September 11th, 2001
A fateful day for mankind
I will always clearly remember the 11th of September 2001. I was just eleven years old and was leading a pretty normal life. Until one afternoon, I was in my room playing with my Legos, my mom came in telling me that on the radio she had heard about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center in NEW York. If I wanted, I could turn on the TV in my parents' bedroom to watch the news.
I wanted to. And I could not turn my eyes from the little TV set until the late evening. Over and over I watched the sequence showing that giant office tower burning, a huge hole in it's side, and a passenger plane crashing into the neighboring tower. A ball of flames and another gaping hole that looked like the gate of hell. Soon after I saw the live pictures of the towers imploding, leaving nothing but a giant cloud of smoke and dust. Where the two towers dominating every picture of New York had been nothing was left. Two towers of simple elegance and unbelievable size were gone within one sunny late-summer afternoon. Today I still shiver when thinking of that day, what I saw and how I felt. I still feel the shock I got when I heard the TV correspondent say "Es gibt kein World Trade Center mehr!" ("There is no more World Trade Center!")
For one day the world stops turning
On this day my childhood ended. For the first time I actively witnessed global events, for the first time I was touched by the fate of strangers in a foreign country.
Ever since the memories of that day haunt me. Years later I decided to write about what happened on this day on my homepage. I kept soaking up news and articles, I followed the course of world politics as well as the development of the society, often finding links to this day. I will never get tired of investigating about this subject.
On that day I was safe at home and the next day I went to school normally. But what I heard from other people over the following years gives me the impression that for one day all of mankind held its breath. For one day a utopical state was reached where all people on earth agreed, felt the same and forgot their conflicts. One day when everybody felt connected to each other. Unfortunately, it was not a happy occasion. It took a cruel attack out of the blue on innocent people to achieve this state. Back then nobody knew and I only realized years later that this day changed mankinds history forever.
The original catastrophe of the 21st century
It took a while for the world to recover from the shock. But then man became bloodthirsty: already in October the USA began its invasion in Afghanistan, where the responsible people for the attacks were suspected. The name Osama bin Laden was in everybody's mouth and everybody on earth wanted to see his head roll.
An international invasion army dispossessed the Taliban regime, which had once been installed by the USA, and declared itself the liberator of the Afghan people. Until today the goal of bringing peace, democracy and freedom to Afghanistan has not been achieved and it seems as if it became more and more impossible. Against the general will of the Afghan people the western nations cling to their goal. Alleged reason: "Our democracy is being defended at the Hindu Kush", as German politicians quote former minister of defense Struck, who was in office when the country sent soldiers to Afghanistan.
In America, the leaders even go a step further and make the people think that the Afghanistan mission would decide over the existence of the United States. And thus, the NATO has dug itself into a deep mess in Afghanistan. Europeans went to war with an ecstasy which was probably last seen in 1914. Today, the occupation has become senseless. Bin Laden is not in Afghanistan, he has not been found. Just as the Taliban can not be fought. In the 1980ies Russia had to realize that and the US relied on that. Today Americans - and along with them people from various countries - are killed with American weapons. The government installed by the USA is weak and the Afghan people simply refuse to have Mickey Mouse, McDonald's, Mercedes and the Internet forced upon them.
But Afghanistan was only the first act of the drama called 21st century. In the end of 2002 the USA scared the western countries with the news that Iraq allegedly owned weapons of mass destruction and was planning to use them against the West. The UN sent investigators to Iraq, who did not find the slightest trace of weapons of mass destruction. But Westerners are known for their culture of fear, and once again the fear had found its way deep into people's brains and could not be suffocated by reason, arguments and facts. The Islam became the big threat. Need another historic example? Antisemitism in Europe rooted in fairy tales of Jews eating Christian babies and poisoning wells. People believed that and ever since European Christians were at least suspicious. In the modern era the "international finance Jewry" secretly pulling the strings with the goal to rule the world was the big bogle in Europe. We all know where all this eventually lead to.
In my opinion this is comparable to the horrible, irrational fear of the Islam that has been increasing ever since 2001.
It was this fear that made it possible for George W. Bush to simply ignore the United Nations - once installed by the USA to ensure world peace - and lead a preemtive war without a resolution. From todays point of view, the invasion of the "coalition of the willing" looks like a giant crusade with the mission to save the Occident from extinction through a small unimpressive country. Today, the situation in Iraq is quite comparable to the one in Afghanistan - the "liberators" are stuck in the fight against suicide bombers and turned into unwanted invaders. Still Iraq does not have a government and the country won't come to rest.
Furthermore, the world is deeply split. The coalition of the willing is history, just as the axis of evil. But still there is a deeply rooted suspicion against the Orient in the western society. It almost seems as though it has become impossible to drive away these fears.
I see myself as a very open person. I visited Egypt twice and enjoyed the hospitality and friendliness of the people there. Unlike Germans, they know how to treat visitors. I am very critical towards the general discrimination of Muslims. But still one morning I entered a subway station in Berlin. It was almost empty, the only other person was a man with an Arab-looking face, a long wildly grown black beard, a turban and a long easterly-looking robe. He smiled at me, but like my own smile it looked more like a grin. I got a weird feeling and I felt it was maybe better to leave the station and take another train.
No bomb exploded in Berlin that day. And I realized that I, too bear the burden of stereotypes and suspicion that have been planted into my heart by American propaganda.
A few months ago there was a referendum in Switzerland which prohibited the erection of minarets anywhere in the country. When it was made public that my hometown was to build a mosque for the large Turkish population the reaction was outrageous, even hysterical. It should not be permitted to let the call of the muezzin be heard all over town. When I first heard that thesis I was reminded of one of my many stays with my relatives in a small Bavarian town: over there every little village has a Catholic church and they are not ashamed to ring the church bells every 15 minutes - 24/7. I often had big problems falling asleep with that noise coming from the temple of a religion that wasn't even my own.
I heard many arguments for why building minarets should be prohibited, why mosques and Islam classes had no place in Germany, why Turkey should not join the European Union. At last it all boils down to one core problem: fear. This horrible fear that appears to be bigger than anything else, that is even capable of completely turning off people's brains. The other party in this global conflict sees the western armies as illegal invaders who want to force the western way of life upon the peoples of the East. Muslims are discriminated and it is only logical that the reaction to that is a growing hatred against everything that is Western. Some immoral leaders exploit this and turn the people into manipulated puppets, brainless warriors. Just like the Bush regime did with us.
What splits mankind is the fear that has been spread after 9/11.
How to make the world order tumble
Chronicle of terror
It was a long day, and it brought unimaginable pain to too many people. It also made the blood of everybody around the globe freeze. Wikipedia has a detailed timeline of the events.
The first plane struck the north tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46am New York time. It was American Airlines flight 11 on it's way from Boston to Los Angeles.
At 9:04am United Airlines flight 175, on the same route, tore a giant hole into the southern tower. Two minutes later president Bush was informed with the words "Mr President, America is under attack."
After an explosion had torn a hole into the side of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia (close to the White House and Capitol in Washington D.C.) at 9:43, the FAA shut down the complete airspace of the USA. Many morning flights from Europe had to divert to airports in Canada and slowly the airspace empties.
At 10am and 10:29am the two towers of the WTC collapsed. At that time, nobody knew how many lives were lost in the debris.
At 1pm the president declares that the ones responsible for the attacks were to be hunted down and punished. That evening TV sets in Europe broadcast the sentence that changed the course of a whole decade: "Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward and freedom will be defended." No difference was to be made between terrorists and those who gave them shelter.
The victims
All in all 3,018 lives were lost through the 9/11 attacks. The World Trade Center alone gave 50,000 a workplace and the first estimates were accordingly high. 50,000 victims, that was an apocalyptical number. Several smaller towns might as well have vanished without a trace.
Luckily, most of the people made it out of the towers. 2,590 found their grave in the debris of the World Trade Center, 24 are missing until today.
In the Pentagon 125 innocent people lost their lives, in addition to 246 victims who were on the planes. In the aftermath, 14 people lost their lives due to their injuries.
I have always especially worshipped the firefighters who dared to enter the World Trade Center to help others. 343 of them lost their lives. Those people are heroes for me.
Hence, the murder of so many people was not only an attack on America but the whole world as many countries lost citizens that day:
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The planes
| Flight | Type | Occupants | From | To | Dep. time | Hit |
| American Airlines 11 | Boeing 767 | 92 | Boston | Los Angeles | 7:59 | North Tower WTC (8:46) |
| United Airlines 93 | Boeing 757 | 45 | Newark | San Francisco | 8:01 | Disappeared/crashed |
| United Airlines 175 | Boeing 767 | 65 | Boston | Los Angeles | 8:14 | South Tower WTC (9:04) |
| American Airlines 77 | Boeing 757-223 | 64 | Washington D.C. | Los Angeles | 8:43 | Pentagon (9:43) |
The World Trade Center
What was it the terrorists destroyed that day? Why did they choose the World Trade Center for their massacre and not some government building?
The WTC was probably THE symbol of capitalism and the western world. Located close to Wall Street it was at the pulse of the global stock market and thus the world's economy.
The World Trade Center in New York was designed by the American architec Minoru Yamasaki. Construction began in 1966 through Karl Koch Erecting Co., financed by Chase Manhattan Bank of which David Rockefeller was the chairman. The two towers were named after him, David, and his brother, who had participated in developing and supporting the project, Nelson.
When the towers of steel, ferroconcrete and glass were completed in 1973, the north tower was the second tallest building in the world, standing at 521 (including the antenna), only surpassed by the Moscow television tower with it's 540m. In 1974 the Sears Tower in Chicago was completed and inherited the title of the second tallest building as it is six meters taller than the WTC.
Next to the towers there were four more buildings in the World Trade Center complex, grouped around the almost-square World Trade Center Plaza. Underground there were a shopping center and a subway station. Several trains from New York and one from New Jersey stopped here. The complex gave 50,000 people a workplace, enough to have its own zip code. As if that wasn't enough 80,000 visitors came to the WTC every day.
In 1987 another building, the WTC 7, was completed across the street. This 47-storey building was heavily damaged during 9/11, later abolished and re-erected in 2006.
The complex was located in south-western Manhattan, directly by the Hudson River. The material excavated during construction was simply thrown into the Hudson, creating a strip of new land. From 1985 to 1988 the World Financial Center was erected here. These buildings were connected to the WTC via a bridge, as well heavily damaged in 2001 but meanwhile completely repared.
The sides of the towers were carried by steel columns, on the inside there was a massive steel joist construction (each about 80cm thick). Between these joists lifts and stairs were located. Around this core the offices etc. were grouped. The towers' fundaments were each 21m deep.
The towers' footprints measured each 63.4m x 63.4m. 110 levels of this size resulted in more than 400.000m² of useful area. The roof of the southern tower featured the world's highest roof-deck.
Elevators:
Each tower had 104 lifts. Express elevators took people to the so called Sky Lobbies on 44th and 78th level. There one connected to local elevators serving the single levels.
Miscellaneous:
On the levels 106 and 107 in the north tower the restaurant Windows of the World was located, open to the public. From here one could see up to 80km into three states. The level above featured a radio station and the two uppermost levels of each tower carried a hat truss, a giant steel pendulum that minimizes the movement of a high-rise building in the wind. Thanks to this installation the north tower managed to remain standing for 102 minutes after being hit by the plane, even though the northern cladding was almost completely destroyed.
Fun facts:
7th August 1974: French high-wire circus artist Philippe Petit spans a wire between the towers and walks across four times - 417m above the ground. Afterwards he is arrested.
22nd July 1975: Construction worker Owen J. Quinn, who has worked on the towers himself, performs a basejump from the roof of the north tower. He lands safely on the plaza.
26th May 1977: The self-appointed "human fly" George Willig uses the window-cleaning construction to climb the north tower. Three and a half hour later he reaches the roof where the police is already waiting for him.. He is fined $1.10 - one cent per level.
May 1983: Daniel Goodwin copies Willig and climbs the north tower.
On February 26th, 1993, islamist terrorists rented a Ryder-van and filled it with about 700kg of TNT as well as several hydrogen bottles. They parked the van in the underground car park under the north tower. The plan was that the collapsing north tower should fall over and hit the south tower, thus both towers were destroyed. The explosion did indeed tear a hole of 30 meters in diameter into the four underground levels of the car park, the tower remained standing nevertheless. Six lives were lost. The terrorists were each sentenced to 240 years of jail.
The conspiracy theory
In the years after 9/11 a conspiracy theory gained popularity - just like after Armstrong had walked the moon or when Kennedy had been shot. This theory claims that the attacks were not planned by terrorists but by the US government in order to have a reason for a military campaign in the Middle East.
There are indeed a lot of inconsistencies about 9/11. Some of which could never be fully cleared up.
I will not take party for the conspiracy theorists, nor do I fully believe the official version. Some things just make me wonder.
First of all, one has to make a difference between the "serious" conspiracy theory, which asks critical questions about the things that are not clarified, and the less serious one, which suspects the Illuminati or Freemasons to be responsible, makes weird plays with numbers and tries to see a connection in this. I find this theory to be stupid, especially when it comes to the numbers. It has been proven that this can be done with simply any date or combination of numbers. Closely related to that is, as an example, the Q33NY-Hoax (open MS Word, type Q33NY and change the font to Wingdings - see the result yourself). It is claimed that Q33NY was the flight number of one of the planes hitting the WTC, which is simply not true.
So let's concentrate on seriously and critically reflecting the events. Years ago I watched two very impressive documentaries on this, "Loose Change" and "9/11 Justice".
These films do not claim to be objective, but especially because of that they are very useful for seeing the other side, asking questions the other way than the media made us believe.
Loose Change final cut
Justice for 9-11
The letter from Lauro Chavez
Lauro Chavez became popular in connection with 9/11. When the attacks happened, he was in the army and in the United States Central Command. Some time later he wrote a letter to the editor of the "Cincinnati Post", which is extremely shocking. I got it from the "Veterans for 911 Truth" website (www.v911t.org).
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Greetings Mr. White, I felt it necessary to follow up to a recent story that was published in Cincinnati Post. It was the 1 in 3 believe 9-11 conspiracy theory. I must admit that at first I was overwhelmed with joy that our local paper was actually starting to have real journalism and talk about real issues. Then I read the story and it was a total debunk to make the actual people around the world who feel there was something not right about 9-11, to look like over reacting conspiracy theorists. Im utterly outraged. My 9 year old daughter could have done more research in this, as opposed to just trying to throw the publics ideas and feelings out. Is this not what journalism is supposed to represent - real issues? There have been many, many polls done in major cities that actually ask people how they felt about the 9-11 tragedy. One such poll is called the Zogby poll; which was offered in New York City. Honestly I could care less what is done with this letter, but I feel that I should speak my mind and Ill tell you some things that I have not told many people at all. From 1995 till 2002 I was a Sergeant in the United States Army. Not only this, but I was stationed at United States Central Command, which is located at MacDill AFB in Tampa Florida. I was on active duty when 9-11 happened. In the days prior to the tragedies, we were involved in many exercises. Some of these exercises included the scenarios of hijacked planes crashing into, our building the world trade center, the White House, Sears Tower, and the Pentagon. These drills or exercises as we called them, where classified Top Secret. Having a Top Secret rated clearance I was dumbfounded that they would ever push a training exercise above the level of Secret. Over my 8 years in the Army, I had participated in many exercises around the world, none of which were ever classified over the Secret level. I'll start by saying a few months prior it was announced by President Bush that Dick Cheney would be heading up operations over NORAD our North American Aerospace Defense Command. Along with many of my peers, we were shocked. Over the years, if you research NORAD, it has always been under the command of a Military officer. It was done this way because the defense of this country has always been in the hands of such. Prior to the months before 9-11 this was all of the sudden changed. Like I said, if you research NORAD and the command structure you will find that it was imposed long ago that the military should be in control of the order to scramble planes in the defense of American air space. For some strange reason, Bush changed this and gave that power to a civilian person on his Staff team yes I know, very interesting. Back to the morning of 9-11; the command was busy with this training exercise. We were instructed to bring all our gear in to prep for a mock (staged) deployment to the Middle East. On the morning of 9-11 I had been on base prepped and ready to go since about 0400am. During my time at the base that morning, they were setting up barriers around the command and placing gun posts on the roofs. When I questioned one of the security officers about the machine gun and shoulder fired rockets on the roof I was given the answer its a precaution for a plane attempting to crash into this building. So, I was standing in the SCIF (Secure Compartmented Information Facility), which is basically this underground bunker command post for USCENTCOM, when the first plane hit. We were watching the fly patterns of all the planes on the aerospace grid. This contained not only all commercial flights at the time, but all military flights, and fake enemy planes that were supposedly put on there for the exercise. Many of the planes sent to intercept the fake blips were scrambled from Andrews which is an air defense AFB for the East Coast. They were sent across the US and left very few planes to defend the capital. After the first plane hit the tower we were all in disbelief. After the initial shock was over, our questions were what are the odds this could happen for real, during a training exercise thats covering the same scenario? We were all at wits end. Then to top all of this off, Cheney gave NORAD the order to stand down scrambling jets to intercept. A few moments later tower 2 was hit. Only after the Pentagon was hit, did he give the orders to scramble the jets to intercept the plane bound for the White House. All of this is very interesting to me it sickened me so that I left the Army after coming back from an 8 month deployment to Afghanistan. There were just too many questions that no one could answer, too many things that did not make sense. How is it possible to have a training exercise about planes hitting the WTC and then actually have planes hit the WTC? This kind of thing just does not happen unless its pre-planned. What reason would there be to have this type of exercise on that morning, Ill tell you if you are placing fake planes all over the north American aerospace grid then you have no way of knowing which planes are real and which are fake. Then to thicken the plot you put a civilian in charge of NORAD so that the military does not have the power to initiate the order for jets to be scrambled to intercept. If the military would have still commanded power over NORAD they would have scrambled jets because they would have simply followed the procedures that had been in place for this type of situation for years and years and scrambled jets. To delve even further, as Im standing there watching the towers collapse, next to me is one of my good friends and a former commander of the Army Corps of Engineers. He is a demolitions expert. He was even more surprised than me. When the towers collapsed he kept saying this isnt right, this isnt right. When I asked him what he was talking about he told me that steel buildings dont fall down that way. Even if they are struck by objects; he went on to say that in theory if the top 10 floors were hit, then possibly just that part of the building would fall over and off, but the rest would remain standing. When I asked him, not understanding the implications of demolitions, he told me that it looked as if they were brought down by controlled demolitions. I was utterly amazed, but after he said that it did sort of appear that way. I'll tell you what gave this whole thing away was building 7. If they would not have brought this building down, then they probably could have gotten away with it all. It was the most amazing site I have ever seen. Not only was it amazing, it bore reality to the truth of the situation something was not right here. Now, Im going to tell you all I have learned, but I urge anyone to just spend 1hr reading about this incident on the internet and learning the facts. There have been numerous scholars, numerous physicists that have analyzed this over and over and over again. And they all come to the same conclusion, something does not add up. Building 7 was never directly hit by a plane. Now it was stated that a piece of one of the towers fell onto the side of building 7 and caught one of the floors on fire. A few moments later we all witnessed the most perfect example of controlled demolitions to ever be caught on camera. It could not be proved that building 7 fell due to fire. My friend and I standing there in the SCIF watching in uninterruptible awe with all those other military members; watching building 7 fall perfectly onto its footprint; my friend stating that it was beautifully done. We all knew then we all realized that this was not some group of unorganized cave dwellers from Afghanistan orchestrating a perfect hit on American soil. It was impossible. Shortly after the Pentagon was struck I called my close friend that I went to Basic Training with. All civilian lines were down and I had to contact him via STU which is a black line classified phone system. He did not answer, but one of his soldiers did. I asked if SGT Worthington was ok and he said yes. I asked if the plane did severe damage and he told me I didnt see any plane. Then when I finally got to speak to my friend, he started acting strange saying he could not talk about the incident over this line. He was shipped off overseas a few weeks later and I never to this day have had the chance to speak with him. The Pentagon crash tape was released a few months back after 5 years. You need to watch that tape no where can you see a plane strike the Pentagon. This is because it was not a plane. I cannot tell you exactly what hit the Pentagon, but its unanimous; it was definitely not a plane. I can assure you that there is more than one CCTV camera around the Pentagon. On September 25, 4 days before my 25th birthday, I deployed to Afghanistan. Over the 8months I was there I had never seen one intelligent Afghani soldier. They were all tattered and scrawny and could barely shoot their weapons straight. This does not mean that there were not men that could fly a plane, but after what I saw it was extremely hard to believe they could be taught to fly a sophisticated piece of aeronautical equipment. My point Mr. Editor is that I spent 8 months in combat watching my brothers die in the name of Freedom. I killed, in the name of Freedom and to this day my brothers are still being killed for this illusionary war we call the War on Terror. Where the enemy has no face where there is no clear objective. In this War, anyone with ill thoughts toward this country can be defined as a terrorist. Well, I guess that includes me in this group as well as everyone else who questions the events of 911, because we all hold ill thoughts toward the leadership of this country and I say the real terrorists in this world sit right in the heart of its capital. I have bled for this country and would do so again in a heart beat but only to protect its people, the true Americans that live here. I would never again offer my life under the leadership whose real goal is oil and money. The same ones who staged the most perfect illusionary tactic in our history that was a pretext to a war on terror that would never again go away. Their goal was to scare the American public into submission making it easier for the world powers to do their evil and get away with it. Now that may sound like a typical conspiracy theorist I guess, but how many do you actually talk to? Im not here saying that Aliens came down and used laser beams to bring the towers down or control the planes that were flown; Im telling you as a sane, logical and intelligent individual, something does not add up about this. Earlier this year I was watching the Discovery channel. They have a PBS program called Rebuilding America. This particular episode was about the WTC building 7. They interviewed Larry Silverstein (the owner) about building 7. He stated on national TV the following which is the direct quote and can be found here: http://www.wtc7.net/pullit.html "I remember getting a call from the, ER, fire department commander, telling me that they were not sure they were gonna be able to contain the fire, and I said, "We've had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it." And they made that decision to pull and we watched the building collapse." I actually have the program recorded and you are more than welcome to come by my house and watch it. He actually stated this on national TV. I was so amazed that I almost shat myself. I could not believe he actually stated this on a nationally broadcasted TV program. You can ask any person who has done controlled demolitions please interview someone they will tell you it takes weeks of planning to do this. We are expected to believe that this was facilitated and planned in a matter of hours for building 7, while the damn thing was on fire you have got to be kidding me. If that is not enough to make you believe something was fishy well then nothing will ever do. Since that time there have been numerous scholars, some of which have actually been publicly broadcasted on CSPAN. The latest program was called: Theories about 9-11. American Perspectives and you can watch this (which I advise you do) per this link: Theories about 9-11 (American Perspectives) or you can go to www.c-span.org and look under their video/audio section to find this title. Its an outstanding video and encompasses the thoughts of not only the American public, but also Dr Steven Jones from Brigham Young University a physics professor that actually received a piece of the rubble from the WTC. Not only does he profoundly agree that building 7 was a controlled demolition he can prove it. After he analyzed the piece of debris they found; there were large traces of sulfur and Thermite found. If you did not know, Thermite is a chemical compound found in many explosives including C4 which I have used many times in the Army. It leaves a distinct smell and identifiable residue upon explosion. Dr Jones found large traces of this from the rubble. Sir, there are many things that I never wanted to know for one that the government that is supposed to be caring for the American people could be corrupt. This was the last thing that I ever wanted to be true but its time we wake up and smell the bullshit because its permeating throughout the American public and we are all starting to realize whats really going on. If your news station actually did a similar Zogby type poll here in Cincinnati, I think you would find that a lot more than 1/3 of the people believe this. I know tons just in this area. I could literally write you 100 pages of truths that could prove that 9-11 was an inside job, but Id probably just be passed off as some crazy conspiracy theorist. Instead I want to give you the tools to look for yourself because the quest for wisdom is a journey we must all take alone. So, to you I add the following links and if you just spend a small portion of your day reading and watching some of this footage, who knows you may wake up and stand along side the rest of us in utter amazement. Respectfully, SGT Lauro Chavez |
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