911: Twenty Years After

[AndyinPA]

As this anniversary approaches, I’ve been thinking we are going to be seeing and hearing a lot about this. I wasn't quite expecting this, though.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/9- ... l-n1276138

Nearly 1,800 Americans directly affected by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are opposing President Joe Biden’s participation in any memorial events this year unless he upholds his pledge to declassify U.S. government evidence that they believe may show a link between Saudi Arabian leaders and the attacks.

The victims’ family members, first responders and survivors will release a statement Friday calling on Biden to skip 20th-anniversary events in New York and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon unless he releases the documents, which they believe implicate Saudi officials in supporting the acts of terrorism. The group says that as a candidate Biden pledged to be more transparent and release as much information as possible but that his administration has since then ignored their letters and requests.

“We cannot in good faith, and with veneration to those lost, sick, and injured, welcome the president to our hallowed grounds until he fulfills his commitment,” they wrote in a statement obtained by NBC News.

“Since the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission in 2004 much investigative evidence has been uncovered implicating Saudi government officials in supporting the attacks,” the statement says. “Through multiple administrations, the Department of Justice and the FBI have actively sought to keep this information secret and prevent the American people from learning the full truth about the 9/11 attacks.”

Of course, who knows what this anniversary is going to bring?

[Luke]

It's hard to believe it's been 20 years. We were less than a quarter of a mile from the WTC on the top floor of our building with views downtown. We watched Tower 2 fall. We had friends that died and there's still a PTSD over it that may never go away. That there are 20-year-olds who weren't even around is mindblowing. It will be a reflective day and hope to encourage folks on Twitter to take one day to be kind to each other. In the aftermath of 9/11, there was a unity that hasn't happened again; that's perhaps the most positive thing that came out of the tragedy and it's terribly sad to see how far from that America has gotten. God bless those who perished and those who are still struggling.

[Maybenaut]

We have friends visiting. Their young boys were telling me all about what they’re learning about 9/11 in school. It made me happy to know that they’re interested and they get it.

[bill_g]

That day is hard to forget, but I was extremely busy into the holidays, very busy afterwards until the 4th of July, and merely busy up to the first year after.

[AndyinPA]

We have friends visiting. Their young boys were telling me all about what they’re learning about 9/11 in school. It made me happy to know that they’re interested and they get it.

My granddaughter never quite understood what it was about. When she was ten (two years ago), we stopped at Shanksville on the way back from a Lancaster trip. She was fascinated by the exhibits at the Visitor Center and came away saying she understood it.

It's not far off the PA Turnpike near Somerset. If you are interested, I think they did an excellent job, and it's very moving. The first time we were there was about a year after, and there was only a make-shift memorial set up by families and people who stopped by. We have been back several times, so we saw it as it went through development to the full memorial it is now. I don't think they could have done a better job.

I've been to the one in NYC, and find it very moving, too, but there's something about the silence at Shanksville that really gets to you.

[Volkonski]

I was at work that morning when someone came by my office to say something was happening in New York.

I pulled up CNN on my computer and saw the news. Before the second plane strike we thought the first plane strike might be a tragic accident.

Some of us went down to the cafeteria where the TV news was projected on two large screens. Soon it became clear that it was a deliberate attack.

The staff assistants started to contact those group members who were traveling to make sure they were alright.

Bush grounded all commercial flights. Our group was the central engineering center for a large international chemical company. We had people traveling or about to travel all over the world. Travel plans had to be canceled. People who were away often had no good way to get back. Those traveling in the USA rushed to rent cars in order to drive back.

The security department limited access to the site to employees and told contract personnel not to come in.

Our operations were disrupted for months due to travel restrictions and security scares.

Soon in order to bring a vendor or even someone from one of our other sites on to our site you had to provide their info to security days in advance to get clearance.

The Oklahoma City bombing had been only 6 years earlier. A truck bomb was what was feared most.

Our company had several large plants in the middle east. There were usually a number of engineers from there in our site for training or temporary assignments. We feared for their safety a soon as attacks on dark-skinned people began.

Security remained elevated until my retirement 9 years later. It is probably still elevated.

Here it is 20 years later. Things haven't gotten better in many ways.

[Slim Cognito]

I was living at the Lake of the Ozarks. I was working so knew nothing until soon-to-be Hubs called me. Spent the rest of the day in front of my 19 inch tv. I remember it being hard to breath.

My next door neighbor was in the air at the time and her flight was immediately grounded, I want to say not far west of DC, maybe Columbus? She and her traveling companion tried to rent a car but they weren't renting them for out of town travel, so she lied and drove it 600 miles home anyway.

Our wedding was scheduled for Vegas Oct 13. Flights were up and running by then but security was insane. I remember getting to the airport several hours early to pass thru security and there was military everywhere. We saw a dark-skinned couple, not sure of their ethnicity but I want to say Indian or Pakistani, move up for their turn and the three military people that had been happily chatting away immediately perked up and moved intimidatingly close to them as they were searched. I remember thinking that wasn't right.

I'd had carpal tunnel surgery about two weeks before and was using the time off for my honeymoon. They wouldn't let me wear my splint. I had to remove it for the flight.

It almost seems like a dream now.

[AndyinPA]

I was at home the day of the attack. I remember being shocked, but not surprised. For a while, the event seemed to bring us together as a country. That didn't last long. We are worse off as a country since then. We focused so much on the others that the domestic idiots grew largely unchecked.

My first exasperating experience after the bombing was actually after the shoe bombing attempt a few months later. We flew to Alaska the February after that. Since it was February, we had to wear our heavy boots. I lost count of how many times, not just at the initial airports, we had to take those boots off. As part of the trip, we had taken the train from Talkeetna (north of Anchorage) to Fairbanks. We flew back from Fairbanks to Anchorage. Since we only had one-way tickets, we went through enhanced security checks, even after the plane was loaded and waiting. I wanted to scream!

Twenty years later, I still think security at the airports is mostly theater.

[Volkonski]

While I was in Texas Mrs. V and her mother were still on the North Fork getting ready to drive back down.

They watched the news on Mrs. V's aunt's TV next door.

NYC closed its bridges which trapped them on Long Island for a few days.

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

Summer of '97, I attended a weekend party hosted by a member of my old gaming group (by then I had transferred from Carnegie-Mellon to Michigan Tech for their power engineering degree) on their family farm outside a small town called Shanksville, PA. When they started showing the downed flight in Pennsylvania, I realized that it was only a few miles away from that farm. I could even see the farmhouse in some of the aerial shots.

My future father-in-law was on a flight from Detroit to the west coast when his flight was grounded in Kansas City. He was calling all the rental places trying to get transport back home, when he overheard the guy in the payphone booth next to him was able to get a Uhaul truck but needed cash for the rental. My FIL always travels with cash, and since they were both going to Michigan, they worked out a deal to travel together.

I travelled by plane the 12 months after 9-11 more often than I had my entire life previous. I was laid off exactly one month later (probably not related to 9-11, but it certainly didn't help) as my company dumped 20% of it's workforce through layoffs or early retirement (my father in the latter group). I manged to land another job a few weeks later, but my first project required me to fly to California five times, a week at a time. The project? Tracing down all the electrical wiring at NASA's Ames Research Center. Which just happens to be a joint Air Force base. And since this was somewhat disruptive, we were doing this late at night. So a few months after 9-11, I had unescorted, after hours access to a joint NASA-Air Force base. The first day there, we sat in a room for 8 hours while they did background checks.

While this was going on, I also flew to England for my father's wedding. And then in late August, we flew to Scotland for our own honeymoon (we got married in May, but had chosen to delay the main portion of the honeymoon so we could partake in a number of activities). We were still there for the first anniversary of 9-11.

[p0rtia]

I was in Egypt, just returned from a couple of months in the States.

Two days before, I'd been at the US Open tennis. I remember standing on the walkways of Arthur Ashe Stadium in the evening, looking at the lights of the Twin Towers amidst the city. It was magnificent.

[Kendra]

I was on the way to work when the news broke. We spent the day crying and hugging while we tried to watch the coverage. No cable at the office and no smart phones with CNN apps back then.

I appreciated GW's words at Shanksville today. CNN discussed them extensively, I popped over to Fax a bit, perhaps I missed their coverage of it.

[Volkonski]

[p0rtia]

Twitter is awash with MAGA folk interpreting this to mean Bush is calling out BLM and antifa*.

This is par for the course with Bush in the last few years; he makes eloquent-sounding
statements about dangers within, but he will not name names. Media go dewy-eyed.
MAGA reads the circumspection as confirmation of their positions. And who's to say
it isn't?

[AndyinPA]

I was in Egypt, just returned from a couple of months in the States.

Two days before, I'd been at the US Open tennis. I remember standing on the walkways of Arthur Ashe Stadium in the evening, looking at the lights of the Twin Towers amidst the city. It was magnificent.

We took a cruise out of NYC in the early 1990s. Sailing past those was amazing. I never forgot that. We've cruised out of there twice since they came down, and it's nice, but it's not the same.

[Dr. Ken]

First semester Junior year of college. I was heading into my first class when I had stopped in our AV room as I usually checked to see what was on the news. At the time I was walking in they were talking about the first plane. Back then they thought it was a small plane. I ended up going to my class which was some english writing class. Having been distracted I kept going out of class and back to the tv to see what was going on. Halfway through class I think is when the second plane hit. I spent the rest of the day watching with other students. They ended up cancelling classes for the rest of the day. A friend of mine was in the hallway crying as her brother worked at the pentagon and she hadn't heard from him. Luckily we found out later on that he was okay I remember feeling numb for a while afterwards

[sad-cafe]

We have friends visiting. Their young boys were telling me all about what they’re learning about 9/11 in school. It made me happy to know that they’re interested and they get it.

I took time with my students yesterday to remember. There are some awesome you tube videos to make it easier for kids to "feel" it.

Also-look for the "Falling Man" video. IT is amazing.

[sad-cafe]

Where were you on 9/11/2001?
I was teaching my first year at West High. We were in the library doing research on explorers when the librarian Norma Hilton came in and said something is on tv that might be pretty historical. I think you should let your students watch. We turned the TV on and watched the 2nd tower hit and the possibility of another plane on its way to the White House. Later we learned that that plane was the Flight 93 plane. Pretty much all thought of explorers was over for the rest of the day. Much like where were you when Pearl Harbor was attacked this generation has a moment they will never forget. I will never forget the outpouring of love from my students as we made our thinking of you quilt that we had sent to DC. I still have pictures and the letter response from President Bush.

[jcolvin2]

Where were you on 9/11/2001?

I had decided to take the day off and do a hike up to Cascade Pass in the North Cascades National Park. On the drive up, the radio informed me about what happened. As I hiked in, I ran into a number of people who had been camping in the mountains and who had not heard the news. When I told them that was going on in NYC, they looked at me like I was crazy. As I made my way up the Sahale Arm, I could see fighter jets scrambling (maybe from the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station?) and heading north towards Canada.

[pjhimself]

[Fiascoist]

I was at home, living in Oregon. Turned the tv on before going put to feed the horses. One tower already hit. Duty calls and the animals required care. Fed them and when I returned, I noticed that one tower seemed to be leaning. And then one fell. It was surreal. I still had to go to work and by the time I got ready for work, the second one fell. No real work was done that day because every business, including the courthouse had a tv on to the news. People just moved from a tv in one business to the next tv in the next business or from a tv in the da's office to a tv outside a courtroom, including all the employees. There was an eerie calm in town, most likely because we were so far away, everyone seemingly sleepwalking through the first days.
Our house was in the path of the regional airport so for a couple of days it was very strange having no airplanes above us. I don't remember how long it took to shake off the lethargy/exhaustion of this event. But we have never returned to normal, have we.

[filly]

Twitter is awash with MAGA folk interpreting this to mean Bush is calling out BLM and antifa*.

This is par for the course with Bush in the last few years; he makes eloquent-sounding
statements about dangers within, but he will not name names. Media go dewy-eyed.
MAGA reads the circumspection as confirmation of their positions. And who's to say
it isn't?

s

Because “pluralism” is a MAGA tenet. Come on now.

[RTH10260]

Russia says Taliban canceled inauguration ceremony that was expected to take place on Sept. 11 anniversary

Joel Gehrke
Fri, September 10, 2021, 11:37 PM
I
Taliban officials have canceled their reported plans to hold an inauguration event on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that spurred the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, according to a top Russian official.

“There simply will be no inauguration,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Friday, per state media. “I think it is an obvious problem that [the Taliban] are still undecided about what they should do first.”

Russia was one of several countries reportedly invited to the militant group’s inauguration ceremony, previously expected to occur on Saturday.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-says- ... 00356.html

[Sunrise]

I was home because I had a bad cold and was sleeping, when a friend called with the horrific news. I immediately turned on the TV, of course, and basically did nothing all day but watch, talk to friends, and cry.

Being the Luddite that I am, I can’t bring it up to post it here, but the Budweiser ad that ran only once is the most powerful ad I’ve ever seen. I watch it on 9/11 every year on YouTube, and have already gone back to it three times today.

[tek]

I was on my way to a client, an hour and a half from home, ms.tek was on a business trip in Europe, daughter.tek was in school, so instead of staying a couple nights near the client I was driving back and forth.

It was a bright clear morning. I was on the offramp from I-93 to River Road in Andover MA, just minutes from the client's offices. Matty in the Morning on Kiss108FM started to say something about a small plane hit a building in NYC.

Got into the office, got onto the internet to try to figure out what was going on. Not a lot of detail. Started trying to get in touch with ms.tek, not much luck.

Eventually got a message from ms.tek through her employer, that she was on the ground at Schipol and because of her massive amount of hotel points was able to get a room for a couple nights. ATMs were not working.

Headed home to meet daughter.tek when she got home from school. Vividly remember the bright clear sky, with no contrails (the route was MA-2 west, which usually is criss-crossed with contrails from BOS/MHT/JFK/EWR/LGA/PHL flights)

Ms.tek and her co-worker ended up taking a train from Amsterdam to Juelich Germany, where a good friend was teaching on sabbatical.. they stayed a week and change there, and in that time went to a candlelight vigil in Aachen that to this day brings tears to her eyes.

Almost two weeks later ms.tek finally made it home.