an air force base. I wondered what things were going to look like by the end of the day as the reports of the second plane hitting the tower were coming in.
Two years later I found myself in Manhattan for a few days. A firetruck went by us near Times Square. The names of their fallen 9/11 co-workers and friends were painted on the side in beautiful script. People stopped and cheered. One man started to cry. It was the most poignant moment I’ve ever experienced in a busy city.
Today, we have another sort of crisis in America.
How far do we let our patriotism and ideals fall away under the fantasies of a (p)resident?
I just keep having the vision of Obama throwing the rose at the Memorial last year. Apparently put off by the fact that he felt the need to even go there.
His display keeps replaying in my mind.
I couldn’t forget that, either, as I watched his speech this morning at the Pentagon, little more than a collection of platitude strung together, and repetitive at that. It was, mercifully, short. I didn’t tune in to see him – I tuned in to honor those who died there that day.
As he went to put the wreath on the stand, I couldn’t help but think abt that rose…Good thing there were two service members there to help him.
When we have a real president again, I want her or him to be at Ground Zero for a.m. ceremonies, on to Pennsylvania and back to the Pentagon om 9/11. They can stagger the ceremonies around the arrival of the President. They are not that far apart.
Airforce One has been used for date night in NYC but 0zer0 couldn’t get there? Shameful and, as always, out of tune.
He’s too busy trying to help the other Thug Dictator get the Olympics in Crooksville ak.a Chicago.
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/09/obama-keeps-olympic-backers-guessing-about-copenhagen.html
God bless the souls of those lost that day.
God bless the families and friends of those lost.
I don’t know what else to say, and will shed many tears today.
Thank you Larry, Susan and Linda!
These images are seared into my brain, and are so heartbreaking that I can’t even focus on solutions.
Each time I feel over-whelmed, I reflect on the faith and courage of friends that composed the World War Two generation.
There will be another attack on some scale.
I pray that we honor the fallen with resolve!
Honoring September 11th: The Price of Liberty is Great; the Gifts of Liberty Priceless
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/aklavan/2009/09/11/honoring-september-11th-the-price-of-liberty-is-great-the-gifts-of-liberty-priceless/
I am one who actually was apying attention to current events prior to September 11. I could not understand why our government following the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center only treated the event like it was a dime store burglary. Why did we not take radical Islamists seriously? What made us think that what were everyday occurences in Israel could not happen here? I could not understand why we were not taking subsequent bombings by the radicals against Americans more seriously? I was hoping that it was because the press and the general public could not be told what was being done.
On September 11 when most American first learned about a group called Al Qaeda and about bin Laden I already knew who they were.
While it is convenient for you to blame Bush and Cheney for September 11, my question is why was Osama bin Laden even alive when Bush took office?
It is not “convenient” for me to blame Bush and Cheney. They were in charge. They had been in office for 9 months. Are you telling me that if the Bush Administration had briefed the Obama team about the threat from Al Qaeda and the Obama team responded by not holding a single cabinet meeting until 10 September that Obama would be free of blame and all of the blame should fall on Bush and Cheney?
Get real. Deal with the facts and get over your blind ideological devotion.
They were in office for less than 8 months.
And my question was why was bin Laden even alive when Bush took office?
Why was he alive after Bush took office?
Moot.
Bin Laden should have been on a slab in a morgue long before Bush was elected. The rest is a terminal case of BDS.
From what I read, and it may be wrong, Bin Laden was as surprised about 911 as the rest of us. At that time Al Quaeda, if it actually existed as a unified force, was a collection of independent agents, with little cross communication and planning. However, he conveniently took credit when he saw how effective the attack was and how it could be used for recruitment. (It would be impossible to determine how true or false this is.)
BTW, he’s still alive, (apparently) but several hundred thousand Iraqis aren’t, thanks to us. Something’s wrong here. But if you look at Bin Laden and cohorts as convenient boogeymen to keep our war machine fueled up and prosperous and to keep the fear of terror high in the public eye, then it becomes obvious that he has, at least, served some purpose.
And it’s not for the benefit of We The People.
What bin Laden was surprised about was that the towers fell. He was an engineer and did not realize how poorly constructed the WTC was.
Prior to 9/11 Al Qaeda was a very organized force with cells around the world. 9/11 was of course very well planned out knowing how vulnerable we were at airports. The pilots actually trained inside the U.S. at our flight schools and only on how to take off in in a large commercial jet. Astounding.
And as far as war, it was Plato that said about mankind, “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
Guess it depends on what one has been
reading; it appears Al Qaeda is more a result of our own ineptness than any brilliant manuevering on Bin Laden’s part. Here’s a snippet from Newsweek, June 28 2006: http://www.newsweek.com/id/52476
“Neither do any of these supposed Al Qaeda operatives that were trumped up by administration officials in 2002 and 2003. Every single one of these stories, when subjected to the harsh light of public scrutiny, has collapsed.” Those of us who have been on the war-on-terror beat since 9/11 have been reluctant to write about Al Qaeda this way, although some of us have suspected for a long time the group was never all that it was cracked up to be. Especially in the immediate wake of the horrific but brilliantly coordinated attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, it seemed absurdly risky—if not downright unpatriotic—to suggest that perhaps Muhammad Atta was the best bin Laden had, his Hail Mary pass, so to speak.
But there was substantial evidence showing that, up to 9/11, Al Qaeda could barely hold its act together, that it was a failing group, hounded from every country it tried to roost in (except for the equally lunatic Taliban-run Afghanistan). That it didn’t represent the mainstream view even in the jihadi community, much less the rest of the Muslim world. This is the reality of the group that the Bush administration has said would engage us in a “long war” not unlike the cold war—the group that has led to the transformation of U.S. foreign policy and America’s image in the world. The intelligence community generally agrees that the number of true A-list Al Qaeda operatives out there around the time of 9/11 was no more than about 1,000, perhaps as few as 500, most in and around Afghanistan. It is also fairly well established that bin Laden and his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, were engaged in a fierce pre-9/11 struggle with their own meager band of followers over whether it was wise to take on the “far enemy”—the United States—when many jihadis really wanted to engage the “near enemy,” their national regimes, like Egyptian autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
The ultimate tragedy of the Iraq war was not only that it diverted the U.S. from the knockout blow against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan—the deaths of bin Laden and Zawahiri would likely have persuaded most jihadis it was wiser to focus on the near enemy—but that Iraq also altered the outcome of Al Qaeda’s internal debate, tipping it in bin Laden’s favor. “Iraq ended that debate because it fused the near and the far enemy,” as Arquilla puts it succinctly. America ventured into the lands of jihad and willingly offered itself as a target in place of the local regimes. And as a new cause that revived the flagging Al Qaeda movement. It is, no doubt, bin Laden’s greatest victory.”
What the article shows is that we were so lax in our view of this threat that all it toom was a bunch of thugs with box cutters to commit this act. They were actually training inside the U.S. and no one thought that was suspicious?
Newsweek is not the most credibible news organization for many years now. Behind this so-called rag tag group was a sophisticated system of financing coming out of countries like Saudi Arabia.
Jihad has always depended on leaders who were well financed and followers who were blindly committed to lose their life for the cause. Weapons sophistication was not a requirement nor was sophisticated war strategy. What did it take to bomb the Cole or the WTC in ‘93?
When Obama states that the central front on the war on terror was al Quaeda in Afganistan he proved that he had no idea what the nature and the scope of radical islamic jihad was. To believe that Al Qaeda or other radical Islamists existed on in Afghanistan is naive. These people all were born in the Middle East which is where their funding has come from and to blame anything the U.S. did was convenient.
The central threat to our security is not in Afghanistan – it is in Pakistan and the threat is the potential of their getting the nuclear weapons. The other central threat is Iran and Obama is leaving Israel (intentionally or not) no choice but to take action on their own soon.
Basically, you’re off the mark in placing central threats; it’s right here at home, as this country keeps splintering farther and farther apart. Just look at the hate filled comments on this an other blogs. An example is your dismissal of anything in Newsweek as viable, since it doesn’t fit your personal agenda. No thought involved; just toss it out the window.
There was an interesting story on Dateline?? last night about an undercover FBI agent was had the hijackers in his sights. However, despite his protests, he was taken off the case and his cover blown in some minor operation. Of course the FBI denies his story, but he claims every word is true. I tend to believe the agent and not the CMA version of the FBI.
Whatever the case, there’s waaaaaaaay to much information being hidden or withheld concerning this incident. How sad, to make a truly sad situation even worse by covering up and hindering the attempts to discover the truth. The victims, their relatives and our country deserve better.
(Posted twice due to the Spam Monster.)
Reply went down the rat hole.
Well done Larry.
This is a day that should be reserved for solemn reflection on heartbreaking personal and national loss. It’s a day where we as a nation should set aside the partisan issues that we squabble with each other about on a daily basis, and focus on those issues that hold us together as a country. Today we should collectively stoke the flame of resolve to halt the advances of our enemies and drive them back to Hell. Let’s refresh our vigilant detemination to never let a 9/11 to happen again.
But you Larry, have decided to make it a day for whipping up a new round of blame speculation and petty finger pointing. A day for tossing rotten tomatoes at Bush, Condi Rice, Cheney, and anyone else that YOU have issues with. Very classy! I bet you’re a real hoot at funerals.
Once Bush was elected in November of that year, it is my understanding that classified briefings were given to the in coming Bush administration.
Part of me, in hind-sight, had a false sense of security, due to the “experienced hands” that formed the nucleus of the incoming administration.
Say what you will about any of the players involved, many were not idiots. I remembered thinking, that there wasn’t much I would agree with but national security was the “Republican issue”, even though
The final report (issued in January 2001)
.
LJ, question have any been put into practice?
That Katie Coric interview with you was, I believe, the first time I had heard you speak.
Thanks for the education since then.
last and most important a moment of ” ” …. for my childhood friends who died that day and all the other loved ones who never said goodbye.
I always wondered and still think that TWA Flight 800 was shot down.
Could it have been shot down by shoulder-fired Stingers of the type used by Islamic guerrillas during the Afghanistan war?
The “official” word was that TWA 800 was too high for a Stinger to have brought it down. Really? Since becoming aware of the MSM and their willingness to coverup, our own government treacherous behavior, I am of a mind not to believe a damned thing any of them spin.
Our so called government hide an attack on US soil during World War II. For our own good. They brought in Nazi scientists with Operation Paperclip.
They have collaborated in other “experments” against America citizens. Maybe “they” don’t like us any. It is time to return their feelings. March or attend something on 9/12, it is time, it is past time.
Nelson Demille wrote a great book, Night Fall, using all real evidence and witnesses, etc. to create a fictional story, and weaves it into a very dramatic ending. It is quite an interesting way to read about the events surrounding TWA 800. I don’t want to give away the ending.
http://www.nelsondemille.net/books/night_fall.asp?id=desc
Thank you LJ.
And peace to all who have been personally touched by this horrible event.
I am disgusted by people like Van Jones (and possibly our president and first lady) who feel that somehow America is responsible for the attacks. That’s like blaming the victim of a murder or rape when it is the perpetrator’s insanity that caused the crime. Yet, on 9/12 Van Jones and others held a vigil to “sympathize” with muslims against what he termed “American Imperialism”, and taunted that there will be more coming. People like this (and I include the Obamas as long as he admits that if “anything happens, he will side with the muslims”) do not belong in a leadership role in our country. They do not love this country sufficiently to tell the rest of us what to do.
My heart goes out to the families, who will never forget. I hope they realize that millions of Americans share their grief and will never forget, right along with them.
Thank you Larry J. The Americans lost on 9/11 will never be forgotten.
“Tears are the silent language of grief”
Voltaire
Remembering what happened and taking a moment to mourn those who suffered horrifically from the 9-11 attack is something all Americans should do. But, they should be honest about it, both to themselves, and to others. Don’t just regurgitate cheap talking points; it cheapens the victims’ memories. Most Americans were horrified by what happened, and every American loves their country. It’s just that some Americans prefer to use their brains instead of just regurgitating cheap partisan talking points about it.
It isn’t a question of whether or not the government was “responsible” for the 9-11 attacks; the real question, which plagues us to this day, is what actually happened. Was it just a bureacracy failure, or should people be held accountable for this massive failure to protect the American people?
Forget Van Jones.
The 9-11 Commissioners say another investigation is needed to determine the truth. No one ever mentions that small, but significant fact.
The 9-11 Commissioners themselves have stated that they were lied to; the government stalled, obfuscated, and hid many facts from them, so that the 9-11 Commission was not able to determine the truth.
FBI Agent Colleen Rowley has stated publicly that there should be another investigation into 9-11. Even Larry says there are unanswered questions. Why allow yourself to be propagandized into colluding in a conspiracy of silence about it? Shouldn’t Americans be clamoring to have all the answers?
Not seeking the truth about an event such as 9-11 is really an exercise in DENIAL. What is it that people don’t want to hear, I wonder, when attacking questions about 9-11 as “radical.”
It’s not Van Jones’ signing a petition about 9-11 that should be the focus; it’s his associations with STORM, and other “revolutionary” organizations that should be the key point.
The best way to mourn, to remember, and to honor the victims of 9-11, is to have the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, about how and why they suffered such an horrific fate.
If you aren’t arguing for the truth, you’re burying them in Bush and Cheney’s, Rice and Tenet’s lies.
If you want the truth, start with how the Clinton minions were burying or even stealing evidence.
The 9/11 Commission was a joke and a political food fight that accomplished nothing. It led to a series of recommendations, most of which had already been implemented.
I would like to know specifically what information was known by Clarke that the Bush administration was supposed to follow up on. Did they know the names and whereabouts of suspected terrorists? Did they know the means and locations of where terror attacks were going to take place even if they did not have dates? Did they know that terrorists were actually flight training in U.S. schools? Were they tracking funds transfers internationally to known terror suspects?
My question for the last 8 years and today was why bin Laden was still alive when Bush took office?
Ditto
And a respectful shout out to Larry for keeping the story alive.
Thanks very much for these remarks Mountainaires. Plenty of information has come to light over the past few years calling attention to the inadequacies of the official investigation. Many people are calling for a new committee with subpoena powers and a sufficient budget to conduct a thorough inquiry.
If you had been in Manhattan four miles from Ground Zero, as I was on Sept. 11, 2001, you would never be the same. I was born and raised in Manhattan, and we native New Yorkers are usually prepared for ANYTHING — but not for THAT.
You had to live through the experience of 9/11 to really get the feeling of it. Our “first responders” — firefighters, police, and emergency medical technicians — as well as various individuals who sifted through the rubble afterward, continue to suffer and die from 9/11-related illnesses. And sadly, they struggle to receive treatment as they continue to get resistance from the health insurance companies, the NYC bureaucracy, and so on. This is something we deal with daily here. Sept. 11th is not an event from which we New Yorkers have “moved on”.
I remember Laura Bush speaking about the attacks and saying in November 2001:
“We’ve been living in an age of self-absorption and self-indulgence … The amazing thing is that in one day, it all stopped and we started to rethink things.”
Well, that may have been true for a while immediately following the attacks, but as Larry points out, there has been precious little to show for our response to these horrible incidents other than what appears to be two never-ending wars and an increase in meaningless government bureaucracy which show no signs of ending under Obama.
As a fellow NY’er I think you said it all so eloquently.
Still devastating to look back. Made even more so by the fact that we don’t seem to have learned anything from this tragedy.
It will happen again. The only question is “when?”.
Oh my–I did not realize how raw I still am until I scrolled those photos and burst into tears.
I was just watching Way Too Early and Willy was interviewing NY Gov, and showing images, and then I saw your comment.
The images just bring it all back. It was such an awful day. I was 3000 miles away, in Seattle, but reading Allahpundits comments today on Twitter I can’t even IMAGINE what NY’ers went through.
It was just awful awful awful. I was scared sitting in my house. Can’t even imagine those who were at ground zero. Or those on the plane. Or those who jumped.
Absolutely utterly awful.
Honoring September 11th: Frank
by Chris Burgard
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cburgard/2009/09/11/honoring-september-11th-frank/
It’s been eight years. And they have been long years.
“But I still believe…”
I did not lose any loved ones on that day. I cannot place myself in the shoes of those who are filled with that emptiness on this day. I would not do them the disservice of trying.
But I love them, those that we lost and those that survive them. I love them. They are my countrymen. And I cried today, during of all things, my morning run. And it made me run faster. It made me run faster, not out of fear, but an anger that is hard to explain but that those of us who understand what happened all feel.
“I still believe…”
Do you all remember how we felt the day AFTER 9/11? Oh that glorious rage. It was a unifying fury that allowed us to come together as a nation and finally understand, to finally, that the enemy had revealed itself. Oh, they had tried before, there had been attacks and bombings and murder, all in the name of a hijacked religion, a religion that now stands at a crossroads and must decide — on its own — where it will go.
But for me, and many Americans, it was eight years ago today that the enemy walked out into the open and said “We are here…and our madness is eternal. We are here…we are void…humanity need not apply.”
So I wept during my run this morning. For those that died, for those that survive them, for me, my wife, my children, my country.
It was liberating in a way, to let the anger, frustration and emotion flow.
So where are we? Eight years later…where do we stand?
We stand at the brink of a progressive deconstruction of the nation we love. There is a horrifying apathy that pulses at the heart of the progressive movement, once so proud but now stolen by greed and deceit. It is a narcissistic and cowardly move towards the void, to a world where there is no personal responsibility and personal greatness and achievement are to be derided.
The current president of the United States stands at the head of this horrifying mass of mindless apathy, his upturned head pointed towards a heaven he believes only he can see. We stand here because the politicians decided they mattered, the former president lost his way, the current president is – in fact – a liar, and America stands at this precipice, waiting to jump, feeling the push of the faux-progressive movement. Wondering if it would just be easier to jump than fight back.
“But I still believe…”
…so I’m not jumping. I’m not jumping, I’m reaching out. To the heart of what the Democratic Party used to be, those sad souls left in the dust by those that hijacked their party, much like those that hijacked those planes eight years ago today. Am I equating those leading the destruction of my country to the mindless evil that is Islamic fundamentalism? Yes, I’m sorry to say, I am. That is harsh on this day of remembrance, and I apologize for this, but this is nothing that I made. THEY made what is happening now and I will not jump with them. I am not afraid of what my future holds, for they thrive on the fear they instill in those that vote for them.
“I still believe…”
I am standing up, for it is time. I will stand with the good gentleman from South Carolina on this day and decry this administration as well.
What is happening is real, and on this day, eight years later, I still believe, in you, in me, in those that have the guts to push back.
We all do not agree on every issue that faces this great nation, that I understand. But we do, I believe, share the same deep, limitless love of country that once made this nation great.
Thank you for standing up as well. In just over 12 months we have a chance to right this ship. And 38 months from now, there will be hell to pay for a vacuous conglomerate of pseudo-intellectuals who overplayed their hand, awoke a sleeping giant and dismissed the presence of true evil in this world.
I bide my time, I stand vigilant against tyranny, be it in the form of jihad or the expansion of government. I still believe, and I stand here eight years after the world changed to let you know that I — unlike those who decry a war on terror — have not forgotten.
Take care,
Patrick
Could not, did not have say it as well as you did.
However what I can do is stand with you and Joe Wilson.
Amazing and moving statement, Patrick!
Thank you for standing up and speaking out. On this day when we all remember and mourn, we also honor the ones who gave their lives because of what our country represents. I don’t want them to’ve died in vain.
Patrick:
I’ll stand with you too, man.
It’s been eight years. And they have been long years.
“But I still believe…”
I did not lose any loved ones on that day. I cannot place myself in the shoes of those who are filled with that emptiness on this day. I would not do them the disservice of trying.
But I love them, those that we lost and those that survive them. I love them. They are my countrymen. And I cried today, during of all things, my morning run. And it made me run faster. It made me run faster, not out of fear, but an anger that is hard to explain but that those of us who understand what happened all feel.
“I still believe…”
Do you all remember how we felt the day AFTER 9/11? Oh that glorious rage. It was a unifying fury that allowed us to come together as a nation and finally understand, to finally, that the enemy had revealed itself. Oh, they had tried before, there had been attacks and bombings and murder, all in the name of a hijacked religion, a religion that now stands at a crossroads and must decide — on its own — where it will go.
But for me, and many Americans, it was eight years ago today that the enemy walked out into the open and said “We are here…and our madness is eternal. We are here…we are void…humanity need not apply.”
So I wept during my run this morning. For those that died, for those that survive them, for me, my wife, my children, my country.
It was liberating in a way, to let the anger, frustration and emotion flow.
So where are we? Eight years later…where do we stand?
We stand at the brink of a progressive deconstruction of the nation we love. There is a horrifying apathy that pulses at the heart of the progressive movement, once so proud but now stolen by greed and deceit. It is a narcissistic and cowardly move towards the void, to a world where there is no personal responsibility and personal greatness and achievement are to be derided.
The current president of the United States stands at the head of this horrifying mass of mindless apathy, his upturned head pointed towards a heaven he believes only he can see. We stand here because the politicians decided they mattered, the former president lost his way, the current president is – in fact – a liar, and America stands at this precipice, waiting to jump, feeling the push of the faux-progressive movement. Wondering if it would just be easier to jump than fight back.
“But I still believe…”
…so I’m not jumping. I’m not jumping, I’m reaching out. To the heart of what the Democratic Party used to be, those sad souls left in the dust by those that hijacked their party, much like those that hijacked those planes eight years ago today. Am I equating those leading the destruction of my country to the mindless evil that is Islamic fundamentalism? Yes, I’m sorry to say, I am. That is harsh on this day of remembrance, and I apologize for this, but this is nothing that I made. THEY made what is happening now and I will not jump with them. I am not afraid of what my future holds, for they thrive on the fear they instill in those that vote for them.
“I still believe…”
I am standing up, for it is time. I will stand with the good gentleman from South Carolina on this day and decry this administration as well.
What is happening is real, and on this day, eight years later, I still believe, in you, in me, in those that have the guts to push back.
We all do not agree on every issue that faces this great nation, that I understand. But we do, I believe, share the same deep, limitless love of country that once made this nation great.
Thank you for standing up as well. In just over 12 months we have a chance to right this ship. And 38 months from now, there will be hell to pay for a vacuous conglomerate of pseudo-intellectuals who overplayed their hand, awoke a sleeping giant and dismissed the presence of true evil in this world.
I bide my time, I stand vigilant against tyranny, be it in the form of jihad or the expansion of government. I still believe, and I stand here eight years after the world changed to let you know that I — unlike those who decry a war on terror — have not forgotten.
Sincerely,
Patrick
Thank you Larry and Susan for this post. Those pictures just broke my heart, especially the pictures of those who jumped or fell from those buildings. The memories are still so fresh in my mind, even after 8 years, it’s as if it were yesterday.
Yes, just like it was yesterday.
Is our President at Ground Zero today? That should be a given for any President. Preside over the memorial every year and give comfort to the families of the victims and survivors.
Excellent post. Bin Laden is an anarchist and nothing more. He is the literal destructive manifestation bearing the same sentiments of those who use Cloward-Piven type anarchist tactics against our nation. He isn’t home grown, but he could have been very easily. The source of the pure evil in the end may prove to be this conglomerate of pseudo-intellectuals who hate this nation deeply. I pray this nation can awaken in time.
This morning as I looked down the street in American family Tampa suburbia… I saw one yard that had anything that remembers 911. It was our yard. America as a whole has successfully been programmed to forget about 911. There is an old adage about being doomed to repeat that which we forget. I will leave it at that.
Take heart Docelder. I cried many times today and actually started the morning by playing my new CD of Neil Diamond’s “Coming to America”. I don’t have anything out in my yard, but my grief was still deep, not only for 9-11, but for the state of our country today.
This past week I attended a Tea Party on one of the TeaParty Express stops. I live in a suburb of Pgh where most of the residents work about 25 miles away. Nevertheless, the place was jam packed with “mobsters”. I had to park a mile away from the event. Funny our local news stations had not a thing about it in the 6pm or 11pm news. I was delighted thought to see the turn-out at 2:30pm on a weekday. I was reassured that I am not alone in my frustration, and we are little by little making our voices heard.
There are defining moments in our lives, those crystal-clear fragments of time when we can recall exactly where we were and what we were doing when the world changed forever. Pearl Harbor, Kennedy’s assassination, the first moon landing, Columbine. September 11, 2001 will never again be just my friend Sue’s birthday.
I don’t have words to express the sorrow I feel for those who lost loved ones on that day. But I will remember why they mourn.
How could anyone forget that horrific day? I was living in the “heartland” and ironically that morning before I left for work I did not turn on my television nor did I turn on the radio in the car (not my usual behavior). At some deep level I must have sensed the ominous events that were transpiring in our country.
I arrived at work (was a teacher at a PDO program at the time)and was totally shocked to find out what had happened the one morning, I did not listen or watch the news. We had our classes as usual and tried to carry on as best as possible in front of the children but there were many glistening eyes and tears shed for those who lost their lives that day. I also thought about all those who have served our country -both living and deceased. I thought about my father, a WWII vet, who had passed away in September of 2000 and silently gave thanks that he was not alive to witness this event.
Thank-you Larry and Susan for reminding us all that we must never forget.
Moment of remembrance for Rick Rescorla
Blessings for the souls of the dead and their surviving families and friends.
I think the Dept. of Homeland Security is a waste of resources and all national/homeland security ought to operate at the Dept. of Defense. We have too many security agencies. Surely there is a way to get rid of a few and streamline the rest. Lotta mid level mgt ought to go as well.
Kick out all the CZARS as well. bho the fraud and his politburo are dangerous.
Never Forget.
Nice link-thanks.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1921659,00.html
I hope this book will provide some answers. Without answers will will never have solutions.
One thing that came out after 9/11 was the information that different departments were creating their own little kingdoms. The created an epic failure.
In my working life I found the businesses have the same problem. One thing I learned was
Information and Cooperation are wonderful things pass them on.
If each department understands what other departments need things can run a lot faster and smoother. Everybody wins Paychecks usually only have one logo on them and that is not the department name.
WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS
PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE PEOPLE RULE
Thank you so much for posting this Larry. I think we can all remember vividly where we were and what we were doing when the planes hit the Towers. I was watching the Today Show that morning, and it just seemed so totally unbelievable that something like that could happen in this country. I think I cried all that day. I cried for the people who died in the Towers and on the planes and wondered how their families would cope.
There was so much fear and uncertainty. The images on the television were so horrible and heart wrenching. So many people just wandering around in complete shock. I remember your on air conversation with Katie. You were the go-to guy then and you’re still the go-to guy, as far as I’m concerned.
Terror-Sponsor China Awarded 9-11 Memorial Tower Contract
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/09/terrorsponsor_china_awarded_91.html
Last month I signed a petition against this, so I do not think it has been changed from the current plan.
FLIGHT 93 MEMORIAL: SEEING IS BELIEVING
Bush/Cheney knew about the 9/11 plot and intentionally did nothing to stop it. They needed a pretext to go to war in Afganistan/Iraq and also to further carry out their unitarian philosophy on the Presidency.
Larry, that is why there was and will be no criminal investigation of 9/11.
Sad…of all days to lick the sewers.
I weep for you and what you’ve become.
*sigh*
You really should get that BDS checked out with your healthcare provider.
But aren’t you essentially doing the same thing with Clinton?
So you also believe that “Bush/Cheney knew about the 9/11 plot and intentionally did nothing to stop it.”
Maybe you should also check out that case of BDS.
Where did I say such a thing? LOL
You CDS is all over the board blaming Clinton for bin Laden not being dead prior to Bush taking office. While giving him a huge pass for not having any meetings on terrorism with the attack on The USS Cole a month before his election.
Geez…snap out of and join us in reality.
should be…snap out of ‘it’ and join us in reality.
http://www.fdnylodd.com/9-11-Never-Forget/Memorials/Blood-Of-Heroes.html
We still do not have a good explanation of why the CIA refused to share with the FBI the info it had that Al Qaeda operatives had come into the United States.
In his public testimony before the 9/11 Commission, Attorney General John Ashcroft exposed Commissioner Jamie Gorelick’s role in undermining the nation’s security capabilities by issuing a directive insisting that the FBI and federal prosecutors ignore information gathered through intelligence investigations.
In other words, the “wall of separation” constructed by Jamie Gorelick made it virtually impossible for U.S. authorities to stop Ahmed Rassam, the “Millenium Bomber,” by design or intention. It was left to blind luck. The NSC’s Millennium After Action Review — which, based on Attorney General Ashcroft’s testimony, must be devastating in its analysis of not only this event but of the Gorelick policy — remains classified.
What was Jamie Gorelick doing on the 9/11 Commission?
The question I have had was why bin Laden still alive when Bush took office? The reason the answer to that is important is because we have fallen into a policy even more dangerous than pre-9/11 with Obama and no one in the media is addressing it.
http://rebelreports.com/post/142205469/the-democrats-selective-amnesia-on-assassination
How many documents ended up in Sandy Burglar’s socks and underwear?
No, that’s not true. Gorelick didn’t have much to do with that. It was a problem long before she showed up. This really was an unfair criticism of her. There always has been the tension on the use of intel vice evidence and the sharing of such between the FBI and the CIA.
Larry, while that may be true, Gorelick’s 1995 “Instructions on Separation of Certain Foreign Counterintelligence and Criminal Investigations” prevented the foreign intelligence and criminal investigative communities from collaborating. If this was already policy then why was her memo necessary? The result of what was called Gorelick’s wall (she used the term “walled off”) obstructed the investigation into Atta and Moussaoui.
Ironically the next place Gorelick ends up was as Vice Chairman of Fannie Mae.
I am still flabbergasted that Gorelick ended up on the 9/11 Commission.
Bush and Cheney failed to fix the national security interagency process
It doesn’t sound like that process is something that any president could fix without serious cooperation from agency personnel …
“The interagency is not a place. It is a process involving human beings and complex organizations with different cultures, different outlooks on whatis good for the national interest and the best policy to pursue all driven by the compulsion to defend and expand turf. The process is political (therefore conflictual)because at stake is power, personal, institutional, or party. The power game involves the push and pull of negotiation, the guarding of policy prerogatives, of hammering out compromises, and the normal human and institutional propensity to resist change.13 Regardless of the style of the president and the structures developed for the management of national security policy, the interagency process performs the same basic functions: identifies policy issues and questions, formulates options, raises issues to the appropriate level for decisions, makes decisions where appropriate, and oversees the implementation of decisions throughout the executive departments.”
…
“The tensions generated by cultural differences and jealousy over turf will always be part of the interagency process. The diplomatic and the military cultures dominate the national security system, though there are other cultures and even subcultures, within the dominant cultures.”
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/army-usawc/strategy2004/17marcella.pdf
Hind sight is ALWAYS 20/20… Asking why or who is accountable is a mute point.
Asking WHY our CURRENT admin…, mainly obama, is so unwilling to recognize terrorism, call it by its name, and even goes so far as to SUCK UP TO COUNTRIES that supported this violence against us, is more to the point!!! HOW FREAKIN NAIVE AND IGNORANT are we??!!!
As pointed out at length above, Osama bin Laden is a convenient boogeyman but probably neither architect nor complicit in the WTC attacks.
Had this been regarded as a criminal act– a crime against humanity– the entire planet would have been on the side of the United States. Even bin Laden was stunned by the fact that the towers were brought to the ground, and at that moment, even Al Qaida members were shook by the mayhem– I don’t think it’s quite what they intended.
Had this been regarded as a criminal act, we would have gone to work with the rest of the planet to bring those responsible to justice.
An extraordinary number of Afghanis, and let’s don’t even talk about the inexplicable Iraqi genocide, would still be alive to kiss their children on the forehead as they went to work in the morning.
Bin Laden claimed credit for September 11:
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2004/10/29/binladen_message041029.html
The only surprise that bin Laden had as an engineer was that the tower fell. The plan had been all along to bring a collapse to the world economic markets with this terror attack.
What you are talking about makes absolutely no sense so I am not sure why I am even responding to it. I may suggest calling Charlie Sheen or Rose O’Donnell.