Anyone interested can go to CNN’s website to see the video of the first plane.
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/12/search/
Six firefighters and one policeman reportedly resued from the rubble this a.m., alive but severely burned.
Hopefully there will be more.
Freedom: Just some supposition ( sorry to toss it in a fact thread, but I think it is relevant and not necessarily misleading since I’m not reporting it as a rumor ), but re: Who bombed Kabul? - Yesterday it was reported that Ahmed Shah Massoud, the most important rebel leader in Afghanistan, fell prey to an assaination attempt that had Osama bin Laden’s modus operandi written all over it. The rebels are insisting he survived and is being treated, but most Western sources are of the opinion that he’s dead and the rebels are trying to cover while they re-group.
Massoud was the most effective field commander and far and away the most charismatic leader among the rebels. Without him, they may well disintegrate. It would be natural for the Taliban to take advantage of his death by launching a full-on offensive.
I’m guessing ( and only guessing ) that the rebels attacked Kabul. Either out of vengeance or as a spoiler attack to pre-empt a Taliban offensive.
Not that I haven’t seen enough footage to give me nightmares for a lifetime, but what section of cnn.com was this video in? I looked at the chronology video and didn’t see it.
jarbaby
The rebels themselves have denied it. The Taliban themselves say it was an explosion at a munitions storage place.
jarbabyj right under the headline story on the main page “Bush:An Act of War” there’s two hyperlinks. One reads “Video:First WTC attack” and the second is “Video:Second WTC attack.”
I can’t link you to it, since it’s a java script. (At least I don’t think I can.)
Izzy: Thanks for the correction 
. Though I found my little hypothesis a lot more interesting - Stupid facts 
.
- Tamerlane
thanks…I think. If I never see any footage of that day again it will be too soon.
jarbaby
Since this is a rumor thread, there was a brief rumor here in Budapest that the Sears Tower had gotten hit. I called the folks back home to discover that, thankfully, this had simply been somebody down the line exaggerating the Sears Tower evacuation. Not that the World Trade Center isn’t enough, but it would be just that much weirder realizing that being in Chicago a month ago would be the last time I would have seen a building I grew up with.
Just got off the phone with one of my best friends. Tho I have no independent verification, my friend has never lied to me before.
He works in Jersey City, on the river, right across from the WTC. He got to work right after the 1st attack. He said they opened their blinds, and saw the second attack and everything that followed.
I asked, “did you actually see the 2d plane before it hit?” He said, “Dude, it was like if you looked out your window right now and there was a 767 right there.” Said it basically flew between his building and the next one. Just before impact, it veered upward, thereby hitting the building with a larger profile. Said it looked like it took out 10 stories with the immediate impact.
He said he was having a hard time coming to grips with the number of people he saw die yesterday. He said he saw at least 20 people jump/fall. And then saw the buildings both come down.
Said there were 2 major triage centers, one on the pier outside his bldg, and one right next to the WTS. The one close to the towers is where so many rescue workers lost their lives when the bldgs collapsed.
He said they were down on the pier outside their bldg as police boats were unloading dead and wounded, and a formation of military jets came overhead. Two peeled off and flew low over the pier, and the 1000 or so people spontaneously broke into a cheer. Said it was incredibly heartwarming, but seemed surreal, like something out of a movie.
It took him forever to walk/hitch home to Brooklyn, and he was told not to come into work until called.
Says there is an incredible amount of anger in Brooklyn today, and says he would not wish to be of middle eastern ethnicity. Reports violence in Brooklyn. Says Palestinians were “celebrating”, and someone fired into the crowd, killing at least 1.
As I said, I have no verification, but thought this might give a slightly different insight.
As of 12:45 EDT, 12 Sept., Fox News is reporting that two suspects in yesterday’s attacks may have taken simulator training last summer at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL.
Simultaneously, same source reports that hijackers in PA crash have been identified by name and are in fact linked to Bin Laden.
Lots of updates at CNN, including an updated timeline. Highlights include:
[ul][li]10:54 a.m.: CNN reports that the United States has intercepted two phone calls made after Tuesday’s terrorist attacks against the Pentagon and New York’s World Trade Center, and the conversations were between members of al Qaeda, an organization sponsored by bin Laden. In those conversations, U.S. law enforcement officials say the individuals discussed hitting two U.S. targets.[/li]
[li]11:20 a.m.: CNN reports that the FAA will not allow domestic air traffic to resume at noon Wednesday.[/li]
[li]11:25 a.m.: A total of nine survivors have been rescued so far in the rubble in New York. Six are firefighters, and three are police officers.[/li]
[li]12:10 p.m.: Officials from Boston’s Logan International Airport say the Federal Aviation Administration is requiring all U.S. airports to comply with some emergency safety measures, including banning the sale or use of knives, even plastic ones, at airports; evacuating and sweeping all terminals with K-9 teams; and discontinuing curbside check-in.[/li]
[li]1 p.m.: CNN reports that the FBI has taken several people into custody for questioning in Boston, Massachusetts, and in Florida.[/li]
[li]1:20 p.m.: CNN reports that officials of the Taliban, the hard-line Islamic rulers of Afghanistan, are appealing to the United States not to attack the country.[/li]
[li]2:15 p.m.: Philip Purcell, chairman and chief executive officer of the brokerage firm Morgan Stanley, says “a vast majority” of the 3,500 staff members who worked in two of the World Trade Center buildings, including one of the twin towers, got out safely…[/li]
[li]2:20 p.m.: Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta says that airline flights diverted after Tuesday’s attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon are authorized to finish their journeys Wednesday but all other planes remain grounded.[/li]
[li]2:57 p.m.: CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King reports that the White House says that there was “reasonable and credible information” to believe that the White House and Air Force One were possible targets of the terrorist attacks… The White House also says the plane that crashed into the Pentagon may have been destined originally for the White House.[/li]
[li]3:40 p.m.: U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft says the four planes involved in Tuesday’s events were hijacked by between three and six individuals per aircraft. They were armed with knives and box cutters and in some cases made bomb threats. Ashcroft says a number of suspected hijackers were trained as pilots in the United States, and he characterized the investigation as perhaps the most massive one ever undertaken in U.S. history.[/li]
[li]4 p.m.: NATO ambassadors approve the invocation of NATO’s self-defense charter if Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in the United States prove to have been directed from abroad. NATO’s charter says that an armed attack against one of the organization’s members is considered an attack against all of them. The United States, therefore, can invoke that section of the charter and count on the support of its NATO allies in mounting military operations.[/ul][/li]
Anything else to add and/or amend?
Esprix
Esprix wrote:
[QUOTE]
[ul][li]12:10 p.m.: … Federal Aviation Administration is requiring all U.S. airports to comply with some emergency safety measures, including banning the sale or use of knives, even plastic ones, at airports;[/ul][/li][/QUOTE]
That’s gonna make things awfully hard on any steak restaurants that happen to be situated in the airport! :o
WNBC New York is reporting that 3 Arabic-looking men and the crew of a flight getting ready to take off at 9 AM from Kennedy Airport had a dispute. The plane was held at the gate, and the Port Authority Police were called. By the time the Police got there, the men had vanished.
http://www.wnbc.com/wtc/wtc50.html
There is also an interview concerning this on
For what it’s worth - I certainly don’t know what’s going on …
7:23 Pacific (which I guess makes it 10:23 Eastern)
The Empire State Building and Penn Station are being evacuated.
Evidently there was a bomb threat of some kind (either called in or a package discovered) at the Empire State Building, but it turned out to be false.
Esprix
Two things:
First about the bomb threat - I did think I was being helpful, but I was a little freaked. Thanks to Esprix for clearing it up. Bomb threats are becoming pretty common. We just had one here in San Francisco - the Embarcadero Towers (two blocks from where I now sit) were evacuated - probably false. We are not evacuating, I’ve heard no other fall-out.
Second: This from CNN.com
“Five firefighters found alive in N.Y.”
This is untrue, or has been incredibly well suppressed.
The Times (London) reports that the Afghan government has detained, and controlled Osama bin Ladin, pending a decision on whether to extradite him in response to charges, when such are made.
Pakistan’s president has promised “unremitted cooperation” with investigations to find the perpetrators of the WTC and Pentagon attacks.
Oops, make that “unstinted cooperation”
duh.