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World Trade Towers and Pentagon Attacked
The World Trade Towers in new york were crashed into by 2 planes, one on each tower, 18 minutes apart. Nobody really knows who did it, but the planes were big ones. Normally I wouldn't consider posting this on Slashdot, but I'm making an exception this time because I can't get news through any of the conventional websites, and I assume I'm not alone. Update We're having server problems. Sorry. Updated info, both towers havecollapsed, pentagon hit by 3rd plane. Part of it has collapsed.
Here's two pictures and a brief write-up. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/ne wsid_1537000/1537469.stm
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine drawn beyond the lines of reason. Push the envelope. Watch it bend.
No way its a Navigation Error. Its a bright sunny day. Any flight crew that could pass a Class 1 medical could see the building. And While I don't have a chart here I don't think that the WTC is near any of the routes in or out of any of the major NY/NJ Airports. (JFK,LGA,EWK,TEB etc)
Erlang Developer and podcaster
Not sure if it is navigational error or deliberate attacks.
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Linux: The world's best text-adventure game.
Yeah it was probably some Middle-Eastern terrorist like the guy that blew up the Federal building in Oklaho... errr, never mind.
i used to work at a company in the world trade center, in the tower that was bombed in 1993. everybody used to remember the bombing in the back of their minds, but security was pretty tight everyday. however, there were hundreds of thousands of people who commute to the financial district everyday and the place is ripe for terrorism.
that said, i hope everyone is ok. the two towers make a great target for anyone. i didn't work that high up, but i can't imagine walking the stairs. they're plain concrete stairs without windows or anything. in a time of panic like this, it would be easy to get hurt simply trying to evacuate.
i really hope everyone is ok.
Rangers Lead the Way!
OK, Generalissimo George. Explain to us how your space-based missile defense, AKA "Son of Star Wars", will protect us from THIS kind of thing.
U.S. Democracy: born 7/4/1776, died 12/12/2000 R.I.P.
I really don't see how this could be an accident. The rule is that any airplane accident is a combination of at least three different errors/factors.
However. Any urban area, especially one with such a dense traffic, is at all times under radar surveillance and Air Traffic Control. Unless a number of people simultaneously had their braincells commit mass suicide, this could (or should) not have happened.
I fear that this is the result of terrorism. And if the news say different, I'll be very skeptical. After all, if it were terrorism, what does this show to the US public? That they're vulnerable at any time. Not exactly a sentiment the Powers That Be would like to instill to their voters...
And one last thing. Whatever this turns out to be, and as much as people all over the world are glued to their PCs or TV sets for news, there's one thing to remember here. It's not 'exciting', it's not 'fun'. It's tragic. These were real, live people...and the news channels are having a field day.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
I guess this shows that what America really needs to keep Americans safe is a missile defense shield.
Planes slam into World Trade Center
MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
NEW YORK, Sept. 11 -- Two aircraft slammed into the World Trade Center in New York on Tuesday, in what was immediately speculated to be a terrorist attack. The FBI reported that a hijacking might have taken place just before the crashes. Police and ambulances were rushing to the scene.
THE AIRCRAFT struck about a half hour apart, starting fires and sending smoke billowing out of the skyscrapers. The first crash happened shortly before 9 a.m. ET.
MSNBC.com reporter Martin Wolk, who was inside one of the towers, said the lights flickered and then a loud bang was heard. People panicked and started to flee the building.
When they reached the lobby, smoke started to fill the building and people could see debris falling and many cars outside were damaged. "It was sheer pandemonium, people were screaming and crying, afraid to go outside because of the falling debris," Wolk said. "We looked up and it looked like the top 20 floors were in flames."
Another bystander described a barrage of debris raining down on the sidewalk below. About 9 a.m., a second aircraft was seen crashing into the other tower. Broadcast cameras already watching the scene filmed the second plane ram the tower.
Large holes were visible in sides of the 110-story buildings. The tops of the twin towers were obscured by the smoke.
Thousands of pieces of what appeared to be office paper came drifting over Brooklyn, about three miles from the tower, one witness said.
A video freeze shows a plane just before it hits the center some 18 minutes after the first crash.
Terrorism was speculated given that the center was bombed on Feb. 26, 1993, killing six people and injured more than 1,000 others.
The FBI said it was investigating reports of a hijacking. A United Airlines employee said he had heard reports that an American Airlines jet had been hijacked and was one of the two aircraft that flew into the center. It was not clear if there were passengers on board.
New York airports and the Lincoln Tunnel reportedly were closed as a precautionary measure.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Congress typically feels the need to respond after some high profile incident like this. There is no way at this time to know what accually happened, or how to prevent this. (Much less how to prevent this without trampeling your rights). Still congress wants to do something, so they appear to have the ebst attentions. Odds are this will be used to trample on your rights.
They hit tower one of the WTC and *now toppled both over*. And got the pentagon too..
.. but we should
Now, a couple things.. this is bad, this is really bad..
Apparently it was Palestinian terrorists that
did it (so TV is reporting)..
If it really was Palestinians, as much as I hate to say this.. I sort of understand..
before I start, I am a normal American white guy, am open minded, and think every race in the world has a right to their own safety and piece (including Americans).. I have absolutely nothing to do with the Arab israeli conflict (I am not arab, or Jewish, or anything like that), nor do I know any of either side closely at all..
But I was in Isreal once on business, and I saw what the Israelies do to the Palestinians, and what I saw made me sick to be an American because of how our government supports what the Israelis do to those people..
Basically, the isrealis take palestinian land bit by bit to make settlements for Israelis only, and shoot/run over/kill Palestinians with the guns, helicopters and bullets that we, America give the Israelis.
We dont report these travesties on American news (though you can get it on the BBC, CBC and other foreign outlets, and watch Israelis shoot with machine guns, 12 year old arab kids throwing rocks).
It is worse than south Africa, and I go as far to say, that the Israelis have put the Palestinians in concentration camp like conditions for the last 20 years or so, bulldozing their houses for their land, shooting their kids, controlling their land, their economy and choking them off one by one..
And when other countries like the Africans try to tell the truth (yes, the Israelis are racists..absolutely, they have dual licence plates for Palestine cars, dont let them drive on the same roads as Israelis, and occupy their country).
And we, the United states government, give more money, bombs, guns and weapons to Israel than to any other country in the world in foreign aid.., knowing (and allowing0 the Israelis to shoot, maim and rob more palestians of there property, lives and freedom.
And we have been doing that for 20 years now at least..
What else should we have expected really?
This terrorism really sucks,
also look at what we have been doing too the last 20 years.. and why a people felt so driven to do this to us..
As I said in my first reply, they don't have me running scared. I'm pissed. And I'm ready to do whatever I'm called to do to. They haven't won. I will not break.
--Fesh
Kill -9 'em all, let root@localhost sort 'em out.
they usually have up to date wire reports like
the AP. and they are not being slammed
I was going to post the same thing. This shows how incredibly foolish and shortsighted that it is of us to believe that this missle defense shield will do us any good. It has often been mentioned that anybody can get a suitcase-sized nuclear bomb into the country, but this shows that it doesn't even take that to entirely shut down the country.
Here we all are -- on Slashdot. I'm at home, and I bet that I won't go to work until late this afternoon. Most of the country is in similar shape. No missle defense shield could help this. In fact, I'm not sure that *anything* could help this. If half a dozen guys decide to hijack airplanes and crash them into major buildings, no defense shield or anything else will help.
All routes into NY are shutdown. Tried to take the train into work today and the engineers were kicking people off the train as they are not leaving New Jersey.
Apon getting back home I find out that both towers are now rubble! Cell phones are not functional in the New York/New Jersey area.
How long do you wager befor we go to war? Im putting bets on troop movements befor the sun comes up tommorrow.
PS-> Why is Slashdot fucked up today?
Constitution. Whenever a tragedy likes this occurs, the government always announces a get tough on terrorists policy that will have no effect on the psychopaths who do this, but will severely limit our rights.
The huge loss of life is bad enough. The subsequent loss of what truly represents what this country stands for will be intolerable.
-- Will program for bandwidth
I know it is early; but if this turns out to be Bin Laden, the US should give Afghanistan an ultimatum:
Give us Bin Laden in 24 hours or we oficially issue a Declaration of War and us ALL of our weapons available
Radical, yes? Emotional, yes? It is time to screw politics and use some brute force.
If you are wondering what you can do to help.
My prediction is that they'll wait until the investigation has turned up some solid information before doing anything. I should point out, Clinton made a not very subtle threat against the middle east in the wake of Oklahoma City. He looked pretty stupid when it turned out to be an American anarchist. Still, given that something on the order of half a dozen attacks occured nearly simutaneously (two planes into the WTC, one car bomb nearby, some unknown means of attack against the pentagon building, and a crashed plane outside of western PA), this was probably the work of either a very large terrorist organization or a foreign government.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
To me it is obvious that he must literally have ben waiting for a chance like this to show off his all-new weaponry and proof why the military budget had to be increased beyond all sensibility.
Not to speak of the people no longer caring about how he fucked up the US economy.
Definitely some people's butts will be kicked as hard as possible for this - I am just afraid most of them will have not more to do with this than the poor souls that were caught in the towers.
shivering,
Fionn
Bush wanted a war, to prove he's a man, just like his daddy.
What is he going to get up to while the world is distracted watching the fight?
Problem with terrorist activity of this sort (aside from the tragedy itself, of course) is that it just gives our "leaders" more excuses to take away more of our rights, all in the name of freedom.
Any bets on how long before the internet somehow gets the blame?
Why is it that many people who claim to support standards have such atrocious spelling and grammar?
Explain to me, in real empiracal facts, how he 'fucked up' the US economy. Come on man! Grow up and quit being some pathetic parrot. People like you are slaves to your own hate and malice, so that you don't realize that you are nothing but a puppet for those who wish personal power. STOP BEING HYPOCRITICAL! If you want to throw this or that accusation against ANYONE, then you had damn better be both judging yourselves and your pathetic little corrupt political parties by the same standards as well.
I pity you and anyone like you, as you are both slave and slave beater at the same time. Hitler loved people like you.
As for budgeting the military, then perhaps you can now follow that up by saying that ALL government programs that are NOT ALLOWED BY THE US CONSTITUTION should be abolished? Well? Oh, wait, that would be applying consistency, logic and reason. Instead you would rather be the yipping little chihuahua that only barks and maybe nips at heals of the real problem... You my tyrant loving friend are the PROBLEM not part of the solution.
Yeah, so?
Previously this quatrain supposedly "predicted" the TWA flight 800 disaster. Before that it was thought to predict a nuclear attack on NYC.
As I say, Nostradamus only predicts the past. I've never seen anyone use his work to accuratly predict any future event
If you're scrambling for news, turn off images in your browser, it'll help cut down traffic..
Praise the Force Field! Praise the Laser Project! Slackware Loon #19830573
So far, the US gov. pressured Israeli gov. not to act upon terrorist attacks. It all gets a new perspective when stuff blow up in NYC and Washington and not just in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
The TV is reporting that a Palestinian group conducted these attacks. No matter who did it many Americans will believe that it was done by Palestinians. Over the last 5 years public opinion in the US has been turning toward the Palestinians and away from the Israelis.
But now, this attack will rate up their with the loss of the Battleship Maine and the attack on Pearl Harbor. Who ever has done this has doomed themselves, and they have destroyed Palestine as well.
If you are religious this would be a good time to pray that no nukes are used in retaliation. There will be retatliation. Even God can't stop that.
Stonewolf
I work right across the river from NYC, and around 9 someone told me that a plane had hit the WTC. I ran down to the conference room and saw a huge cloud of smoke. There was a giant hole in the building, and i could see the flames licking out. A few minutes later, the second airplane hit in a huge explosion. I went back to my office to talk to co-workers, and about 20 minutes later, went back to the conference room. I just got there when there was this huge puff of dust and smoke, and I saw the building fall.
Please, if anyone wants to help, go see your local red cross, and donate a few pints of blood. We are going to need it.
99.9999 of Arabic people in the US are here because they love the US. They may express it differently, and sometimes have odd viewpoints, but at the end of the day, they are here and love the USA.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
Please!!!!
As emergency crews and tactical teams need communications more than anyone right now, stay off the phone.
Nationwide, the telecommunications systems of the US are FLOODED. Everyone is trying to call freinds and relatives to spread the news and try to get more information. The emergency response teams across the nation are experiencing MAJOR difficulties with communications because of the overloaded infrastructure.
Please spread the word (IN PERSON) stay off the phone!!!!
here is a mirror with pics that seem to have been taken from a digital camera.
As well as video of a plane hitting a tower and one of the towers collapsing.
I wish my server luck...
ender-
Nothing to see here
I think I heard that one before.
Did it work then ?
I don't think it's right for people to invade my privacy, this is a tragedy but it's no excuse to let the government read my private info.
What if the arguement could be made that by invading your privacy, this tragedy could be prevented.
(Such an arguement will likely be made in the near future. For privacy advocates, now is a very important moment - Expect a landslide of legislation to improve America's SIGINT capabilities, both domestic and abroad.)
-jerdenn
I sympathise with your desire for revenge. But please try to bear in mind in the days and weeks to come that revenge against a large group of people will hurt many innocent people. Those responsible for this attack are unspeakably evil individuals, but don't get so caught up in your desire to punish them that you end up hurting yet more innocent people - for example the civilians of another country. God forbid this tragedy should get any worse; that's what will happen if the US seeks revenge against an easy national target such as Palestine or Afghanistan rather than hunting down the individuals responsible for this awful attack. Please don't add your voice to those calling out for blood. Enough blood has been spilled already. Let us find and punish the individuals responsible, but let us not make an easy scapegoat out of innocent civilians, whatever their nationality or religion.
FWIW, I'm not a citizen of the U.S. nor do I live there.
Violence induces more violence. Retaliation will only lead to more deaths. If you are a citizen of the U.S. of America, please write your representative right now and ask him to join a plea for peace. Historically the U.S. reaction to this kind of attack is to counter strike. It's highly probably that it's already being planned or even carried on. That will solve nothing. You might get even, but that achieves nothing. The death will not come back and the attack has been already recorded on the books of history. At this point in time, counter attacking is irrational and puts not only the lives of U.S. citizens at risk, but those of lots of people all arround the world, too.
Maybe this is our queue to feed Israel to the dogs.
Oh, great! This sort of revenge attitude is precisely the kind of thing that which whe terrorists want, and the kind of thing that leads to more of these terrorist attacks.
-
We get attacked, and innocent people die, so
- we go out and 'punnish' innocent people who are vaguely associated with the cause of the killers.
- switch sides and go to step one.
Hatred and random violence are not the appropriate responses to violence. Hatred comes from fear. Generating fear in random people on the other side is only going to create an opening for those who wish to generate more hatred against us.Most notably: attacks against innocents only vaguely associated with the terrorist only helps the cause of the terrorists. It makes more people desperate and angry -- feeding the machinery of the terrorists. This is the last thing we want.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
The problem with the "Never Again" defense is that no sooner had they suffered their own attrocities then they started INFLICTING THE SAME ATTROCITIES in the land they unilaterally decided was theirs and theirs alone.
Israel COULD have had credibility as an idea if they'd tried to create a Switzerland of sorts, a promised land flowing with milk and honey where people were free to worship as they pleased and proudly declare their heritage without fear of persecution.
But instead, they decided to found the nation on principles of xenophobia and entitlement and death and suffering to anyone who opposed them. That's the main reason why the arabs detest them.
It's sad, because I am sure that not all Israelis are like the guy who killed Yitzak Rabin, or Ariel Sharon. They are most likely human beings who would like to live out their lives as best they can and let their neighbors do the same. Most palestinians are probably like that, too.
Frankly, I don't think any power in that region is capable of fairly governing it.
Tweet, tweet.