9/11

What were you doing at 8:46AM (Eastern Daylight time) on September 11, 2001? If you were in Hawaii, you were no doubt sleeping, for it was 2:46AM.

For some reason, Pearl turned on the TV set just before then (and that was the only time she ever did so at that time of the morning) to watch CNN. She woke me up around 3PM and said something was wrong. I awoke to see United Airlines 175 fly into the South Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) at 3:03AM. At 3:37AM, American Airlines 77 struck the Pentagon. At 4:03AM, United Airlines 93 crashed in Pennsylvania, and the speculation is that it was headed for either the U.S. Capitol or the White House.

We sat in bed glued to the screen for six hours. We had lived in D.C. for several years, so the events had personal meaning for us. The best meal we ever had was at the top of the North Tower of the WTC, not Windows on the World, but Cellar in the Sky, a smallish room surrounded by bottles of wine located in the middle of that other restaurant.

Some facts:

1. Seven thousand FBI agents determined that the attacks were probably carried out by Al Queda.

2. Two thousand nine hundred ninety eight died, including 19 terrorists, or are still missing.

3. The event led to U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, then Iraq. 



4. The Department of Homeland Security, consolidating 22 nonmilitary government security agencies, was established assuming responsiblity for U.S. air travel security through the dreaded Transportation Security Administration, the cabinet-level director of national intelligence was formed, becoming responsible for coordinating all U.S. intelligence agencies and the USA Patriot Act was enacted, giving the Bush Administration dangerous superpowers.

5. Read the 9/11 Commission Report for other details, which 566 pages long.

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Who is winning the war on terrorism? Probably the terrorists, as Osama bin Laden has not be found, Al Queda still exists and our society now seems to overreact to everything, including the swine flu.

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The Dow Jones Industrials slipped 22 to 9605, just about exactly where it was on 9/11/2001. World markets were mostly up. Gold jumped $9/toz to $1006 and crude oil dropped below $70/barrel.

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There are four identified disturbances, but no storms of significance affecting populated regions.

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