(Dec 1969-Dec 1969)

Sister ship with SE-DCY. DCY stalled after rotation , crashed into building "Wasabröd" and caught fire, 4 dec 1969

~*Photography Originally Taken By: www.CrossTrips.Com Under God*~

 

The September 11, 2001 attacks (often referred to as 9/11) were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States. On that morning, terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners.[1][2] The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the World Trade Center in New York City, resulting in the collapse of both buildings soon afterward and extensive damage to nearby buildings. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania after passengers and members of the flight crew on the fourth aircraft attempted to retake control of their plane.

 

Excluding the 19 hijackers, 2,974 people died as an immediate result of the attacks with another 24 missing and presumed dead. The overwhelming majority of casualties were civilians, including nationals from over 90 different countries. In addition, the death of at least one person from lung disease was ruled by a medical examiner to be a result of exposure to dust from the World Trade Center's collapse, as rescue and recovery workers were exposed to airborne contaminants following the World Trade Center's collapse.

 

The attacks had major ramifications around the world, with the United States declaring a War on Terrorism in response and launching an invasion of Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, who had been accused of willfully harboring terrorists. The United States passed the USA PATRIOT Act, as many nations around the world strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded law enforcement powers. Stock exchanges were closed for almost a week, and posted enormous losses immediately upon reopening, with airline and insurance industries suffering the greatest financial losses. The economy of Lower Manhattan ground to a halt, as billions of dollars in office space was damaged or destroyed.

 

The damage to the Pentagon was cleared and repaired within a year, and a small memorial built on the site. Rebuilding the World Trade Center site has been more contentious, with controversy over possible designs as well as the pace of construction. The selection of the Freedom Tower for the site has drawn extensive criticism, forcing the abandonment of some parts of the project.

 

Attacks

 

Early in the morning on September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners en route to California from Logan International, Dulles International, and Newark airports.[1] The hijackers flew two of the airliners, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center.[3] Another group of hijackers flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon, and a fourth flight, United Airlines Flight 93, whose ultimate target was the U.S. Capitol building, crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.[4][5]

 

During the hijacking of the airplanes, some passengers and crew members were able to make phone calls using the cabin GTE airphone service and mobile phones.[6][7] They reported that several hijackers were aboard each plane. The terrorists had reportedly taken control of the aircraft by using knives and box-cutter knives to kill flight attendants and at least one pilot or passenger, including the captain of Flight 11, John Ogonowski.[8] The 9/11 Commission established that two of the hijackers had recently purchased Leatherman multi-function hand tools.[9] Some form of noxious chemical spray, such as tear gas or pepper spray, was reported to have been used on American 11 and United 175 to keep passengers out of the first-class cabin.[10] A flight attendant on Flight 11, a passenger on Flight 175, and passengers on Flight 93 mentioned that the hijackers had bombs, but one of the passengers also mentioned he thought the bombs were fake. No traces of explosives were found at the crash sites. The 9/11 Commission Report believed the bombs were probably fake.[8]

 

On United Airlines Flight 93, black box recordings revealed that crew and passengers attempted to seize control of the plane from the hijackers after learning through phone calls that similarly hijacked planes had been crashed into buildings that morning.[11][12] According to the transcript of Flight 93's recorder, one of the hijackers gave the order to roll the plane once it became evident that they would lose control of the plane to the passengers.[13] Soon afterward, the aircraft crashed into a field near Shanksville in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, at 10:03:11 a.m. local time (14:03:11 UTC). Al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed mentioned in a 2002 interview with Yosri Fouda, an al Jazeera journalist, that Flight 93's target was the United States Capitol, which was given the code name "the Faculty of Law".[14]

 

Three buildings in the World Trade Center Complex collapsed due to structural failure on the day of the attack.[15] The south tower (2 WTC) fell at approximately 9:59 a.m., after burning for 56 minutes in a fire caused by the impact of United Airlines Flight 175.[15] The north tower (1 WTC) collapsed at 10:28 a.m., after burning for approximately 102 minutes.[15] When the north tower collapsed, debris heavily damaged the nearby 7 World Trade Center (7 WTC) building. Its structural integrity was further compromised by fires, and the building collapsed later in the day at 5:20 p.m.[16]

 

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) launched investigations into the cause of collapse for the three buildings, subsequently expanding the investigation to include questions over measures to prevent progressive collapse, such as fire resistance design and retrofitting of structural steel. The report into 1 WTC and 2 WTC was concluded in October 2005, and the investigation into 7 WTC is ongoing.[17][18] The current NIST hypothesis attributes the collapse to "fire and/or debris induced structural damage."[18]

 

The attacks created widespread confusion among news organizations and air traffic controllers across the United States. All international civilian air traffic was banned from landing on US soil for three days.[19] Aircraft already in flight were either turned back or redirected to airports in Canada or Mexico. News sources aired unconfirmed and often contradictory reports throughout the day. One of the most prevalent of these reported that a car bomb had been detonated at the U.S. State Department's headquarters in Washington, D.C.[20] Soon after reporting for the first time on the Pentagon crash, CNN and other media also briefly reported that a fire had broken out on the Washington Mall.[21] Another report went out on the AP wire, claiming that a Delta 767—Flight 1989—had been hijacked. This report, too, turned out to be in error; the plane was briefly thought to represent a hijack risk, but it responded to controllers and landed safely in Cleveland, Ohio.

 

Casualties

 

There were 2,974 fatalities, excluding the 19 hijackers: 246 on the four planes (from which there were no survivors), 2,603 in New York City in the towers and on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon.[23][24] An additional 24 people remain listed as missing.[25] All of the fatalities in the attacks were civilians except for 55 military personnel killed at the Pentagon.[26] More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks on the World Trade Center.[27]

 

NIST estimated that approximately 17,400 civilians were in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the attacks, while turnstile counts from the Port Authority suggest that 14,154 people were typically in the Twin Towers by 8:45 a.m.[28][29] The vast majority of people below the impact zone safely evacuated the buildings, along with 18 individuals who were in the impact zone in the south tower.[30] 1,366 people died who were at or above the floors of impact in the North Tower.[31] According to the Commission Report, hundreds were killed instantly by the impact, while the rest were trapped and died after the tower collapsed.[32] As many as 600 people were killed instantly or were trapped at or above the floors of impact in the South Tower.

 

At least 200 people jumped to their deaths from the burning towers (as depicted in the photograph "The Falling Man"), landing on the streets and rooftops of adjacent buildings hundreds of feet below.[39] Some of the occupants of each tower above its point of impact made their way upward toward the roof in hope of helicopter rescue, but the roof access doors were locked. No plan existed for helicopter rescues, and on September 11, the thick smoke and intense heat would have prevented helicopters from conducting rescues.[40]

 

A total of 411 emergency workers who responded to the scene died as they attempted to implement rescue and fire suppression efforts. The New York City Fire Department lost 341 firefighters and 2 FDNY Paramedics.[41] The New York City Police Department lost 23 officers.[42] The Port Authority Police Department lost 37 officers.[43] Private EMS units lost 8 additional EMTs and paramedics.[44][45]

 

Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., an investment bank on the 101st–105th floors of One World Trade Center, lost 658 employees, considerably more than any other employer.[46] Marsh Inc., located immediately below Cantor Fitzgerald on floors 93–101 (the location of Flight 11's impact), lost 295 employees, and 175 employees of Aon Corporation were killed.[47] After New York, New Jersey was the hardest hit state, with the city of Hoboken sustaining the most fatalities.[48]

 

Weeks after the attack, the estimated death toll was over 6,000.[49] The city was only able to identify remains for approximately 1,600 of the victims at the World Trade Center. The medical examiner's office also collected "about 10,000 unidentified bone and tissue fragments that cannot be matched to the list of the dead."[50] Bone fragments were still being found in 2006 as workers were preparing to demolish the damaged Deutsche Bank Building.

 

Damage

 

In addition to the 110-floor Twin Towers of the World Trade Center itself, numerous other buildings at the World Trade Center site were destroyed or badly damaged, including 7 World Trade Center, 6 World Trade Center, 5 World Trade Center, 4 World Trade Center, the Marriott World Trade Center and St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church.[51] The Deutsche Bank Building across Liberty Street from the World Trade Center complex was later condemned due to the uninhabitable, toxic conditions inside the office tower, and is undergoing deconstruction.[52][53] The Borough of Manhattan Community College's Fiterman Hall at 30 West Broadway was also condemned due to extensive damage in the attacks, and is slated for deconstruction.[54] Other neighboring buildings including 90 West Street and the Verizon Building suffered major damage, but have since been restored.[55] World Financial Center buildings, One Liberty Plaza, the Millenium Hilton, and 90 Church Street had moderate damage.[56] Communications equipment atop the North Tower, including broadcast radio, television and two-way radio antenna towers were also destroyed, but media stations were quickly able to reroute signals and resume broadcasts.[51][57] In Arlington County, a portion of the Pentagon was severely damaged by fire and one section of the building collapsed.

 

Rescue and recovery

 

The Fire Department of New York City (FDNY) quickly deployed 200 units (half of the department) to the site, whose efforts were supplemented by numerous off-duty firefighters and EMTs.[59][60][61] The New York Police Department (NYPD) sent Emergency Service Units (ESU) and other police personnel.[62] During the emergency response, FDNY commanders, the NYPD, and the Port Authority police had limited ability to share information and coordinate their efforts.[59] The NYPD, FDNY, and Port Authority police did redundant searches for civilians, rather than coordinate efforts among the agencies.[63] As conditions deteriorated, the NYPD received information from its helicopters, and were able to pass along evacuation orders that allowed most of its officers to safely evacuate before the buildings collapsed.[62][63] However, radio communications between the NYPD and FDNY were incompatible and the information did not get to FDNY commanders. After the first tower collapsed, FDNY commanders experienced difficulties communicating evacuation orders to firefighters inside the towers due to malfunctioning radio repeater systems in the World Trade Center. 9-1-1 dispatchers also received information from callers that was not passed along.[60] Within hours of the attack, a massive search and rescue operation was launched. Rescue and recovery efforts took months to complete.

 

Attackers and their motivation

 

The attacks were consistent with the overall mission statement of al-Qaeda, as set out in a 1998 fatwā issued by Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Ahmed Refai Taha, Mir Hamzah, and Fazlur Rahman declaring that it was the "duty of every Muslim" to "kill Americans anywhere."

 

Al-Qaeda

 

The origins of al-Qaeda date back to 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Soon after the invasion, Osama bin Laden traveled to Afghanistan where he helped organize Arab mujahideen and established the Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK) organization to resist the Soviets. In 1989, as the Soviets withdrew, MAK was transformed into a "rapid reaction force" in jihad against governments across the Muslim world. Under the guidance of al-Zawahiri, Osama became more radical.[68] In 1996, bin Laden issued his first fatwā which called for American soldiers to leave Saudi Arabia.[69]

 

In a second fatwā issued in 1998, bin Laden outlined his objections to American foreign policy towards Israel, as well as the continued presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War.[70] Bin Laden used Islamic texts to exhort violent action against American military and citizenry until the stated grievances are reversed, noting "ulema have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries."

 

Planning of the attacks

 

The idea for the September 11 plot came from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who first presented the idea to bin Laden in 1996.[71] At that point, Bin Laden and al-Qaeda were in a period of transition, having just relocated back to Afghanistan from Sudan.[72] The 1998 African Embassy bombings marked a turning point, with bin Laden intent on attacking the United States.[72] In late 1998 or early 1999, bin Laden gave approval for Mohammed to go forward with organizing the plot.[72] A series of meetings occurred in spring of 1999, involving Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Osama bin Laden, and his deputy Mohammed Atef.[72] Bin Laden provided leadership for the plot, along with financial support.[72] Bin Laden was also involved in selecting people to participate in the plot, including choosing Mohamed Atta as the lead hijacker.[73] As many as 27 members of al-Qaeda attempted to enter the United States to take part in the September 11 attacks.[8] Mohammed provided operational support, such as selecting targets and helping arrange travel for the hijackers.[72] Bin Laden overruled Mohammed, rejecting some potential targets such as the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles[74] because "there was not enough time to prepare for such an operation".[75]

 

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States was formed by the United States government and was commonly called the 9/11 Commission. It released its report on July 22, 2004, concluding that the attacks were conceived and implemented by members of al-Qaeda. The Commission stated that "9/11 plotters eventually spent somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000 to plan and conduct their attack, but that the specific origin of the funds used to execute the attacks remained unknown."

 

Hijackers

 

Fifteen of the attackers were from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon.[77] In sharp contrast to the standard profile of suicide bombers, the hijackers were well-educated, mature adults, whose belief systems were fully formed.[78]

 

Within hours of the attacks, the FBI was able to determine the names and in many cases the personal details of the suspected pilots and hijackers.[79][80] Mohamed Atta's luggage, which did not make the connection from his Portland flight onto Flight 11, contained papers that revealed the identity of all 19 hijackers, and other important clues about their plans, motives, and backgrounds.[81] On the day of the attacks, the National Security Agency intercepted communications that pointed to Osama bin Laden, as did German intelligence agencies.

 

On September 27, 2001, the FBI released photos of the 19 hijackers, along with information about the possible nationalities and aliases of many.[84] The FBI investigation into the attacks, code named operation PENTTBOM, was the largest and most complex investigation in the history of the FBI, involving over 7,000 special agents.[85] The United States government determined that al-Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden, bore responsibility for the attacks, with the FBI stating "evidence linking al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the attacks of September 11 is clear and irrefutable".[86] The Government of the United Kingdom reached the same conclusion regarding al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's culpability for the September 11, 2001 attacks.

 

Osama bin Laden

 

Osama bin Laden's declaration of a holy war against the United States, and a fatwā signed by bin Laden and others calling for the killing of American civilians in 1998, are seen by investigators as evidence of his motivation to commit such acts.

 

Bin Laden initially denied, but later admitted, involvement in the incidents.[89][90] On September 16, 2001, bin Laden denied any involvement with the attacks by reading a statement which was broadcast by Qatar's Al Jazeera satellite channel: "I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation."[91] This denial was broadcast on U.S. news networks and worldwide.

 

In November 2001, U.S. forces recovered a videotape from a destroyed house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in which Osama bin Laden is talking to Khaled al-Harbi. In the tape, bin Laden admits foreknowledge of the attacks.[92] The tape was broadcast on various news networks from December 13, 2001. His distorted appearance on the tape has been attributed to tape transfer artifact.[93]

 

On December 27, 2001, a second bin Laden video was released. In the video, he states, "Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a response to injustice, aimed at forcing America to stop its support for Israel, which kills our people," but he stopped short of admitting responsibility for the attacks.[94]

 

Shortly before the U.S. presidential election in 2004, in a taped statement, bin Laden publicly acknowledged al-Qaeda's involvement in the attacks on the U.S, and admitted his direct link to the attacks. He said that the attacks were carried out because "we are free…and want to regain freedom for our nation. As you undermine our security we undermine yours."[95] Osama bin Laden says he had personally directed the 19 hijackers.[96] In the video, he says, "We had agreed with the Commander-General Muhammad Atta, Allah have mercy on him, that all the operations should be carried out within 20 minutes, before Bush and his administration notice."[90] Another video obtained by Al Jazeera in September 2006 shows Osama bin Laden with Ramzi Binalshibh, as well as two hijackers, Hamza al-Ghamdi and Wail al-Shehri, as they make preparations for the attacks.

 

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

 

In a 2002 interview with al Jazeera journalist Yosri Fouda, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admitted his involvement, along with Ramzi Binalshibh, in the "Holy Tuesday operation."[98] The 9/11 Commission Report determined that the animosity towards the United States felt by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the "principal architect" of the 9/11 attacks, stemmed "not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel."[72] Mohamed Atta shared this same motivation. Ralph Bodenstein, a former classmate of Atta described him as "most imbued actually about... U.S. protection of these Israeli politics in the region."[99] Abdulaziz al-Omari, a hijacker aboard Flight 11 with Mohamed Atta, said in his video will, "My work is a message those who heard me and to all those who saw me at the same time it is a message to the infidels that you should leave the Arabian peninsula defeated and stop giving a hand of help to the coward Jews in Palestine."[100]

 

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was arrested on March 1, 2003 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.[101] Mohammed ultimately ended up at Guantanamo Bay. During US hearings in March 2007, which have been "widely criticized by lawyers and human rights groups as sham tribunals", Mohammed again confessed his responsibility for the attacks, "I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z."

 

Other al-Qaeda members

 

In "Substitution for Testimony of Khalid Sheik Mohammed" from the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, five people are identified as having been completely aware of the operations details. They are: Osama bin Laden, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh, Abu Turab Al-Urduni and Mohammed Atef.[104] To date, only peripheral figures have been tried or convicted in connection with the attacks. Bin Laden has not yet been formally indicted for the attacks.[105]

 

On September 26, 2005, the Spanish high court directed by judge Baltasar Garzón sentenced Abu Dahdah to 27 years of imprisonment for conspiracy on the 9/11 attacks and as part of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. At the same time, another 17 al-Qaeda members were sentenced to penalties of between six and eleven years.[106][107] On February 16, 2006, the Spanish Supreme Court reduced the Abu Dahdah penalty to 12 years because it considered that his participation in the conspiracy was not proven.

 

Motive

 

Many of the eventual findings of the 9/11 Commission with respect to motives have been supported by other experts. Counter-terrorism expert Richard A. Clarke explains in his book, Against All Enemies, that U.S. foreign policy decisions including "confronting Moscow in Afghanistan, inserting the U.S. military in the Persian Gulf," and "strengthening Israel as a base for a southern flank against the Soviets" contributed to al-Qaeda's motives.[109] Others, such as Jason Burke, foreign correspondent for The Observer, focus on a more political aspect to the motive, stating that "bin Laden is an activist with a very clear sense of what he wants and how he hopes to achieve it. Those means may be far outside the norms of political activity [...] but his agenda is a basically political one."[110]

 

A variety of scholarship has also focused on bin Laden's overall strategy as a motive for the attacks. For instance, correspondent Peter Bergen argues that the attacks were part of a plan to cause the United States to increase its military and cultural presence in the Middle East, thereby forcing Muslims to confront the "evils" of a non-Muslim government and establish conservative Islamic governments in the region.[111] Michael Scott Doran, correspondent for Foreign Affairs, further emphasizes the "mythic" use of the term "spectacular" in bin Laden's response to the attacks, explaining that he was attempting to provoke a visceral reaction in the Middle East and ensure that Muslim citizens would react as violently as possible to an increase in U.S. involvement in their region.

 

Aftermath

 

Immediate national response

 

The 9/11 attacks had immediate and overwhelming effects upon the people of the United States. Many police officers and rescue workers elsewhere in the country took leaves of absence to travel to New York City to assist in the process of recovering bodies from the twisted remnants of the Twin Towers.[113] Blood donations across the U.S. also saw a surge in the weeks after 9/11.[114][115] For the first time in history, all nonemergency civilian aircraft in the United States and several other countries including Canada were immediately grounded, stranding tens of thousands of passengers across the world.[116] Any international flights were closed to American airspace by the Federal Aviation Administration, causing flights to be redirected to other countries. Canada was one of the main recipients of diverted flights and launched Operation Yellow Ribbon to deal with the large numbers of grounded planes and stranded passengers.

 

War on Terrorism

 

The NATO council declared that the attacks on the United States were considered an attack on all NATO nations and, as such, satisfied Article 5 of the NATO charter.[118] In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the Bush administration declared a war on terrorism, with the stated goals of bringing Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda to justice and preventing the emergence of other terrorist networks. These goals would be accomplished by means including economic and military sanctions against states perceived as harboring terrorists and increasing global surveillance and intelligence sharing. The second-biggest operation of the U.S. Global War on Terrorism outside of the United States, and the largest directly connected to terrorism, was the overthrow of the Taliban rule of Afghanistan by a U.S.-led coalition. The United States was not the only nation to increase its military readiness, with other notable examples being the Philippines and Indonesia, countries that have their own internal conflicts with Islamist terrorism.[119][120] U.S. officials speculated on possible involvement by Saddam Hussein immediately afterwards.[121] Although these suspicions were unfounded, the association contributed to public acceptance for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

 

Domestic response

 

Following the attacks, President Bush's job approval rating soared to 86%.[122] On September 20, 2001, the U.S. president spoke before the nation and a joint session of the United States Congress, regarding the events of that day, the intervening nine days of rescue and recovery efforts, and his intent in response to those events. In addition, the highly visible role played by New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani won him high praise nationally and in New York.[123] Many relief funds were immediately set up to assist victims of the attacks, with the task of providing financial assistance to the survivors of the attacks and to the families of victims. By the deadline for victim's compensation, September 11, 2003, 2,833 applications had been received from the families of those killed.[124]

 

Contingency plans for the continuity of government and the evacuation of leaders were also implemented almost immediately after the attacks.[116] Congress, however, was not told that the United States was under a continuity of government status until February 2002.[125]

 

Within the United States, Congress passed and President Bush signed the Homeland Security Act of 2002, creating the Department of Homeland Security, representing the largest restructuring of the U.S. government in contemporary history. Congress also passed the USA PATRIOT Act, stating that it would help detect and prosecute terrorism and other crimes. Civil liberties groups have criticized the PATRIOT Act, saying that it allows law enforcement to invade the privacy of citizens and eliminates judicial oversight of law-enforcement and domestic intelligence gathering.[126][127][128] The Bush Administration also invoked 9/11 as the reason to initiate a secret National Security Agency operation, "to eavesdrop on telephone and e-mail communications between the United States and people overseas without a warrant."

 

Hate crimes

 

Numerous incidents of harassment and hate crimes were reported against Middle Easterners and other "Middle Eastern-looking" people, particularly Sikhs, because Sikh males usually wear turbans, which are stereotypically associated with Muslims in the United States. There were reports of verbal abuse, attacks on mosques and other religious buildings (including the firebombing of a Hindu temple) and assaults on people, including one murder: Balbir Singh Sodhi was fatally shot on September 15, 2001. He, like others, was a Sikh who was mistaken for a Muslim.

 

Muslim American reaction

 

Top Muslim organizations in the United States were swift to condemn the attacks on 9/11 and called "upon Muslim Americans to come forward with their skills and resources to help alleviate the sufferings of the affected people and their families". Top organizations include: Islamic Society of North America, American Muslim Alliance, American Muslim Council, Council on American-Islamic Relations, The Islamic Circle of North America, and the Shari'a Scholars Association of North America. In addition to massive monetary donations, many Islamic organizations launched blood drives and provided medical assistance, food, and residence for victims.[131]

 

Following the attacks, 80,000 Arab and Muslim immigrants were fingerprinted and registered under the Alien Registration Act of 1940. 8,000 Arab and Muslim men were interviewed, and 5,000 foreign nationals were detained under Joint Congressional Resolution 107-40 authorizing the use of military force "to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States."

 

International response

 

The attacks were denounced by mainstream media and governments worldwide. Across the globe, nations offered pro-American support and solidarity.[133] Leaders in most Middle Eastern countries, including Afghanistan, condemned the attacks. Iraq was a notable exception, with an immediate official statement that "the American cowboys are reaping the fruit of their crimes against humanity."[134] Another publicized exception was the celebration of some Palestinians.[135]

 

Approximately one month after the attacks, the United States led a broad coalition of international forces in the removal of the Taliban regime for harboring the al-Qaeda organization.[136] The Pakistani authorities moved decisively to align themselves with the United States in a war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Pakistan provided the United States a number of military airports and bases for its attack on the Taliban regime and arrested over 600 supposed al-Qaeda members, whom it handed over to the United States.[137]

 

Numerous countries, including the UK, India, Australia, France, Germany, Indonesia, China, Canada, Russia, Pakistan, Jordan, Mauritius, Uganda and Zimbabwe introduced "anti-terrorism" legislation and froze the bank accounts of businesses and individuals they suspected of having al-Qaeda ties.[138][139] Law enforcement and intelligence agencies in a number of countries, including Italy, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines arrested people they labeled terrorist suspects for the stated purpose of breaking up militant cells around the world.[140][141] In the U.S., this aroused some controversy, as critics such as the Bill of Rights Defense Committee argued that traditional restrictions on federal surveillance (e.g. COINTELPRO's monitoring of public meetings) were "dismantled" by the USA PATRIOT Act.[142] Civil liberty organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Liberty argued that certain civil rights protections were also being circumvented.[143][144] The United States set up a detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to hold what they termed "illegal enemy combatants". The legitimacy of these detentions has been questioned by, among others, the European Parliament, the Organization of American States, and Amnesty International.

 

Conspiracy theories

 

Various conspiracy theories have emerged subsequent to the attacks suggesting that individuals inside the United States knew the attacks were coming and deliberately chose not to prevent them, or that individuals outside of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda planned or carried out the attacks.[148] The community of civil engineers generally accepts the mainstream account that the impacts of jets at high speeds in combination with subsequent fires, rather than controlled demolition, led to the collapse of the Twin Towers.

 

Investigations

 

9/11 Commission

 

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission), chaired by former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean,[150] was formed in late 2002 to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the attacks, including preparedness for, and the immediate response to, the attacks. On July 22, 2004, the 9/11 Commission issued the 9/11 Commission Report. The commission and its report have been subject to various forms of criticism.

 

Collapse of the World Trade Center

 

A federal technical building and fire safety investigation of the collapses of the Twin Towers and 7 WTC has been conducted by the United States Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The goals of this investigation were to investigate why the buildings collapsed, the extent of injuries and fatalities, and the procedures involved in designing and managing the World Trade Center.[153]

 

The report concluded that the fireproofing on the Twin Towers' steel infrastructures was blown off by the initial impact of the planes and that, if this had not occurred, the towers would likely have remained standing.[154] Gene Corley, the director of the original investigation, commented that "the towers really did amazingly well. The terrorist aircraft didn’t bring the buildings down; it was the fire which followed. It was proven that you could take out two thirds of the columns in a tower and the building would still stand." [155] The fires weakened the trusses supporting the floors, making the floors sag. The sagging floors pulled on the exterior steel columns to the point where exterior columns bowed inward. With the damage to the core columns, the buckling exterior columns could no longer support the buildings, causing them to collapse. In addition, the report asserts that the towers' stairwells were not adequately reinforced to provide emergency escape for people above the impact zones. NIST stated that the final report on the collapse of 7 WTC will appear in a separate report.[156][157] This was confirmed by an independent study by Purdue University.

 

Internal review of the CIA

 

The Inspector General of the CIA conducted an internal review of the CIA's pre-9/11 performance, and was harshly critical of senior CIA officials for not doing everything possible to confront terrorism, including failing to stop two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, as they entered the United States and failing to share information on the two men with the FBI.[159]

 

In May 2007, senators from both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party drafted legislation that would openly present an internal CIA investigative report. One of the backers, Senator Ron Wyden stated "The American people have a right to know what the Central Intelligence Agency was doing in those critical months before 9/11.... I am going to bulldog this until the public gets it." The report investigates the responsibilities of individual CIA personnel before and after the 9/11 attacks. The report was completed in 2005, but its details have never been released to the public.

 

Long-term effects

 

Economic aftermath

 

The attacks had a significant economic impact on the United States and world markets. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the American Stock Exchange, and NASDAQ did not open on September 11 and remained closed until September 17. When the stock markets reopened, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (“DJIA”) stock market index fell 684 points, or 7.1%, to 8921, its biggest-ever one-day point decline.[161] By the end of the week, the DJIA had fallen 1,369.7 points (14.3%), its largest one-week point drop in history.[162] U.S. stocks lost $1.4 trillion in value for the week.[162] In New York City, there were approximately 430,000 lost job months and $2.8 billion in lost wages, which occurred in the three months following the 9/11 attacks. The economic effects were mainly focused on the city's export economy sectors.[163] The GDP for New York City was estimated to have declined by $27.3 billion for the last three months of 2001 and all of 2002. The Federal government provided $11.2 billion in immediate assistance to the Government of New York City in September 2001, and $10.5 billion in early 2002 for economic development and infrastructure needs.[164]

 

The 9/11 attacks also had great impact on small businesses in Lower Manhattan, located near the World Trade Center. Approximately 18,000 small businesses were destroyed or displaced after the attacks. The Small Business Administration provided loans as assistance, while Community Development Block Grants and Economic Injury Disaster Loans were other ways that the Federal Government provided assistance to small business effected by the 9/11 attacks.[164] 31.9 million square feet of Lower Manhattan office space was either damaged or destroyed.[165] Many questioned whether these lost jobs would ever be restored, and whether the damaged tax base could ever recover.[166] Economic studies of the effects of 9/11 have confirmed that the impact of the attacks on the Manhattan office market as well as on office employment was more limited than initially expected because of the strong need for face-to-face interaction in the financial services industry.[167][168]

 

North American air space was closed for several days after the attacks and air travel decreased significantly upon its reopening. The attacks led to nearly a 20% cutback in air travel capacity, and severely exacerbated financial problems in the struggling U.S. airline industry.

 

Health effects

 

The thousands of tons of toxic debris resulting from the collapse of the Twin Towers consisted of more than 2,500 contaminants, including known carcinogens.[170][171] This has led to debilitating illnesses among rescue and recovery workers, which many claim to be directly linked to debris exposure.[172][173] For example, NYPD Officer Frank Macri died of lung cancer that spread throughout his body on September 3, 2007; his family contends the cancer is the result of long hours on the site and they have filed for line-of-duty death benefits, which the city has yet to rule on.[174] Health effects have also extended to some residents, students, and office workers of Lower Manhattan and nearby Chinatown.[175] Several deaths have been linked to the toxic dust caused by the World Trade Center's collapse and the victims' names will be included in the World Trade Center memorial.[176] There is also scientific speculation that exposure to various toxic products in the air may have negative effects on fetal development. Due to this potential hazard, a notable children's environmental health center is currently analyzing the children whose mothers were pregnant during the WTC collapse, and were living or working near the World Trade Center towers.[177]

 

Legal disputes over the attendant costs of illnesses related to the attacks are still in the court system. On October 17, 2006, federal judge Alvin Hellerstein rejected New York City's refusal to pay for health costs for rescue workers, allowing for the possibility of numerous suits against the city.[178] Government officials have been faulted for urging the public to return to lower Manhattan in the weeks shortly following the attacks. Christine Todd Whitman, administrator of the EPA in the aftermath of the attacks, was heavily criticized for incorrectly saying that the area was environmentally safe.[179] President Bush was criticized for interfering with EPA interpretations and pronouncements regarding air quality in the aftermath of the attacks.[180] In addition, Mayor Giuliani was criticized for urging financial industry personnel to return quickly to the greater Wall Street area.

 

Rebuilding

 

On the day of the attacks, Giuliani proclaimed, "We will rebuild. We're going to come out of this stronger than before, politically stronger, economically stronger. The skyline will be made whole again."[182] Debris removal officially ended in May 2002.[183] The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, responsible for rebuilding the World Trade Center site, has been criticized for doing little with the enormous funding directed to the rebuilding efforts.[184][185] On the sites of the totally destroyed buildings, one, 7 World Trade Center, has a new office tower which was completed in 2006. The Freedom Tower is currently under construction at the site and at 1,776 ft (541 m) upon completion in 2011, will become the one of the tallest buildings in North America, behind the Chicago Spire and the CN Tower in Toronto. Three more towers are expected to be built between 2007 and 2012 on the site, and will be located one block east of where the original towers stood. The damaged section of the Pentagon was rebuilt and occupied within a year of the attacks.

 

Memorials

 

In the days immediately following the attacks, many memorials and vigils were held around the world.[187][188][189] In addition, pictures were placed all over Ground Zero. A witness described being unable to "get away from faces of innocent victims who were killed. Their pictures are everywhere, on phone booths, street lights, walls of subway stations. Everything reminded me of a huge funeral, people quiet and sad, but also very nice. Before, New York gave me a cold feeling; now people were reaching out to help each other.”

 

One of the first memorials was the Tribute in Light, an installation of 88 searchlights at the footprints of the World Trade Center towers which projected two vertical columns of light into the sky.[191] In New York, the World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition was held to design an appropriate memorial on the site. The winning design, Reflecting Absence, was selected in August 2006, and consists of a pair of reflecting pools in the footprints of the towers, surrounded by a list of the victims' names in an underground memorial space.[192] Plans for a museum on the site have been put on hold, following the abandonment of the International Freedom Center after criticism from the families of many victims.[193]

 

At the Pentagon, an outdoor memorial is currently under construction, which will consist of a landscaped park with 184 benches facing the Pentagon.[194] When the Pentagon was rebuilt in 2001-2002, a private chapel and indoor memorial were included, located at the spot where Flight 77 crashed into the building.[195] At Shanksville, a permanent Flight 93 National Memorial is in planning stages, which will include a sculpted grove of trees forming a circle around the crash site, bisected by the plane's path, while wind chimes will bear the names of the victims.[196] A temporary memorial is located 500 yards (450 meters) from the Flight 93 crash site near Shanksville.[197] Many other permanent memorials are being constructed around the world and a list is being updated as new ones are completed.[198] In addition to physical monuments, scholarships and charities have been established by the victims' loved ones, along with many other organizations and private figures.

Mar 11.16 - A female stole a Vancouver Police car from the skids and led Police on a high speed chase until she crashed into a building in Burnaby BC.

 

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A stolen truck crashed into the Suncor Building in downtown Calgary Friday morning.

 

At around 9:50 a.m., Calgary police received reports of a stolen truck driving downtown. The driver fled an attempt at a traffic stop, then took off, driving erratically at high speeds through downtown, south Calgary and the northeast.

 

According to a Calgary police spokesperson, the truck reached speeds of up to 150 km/h and hit a number of parked vehicles, before it collided with the Suncor Building at 111 5th Avenue S.W.

 

A man and woman have been remanded into custody. Charges are pending. Police say there’s extensive property damage, but no injuries have been reported.

Aircraft C526 crashed into buildings in Oshawa, Ontario, with the store of H. A. Porter [at 6 King Street West] on the right and a barber shop in the centre.

 

Part of a collection of materials donated by Todd Cole in December 2005.

Character Creation

 

Moon Knight is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin, the character first appeared in Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975).

 

The son of a rabbi, Marc Spector served as a Force Recon Marine and briefly as a CIA operative before becoming a mercenary alongside his friend Jean-Paul "Frenchie" DuChamp.

 

During a job in Sudan, Spector is appalled when ruthless fellow mercenary Raoul Bushman attacks and kills archeologist Dr. Alraune in front of the man's daughter and colleague, Marlene Alraune.

 

After fighting Bushman and being left for dead, a mortally wounded Spector reaches Alraune's recently unearthed tomb and is placed before a statue of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Spector apparently dies, then suddenly revives, fully healed.

 

He claims Khonshu wants him to be the "moon's knight", the left "Fist of Khonshu", redeeming his life of violence by now protecting and avenging the innocent.

 

While early stories imply Spector is merely insane, it is later revealed Khonshu is real, one of several entities from the Othervoid (a dimension outside normal time and space) once worshipped by ancient Earth people.

 

On his return to the United States, Spector invests his mercenary profits into becoming the crimefighter "Moon Knight", aided by Frenchie and Marlene Alraune, who becomes his lover and eventually the mother of his daughter.

 

Along with his costumed alter ego, he primarily uses three other identities to gain information from different social circles: billionaire businessman Steven Grant, taxicab driver Jake Lockley, and suited detective and police consultant Mr. Knight.

 

It is later revealed Moon Knight has dissociative identity disorder (DID) (incorrectly referred to as schizophrenia in some stories), and that the alter egos known as Grant and Lockley originally manifested during his childhood.

 

Other subsequent alter egos who do not assume the Moon Knight identity have emerged at other points during his adulthood, including a werewolf-fighting astronaut; impersonators of Khonshu, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America, Iron Man, and Echo; and a red-haired little girl known as the Inner Child, introduced in the Ultimate Marvel continuity.

 

It is debated in different stories whether Spector has genuine DID due to childhood trauma or if his similar symptoms are the result of "brain damage" caused by his psychic connection to Khonshu, a connection compelling his personality to shift between the god's four major aspects.

 

Khonshu claims he created a psychic connection with Spector, Grant, and Lockley when the latter were young, decades before they became Moon Knight.

 

In most of his stories, Moon Knight has no supernatural abilities beyond occasional visions of mystic insight.

 

He relies on athletic ability, advanced technology, expert combat and detective skills, and a high tolerance for pain based on willpower, training, and experience. Since becoming Moon Knight, there have been multiple occasions when the character has died only to then be resurrected by Khonshu, implying he may now be effectively immortal until the moon god's protection is revoked (whether Khonshu has limitations on how often he can resurrect Spector is unknown).

 

For a time, Moon Knight's strength and resistance to injury could reach superhuman levels depending on the phases of the moon, but this ability later vanished, while the Moon Knight identity is occasionally depicted as an independent alter ego of the others.

 

The character has made appearances in various media outside of comics, including animated series and video games. Oscar Isaac portrays Marc Spector / Moon Knight, Steven Grant / Mr. Knight, and Jake Lockley in the Marvel Cinematic Universe live-action television series Moon Knight (2022).

 

Development

 

In an interview, Doug Moench recalled the character's genesis: "Somebody mentioned in the office and suggested using The Committee, and that I should bring The Committee back, and then I found out who The Committee were and thought, well they're really boring, I don't wanna use them. And then I thought, well wait a minute, how about if The Committee hires a mercenary to kill the Werewolf. And I thought, yeah that's a good idea, then I create this new character and it won't be these boring guys in business suits, it would be a flashy character. So, I said who is best to kill the Werewolf? Well, someone who uses silver weapons because silver hurts the Werewolf. And tied to the night, because the Werewolf only comes out at night, and I'll base this character on the Moon, because the Moon makes the Werewolf change, and this is going to be the opposite of the Werewolf, and as soon as I said the Moon I said, ooh I'll have a costume that's just like the Moon, just black and white, jet and silver, no color on the costume."

 

Don Perlin also commented on the creation of the character, "We were told we needed a costumed character in the book. So Doug and I created Moon Knight. I wanted the costume to be just black and white. Since he'd be on a color page, that would make him a little bit different. He had a silver baton he could use when he battled werewolves. See, he was hired to track down to kill the Werewolf."

 

Publication history

 

The character debuted in Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975), written by Doug Moench with art by Don Perlin and Al Milgrom, as a mercenary hired by the Committee to capture the title character. The creative team gave Moon Knight moon-related symbols and silver weapons (a metal poisonous to a werewolf) to mark him as a suitable antagonist for the werewolf hero.

 

The two-part story continues into #33, when Moon Knight realizes Russell is a victim rather than a monster and decides to help him. A demonic vision of Moon Knight then appeared in Werewolf by Night #37 (March 1976).

 

Editors Marv Wolfman and Len Wein liked the character and decided to give him a solo story in Marvel Spotlight #28–29 (June/August 1976), again written by Doug Moench with art by Don Perlin. The story, along with Spectacular Spider-Man #22–23 (September/October 1978) written by Bill Mantlo, recast Moon Knight as a more heroic character.

 

His association with the evil Committee during his first appearance was retconned to be an undercover mission he undertook to learn more about the villains.

 

Moon Knight acted as a hero again in Marvel Two-in-One #52, written by Steven Grant with art by Jim Craig. In The Defenders #47–51, Moon Knight briefly joined the Defenders during their war against the Zodiac Cartel.

 

Moon Knight appeared in recurring backup stories in Hulk! Magazine #11–15, #17–18, and #20, as well as a black and white story in the magazine publication Marvel Preview #21, all written by Doug Moench. Artist Bill Sienkiewicz drew Moon Knight in Hulk! Magazine issues #13–15, 17–18, and #20, creating a new look for the character heavily influenced by the art of Neal Adams, who at that time was most popular for his work on Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow for DC Comics.

 

This, along with Moon Knight's methods and the atmosphere of his stories, cemented a perception among some readers that he was Marvel's version of Batman. The Hulk backups and Marvel Preview issue provided Moon Knight with a partial origin story and introduced his brother, recurring villain Randall Spector (who would later become Shadow Knight).

 

Origin

 

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Marc Spector was the rebellious son of an academic Jewish rabbi whose family had fled Europe in the 1930s to escape the Holocaust.

 

Marc could not understand why his father refused to fight against his people's persecution and grew disgusted with his pacifistic ways, viewing him as a coward.

 

Rejecting his father's faith, Marc started out as a heavyweight boxer before eventually joining the U.S. Marines, where he was trained as a commando. Shortly afterward, his skills led to his recruitment into the Central Intelligence Agency.

 

He worked with William Cross (who later became the villainous Crossfire) and his own brother, Randall Spector. However, Randall betrayed the CIA and was secretly smuggling and selling weapons. When Marc's lover discovered this and tried to turn him in, Randall brutally murdered her with a meat cleaver. In retaliation, Marc hunted Randall down, but during the fight, Randall was seemingly killed by an exploding grenade.

 

Fed up with the CIA, Marc went independent and became a fierce soldier of fortune, renowned for his willingness to do anything providing the job paid well enough. In Africa, he met a French mercenary, Jean-Paul "Frenchie" DuChamp, who would become one of Marc's closest friends and Marc's pilot.

 

While working for the terrorist Raoul Bushman, Marc became increasingly disturbed by Bushman's savagery and ruthlessness. For the first time in his life, his conscience had awakened, and it troubled him deeply. In Selima, Sudan, they stumbled across archaeologist Dr. Peter Alraune's excavation of an Egyptian Pharaoh's tomb. Believing there were gold and riches within, Bushman murdered Alraune to plunder the tomb.

 

Sickened by Bushman, Marc tried to do the decent thing and helped Alraune's daughter, Marlene, escape from Raoul's notice. Annoyed with Marc's betrayal, Bushman brutally beat Spector and abandoned him in the desert so he would suffer before he died.

 

Barely conscious, Spector staggered to the ancient tomb for shelter. Marlene was there with her father's men and brought Marc to rest near a statue of the moon god, Khonshu.

 

Weakened from his fight with Bushman and the elements of the desert, Marc Spector died. As Marlene cried over his cooling body, Spector suddenly returned to life, claiming that he had a vision that Khonshu had brought him back from the dead to be the Moon's Knight of Vengeance.

 

Spector removed the burial shroud from the statue of Khonshu and wrapped it around himself as a makeshift cloak, before confronting Bushman once again, and this time, he was victorious. Thus, Moon Knight was born.

 

Major Story Arcs

 

The Hero of the Night Rises

 

After defeating Bushman, Marc returned to the United States with Marlene and Frenchie along with the statue of Khonshu. He decided to continue his work to fight a war against evil and used his savings that he had collected during his mercenary days and invested it, turning it into a small fortune which he proceeded to finance and support his private war and set up shop in New York City.

 

In an effort to distance himself from his mercenary days, Marc created the persona of Steven Grant, a millionaire entrepreneur and high-roller whose jet setting personality enabled him to walk among the high rollers and elite of New York City. Realizing the value of these contacts as criminal activities are often plotted and planned at cocktail parties and boardrooms, Marc also decided to create a persona for lower level contacts and invented the identity of Jake Lockley, a New York cab driver. Through Lockley, he was able to make several contacts "on the streets" such as Bertrand Crawley and Gena Landers plus her sons Ricky and Ray.

 

Shortly after developing his costume and weapons along with a customized helicopter known the "Mooncopter", Frenchie posing as a French businessman made contact with a group of aristocrats known as "The Committee" who had plans to capture and retrieve Jack Russell, the Werewolf By Night whom they intended to use as a weapon to fulfill their desire to rule the city. Frenchie acting as the go-between, presented the Committee members with Marc Spector as a mercenary and ostentatiously revealed the Moon Knight costume and weapons which Frenchie claimed that he had created to battle Russell.

 

Although Marc was successful in defeating Russell, his suspicions were realized when he discovered the Committee's goals and proceeded to release Jack and defeat "The Committee" which earned him their undying enmity and established Moon Knight as a vigilante to be respected.

 

After thwarting a man calling himself Conquer-Lord, Moon Knight briefly joined the superhero team, The Defenders, to fight the Life Model Decoys of a villain group called Zodiac. He then went on to battle Cyclone alongside Spider-Man, and Crossfire with The Thing, as well as some solo missions against a terrorist group lead by a man named Lupinar, and even his own brother, Randall who had survived their previous encounter and had become a psychotic ax killer targeting women.

 

Afterwards, Moon Knight encountered villains that would become part of his own rogues gallery--such as the Midnight Man, Morpheus, Stained Glass Scarlet, and Black Spectre, just to name a few--and teamed-up with Spider-Man a few more times, as well as other heroes such as Daredevil, Iron Man, Power Man and Iron Fist.

 

Then, Marc received word that his father was dying and decided to try and patch things up with him. Unfortunately, his father passed away before he was able to return to Chicago and instead discovered that his father's body had been stolen by his father's former student, Zohar who used the deceased rabbi's body to focus for his mystical spells to punish Marc for his perceived sins against his dead mentor.

 

Although Moon Knight was able to overcome Zohar; the mental trauma combined with the act of juggling his different personas put a serious strain on Spector's mental health and he suffered a nervous breakdown and was deemed to be suffering from Multiple Personality Disoder (MPD) or as it later became renamed; Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).

 

The Fist of Khonshu

 

After several months of recuperation for his mental health, Spector decided to retire as Moon Knight and with pressure from Marlene who greatly preferred his debonair and sophisticated Steven Grant persona, decided to give up both his Jake Lockley and Marc Spector identities. Marc became convinced that he only had a near-death experience and merely hallucinated the episode with Khonshu and even sold the idol of the Egyptian deity.

 

Marc however was plagued by strange dreams which convinced him that he had to return to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.

 

Marlene however adamantly refused to follow him again in his downward spiral of violence and insanity and demanded that he not go, sure that he would once more take up the mantle of Moon Knight. When he did so anyways, she left their home and broke up with him.

 

On his pilgrimage in Egypt, Marc met three priests who proclaimed that the idol of Khonshu had fallen into hands of the avatar of Anubis, Ahmad Azis who intends to perform a ritual that would destroy the idol to strike back at Khonshu whom he believes is the sole thing stopping him from world domination.

 

Proclaiming Marc as the Fist of Khonshu, they gifted him with an assortment of mystical weaponry and supernatural strength and powers that waxed and waned with the light of the moon.

 

His strength renewed and his faith restored, Marc would once again take up the mantle of the Moon Knight and even more powerful than before would defeat Anubis' plot and rescue the idol of Khonshu.

 

Strangely enough, seconds after saving the idol from being destroyed; a sudden desert sandstorm comes and blinds Azis and causes the temple to collapse on him, killing him.

 

The Silver Avenger

 

When the the West Coast Avengers were trapped in ancient Egypt, Hawkeye made a pact with Khonshu and created an assortment of weapons that Khonshu would mystically enhance and would subsequently be gifted to Marc Spector in the 20th Century.

 

In exchange, Khonshu informed his avatar, Marc Spector of their situation; allowing Moon Knight to help rescue them and return the Avengers to the present. Moon Knight then joined the team as the 24th Avenger.

 

He possessed a rather tumultuous stint of membership even though he proved to play a critical role in defeating Dominus and later, the Examiner of the Silg race; he often had a habit of playing fast and loose with the rules such as his pursuit of Cornelius Van Lunt which may have driven the man to his death and possessed less-than-stellar teamwork due to his longtime career as a loner. Further, his tenure was complicated with a romantic relationship with fellow Avenger Tigra.

 

When it was discovered that Mockingbird had allowed the Phantom Rider to be killed after he had drugged and raped her, her husband Hawkeye denounced her which caused Mockingbird to resign. In response, Tigra and Moon Knight both chose to accompany her and form their own splinter group of Avengers. The trio would fight the High Evolutionary in the Evolutionary War alongside Bill Foster, as well as battle the Night Shift.

 

When the team sought help from Hellstorm for the Phantom Rider's haunting of Mockingbird, it was discovered that Khonshu was possessing Moon Knight and was the true source behind his supernatural lunar-based powers.

 

Hellstorm was able to convince the Egyptian God of the Moon to leave Spector's body and it was revealed that it was Khonshu, not Marc who wanted to join the Avengers West Coast. Unsure of how much of Khonshu's influence had on himself for the past few months led Marc to breaking off his relationship with Tigra and also abandoning his mystical weapons.

 

Marc Spector: Moon Knight

 

After the fallout of Khonshu's possession, Marc returned to New York and sought out Marlene and reforge his ties with Frenchie even though he was no longer certain he wishes to continue as Moon Knight anymore. However, the return of his old enemy Bushman who kidnaps Marlene prompts him to return as the Crescent Crusader.

 

However without Khonshu's supernatural influence, Spector was much more psychologically stable and did not resume his previous identities of Jake Lockley or Steven Grant. Instead, he refocused his financial empire and created his own company SpectorCorp while he dedicated himself towards more urban street crimefighting over the more cosmic, supernatural evil that he previously battled under Khonshu's influence.

 

Afterwards, Marc discovers that an old enemy, Midnight Man may still be alive only to discover that foe is deceased but his grown son now seeks to redeem his father's criminal lifestyle as a hero and has sought out his father's greatest enemy; Moon Knight to train him up to become a crimefighter.

 

Feeling a sense of obligation, Marc reluctantly agrees. Desperate to prove himself worthy, Midnight infiltrates the Secret Empire and is ultimately captured and is presumed deceased while dressed up as Moon Knight.

 

Midnight however survived his horrific wounds and is converted into a cyborg soldier for the Secret Empire. Believing that the Silver Avenger had abandoned him, Midnight came to believe that his condition was all Moon Knight's fault.

 

With Midnight acting as their field agent, he broke Thunderball out of jail which earned him the attention of Spider-Man and Darkhawk. He was able to escape but Spider-Man recognized Midnight from his previous encounter with Moon Knight and called in the Lunar Legionnaire.

 

Midnight was then sent to capture the New Warrior Nova and discovered that he was soon to be rendered obsolete as merely one of cyborg grunts while the Empire would rebuild superhumans to enhance their formidable attributes.

 

With the clandestine assistance of a sympathetic nurse, Lynn Church who disabled the Empire's control devices, Midnight turned on the Empire and sought to establish himself as their new leader. Alongside Spider-Man, Darkhawk, the Punisher, Night Thrasher, the freed Nova; Moon Knight aided in bringing down the Secret Empire as well as Midnight and Lynn Church who was actually a cyborg herself who had been using Midnight as the testbed of the most successful cybernetic implants for her own upgrades.

 

In another encounter with his brother who had taken up the costume of Shadowknight as a sort of twisted version of his Moon Knight identity, there was an explosion at Spector Mansion which crippled Frenchie, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down and forcing him to abandon his role as a Moon Knight's pilot.

 

As a consequence, Marc was forced to create the "Angelwing", a remote controlled aircraft for his activities. An increasingly formidable array of opponents also prompted him to upgrade his crimefighting equipment and accoutrements.

 

Marc also began actively recruiting specialized agents to assist him on his missions from psychological profiles, to expert thieves, and intelligence operatives in a think tank organization he dubbed "The Shadow Cabinet" that he kept in contact via holo-communicator rings.

 

Moon Knight would later become infected by the then-demonically possessed Hobgoblin with a demonic virus which prompted Marc to create a suit of armor which helped contain the virus while he sought a cure to his deteriorating physical condition and was only cured thanks to the mystical aid of Dr. Strange.

 

Infinity War and Crusade

 

When the Magus, the evil incarnation of Adam Warlock plan to gain absolute power, he created evil doppelgangers of both heroes and villains on earth. Moon Knight had to face his own evil self, manifested as Moonshade which he defeated.

 

After the War, the Goddess, the good incarnation of Adam Warlock recruited many heroes who are very spiritual, religious have had near-death experiences.

 

Because of Moon Knight's close affiliation with the moon god and his first resurrection to serve as the avatar of vengeance; the Goddess recruited Moon Knight to defend her as she purges the evil in the universe. Moon Knight was returned to normal when the Goddess was defeated by the combined efforts of Adam Warlock, Thanos and Professor X.

 

Soon afterwards in a battle against Seth the Immortal, Moon Knight sacrificed his life to save Marlene and Frenchie.

 

Resurrection War

 

Khonshu seemingly willed Moon Knight back to life in order to thwart the plans of his three greatest villains: Black Spectre, Raoul Bushman and Morpheus, who were all under the worship of Set, God of Darkness and Chaos.

 

Marc, questioning if his death was real or not, started experiencing dreams of the future in which Marc concludes that it is either Morpheus or Khonshu speaking to him once again. With the knowledge that he is the "white-light" of Khonshu, he sets out to thwart their plans, receiving help from Stained Glass Scarlet as well.

 

The two are able to defeat the trio and stop their plans of attacking a U.N. building that was holding a meeting at the time. Afterwords, Moon Knight went back to his crime-fighting once again.

 

He helped save the Black Panther from the Kingdom of the Dead and subsequently joined the Marvel Knights, a group of street level superheroes and vigilantes. However the team broke apart and went their separate ways including the Crescent Crusader.

 

Moon Fall

 

In an attempt to bring down the Moon Knight, the New Committee hired the The Profile to fully utilize his unusual talents to not simply defeat Moon Knight, but to break him.

 

As per his suggestion, they embarked on a long term strategy. First, they hired Bushman to attack the Lunar Legionnaire again. As part of their campaign, they wanted Bushman to physically cripple him and both of Marc's legs were severely fractured.

 

However, Bushman grew overconfident and was unprepared for Marc's brutal counterattack and then, in a fit of indescribable rage, Marc used one of his crescent darts to carve off Bushman's face, giving him a true death's head.

 

Unable to continue his career as Moon Knight, Marc began taking more and more painkillers and anti-psychotics, burning through his fortune and was no longer able to maintain his crumbling financial empire.

 

His manner had gotten to the point that he completely and irrevocably alienated those around him, especially Frenchie, who came to the conclusion that there was simply no course of action that he could take that could attempt to assist Marc in even the slightest way. After a heated argument with Marlene, Marc struck her and Marlene left.

 

His sanity apparently deteriorating as he is constantly "seeing" and "hearing" Khonshu talk to him and give him foul suggestions while Khonshu decided to use the guise of the deceased Bushman (without his face) to torment Moon Knight.

 

Knowing that he was both physically and psychologically weakened, the Committee overstepped themselves by hiring a thug to physically assault Frenchie and left him hospitalized.

 

Instead of breaking Marc, it reinvigorated him as he tracked down and savagely injured Frechie's assailant. Panicking, the Committee hired the Taskmaster to take out Moon Knight.

 

Taskmaster tortured Marc but he was aided by Marlene and defended by his butler, Samuels. This gave Marc the strength to defeat Taskmaster and destroy the Committee once more.

 

Soon afterwards, Marc learns that one of the struggling companies that he still retains ownership of has just made a significant technological breakthrough and he will once again be wealthy and begins to rebuild himself and life; finally getting himself out of his wheelchair and began physical therapy.

 

It is only afterwards that Marc makes an appalling discovery that Khonshu was responsible behind the entire affair. After Marc's latest resurrection, his reputation had taken a nose dive and so Khonshu decided to ensure that his Knight of Vengeance was firmly back in the saddle; nudging the Committee, bringing back Marlene at a critical moment, even arranging for Marc's wealth to be restored while reminding him who and what he is; Khonshu's Knight of Vengeance and bades him to go forth and do his work in Khonshu's name once more.

 

Although the Committee has gone underground, Marc locates the Profile who discovers that he was no match for Moon Knight, and ironically, became an informant for him instead.

 

Moon Knight takes back to the streets and attempts to be make up for lost time and would discover a string of murders were perpetrated by his former sidekick turned cyborg, Midnight who had survived their last encounter and had gone insane. Realizing that he had no choice, he was forced to kill his former sidekick Midnight.

 

The Waning Moon: Civil War and the Initiative

 

During the Civil War, Moon Knight chose to ally with neither side because, as he had said to Captain America, "The war is just like a game of capture the flag". Captain America retorted that he didn't want Moon Knight to join the fight because of his "methods" of bringing justice and Iron Man, seeing his history of psychotic tendencies and feeling some sense of obligation due to their past history as Avengers, decided that arresting him will just make his condition even worse.

 

When the Super-Human Registration Act became a law, Moon Knight felt that he didn't want the law to disrupt his work, so legally registered. Tony Stark assigned Marc to undergo a psychiatric examination, sure that he would fail. But when the psychiatrist placed Marc under deep hypnosis to talk to Marc's other personalities, Khonshu emerged and possesses Marc who then demoralized the psychiatrist and rebukes him.

 

After this the intimidated psychiatrist approved Marc's registration, but also did something quite peculiar--he bowed down before him and started worshiping him.

 

Afterwards, Marc claimed to the Profile that he had faked the whole possession and had employed the information given to him by the Profile to frighten the psychiatrist as a ruse to get his registration approved and proceeded to stalk the nights, bringing brutal justice to the thugs and gangs running around the city.

 

Unknown to Marc, the Black Spectre was recently released from jail and sought revenge against Moon Knight. The Black Spectre decided to turn to his life of crime again and frame Moon Knight for murder by killing his victims and carving a crescent moon on the victims head, which was Moon Knight's previous calling card. Due to public pressure, Iron Man immediately revoked Moon Knight's ID and told him he is no longer apart of the Initiative.

 

Looking to still bring justice on Black Specter, Marc finds out that he is going to release a stream of nanobots into a big parade in a plan to control the city. Moon Knight thwarts his plan and ends up throwing him off the roof of a building to his death. Outed by the government and with SHIELD searching for him, Spector moves underground.

 

With a warrant out for his arrest the, C.S.A. call in for the Thunderbolts to come and hunt down Moon Knight as a fugitive of the law. Iron Man strongly opposes the idea but is overruled on the matter. Moon Knight continues to lay low only to resurface in a black uniform and a with a few new bones to pick. SHIELD interrogates several of Marc's friends and contacts, although nothing comes out of them. Now is the time for the Thunderbolts to strike.

 

Several weeks later after having a run-in with the Thunderbolts, Moon Knight pleads with Khonshu for forgiveness for losing his faith at him, but the Lunar god will not have it and says that he has worshipers that actually follow him. Marc returned into his costume to help Frenchie, who was attacked by a gang. But little did he knew that the attack was used to set-up Moon Knight to be captured by the Thunderbolts. Moon Knight was then ambushed by Venom.

 

He was captured by the reformed villain team, but he got away when SHIELD came. Frenchie agreed to help Moon Knight while the Thunderbolts release Bullseye to kill him.

 

Moon Knight and Bullseye fight all throughout New York and the battle leads them to a warehouse, which was secretly planted with many explosives. Moon Knight sets it off and the warehouse explodes.

 

Later in a press conference Norman Osborn tells reporters about the Thunderbolts' success in eliminating Moon Knight while Iron Man condemns his team on the death of the vigilante.

 

However, it all was a ruse for Moon Knight to fake his death via a prepared escape tunnel. However, the events effectively killed the "Marc Spector" persona with the Jake Lockley persona now in control.

 

Lockley fled to Mexico to recuperate and is hired by a millionaire to search for his daughter who has been kidnapped by corrupt cops.

 

Little does Moon Knight know that the Punisher is also in the trail of the corrupt cops and is now out to bring them justice through a method he knows best, punishment.

 

Moon Knight then goes to fight off the Zapata Brothers (who were brought in by Alcantara after Jake killed his henchmen and took his condemned daughter) only to make a deal with them to take down Alcantara. Moon Knight then proceeds to launch a full-scale assault on Alcantara when he finds everyone is murdered except Alcantara himself until Toltec finds them and Moon Knight walks away as Toltec kills Alcantara. Moon Knight (having taken Alcantara's money and bought himself a condo) has seen on TV what Norman Osborn has become and vows to go back to the U.S. and bring him down.

 

Return with a Vengeance

 

Moon Knight has returned to New York to exact his revenge on Norman Osborn and did so by stopping a bank heist in progress without killing a single bank robber, much to the surprise of the police.

 

Khonshu is still convincing him to become the ruthless vigilante he was before, but Moon Knight continues to ignore the temptations of the deity and plans to redeem himself as well as reform into a new hero. News of Moon Knight's return circulated throughout the bustling city, with Norman Osborn denouncing him as a renegade and a menace while promising the public that Moon Knight will be dealt with for his acts of vigilance accordingly.

 

The Sentry appeared before Moon Knight and reminded him that he can never run from his past and that he will be tested for to prove himself as a hero, to which he replied that he will also be tested as well.

 

Moon Knight paid a visit to his criminal contact, the Profile and told him about the Slug and some stolen diamonds that he has. Moon Knight confronted the Slug and his henchmen for the diamonds, while Khonshu urges him to kill the villain but he was squashed in the floor.

 

Meanwhile, Norman Osborn has delegated the Hood on stopping Moon Knight. The Hood then had the Profile to track down and profile Moon Knight. The Profile thought of a plan to take down Moon Knight and it involves the grave of his late nemesis, Raoul Bushman.

 

Jake goes home and sees the news coverage about the jailbreak in Ravencroft. Jake suits up as Moon Knight and tells his butler to call his pilot for the Mooncopter, but he cannot reach him and Moon Knight decides to use his other vehicle, Angelwing.

 

When the hanger doors were opening, Moon Knight was surprised to see his old partner, Frenchie, dressed in a aviator suit and walking on a cane. Reunited with his friend, Frenchie flies the Mooncopter and drops Moon Knight inside the melee of the escaped convicts. In the middle of the chaos, Khonshu is still persuading Moon Knight to kill for him, but to no avail.

 

When Moon Knight called Frenchie to come back, he told him he can't because of an enormous flock of birds blanketing the sky, which was summoned by the Scarecrow. Frenchie then shoots a large net from the Mooncopter to catch the flock, neutralizing it.

 

Moon Knight then catches Scarecrow, but he then argues to him that Moon Knight should confront his old nemesis, Bushman. Moon Knight goes to his contact, Crawley for any word from the street,but they were suddenly attacked by Bushman.

 

After taunting him, Bushman fires a RPG to Moon Knight but it hits a corner of building, threatening it to collapse. Moon Knight rushed in to hold the building and Bushman left him to be beaten by his army of convicts from Ravencroft.

 

After beating the convicts with only his underwear and mask on, Moon Knight carves his symbol on all that he defeated on their strait jacket.

 

Spider-Man then swings by and he tried to convince Moon Knight to stop his heroics before he return back to his murderous ways, to which Moon Knight argued that his heroism doesn't fare better because Norman Osborn is still in power.

 

Moon Knight got a tip from Crawley goes in search for Bushman in one of OsCorp's warehouses. Moon Knight then infiltrates the warehouse and begins searching for Bushman to no avail, until he surprises Marc. After a much drawn out, grueling fight between Marc has Raoul pinned down and mounts him with his crescent dart in his hand as if to cut off Bushman's face again.

 

Though Bushman begs Marc not to take his face again, causing much hesitation for the hero before stopping his act. Marc left and let the authorities take care of him. Meanwhile, now that Marc has prevailed, The Profile left to the cavern of Khonshu, for reasons unknown.

 

Moon Knight finds that someone has forcibly enter a hospital. When he got there, he saw Deadpool about to kill a bed-ridden patient. Moon Knight stops him and they go into a brief scuffle until Deadpool gets thrown through a window and escapes. Moon Knight then finds out that the person he just rescued was a Ukrainian crime boss dying from cancer, that made him question himself about being a hero.

 

Deadpool then met up with his employer, a mother whose son was kidnapped by the crime boss' henchmen. Moon Knight goes to see Deadpool and after they talked, Moon Knight goes to a warehouse to rescue the employer's son. Moon Knight saves the boy and left the henchmen for the police, but soon Deadpool picked up where they left off in their previous encounter.

 

They fought in a carnival's hall of mirrors where the duel turned into a sword fight, which left Moon Knight left as the winner. When Jake was having nightmares in his sleep, he suddenly woke up rushed to get into the hospital but he was too late to save the crime boss from Deadpool's employer who killed him with an injection of potassium chloride, stopping the patient's heart.

 

Heroic Age

 

After the events of Dark Reign and Siege, Norman Osborn was deposed as America's "top cop" and his organization H.A.M.M.E.R. was disbanded. Captain Steve Rogers then forms the Secret Avengers as a group of superheroes to operate under a veil of secrecy, in addition to the main Avengers team.Moon Knight was approached by Steve Rogers and he asked him to join the Secret Avengers to find his redemption.

 

Moon Knight agrees to this and his first mission was to go after Captain Barracuda who was capturing Oil Tankers. Moon Knight proved himself to the team by saving them and the Tanker crew when Captain Barracuda used the Horn of Proteus to summon sea monsters and destroying the Oil Tanker.

 

Next, Moon Knight infiltrated Roxxon headquarters with fellow Avenger, Ant-Man. They then had to travel to Mars to rescue another teammate, Nova who was looking for the Serpent Crown. The team split up and Moon Knight was accompanied by Black Widow and Valkyrie to look for Nova.

 

When they found him he is wearing the Serpent Crown and he also detected their presence. He and Black Widow were knocked unconscious when they confronted Nova. After the threat on Mars, the team went back to Earth and continues their objective of finding out who is trying to steal the Serpent Crown and why they want it.

 

Shadowland

 

Moon Knight goes to his mansion and sleeps with Marlene, he wakes up and is taunted by Khonshu on going back to his murderous ways and to kill in his name. The other night, Marlene asks Jake out and reveals that she is pregnant, which he is happy about.

 

After days of being taunted by someone calling himself Shadow Knight, Jake gets a mission from Steve Rogers to infiltrate Shadowland as a prisoner. As the heroes and the Hand ninjas fight each other, Jake takes a white cowl and joins to the brawl.

 

Daredevil then attacks Marc from behind, but when Moon Knight begins to fight him, his mind is subsequently infiltrated by an unknown entity that has been inside Daredevil. Khonshu then appears and tells Moon Knight that in order to kill the creature, he will need the Sapphire Crescent, an artifact that was a part of the original sculpture of Khonshu.

 

Moon Knight asks for it, but Khonshu demands him to kill in his name, which Moon Knight declines to do. When he returns home to his mansion, he finds Marlene in a bloody pulp and is informed that Shadow Knight did this and that the baby she was carrying is now dead. Moon Knight then agrees to kill for Khonshu and he will start with Shadow Knight.

 

When he begins to fight him by crashing his glider, the crazed man reveals himself to be Randall Spector. The brothers fight it out but Randall escapes. Driven by revenge over what Randall had done to Marlene, Jake agrees to kill Randall in Khonshu's name. The deity then tells him the Sapphire Crescent's history and that is found in New Orleans.

 

Jake finds it in the possession of a fortune teller which he buys for a large sum. As Jake walks through a carnival, Randall steals it and the brothers again begin a scuffle in the middle of a Mardi Gras festival.

 

Shadow Knight begins to tell Moon Knight that he is doing this because he was sent by the acolyte of Khonshu, the Profile. Jake persuades him that he is being played for a fool by the Profile (working for Daredevil) but he will not have it all. When collateral damage begins to mount, Moon Knight takes control of the fight and corners Shadow Knight on a dock, but he is prepared to commit suicide and kill them all with dynamite.

 

Moon Knight then throws the Sapphire Crescent into Shadow Knight, slicing his throat and causing him to fall in the water below. Moon Knight then flies off back to Shadowland to face Daredevil and the Hand. Afterwards, the Lunar Legionnaire declares that Jake Lockley is dead and that he is now Marc Spector once again.

 

Move to the West Coast

 

Leaving New York and memories of Marlene behind him, Marc moved to West Coast where he is developing a Moon Knight television series, "The Legend of Khonshu".

 

Unable to cope with his past identities, Marc has instead developed a new batch of personalities in the form of other heroes including Spider-Man, Captain America, and Wolverine. Marc honestly believes that he has been asked specifically by these three heroes to once again take up the mantle of Moon Knight and frequently consults with them, unaware that he is hallucinating.

 

He later recruits an assistant Buck Lime, an ex-SHIELD agent who provides technological support for his activities.

 

Investigates an illegal deal going down in the docks, Moon Knight stumbles into a major case involving high-end technology being run by Mr. Hyde. Moon Knight engages Hyde in hand-to-hand combat but Hyde escapes, leaving behind a shipment of Ultron technology.

 

Marc later continues on to uncover more details about this new gang by subconsciously dressing as Spider-Man while attacking the new gang lead by Snapdragon. Overwhelmed by the Snapdragon's henchmen, Marc was rescued by Echo, who was undercover at the time and had to blow her cover in order to save Moon Knight.

 

Teaming up with Echo to continue their investigation together, Marc begins falling in love with her and tries to pursue a romantic relationship only for it to fail badly. After fighting the Night Shift, Marc and Echo discover that the leader of this gang is none other than Count Nefaria.

 

When Moon Knight and Echo target his bases of operations, Nefaria retaliates and kills Echo before demanding that Marc serve him. Apparently surrendering, Marc instead lures Nefaria into a trap and is later congratulated by Iron Man for a job well done.

 

Age of Ultron

 

Marc was involved with the 'Age of Ultron' crossover series, and is shown to be one of the few heroes left in the city of New York, after the Avengers' villain Ultron took power. He is working with Black Widow from an old hidden base left by Nick Fury, and their plans focus on destroying Ultron, before they are destroyed.

 

Return to New York

 

Using laundered old money, Marc returned to New York with a host of new equipment including an upgraded baton and an automated limousine. He also discovered with the help of a psychologist, Elisa Warsame, that he has never had DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) but instead when Khonshu's consciousness colonized his own, it forced Marc's mind to adapt to it's four aspects which has resulted in brain damage.

 

Calling himself "Mr Knight" and wearing a white suit and mask, Marc now works with Detective Flint's Freak Beat to investigate weird crimes. When a more direct approach is needed Marc discards the Mr. Knight persona and instead will use the Moon Knight one with a new updated light armor.

 

Some of the investigations were into trained killers going after Gen. Lor of Akima, an East African micronation that was recently being recognized by the UN. Elisa had been using therapy sessions to recruit these killers having seen Gen. Lor's violence up close. Spector confronts her and believes she is trying to recruit him, only she was actually recruiting Khonshu. who abandons Spector.

 

Spector would be arrested and sent to an off-the-books special prison. Khonshu continued to visit Spector hoping to convince him to join Elisa's quest, however, Spector was able to convince Khonshu instead that he was being used and get his help escaping.

 

They discovered Gen. Lor actually led revolutionaries against Warsame's father, the former governor of Akima, who was in fact guilty of the crimes Elisa described. Elisa has been trying to restart the unrest in her home country so that she could take her father's seized fortune quietly.

 

Spector was able to save the general before Elisa could execute him.

 

Freak Beat

 

As part of Flint's task force, Moon Knight would go on many weird investigations. For one, he would try to fight off a gang of punk ghosts; but was unable to harm them. Khonshu reminded him of his various acquisitions of ancient Egyptian artifacts, including enchanted weapons and armor. Facing of against the ghosts again in a ornate armor with a bird skull mask he was able to fight and defeat them

 

Other investigations included a pack of dogs trained to attack the city's wealthy elite, a hotel full of benevolent ghosts and violent gang members, and a demon posing as the monster under the bed. Spector believes he is representing Khonshu by protecting those who travel at night, but Khonshu disapproves of Moon Knight's current fight for justice.

 

It appeared as if Khonshu was looking for new guardians to replace Spector and collect sacrifices for him. Spector took the fight to them only to discover a cult leader acting in Khonshu's name but without Khonshu's support.

 

Versus The Moon

 

Marc Spector and his allies (Frenchie, Crawley, Marlene, and Gena) mysteriously find themselves in a mental institution with no memory of how they got there. Their past lives come back to them slowly and in fragments, with Marc the most confused due to his multiple identities.

 

The doctor in charge, Dr. Emmett, was trying to convince Marc that he imagined his adventures as Moon Knight. However, Khonshu informs him that Dr. Emmet is in fact Ammut, the Egyptian god of judgement, and that the Egyptian pantheon is trying to take over New York. This convinces Marc and his allies to stage a successful breakout, at the cost of one of their souls. Crawley volunteers.

 

Unfortunately, Khonshu was lying. It was Khonshu who was setting up a New Egypt, and he has been breaking away at Marc's psyche so Khonshu could take Marc's body for himself. Marc refused and leapt from Khonshu's pyramid. When he awoke, New York was fine and he was his billionaire identity, Steven Grant.

 

As Steven, he is producing a movie about the Moon Knight. Marc Spector is cast as the leading man. Jake Lockley is a local cab driver, who is actually Moon Knight. They all seem like they are separate people now, but they are sharing memories.

 

Just as Steven started questioning it all, he is hit with a new identity. This one shared a name with Marc Spector, but he was a fighter pilot for a futuristic space force that protected the humans of a moon colony against werewolves that had taken over Earth.

 

These disparate identities are joined together by the primary Marc Specter to hash things out with fists and words until the real Marc was finally back in control and ready to face Khonshu. Marc first revisits Anubis, who aided in Marc's escape.

 

Marc made a new deal to save Anubis' wife Anput from the Overvoid in exchange for the return of Crawley's soul and passage back to Khonshu.

 

Khonshu throws everything he can at Marc, but Marc is able to fight through it. to Marc, that means he has proven he can be Moon Knight without Khonshu, but in his final confrontation, Marc doesn't throw a single punch. He acknowledges Khonshu (or at least this version of Khonshu in his mind) as "that thing in [his] mind that is wrong" and not the Egyptian god. By doing so, Marc expels this Khonshu from his mind and receives clarity. He is suspicious of the clarity, but it feels real enough for now.

 

Versus the Sun

 

With his identities at ease and working together, Moon Knight is slowly rebuilding his street cred. In his first big fight, he comes across a tall muscular tattooed man calling himself The Truth.

 

He is able to infect people with hard truths, but when Moon Knight lets Jake take over, The Truth can’t take his dark side. Jake ends up blinding him with two shurikens to the eyes.

 

Afterward, he gets a call from his on-again/off-again girlfriend, Marlene. She invites him over after they had some time apart, but it was a ruse by the Sun King, an avatar of Ra, looking to get back at Khonshu.

 

The Sun King’s plan was to use Marlene as bait but ended up introducing Moon Knight to his daughter. Unbeknownst to Marc, Jake had been meeting with Marlene in secret, fathering the child and helping to raise it. Moon Knight fought his way out with his daughter, Diatrice, but Sun King took Marlene.

 

The Sun King also recruited Bushman, his new gang, and The Truth to aid him in taking out Moon Knight. They collected Moon Knight from his apartment and sailed to Isla Ra, Sun King’s new city for the disenfranchised.

 

Here, Sun King is determined to fight Moon Knight to the death and prove his dominance. However, Moon Knight “out-crazies” Sun King, and Sun King’s insecurity disables his abilities.

 

So, Sun King submits, Bushman and the Truth abandon his quest, and Moon Knight becomes guardian to the disenfranchised Sun King had already given shelter too.

 

Age of Khonshu and The Phoenix Force

 

With the Phoenix Force oncoming due to the machinations of Mephisto, Khonshu instructed Moon Knight to steal the abilities of the present day mantle holders of a stone age team resembling the Avengers.

 

While briefly connected to the Phoenix, Marc was so shocked by his consideration of genocide to stop Mephisto that he returned the Avengers' abilities and allowed them to best him. Black Panther tried to convince him to team up with them, but he declined, thinking the Avengers were severely outmatched.

 

Unfortunately, trying to take over the world for Khonshu had lasting effects on Marc's personal life. Marlene and Diatrice cut him out of their lives, forcing Marc to come to a reluctant agreement with his Steve and Jake personalities.

 

He forced his other two personas into his subconscious and would not allow them to take hold of their body. This way, Marc believe he could have a new beginning.

 

Midnight Mission

 

With Khonshu locked up in Aesir by the Asgardians and his personalities presently pacified, Marc continued to keep up with his duty as the guardian of those who travel at night. He opened the Midnight Mission, an office where locals can come officially request his help, and started seeing a therapist (Andrea Sterman) by special request of the Avengers. He also got himself a new office assistant, Reese, who was also a vampire, and a new friendly rival, Hunter's Moon, who was loyal to Khonshu and chastised Marc's lack of faith.

 

Marc made a name for himself busting heads in his new neighborhood. This got the attention of a helpful Tigra, who was secretly working with Black Panther. It also got the attention of the mysterious and ambitious Zodiac, who saw a number of attempts on Marc's life as a game.

 

Zodiac cut Marc off from his riches and destroyed his office building, forcing Marc to enter a partnership with the sentient residence, The House of Shadows.

 

His feud with Zodiac would reach its peak when he attacked the Midnight Mission. It required all of Moon Knight's allies including Hunter's Moon, Rutherford Winner, and former Hydra agent, Soldier, who had swiped a spare Moon Knight costume for himself.

 

When Soldier died, Reese lashed out and almost killed Zodiac. Steven took control of Marc's body and stopped her from crossing the line.

 

Blood of the Fist

 

Jack Russell knew of a prophecy within the pages of the Darkhold that referred to a weapon that could be used to kill Khonshu, who he considered his oppressor and oppressor to all werewolves. "The Blood of the Fist, anointed by the Blood of the Fist" referring to the child of a Fist of Khonshu that would "forged by the King of All Wolves." The child would be Diatrice, the daughter of Marc Spector, but in order to turn her, he needed to become The King of All Wolves.

 

He challenged the leadership of every werewolf tribe in North America and won. He then defeated Wendigos in Canada to prove himself, but when he kidnapped Diatrice, Marlene went to the Midnight Mission to send Moon Knight after Jack.

 

With Hunter's Moon's help, the two of them tracked Jack and his followers, however, Diatrice's innocent naivety disarmed Jack. He still intended to go through with it, but the window of planetary alignment required was closing.

 

Once Moon Knight was able to interfere, he was capable of distracting him long enough for him to miss his opportunity. With no reason to continue, Jack relented and left with a dire warning from Marc to stay away from his family.

 

The Structure

 

When Zodiac shot through Reese and killed Soldier, enough DNA survived on the bullet to infect Soldier with Reese's vampiric curse.

 

This got the attention of Tutor, the vampire who had sired Reese and was running the vampire cult, The Structure. He believed that Soldier was the first of many, so he treated the Midnight Mission as a rival organization. After Moon Knight had a run-in with two assassins (Nemean and Grand Mal) hired by The Structure to take them out, Moon Knight started looking into vampire activity in the city.

 

With the help from a rival vampire leader, Lady Yulan, Moon Knight got the location of a vampire conclave being held by Tutor, bringing in vampires from all over the globe. Unfortunately, Hunter's Moon was attacked by the assassins, forcing Marc to take care of them first.

 

He had them pulled into the House of Shadows to be tortured. He would then drop them through the skylight of the conclave meeting place, while he and Tigra make a fancy entrance.

 

Soldier put his Hydra terrorist training to good use by rigging the fire suppression system to go off. Marc than proved himself to be a true priest of Khonshu by consecrating the water, transforming it into holy water and taking out nearly all of Tutor's followers.

 

They left one witness, a human familiar, to send a warning back to Dracula what happens when vampires mess with New York

 

City of the Dead

 

After Moon Knight failed to save a young boy named Khalil from the Egyptian-American street gang, Sons of the Jackal, Marc went to Hunter's Moon for help entering The Duat, the City of the Dead.

 

He pledged to find the soul of the boy and bring it back to his comatose body. He tracks members of the Jackals who came to Duat after their death and had the boys heart. They also increased their strength by summoning the power of the Horsemen of Apocalypse.

 

Overpowered, he was eventually joined by the Scarlet Scarab, a fallen mercenary friend made the guardian of Duat. They soon learned that the Sons of the Jackal were stealing the innocent hearts of children to weigh on the scales of justice, thus avoiding punishment for themselves.

 

Their leader, Jackal Knight, reveals himself to be Moon Knight's dead brother, Randall, the new host of Anubis. He has summoned a Legion of the Unliving made up of Moon Knight's dead enemies.

 

They had captured Khalil because he is the host of Osiris, and Randall wanted his power for his own. Once he had it, he was too strong for Marc to take on, even with Layla's help.

 

Thankfully, because the realm is psychoactive and can be shaped by the contents of a person's heart, Moon Knight was able to create four bodies: one for each of his three personalities and Khonshu.

 

This still wasn't enough to overpower Randall and his Legion. So, when Khalil awoke during the fight, he committed suicide, freeing Osiris' physical form to take the power back from Randall. In exchange, Osiris sent both Marc and Khalil back to the land of the living to live out the rest of their days.

 

The Ghost in the Telephone

 

The Midnight Mission was targeted by Sidney Sarnak, employed by a mysterious new player. Whoever they were, they were using Sarnak's ability of brainwashing people with sound.

 

First, they manipulated The Harlequin Hitman couple to go after Moon Knight's old Shadow Cabinet, to throw Moon Knight off his game. They also tested riot-inducing music at a club that Reese and Soldier just happened to be attending.

 

Spector finally got a lead when Dylan Brock needed his protection and mentioned the Venom symbiote had been off due to the sound manipulation around town. Using the symbiote to track Sarnak, Sarnak turned himself into the police rather than be interrogated by the Moon Knight.

 

Sick of playing games with Moon Knight, this new player revealed themself as a new Black Spectre. Using 8-Ball to lure Moon Knight to Hart Island, Black Spectre revealed his use of Cobra Project mind control, which Marc had dealing with during his mercenary days.

 

He also employed every thug and superhuman The Midnight Mission has defeated as a gauntlet for Marc to run, hoping to end Moon Knight once and for all. Fortunately, a guilty 8-Ball decided to betray Black Spectre and save Moon Knight.

 

Back at the mission, Hunter's Moon had caught another of Black Spectre's employees, Vibro. Marc was forced to interrogate him psychically because Badr had beat him into a coma. Inside his mind, the two Fists of Khonshu learned that Vibro had been drilling around Manhattan turning it into a giant tuning fork to use Sarnak's sound hypnosis on. Black Spectre's plan was to force Manhattan to tear itself apart

 

The Last Days of Moon Knight

 

With the knowledge from Vibro's mind, Moon Knight hatches a plan to take out the new Black Spectre once and for all. He tracks the Black Spectre to The Mount, a skyscraper in New York. 8-Ball, now Moon Knight's resident pilot, would fly Marc, Badr, and Tigra to The Mount in his Hover-Rack.

 

Soldier would already be on site doing recon, while Reese watches over the Mission. Unfortunately, Black Spectre was ready for them. The Hover-Rack would be shot out of the sky and crash into the building, and the heroes would be quickly separated by Black Spectre's goons.

 

8-Ball would be injured and stay with his airship. Tigra would be stuck when she steps on a land mine but be saved by Soldier, who had training in ordinance disarming. Badr would track down Sarnak and try to intimidate him into turning off the sound device, and Marc would take on Black Spectre, who eventually revealed himself to be Sigmund, a member of the Shadow Cabinet Marc thought had been killed.

 

Marc was shot many times and close to death, left to watch Sigmund's work. He was visited by Khonshu, who said he didn't have enough power while imprisoned to revive him.

 

Knowing this is the end (and with approval of his identities, Jake and Steve), Moon Knight rigged Sigmund's weapon to explode before it could have any effect on Manhattan, killing him in the process.

 

In his absence, his friends carry on the good work of the Midnight Mission.

 

Revived

 

When Blade was possessed by Varnae, the first vampire, he took over The Structure and filled the sky with darkforce. Under this permanent night, the vampires of Earth would attempt world domination.

 

With help from the Avengers, Hunter's Moon, Tigra, and Wrecker would be teleported to Asgard so they may free Khonshu. Once the god was freed, he raised his past priests from the dead, including Marc, to fight back against the vampire horde.

 

As the sky cleared, the vampires had changed. They no longer were weak against the sun, meaning Moon Knight and the Midnight Mission's job was just getting started. Once they had driven the vampires back into hiding, Marc needed his first break since being revived.

 

Khonshu would not have it. He demanded Marc kill the pretender: the Shroud. Marc decided to fool Khonshu. He fought Shroud, stopping his heart, fulfilling his debt to Khonshu, but he had Hunter's Moon prepared to revive Shroud, giving him the second chance Shroud was looking for.

 

Glitter

 

In Marc's absence, a new drug kingpin, Achilles Fairchild, had moved in on the Midnight Mission territory thanks to his magic drug, Glitter.

 

Powers and Abilities

 

Due to his multiple personalities, Moon Knight possesses formidable psychic resistance and most telepathic or mental attacks are less effective on him. It has also been noted by several people that Moon Knight possesses an extraordinary degree of pain tolerance and has casually ignored debilitating wounds and major injuries to keep fighting.

 

Throughout his varied careers as a boxer, marine, commando, and CIA agent, Moon Knight possesses a wide range of skills and abilities including military strategy and tactics, infiltration and stealth techniques, military interrogation and torture techniques, driver evasion techniques, and is a competent pilot who can fly most types of aircrafts.

 

He is an expert in a wide variety of military firearms including pistols, sniper rifles, and machine guns with a marksman rating. His military training and background makes him not only an unconventional hero, he can and will use drastic means and extreme violence to stop criminals.

 

Moon Knight is a highly skilled combatant who is equally adept in both unarmed and armed fighting techniques; he is a former heavyweight boxing champion who has comprehensive knowledge of the weak points of the human body.

 

Moon Knight's fighting style is brutal and straight to the point and combines techniques from Krav Maga, Dambe, Savate, Silat and FMA (Filipino Martial Arts) to put down his opponents as quickly and as painfully as possible. He also has advanced skills in Judo, Kung Fu and is an Olympic-class athlete, acrobat and gymnast.

 

Taskmaster claims that there is no one's fighting style that he hates copying more than Moon Knight's. This is because unlike most other fighters, Moon Knight prefers not to block or evade an attack or injury if it allows him the opportunity to counterattack his opponent; much like how some boxers will actually court their opponent to attack and trusting in their stamina and ability to take punishment.

 

He is also highly adept in various conventional and unconventional weaponry as well including shurikens and thrown projectiles, combat knives and swords, batons, truncheons, bo staffs, nunchucks, three-sectional staffs, longbows, chains, and bolos.

 

Thanks to his extensive experience in criminal investigations, Moon Knight has also picked up a surprising degree of skill as a detective including how to profile psychopathic behavior and a broad base knowledge of the criminal underworld.

 

When he became the Fist of Khonshu and was possessed by Khonshu, Moon Knight gained superhuman powers derived from the moon itself.

 

During this period, Moon Knight had enhanced strength, stamina, and reflexes based on the lunar phase of the moon. He was at his strongest during a full moon, as he could lift the weight of 2 tons and at normal strength when there is a no moon, where he could lift around 700 lbs.

 

He could also see magical beings that normal humans cannot see and possessed night vision as well. Moon Knight could also become invisible in a shadowed area and had a "healing factor" that allowed his wounds to quickly heal when shined in moonlight.

 

After the exorcism of Khonshu from his body, Moon Knight appears to have lost most of his powers but there is speculation that he may or may not retain some aspect of them. He still appears to receive prophetic visions and a connection to Khonshu but it is unknown just how much is actually Khonshu's influence or Marc Spector's own mental hallucinations.

 

Moon Knight has also shown that he can be revived by Khonshu. This may prove that Moon Knight is near immortal.

 

Weapons and Equipment

 

Thanks to his immense wealth, Marc Spector has financed the development of numerous weapons, armored costumes, devices, specialized vehicles, and equipment as Moon Knight.

 

Crescent Darts

 

Even though Moon Knight has utilized a wide variety of weapons throughout his career, his most widely utilized and best known are his crescent darts.

 

The crescent darts are sharpened metal throwing weapons similar in size to Japanese shurikens and visually appear to be based on the Gibbous moon. Moon Knight has often concealed a crescent dart in his hand and in the past has used them for close quarters combat; as his calling card; and during certain parts of his career--even using them as makeshift gruesome carving tools into his victims.

 

Moon Knight can hurl several of these darts simultaneously with impressive force and accuracy as well as performing deflection shots. In addition, he has utilized crescent dart throwers; mechanical devices mounted on his wrists that enable him to discharge a barrage of crescent darts at high velocities for better penetration and offensive spread patterns.

 

Over the years, he has employed crescent darts forged out of silver for anti-werewolf use; specially modified explosive crescent darts that detonated on impact; as well as ones forged out of unbreakable adamantium alloy that can cut through virtually anything.

 

⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽

_____________________________

 

A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.

 

Secret Identity: Marc Spector

 

Publisher: Marvel

 

First Appearance: Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975)

 

Created by: Doug Moench (Writer)

Don Perlin (Artist)

A stolen truck crashed into the Suncor Building in downtown Calgary Friday morning.

 

At around 9:50 a.m., Calgary police received reports of a stolen truck driving downtown. The driver fled an attempt at a traffic stop, then took off, driving erratically at high speeds through downtown, south Calgary and the northeast.

 

According to a Calgary police spokesperson, the truck reached speeds of up to 150 km/h and hit a number of parked vehicles, before it collided with the Suncor Building at 111 5th Avenue S.W.

 

A man and woman have been remanded into custody. Charges are pending. Police say there’s extensive property damage, but no injuries have been reported.

A stolen truck crashed into the Suncor Building in downtown Calgary Friday morning.

 

At around 9:50 a.m., Calgary police received reports of a stolen truck driving downtown. The driver fled an attempt at a traffic stop, then took off, driving erratically at high speeds through downtown, south Calgary and the northeast.

 

According to a Calgary police spokesperson, the truck reached speeds of up to 150 km/h and hit a number of parked vehicles, before it collided with the Suncor Building at 111 5th Avenue S.W.

 

A man and woman have been remanded into custody. Charges are pending. Police say there’s extensive property damage, but no injuries have been reported.

THE LOONIEST OF ALL 9/11 CONSPIRACY THEORIES

by Gerard Holmgren

August 2003

  

Astute observers of history are aware that for every notable event there will

usually be at least one, often several, wild conspiracy theories which spring

up around it. 'The CIA killed Hendrix', 'The Pope had John Lennon murdered ',

'Hitler was half Werewolf', 'Space aliens replaced Nixon with a clone', etc,

etc. The bigger the event, the more ridiculous and more numerous are the

fanciful rantings which circulate in relation to it.

 

So it's hardly surprising that the events of Sept 11 2001 have spawned their

fair share of these ludicrous fairy tales. And as always, there is sadly a

small but gullible percentage of the population eager to lap up these tall

tales, regardless of facts or rational analysis.

 

One of the wilder stories circulating about Sept 11, and one that has

attracted something of a cult following amongst conspiracy buffs is that it

was carried out by 19 fanatical Arab hijackers, masterminded by an evil genius

named Osama bin Laden, with no apparent motivation other than that they 'hate

our freedoms.

 

Never a group of people to be bothered by facts, the perpetrators of this

cartoon fantasy have constructed an elaborately woven web of delusions and

unsubstantiated hearsay in order to promote this garbage across the internet

and the media to the extent that a number of otherwise rational people have

actually fallen under its spell. Normally I don't even bother debunking this

kind of junk, but the effect that this paranoid myth is beginning to have

requires a little rational analysis, in order to consign it to the same

rubbish bin as all such silly conspiracy theories.

 

These crackpots even contend that the extremist Bush regime was caught

unawares by the attacks, had no hand in organizing them, and actually would

have stopped them if it had been able. Blindly ignoring the stand-down of the

US Air Force, the insider trading on airline stocks — linked to the CIA, the

complicit behavior of Bush on the morning of the attacks, the controlled

demolition of the WTC, the firing of a missile into the Pentagon and a host of

other documented proofs that the Bush regime was behind the attacks, the

conspiracy theorists stick doggedly to a silly story about 19 Arab hijackers

somehow managing to commandeer 4 planes simultaneously and fly them around US

airspace for nearly 2 hours, crashing them into important buildings, without

the US intelligence services having any idea that it was coming, and without

the Air Force knowing what to do.

 

The huge difficulties with such a stupid story force them to invent even more

preposturous stories to distract from its core silliness, and thus the tale

has escalated into a mythic fantasy of truly gargantuan proportions.

It's difficult to apply rational analysis to such unmitigated stupidity, but

that is the task which I take on in this article. However, it should be noted

that one of the curious characteristics of conspiracy theorists is that they

effortlessly change their so-called evidence in response to each aspect which

is debunked. As soon as one delusion is unmasked, they simply invent another

to replace it, and deny that the first ever existed. Eventually, when they

have turned full circle through this endlessly changing fantasy fog , they

then re-invent the original delusion and deny that you ever debunked it, thus

beginning the circle once more. This technique is known as 'the fruit loop'

and saves the conspiracy theorist from ever having to see any of their ideas

through to their (ill)logical conclusions.

 

According to the practitioners of the fruit loop, 19 Arabs took over the 4

planes by subduing the passengers and crew through the use of guns, knives,

box cutters and gas, and then used electronic guidance systems which they had

smuggled on board to fly the planes to their targets.

 

The suspension of disbelief required for this outrageous concoction is only

for the hard-core conspiracy theorist. For a start, they conveniently skip

over the awkward fact that there weren't any Arabs on the planes. If there

were, one must speculate that they somehow got on board without being filmed

by any of the security cameras and without being registered on the passenger

lists. But the curly question of how they are supposed to have got on board is

all too mundane for the exciting world of the conspiracy theorist. With vague

mumblings that they must have been using false ID (but never specifying which

IDs they are alleged to have used, or how these were traced to their real

identities), they quickly bypass this problem, to relate exciting and sinister

tales about how some of the fictitious fiends were actually searched before

boarding because they looked suspicious. However, as inevitably happens with

any web of lies, this simply paints them into an even more difficult corner.

How are they supposed to have got on board with all that stuff if they were

searched? And if they used gas in a confined space, they would have been

affected themselves unless they also had masks in their luggage.

 

'Excuse me sir, why do you have a boxcutter, a gun, a container of gas, a gas

mask and an electronic guidance unit in your luggage?' 'A present for your

grandmother? Very well sir, on you get.' 'Very strange', thinks the security

officer. 'That's the fourth Arab man without an Arabic name who just got on

board with a knife, gun or boxcutter and gas mask. And why does that security

camera keep flicking off every time one of these characters shows up? Must be

one of those days I guess...'

 

Asking any of these basic questions to a conspiracy theorist is likely to

cause a sudden leap to the claim that we know that they were on board because

they left a credit card trail for the tickets they had purchased and cars they

had rented. So if they used credit cards that identified them, how does that

reconcile with the claim that they used false IDs to get on to the plane? But

by this time the fruit loop is in full swing, as the conspiracy theorist tries

to stay one jump ahead of this annoying and awkward rational analysis. They

will allege that the hijackers' passports were found at the crash scenes. 'So

there!' they exalt triumphantly, their fanatical faces lighting up with that

deranged look of one who has just a revelation of questionable sanity. Hmm? So

they got on board with false IDs but took their real passports with them?

However, by this time the fruit loop has been completely circumnavigated,and

the conspiracy theorist exclaims impatiently, 'Who said anything about false

IDs? We know what seats they were sitting in! Their presence is well

documented!' And so the whole loop starts again. 'Well, why aren't they on the

passenger lists?' 'You numbskull! They assumed the identities of other

passengers!' And so on...

 

Finally, out of sheer fascination with this circular method of creative

delusion, the rational sceptic will allow them to get away with this loop, in

order to move on to the next question, and see what further delights await us

in the unraveling of this marvelously stupid story. 'Uh, how come their

passports survived fiery crashes that completely incinerated the planes and

all the passengers? ' The answer of course is that it's just one of those

strange co-incidences, those little quirks of fate that do happen from time to

time. You know, like the same person winning the lottery four weeks in a row.

The odds are astronomical, but these things do happen...

 

This is another favourite deductive method of the conspiracy theorist. The

'improbability drive', in which they decide upon a conclusion without any

evidence whatsoever to support it, and then continually speculate a series of

wildly improbable events and unbelievable co-incidences to support it,

shrugging off the implausibility of each event with the vague assertion that

sometimes the impossible happens (just about all the time in their world).

There is a principle called 'Occam's Razor' which suggests that in the absence

of evidence to the contrary, the simplest explanation is most likely to be

correct. Conspiracy theorists hate Occam's razor.

 

Having for the sake of amusement, allowed them to get away with with the silly

story of the 19 invisible Arabs, we move on to the question of how they are

supposed to have taken over the planes. Hijacking a plane is not an easy thing

to do. Hijacking it without the pilot being able to alert ground control is

nearly impossible. The pilot has only to punch in a four-digit code to alert

ground control to a hijacking. Unconcerned with the awkward question of

plausibility, the conspiracy buffs maintain that on that Sept 11, the

invisible hijackers took over the plane by the rather crude method of

threatening people with boxcutters and knives, and spraying gas (after they

had attached their masks, obviously), but somehow took control of the plane

without the crew first getting a chance to punch in the hijacking code. Not

just on one plane, but on all four. At this point in the tale, the conspiracy

theorist is again forced to call upon the services of the improbability drive.

 

So now that our incredibly lucky hijackers have taken control of the planes,

all four pilots fly them with breath-taking skill and certainty to their fiery

end, all four pilots unflinching in their steely resolve for a swift meeting

with Allah. Apart from their psychotic hatred of 'our freedoms', it was their

fanatical devotion to Islam which enabled them to summon up the iron will to

do this. Which is strange, because according to another piece of hearsay

peddled by the conspiracy buffs, these guys actually went out drinking and

womanizing the night before their great martyrdom, even leaving their Korans

in the bar — really impeccable Islamic behavior — and then got up at 5 am the

next morning to pull off the greatest covert operation in history. This also

requires us to believe that they were even clear-headed enough to learn how to

fly the huge planes by reading flight manuals in Arabic in the car on the way

to the airport. We know this because they supposedly left the flight manuals

there for us to find.

 

It gets better. Their practical training had allegedly been limited to Cessnas

and flight simulators, but this was no barrier to the unflinching certainty

with which they took over the planes and skillfully guided them to their doom.

If they are supposed to have done their flight training with these tools,

which would be available just about anywhere in the world, it's not clear why

they would have decided to risk blowing their cover to US intelligence

services by doing the training in Florida, rather than somewhere in the Middle

East, but such reasoning is foreign to the foggy world of the conspiracy

theorist, too trapped in the constant rotation of the mental fruit loop to

make their unsubstantiated fabrications seem even semi-believable.

 

Having triumphantly established a circular delusion in support of the mythical

Arabs, the conspiracy theorist now confronts the difficult question of why

there's nothing left of the planes. Anybody who has seen the

endlessly-replayed footage of the second plane going into the WTC will realize

that the plane was packed with explosives. Planes do not and cannot blow up

into nothing in that manner when they crash.

 

Did the mythical Arabs also haul a huge heap of explosives on board, and

manage to deploy them in such a manner that they went off in the exact instant

of the crash, completely vapourizing the plane? This is a little difficult

even for the conspiracy theorist, who at this point decides that it's easier

to invent new laws of physics in order to keep the delusion rolling along.

 

There weren't any explosives. It wasn't an inside job. The plane blew up into

nothing from its exploding fuel load! Remarkable! Sluggishly combustible jet

fuel which is basically kerosine,and which burns at a maximum temperature of

around 800°C has suddenly taken on the qualities of a ferociously explosive

demolition agent, vapourizing 65 tons of aircraft into a puff of smoke. Never

mind that a plane of that size contains around 15 tons of steel and titanium,

of which even the melting points are about double that of the maximum

combustion temperature of kerosine — let alone the boiling point — which is

what would be required to vapourize a plane. And then there's about 50 tons of

aluminium to be accounted for. In excess of 15 lbs of metal for each gallon of

kerosine.

 

For the conspiracy theorist, such inconvenient facts are vaguely dismissed as

'mumbo jumbo'. This convenient little phrase is their answer to just about

anything factual or logical. Like a conjurer pulling a rabbit out of a hat,

they suddenly become fanatically insistent about the devastating explosive

qualities of kerosine, something hitherto completely unknown to science, but

just discovered by them, this very minute. Blissfully ignoring the fact that

never before or since in aviation history has a plane vapourized into nothing

from an exploding fuel load, the conspiracy theorist relies upon Hollywood

images, where the effects are are always larger than life, and certainly

larger than the intellects of these cretins. 'Its a well known fact that

planes blow up into nothing on impact.' they state with pompous certainty.

'Watch any Bruce Willis movie.

 

' Care to provide any documented examples? If it's a well-known fact, then

presumably this well-known fact springs from some kind of documentation —

other than Bruce Willis movies?

 

At this point the mad but cunning eyes of the conspiracy theorist will narrow

as they sense the corner that they have backed themselves into, and plan their

escape by means of another stunning backflip.

 

'Ah, but planes have never crashed into buildings before, so there's no way of

telling.' they counter with a sly grin.

 

Well, actually planes have crashed into buildings before and since, and not

vapourized into nothing.

 

'But not big planes, with that much fuel ', they shriek in hysterical denial.

 

Or that much metal to vapourize.

 

'Yes but not hijacked planes!'

 

Are you suggesting that whether the crash is deliberate or accidental affects

the combustion qualities of the fuel?

 

'Now you're just being silly'.

 

Although collisions with buildings are rare, planes frequently crash into

mountains, streets, other aircraft, nosedive into the ground, or have bombs

planted aboard them, and don't vapourize into nothing. What's so special about

a tower that's mostly glass? But by now, the conspiracy theorist has once

again sailed happily around the fruit loop. 'Its a well-documented fact that

planes explode into nothing on impact.

 

Effortlessly weaving back and forth between the position that it's a

'well-known fact' and that 'it's never happened before, so we have nothing to

compare it to', the conspiracy theorist has now convinced himself (if not too

many other people) that the WTC plane was not loaded with explosives, and that

the instant vapourization of the plane in a massive fireball was the same as

any other plane crash you might care to mention. Round and round the fruit

loop...

 

But the hurdles which confront the conspiracy theorist are many, and they are

now forced to implement even more creative uses for the newly-discovered

shockingly destructive qualities of kerosine. They have to explain how the

Arabs also engineered the elegant vertical collapse of both the WTC towers,

and for this awkward fact the easiest counter is to simply deny that it was a

controlled demolition, and claim that the buildings collapsed from fire caused

by the burning kerosine.

 

For this, it's necessary to sweep aside the second law of thermodynamics and

propose kerosine which is not only impossibly destructive, but also recycles

itself for a second burning in violation of the law of degradation of energy.

You see, the kerosine not only consumed itself in a sudden catastrophic

fireball, vapourizing a 65 ton plane into nothing, but then came back for a

second go, burning at 2000°C for another hour at the impact point, melting the

skyscraper's steel like butter. And while it was doing all this it also poured

down the elevator shafts, starting fires all through the building. When I was

at school there was a little thing called the entropy law which suggests that

a given portion of fuel can only burn once, something which is readily

observable in the real world, even for those who didn't make it to junior high

school science. But this is no problem for the conspiracy theorist.

 

Gleefully, they claim that a few thousand gallons of kerosine is enough to:

 

* completely vapourize a 65 ton aircraft

* have enough left over to burn ferociously enough for over an hour at the

impact point to melt steel (melting point about double the maximum combustion

temperature of the fuel) and

* still have enough left over to pour down the elevator shafts and start

similarly destructive fires all through the building.

 

This kerosine really is remarkable stuff! How chilling to realize that those

kerosine heaters we had in the house when I was a kid were deadly bombs, just

waiting to go off. One false move and the entire street might have been

vapourized. And never again will I take kerosine lamps out camping. One moment

you're there innocently holding the lamp — the next — kapow! vapourized into

nothing along with with the rest of the camp site, and still leaving enough of

the deadly stuff to start a massive forest fire.

 

These whackos are actually claiming that the raging inferno allegedly created

by the miraculously recycling, and impossibly hot burning kerosine melted or

at least softened the steel supports of the skyscraper. Oblivious to the fact

that the smoke coming from the WTC was black, which indicates an

oxygen-starved fire — therefore, not particularly hot, they trumpet an alleged

temperature in the building of 2000°C, without a shred of evidence to support

this curious suspension of the laws of physics.

 

Not content with this ludicrous garbage, they then contend that as the steel

frames softened, they came straight down instead of buckling and twisting and

falling sideways.

 

Since they've already re-engineered the combustion qualities of jet fuel,

violated the second law of thermodynamics, and re-defined the structural

properties of steel, why let a little thing like the laws of gravity get in

the way?

 

The tower fell in a time almost identical to that of a free-falling object,

dropped from that height, meaning that it's physically impossible for it to

have collapsed by the method of the top floors smashing through the lower

floors. But according to the conspiracy theorists, the laws of gravity were

temporarily suspended on the morning of Sept 11. It appears that the evil

psychic power of those dreadful Arabs knew no bounds. Even after they were

dead, they were able, by the power of their evil spirits, to force down the

tower at a speed physically impossible under the laws of gravity, had it been

meeting any resistance from fireproofed steel structures originally designed

to resist many tons of hurricane force wind as well as the impact of a Boeing

passenger jet straying off course.

 

Clearly, these conspiracy nuts never did their science homework at school, but

did become extremely adept at inventing tall tales for why.

 

'Muslim terrorists stole my notes, sir'

 

'No miss, the kerosine heater blew up and vapourized everything in the street,

except for my passport.

 

'You see sir, the schoolbus was hijacked by Arabs who destroyed my homework

because they hate our freedoms.

 

Or perhaps they misunderstood the term 'creative science' and mistakenly

thought that coming up with such rubbish was, in fact, their science homework.

 

The ferocious heat generated by this ghastly kerosine was, according to the

conspiracy theorists, the reason why so many of the WTC victims can't be

identified. DNA is destroyed by heat. (Although 2000°C isn't really required,

100°C will generally do the job.) This is quite remarkable, because according

to the conspiracy theorist, the nature of DNA suddenly changes if you go to a

different city. That's right! If you are killed by an Arab terrorist in New

York, your DNA will be destroyed by such temperatures. But if you are killed

by an Arab terrorist in Washington DC, your DNA will be so robust that it can

survive temperatures which completely vapourize a 65 ton aircraft.

 

You see, these loonies have somehow concocted the idea that the missile which

hit the pentagon was not a missile at all, but one of the hijacked planes. And

to prove this unlikely premise, they point to a propaganda statement from the

Bush regime, which rather stupidly claims that all but one of the people

aboard the plane were identified from the site by DNA testing, even though

nothing remains of the plane. The plane was vapourized by the fuel tank

explosion maintain these space loonies, but the people inside it were all but

one identified by DNA testing.

 

So there we have it. The qualities of DNA are different, depending upon which

city you're in, or perhaps depending upon which fairy story you're trying to

sell at any particular time.

 

This concoction about one of the hijacked planes hitting the Pentagon really

is a howler. For those not familiar with the layout of the Pentagon, it

consists of 5 rings of building, each with a space inbetween. Each ring of

building is about 30 to 35 ft deep, with a similar amount of open space

between it and the next ring. The object which penetrated the Pentagon went in

at about a 45-degree angle, punching a neat circular hole of about a 12-foot

diameter through three rings (six walls). A little later a section of wall

about 65 ft wide collapsed in the outer ring. Since the plane which the

conspiracy theorists claim to be responsible for the impact had a wing span of

125 ft and a length of 155 ft, and there was no wreckage of the plane, either

inside or outside the building, and the lawns outside were still smooth and

green enough to play golf on, this crazy delusion is clearly physically

impossible.

 

But hey, we've already disregarded the combustion qualities of jet fuel, the

normal properties of common building materials, the properties of DNA, the

laws of gravity and the second law of thermodynamics, so what the hell — why

not throw in a little spatial impossibility as well? I would have thought that

the observation that a solid object cannot pass through another solid object

without leaving a hole at least as big as itself is reasonably sound science.

But to the conspiracy theorist, this is 'mumbo jumbo'. It conflicts with the

delusion that they're hooked on, so it 'must be wrong' although trying to get

then to explain exactly how it could be wrong is a futile endeavour.

 

Conspiracy theorists fly into a curious panic whenever the Pentagon missile is

mentioned. They nervously maintain that the plane was vapourized by it's

exploding fuel load and point to the WTC crash as evidence of this behavior.

(That's a wonderful fruit loop.) Like an insect which has just been sprayed,

running back and forth in its last mad death throes, they first argue that the

reason the hole is so small is that plane never entered the wall, having blown

up outside, and then suddenly backflip to explain the 250 ft deep missile hole

by saying that the plane disappeared all the way into the building, and then

blew up inside the building (even though the building shows no sign of such

damage). As for what happened to the wings — here's where they get really

creative. The wings snapped off and folded into the fuselage which then

carried them into the building, which then closed up behind the plane like a

piece of meat.

 

When it suits them, they'll also claim that the plane slid in on its belly

(ignoring the undamaged lawn) while at the same time citing alleged witnesses

to the plane diving steeply into the building from an 'irrecoverable angle.'

How they reconcile these two scenarios as being compatible is truly a study in

stupidity.

 

Once they get desperate enough, you can be sure that the UFO conspiracy stuff

will make an appearance. The Arabs are in league with the Martians. Space

aliens snatched the remains of the Pentagon plane and fixed most of the hole

in the wall, just to confuse people. They gave the Arabs invisibility pills to

help get them onto the planes. Little green men were seen were seen talking to

Bin Laden a few weeks prior to the attacks.

 

As the nation gears up to impeach the traitor Bush, and stop his perpetual oil

war, it's not helpful to have these idiots distracting from the process by

spreading silly conspiracy theories about mythical Arabs, stories which do

nothing but play into the hands of the extremist Bush regime [and their

arab-hating Israeli fuckbuddies].

 

At a less serious time, we might tolerate such crackpots with amused

detachment, but they need to understand that the treachery that was

perpetrated on Sept 11, and the subsequent war crimes committed in

'retaliation', are far too serious for us to allow such frivolous

self-indulgence to go unchallenged.

 

Those who are truly addicted to conspiracy delusions should find a more

appropriate outlet for their Paranoia.

 

It's time to stop loony conspiracy theories about Sept 11.

  

Having visited Papplewick Pumping Station for the first time over the Easter Holiday, I went back, yesterday, for a look round when it was a lot quieter. I also decided that it was a potentially great subject for the DJI Osmo Mobile. DJI are best known for making those nasty drone thingies that crash into buildings, scare animals and cause all sorts of problems (not really!) but they also make the Osmo, a hand-held gimbal into which you mount your mobile phone and open up a new world of possibilities. This image is actually a composite of 15 individual shots (3 rows of 5) taken with my Samsung Galaxy S7, and stitched together using the built-in DJI software. Apart from the framing, this is "straight out of the tin". Amazing or what?

A stolen truck crashed into the Suncor Building in downtown Calgary Friday morning.

 

At around 9:50 a.m., Calgary police received reports of a stolen truck driving downtown. The driver fled an attempt at a traffic stop, then took off, driving erratically at high speeds through downtown, south Calgary and the northeast.

 

According to a Calgary police spokesperson, the truck reached speeds of up to 150 km/h and hit a number of parked vehicles, before it collided with the Suncor Building at 111 5th Avenue S.W.

 

A man and woman have been remanded into custody. Charges are pending. Police say there’s extensive property damage, but no injuries have been reported.

Behind the "Glitz & Glam" of NYC.

 

I barely took any photos today, busy day.

 

Anyway. After the event of today I wanted to base today's 365 on how there's another side of New York City. Yes, there is the great food and restaurants, the great shopping, Fifth Avenue, etc... But thing happen in NY as well, there are some places that are more on the sketchy side.

 

*warning* this is not very pleasant.

This morning we headed to Chinatown (for the first time this trip), to have brunch. As we walked out of the restaurant, a NYPD van, at a incredible speed, just jumped the curb and ran right into the side walk, running right into the wall. I stood there just astonished and wondering why he drove like that. The next thing I saw was the driver of the van, a cop, coming out with a nose bleed. There were several other cops in the van as well, but they were fine. I hadn't noticed it, but everyone was pointing at something on the ground, and the next thing I saw was a man lying right under the wheels of the van, blood everywhere and he was twitching. Watching the news, he was later announced dead after they tried to rush him to the hospital. News says, the driver just lost control of the vehicle. Creepy. Even walking on the side walks is dangerous. He was just a innocent pedestrian, just killed like that. Makes me very scared.

If you would like to check it out, here is a article to it: www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/07/01/2011-07-01_nypd_v...

At the risk of sounding paranoid, car accidents are no joke. I've been in one earlier this year and it completely changed my over view on things. I make sure I wear a seatbelt each time I hop on the car and I constantly remind my loved ones to be safe. Driving is a responsibility.

 

We then went to NYU for a tour that we signed up for. It's a pretty cool campus, urban. Came back to the hotel for a nap and headed to Times Square for our 8pm show of The Lion King. It was amazing. I definitely recommend it, it's a must-see for New York.

    

Dec 12.14 - Two vehicle crashed into a building after colliding in an intersection at E 49th Ave & Victoria Dr in Vancouver BC.

 

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All photos reserved by www.bcfiretrucks.com No reproduction allowed of any photos unless written permission. For licencing information contact ryan@bcfiretrucks.com

Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum at the Royal Garen Plaza in South Pattaya Beach, Thailand.

 

View Pattaya Set

A stolen truck crashed into the Suncor Building in downtown Calgary Friday morning.

 

At around 9:50 a.m., Calgary police received reports of a stolen truck driving downtown. The driver fled an attempt at a traffic stop, then took off, driving erratically at high speeds through downtown, south Calgary and the northeast.

 

According to a Calgary police spokesperson, the truck reached speeds of up to 150 km/h and hit a number of parked vehicles, before it collided with the Suncor Building at 111 5th Avenue S.W.

 

A man and woman have been remanded into custody. Charges are pending. Police say there’s extensive property damage, but no injuries have been reported.

Dec 12.14 - Two vehicle crashed into a building after colliding in an intersection at E 49th Ave & Victoria Dr in Vancouver BC.

 

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Crashes into building??? @Euston - 05/07/12

I was at my favorite cafe' near my house (True Grounds) and all of us in the cafe (I was in line) heard a screech and a thump. Some woman had managed to drive up on to the curb and just barely hit the wall of a truffle place, that, luckily, hardly ever has anyone in it. A real stroke of luck actually, as it was a weekend and the two cafe's next door are all pretty packed full on weekends. A few feet more left and...

 

Even more strange, this is the second time I have been somewhere, heard that unmistakable noise, and found a car has smashed into a building across the street from where I was (in Brooklyn, see other shots prior to these) And like all humans, I am fascinated enough to snap some shots. And, like all humans, I am fascinated enough to snap some shots.

 

The largest size is best.

010911-M-4122I-023

The pentagon in flames moments after a hijacked jetliner crashed into building at approximately 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Jason Ingersoll) (Released)

 

imcom.korea.army.mil

 

To learn more about living and serving in Korea with the US Army, visit our official website at: imcom.korea.army.mil

 

Whether you are fresh off of active-duty, a military spouse or a seasoned professional, you will find a career with U.S. Army in Korea both challenging and inspiring. If you ready to join an award winning team and embark on the adventure of a lifetime, you can learn more about living and working in Korea online: imcom.korea.army.mil

 

Photos from the US Army in Korea can be viewed online at www.flickr.com/imcomkorea

 

The Morning Calm Weekly command information newspaper is available online at imcom.korea.army.mil

 

Published for those serving in the Republic of Korea - an assignment of choice.

   

About this image: Operation Enduring Freedom. A Department of Defense Image Collection.

 

These images are generally cleared for release and are considered in the public domain. Request credit be given the Department of Defense and individual photographer.

 

imcom.korea.army.mil

 

To learn more about living and serving in Korea with the US Army, visit our official website at: imcom.korea.army.mil

 

Whether you are fresh off of active-duty, a military spouse or a seasoned professional, you will find a career with U.S. Army in Korea both challenging and inspiring. If you ready to join an award winning team and embark on the adventure of a lifetime, you can learn more about living and working in Korea online: imcom.korea.army.mil

 

Photos from the US Army in Korea can be viewed online at www.flickr.com/imcomkorea

 

The Morning Calm Weekly command information newspaper is available online at imcom.korea.army.mil

 

Published for those serving in the Republic of Korea - an assignment of choice.

   

About this image: Operation Enduring Freedom. A Department of Defense Image Collection.

 

These images are generally cleared for release and are considered in the public domain. Request credit be given the Department of Defense and individual photographer.

 

imcom.korea.army.mil

 

To learn more about living and serving in Korea with the US Army, visit our official website at: imcom.korea.army.mil

 

Whether you are fresh off of active-duty, a military spouse or a seasoned professional, you will find a career with U.S. Army in Korea both challenging and inspiring. If you ready to join an award winning team and embark on the adventure of a lifetime, you can learn more about living and working in Korea online: imcom.korea.army.mil

 

Photos from the US Army in Korea can be viewed online at www.flickr.com/imcomkorea

 

The Morning Calm Weekly command information newspaper is available online at imcom.korea.army.mil

 

Published for those serving in the Republic of Korea - an assignment of choice.

   

About this image: Operation Enduring Freedom. A Department of Defense Image Collection.

 

These images are generally cleared for release and are considered in the public domain. Request credit be given the Department of Defense and individual photographer.

Truck Crash knocks over power pole and crashes into building.

offers complete sim/parcel design, landscaping and interior design. LICK is dedicated to creating beautiful, enchanting spaces for your home or business. Dare to Dream

/*Sky: "[TOR] DUSK - Smolder" Water: "[NB] Sparkling Depths"*/

 

Taken at LICK Sim Designs - The End of the World as We Know It, Oyster Bay (204, 167, 29)

Nikon D80 & Nikkor 50mm 1.8D lens -- Planes seemed like they would crash into buildings as they swooped in to land at Handea Airport.

Truck Crash knocks over power pole and crashes into building.

Truck Crash knocks over power pole and crashes into building.

Photo by Leyla Shams

Truck Crash knocks over power pole and crashes into building.

Photographed in Salt Lake City, Utah.

 

In addition to all of the usual chaos faced by the Falcons in an urban environment, Salt Lake City is witnessing the biggest construction project in its history. The multi-block retail/condo facility lies directly across the street from the Hotel Utah seen below.

 

The JSMB(former Hotel Utah) features a nesting box where Peregrine Falcons have produced numerous chicks over the past 18 years. Peregrine falcons usually nest on high cliffs, but increasingly some have made their homes on tall buildings and bridges in urban areas. It takes a young falcon, known as an eyas, a week or so to learn to fly. Flight training for young falcons that are born in urban areas is all the more treacherous because they often crash into buildings or fly into traffic. The birds' presence in cities, while sometimes dangerous to them, is a testament to the revival of the species, wildlife officials say. There were only about 200 American peregrine falcons left in North America in the 1970s, and they were considered an endangered species until 1999. Now there are more than 3,000, according to the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. Their recovery is due in part to the banning of the pesticide DDT, which had weakened falcon eggshells, and in part to the breeding of falcons in captivity. But the urban landscape remains a threat to the birds. The survival rate for falcons is about 40 percent in cities, about 50 percent in the wild, according to Dr. Bill A. Burnham, president of the Peregrine Fund, an organization based in Boise, Idaho, that works to save peregrine falcons and other birds of prey, including California Condors.

   

Truck Crash knocks over power pole and crashes into building.

Article paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19440327.2.58

Photographed in Salt Lake City, Utah.

 

The JSMB(former Hotel Utah) features a nesting box where Peregrine Falcons have produced numerous chicks over the past 18 years. Peregrine falcons usually nest on high cliffs, but increasingly some have made their homes on tall buildings and bridges in urban areas. It takes a young falcon, known as an eyas, a week or so to learn to fly. Flight training for young falcons that are born in urban areas is all the more treacherous because they often crash into buildings or fly into traffic. The birds' presence in cities, while sometimes dangerous to them, is a testament to the revival of the species, wildlife officials say. There were only about 200 American peregrine falcons left in North America in the 1970s, and they were considered an endangered species until 1999. Now there are more than 3,000, according to the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. Their recovery is due in part to the banning of the pesticide DDT, which had weakened falcon eggshells, and in part to the breeding of falcons in captivity. But the urban landscape remains a threat to the birds. The survival rate for falcons is about 40 percent in cities, about 50 percent in the wild, according to Dr. Bill A. Burnham, president of the Peregrine Fund, an organization based in Boise, Idaho, that works to save peregrine falcons and other birds of prey, including California Condors.

   

Decorations were fresh ten days earlier, on the 24th anniversary of the 911 terror attack. Now they've wilted on the 11 posts that commemorate the lives Westfield, New Jersey residents killed that day. Some were crews of airplanes whose flights were hijacked and crashed into buildings. Others perished in the World Trade Center. The names of over 2,000 other victims appear on the green monument in the distance.

Decorations were fresh ten days earlier, on the 24th anniversary of the 911 terror attack. Now they've wilted on the 11 posts that commemorate the lives Westfield, New Jersey residents killed that day. Some were crews of airplanes whose flights were hijacked and crashed into buildings. Others perished in the World Trade Center. The names of over 2,000 other victims appear on the green monument in the distance.

Photo from Karina Kling

Photo from Karina Kling

Photo from Karina Kling

010911-M-4122I-023

The pentagon in flames moments after a hijacked jetliner crashed into building at approximately 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Jason Ingersoll) (Released)

 

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What compelled Cao Fei (aka China Tracy in Second Life) to show us an airplane crashing into buildings? npirl.blogspot.com/2009/10/interview-in-chinese-and-engli...

Today, in Ausin TX, a man that was fed up with the IRS made a statement. He burned his house down, and then shortly after, he flew a plane into a building in N. Austin that housed some IRS offices. He left behind a family, and a long manifesto explaining why he did this.

 

This picture is of the building he hit, taken by me about 2 hours after this happened. I have uploaded the hi-res version, so please look at the All Sizes link above for more detail, then click to download the full size.

 

The Full-Res Version: visualoddity.com/LFStuff/Plane_Crash_Into_Building-100218...

   

News Story: news8austin.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=267317

  

The Manifesto:

www.businessinsider.com/joseph-andrew-stacks-insane-manif...

This made huge headlines in Virginia Beach. Alien spacecraft embeded itself into a building on Atlantic Avenue on the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. Proof that aliens do exist.

 

Sometimes Aliens can be so sloppy!

Schererville

(Monday, November 17, 2008) Driver loses control while travelling North on Hwy. 111 in the 300 block of South Maple in Brighton and crashes through the wall of the Lewis and Clark Insurance Co. PHOTO BY BUSTER CLARK