Results tagged “september11”

Yesterday, WikiLeaks began posting "half a million US national text pager intercepts," saying, "The archive is a completely objective record of the defining moment of our time. We hope that its entrance into the historical record will lead to a nuanced understanding of how this event led to death, opportunism and war."

Yesterday, former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani came out swinging against the Obama administration's decision to try five of the alleged 9/11 plotters, including mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, at a NYC federal court, accusing the White House of thinking the "War on Terror is over." But senior White House adviser David Axelrod pointed out that Giuliani previously supported the decision to try 20th hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui in federal criminal court.

The United States will try September 11 attacks mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, as well as four other 9/11 terror plotters, in New York City. Federal sources say that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will make the announcement today; President Obama didn't confirm the details, but did say from Japan, "I am absolutely convinced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be subjected to the most exacting demands of justice."

           

On this rainy day, survivors and relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks were able to descend to the construction site where the Twin Towers once stood. In the memorial ceremony at Zuccotti Park, relatives and volunteers read names of the 2,752 victims at the memorial ceremony while politicians, such as Vice President Joe Biden, Mayor Bloomberg, former Mayor Giuliani, and former Governor Pataki, spoke (videos after the jump). NBC New York reports that one father, Vladimir Boyarsky, whose son, Gennady Boyarsky, died, said, "We miss you; life will never be the same without you. This is not the rain. This is the tears."

Sarah Bunting is one of the many people who have put their September 11th stories online, and on the 8th anniversary she adds a little update to hers. First of all, she is looking for Don; she explains, "Don is a man I met on September 11, 2001. Don and I became 'disaster buddies,' and ever since, I've wanted to thank him for hanging out with me and helping me keep it together—but I haven't seen or heard from him since we parted ways late that morning." It was Don's birthday that morning (happy birthday, Don!) and he had just come in from Jersey City. Sarah says they "met in the lobby of the Bank of New York building, located roughly at Wall Street and Broadway. We left the bank together at approximately 11 that morning." She describes him as an "African-American man ... between 25 and 35 on that day. That means he's 30-ish to 40 now ... between 5'9" and 6' tall, and probably weighed 160-180 pounds. [He] is everything good and friendly about the world." Aw, so the search is still on after all these years, and she asks everyone to "do me a favor: pass it on. FB it, tweet it, whatever you got ... we gotta find this dude." Someone make a police sketch! And isn't it so strange to think about how there wasn't Twitter back then?

Animal's Bucky Turco has talked about his 9/11 story before, and today he's also posted video to go along with it. He recalls, "it was 8:45 p.m. or so, the night of 9/11, and Diane Sawyer taps me on the shoulder. I’m standing in front of Pace University, and I guess she saw the shitty camcorder I’m holding. Diane asks me to join her film crew; there’s evidently a 'media blackout' around Ground Zero, and they need some guerrilla camera work. They give me a paper towel roll to conceal the camera, and I tuck it under my arm and basically shoot from the hip." She tells her unofficial cameraman: “Do your best. I’m walking away to distract attention from you. Just keep shooting everything you can shoot.”

The Daily News has an exclusive op-ed from President Barack Obama on remembering the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The full op-ed is here, but here's an excerpt:

Eight years ago, on an ordinary Tuesday morning, nearly 3,000 lives were lost in the deadliest attack on American soil in our history.

Continue reading "President Obama Remembers September 11 Attacks"

Tomorrow is the eighth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. And, the Port Authority tells us, there has been "major progress" at the site of the future National September 11 Memorial & Museum—apparently relatives of victims will be able to walk on the street-level plaza for the first time. Other stats: About 80% of the Memorial's steel (equivalent of 6,500 tons) has been installed, 20% of the concrete has been poured, and the Last Column was installed.

From the past few nights, the Tribute in Light has been lighting up the lower Manhattan sky for testing. According to the city, the testing will continue through tonight, "On Sept. 11, the lights will be turned on at 6:00 pm and remain on until 8:00 am on the morning of Sept. 12. The lights will point straight up and will remain static." The installation is set up on top of a parking garage on West and Edgar Streets, but can be seen from downtown Manhattan, Brooklyn and NJ.

Former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani was on Meet the Press this morning and host David Gregory asked him whether he'll run for governor of New York. While all signs (so far) point to yes, Giuliani demurred and said that there was ab important political season up ahead, what with the NYC mayoral election and then gubernatorial elections in NJ and Virginia. Gregory said, "So a November decision?" to which Giuliani replied, "Something like that."

Last night, you may have seen the Tribute in Light beams. The September 11 light installation, which involves 88 separate lights, was being tested ahead of its official annual lighting next week. We're checking to see if the location is the same as last year (West and Morris Streets), but they are visible throughout lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. On Friday, September 11, the lights will on at sunset and will "fade away" at dawn on September 12. The Tribute in Light was designed by artists Julian LaVerdiere and Paul Myoda, architects John Bennett and Gustavo Bonevardi of PROUN Space Studio, architect Richard Nash Gould, and lighting designer Paul Marantz and produced by the Municipal Art Society and Creative Time—it was first seen in March 2002 for a month and then became part of the September 11 anniversary fabric. In 2002, Bonevardi wrote about project, "We're not reconstructing the towers in their original size, but the distance between the two squares of light is the same as the distance between the actual towers. So in effect, we're not rebuilding the towers themselves, but the void between them."

Last night, Keith Olbermann jumped into the fake-WWF ad fray by declaring DDB Brazil, the ad agency that apparently pitched the 9/11-inspired concept (and never got the WWF's business) the "Worst Persons in the World" on Countdown. Olbermann also named all the creatives involved with making the ad and said of DDB Brazil CEO Sergio Valente, "Frankly, I hope he starves on the streets."

Advertisers have been fixated on hurtling planes at the Twin Towers long before 9/11 happened, but it's safe to say they held off on it after that tragic day. Now, it turns out that a Brazilian ad agency—DDB Brasil—tried to win the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)'s business with this ad concept: An image of lower Manhattan showing many, many planes aiming at Manhattan—and they even include the Towers. (What is it with Brazilian ad agencies?). The text urges us to protect the planet; it also reads: "The Tsunami Killed 100 Times More People Than 9/11." Okay, so who wants to make a mock-up of 1,000 Nazi soldiers being catapulted into Thailand?

       

The last column removed from the original World Trade Center building after the September 11, 2001 attacks returned to Ground Zero yesterday. The beam, and its graffiti messages and mementos, was raised up and put in place—it will be part of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. An ironworker told the Daily News, "For this to go up evokes emotion. It shows the rest of the world that even if you knock us down we'll get right back up."

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum isn't on track to open until 2011 (the memorial plaza, that is, if all goes well with construction; the museum won't open until a year later), but it's trying to make its presence know at Ground Zero with the 9/11 Memorial Preview Site. According to the AP, it's located in "an old camera shop northeast of the World Trade Center site," where "visitors will be able to watch live video of the construction, record their 9/11 memories and even leave with a souvenir."

Get ready to rumble: State Senator Bill Perkins (D-Harlem) says that his Senate committee, the Committee on Corporations, will hold a public meeting discuss development—or, rather, the slow pace of development—at the World Trade Center site. He told NY1, "We are literally still at ground zero when it comes to the monument and development of that site. It's a site that has local, national and international importance and it's important that we try to play a role in moving it along."

Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Paterson said that 9/11 victims' families will be able to descend to the World Trade Center and pay their respects, even though the site is under construction. It was originally thought that last year would be the final year to allow visitations. This year, the AP reports, "families will be allowed into a newly built upper level of the memorial site"; the ramp to the "pit" was removed to make way for a foundation. Rosaleen Tallon, sister of firefighter Sean Tallon who perished in the North Tower, said, "We totally understand that there would be no way to go down ourselves. But it would be nice to do something to symbolically connect us to the site." The 2,750 victims' name will be read by volunteers and victims' relatives.

Relatives of victims killed during the September 11 attacks have been invited to a White House meeting tomorrow afternoon. The relatives have been eager to discuss the closing of Guantanamo Bay with President Obama, who signed an executive order to close the detention center last month. While it's unclear whether Obama will attend the meeting, retired FDNY Deputy Chief Jim Riches, whose son died on 9/11 and visited Guantanamo Bay last month, hopes he does, "We saw these people face to face. I want to tell the president what happened at Gitmo. That these detainees were laughing about what they did. I wish these trials were on TV. Americans would be outraged." Related: Yesterday former VP Dick Cheney told Politico, "If you release the hard-core Al Qaeda terrorists that are held at Guantanamo, I think they go back into the business of trying to kill more Americans and mount further mass-casualty attacks."

Not shocking: A study from Mount Sinai Medical Center says that September 11 responders who took ill after working at Ground Zero have, according to the AP, "lung problems more than five years later." The researchers, who have been tracking responders' health for years, believe this proves that World Trade Center's collapse and the toxic dust from it caused persistent issues, with about a quarter of respondents having abnormal lung function. Dr. Jacqueline Moline said, "We know people we are following are still sick. It's confirming what we've been seeing clinically." This comes as NY lawmakers are reintroducing the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which would "offer compensation for monetary losses due to illnesses or injuries caused by the attacks at the World Trade Center."

      

At a NY State Assembly hearing yesterday, Port Authority Executive Director Chris Ward testified, "We are on track to meet the commitment we made in October to open the Memorial Plaza by the 10th Anniversary of September 11th."

Photograph by M.V. Jantzen on Flickr

              

Earlier today, relatives and friends of victims and city, state and federal officials gathered at Zuccotti Park to commemorate the events of September 11. Mayor Bloomberg said, "Today marks the seventh anniversary of the day our world was broken...a day that began like any other and ended as none ever has." (Video below.)

      

While there are worries about whether the National September 11 Memorial and Museum will be open by September 11, 2011, Staten Island's 9/11 Memorial, called Postcards, has been standing since September 11, 2004.

Last year, the NY Times, NY Post, NY Daily News and Newsday all featured 9/11 stories prominently on their first pages. This year, the Times doesn't have any, the NY Post focuses in on Election year makeup and the Daily News splits the cover (as it did last year) between 9/11 and Election year coverage. Only Newsday devotes the whole cover to the day. Is this a sign of moving on? At any rate, we bet that the full pages will come back in 2011, for the 10th anniversary.

Here's the official schedule for the city's September 11 commemoration events tomorrow. Mayor Bloomberg, NY Governor David Paterson, NJ Governor Jon Corzine, Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani will make introductions or deliver readings at Zuccotti Park. And the victims' names will be read by a family member plus a student representing the victim's native country. This will probably be the last year victims' families can descend into the "pit," given the Ground Zero construction plans ahead. (Details about the Tribute in Light after the jump.)

It was previously reported that Target would be opening their promotional "Bullseye Bodegas" at four temporary locations around Manhattan on September 11th. Now the opening date is September 12th, so either the reports were wrong or someone in marketing realized that 9/11 might not be the most ideal day to launch a campaign with the word "bullseye" in it.

Dignitaries and families of September 11 victims gathered for the dedication a 9/11 memorial in Boston yesterday. Before you wonder why a memorial is by a thruway, the memorial sits on the property of Logan Airport, where two of the hijacked planes started their flights--United 175 and United 11--before crashing into the World Trade Center.

This week, The New Yorker will have a feature on the James Zadroga's cause of death. The death of Zadroga, an NYPD detective who spent hours working rescue-and-recovery at the WTC site after 9/11, was debated in public--his family and medical experts claimed his death was due to exposure to Ground Zero toxins while the city's medical examiner disputed that, "It is our unequivocal opinion, with certainty beyond doubt, that the foreign material in your son's lungs did not get there as the result of inhaling dust at the World Trade Center or elsewhere."

One of the lingering conspiracy theories surrounding the attacks on September 11, 2001 is that 7 World Trade Center, which was not hit by a plane, was deliberately destroyed (here's one example of a conspiracy website), because no other steel building has collapsed simply due to fire before. But now a report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology says that the fire is the culprit.

The tanking economy may be dragging retail businesses to a watery grave, but Target isn't going down without a fight. Though it is tough going; net earnings were down 7.6 percent in the quarter ending August 2nd. That's why the company is coming up with innovative new marketing strategies, like capitalizing on a previously unexploited synergy with September 11th patriotism! After all, the retailer's red and white logo is just one color away from Old Glory. So this year 9/11 won't just be a day to honor our fallen heroes, but also a day to check out Target's awesome new Go International private label collection at four pop-up stores around Manhattan. They're even calling them Bullseye Bodegas, though we'll probably never know the real truth behind the sales that day. [Jossip]