Much as the 4 part "Katrina Chronicles" these releases are about the September 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon and the World trade Center Towers five years ago, rough and chaotic much as that day and the days afterward. There is a follow-up with particular attention to the reaction of the African Descended, which was surprising...
The Day After 911 2001: World Trade Center, New York, DC Day of Destruction Plus One Childhood's End? Attack On DC, NYC Jars America Awake A NetPaper 9-11 2006 Retrospective
by Kevin J. Walker, Netitor of the NetPaper TRAVELS to Kemet, Middle East; Mediterranean: Athens, Greece; Rome
PHOTOS of Pyramids, Jerusalem, Hawai’i
WalkerWorld Science
Where Did White People Come From?
WalkerWorld Politics Analysis Column
Local Milwaukee Politics
FILM CRITIQUES
mailto:thewordnetpaper@excite.com
Milwaukee Wis USA Sep. 12, Wednesday 2001 Much as we did for the hurricane Katrina articles, the five year commemoration of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the multiple hijackings are again presented as they were that day five years ago. This first is a linear timeline, with the multiple news feeds being interpreted by me as I sat at home, watching two or three channels of cable and satellite television and tuning in different radio stations while typing up these stories for the newspaper I wrote for, the Milwaukee Community Journal. which has a Wednesday afternoon deadline A week later I wrote another 911 article, an analytical follow-up on the impact the disaster had on American and world politics,' and on the African American Community.
![]()
Never thought to be particularly patriotic because of our history of enslavement, this opportunity to show unity was seized upon, much as the brewing illegal Central American immigrant controversy, as a way for African Americans to assimilate ourselves into the fabric of America. That is the basis of the article "New Black Patriots Say 'Arabs Go Home!'" -kjw ---------------------------------- SEPTEMBER 11-12, TUES-WED. 2001 This was a difficult story to write. The news reports were changing every hour, and still are. It reads like it, so I just left it alone. As I was watching CBS news on Ch. 12 about the first tower a second plane, this one a large commercial jet under power and under obvious control, slammed into the as yet untouched northern tower. At first I thought it was a superimposed imposition of a network simulation, or finally someone had some footage of what happened to the tower and they just hadn't taken off the previous image yet. Then I heard the stunned network people exclaiming "What the hell was that?!.. there's no doubt now, the World Trade Center is under attack," intoned the network guy. Many of the people on the air were shuttled on and off so quick there was no time for nameplates, so who said what is kind of sketchy. It reminded me of another time when it seemed the world was going upside down. When I was a kid there was continuous coverage of the JFK Assassination Coup in 1963. Since school had been suspended everybody was at home, but our parents strangely wouldn't let us go outside and play. I was playing on the floor and half watching the black and white TV when they were bringing Lee Harvey Oswald out, and he was shot on live TV by Jack Rubenstein, a low level Chicago GoodFella who went by the name Jack Ruby in Dallas. Among the many sad stories coming out of New York City, this is a happy one: A man has his eldest daughter going to school in NYC, where he just drove her last week. "Her dorm is six blocks from the World Trade Center" he says. "I called her. The phone rang 8 Times!," he exclaimed. She finally picked up. "Oh, hi dad" she says sleepily. "What's up? "Turn on the news" he tells her. She does so, and then everything went tipsy-turvy. "Omigod" she exclaimed, as the pictures of the smoking towers, struck her for the first time. "They took them on buses a mile away, to the north," her father said. "Don't look back" they were told. Of course they did, especially when their bus made a U-turn ahead. One guy freaked before the bus loading the loading but they didn't know what he was talking about. "They're all dead! all of them! Dead!!" CELEBRATIONS IN THE WEST BANK "The Great Satan has been brought down!" "Allu 'a Akbar!" "God is great" they shout, young and old. Meanwhile, PLO chief Arafat expressed remorse for "This terrible, terrible act." This was earlier in the day before the reports came in of four planes that were hijacked. One crashed in Pittsburgh, two in the world Trade Center Centers in Manhattan, and the one in the Pentagon, the world's largest office building. The penetration was thorough - this guy knew what he was doing. With GPS satellite data, which the military prevented for years from coming out with greater precision which is what cruise missiles use to find their targets. COORDINATED ATTACKS : NYC, DC US fighter jets circle the city as reports come in that a hijacked plane was enroute to Washington, DC. Jeff Greenfield, a TV commentator-host said: "I looked it up the largest amount of American dead in one day was Antietam, back in the Civil War. We're going to wake up tomorrow morning in a different America. Our luck has run out..." There was an attack on the White House by a hijacked helicopter in the middle 1970s. The WH has stingers, bazookas and sharpshooters just for that purpose. The WH garden even had a helo landing by a disaffected serviceman. The pilot was killed. Another man had parked his van by the base of the Washington Monument, and was walking around with a remote control device. He was shot down, too. They don't play around in DC. BLACK TALK RADIO JOINS THE FRAY There was spirited discussion by Black people about the terrorist attacks on the radio. Expressions ranged from the Jingoistic to the damn near seditious; especially on the "Word Warrior's" showgram on Milwaukee's WNOV 860 AM "The bully always gets his ass kicked in the end. America has been backing Israel for years; they just decided to get the person who's paying for their family to be beat down and attacked by going after the person who was paying for it" offered one listener caller, whose sentiment was added to by others. While many offered their prayers for the dead and injured, which may be in the thousands after the rubble of the twin towers are raked through, others said it was a case of what goes around coming around. "It's America's fault for bringing those people over here, and giving them tax breaks for a year" said a male caller, parroting earlier callers about the people some call the "A-Robs," the Arab and Palestinian merchants that operate in many inner cities. FEMALE CALLER: "Every dog got his day, and some of them got two." An Africentric Christian called in to say "we pay Israel $6-8 billion a year, and sell them Apache helicopters to go and kill those people with. This country doesn't even want to apologize for Slavery; our people were eaten by sharks in the Middle Passage; now they people are being eaten." Another offered "they slaughtered the Native Americans.; now you want us to cry?," to an earlier caller who said that it was atrocious to hear of the lack of sympathy for the victims expressed on the "Word Warriors" radio show. "You think the Indian is crying? Did you see any of them close their casinos? The US kilt their people. what's the justification in that? Some people are crying and some don't." (NOTE: As a matter of fact, the Potawatomi Casino in Milwaukee was closed Tuesday after Noon). Other callers echoed Malcolm X's utterance that got him disciplined by the Hon. Elijah Muhammed when he said about the Kennedy assassination that "The chickens are coming home to roost." Commonsense ideas were put forth "why don't they put cameras on those airplane cockpits?" The authorities are still trying to find out if the -crashed airplane came about from a struggle by passengers against the hijackers who were piloting a plane possibly headed for Washington DC, or if the successful passengers then couldn't fly the commercial jet themselves after the crew was reported slain. Many made calls by cell phone or from the plane phones. ARE THESE THE LAST DAYS OF PROPHECY? Others put a Biblical spin on things, saying these were the days prophesied about. "These are the 'Last Days' fo' sho; 4 planes hijacked and stolen in one day?" host Michael McGee said. "Revelations Chap. 18 is prophetic," another caller said, and asked for it to be read on the air. Later, after locating a Bible, McGee did so. The pertinent parts are listed below: "Babylon the great is fallen, it has become a habitation and dwelling place for demons" McGee read, at length. "Come out of her my people, lest you share in her sins and plagues... For in one hour Your judgment is seen... "That great city.. the great riches came to nothing.. sea captains see the smoke from a distance... she had many ships upon the sea... for in 1 hour she is made desolate... The sounds of trumpets shall not be heard in her anymore." This is indeed eerie, because the silence of the 24 hour city was startling and remarked upon by several commentators. Indeed, the movie "The Devil's Advocate" had a scene of a desolate quiet city, and the phrase "Babylon the great is fallen" was used in the film about the search for the Antichrist. Another said its good that America hasn't become an enemy of Israel, as one of the Psalms say it would come to no good end. "We have put God out of our schools, we embrace Homosexuality; soon, unless we change, we are going to be like Sodom and Gomorra," said another caller. Over on the more Buppie-ish 1290 WMCS with their sister jazz station 93.3 FM, with Eric Von Boardley and Chris Morrow the two combined hosts were more quick to shoot down any anti-American sentiment. When a female caller tried to point out that America's hands weren't exactly clean, both quickly jumped on her. "Name one case with a date" she was challenged. When the woman stuttered a bit trying to get her ideas together Morrow said "Yeah, right," "There you have it," or such. BRYANT GUMBEL'S IGNORANCE REVEALED FOR ALL ON NATIONAL TV Like many people I woke up to the news or turned the channel to find reports of a plane that had hit the southernmost tower of the world trade center, with black smoke billowing into the crisp early morning air. There were reports that it was deliberate, but this was still being disputed. Then a sequence of events came about that left no doubt. Bryant Gumbel incredulously asked an eyewitness "how can you be sure that it was deliberate?" about the 110 storey World Trade Center tower being hit by two jets in less than a half hour. I and about ten million others probably screamed at the screen at the same time: Because even ONE jet plane falling into the WTC would be a tremendous coincidence. This is highly restricted space; we took off after leaving Newark NJ airport and circled the island -- real wide. And on a clear day you can see all of Manhattan. The only way to crash into the towers is if you meant to! "You couldn't pick a better target to say to the American people" that you are vulnerable, said another Network commentator. And he was right. The cityscape of the NYC skyline has been altered; once again the Empire state Building is the tallest in New York City after the destruction of the twin towers, 110 storeys times two, hit by two planes 100 minutes apart. The rumours started to fly: The notorious Osama Bin Laden has struck again! Then the news of a big fire in Washington DC. News crews had scrambled there to get in place for the return of President Bush the Younger, and noticed the commotion and smoke in the distance after another of the four hijacked planes was slammed into the Pentagon, penetrating three rings deep into its structure. It was likened to confusion after the Murrah Federal building bombing in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, when Arab-looking Americans were being attacked in supermarket parking lots by jingoistic yahoos, thinking it was a Muslim terrorist attack. TALKS OF RETRIBUTION CHILLED TONY CORDESMAN ON ABC WITH PETER JENNINGS: "We have never attacked the heads, only low-level people. We never found those responsible for the Kobar Center towers in Saudi Arabia, nor the Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut Lebanon. In the Pan Am/Lockerbie bombing, one person has been imprisoned, a low level." The idea that this may be the work of homegrown Terrorists was being breached after the lesson of that last time, when White, apple-cheeked Gulf War vets were found to be behind the terrorism, then the nation's bloodiest terrorist act. Military aircraft are scrambled to enforce the new NO FLY Zone over Manhattan. The irony of this wasn't lost on the ABC commentators, since the US enforces one over Iraq. FOX NEWS: "These buildings are symbols of Capitalism to the enemies of America." Indeed, to those overseas NYC is the true capital of the US. That's where the United Nations and the Federal Reserve is, not DC, which is merely a coordinating center after decisions have already been made. They dedicated perhaps three or four aircraft to its defense. SEATTLE ON ALERT Their Millennium celebration was shut down after a suspected Muslim terrorist was apprehended trying to get into the US from Canada with explosives to take down the Space Needle. SEN J. MCCLAIN (R-AZ): "This is an act of war, unspeakable. We can and must find out those responsible. We must improve human intelligence; we have wonderful electronics and satellites, but we must have the human intel; that is needed." HARVEY KUSHNER, TERRORISM EXPERT: "If I wrote a movie script about 2 planes going into the WTC, I'd be laughed out of the office" he said. A Fox TV commentator made an understatement of the year when he said "there will certainly be changes in air travel after this." OVERREACTION ACHIEVES MORE PARALYSIS THAN BOMBS Major league baseball and football are considered being canceled, both for security and for respect for the thousands of victims. Also some teammates can't even get around because of the air flight freeze. Some say, as during W.W.II, the games should go on. Paul Tagliabue for the NFL and Bud Selig, the Milwaukee-based Commissioner for Baseball (who'd just met in the World Trade Center days earlier) are pondering both options. Arabian Fest is canceled. Milwaukee's Arab community celebration and one of the newest festivals has been canceled this weekend. Already threatening calls were being made to a Muslim operated grade school on the city's far Southside. "The Arabian American community, as part of American society, condemns this act against our country" was the statement on Arabian Fest's cancellation. A Palestinian merchant had the TV on in his family store. He bristled at the media for its portrayal of Muslims. The footage of celebrations in the West Bank of occupied Jordan was misleading. "Those were children!" he said, holding his hand at a kids' head height. "What do they know? The media is making Muslims look bad. We don't like this [terrorist violence], we are Americans, too! We love America." Government offices and area malls closed, as did movie theatres. Many schools in the suburbs let out early but not MPS. The City of Mequon canceled all meetings, as did Mt. Mary's college. Marquette University closed at noon. The state's tallest building, the Firstar Building at 42 storeys was closed and the streets blocked off. The Mayor of Milwaukee urged citizens to remain calm. Did I miss something? I think Milwaukee can sleep well, Chicago is 85 miles to the south and the prevailing winds are to the east. Besides, if the Terrorists wanted to make a bold public statement Milwaukee would hardly rate sufficient coverage. Mitchell International Airport is closed, all unattended cars are towed; area malls closed, movie premieres canceled; emergency plans activated, convened boards; blood banks solicit donations and nearby MU students come through -- many are Catholics from the East Coast. In Midwestern cities such as Milwaukee there were lines at the gas pump, and charges of price gouging by station owners where in some spots there was gas as high as $3 and $5 a gallon. Long lines clogged many stations, as fears of shortages where there would be no gas had at any prices if there was a boycott in the Middle East only added to the confusion, and almost made shortages a self-fulfilling prophecy. JOHN ASHCROFT CANCELS MILW APPEARANCE Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft was supposed to go to Doerfler elementary school Tuesday when the crisis developed. The Wis Gov. has alerted all armories and weapons caches on heightened alert, and the Milwaukee Federal Building and courthouse are evacuated. I am familiar with far more stringent measures. In Israel anyone carrying large packages are automatically considered suspect. Because of my light skin and beard I look enough like a Palestinian or Arab to have got no love from the Israelis. Knocks on the hotel door at night to make sure papers are in order are standard. Mall trips are not the light affair as here in American suburbia, with door checks standard. I have several time dependent unused airline travel vouchers that have to be used. I don't know what I'm going to do now with the "Ground Hold" that prohibits flights. As one commentator said on ABC, "people are annoyed by the metal detectors, but Fortress America may now become a reality." NEWT GINGRICH the former House Speaker said this is the 21st century "Pearl Harbour." Manhattan Island is a gu-sitar shaped island 11 miles long and 2 1/2 miles wide, slanted to the Northeast. It's thin granite sliver between the East river and the Hudson. The statue of Liberty is on a New Jersey island at the southernmost tip. The WTC is/was on the Hudson side, and is a port operation., since it is the World Trade Center as is New Orleans and Los Angeles. 8:42 am -- EDT CNBC BIZ CENTER GUY: "It was like a scene out of "Independence Day" when the building came down and people were running past." He still has on his dust covered jacket and dusted half-bald pate. He said as the dust became choking he went into an unlocked car along with a policeman. The streets below look like Beirut, with thick layers of dust "as if it was Pompeii." KALLESTROM, ex director of the NY FBI took charge of TWA Flt 800 investigation. He may also have been complicit in the too-quick dismissal of reports of a missile flying up into the doomed flight, with photographs and camcorder tape. "Optical illusion" it was said. Like President John Kennedy's head snapping backwards in Dealy Plaza in 1963 was also an illusion. Did this have the effect of lulling America into a dangerous complacency by saying the doomed jet's center fuel tank exploded from overheating? The G-d bottom banners are blocking the views! Now is when those cluttered boxes are getting the test. Verdict: they flunk! -- The reports of a car bomb outside the State Department are overblown, and later retracted. In the early 1960s there was a terrorist/activist plot to blow up the Statue of Liberty. DC was held hostage in the mid-1970s when a Muslim group took over four sites in the city, and the only loss of life was a college cameraman from Howard U in the City Council chambers whose bulky camera was pointed at the irate shooters. DARK TOWERS They were talked down with passages from the Koran, without a shot being fired. This peaceful application of Islam beliefs which prohibits the taking of hostages was given short shrift by the media. The US people will have there be an revaluation of the relationship with Israel now that it costs something. They'll ask pertinent questions: Why should citizens of this country have to pay for the intransigence of a rogue state such as Israel? The World Trade Center towers were derided as "The Milk Boxes" by many NYC as my sister Cheryl Anita Walker said, who lived in New York then. "Nobody likes them," she said when I visited her in 1974, a year after their completion. But seen close up with their steel columns and skin that catch the reddish setting sun, the World Trade Center buildings and the plaza linking them have a majesty and beauty. I mean had. BOB SCHAEFFER FOR CBS: "If the Terrorists have wanted to get the attention of the Americans they have succeeded. As the Japanese commander said after the attack on Pearl Harbour 'I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant.' There is a mood on the streets I haven't seen before. The American people aren't going to let this get past." "LUCKIEST MAN IN NYC?" On Muslim TV will there be images shown of coughing Americans and those on stretchers, just like in the Gulf War footage videotapes that you can get at Blockbuster or Hollywood video stores that can be watched on our HDTV big screen TVs. The Pentagon is being evacuated from a fire. Bomb? Plane? Jet? The lack of information itself is paralyzing! Military bases in East were put on alert, against a possible feint by an overseas group. This was put forth by a "Livingston" talking to Katie Couric and Matt Lauer of NBC. On ABC there was a more vigourous discussion between Peter Jennings and his guest commentators. "Vince" said "No one anticipated an attack on US soil... the available intelligence reports pointed to overseas attacks on bases or interests. And they lack the capabilities to do this sort of things inside the US. Should they have anticipated this? of course. But no one could have foreseen the coordinated nature of this attack. PETER JENNINGS: "Why wouldn't they have? You have been looking at Gas or Biological weapons, -- but these guys have been hijacking planes since the 1970s!" Jennings said, then he cooled a bit. "I apologize --it's like I'm on the attack. You noticed I haven't called anybody a 'Terrorism Expert,' because we have people come through here all the time talking about these things" and they don't seem to have accurate data, said Jennings. VINCE: "It's a major intelligence failure. We focused in Bin Laden in Afghanistan. We saw what they did with the US Cole [berthed in Yemen]. JENNINGS: "Its always Bin Laden, Bin Laden, Bin Laden - are they still convinced that Bin Laden is the only one who can do this? VINCE: "There had to be cooperation, possibly with state support, to do this." CONDOLEEZA RICE GETS TO SHINE CONDOLEEZA RICE, the President's foreign policy advisor, is the only senior administration official in the White House, remaining to coordinate his movements and thangs, as his Air Force One zigs and zags to evade a possible attack aimed at him. You go girl! I read in the Sunday newspapers about Colin Powell's devolution of power to Rice, and there may be something to it. Pierre Thomas of ABC news reported on air about the hijacked plane's movements, and airplane security. "Everybody who touched that plane will be investigated." All flights are canceled until tomorrow noon Wednesday. So Far. 36,000 flights that is, criss-crossing the nation. 5:30 pm -- CBS' BYRON PITTS: "We have seen blood, body parts... this is terrorism the likes of which America has never seen.... I have never heard NYC this quiet-- graveyard quiet." NEXT: The reactions of the African Descended to September 11 take on some surprising forms.
TRAVELS to Kemet, Middle East; Mediterranean: Athens, Greece; Rome
PHOTOS of Pyramids, Jerusalem, Hawai’i
WalkerWorld Science
Where Did White People Come From?
WalkerWorld Politics Analysis Column
Local Milwaukee Politics
FILM CRITIQUES
mailto:thewordnetpaper@excite.com
Milwaukee Wis USA
|
No Forum
