View allAll Photos Tagged alqaeda
I know that many people express a variety of emotions when visiting this spot.
I found myself very angry.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Mike Mullen addresses students at the Pakistani National Defense University in Islamabad, Pakistan, Dec. 15, 2009. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, U.S. Navy/Released)
SHABQADAR, Pakistán.- Un conjunto de vehículos carga ataúdes en Penshawar para las víctimas de un doble ataque suicida con bombas contra contra una academia de un cuerpo de las fuerzas de seguridad en la ciudad de Charsada, en el norte de Pakistán. (EFE)
El Bosque del Recuerdo, anteriormente conocido como Bosque de los Ausentes, es un monumento construido como homenaje a las 191 víctimas de los atentados del 11 de marzo de 2004 en Madrid y al agente de las fuerzas especiales muerto cuando siete autores de los atentados se suicidaron con bombas el 3 de abril de 2004 en Leganés. El Bosque del Recuerdo se encuentra en la Chopera, en el madrileño Parque del Retiro, cerca de la estación de Atocha, y consta de 118 áreas con 192 árboles (22 olivos y 170 cipreses), uno por cada asesinado.
Inicialmente estuvo instalado en una isleta de la glorieta de Atocha, y se creó originalmente como parte de la decoración de las calles por las que debía pasar la comitiva de la boda del príncipe Felipe y Letizia Ortiz.
© all rights reserved by B℮n
Please take your time... to View it large on black
On the tenth anniversary of the attack on the Twin Towers millions of people will relive the horrors of that fateful day. The television screens are filled with shocking images of death and destruction. Once again we see the flames of blazing fuel as the planes struck the tall buildings; the desperate people throwing themselves into empty space; the collapsing edifices that filled the New York air with choking dust and turned night into day, and the men and women covered in gray dust looking like creatures from another planet. The events of September 11th 2001 undoubtedly represented a turning-point in history. The tenth anniversary of the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon provides us with an opportunity to make a balance sheet of the past decade, a decade that has reshaped the history of the world. America was wounded in it's core. 9/11 was used as an excuse to invade Iraq and brought the U.S. close to bankruptcy. Financially, because wars cost a lot of money. Morally, after the disgrace of Abu Ghraib and the machinations surrounding the weapons of mass destruction. Also part of the legacy of 9/11 was the further polarization between the Western and the Arab world, a polarization by migration across the way most Western countries runs itself. At this level we ten years later, still have a lot more hope and optimism. The Arab Spring was for years considered impossible, but it took place. How this is going to end, it remains to be seen, but there is hope .
This photo was taken in 1999 with some analog snapshot camera. I took this amazing helicopter flight over New York. The big Apple - Manhattan and surprisely you can see the Twin Towers still in tact through the window next to the pilot. It's my golden oldie and one to keep. A photo from my archive, my goldie oldie.
Deze foto is genomen is 1999 met een goedkope weggooi camera. Ik had toen een fantastische helikopter vlucht gemaakt over Manhattan - De Big Apple. De twee World Trade center torens zijn goed te zien naast het raam van de helikopter piloot - oftewel de Twin Towers. Het is een foto om goed te bewaren. Het is dit jaar exact tien jaar geleden dat de Twin Towers in New York en het Pentagon in Washington werden aangevallen door terroristen. Onder meer Barack Obama en George Bush, in 2001 president, spreken tijdens de plechtigheden in New York, waar wordt stilgestaan bij de gebeurtenissen van tien jaar terug. Twee vliegtuigen boorden zich toen in de torens van het World Trade Center in New York. 3.000 mensen kwamen daarbij om. Wie anno 2011 na tien jaar terugkijkt naar het begin van deze eeuw, herkent de wereld niet meer terug. En bij de aanvang van deze eeuw zullen maar weinigen het voor mogelijk hebben gehouden dat de wereld er nu, tien jaar later, zo zou uitzien. Want we moeten dan immers toch een aantal dingen wegdenken die inmiddels een belangrijk deel van ons politieke bewustzijn zijn gaan uitmaken. De gewenning gaat in dat opzicht snel. 11 september. Geen mens die dat bij de aanvang van 2001 voor mogelijk had gehouden, ook Hollywood was nog niet op het idee gekomen. Het kwam, die stralend blauwe ochtend, letterlijk en figuurlijk als een donderslag bij heldere hemel, en verstoorde de grote veiligheidsillusie van Amerika. De paniek was dan ook groot, die dag en de dagen erna. Amerika was in het hart geraakt. 9/11 werd als excuus gebruikt om Irak binnen te vallen en bracht de VS dicht bij het bankroet. Financieel, omdat de oorlogen handenvol geld kostten. Moreel, na de schande van Abu Ghraib en de manipulaties rond de massavernietigingswapens. Ook deel van de erfenis van 9/11 was de verdere polarisatie tussen de Westerse en de Arabische wereld, een polarisatie die door de migratie trouwens dwars door de meeste Westerse landen zelf loopt. Op dat vlak kunnen we tien jaar later toch een stuk hoopvoller zijn. De Arabische lente werd jarenlang onmogelijk geacht, maar voltrok zich wel. Hoe dat gaat eindigen, valt nog af te wachten, maar er is hoop.
IT CAN NOW BE REVEALED that the father of Bristol Palin's love-child, Tripp, is in fact God's own true Holy Monkey, Bubbles - Michael Jackson's chimpanzee friend - and that poor young Levi is just a ringer.
Bubbles was sent down from Heaven to father an homunculus Saviour Child with the Righteous Hockey Mom Sarah herself, who would then thwart Satan's evil plans on Earth in these "End Times".
But unfortunately for the Palins and their fundamentalist beliefs, cross-species human/animal copulation/marriage was made illegal in Alaska in 1978, after it was discovered that the true mother of future US President [and Anti-Christ] Damien Thorne was not the wife of the US Ambassador to England, but an italian jackal! And that the father was old Beelzebub himself!!!
So even when preparing for "good" bestiality, Sarah (the "whack job") and Todd wouldn't be able to reverse these crazy "human only" marriage laws until after she became US President, and they'd get to run The World together (the way they did Alaska) and use nuclear weapons to rid it of of all the Evil Demons of Satan camping out in every dark corner, everywhere.
So... a few years ago, after being abandoned at a deserted Neverland, a sad, sick and confused Bubbles was bought by Madonna in a child/monkey adoption auction on eBay for her kid collection, and taken to her huge stone castle in the remote & bleak Highlands of Scotland (geography note - opposite direction from Russia, Sarah!).
But her cockney gangster [ex] husband Guy Ritchie is a weird sicko, and friend of Dick Cheney, who behind Madonna's back used to beat poor Bubbles mercilessly and make him perform degrading and humiliating sex-acts.
Instead of the ripe, fresh bananas and loving caresses he was used to from Michael Jackson, Guy and Dick water-boarded him, and fed him only cold scraps of haggis with bits of putrid scottish pie-lard for garnish.
After 2 years of agonising Guantanamo Bay-style incarceration, and confessing that he was a leading member of Al Qaeda, a sad and damaged Bubbles miraculously escaped from Madonna's Scottish castle hiding inside some bagpipes, and fled north across the frozen Arctic wastes 'til he finally arrived at Sarah & Todd Palin's hunting igloo.
Sarah asked him if he was a member of an endangered species, like Polar Bears and Arctic Foxes,,, but Bubbles was far too clever to say "yes", as he guessed from looking at them that Sarah and Todd might make him run until exhausted and then shoot him from a helicopter for a laugh.
Then they'd probably fashion his lifeless monkey carcass into a footstool to go with Sarah's magnificent bear-sofa.
But even Sarah didn't know that Bubbles was a heavenly angel (albeit in monkey form) sent by God himself to father The Saviour of The World in holy sexual union with her (no time for any of this Catholic "virgin birth" shit in Alaska!).
And Todd didn't know either,,, or it might have been .375 calibre time for the lustful varmint!
Over time Sarah got to know and treasure Bubbles, as they shared roughly the same IQ, knowledge of World Affairs, Political History, Geography and Economics.
Though the Palin's Extreme Pentecostal Creationist belief system was a little too backward and primitive a concept for a [admittedly very clever] chimpanzee even, and Bubbles described believing in it as being "devoid of even the slightest glimmer of intellectual rigour or sanity".
Bubbles felt an unnatural but understandable sexual attraction to the gorgeous third-place runner-up in the Miss Alaska Oil-Spill beauty pageant of 1984 though, and after many months of close communion, Sarah Palin herself came to feel of Bubbles as she would a fondly remembered childhood classmate, from the Wasilla retard's school & 7 colleges she attended on the way to her "journalism" degree, and so she gave him a $95,000 a year + expenses job running the Alaskan Department of Agriculture ("He must know all about animals!.. You betcha!").
But she couldn't feel sexually aroused by Bubbles, yet, as he didn't smell of fish like her beloved childhood sweetheart Todd - and the odor of something wet & scaley was what had always got her womanly juices flowing from that first accidental time with that Northern Pike (huh?) as a barely menstruating teen cheerleader just learning the evil ways of the world, and how it was that cities and entire countries outside Wasilla were under the control of monstrous satanic demons, that had to be flushed-out by the Soldiers of Jesus, vanquished, and turned into attractive pieces of office furniture.
Well eventually, inevitably, true love blossomed between human and animal the way it so often does in those long, dark, lonely Alaskan winter nights - just the way it says it did in The Bible, after Cain slew Abel and was ejected from The Garden of Eden,,, but it wasn't between Alaska's righteous, devout, beautiful and lipstick-clad Pit-Bull Hockey-Mom Governor and the famous celeb/chimp,,,but between him and her treacherous young daughter!
It was as if Bubbles had visited the sin-ridden cesspit that is New York City, and caught the terrible jewish "Woody Allen's Disease" and...[ to be continued...]
The New York skyline showing the Twin Towers and the Statue of Liberty prior to 9/11. An airship can be seen in the distance.
This photo was taken in 1999 with some analog snapshot camera. I took this amazing helicopter flight over New York. The big Apple - Manhattan and surprisely you can see the Twin Towers still in tact through the window next to the pilot. It's my golden oldie and one to keep.
A photo from my archive, my goldie oldie.
Deze foto is genomen is 1999 met een goedkope weggooi camera. Ik had toen een fantastische helikopter vlucht gemaakt over Manhattan - De Big Apple. De twee World Trade center torens zijn goed te zien naast het raam van de helikopter piloot - oftewel de Twin Towers. Het is een foto om goed te bewaren.
Here is the reason world leaders have failed to curb the international plague of terrorism.
An excerpt: 'The problem is: God has not created everybody for the truth. Hoping that all will believe is a hope against hope.
Jesus said, ‘For the second time when I come, I will not come for peace. I will come for a war: Armageddon.’'
Click the link to read more! www.theawaitedone.com/articles/2015/07/29/jesus-war-again...
John Anka
Eagle's Wing leader (Worester County)
log 4
Date May 5,2011
Yep in retaliation for Bin laden AlQaeda invaded with help from the communist nazis, (lol) and america is at war worse than we have ever been at war. Many civillians with guns have been asked to fight. But almost all the official army has been executed or sent to the pipelines. So now the civilians left have to scavenge to over throw the commie facist terrorist government. Amazing 4 days ago we were dancing in the streets.
*****End Log*****
P.S where are my fucking cinco de Mayo tacos.
HH Younus AlGohar gives world leaders profound insight into the inner workings of ISIS (Daesh). He explains how ISIS utilise drugs in their terror campaigns around the world. Most importantly, he advises Western governments and the media on paralysing ISIS and effectively diminishing their influence - without even needing to use violence.
Read the article here: www.theawaitedone.com/articles/2015/11/29/how-to-paralyse...
Terrorists Foreign (9/11) & Domestic (6/1) Get Served Justice Same Day (8/1) - IMRAN™
One more Jan 6 insurrectionist enemy of democracy gets sentenced. A few of those 7-years in Guantanamo will help him lose weight and some traitor traits.
Speaking of terrorists being put down, President Obama took out Bin Laden. Today, finally, his former #2 current US President Biden got to take out Bin Laden’s former #2, current head of AlQaeda, Al-Zawahiri, in a drone strike in, where else, Afghanistan.
Put down all enemies of the United States, foreign and domestic, I say. Or send them to Gitmo.
© 2022 IMRAN™
#news #terrorism #sedition #insurrection #January6 #September11 #Justice #AlQaeda #MAGA #democracy #UnitedStates #IMRAN #CIA #drones #Afghanistan
Piraeus port, Syria war refugees, little boy and a woman holding a kid
It's been, for long now, a common daily activity where hundreds of Syria War refugees along with illegal & undocumented Asian and African migrants are smuggled (in unseaworthy rubber boats and perilous conditions in the Aegean sea) from the Asian coast of Turkey to the Greek islands, by conveniently operating and hugely profiting traffickers (selling out even fake, water-absorbent life-jackets, to migrants), under the nose, if not guidance and pressure, of the Turkish coast guard, and despite the EU-Turkey Migration treaty.
Migrants arriving to Greek islands are then transferred by ferryboats to Piraeus with the prospect to be dispersed to "temporary" camps all over the Greek mainland, but most likely to remain "trapped" for undisclosed time, if not for ever, as far as the key migrant "European corridor" remains closed-down at the borders in the north region of Macedonia(Greece) with FYROM* in order to protect the rest of EU states (uneager to accept but a tiny number of documented refugees) and also discourage future migrants from heading to Europe.....
Meanwhile in Greece, migration inflow steadily surpasses outflow, as far as the war in Syria continues and Turkey capitalizes not only on Syrian refugees but on all its Asian and African migrants reaching swiftly (with cheap TurkishAirlines fare & e-visa) Istanbul, Europe's backdoor, by smuggling them to Greece so assisting its expansionist policy through the ethnological, cultural and economic destabilization of the small communities in the islands and (given the huge influx and the border blockage), all over Greece, while generating also an instability potential of the status quo in the Aegean Sea that Turkey's "deep state" would like to change by dividing it in the middle (if not by taking over whatever Greek land) at a given opportunity, alike with the Invasion of Cyprus in 1974 ...
Consequently, Greece, already suffering a deep socio-economic & political crisis under its divisive, incompetent and obsessed neo-communist leadership, is turned into a de facto European "migrant buffer zone", and has to manage alone, just with EU "technical assistance", the unstoppable migration influx from Turkey and an additional, social crisis. It looks as if Greece is declining into a state of uncontrolled anarchy (UPDATE MAR31 less than 24hrs after OP) while EU is imploding and fragmenting from the backlash of its own misdeeds and consequent crises ....
Crises that emerged from the geopolitical games and the wars imposed and/or exploited by the .... Great European Powers ( UK, France, Germany), along with the USA, NATO, as well as the Sunni Islamists of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and, last but not least, Turkey and its neo-ottoman styled leadership that promoted the war in Syria and cooperated undercover with ISIS, further escalating its own undeclared (civil) war against the Kurds, not just within Turkey, but also in Syria
Wars fancily dubbed as "against tyranny and terror", have in fact caused by far more misery, terror and havoc with the disintegration of Iraq, Libya and Syria, the eventual creation of Al-Qaeda, ISIS and the other jihadist organizations that preach and exercise blind hatred, and terrorism against the West, while they impose their domain and Brutal Rule of Terror on a number of regions across Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
UPDATES
MAR.31 : Migrants Clash at Pireus Port
APR .. 1 : Violence at Chios Island Migrant Camp
APR . 4 : First Deportations to Turkey While Migrant Boats Continue Ariving to Greek Islands
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*FYROM, (originally Vardarska or Vardar Banovina), a landlocked country and non EU member state, is usually referred as "Macedonia" in the "narrative overlay" of media such as CNN, BBC etc that systematically defy the only officially recognized (by UN, EU, NATO, IOC, IAAF etc. etc) name "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), for their very own reasons. if not for assisting the agenda of specific interests (of USA, NATO, UK, certain EU member states and, as usual, Turkey) in the allready quite broken apart and multi-divided, Balkans ...
FYROM also should not be confused, with the historical region of Macedonia in Greece as the later incorporates the whole area where Ancient Macedonian People firstly appeared and lived more than 2500 years ago, that is about 1000 years earlier than the arrival of the Slavs in the Balkans....
“Young America’s Foundation” won’t let us remember 9/11 our own way; they want to make sure a “conservative” spin is put on it. And as usual, they equate the flag and freedom with their own ideology.
This Young America’s Foundation is apparently not the same as the Young Republicans who were in the newa for posting racist and Nazi comments on Telegram...
Happy 75th Anniversary, Golden Gate Bridge.... And God Said, Let There Be Light. Build Bridges Of Faith, At Golden Gates To A Bright Interfaith Future - IMRAN™ — 17000+ Views!
As I had walked across the Golden Gate Bridge, in San Francisco, California. at sunset, the falling sun seemed to slide down the support cables.
The scene, as I took this un-cropped photograph, and the image when I look at it today, remind me of the ball dropping at New Year's in Times Square, New York with Christians' Christmas festivities all around at that time.
I am writing these lines at 3AM on September 10, 2010. It is nearly 9 years since that same great city, New York, was attacked, and the world was torn asunder by evil doers killing in the name of religion. While bigoted American right wing politicians use false logic and other fallacies as an excuse to attack Islam, Muslims around the world, in the meantime, are being killed by the same AlQaeda in even greater numbers than American Christians, Muslims and Jews killed on 9/11. But, that is ignored by the bigots.
I am also writing this one day before another hate monger, a so-called pastor in Florida, who looks more like an illiterate inbred retired porn star than a man of God, is planning to fan the flames of bigotry and hatred, by burning the Muslims' Holy Book, the Quran. He is more like an agent of Lucifer and secret brother of Osama Bin Laden than a real Christian or a true American.
I salute the many Christian and Jewish religious leaders who have spoken clearly and boldly against this bigot. President Obama and leaders around the world, US military leaders, and media personalities have been clear in expressing their feelings. I salute even more the everyday Americans, including far more Christians and Jews than even American Muslims, who have been heard on radio and TV, seen on blog posts and in new media outlets, condemning this hate monger. And, that makes me believe again, that a new day may be dawning soon, even as the sun sets and darkness seems to loom.
Today and tomorrow also marks the end of Ramadan and the start of Eid celebration for Muslims around the world. It is also the Jewish New Year. And the imagery of the photo becomes even more poignant.
The brightness of the sun verging on bright, but risking falling into darkness, hanging on the thread of hope for peace, but split like the photo frame, into left and right, upper and lower portions, further split by the railing - like the barriers of intolerance, bigotry, hatred and ignorance that divide the world.
How ironic that this philosophical imagery battle is played out on, what else, but a bridge, which is more of what the world needs. A golden light gate opening.
A bridge between people. A bridge between nations. A bridge between faiths. A bridge between yesterday and tomorrow, appearing today.
May this Today, be a Happy Eid and Rosh Hashanah and may the coming Thanksgiving and Christmas season allow the barriers to break down, for the light of love and peace to spread, for hands and hearts to reach out, across the barrier and over the bridge, in interfaith and internation brotherhood... for love, for peace, forever.
© 2008-2010 IMRAN
DSC_1408_PSF
La Bluestar
#Alqaeda, #Arnaldo, #Ft, #Gabriel, #La, #Llego, #Mb, #Navidad, #Randy www.labluestar.com/mb-alqaeda-ft-randy-gabriel-y-arnaldo-...
I guess I live in a bubble. So far I have met only one person who said they intended to vote for the Donald. Yet they are obviously around, disparaging our country and stating that it needs making great again...
Edit: I met two more!...
020110-N-6967M-501
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Jan. 10, 2002 -- Lance Cpl. Robert Devlin, from 2nd Military Police battalion 2nd Force Service Support Group, displays restraints used for transporting detainees to Camp X-Ray. Camp X-Ray will be one of the holding facilities for Taliban and Al Qaida detainees. U.S. Navy photo by PhotographerÕs Mate 1st Class Shane T. McCoy. (RELEASED)
It's been, for long now, a common daily activity where hundreds of Syria War refugees along with illegal & undocumented Asian and African migrants are smuggled (in unseaworthy rubber boats and perilous conditions in the Aegean sea) from the Asian coast of Turkey to the Greek islands, by conveniently operating and hugely profiting traffickers (selling out even fake, water-absorbent life-jackets, to migrants), under the nose, if not guidance and pressure, of the Turkish coast guard, and despite the EU-Turkey Migration treaty.
Migrants arriving to Greek islands are then transferred by ferryboats to Piraeus with the prospect to be dispersed to "temporary" camps all over the Greek mainland, but most likely to remain "trapped" for undisclosed time, if not for ever, as far as the key migrant "European corridor" remains closed-down at the borders in the north region of Macedonia(Greece) with FYROM* in order to protect the rest of EU states (uneager to accept but a tiny number of documented refugees) and also discourage future migrants from heading to Europe.....
Meanwhile in Greece, migration inflow steadily surpasses outflow, as far as the war in Syria continues and Turkey capitalizes not only on Syrian refugees but on all its Asian and African migrants reaching swiftly (with cheap TurkishAirlines fare & e-visa) Istanbul, Europe's backdoor, by smuggling them to Greece so assisting its expansionist policy through the ethnological, cultural and economic destabilization of the small communities in the islands and (given the huge influx and the border blockage), all over Greece, while generating also an instability potential of the status quo in the Aegean Sea that Turkey's "deep state" would like to change by dividing it in the middle (if not by taking over whatever Greek land) at a given opportunity, alike with the Invasion of Cyprus in 1974 ...
Consequently, Greece, already suffering a deep socio-economic & political crisis under its divisive, incompetent and obsessed neo-communist leadership, is turned into a de facto European "migrant buffer zone", and has to manage alone, just with EU "technical assistance", the unstoppable migration influx from Turkey and an additional, social crisis. It looks as if Greece is declining into a state of uncontrolled anarchy (UPDATE MAR31 less than 24hrs after OP) while EU is imploding and fragmenting from the backlash of its own misdeeds and consequent crises ....
Crises that emerged from the geopolitical games and the wars imposed and/or exploited by the .... Great European Powers ( UK, France, Germany), along with the USA, NATO, as well as the Sunni Islamists of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and, last but not least, Turkey and its neo-ottoman styled leadership that promoted the war in Syria and cooperated undercover with ISIS, further escalating its own undeclared (civil) war against the Kurds, not just within Turkey, but also in Syria
Wars fancily dubbed as "against tyranny and terror", have in fact caused by far more misery, terror and havoc with the disintegration of Iraq, Libya and Syria, the eventual creation of Al-Qaeda, ISIS and the other jihadist organizations that preach and exercise blind hatred, and terrorism against the West, while they impose their domain and Brutal Rule of Terror on a number of regions across Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
UPDATES
MAR.31 : Migrants Clash at Pireus Port
APR .. 1 : Violence at Chios Island Migrant Camp
APR . 4 : First Deportations to Turkey While Migrant Boats Continue Ariving to Greek Islands
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*FYROM, (originally Vardarska or Vardar Banovina), a landlocked country and non EU member state, is usually referred as "Macedonia" in the "narrative overlay" of media such as CNN, BBC etc that systematically defy the only officially recognized (by UN, EU, NATO, IOC, IAAF etc. etc) name "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), for their very own reasons. if not for assisting the agenda of specific interests (of USA, NATO, UK, certain EU member states and, as usual, Turkey) in the allready quite broken apart and multi-divided, Balkans ...
FYROM also should not be confused, with the historical region of Macedonia in Greece as the later incorporates the whole area where Ancient Macedonian People firstly appeared and lived more than 2500 years ago, that is about 1000 years earlier than the arrival of the Slavs in the Balkans....
The Role of Spiritual Knowledge in the Divine Plan
www.goharshahi.us/articles/view/role-spiritual-knowledge-...
In light of incidents of terrorism occurring globally, we ask ourselves: why are some people drawn to brutality and others to spirituality? Where is our world heading to?
Memorial to the victims of the 2002 Bali bombing terrorist attacks. On the northern side of Coogee Beach a memorial to the Bali bombing victims comprises three interlocking bronze shapes. The linked figures in this sculpture signify family friends and community. Bowed in sorrow and remembrance, they comfort, support and protect each other. The figures also symbolize life, growth, hope and our strength in unity.
2002 Bali bombings
The 2002 Bali bombings occurred on 12 October 2002 in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali. The attack killed 202 people (including 88 Australians, 38 Indonesians, 27 Britons, 7 Americans, 6 Swedish citizens and 3 Danish citizens). A further 240 people were injured. Various members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a violent Islamist group, were convicted in relation to the bombings, including three individuals who were sentenced to death. An audio-cassette purportedly carrying a recorded voice message from Osama Bin Laden stated that the Bali bombings were in direct retaliation for support of the United States' war on terror and Australia's role in the liberation of East Timor.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Bali_bombings
Coogee is a beachside suburb of City of Randwick, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is also a part of the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. The Tasman Sea and Coogee Bay along with Coogee Beach lie towards the eastern side of the suburb. The beach is popular for swimming and famous for its dangerous shorebreaks.
It's been, for long now, a common daily activity where hundreds of Syria War refugees along with illegal & undocumented Asian and African migrants are smuggled (in unseaworthy rubber boats and perilous conditions in the Aegean sea) from the Asian coast of Turkey to the Greek islands, by conveniently operating and hugely profiting traffickers (selling out even fake, water-absorbent life-jackets, to migrants), under the nose, if not guidance and pressure, of the Turkish coast guard, and despite the EU-Turkey Migration treaty.
Migrants arriving to Greek islands are then transferred by ferryboats to Piraeus with the prospect to be dispersed to "temporary" camps all over the Greek mainland, but most likely to remain "trapped" for undisclosed time, if not for ever, as far as the key migrant "European corridor" remains closed-down at the borders in the north region of Macedonia(Greece) with FYROM* in order to protect the rest of EU states (uneager to accept but a tiny number of documented refugees) and also discourage future migrants from heading to Europe.....
Meanwhile in Greece, migration inflow steadily surpasses outflow, as far as the war in Syria continues and Turkey capitalizes not only on Syrian refugees but on all its Asian and African migrants reaching swiftly (with cheap TurkishAirlines fare & e-visa) Istanbul, Europe's backdoor, by smuggling them to Greece so assisting its expansionist policy through the ethnological, cultural and economic destabilization of the small communities in the islands and (given the huge influx and the border blockage), all over Greece, while generating also an instability potential of the status quo in the Aegean Sea that Turkey's "deep state" would like to change by dividing it in the middle (if not by taking over whatever Greek land) at a given opportunity, alike with the Invasion of Cyprus in 1974 ...
Consequently, Greece, already suffering a deep socio-economic & political crisis under its divisive, incompetent and obsessed neo-communist leadership, is turned into a de facto European "migrant buffer zone", and has to manage alone, just with EU "technical assistance", the unstoppable migration influx from Turkey and an additional, social crisis. It looks as if Greece is declining into a state of uncontrolled anarchy (UPDATE MAR31 less than 24hrs after OP) while EU is imploding and fragmenting from the backlash of its own misdeeds and consequent crises ....
Crises that emerged from the geopolitical games and the wars imposed and/or exploited by the .... Great European Powers ( UK, France, Germany), along with the USA, NATO, as well as the Sunni Islamists of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and, last but not least, Turkey and its neo-ottoman styled leadership that promoted the war in Syria and cooperated undercover with ISIS, further escalating its own undeclared (civil) war against the Kurds, not just within Turkey, but also in Syria
Wars fancily dubbed as "against tyranny and terror", have in fact caused by far more misery, terror and havoc with the disintegration of Iraq, Libya and Syria, the eventual creation of Al-Qaeda, ISIS and the other jihadist organizations that preach and exercise blind hatred, and terrorism against the West, while they impose their domain and Brutal Rule of Terror on a number of regions across Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
UPDATES
MAR.31 : Migrants Clash at Pireus Port
APR .. 1 : Violence at Chios Island Migrant Camp
APR . 4 : First Deportations to Turkey While Migrant Boats Continue Ariving to Greek Islands
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*FYROM, (originally Vardarska or Vardar Banovina), a landlocked country and non EU member state, is usually referred as "Macedonia" in the "narrative overlay" of media such as CNN, BBC etc that systematically defy the only officially recognized (by UN, EU, NATO, IOC, IAAF etc. etc) name "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), for their very own reasons. if not for assisting the agenda of specific interests (of USA, NATO, UK, certain EU member states and, as usual, Turkey) in the allready quite broken apart and multi-divided, Balkans ...
FYROM also should not be confused, with the historical region of Macedonia in Greece as the later incorporates the whole area where Ancient Macedonian People firstly appeared and lived more than 2500 years ago, that is about 1000 years earlier than the arrival of the Slavs in the Balkans....
~*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.
It's been, for long now, a common daily activity where hundreds of Syria War refugees along with illegal & undocumented Asian and African migrants are smuggled (in unseaworthy rubber boats and perilous conditions in the Aegean sea) from the Asian coast of Turkey to the Greek islands, by conveniently operating and hugely profiting traffickers (selling out even fake, water-absorbent life-jackets, to migrants), under the nose, if not guidance and pressure, of the Turkish coast guard, and despite the EU-Turkey Migration treaty.
Migrants arriving to Greek islands are then transferred by ferryboats to Piraeus with the prospect to be dispersed to "temporary" camps all over the Greek mainland, but most likely to remain "trapped" for undisclosed time, if not for ever, as far as the key migrant "European corridor" remains closed-down at the borders in the north region of Macedonia(Greece) with FYROM* in order to protect the rest of EU states (uneager to accept but a tiny number of documented refugees) and also discourage future migrants from heading to Europe.....
Meanwhile in Greece, migration inflow steadily surpasses outflow, as far as the war in Syria continues and Turkey capitalizes not only on Syrian refugees but on all its Asian and African migrants reaching swiftly (with cheap TurkishAirlines fare & e-visa) Istanbul, Europe's backdoor, by smuggling them to Greece so assisting its expansionist policy through the ethnological, cultural and economic destabilization of the small communities in the islands and (given the huge influx and the border blockage), all over Greece, while generating also an instability potential of the status quo in the Aegean Sea that Turkey's "deep state" would like to change by dividing it in the middle (if not by taking over whatever Greek land) at a given opportunity, alike with the Invasion of Cyprus in 1974 ...
Consequently, Greece, already suffering a deep socio-economic & political crisis under its divisive, incompetent and obsessed neo-communist leadership, is turned into a de facto European "migrant buffer zone", and has to manage alone, just with EU "technical assistance", the unstoppable migration influx from Turkey and an additional, social crisis. It looks as if Greece is declining into a state of uncontrolled anarchy (UPDATE MAR31 less than 24hrs after OP) while EU is imploding and fragmenting from the backlash of its own misdeeds and consequent crises ....
Crises that emerged from the geopolitical games and the wars imposed and/or exploited by the .... Great European Powers ( UK, France, Germany), along with the USA, NATO, as well as the Sunni Islamists of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and, last but not least, Turkey and its neo-ottoman styled leadership that promoted the war in Syria and cooperated undercover with ISIS, further escalating its own undeclared (civil) war against the Kurds, not just within Turkey, but also in Syria
Wars fancily dubbed as "against tyranny and terror", have in fact caused by far more misery, terror and havoc with the disintegration of Iraq, Libya and Syria, the eventual creation of Al-Qaeda, ISIS and the other jihadist organizations that preach and exercise blind hatred, and terrorism against the West, while they impose their domain and Brutal Rule of Terror on a number of regions across Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
UPDATES
MAR.31 : Migrants Clash at Pireus Port
APR .. 1 : Violence at Chios Island Migrant Camp
APR . 4 : First Deportations to Turkey While Migrant Boats Continue Ariving to Greek Islands
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*FYROM, (originally Vardarska or Vardar Banovina), a landlocked country and non EU member state, is usually referred as "Macedonia" in the "narrative overlay" of media such as CNN, BBC etc that systematically defy the only officially recognized (by UN, EU, NATO, IOC, IAAF etc. etc) name "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), for their very own reasons. if not for assisting the agenda of specific interests (of USA, NATO, UK, certain EU member states and, as usual, Turkey) in the allready quite broken apart and multi-divided, Balkans ...
FYROM also should not be confused, with the historical region of Macedonia in Greece as the later incorporates the whole area where Ancient Macedonian People firstly appeared and lived more than 2500 years ago, that is about 1000 years earlier than the arrival of the Slavs in the Balkans....
Migrants arriving to Greek islands are then transferred by ferryboats to Piraeus with the prospect to be dispersed to "temporary" camps all over the Greek mainland, but most likely to remain "trapped" for undisclosed time, if not for ever, as far as the key migrant "European corridor" remains closed-down at the borders in the north region of Macedonia(Greece) with FYROM* in order to protect the rest of EU states (uneager to accept but a tiny number of documented refugees) and also discourage future migrants from heading to Europe.....
Meanwhile in Greece, migration inflow steadily surpasses outflow, as far as the war in Syria continues and Turkey capitalizes not only on Syrian refugees but on all its Asian and African migrants reaching swiftly (with cheap TurkishAirlines fare & e-visa) Istanbul, Europe's backdoor, by smuggling them to Greece so assisting its expansionist policy through the ethnological, cultural and economic destabilization of the small communities in the islands and (given the huge influx and the border blockage), all over Greece, while generating also an instability potential of the status quo in the Aegean Sea that Turkey's "deep state" would like to change by dividing it in the middle (if not by taking over whatever Greek land) at a given opportunity, alike with the Invasion of Cyprus in 1974 ...
Consequently, Greece, already suffering a deep socio-economic & political crisis under its divisive, incompetent and obsessed neo-communist leadership, is turned into a de facto European "migrant buffer zone", and has to manage alone, just with EU "technical assistance", the unstoppable migration influx from Turkey and an additional, social crisis. It looks as if Greece is declining into a state of uncontrolled anarchy (UPDATE MAR31 less than 24hrs after OP) while EU is imploding and fragmenting from the backlash of its own misdeeds and consequent crises ....
Crises that emerged from the geopolitical games and the wars imposed and/or exploited by the .... Great European Powers ( UK, France, Germany), along with the USA, NATO, as well as the Sunni Islamists of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and, last but not least, Turkey and its neo-ottoman styled leadership that promoted the war in Syria and cooperated undercover with ISIS, further escalating its own undeclared (civil) war against the Kurds, not just within Turkey, but also in Syria
Wars fancily dubbed as "against tyranny and terror", have in fact caused by far more misery, terror and havoc with the disintegration of Iraq, Libya and Syria, the eventual creation of Al-Qaeda, ISIS and the other jihadist organizations that preach and exercise blind hatred, and terrorism against the West, while they impose their domain and Brutal Rule of Terror on a number of regions across Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
UPDATES
MAR.31 : Migrants Clash at Pireus Port
APR .. 1 : Violence at Chios Island Migrant Camp
APR . 4 : First Deportations to Turkey While Migrant Boats Continue Ariving to Greek Islands
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*FYROM, (originally Vardarska or Vardar Banovina), a landlocked country and non EU member state, is usually referred as "Macedonia" in the "narrative overlay" of media such as CNN, BBC etc that systematically defy the only officially recognized (by UN, EU, NATO, IOC, IAAF etc. etc) name "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), for their very own reasons. if not for assisting the agenda of specific interests (of USA, NATO, UK, certain EU member states and, as usual, Turkey) in the allready quite broken apart and multi-divided, Balkans ...
FYROM also should not be confused, with the historical region of Macedonia in Greece as the later incorporates the whole area where Ancient Macedonian People firstly appeared and lived about 2500 years ago, that is about 1000 years earlier than the arrival of the Slavs in the Balkans....
P1001722 (2)
On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 people were killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which triggered major U.S. initiatives to combat terrorism and defined the presidency of George W. Bush.
BY HISTORY.COM EDITORS
Almost all of our HMMWVs in Afghanistan come with a Taliban camera, of one caliber or another. They use many different types of film. The camera also works on al Qaeda, Hezb-i-Islami, plus individual terrorist assholes and scumbags. The result is all good :)
Yes,
Us people are just poems
We're 90% metaphor
With a leanness of meaning
Approaching hyper-distillation
[...]
And the shock was subsonic
And the smoke was deafening
Between the setup and the punch line
Cuz we were all on time for work that day
We all boarded that plane for to fly
And then while the fires were raging
We all climbed up on the windowsill
And then we all held hands
And jumped into the sky
And every borough looked up when it heard the first blast
And then every dumb action movie was summarily surpassed
And the exodus uptown by foot and motorcar
Looked more like war than anything I've seen so far
So far
So far
So fierce and ingenious
A poetic specter so far gone
That every jackass newscaster was struck dumb and stumbling
Over 'oh my god' and 'this is unbelievable' and on and on
And I'll tell you what, while we're at it
You can keep the pentagon
Keep the propaganda
Keep each and every TV
That's been trying to convince me
To participate
In some prep school punk's plan to perpetuate retribution
Perpetuate retribution
Even as the blue toxic smoke of our lesson in retribution
Is still hanging in the air
And there's ash on our shoes
And there's ash in our hair
And there's a fine silt on every mantle
From hell's kitchen to Brooklyn
And the streets are full of stories
Sudden twists and near misses
And soon every open bar is crammed to the rafters
With tales of narrowly averted disasters
And the whiskey is flowin
Like never before
As all over the country
Folks just shake their heads
And pour
[...]
And we hold these truths to be self evident:
#1 George W. Bush is not president
#2 America is not a true democracy
#3 the media is not fooling me
Cuz I am a poem heeding hyper-distillation
I've got no room for a lie so verbose
I'm looking out over my whole human family
And I'm raising my glass in a toast
Here's to our last drink of fossil fuels
Let us vow to get off of this sauce
Shoo away the swarms of commuter planes
And find that train ticket we lost
Cuz once upon a time the line followed the river
And peeked into all the backyards
And the laundry was waving
The graffiti was teasing us
From brick walls and bridges
We were rolling over ridges
Through valleys
Under stars
I dream of touring like Duke Ellington
In my own railroad car
I dream of waiting on the tall blonde wooden benches
In a grand station aglow with grace
And then standing out on the platform
And feeling the air on my face
[...]
Give back the night it's distant whistle
Give the darkness back it's soul
Give the big oil companies the finger finally
And relearn how to rock-n-roll
Yes, the lessons are all around us and a change is waiting there
So it's time to pick through the rubble, clean the streets
And clear the air
Get our government to pull it's big dick out of the sand
Of someone else's desert
Put it back in it's pants
And quit the hypocritical chants of
Freedom forever
Cuz when one lone phone rang
In two thousand and one
At ten after nine
On nine one one
Which is the number we all called
When that lone phone rang right off the wall
Right off our desk and down the long hall
Down the long stairs
In a building so tall
That the whole world turned
Just to watch it fall
And while we're at it
Remember the first time around?
The bomb?
The Ryder truck?
The parking garage?
The princess that didn't even feel the pea?
Remember joking around in our apartment on avenue D?
Can you imagine how many paper coffee cups would have to change their design
Following a fantastical reversal of the New York skyline?!
[...]
So let the record show
That the FBI was all over that case
That the plot was obvious and in everybody's face
And scoping that scene
Religiously
The CIA
Or is it KGB?
Committing countless crimes against humanity
With this kind of eventuality
As it's excuse
For abuse after expensive abuse
And it didn't have a clue
Look, another window to see through
Way up here
On the 104th floor
Look
Another key
Another door
10% literal
90% metaphor
3000 some poems disguised as people
On an almost too perfect day
Must be more than poems
In some asshole's passion play
So now it's your job
And it's my job
To make it that way
To make sure they didn't die in vain
Sshhhhhh....
Baby listen
Hear the train?
15-08-2007 Lahore, Pakistan. Girls follow religious and secular classes in a girl’s madrassa in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Lahore. Around one third of the Pakistani youth is educated in madrasas. For poor families it's a possibility to a free education. But also richer families send their children often for a year to a Koran school to learn about Islam. Madrasas are accused of recruiting and training members for Al Qaida or the Taliban. Most madrasas are just educational institutes that distance themselves from extremism. For girls, a madrasa can even mean a way to emancipation, because an education can help them to find a job and give them financial independence.
This is Mullah Krekar [he was freed from prison january 25th] - the no.1 jihadist clown in Norway. Spewing out fatwas. Pronouncing death threats against the prime minister and others. He came to Norway as a refugee in 1991.
Krekar was appointed head of IMK's Military Wing in 1992. And same year he became leader of newly formed Ansar-al-Islam (now fighting alongside ISIS). For at least a year after September 11, Krekar was out of Norway. In august 2002 Krekar was reported back in Northern Iraq, involved in planning suicide bombings, including one which killed an Australian reporter.
Ansar al-Islam has been implicated in bombings across Europe, and it appears to have operated facilities in Iraq that manufactured the powerful poison ricin. It is thought that these facilities were the source for the ricin found in Europe during 2002 and 2003. Krekar has also been named in connection with the August 2003 bombing of the UN mission in Iraq and the 11 March 2004 Madrid bombings. In the latter case, one of the main suspects allegedly repeatedly met with Krekar.
Krekar the Clown performs regulary in Norwegian courts. In February 2003 the Norwegian government ordered Krekar to be deported to Iraq. He is still here, clowning together with his sidekick mr Meling. He also have his own clown academy on the web, where he teaches his strictly fun [some would say fascist] interpretation of the Quran and Sharia law. Funnily enough we cannot deport Krekar to Iraq as long as he faces torture and the death penalty. Krekar himself (whilst clowning in norwegian courts) only recognizes sharia law... next performance at Oslo district court january 27th, 9 AM
In the last few weeks Krekar has been invited to Comedy Hour on Al Jazeera twice.
There he has told funny stories about norwegian prisons being like North Korea, and how he himself has been denied all rights in prison.
He has also told about a norwegian investigator who were fuking around in Bagdad whilst investigating Krekar and his hate clowning in Iraq back in 2003/2004.
And he makes jokes about how norwegians lie more than Gaddafi !!!
xxx
[manipulated press photo]
xxx
Krekar quote from a speech as leader of Ansar-al-Islam:
"- No fatwa is necessary for those who openly goes against Islam. No fatwa needed. And if a Muslim comes across such a person in the street, use an ax to chop his head off. Or shoot a bullet through his brain. There is no need for fatwa.."
xxx
A norwegian expert on terror (Lars Gule) called Krekar an islam-fascist on TV.
xxx
www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2007/s2091577.htm
xxx
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullah_Krekar
xxx
www.thelocal.no/20130816/mullah-krekar-funded-al-qaeda-in-iraq-say-german-police
xxx
www.tv2.no/2013/11/18/nyheter/5275602
xxx
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansar_al-Islam
xxx
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S0j8WZvYIs
xxx
www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3Kcm78AqNg
xxx
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt8cqBDSbD0
xxx
xxx
www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/mulla-krekar/krekar-anklager-norsk-advokat-for-hor-i-irak/a/23391156
xxx
www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/mulla-krekar/nordmenn-lyver-mer-enn-gadaffi/a/23391141
xxx
A French military sniper team at the airbase in Sevare, central Mali, Feb 2, 2013. The men had been posted on the roof of the airport to for the visit of their President Francois Hollande, who was met on the tarmac by Mali's interim leader Diancounda Traore. President Hollande was feted like a liberator in the south of the country. The two leaders then flew to TImbuktu six days after French troops helped liberate the town from Islamic militants. Around 800 French soldiers were deployed to repulse Islamic militants in Janurary.