~~~~ 9/11 ~~~~
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Also
In an odd twist of fate, Anna Nicole Smith lost her son unexpectedly just as she welcomed her newborn daughter into this world...
Daniel Wayne Smith, the son she had 20 years ago, died suddenly as he visited his mother at the hospital where she had just given birth to his sister.
The causes of death are still unknown. Smith died yesterday.
Hence, it is not just the 9/11 bereaved ones who are mourning today.
The widow of Steve Irwin is mourning.
The widow of João Jacinto Borges Pimentel is mourning.
So many widows, widowers and orphans are reminded of their loss on a day like this.
And, surely, Anna Nicole did not expect to be of their number on this day, which she envisioned even a happy one for herself and her close ones - but she is instead of the number of the sad ones.
Life is like that.
Full of surprises - and not all of them will be pleasant ones.
The families of the World Trade Center victims -as those of Flight 93 and Flight 77 - let they not be forgotten- will always remember that most unpleasant of all facts of life...
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posted by Luminous (\ô/) Luciano™ @ 11:11 PM
11 comments
11 Comments:
Smith's son died during hospital visit
By JESSICA ROBERTSON, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 13 minutes ago
NASSAU, Bahamas - The 20-year-old son of Anna Nicole Smith died while visiting his mother in the hospital where the reality TV star and former Playboy playmate had given birth last week, a Bahamas police official said Monday.
Daniel Wayne Smith died Sunday in his mother's room at Doctors' Hospital in Nassau, Reginald Ferguson, assistant commissioner of the Royal Bahamian Police Force, said in an interview with The Associated Press. He said an autopsy was under way.
Smith arrived Saturday night in the Bahamas and apparently went directly to the hospital where he spent the night, Ferguson said.
"It would appear from our report that the mother had gotten up, saw him in the chair and he appeared to be sound asleep," he said. "She tried to wake him up, he was unresponsive, and she sounded the alarm."
Medical personnel arrived and pronounced him dead at the scene, Ferguson said.
Anna Nicole Smith, 38, gave birth to a healthy 6-pound, 9-ounce girl at the hospital Thursday, her Web site said.
"Anna Nicole is absolutely devastated by the loss of her son. He was her pride and joy and an amazing human being," a statement on the site said. It said that drugs or alcohol were not believed to be a factor.
Her son had traveled to the Caribbean country "to share in the joy of his baby sister," the statement said. "Please do not make any press inquiries at this time so that Anna Nicole can grieve in peace."
Daniel Smith was the product of Smith's 1985 marriage to Billy Smith. The couple, who met while working together at Jim's Krispy Fried Chicken in Mexia, Texas, divorced in 1987.
The son had small roles in her movies "Skyscraper" and "To the Limit."
Robin Bonnema, a spokeswoman for Trimspa, the diet products company that has been endorsed by Smith, said she did not know the name of the baby girl's father.
Smith married Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994, when she was 26 and he was 89. He died the following year.
She then feuded with Marshall's son, Pierce Marshall, over her entitlement to the tycoon's estate before he died in June at the age of 67.
In the long-running dispute, Smith had won a $474 million judgment, which was later cut to about $89 million and eventually reduced to zero. In May, the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Smith could continue to pursue the fortune in federal courts in California despite a Texas state court ruling that Marshall's youngest son was the sole heir.
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Associated Press writer Daisy Nguyen is Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
http://www.annanicole.com
Alex Jones: Most Police, Firefighters Now Believe 9/11 Inside Job
Truth events at ground zero enjoy very encouraging reception
Paul Joseph Watson/Prison Planet.com | September 11 2006
Documentary film maker and radio host Alex Jones, coordinating today's 9/11 truth movement events in downtown New York City, says that the atmosphere around ground zero has dramatically changed, with the majority of firefighters and police officers now sympathetic to the claim that 9/11 was an inside job.
Alex is featured at the end of the Associated Press video here imploring viewers to understand that 9/11 was "a self-inflicted wound designed to create a police state in the U.S. and capture us as an engine for world government and world domination."
Alex was assigned to lead a protest march today which he described as over 1000 strong as it snaked across ground zero and through lower Manhattan.
Saying that the "entire atmosphere had changed," Alex explained how police support for protesters at ground zero had gone from 20% support two years ago to around 60% support now - with many willing to affirm that sentiment on camera and many knowledgeable about Alex Jones' work and the 9/11 truth movement.
"Police just saying 'keep your investigation going, we appreciate you' on video," said Jones.
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"TerrorStorm sets a new standard in documentary filmmaking. Alex Jones knocks it out of the park yet again." -Dylan Avery, Director, "Loose Change" -------------------------
"The firemen we've been talking to - a hundred per cent are on our side and have seen the documentary films....it is just incredible what's happened at the grass roots."
Jones said that the few debunkers who were spewing Bush administration style propaganda were met with distain from the police.
"I think that thing that triggered it was the fact that the government lied about the dust, the asbestos all of it," said Jones in citing why first responders and police have become increasingly skeptical about anything the government says about 9/11.
Alex later commenced a vocal bullhorning of ground zero and led a chant of "9/11 was an inside job," more on that to come tomorrow.
Click here to listen to Alex Jones' groud zero report.
A benchmark of the wildfire success of the 9/11 truth movement can be measured with a new CNN poll released today that shows the amount of American citizens who "blame the Bush administration for the September 11, 2001, attacks," has risen from a third to over a half over the past four years.
Ground Zero Toxic Death Fumes Covered Up From Day One
Government Officials and agencies knowingly exposed 9/11 rescuers to deadly air and then tried to cover it up
Steve Watson / Infowars | September 8 2006
INFOWARS - BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
PRISONPLANET.TV
A spate of stories have emerged in the mainstream media this week concerning the fact that government officials knew that rescue workers at ground zero in New York were being exposed to harmful and deadly toxins in the aftermath of the attacks on 9/11.
This information has been known for years and it is yet again indicative of the massive steps forward that the 9/11 truth movement has made over the past year that it is now getting full coverage in the mainstream.
Of course not all the reports make it clear enough just how criminally responsible the government is on this issue.
Not only did the government know on the day itself that rescuers were being exposed to harmful dust, they also ordered misleading information to be given to the public, they ordered scientific research results on the air to be falsified, they allowed residents to return to their homes in the immediate vicinity knowing the air was corrosive and lethal and, to top it all off, they have since embarked on a collective program to block compensation and funding of health programs because that would be an admission of guilt.
“Only 30 percent of the firefighters working at the site in October were wearing any protection at all,” according to Thomas Cahill, professor of physics and atmospheric sciences, who was called in to analyze the air from a station one mile north of the burning WTC rubble.
"You had the workers working on top of a huge incinerator in the rush to get Wall Street going again, it was really dumb." Cahill said.
Ground zero workers, volunteers and firefighters have since suffered from lung diseases and cancers, many have died. The New York Times reported earlier this year that the Fire Department tracked a startling increase in cases of a particular lung scarring disease, known as sarcoidosis, among firefighters, which rose to five times the expected rate in the two years after Sept. 11.
The latest study, by the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, has revealed that nearly 70 percent of the rescue workers who toiled in the dust and fumes at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks suffer breathing problems.
The study was based on detailed examinations of 9,442 of the estimated 40,000 Ground Zero rescue and recovery workers between July 2002 and April 2004.
Add to this the fact that the Government ordered the EPA to give the public misleading information, telling New Yorkers on September 12 it was safe to breathe when reliable information on air quality was not available and Asbestos levels were known to be three times higher than national standards.
Further documents have since been obtained by CBS news, revealing that Lower Manhattan was reopened a few weeks following the attack even though the air was not safe.
The two devastating memos, written by the U.S. and local governments, show they knew. They knew the toxic soup created at Ground Zero was a deadly health hazard. Yet they sent workers into the pit and people back into their homes.
"Not only did they know it was unsafe, they didn't heed the words of more experienced people that worked for the city and E.P.A.," said Joel Kupferman, with the group Environmental Justice Project.
Last month Dr. Cate Jenkins, a scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency, wrote a letter to Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and other members of the New York congressional delegation blasting the EPA for hiding dangerous toxins from Ground Zero workers in the aftermath of 9/11.
The Letter claimed that EPA-funded research on the toxicity of breathable alkaline dust at the site “falsified pH results” to make the substance appear benign, when it was, in reality, corrosive enough to cause first responders and other workers in lower Manhattan to later lose pulmonary functions and, in some cases, to die.
Jenkins wrote:
"These falsifications directly contributed not only to emergency personnel and citizens not taking adequate precautions to prevent exposures, but also prevented the subsequent correct diagnosis of the causative agents responsible for the pulmonary symptoms. Thus, appropriate treatment was prevented or misdirected, and loss of life and permanent disability undoubtedly resulted."
The website Raw Story obtained the entire letter which can be viewed here.
Ground Zero worker Sgt. Matthew Tartaglia revealed in an interview with Alex Jones on March 30 2005, that there were only certain parts of the site that you could not legally leave without going through decontamination. He recounted the personal health problems he and many other workers have since suffered:
Most everybody has chronic sinusitis. They have ringing in the ears. Some people’s teeth and gums are bothering them. In the last year, I’ve lost seven teeth. They have just broken while I was eating. I have three or four more teeth that are just dying. And my dentist says, “I’ve never seen anything like this in someone who’s healthy. There is something wrong with you but I cannot find what it is. And I can’t stop it either.”
The New York Times reported in 2004 that the Bush Administration is PURPOSEFULLY blocking millions in health compensation programs for ground zero workers and attempting to stonewall the issue because to do otherwise would be an admission of responsibility for exposure to harmful substances after the government had already given the all clear.
Standard procedure protocols of both FEMA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), both on the scene at the Pentagon and the WTC on 9/11, indicate that it is routine for workers to undergo extensive protective and decontamination processes at any large scale disaster area, particularly if it is considered to be a crime scene, and certainly if it is an act of terrorism.
By noon on September 11, an EPA Criminal Investigation Division Special Agent was on the scene at the Pentagon, providing emergency response investigative support and facilitating site safety for EPA Region 3 Emergency Response personnel and the FBI. On September 12, the FBI declared the Pentagon a crime scene, and EPA Special Agents were on the scene assisting in decontamination, gathering crime scene evidence (photography, videotaping, evidence gathering, etc.) and supplying other investigative and technical support to the FBI. In addition, EPA Special Agents assisted with body recovery and site safety until September 27, when the agents departed after the FBI returned the site to the control of the Department of Defense and FEMA.
This explains why workers were suited and booted and being decontaminated at the Pentagon (above), however, if this is standard procedure, why is it that the rescue scene at ground zero in New York seems to have been much more casual? Workers there did not have protective suits, boots or full face masks, neither did they undergo decontamination, despite the fact that there was more destruction and more possibility of harmful dust, smoke and chemical inhalation.
There have been many reports on the health hazards in Manhattan following 9/11, however a 2004 report by the Sierra Club went further than previous reporting in detailing the cover-up of the public health hazards of Ground Zero. The report's summary indicates gross malfeasance by EPA, FEMA, and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA):
The Ground Zero health risk cover-up did not result from a poorly informed government. The World Trade Center attack involved the open, uncontrolled burning and demolition of two huge buildings - conduct that would be illegal in any state of the Union because of the known risks to human health. This report finds that the federal government ignored its own long-standing body of knowledge about pollution from incineration and demolition. The notion that EPA had to wait for test data before telling people that the pollution posed health risks is absurd. EPA should have issued a health warning, based on its own knowledge of pollution, before any test data came in.
EPA failed to investigate and disclose toxic hazards properly. Oddly, EPA's website reports that it found no polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) - cancer-causing chemicals generally released by combustion of mixed materials - "in any air samples," although four independent tests found them at elevated levels and even EPA's own research scientists reported in a scientific journal that they found them at levels that Science magazine deemed worthy of "the most serious kind of concern."
The federal government failed to change its safety assurances even after it became clear that people were getting ill, and even after a survey of federal employees of a sister agency in the same building as EPA at 290 Broadway revealed that they were suffering health impacts - a survey that, this report finds, the federal government did not release to the public at the time. It was quietly published in a journal in 2002.
Many Ground Zero workers did not have proper protection, especially in early weeks. This report explains that federal assurances of safety gave workers conflicting messages about the need for respirator masks, which are difficult and exhausting to wear.
OSHA refused to enforce worker safety standards at Ground Zero. It wrongly claimed that it had no authority in national emergencies. It then continued this refusal long after the emergency had passed, and long after it became apparent that serious health and safety risks were occurring despite efforts by OSHA staff to advise safety.
EPA and FEMA, in concert with New York City's own health department, told families that they could clean up the contaminated dust themselves with wet rags. In fact, they actually discouraged area residents from wearing safety masks.
Here we see workers in casual clothing and boots, some do not even have gloves on.
This is yet another reason why a true independent study needs to be undertaken to determine what really happened on 9/11 and who should be held accountable and brought to justice.
U.S. Observes 5-Year Anniversary of 9/11
Sep 11, 9:28 PM (ET)
By AMY WESTFELDT and ERIN McCLAM
NEW YORK (AP) - Clutching photos to their hearts and blowing kisses to the sky, tearful loved ones of Sept. 11 victims recited a 3 1/2-hour litany of the lost Monday, the names echoing across an expanse still largely barren five years after terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center.
At the Pentagon and on a wind-swept Pennsylvania field, and in simpler, quiet moments in airport security lines, at churches or by themselves, Americans paused to reflect on the worst terrorist act on U.S. soil.
The centerpiece of the commemorations was the mostly barren 16-acre expanse at ground zero, where four moments of silence were observed to mark the precise times jetliners crashed into the twin towers and the skyscrapers crumbled to the ground.
The achingly familiar task of reading the names of the 2,749 trade center victims fell this year to their husbands, wives and partners, who personalized the roll call with heartbreaking tributes to the loves of their lives.
"If I could build a staircase to heaven, I would, just so I could quickly run up there to have you back in my arms," said Carmen Suarez, wife of city police officer Ramon Suarez, killed five years ago at the World Trade Center.
And this from Linda Litto, who lost husband Vincent Litto: "As I said 31 years ago tomorrow, I will love you and honor you all the days of our life. Happy anniversary, my love."
On a crisp, sunny day not unlike the morning of the attacks, family members descended into the pit 70 feet below ground where the towers stood, tearfully laying wreaths and roses in the skyscrapers' footprints.
The mournful sound of bagpipes, so familiar from the seemingly endless funerals that followed Sept. 11, echoed across ground zero after a choir performed the national anthem.
The ritual has changed little since the first anniversary of the attacks, and in many ways the site has remained the same as well.
Squabbles over design and security have caused long delays in the project to rebuild at ground zero. Only this year did construction start on a Sept. 11 memorial and the 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, which is not expected to be finished for five more years. After sundown, officials turned on a memorial light display near the site, sending beams of blue light skyward in a glowing silhouette of the twin towers.
President Bush laid a wreath at the Shanksville, Pa., field where United Flight 93 crashed, and privately greeted relatives of the 40 people killed there. Standing without umbrellas in a cold rain, he and first lady Laura Bush bowed their heads for a prayer and the singing of "Amazing Grace."
"One moment, ordinary citizens, and the next, heroes forever," retired Gen. Tommy Franks said, alluding to the Flight 93 passengers who apparently fought the hijackers and forced them to crash the plane into the ground. "We mourn their loss, to be sure, but we also celebrate their victory here in the first battle on terrorism."
Bush planned a prime-time Oval Office address later Monday. In prepared remarks, he characterized the war against terrorism as a "struggle for civilization" that requires a determined effort by a unified country.
"We are fighting to maintain the way of life enjoyed by free nations," Bush said.
The president ate breakfast with New York firefighters, and a day earlier walked ground zero and laid wreaths in reflecting pools that symbolized the north and south towers.
After visiting Shanksville on Monday, the president and first lady placed a wreath near a plaque on the outside of the Pentagon, where American Airlines Flight 77 claimed 184 lives and tore a gash in the building. Bush appeared teary-eyed as he greeted victims' family members around him, and he could be seen mouthing "God bless you" as he embraced them.
At an observance near the Pentagon, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld strode side by side to a speaker's platform.
Rumsfeld appeared to struggle with his emotions as he recalled the day of the attacks, and Cheney vowed resolve: "We have no intention of ignoring or appeasing history's latest gang of fanatics trying to murder their way to power."
The day was marked with reminders of the sometimes tense new reality that settled on the nation, and particularly its transportation systems, after the attacks five years ago.
New York's bustling Pennsylvania Station was briefly evacuated because of a suspicious duffel bag that turned out to be holding only trash. And a jet bound for San Francisco was diverted to Dallas after a backpack and handheld e-mail device were found on board. Both items were pronounced harmless.
And lest anyone forget the terrorists responsible for the day, al-Qaida's second in command warned of forthcoming strikes in the Persian Gulf and against Israel in a new video Monday.
It was one of three al-Qaida videos released around the 9-11 anniversary. One showed images of the fuel-laden jets striking the trade center, and in another Osama bin Laden smiled and chatted with the plotters of the attacks.
In Washington, the co-chairmen of the Sept. 11 commission assailed the Bush administration and Congress for a what they called a lack of urgency in protecting the country. Only about half of the 41 recommendations issued by the commission two years ago have become law.
Former Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton and former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean cited a failure to distribute adequate homeland security money to cities most at risk for an attack, and said U.S. policy toward Arab nations has been largely ineffective.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino insisted that the administration had adopted many of the commission's suggestions. She said Bush "wakes every day determined to ensure that we are doing all we can - with all the lawful tools possible - to detect and prevent terrorist attacks."
At Boston's Logan Airport, security screeners wearing wristbands that read "We will never forget" stopped checking passengers for a moment to mark the anniversary, and travelers waiting in line - another legacy of the attacks - paused to join the tribute.
At Dallas Fort-Worth International, speakers at a ceremony paused intermittently as jets roared overhead, and an employee choir sang "God Bless America.
Ceremonies around the country inevitably included salutes to police and firefighters.
Outside an elementary school in Mascoutah, Ill., not far from Scott Air Force Base, Lt. Col. Jim Williams attended a Sept. 11 ceremony but said the first responders were the true heroes of the day.
"I'm in the military and defend the country, but only in certain times," he said. "They do this every day."
In Akron, Ohio, firefighters rolled their trucks out of their garages and sounded their sirens for 30 seconds at the moment the south tower of the trade center collapsed, and again a half-hour later for the north tower.
Across the Hudson River from ground zero, officials in Bayonne, N.J., dedicated a large bronze memorial to victims of the 2001 attacks and the 1993 trade center bombing. In Corpus Christi, Texas, Gov. Rick Perry uncovered a globe-shaped monument to people who have served in the war on terrorism.
Dave Johnson, a 69-year-old retiree, was completing his daily walk along Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and said he worried the nation had grown less vigilant over the five-year span.
"It changed everybody's life, even if they don't admit it," he said.
The families of the nearly 3,000 people killed five years ago made their way through the anniversary as best they could, the rituals now familiar but never easier.
Among them was the family of Candace Lee Williams, 20, who was on American Flight 11, the first plane to hit the trade center. Her mother, Sherri Williams, remains haunted by the way her daughter died, but comes to ground zero every year "to keep her legend alive."
Sherri Williams and her son begin the way by visiting Candace's grave in Danbury, Conn., covering it with yellow roses, her favorite. Then they get on a train and travel to lower Manhattan.And so the mother found herself at ground zero on Monday morning, holding a large, framed photo of her blonde, blue-eyed daughter.
"It's so hard to believe the five years have passed," Sherri Williams said. "She would have been 25. She wanted to do so much with her life."
Bush: Set Aside Differences on Terrorism
Sep 11, 10:08 PM (ET)
By TERENCE HUNT
WASHINGTON (AP) - Five years after the worst attack on U.S. soil, President Bush said Monday night the war against terrorism is "the calling of our generation" and urged Americans to put aside differences and fight to victory.
"America did not ask for this war, and every American wishes it were over," Bush said in a prime-time address from the Oval Office. "The war is not over - and it will not be over until either we or the extremists emerge victorious."
Bush also staunchly defended the war in Iraq though he acknowledged that Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
His address came at the end of a day in which he visited New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon to honor victims of the attacks that rocked his presidency and thrust the United States into a costly and unfinished war against terror.
"We are now in the early hours of this struggle between tyranny and freedom," the president said.
As for Iraq, he said Saddam's regime, while lacking weapons of mass destruction, was a threat that posed "a risk the world could not afford to take." At least 2,670 U.S. servicemen and women have died in Iraq, which Bush calls the central front in the war on terror.
"Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone," the president said. "They will not leave us alone. They will follow us."
The nation is split over the war in Iraq and Bush's handling of it, and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., accused Bush of playing politics.
"This should have been an occasion to bring everyone together, and focus on the tragedy, the many we lost, and the heroism of those who embodied the American spirit," Schumer said. "You do not commemorate the tragedy of 9/11 by politicizing it."
Earlier, Bush visited a New York fire station, the wind-swept field in Shanksville, Pa., and the Pentagon to place wreaths and console relatives of attack victims.
"Five years ago, this date - Sept. 11 - was seared into America's memory," the president said. "Nineteen men attacked us with a barbarity unequaled in our history."
Bush said that Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the attack, and other terrorists are still in hiding. He said, "Our message to them is clear: No matter how long it takes, America will find you and we will bring you to justice."
Bush said the war on terror was nothing less than "a struggle for civilization" and must be fought to the end. He said defeat would surrender the Middle East to radical dictators armed with nuclear weapons.
"We are fighting to maintain the way of life enjoyed by free nations," the president said. Two months before the November elections, he attempted to spell out in graphic terms the stakes he sees in the unpopular war in Iraq and the broader war on terror.
He said Islamic radicals are trying to build an empire "where women are prisoners in their homes, men are beaten for missing prayer meetings and terrorists have a safe haven to plan and launch attacks on America and other civilized nations."
"The war against this enemy is more than a military conflict," the president said. "It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century and the calling of our generation."
Five years ago, the attacks transformed Bush's presidency and awakened the world to bin Laden and his band of al-Qaida terrorists. While the public has soured on the war in Iraq, the president still gets high marks for his handling of Sept. 11.
Terrorism has been a potent political issue for Republicans, and they hope to capitalize on it in the elections. GOP lawmakers are anxious about holding control of both houses of Congress.
Congress has approved $432 billion for Iraq and the war on terrorism.
"The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad," the president said. He quoted bin Laden as calling Iraq "the Third World War."
"Our nation has endured trials, and we face a difficult road ahead," the president said. "Winning this war will require the determined efforts of a unified country. So we must put aside our differences and work together to meet the test that history has given us."
While Bush urged resolve, the two co-chairs of the 9/11 Commission accused the Bush administration and Congress of a lack of urgency in protecting the country. About half of their 41 recommendations to better secure Americans, offered in July 2004, have become law.
"Where in the world have we been for five years?" said former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., who was joined by his Republican counterpart, former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean. Hamilton spoke of failures to put first responders on the same radio spectrum so they can talk to each other during an emergency - as firefighters and police officers who died in the World Trade Center could not in 2001.
The 9/11 attacks changed the political tone in Washington and abroad - but only briefly.
"We had an astonishing moment of unity in America and around the world," former President Clinton told a Jewish conference in Washington. That has given way to bitter political divisions between Democrats and Republicans. Many nations that rushed to stand with the United States now accuse the Bush administration of failing to honor human rights, tolerance and diversity of cultures.
Still, dozens of lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, joined on the steps of the Capitol Monday to remember the attacks, singing "God Bless America" as they had five years ago.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Monday, "Five years later, we have to continue to move forward with unity, urgency and in the spirit of international cooperation, because we are not yet fully healed and not yet as safe as we should be."
Bush began the day in New York with firefighters and police officers at a Lower East Side firehouse. He stood in front of a door salvaged from a fire truck destroyed on Sept. 11. It was a cloudless morning reminiscent of the sunny day when two hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
The mourners silently bowed their heads, at 8:46 a.m. and again at 9:03 a.m., marking the moments when the planes slammed into the towers. The attacks killed 2,749 people.
Bush spent time talking with the first responders about what they had been through the last five years, spokesman Tony Snow said.
The next stop was in Shanksville, Pa., where Bush and his wife stood without umbrellas in a chilly rain to lay a wreath honoring the 40 passengers and crew killed when United Airlines Flight 93 plowed into a Pennsylvania field. The terrorists apparently had been planning on crashing the plane into the White House or the Capitol until passengers stormed the cockpit to take control.
Bush had an emotional meeting with relatives of the Shanksville victims. "There were some people who were still clearly grieving about what happened five years ago," Snow said.
Al-Qaida Lieutenant Warns of New Attacks
Sep 11, 9:01 PM (ET)
By LEE KEATH
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Al-Qaida's No. 2 condemned U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon as enemies of Islam and warned the terror group will strike the Persian Gulf and Israel, suggesting new fronts in its war against the West in a video Monday marking the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The video of Ayman al-Zawahri was one of three al-Qaida released for the anniversary, showing increasingly sophisticated techniques as the group tries to demonstrate that it remains a powerful, confident force five years into the U.S. war on terror.
One video showed images of the planes striking the World Trade Center, lionizing the 19 suicide hijackers as men "who changed history." Another was a 91-minute documentary-style video in which Osama bin Laden is seen smiling and chatting with the planners of the Sept. 11 attacks in an Afghan mountain camp.
Al-Zawahri spoke in the third and longest video, warning Americans of more attacks to come.
"We have repeatedly warned you and offered a truce with you. Now we have all the legal and rational justification to continue to fight you until your power is destroyed or you give in and surrender," he said. "The days are pregnant and giving birth to new events."
He also called on his followers to attack the U.S. in response to its jailing of a prominent Muslim cleric.
"I call on every Muslim to make use of every opportunity afforded him to take revenge on America for its imprisonment of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman," he said.
Abdel-Rahman, a blind cleric from Egypt, was convicted in the U.S. of seditious conspiracy for his advisory role in a plot to blow up five New York City landmarks, including the United Nations in 1995.
Al-Zawahri's comments also pointed to new fronts for al-Qaida attacks. The terror network has had few operations in Lebanon, Israel or in the Gulf region - except for in Saudi Arabia, where its branch carried out a campaign of violence in recent years but has been heavily damaged by a government crackdown.
He urged his followers to attack Western targets to stop what he said was the stealing of oil from Muslim countries.
Both Lebanon and Israel have warned of a possible growing al-Qaida presence.
"We have seen over the last months increased al-Qaida activity in our area," in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt's Sinai peninsula, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. "We've seen an attempt by al-Qaida to also infiltrate in Gaza and even in the West Bank, so we take the threat very seriously and we're taking the appropriate countermeasures," he said, without elaborating.
Addressing the United States, al-Zawahri said "you should not waste your time" reinforcing troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, "because they are doomed to defeat."
"Instead, you have to reinforce your troops in two regions. First is the Gulf, where you will be thrown out after you are defeated in Iraq, at which point your economic ruin will be achieved," he said. "The second is Israel, because the jihad reinforcements are getting closer to it."
He also denounced the U.N. peacekeeping force now moving into Lebanon under terms set out in a U.N. cease-fire resolution that on Aug. 14 ended fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. He suggested Muslims should prevent the peacekeepers' deployment.
"What is so terrible in this resolution ... is that it approves the existence of the Jewish state and isolates our mujahedeen in Palestine from Muslims in Lebanon," he said. "This is consecrated by the presence of international troops who are hostile to Islam."
"Anyone who accepts this resolution means that he accepts all these catastrophes," he said.
The Egyptian-born al-Zawahri called on the Muslim world "to rush with everything at its disposal to the aid of its Muslim brothers in Lebanon and Gaza" and accused Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia of being "traitors" when it came to those two conflicts.
The comments about Lebanon - which indicated the video was recent - were the first indirect threat against the French-led force deploying there, tasked with enforcing a border zone free of Hezbollah weapons.
But it is not clear al-Qaida has the means to carry out significant attacks in Lebanon. The Sunni-led al-Qaida and Shiite Hezbollah are considered enemies. The Shiite guerrillas were angered over the terror group's interference in December, when al-Qaida in Iraq claimed a rocket attack from Lebanon into northern Israel, provoking Israeli airstrikes on a Palestinian base in Lebanon.
Al-Zawahri also called on Iraq's Kurds to shun America and Israel.
"I appeal to my brothers in Islam, the Kurds, to renounce these calls which support America and Israel," he said.
Bin Laden and al-Zawahri are believed to be on the run in the Afghan-Pakistan border region. Many analysts believe that they no longer have centralized control to order or organize attacks by militants around the world. The capture and killing of many midlevel commanders has left the organization more diffuse and amorphous.
At the same time, the central leadership's propaganda machine has gotten more sophisticated, aiming to rally militants and romanticizing the jihad, or holy war, against the United States as a heroic fight.
The three videos were all issued by As-Sahab, al-Qaida's media production arm.
Interesting to note that, in the preceding article, the pictures' captions read:
This frame grab from video shows Al-Qaida's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri in a videotape issued Saturday, Sept. 2, 2006. Osama bin Laden's deputy warned that Persian Gulf countries and Israel would be al-Qaida's next targets, according to a new videotape aired by Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera on Monday, Sept. 11 2006, the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. (AP Photo)
Frame grab...
As in "grab him"...!
In the article about Dubya's address to the nation from the cozy confines (for now) of the Oval office, we had these pictures' captions:
In this video frame taken from television, President Bush addresses the nation from the Oval Office in Washington, Monday Sept. 11, 2006. (AP Photo/APTN)
Copyright 2006 Associated Press.
No grabbing required - it's only Dubya!
Meanwhile...
Florence Moves on After Raking Bermuda
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Sep 11, 10:21 PM (ET)
By ELIZABETH ROBERTS
(AP) Residents watch the high waves from Hurricane Florence crashing at The Causeway in Hamilton,...
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HAMILTON, Bermuda (AP) - Hurricane Florence blew out windows, peeled away several roofs and knocked out power to thousands in Bermuda on Monday, but spared the wealthy British island chain massive damage as it skirted past.
Authorities reported a few minor injuries but no deaths from the storm. Tourists remained sheltered inside resort hotels and officials urged all islanders to stay at home until the second hurricane of the Atlantic season no longer posed a danger.
However, the cleanup was already beginning late Monday. The runway of Bermuda's international airport was being cleared of debris and was expected to resume service Tuesday along with ferry and bus service. A causeway linking the main island with St. George's parish was already reopened.
Crews with the territory's electric company were also working to restore damaged power lines after Florence knocked out electricity to at least 23,000 homes and businesses during the day. About 5,000 of those customers had their power back by Monday evening, the utility said.
Florence, a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 85 mph, was about 195 miles north of Bermuda at 8 p.m. EDT, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was traveling to the northeast at 16 mph and was not expected to threaten the U.S., forecasters said.
The storm caused high surf and strong rip currents along parts of the eastern U.S. coast, about 640 miles west of Bermuda.
Florence was expected to weaken as wind shear increases and ocean temperatures cool, forecasters said. The storm should pass close to or over Newfoundland later in the week.
Although tourists took shelter from the storm in Bermuda, some were relatively unfazed since the territory enforces strict building codes to withstand rough weather. Homes must be built with walls at least 8 inches thick and be able to withstand 150 mph wind gusts. Many power and phone lines are underground.
Rowena Smith, an employee at The Reefs, a cliffside resort on the vulnerable south shore, said about 50 guests checked out Saturday but more than 80 stayed to ride out the storm. "They're in high spirits. We have a lot of repeaters in house, and they're having fun," Smith said.
(AP) This satellite image provided by NOAA Sunday Sept. 10, 2006 collected at 4:45 am EDT shows a color...
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At the Fairmont Hamilton Princess, the hotel distributed a disaster plan which included provisions for evacuation. Other hotels, playing up Bermuda's vaunted ability to withstand a fierce storm, planned "hurricane parties" for their remaining guests in the honeymoon and tax haven.
Though no Bermudians were reported killed in the storm, officials at the Bermuda Zoo said two pink flamingos died after being struck by broken tree branches.
Bermuda International Airport was closed late Saturday and all ferry and bus services were halted in preparation for the storm. Public schools and government offices were closed Monday.
Authorities kept a part-time regiment on call to help respond to the hurricane at strategic points, including the causeway linking the main island with St. George's parish. Part of the causeway, which was closed to traffic Sunday night, was swept away during Hurricane Fabian in 2003.
That storm - the strongest to hit the territory in 50 years - killed four people, tore the roofs off several homes and left many of the territory's famed golf courses in ruins.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Gordon formed Monday in the open Atlantic and was expected to head in the general direction of Bermuda, forecasters said. At 5 p.m. EDT, Gordon had top sustained winds near 45 mph and was located about 425 miles northeast of the Leeward Islands.
"It's just too early to say about the threat to Bermuda," said National Weather Service hurricane specialist Eric Blake. "Even if (Gordon) were to move in the direction of Bermuda, it would still be a few days away."
The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and ends Nov. 30.
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On the Net:
U.S. National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
Forget about Osama - Florence is much tougher than he is!
They must have been drinking to forget all about the terrorist threat to their lives...
Bootleg Liquor Kills 35 in Nicaragua
Sep 11, 9:01 PM (ET)
By FILADELFO ALEMAN
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) - At least 35 people have died from drinking methanol-laced sugarcane liquor in the past week and nearly 600 have fallen ill, overwhelming hospitals in Nicaragua's worst health crisis in recent history, officials said Monday.
Health officials warned the death toll would likely rise. It is believed that at least a dozen deaths have not been registered yet, said Dr. Humberto Martinez, assistant health director in the city of Leon, where most of the cases have occurred.
The U.S. military flew 25 health experts, medicine and equipment to Nicaragua on Sunday to help treat the victims.
So far, 603 cases have been reported across the country since last week, Martinez said.
Police have arrested six people who allegedly helped distribute the illegal liquor laced with methanol, a toxic industrial alcohol used in antifreeze that can cause blindness and death in small doses. Bootleggers sometimes add methanol to their batches of liquor to make them stronger.
Officials also seized 17,200 gallons of unauthorized sugarcane liquor, known as "aguardiente," said Mario Perez Cassar, the head of civil defense.
Last week, the federal government declared a national emergency and transferred staff from the capital to hospitals in Leon, about 45 miles west of the capital Managua. Authorities also banned the distribution and sale of distilled alcohol. Bottled liquor that has been sealed with a government health inspection sticker is still allowed.
While bootleg liquor is illegal in Nicaragua, many poor people drink the home-brewed sugarcane liquor, which costs about $1 for a quart and is cheaper than legal alcohol, which is taxed.
Miurell Gamez, head of health services in the state of Leon, has said tests revealed the victims had high concentrations of methanol in their blood and were suffering from headaches, dizziness, nausea and vomiting. Many will be left permanently blind, health officials said.
Leon Mayor Transito Tellez called for three days of mourning in the city.
In neighboring El Salvador, methanol-tainted alcohol killed more than 100 people in 2000.
Back on topic now...
World Remembers 9/11 but Many Not Crying
Sep 11, 8:12 PM (ET)
By ELAINE GANLEY
PARIS (AP) - The nations of the world joined Monday in solemn remembrance of Sept. 11 - but for many, resentment of the United States flowed as readily as tears.
Critics say Americans have squandered the goodwill that prompted France's Le Monde newspaper to proclaim "We are all Americans" that somber day after the attacks, and that the Iraq war and other U.S. policies have made the world less safe in the five years since.
Heads bowed in moments of silence for the 3,000 killed in the attacks on New York and Washington - while the No. 2 al-Qaida leader issued new warnings in a videotape. And dissident voices said the world has traded in civil liberties and other democratic rights in its war on terror.
In Europe, where Islamic terror has struck twice since 9/11, in the Madrid train bombings and the London transit attacks, the silent tributes were tinged with doubts and recriminations.
Even German Chancellor Angela Merkel - an advocate of repairing ties with Washington that were frayed under her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder - had veiled criticism of the United States, saying: "The ends cannot justify the means."
"In the fight against international terror ... respect for human rights, tolerance and respect for other cultures must be the maxim of our actions, along with decisiveness and international cooperation," she said.
The international landscape has changed irreversibly since terrorists hijacked four airliners in 2001, crashing two into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and another into a Pennsylvania field.
Adding to the global jitters, a senior al-Qaida leader issued a new warning.
"You gave us every legitimacy and every opportunity to continue fighting you," said Ayman al-Zawahri, addressing the United States. "You should worry about your presence in the (Persian) Gulf and the second place you should worry about is Israel."
Another video posted on the Internet by al-Qaida showed previously unseen footage of a smiling Osama bin Laden and other commanders in a mountain camp apparently planning the Sept. 11 attacks.
Allies in the U.S.-led war on terrorism renewed their resolve Monday to fight fanaticism, while skeptics countered that they can no longer follow a superpower they say has relinquished its right to lead.
"Right after Sept. 11 the world was united with Americans. Their moral leadership was unquestioned," Pawel Zalewski, head of the Polish parliament's foreign relations committee, wrote in the Gazeta Wyborcza. "However, this strong moral authority was abused as a result of the Iraq war."
Exactly five years after its message of solidarity, Le Monde titled its lead editorial "The Mistakes of Bush."
In Caracas, Venezuela, about 200 marchers protested what they called "imperialist terrorism" carried out by the United States since the 9/11 attacks. Demonstrators - many of them supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and some of Arab descent - carried Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian flags. Many criticized the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani wrote President Bush on behalf of the Iraqi people, expressing condolences to the families of Sept. 11 victims.
"On this sad and memorable day, I would like to reiterate the gratitude of the people of Iraq for the people of America and for your leadership," Talabani wrote. "The people of Iraq will never forget those who helped them in getting rid of the most brutal and terrorist regime of Saddam Hussein."
New Zealand's Prime Minister Helen Clark joined many when she said: "No, we're not more secure since 9/11."
Clark said more should be done to reach out to moderate states and leaders in the Islamic world to encourage understanding between different peoples, and to help end the sense of alienation and exclusion among some young Muslims that fuels extremism.
In Europe, bells tolled in Rome's city hall square. Bouquets of white roses and yellow carnations were piled in a memorial garden in London where the names of 67 Britons killed in the New York attacks are inscribed. Relatives tearfully remembered their dead.
"It doesn't get any easier, but our minds are much calmer, and we can think through all the events without being flooded by tears and sadness," said Adrian Bennett, whose 29-year-old son, Oliver, was killed.
At a 38-nation Asia-Europe summit in Helsinki, Finland, leaders stood in silence in a circle. The stock exchanges in Nordic and Baltic countries observed two minutes of silence to honor the victims.
French President Jacques Chirac, in Helsinki, reiterated in a written message to Bush his nation's "friendship" in the fight against terrorism.
A week after the Sept. 11 attacks, Chirac flew over the World Trade Center site - the first foreign leader to pay personal condolences. That solidarity quickly dissipated into rancor in the buildup to the Iraq war, when Chirac led opposition to Bush's plans.
Israel's Haaretz daily expressed disappointment and cynicism in an op-ed piece that said: "This is Sept. 11 five years later: a political tool in the hands of the Bush administration."
In Southeast Asia, U.S. and Philippine troops fighting Islamic extremists in the jungles prayed for peace and safety. Other remembrances took place in Japan, Australia, Finland, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who won the country's first post-Taliban election, expressed the appreciation of the Afghan people to the U.S. for the "sacrifices of your sons and daughters" in rebuilding his country. But in the Afghan capital, many residents said they had not seen much improvement since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban for harboring bin Laden.
Despite about 20,000 U.S. forces fighting al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, and about the same number of NATO troops, and billions in aid, the Taliban resistance has shaken the country, while corruption has stymied development.
In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer led a solemn military ceremony outside the alliance's headquarters to remember the victims of 9/11. A lone bugler played taps while a ceremonial guard, drawn from each of the 26 NATO member nations, lowered national flags to half-staff.
"Terrorism remains a threat to all of us ... this is why we are in Afghanistan, the cradle of 9/11," de Hoop Scheffer said, calling on NATO nations to "strengthen our alliance politically and militarily to meet this new scourge."
Le Monde Editorial: 'Bush's Mistakes'
Sep 11, 1:04 PM (ET)
PARIS (AP) - "We are all Americans," France's Le Monde newspaper proclaimed on Sept. 12, 2001, speaking for millions worldwide in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the United States. Five years later, the respected daily carried a very different message Monday: Its lead editorial was titled "Bush's Mistakes."
The paper's assessment five years ago reflected a collective shock and sympathy felt in France and many nations that has given way to a much more complex view of the United States since then, particularly after the war in Iraq.
In its issue Monday, Le Monde called the war in Afghanistan a "relative" success and the war in Iraq "a major error" based on false pretenses.
"Since Sept. 11, America has not, it's true, been attacked on its territory, but the world has changed for the worse," it wrote.
"The goal remains to destroy al-Qaida and delegitimize its ideology. But the task is substantially tougher. In five years, the United States has pushed the world toward the clash of civilizations al-Qaida had wanted."
While France was rallying opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq in 2003, the writer responsible for Le Monde's sympathetic Sept. 11 piece excoriated what he called American hypocrisy.
"Saddam is certainly monstrous, but he is the same monster that the United States admirably accommodated for so long," Executive Editor Jean-Marie Colombani wrote at the time in 2003.
Swiss newspaper Le Temps had a harsh update Monday to Le Monde's 2001 headline. "Europe has long stopped saying, 'We are all Americans.' In London you can read, 'We're all Hezbollah.'"
Et vlan!
Ah, ces maudits français...
Quand ils ont raison, ils n'ont pas tort ceux-là... hein?
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