It’s ironic that while Muslim terrorists brought down the World Trade Center, atheists have been aiding and abetting them by fighting against inclusion, in the official 9/11 Memorial and Museum, of a steel beam ‘cross’ that arose from the ashes of Ground Zero.
RWW Thankfully, last month, a New York judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by American Atheists seeking to prevent a pair of beams in the shape of across that was pulled from the debris of the collapsed World Trade Center from being included in the official 9/11 Memorial and Museum.
American Atheists filed the lawsuit in July, arguing that the “government enshrinement of the cross” was an impermissible mingling of church and state. The cross was moved in July from near a church to its new home at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, located at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan. Father Brian Jordan, a Franciscan priest who ministered to workers clearing the area after the attacks, led a ceremonial blessing of the cross.
Federal Judge Deborah Batts of the Southern District of New York ruled that display of the beams is permissible because they bear historical importance.
Montclair State University is investigating a bias incident in which someone drew a picture of planes hitting the World Trade Center on the door of a Muslim student group’s headquarters, campus officials said today.
The graffiti was found Monday outside the Office of the Muslim Student Association in the student center, said Suzanne Bronski, a campus spokeswoman.
“The university police immediately launched a full investigation, which is continuing, and the university’s Bias Response Team was appropriately alerted and has been involved,” university officials said in a statement.
Graffiti is straightforward vandalism and campus police rarely investigate the things that students scrawl on walls and doors. They were common in my time and I suspect they are even more common today. There’s no mention of whether this was done with paint or a marker, but I suspect it was the latter, which means it’s easy enough to clean off.
Is scrawling a depiction of 9/11 on the door of a Muslim organization linked to that terrorist attack by way of its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda a hate crime? Is it Muslims in general that are being targeted or the MSA, an organization with a long history of supporting extremist hate and terrorism?
But let’s get past the Montclair MSA’s willingness to host terrorist group members and supporters and get to the point.
The MSA has always argued that its attacks on Israel are political and protected by free speech. So when the MSA depicts Israel as a Nazi state and terrorists as heroes, it is practicing free speech. The MSA in conjunction with SJP has picketed Holocaust memorials while screaming hate. But that’s not a bias incident. That’s free speech.
So why is a picture of the worst Muslim atrocity in American history a bias incident?
If the MSA has the right to desecrate the Holocaust without it being a bias incident, if it has the right to accuse Jewish students of being Nazis, why is accusing the MSA of being linked to terrorism a hate crime?
Banned by the U.S. media, this should be required viewing for every adult and child over 12.
It is estimated that at least 200 people jumped to their deaths, far more than can be seen in the photographs taken that morning. The jumping started shortly after the first jet hit at 8:46 a.m. People jumped continuously during the 102 minutes that the north tower stood. It took just 10 seconds to fall but it wasn’t fast enough for the victims to lose consciousness before they hit the ground.
If the Youtube version above is down, CLICK ARROW ON SCREEN BELOW. If that doesn’t work, here’s the link:9/11 JUMPERS
FDNY first responders on hearing people jumping to their deaths from the top of the towers.
NY POST She was a 3-year-old golden-haired beauty when she got the call to respond to her first disaster. Now, stiffer, slower and a bit gray, 13-year-old Bretagne is one of just a handful of World Trade Center rescue dogs still alive.
“We arrived on 9/12 and started working right away,” said Bretagne’s handler, Denise Corliss, a search-and-rescue volunteer with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Bretagne had spent more than a year learning how to find survivors in concrete rubble, but her Cypress, Texas, training site was nothing like Ground Zero.
She clambered up ladders to get on top of the huge debris piles, padded across broken glass and twisted steel beams, wiggled into small spaces and crawled into dark holes, all the while sniffing through mounds of pulverized concrete searching for clues that would lead her to survivors. Like all the rescue dogs, she worked without a leash or a collar.
The dogs also didn’t wear protective booties, despite the crushed glass everywhere — they needed their claws for traction. Every night, she was given a decontamination bath. Her eyes, ears and mouth were rinsed out, and her abraded paw pads gently cleaned.
“It was her first mission, but she worked it like a pro. She didn’t get cut up or fall or get hurt,” said Corliss. But Bretagne had a couple of near misses. One day, sniffing along an elevated steel beam, she lost her footing.
“It was real wet because the fires were still smoldering and the water spray was everywhere,” Corliss recalled. “She just kind of slipped, but she used her paws to pull herself back up and kept on going. That was the only time I was a little unsettled.”
Bretagne was also a magnet for distraught firefighters searching the site for fallen comrades.
“A lot of times, firefighters would come by and pet her, talk to her and tell her stories,” said Corliss. One firefighter bonded so closely with Bretagne that he recognized her years later at a 9/11 memorial.
The gregarious golden retriever has seen several national disasters since 9/11 — she responded to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, going into flooded areas to find those unable to evacuate. She’s retired now, but has a hard time accepting it, said Corliss.
When Corliss heads out with her new search dog, Aid’n, Bretagne always wants to go along. “I bring her to the training site sometimes and let her run a few drills — she’s still got it,” said the proud handler.
Like Bretagne, the majority of 100 or so FEMA dogs sent to Ground Zero stayed only about 10 days.
Thirty-three NYPD K-9 dogs took over recovery operations — sniffing the rubble for remains — for eight months. All of those dogs have since died. The last one, Charlie, a longtime K-9 unit member, passed in January, just a few months shy of his 13th birthday.
All told, about 300 dogs contributed to the rescue and long-term recovery effort at Ground Zero, said Roy Gross, a Suffolk County SPCA agent who ran the mobile hospital that cared for the animals.
“Besides the FEMA and NYPD dogs, you had therapy dogs, brought in to help the rescue searchers, and dozens of volunteers who showed up at the site with their dogs, too,” said Gross.
A decade later, the vast majority of all the 9/11 dogs are gone, according to the book “Dog Heroes of 9/11,” which tracks the canines who worked at Ground Zero and the Pentagon. Only about 14 of the original FEMA dogs are still alive — including Kaiser, 12, a German shepherd from Indianapolis, and Tuff, 12, from Ashland, Mo.
Kaiser was bused to Ground Zero with his handler, Tony Zintsmaster, and arrived late at night on 9/11. He was immediately assigned to the 12-hour night shift.
As he climbed down from the pile on the morning of his second day, he badly sliced his right front carpal pad, probably on a sharp piece of steel, said Zintsmaster.
“There was no vet there yet, this was early on the 13th, so we found a medical-team doctor who stitched him up. Later, some vets arrived, and we got him bandaged and wrapped, and he was back to work that night.”
The smoky, smoldering pile was especially difficult to navigate after dark, but Kaiser relished the challenge. In the daytime, the dog would de-stress with a visit to the free massage and acupuncture table set up for first responders by the School of Oriental Medicine. Kaiser particularly liked getting acupuncture, said Zintsmaster.
Off the pile, his ebullient personality was a soothing balm to grieving responders. Early one morning, a firefighter walked up to Kaiser, knelt down and hugged him for a long time, in silence. Then he stood up and walked away, said Zintsmaster. Another time, a group of four firefighters decided the hot and thirsty German shepherd needed a drink.
“So one firefighter cups his hands together and two others are trying to pour water into his hands so Kaiser can lap it up, and meanwhile, the other one’s saying that Kaiser’s dirty, so that firefighter starts cleaning and rubbing his back and his muzzle. Kaiser’s real social, so he loved the attention and it was OK — it was what [the firefighters] needed,” said Zintsmaster.
Kaiser, a “live-find” dog, never gave the alert to indicate he had located a survivor during his 10 days at Ground Zero. But several times, he expressed interest in a scent he’d picked up.
“His training was good. He didn’t alert, which meant whatever he smelled wasn’t alive, but he reacted enough so that I’d know to bring over a cadaver dog,” his trainer said. “It’s always hard when you don’t find survivors.”
The hardworking German shepherd, who will be 13 in October, just retired last year. He’s in good shape, but no longer has the endurance for fieldwork, Zintsmaster said.
Some of the 9/11 rescue dogs have been incredibly long-lived. Tara, from Ipswich, Mass., got to Ground Zero the night of the disaster and stayed eight days. She was one of the oldest survivors, until she died last year at age 16.
Flight Attendant Betty Ong, remains calm as she talks to American Airlines Headquarters from the plane, moments before impact with the World Trade Center.
This is the flight that was headed to either the Capitol Building or the White House. Several brave passengers, who had learned of their fate from home via sky phones, broke into the cockpit, fought with the hijackers, who then crashed the plane into a field in Pennsylvania before it could reach its target in Washington DC. “Let’s Roll!” shouted passenger, Todd Beamer, as they stormed the cockpit!”
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL TRANSMISSION
Lorne Lyles recalls phone call he got from his wife, CeeCee, who was a flight attendant on United 93
Researchers at Purdue University created a simulation that uses scientific principles to show what happened when a commercial airliner crashed into the World Trade Center’s North Tower.
The simulation could be used to better understand which elements in the building’s structural core were affected, how they responded to the initial shock of the aircraft collision, and how the tower later collapsed from the ensuing fire fed by an estimated 10,000 gallons of jet fuel, said Mete Sozen, the Kettelhut Distinguished Professor of Structural Engineering in Purdue’s School of Civil Engineering.PURDUE
Purdue University independent analysis of the plane being crashed into the Pentagon.
Credible eyewitnesses, including pilots, who saw the plane hit the Pentagon.
