This article was originally published on CTDATA.com on September 11, 2002.

On September 11, 2001, over 3,000 people died in terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Today, we remember all of the victims, and particularly the friends of CTDATA who were killed in the attacks:

• World Trade Center
  
  
  
  • Vito DeLeo, mechanic at World Trade Center, USA Hockey official
    
  • John Eichler, retired executive at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, brother of Joan Aiello
    
  • John Pocher, bond trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, alumnus of Essex County Chiefs youth hockey program
    
  • Kalyan Sarkar, Port Authority seismic engineer, father of Kishan Sarkar-- a Rensselaer alumnus
    

  
  

• American Airlines Flight 11
  
  
  
  • J. Nicholas Humber, executive at Enron Wind Corporation, Rensselaer Class of 1963
    
  
  

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This article was originally published on CTDATA.com on September 11, 2002.

On September 11, 2001, over 3,000 people died in terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Today, we remember all of the victims, and particularly the friends of CTDATA who were killed in the attacks:

• World Trade Center
  
  
  
  • Vito DeLeo, mechanic at World Trade Center, USA Hockey official
    
  • John Eichler, retired executive at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, brother of Joan Aiello
    
  • John Pocher, bond trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, alumnus of Essex County Chiefs youth hockey program
    
  • Kalyan Sarkar, Port Authority seismic engineer, father of Kishan Sarkar-- a Rensselaer alumnus
    

  
  

• American Airlines Flight 11
  
  
  
  • J. Nicholas Humber, executive at Enron Wind Corporation, Rensselaer Class of 1963
    
  
  

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This article was originally published on CTDATA.com on September 11, 2002.

On September 11, 2001, over 3,000 people died in terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Today, we remember all of the victims, and particularly the friends of CTDATA who were killed in the attacks:

• World Trade Center
  
  
  
  • Vito DeLeo, mechanic at World Trade Center, USA Hockey official
    
  • John Eichler, retired executive at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, brother of Joan Aiello
    
  • John Pocher, bond trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, alumnus of Essex County Chiefs youth hockey program
    
  • Kalyan Sarkar, Port Authority seismic engineer, father of Kishan Sarkar-- a Rensselaer alumnus
    

  
  

• American Airlines Flight 11
  
  
  
  • J. Nicholas Humber, executive at Enron Wind Corporation, Rensselaer Class of 1963
    
  
  

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This article was originally published on CTDATA.com on September 11, 2002.

On September 11, 2001, over 3,000 people died in terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Today, we remember all of the victims, and particularly the friends of CTDATA who were killed in the attacks:

• World Trade Center
  
  
  
  • Vito DeLeo, mechanic at World Trade Center, USA Hockey official
    
  • John Eichler, retired executive at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, brother of Joan Aiello
    
  • John Pocher, bond trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, alumnus of Essex County Chiefs youth hockey program
    
  • Kalyan Sarkar, Port Authority seismic engineer, father of Kishan Sarkar-- a Rensselaer alumnus
    

  
  

• American Airlines Flight 11
  
  
  
  • J. Nicholas Humber, executive at Enron Wind Corporation, Rensselaer Class of 1963
    
  
  

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine.com published an account of his first ride on the PATH into the rebuilt World Trade Center station. He describes the scene as only a PATH-commuting veteran could:"

I kept telling myself, It's just a train ride.

The last time I rode these tracks, as many of you know, was on the last PATH train into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Today, I returned. And I didn't know how I'd react. I often feel as I live with a webcam pointed at my psyche, always watching, always recording the reaction to anything 9/11: today sunken, tomorrow angry, the next day tired, the next day numb, someday hopeful. So what will it be today?

Well, the first, best indication of my own reaction came when the train pulled into Jersey City and the conductor droned, "World Trade Center." And I smiled. Relief. Even a touch of victory.

The midmorning train wasn't crowded. One grizzly guy sat by the front window; a tourist/pilgrim with camera sat a few feet away. I kept my camera in my pocket; I dislike turning tragedy into tourism.
As we went under the river, a guy in a PATH reconstruction jacket came up to the front window to look. So did the rest of us. The tunnel -- where rowboats navigated after the attacks -- looked new and clean. And up ahead, we saw daylight. That, alone was shocking; this station always seemed as if it were a mile underground. Now, of course, there is nothing above.

The train halted just at the entrance, as if to let us get ready. The grizzly guy muttered, "Graveyard." The rest stared ahead. I felt a clutch coming but then stopped.

It's just a train ride....

Dave Aiello continued, "Read the rest of the article, it's brilliant."

"I haven't ridden the PATH since 10 days before 9/11, when I finished my last consulting project at J.P. Morgan Chase. I'm planning to ride the PATH into the World Trade Center as soon as I can. I think I'll feel as anxious as Jeff Jarvis did. Because I wasn't there that day, I'll try not to focus on my reaction-- I'll be remembering the people I knew who never came home."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Associated Press reports that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has announced that temporary World Trade Center PATH station will open on Sunday, November 23. The temporary station will be located in the same physical space that the old station occupied. Although a significant portion of the original PATH station survived the September 11 terrorist attack, it has been totally rebuilt.

According to the article:

On the restored platform for Tracks 3 and 4, Gov. George Pataki stood with trade center leaseholder Larry Silverstein and his architects, Daniel Libeskind and David Childs, and looked, two platforms across, at the space where the towers stood....

The 16-month $253 million restoration of the temporary station involved gutting the train tunnels down to their iron frames and installing nearly 7,000 feet of track and 50,000 tons of steel. The station connects to six subway lines, although the permanent station will connect to a dozen lines, ferries, buses and a transit hub on Fulton Street.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This article was originally published on CTDATA.com on September 11, 2002.

On September 11, 2001, over 3,000 people died in terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Today, we remember all of the victims, and particularly the friends of CTDATA who were killed in the attacks:

• World Trade Center
  
  
  
  • Vito DeLeo, mechanic at World Trade Center, USA Hockey official
    
  • John Eichler, retired executive at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, brother of Joan Aiello
    
  • John Pocher, bond trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, alumnus of Essex County Chiefs youth hockey program
    
  • Kalyan Sarkar, Port Authority seismic engineer, father of Kishan Sarkar-- a Rensselaer alumnus
    

  
  

• American Airlines Flight 11
  
  
  
  • J. Nicholas Humber, executive at Enron Wind Corporation, Rensselaer Class of 1963
    
  
  

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week, Fox News televised a number of interviews of and reports from Monsoor Ijaz. Ijaz is a muslim and an American businessman who had tried to act as an intermediary between the government of Sudan and the Clinton Administration for the purpose of helping Sudan turn over Osama bin Laden to U.S. justice.

One of the more interesting of these reports was the one Ijaz made on Special Report with Brit Hume on February 25. In it, Ijaz said we now have the key guy who is coordinating al Qaeda activities on several continents. Ijaz said:

...We now have the key guy who was the cornerstone of the operation in the Middle East, in South Asia, maybe even in the Far East. So if we are successful in now decoding the data in his computers and his telephones and the audiotapes that may, in fact, even contain instructions from bin Laden on them, we may, in fact, find out a lot of information that we would not have been able to get any other way.

And so the timing of this essentially enables us to dismantle the Middle Eastern terror cells before we have to take that next step in the war against terrorism. In fact, I just want to say that Iraq is not a separate step. It is the next most important step in dismantling the terrorists around the world.

CTDATA previously reported on Ijaz in an article that we published in December 2001.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Only weeks after the national terror threat level had been raised to orange, The New York Times reports that a terrorism expert who has studied al Qaeda for 10 years thinks that a large attack on the United States is unlikely at this time. According to the article:

...{Rohan} Gunaratna, a research fellow at the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland, contended that increased information flowing from intelligence agencies and the F.B.I. to the Police Department combined with greater public awareness had made it more difficult for Al Qaeda to launch an attack in New York.

He also said that he thought large attacks in the United States anytime soon were unlikely, and that the arrest of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed on Saturday in Pakistan was a significant setback for the terrorists.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "Ten years ago today, Ramzi Yousef and some associates placed a bomb in the second parking level of The World Trade Center. It was detonated at about 12:18pm. Six people lost their lives and hundreds were injured."

"Today we remember the victims of the first World Trade Center attack. They were arguably the first victims in the war that Islamic militants are waging against the United States and its interests throughout the world."

"This week, U.S. News and World Report published an excellent review of the relationship between the first World Trade Center attack and September 11. It also summarizes the manhunt that ensued after the 1993 bombing, culminating with the arrest of Yousef in Pakistan in 1995."

"The U.S. News article cites a book called The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot, And Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It, a book reviewed on CTDATA back in October. We highly recommended the book because it helps to connect the dots between the Meir Kahane assassination, the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, and September 11."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Congratulations to Kfir Alfia and Alan Lipton for achieving a media coup. Their small scale counterprotest at the San Francisco anti war rally last weekend got them on the air on the Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage radio programs. It also got their counterprotest photos posted on RushLimbaugh.com.

If you haven't seen these photos, they are very provocative. They include the following statements:

• Protect Islamic Property Rights Against Western Imperialism! Say No to War (picture of woman in burkha tied to a pole)
• Except for Ending Slavery, Fascism, Nazism, and Communism, War Has Never Solved Anything
• Communism Has Only Killed 100 Million People, Let's Give it Another Chance
• Saddam Only Kills His Own People, It's None of Our Business

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Winer has begun to say things on Scripting News that imply that he is in favor of an attack on Iraq. This is significant because he has been very skeptical about many Bush Administration activities since September 11.

Yesterday, he reflected on the speeches given in response to the reports by Blix and El Baradei:

I listened to the UN report by the inspectors, and reps from all sides, including Iraq. I think the UK and US make good points that the French, Russian and Chinese didn't address. Do I think Hussein is serious about disarming? Come on, give me a break.... I'm still not sure it's best for the US to invade Iraq, but I don't buy the arguments our supposed allies are providing against going to war.

And then today, Winer comments on the Max Boot editorial in the New York Times that debunks the leftist theory that the U.S. wants to go to war primarily to control Iraq's oil resources:

...we all know what he does with the oil money -- he uses it to build nukes, missiles to deliver them, etc etc.... Why anyone would stand up for him is beyond me. Yet that's what the French, Germans, Russians and Chinese (and others) are doing. This makes no sense. (Unless you consider the possibility that they have conflicts of interest.)

Maybe what Winer is hinting at is that an invasion would uncover a great deal of evidence that these countries did business with Iraq that advanced Iraq's weapons programs.

In any event, it is interesting to read Winer's views at this critical time, given his skepticism about some of the administration's domestic security agenda, and his lack of respect for many Bush appointees.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The reaction of the United Nations Security Council to today's reports from Hans Blix and Mohamed El Baradei was nothing if not predictable. Media reports like the Associated Press' Major Powers Insist on Iraq Inspections demonstrate the degree to which the media is complicit in the anti-war agenda of the left throughout the world.

In his report, Blix cited improved cooperation by Saddam's government and reported the hunt for banned arms had thus far failed to find weapons of mass destruction. Blix said it was significant that "many proscribed weapons and items are not accounted for."

The Associated Press decided not to point out the terms of Security Council Resolution 1441 that form the basis for the inspection regime. The resolution says that Iraq is required to destroy stocks of biological and chemical weapons, dismantle its nuclear weapons programs, and do away with missiles that can travel more than 150 kilometers. These are the sorts of things that Hans Blix means when he says "proscribed weapons and items {that} are not accounted for."

Powell sat silently as speaker after speaker rejected the United States' position that Iraq has run out of time to comply with a string of U.N. disarmament resolutions.

The reason that the countries who oppose the United States on this issue can dispute the United States' position is that the resolution gives Iraq a "final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations." It doesn't say how long this opportunity should last.

Kudos to United Press International for running a piece called Analysis: Where are the arms from before? that lays out the reasons why "Hans Blix's briefing to the Security Council Friday... had something for everybody...." Although this article calls the countries on the Security Council who wish inspections to continue "the majority", it is one of the few articles published by the mainstream media to list the countries that called for the U.N. to take action now.

It is precisely these unanswered questions that form the basis of the indictment the United States, Britain, Spain, Mexico and Chile made Friday at the United Nations against Saddam's regime.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented evidence of Iraq's continuing effort to acquire weapons of mass destruction to the United Nations security council. He followed this up today with a presentation to the U.S. Senate.

According to a Washington Post/ABC News poll seven in ten Americans believe Iraq has biological weapons, while 61 percent believe that Powell presented enough evidence to justify a war with Iraq. This indicates that the presentation was very convincing, because the media reported that the evidence that Powell would present would be circumstantial at best. Many people seemed more skeptical about the grounds for war before the presentation than after.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Before Christmas, U.S. Senator Patty Murray of the State of Washington told a group of high school students that Osama bin Laden is popular in some countries because he built schools, roads, and daycare centers there. This was originally pointed out in The Columbian, a newspaper based in Vancouver, WA, but subsequently picked up by the AP and carried in newspapers across the Western U.S.

We have to chuckle at the disingenuousness of Murray's speech. How likely is it that a millionaire leader of worldwide terrorism would build daycare centers at the same time that he was in league with groups like the Taliban, who are notoriously anti-woman? The implication of her statements is that the United States has not provided foreign aid to the Islamic countries of the world-- another misleading notion.

We can excuse Murray for assuming that the average American adult is stupid. But, she was speaking in front of impressionable high school students. There is no excuse for this degree of misrepresentation.

The Washington Post broke its silence on the matter in an editorial about Murray's speech in its Christmas edition. It referred to Murray as "inept but entitled to have her say"-- as if all of her misstatements were OK in light of her patriotic criticism of American foreign policy. But, The New York Times has failed to mention the incident at all. How long will "the paper of record" be silent? So far, it's been 12 days.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dennis Villone pointed out the MSNBC report that FBI and Customs agents staged a high-profile raid at a software company in Quincy, MA. The company, Ptech, makes enterprise knowledge management and business process modeling systems.

The raid took place because the U.S. Treasury Department has designated Yasin al-Qadi, an investor in the company currently believed to be living in Saudi Arabia, a "terrorist financier". According to the article:

SOURCES FAMILIAR with the raid told NBC News on condition of anonymity that investigators also were trying to determine whether the company, Ptech Inc. of Quincy, Mass., used its software to gain access to sensitive government data.... The company’s client list includes the FBI, NATO, the FAA, the Air Force, the Naval Air Services Command, the Energy Department, the IRS, the Postal Service and the House of Representatives.

The article goes on to state that Ptech "categorically denies having any connection with any terrorist organization."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 5:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In one of the more candid opinion pieces published during the entire D.C.-area Sniper Case, Daniel Henninger of OpinionJournal.com likens the coverage of the investigation to the "Unreal City" that T.S. Elliot spoke about in his poem The Waste Land.

What we've all been watching on these stations lately is mostly live, so in some sense undoubtedly real. But what could be weirder or more bizarre than the unreal city of cable news, which reports, without discrimination, what it knows, what it almost knows and what no one knows?....

Not since long ago when villagers whispered that witches danced in the night-forest, has mere rumor been elevated to such high status in the life of a society.... Making such terrible events seem somehow unreal was a challenge. But we've met it. Trying to "report" live, much less talk about something like this for hours on end is not normal.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "National Review Online has quickly jumped on the Moscow Theater Attack with an excellent commentary written by Mark Riebling and R.P. Eddy. In it, the authors suggest that the theater attack may be closely related to U.S. intervention in Pankisi Gorge, in the Republic of Georgia, in addition to the more obvious goal of ending the war in Chechnya."

"The article also suggests that the Chechen attack may be preview of attacks outside Russia yet to come:"

The Moscow event is especially portentous because the tactics of Chechen jihadists are regarded by the FBI as a possible indicator of al Qaeda methods in the U.S. This past summer, for instance, after Chechen terrorists bombed apartment buildings in Moscow, apparently by renting rooms and then detonating explosives stored there, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller warned that al Qaeda operatives in the U.S. might attempt this tactic.

If Chechen and al Qaeda operatives do kill from the same playbook, then reconnaissance and planning for a mass-hostage drama outside Russia may already be underway.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

BBC News is reporting that Chechen rebels stormed a theater in Moscow, taking hundreds hostage. The attack has gone largely unreported in the United States, due to the focus on the D.C.-area sniper investigation. According to another report, up to 150 of the attendees had been released or escaped and "children and Muslims were freed from the theater" by the terrorists.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "Articles are beginning to appear in the Australian press indicating that the American press is ignoring the impact of the terrorist attack in Bali on Australia. Perhaps that is true of the mainstream press and television, although Talk Radio has been all over this issue."

"What's really amazing about this story is that Australians apparently didn't see themselves as being in danger until al Qaeda bombed a vacation destination in a nearby country. Apparently, they didn't look at the World Trade Center and see the Sydney Opera House or another famous landmark in Australia itself as a possible terrorist target."

"But now that perhaps 200 or 300 Australians have perished, that country appears to have realized it too is vulnerable. We, as Americans, must remember what a shock 9/11 was to us, and try to be supportive to the Australian people. And, we need to insist that our media pay equal attention to terrorist attacks wherever they occur."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "I just finished reading The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot, And Why the FBI and CIA Failed to Stop It and I recommend it highly. Before I started reading 'The Cell', I had read as many news accounts of the War on Terrorism as I could. But, the depth and complexity of newspaper and magazine articles on this or any subject is limited."

"I found that this book helped me put together a lot of the pieces of information that I had gathered from news accounts. For instance, I remembered that Meir Kahane was assassinated in New York City in 1990, but I was not aware of the extent to which that assassination was linked to subsequent terrorist activity in the United States and abroad. John Miller and Michael Stone, the co-authors of this book, draw clear connections between the Kahane assassination, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and 9/11."

"The book also delves into the politics of the relationship between the NYPD, the FBI, and the CIA. All of these organizations were proud of their independence and protective of their roles in terror attack investigations and counter intelligence. This contributed to the myopia that caused all levels of government to miss opportunities to stop the 9/11 attacks. But, the book also points out a number of coincidental developments that diverted the government's attention from what would have been productive investigations."

Continue reading ""The Cell" Makes the Potential of Radical Islamic Terrorism More Understandable" »

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The BBC is reporting that French shipping officials believe that a small craft rammed their oil tanker prior to the explosion in the Arabian Sea over the weekend. According to the report, "A junior officer on board the Limburg reported seeing a small craft 'fast approaching' the tanker in the port of Ash Shihr... and believes the two vessels touched before an explosion occurred."

The article goes on to say that the "Limburg was a new, double-hulled ship, and was barely moving at the time of the explosion, which took place during good weather.... {The} force of the apparent impact had pierced both hulls and penetrated 7-8 metres into the cargo hold.... {Only} a very large ship, or one moving at 'serious speeds' would be able to cause that damage."

All of this information calls into question the Yemeni government suggestion that the explosion was not the result of sabotage. Maybe Yemen is making a distinction between sabotage and a terrorist attack.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Albany Times Union reported on Sunday that Abdul Hakim Murad lived in an Albany suburb in the early 1990s and concocted the original plan to destroy The World Trade Center using hijacked airliners. He subsequently worked with Ramzi Yousef to attempt the simultaneous bombing of 12 airliners over the Pacific, but was arrested by Philippine police in January 1995. Murad was extradited to the United States, tried, and sentenced to life plus 60 years.

Yousef planned and executed the 1993 truck bombing of the World Trade Center, but escaped to Pakistan before he could be arrested. Yousef remained at large until 1996 when he was arrested in Pakistan. He has subsequently been extradited to the United States, tried, and sentenced for his part in the original WTC attack.

This is one of the more interesting articles published in a smaller-city American newspaper about the inter-relationships between the various attempted attacks against U.S. interests by al Qaeda operatives.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "Yesterday, I bought a copy of Unleashed, a CD recorded by Toby Keith on Dreamworks Records. I bought it to get a licensed copy of the song Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (The Angry American), calling for a just response to the September 11th terrorist attacks. In my opinion, this song alone is worth the street price of the album (currently around $13.50 in most places)."

"I need to sit down and listen to the other songs on the album. But, I thought I'd mention it here and encourage people to listen to 'Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue', if they haven't had the opportunity yet."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jennifer Harper wrote an excellent piece for The Washington Times that compares the commemoration of Pearl Harbor to that of the attack on the World Trade Center from the perspective of the media reports on the events' first anniversaries. Harper begins:

Nobody was ready for "healing" on December 7, 1942, and "closure" was the last thing anybody wanted.

America, on the first anniversary of that other date that lives in infamy — often the benchmark by which September 11 is judged — wanted blood and vengeance, without apology.

No flowers, no teddy bears, and no exploration of the national angst. No presidential admonitions to think of Shinto as a religion of peace, no appeals to understand the frustrations that drove the misunderstood Nazis to rape Poland and bomb London.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On September 11, 2001, over 3,000 people died in terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Today, we remember all of the victims, and particularly the friends of CTDATA who were killed in the attacks:

• World Trade Center
  
  
  
  • Vito DeLeo, mechanic at World Trade Center, USA Hockey official
    
  • John Eichler, retired executive at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, brother of Joan Aiello
    
  • John Pocher, bond trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, alumnus of Essex County Chiefs youth hockey program
    
  • Kalyan Sarkar, Port Authority seismic engineer, father of Kishan Sarkar-- a Rensselaer alumnus
    

  
  

• American Airlines Flight 11
  
  
  
  • J. Nicholas Humber, executive at Enron Wind Corporation, Rensselaer Class of 1963
    
  
  

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tomorrow, CBS will broadcast the documentary 9|11 at 9:00 pm, Eastern Time. It is only the second time that this fantastic film will be aired on American television.

Last month, we reported that a commemorative edition of the Naudet Brothers' film would be released on DVD and VHS on September 10. Our report on the original airing of the documentary said:

It took great courage to produce and air a documentary like this on broadcast television, even in 2002. In a way, it was surprising how many stomach churning scenes of casualties and how much profanity spoken by the surviving firemen were left in this film. But, if they had edited it, even to contemporary network broadcast standards, what would have been left?

Watching 9|11 will remind us why we call our effort to respond to this terrorist attack a war on terror.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CBS News has produced an interesting book called What We Saw: The Events of September 11-- in Words, Pictures, and Video. It is both a 144 page hardcover book and a DVD. The DVD contains nearly 2 hours of as-it-happened video that was broadcast on CBS on September 11 and in the days that followed, interspersed with brief comments by CBS anchorman Dan Rather.

Much of the book is transcripts of what appears on the DVD. Additional text is included from articles that appeared in The New York Daily News, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and many other publications.

We feel that the street price of this book, about $18 at this writing, is a reasonable price for the DVD by itself. If you want to have a video copy of a large amount of reportage as it appeared on U.S. television that day, this is one book you should buy.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday, CNN reported that a group of relatives of September 11 attack victims filed a $116 trillion dollar lawsuit against a number of individuals, charities, and businesses that allegedly support al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and The Taliban. The defendants named in the lawsuit include "seven international banks; eight Islamic foundations, charities and their subsidiaries; individual terrorist financiers; the Saudi bin Laden Group; three Saudi princes; and the government of Sudan." The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

This is not the first time that international groups have been sued in the United States for terrorist activity. However, this may be the first time that the terrorist activity actually occured within the territory of the United States. The legal counsel for this suit includes at least one lawyer who participated in the settlement negotiation for the victims' families' suit over the PanAm Flight 103 attack. This is one type of class action lawsuit that we fully support.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sesh Rengaswamy pointed out that Rediff.com reported that Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee and Pakistani President Musharraf both plan to attend memorial services in New York on September 11. This information has not been widely reported in the mainstream U.S. media.

India and Pakistan were very close to war over a disputed territory in Jammu and Kashmir earlier this year. Given the fact that both government leaders will attend the same ceremonies, it is possible that informal talks might take place.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wired News reported that a Maryland internet entrepreneur took over alneda.com, a major al Qaeda web site, and operated it for five days before the original operator alerted the users of the site. Jon Messner, the entrepreneur who took over al Neda, has met with the FBI, but the FBI reportedly "asked him not to disclose what they had discussed".

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

To commemorate the first anniversary of the terrorist attack that destroyed The World Trade Center, Paramount Home Video will release 9/11 - The Filmmakers' Commemorative Edition on both DVD and VHS. The official release date is September 10, 2002. Advance orders are being taken for the program by Amazon.com.

This film, which we have previously described as one of the great moments in television history, has only been aired once on American broadcast television. The first airing occured on March 10, 2002 on CBS. It was made by brothers Gedeon and Jules Naudet. As CTDATA reported back in February, the Naudet brothers were shooting the final scenes of a documentary on the New York City Fire Department when the terrorist attack occurred. They rode along with the subjects of their documentary to the site of the attack, while keeping their cameras rolling. The result was some of the most priceless historic film footage ever captured.

According to the information provided about the DVD, the version to be released will run 130 minutes, and will include "additional interviews with the heroic firefighters, rescue workers and filmakers, giving exclusive insight to their firsthand experience of the day's events." The DVD version on sale at Amazon is Region 1 encoded (for the U.S. and Canada). It is not clear if other regional encodings are available. As was the case with the original broadcast, the videos will be released in widescreen letterbox format.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Associated Press reports that thousands of people are accused of using ATMs to steal $15 million from a credit union whose computer security system was damaged on September 11. According to the article, "{Manhattan} District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said the suspects found a way to repeatedly withdraw up to $500 a day from ATMs — even if their accounts at the Municipal Credit Union couldn't cover it."

Apparently, the credit union's data center was located in a building that adjoined the World Trade Center complex. That building was damaged in the terrorist attack, and it resulted in computer network problems that enabled withdrawals in excess of account balances.

Reports indicate that over 4,000 people overdrew their accounts by at least $1,000. This is shocking in light of the fact that so many people are known to have adopted a spirit of helpfulness and co-operation.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Martin O'Donnell pointed out an op/ed piece that appeared in today's New York Times by Richard Florida, a professor of economic development at Carnegie Mellon University. In the piece, Dr. Florida suggests that reconstruction on Ground Zero will play a key role in the economic evolution of the Metropolitan New York area.

{The Metropolitan New York} economy is fundamentally a creative economy. Growth derives from the endless creation of new firms, new industries and new ways of doing things.... {The} most sensible overall planning approach is to help Lower Manhattan become what it is becoming anyway — a multifaceted creative hub — rather than to indulge in economic overplanning or try to micromanage the future....

The fear that Lower Manhattan is losing its status as a center of the financial industry, for example, is not new and should not be allowed to drive planning. Well before Sept. 11, financial-sector activity was diffusing away from Wall Street, as when Goldman Sachs & Company decided to move many operations to a new building across the Hudson River. But the Street isn't dead. If it were, firms would be moving to Austin or Taipei, not New Jersey.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 2:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times reports that The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation unveiled six different proposals for the redevelopment of Ground Zero. A briefing on the development proposals took place at Federal Hall, across the street from The New York Stock Exchange, yesterday.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey specified in its requirements that the plans must contain sufficient retail and commercial space to entirely replace the space that was destroyed in the terrorist attack. This is why the proposals all include multiple large office buildings.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At 10:29am today, the World Trade Center recovery effort ended with a simple, wordless ceremony. An empty, flag-covered stretcher was carried by representatives of the organizations participating in the recovery. The stretcher was placed in an FDNY ambulance for a procession to Canal Street, 15 blocks away.

The ambulance was followed in procession by representatives of the NYPD, FDNY, and PAPD Emerald Societies. Next, a tractor trailer removed the last remaining steel column from the World Trade Center. When the truck passed the reviewing stand, Mayor Bloomberg, Mayor Giuliani, Governor Pataki, and other politicians joined the procession. Hundreds of recovery workers brought up the rear.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Associated Press reported that the last girder standing at the site of the World Trade Center was taken down overnight and placed on a flatbed truck for removal during another ceremony Thursday morning. According to the article, "Tuesday's ceremony was the first of three – for construction workers, rescue workers and families – that make up a gradual farewell to the round-the-clock recovery operation."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Sunday, The New York Times published a lengthy article that pieced together the telephone and email conversations that friends and family had with victims of the World Trade Center attack. This is part of a series of articles, collectively called "102 Minutes," that were published simultaneously.

In a way it's unfortunate that these articles were published on the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend, because many people who are interested in these pieces of contemporary history probably missed them.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times reports that HBO will air a documentary about the attack on the World Trade Center on Sunday night. The documentary, called In Memoriam: New York City, 09/11/01 will air at 9:00pm Eastern and Pacific times.

According to the article, much of the program consists of a review of the activities of New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on that day. He narrates a large part of the program.

Mr. Giuliani narrates his day from start to finish, his words intercut with scenes of what took place, yet the documentary has the feel of a community-made mosaic. Its images have been compiled from 16 news organizations and 118 ordinary New Yorkers, each identified on screen as his or her work appears. That unifying spirit and sense of reflection makes "In Memoriam," which has its premiere Sunday night on HBO, different in tone from the Naudet brothers' "9/11" film on CBS, with its focus on firefighters and astonishing images inside one of the towers; the terror attacks affected so many people that each new work adds a fresh perspective, just when it seems we must have exhausted every one.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CBS News was the first to report that President Bush was briefed in August about the possibility that terrorists might attempt to hijack U.S. passenger planes. A few media outlets, like CBS, are focusing their coverage on the shock expressed by some members of Congress (who all happen to be Democrats) that the government did not react more aggressively to these warnings. The Associated Press seems to have issued two different stories by the same correspondent: one simply reporting that a briefing had taken place, another reporting that a briefing had taken place and relating the critical aspects of the Congressional reaction.

Some have already rushed to ask the standard, post-Watergate question: "What did the President know and when did he know it?" This implies that a cover-up has taken place, and that the President was told that there was a possibility that multiple groups of terrorists would coordinate hijack attempts, and crash any planes that they successfully hijacked into major