Remembering September 11

/ Glen Available

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This coming Tuesday is the 17th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks in New York.

Still deeply embedded in the American psyche every bit as much as the assault on Pearl Harbour was for a previous generation, the literally horizon-transforming events of this catastrophic day (it happened on a Tuesday) rewrote forever the socio-political landscape our world inhabits. 

This post is intended as a personal recollection of my memory of that day and it’s aftermath.

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Back in the year 2001, I was in the first of what would turn out to be three glorious years of living in Tokyo, Japan. I was working as an English instructor and thoroughly enjoying being in a foreign land. Life was all green tea and ramen noodles, removing ones shoes before walking inside, sleeping on tatami mats, adding ‘san’ to everyone’s name, wearing a collar and tie on the subway to work and snow in the winter time.

I remember the morning of September 11, 2001 clearly. I had just walked into the shared lounge room of the ‘Gaijin House’ (accommodation housing non-Japanese) I was staying in when a fellow Aussie  (I don’t recall his name but I do distinctly remember he had a beard and enough size to play front-row for the Brisbane Broncos) began pointing to the over-sized box television switched on in the corner of the room, saying ‘Check this out!’

We stood shoulder to shoulder for the next few minutes trying to make sense of what we were seeing in the news images flashed before us; two strangers bonded together ever so briefly in a moment of horror and disbelief. I am quite positive anyone over the age of 30 would be able to recount in similar detail exactly where they were on this day – when they first heard the news of the history-defining attacks that ushered in the ‘war on terror’, and in doing so, redefined both what a battlefield and a weapon could be while at the same time forever shattering the boundaries between war and peace.

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Not long after the events of September 11, 2001, alternative theories began to circulate about how the World Trade Centre Twin Towers (first opened in 1973, with construction commencing in 1966) plus Building 7 of the complex collapsed, possibly by means other than the hijacked planes crashing into them.

Various investigations commissioned by official organisations, including one in 2002 by the American Society of Civil Engineers and another in 2005 by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology concluded the Twin Towers suffered massive collapse due to the impact of the aircraft, and resulting jet-fuel ignited fires, ALONE.

These investigations were not enough to satisfy conspiracy theorists who claimed (and continue in some cases to claim) that the skyscrapers could not have been brought down in the pancaking manner in which they were by the impact of jet planes flying into them ALONE.

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The most popular alternate explanation for the massive structural failures experienced by World Trade Centre Buildings 1 & 2 is that their collapse was assisted by (and in the case of Building 7 – completely due to) controlled demolitions (ie. the buildings were pre-wired to explode). This theory gained momentum when it was reported explosives’ residues in the form of nano-thermite material (produced only by military industry manufacturing) were identified in dust samples taken from the area that became known as Ground Zero after the tragedy.

This hypothesis is tied to the incredible preposterous notion that the U.S government in the form of the George W. Bush administration had a complicit hand in planning and staging the cataclysm for reasons ranging from the need to destroy incriminating financial records contained within the buildings to a plot to benefit from a stock market insider trading scheme to the need to initiate war with the Middle East to manipulate world oil prices.

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Far more plausible explanations of the physics and architectural factors that conspired to bring down the three skyscrapers (all built using late 1960’s/early 1970’s construction methods) that day can be found –

HERE (4 minutes)   or  HERE (6 minutes)  or  HERE (2 minutes)  or  HERE (4 minutes)

That’s a lot of videos I know,  but if you’re still not convinced of the implausibility of the controlled implosion argument and far-fetched conspiracy theories in general – ones that  require hundreds if not thousands of people to keep a secret for life (in which case you’re likely also a flat earth theorist who believes the moon landings were filmed on a Hollywood movie lot) – then dang it, you may as well sample a bit of the lunacy for yourself by clicking…

HERE

Ps.This post has strayed somewhat to the serious side simply because of the nature of the subject plus the fact this coming Tuesday is a very sedate and weighty occasion. But given I’ve openly pledged before my intention to keep things for the most part light on these pages, best I end with this…

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While I was in Japan I purchased a SPIDERMAN comic.  It featured an all black cover and a storyline centred on September 11. I recall at the time I had some vague idea that if I kept the comic long enough, one day it might be worth considerably more than I paid for it.

Recently a valuation on ebay revealed that my investment plan for monetary growth of this once-off collector’s item is most definitely on track  – it’s just it looks like its gonna take roughly 200 years longer to cash in for a half way decent pay day than I’d thought.

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Pss. On a completely unrelated but no less commemorative note I give you my Top 4 Burt Reynolds movies –

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20 thoughts on “Remembering September 11”

  1. It’s so surreal to see this from an international perspective. Excellent post. I applaud the effort to put this together.

    I can’t say I’m surprised the comic is worth little. It’s like the Death of Superman issue. $90 the day after it happened, $12 since because everyone had it. Comics after about 1973 are commemorative, but rarely collectible.

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    • Thanks for that view regarding the underwhelming investment returns on comics and collectibles. I was feeling a little down on myself for being so naive as to once think I was sitting on a potential future goldmine.

      Pretty certain my spidey sense must have really been off that day.

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  3. I liked the first 4 minute video you posted Glen. The 2 minute one was interesting too. I recall the moment vividly myself as it was about 1 AM or so and a friend had phoned me saying the US was under attack and I needed to turn on the news.

    My first thought when I saw them come down was how they were both like perfect demolitions. I’m no explosives expert, but I do have probably more explosives experience that the typical man on the street with my background as a Mining Engineer. I have been involved in a number of blasts both underground and open cut. I know how hard it can be to design a perfect demolition, so seeing both buildings come down so well apparently by accident always left me with many questions. To this day I remain agnostic on the topic.

    What I find so interesting is how the standard arguments to ridicule the idea of a conspiracy are so easy to debunk. We just hear them so often we slip into auto-pilot and believe them. The classic one is how it is impossible to keep a secret. I hear that one quite a lot. Few seem to realise history is replete with numerous cases of significant operations kept under wraps for years.

    The Manhattan Project is a classic, involving about 140K people, yet kept under wraps for years. World War 2 alone is full of examples of really well kept secrets, involving significant numbers of people. Even when the info is finally released, few in the general population ever get to hear about government shenanigans. I’d suggest fewer than 1% of Americans know their government used to CIA to bring down the Iranian government in the 50’s leading to the chaos we have there now.

    Anyway, saying all this, I have to remain agnostic on the Twin Towers and WTC7. The latter is the one which really raises questions for me, but I’m just a dumb engineer with a background with explosives, so what the hell would I know?

    If I know anything, it is that I really don’t know…

    Thanks for posting this Glen. I only checked out 2 of the videos, but they were excellent and quite plausible on the no-conspiracy side of the ledger. They just don’t tell me which aircraft brought down WTC7 :).

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    • I’ve always found it fascinating how human perspective allows people to assume completely contradictory viewpoints on subjects while all the time clinging to what we see as evidence that fits or is made to fit our purpose.

      Kind of like high school debating really, but frequently with higher stakes.

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  4. 911 was the most evil false flag operation ever.
    The towers had repairs weeks before, installing thermate.
    They were insured just before.
    Aircraft parts found were different to the aircraft types used.
    Hijackers found to be alive afterwards and were not trained to fly heavies.
    Pristine hijacker passport found.
    Thermate furnace burned for days afterwards.
    Air force had a hijack exercise on the same day. Interceptors sent in the wrong direction.
    No heavy aircraft parts found on all locations.
    Pentagon definitely hit by a bunker busting cruise missile. CCTV not working and CCTV impounded from civilian businesses.
    Employees of some government companies told not to come in that day.
    Cleanup afterwards was rapid to destroy evidence.
    Anyone who believes that building seven collapse was a byproduct of the towers falling is crazy as building seven was also controlled demolition.
    The final report was seriously flawed and a total fabrication of what really happened.
    The perpetrators of this massacre and deception should be made to pay for their actions.
    But what do I know ?

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  9. I agree with Lady Rose at the start: interesting to see the point of view from people outside of the U.S. on 9/11. At work, I walked into the engineering room to get one of the guys to help me with computer issues and their TV was on, showing the airplanes, and I totally thought it was a simulation at first, like what COULD happen if someone flew planes into skyscrapers. Thanks for your perspective on it. I did have a random question about your stay in Japan: what were the mats like to sleep on? And were you 30 or under when you were sleeping on them?! 🙂

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  10. PS: Oh, and I forgot to say, I think Deliverance was his best role. Maybe there wasn’t quite enough of him in that, but….it was great. He did have a comic streak, though, didn’t he? My hubby thinks The Longest Yard was his best. Hmm. Don’t remember that one that well…….

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  11. Lol. Okay, yeah. I think I could deal with sleeping on the floor on a mat at 35. But not much beyond that! I used to think that doing gymnastics for years would have positive lingering effects as I got older. Well, it did *somewhat*, but my back started aching when I was 25 and basically has never stopped! Sorry. Don’t know how I got from 9/11 to my back. Just thinking about the mats and Japan and what a sad memory to be included in your Japanese adventure. Ah, well……..

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  14. Did you know there were actually three films in that series?
    Burt Reynolds played the bandit in SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (1977) and SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT 2 (1980) but did not appear in the third installment SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT 3 (1983).

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