Where were you 5 years ago?

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IronDuke

Ancient Mariner
Whether you cried or cheered (sadly, some sick f**ks did) or something in between, the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001 are one of the defining moments of a generation, much like the fall of the Berlin Wall or the assasination of President Kennedy.

Where were you when you heard?

I was in my Grade XII Chemistry class trying to feign interest in titrations. The principal came over the Public Address system and told the school what had happened. When the class ended, LooseCannon and I rushed up to our history teacher's classroom to get further details (he was really cool and the only teacher with a TV in his classroom)
We got there just in time to see the first tower collapse. Somehow I knew nothing would be the same again, that this would define my generation in the way the above-mentoned events defined previous ones.
 
I was at home that afternoon, enjoying my last days of free time before returning to my studies, after a 1-year hiatus.
A friend sent me an sms, it said something like that: "Hey Gianni, turn on the tv!It's incredible what's happening!".
When I saw all that on tv I wouldn't believe my eyes, there was too much confusion, they were talking about "planes" and at first I believed that it was a sort of a military attack.
Sadly, it was a major event in human history, and it led to the uncertainty in which we are living of these days.
 
I'd just come home from work and turned the TV on to have some background noise. After a few minutes I started to listen more carefully (I was in front of the pc at the time) and turned around to look at the TV. I don't think I left the TV couch for the next 4-5 hours. I couldn't believe what had happened. I was definitely not cheering, but I was afraid what the US (read: Bush) would do, since a retaliation was a certainty. The shock left me after a few days, but then on September 11th 2003 it all came back, when our foreign minister, Anna Lind, was murdered. The first few hours, nobody knew who or why and the ghost of the terrorists reared it's ugly head. In the end, it turned out that it was a mentally ill person who basically blew his top. But at first, all the thoughts and feelings from 9/11-01 came back.

I can't for the life of me understand how anybody in their, at least slightly, right mind can justify to him/herself the murder of thousands to further one's cause? Regardless of the cause, no matter how "worthy", by slaughtering the innocents the loose all legitimacy and all right-thinking followers. It's the same in the Israel-Palestine situation, the old IRA-Great Britain issue - wheter or not the struggle is justified, when they resort to murdering innocents, they loose all their legitimacy. How are they thinking?

The worst part of the attack, in my opinion, is what's happened all over the western world these past 5 years, where our freedom, our right to integrity and in some instances even our right to freely speak our minds have been severely limited. By doing this, I believe we've let the terrorists win a huge victory since they've made us live in constant fear and also make large changes to our society. I know these restrictions are more consistent in the US and to some extent in the UK, but even in Sweden, there have been changes in the law, flying is a lot more cumbersome than before, etc, etc. In a way, we've given the terrorists a victory they shouldn't have had. I know a lot of people don't agree and belive the Patriot Act and Homeland Security in the US are good things, but to me it spells defeat, at least partially. There must be a root to the hatred of the Western world. I know it's naive and idealistic to hope for this, but I think it's our responisbility to try to eliminate the cause of the hatred, not the ones that hate.
 
I was at work (same job I have now) and our boss just so happened to log onto the 'net and there on his ISP's main site was this breaking news. Initially, their was a whole lot of confusion surrounding what actually happened, but when the gravity of the situation started to sink in - people at work started to say stupid things (as a example, one guy was saying that there was an aircraft travelling over the Atlantic and heading for Canary Wharf - this was probably brought on by panic, more than anything). When I got home that night, it was all that was on the TV/Radio etc. I certainly do remember the pictures of people in the middle east cheering what had happened.

One thing that some may or may not remember was that at the time, Stephen Byers was the Department for Transport (I believe) minister. His political advisor (Jo Moore) had a leaked email/memo that was sent out to state that had they "any bad news from their department to bury, now would be a good time".
 
I was at home and got a phone call from my brother. He said "do you know what happened in NY?". Said I no! What?. He answered that it was terrible there. I had a look at the tv and saw it was worse than terrible.
Now, I can't say something like "nothing will be the same now" or similar sentence. I know that it was the first time that USA were attacked in their own territory but we are used to that, here, in Europe.  So we have a different perception of these king of tragic events. Yesterday I saw of tv report on the firemen in NY in sep 11 2001. Simply heartrending.
 
At that time, I usually watched a TV show at 15.00, but after seeing the preview for the show that day I decided not to and go out instead. Before I wanted to turn off my TV, I caught the 15.00 news flash. The anchor said that according to CNN, a plane had crashed into one of the buildings of the World Trade Center.
I didn't think anything of that at first, because I remembered a couple of weeks before, a paraglider had landed on the Statue of Liberty, and for some odd reason, I associated those two events. Out of curiosity, I turned on CNN nevertheless and saw the picture of the burning tower. Then, I knew something was wrong.
I went downstairs to tell my mother, who was much more shocked than I was. She turned on the TV immediately, and from that point on I saw everything: The second plane, the plane in Pennsylvania, the Pentagon, everything, live and right there.

It was the first day of school after the summer holidays, and I had bought school stuff earlier that day, including a notepad- actually, I found the receipt of that some time later, and found that I had bought a notepad and a box of tic tacs. Anyway, when I was choosing the notepad to buy, I chose between the one I bought and one that had a picture of the World Trade Center on the cover. I really liked the picture, but I decided against that one because it had no frames.
Funny.
 
Good thread.

On 9/11 2001, I was in school all day and nobody told us about the news during the day.  It was crazy.  I only found out when I returned home later that evening.  I was devastated and the most vivid memory I have of that day is the television pictures of Muslims in New York itself, celebrating.  A sad day that has basically dominated the news ever since (in one form or another).  I suppose it is inevitable that something similar will happen in the forseeable future but we won't know until it happens  :(
 
Sad as this incident was, it gives the US the excuse to make war everywhere in the world against "terrorists" and the countries that supposedly support them.
US has to maintain its "superpower" status and uses these attacks to justify its atrocities.
What surprises me is how americans live under the constant fear of being attacked by a terrorist. It's just what the US government wants.
 
hellrat, you can't possibly say that the USA welcomed these attacks?
 
Conor said:
hellrat, you can't possibly say that the USA welcomed these attacks?
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I was wathcing a documentary about the war in Afghanistan and Condoleezza Rice was being interviewed. She was talking about the war preparations and the plans for the attack and all the time she was smiling as if she was being interviewed about her new movie or something!
I'm not a conspiracy theorist but i think that the WTC attacks gave Bush and his administration the pretext to wage wars they had already planned.
 
hellrat said:
i think that the WTC attacks gave Bush and his administration the pretext to wage wars they had already planned.
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Indeed. I don't have any sources for this, but people with high up has revealed that when the attack on the World Trade Center happened, Bush was visiting some schoolkids and one person whispered in his ear: "Mr. President,, the U.S. is under attack!" Bush waited 15 minutes before leaving the kids to deal with it. And he simply said to his staff. "Find me a connection between Bin Ladin and Saddam so we can invade Iraq."

It sure gave Bush a pretext. I'm not saying he doesn't care for the atatck, but something that's strange is that it took the Navy Seals one month after the troops had landed in Afghanistan to get into the area where they thought Usama was hiding. I mean, it doesn't seem like they were really trying to get him. They have three divisions of airborne troops that could have landed and just add in a few soldiers from Special Forces and Navy Seals and you'd probably get him. I mean, it's not like U.S.A. don't have the resources.
 
Conor said:
Good thread.
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I don't think so, It's been five years already, people need to move on, just like they need to move on from JFK, Berlin Wall and landing on the moon (actually people have even forgoten that one). Yes it did define my generation, yes it was tragic, but for god's sake the mourning is over. I am sick and tired of Bush using 9/11 to guilt trip the world and the country into getting his way or to justify his moronic international policies and wars. Whenever people question him, he never gives a straight answer, he just says "since 9/11..." and fills in the blank with a generic phrase about freedoms and liberty which he himself has taken from his people. We know 9/11 was horrible, but what is he, what is the world going to do NOW. What are they going to do about our CURRENT state of affairs? By now I could care less if it was a conspiracy or not. I think if our government really wants to honor those who died they should give them a real rest and quit using and abusing their memory to advance a clearly hostile agenda and restrict people's freedoms. As Amonica said, in a way the terrorists did win that battle.
 
Was in my grade 7 history class. We watched tv with the rest of the school in the library, gym, and other places the rest of the day to see what was going on.
 
Yax said:
Indeed. I don't have any sources for this, but people with high up has revealed that when the attack on the World Trade Center happened, Bush was visiting some schoolkids and one person whispered in his ear: "Mr. President,, the U.S. is under attack!" Bush waited 15 minutes before leaving the kids to deal with it. And he simply said to his staff. "Find me a connection between Bin Ladin and Saddam so we can invade Iraq."

It sure gave Bush a pretext. I'm not saying he doesn't care for the atatck, but something that's strange is that it took the Navy Seals one month after the troops had landed in Afghanistan to get into the area where they thought Usama was hiding. I mean, it doesn't seem like they were really trying to get him. They have three divisions of airborne troops that could have landed and just add in a few soldiers from Special Forces and Navy Seals and you'd probably get him. I mean, it's not like U.S.A. don't have the resources.
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Yax, I agree that Bush turely wanted to find a link between 9/11 and Saddam Hussein. It'd have given him the excuse to go to war and correct his father's biggest shortcoming (not killing the S.O.B. in the Gulf War). But to say that it was the first thing he thought of when being informed of the attacks is, quite frankly, ludicrous. Not even Bush is that narrow minded. Despite what you may have heard, he's a human being. He was thinking the same thing we all were at the time, which is "Oh Jesus H. Christ, what the flying f**k is going on?" Except he was the one who was in charge. I'd need to see some pretty solid proof from a source who has no reason to lie before I'd believe such an outlandish statement.

As for not sending in the airborne troops to kill bin Laden immediately...wow. I suggest you brush up on military strategy. You don't just parachute your best soldiers into the middle of the roughest terrain imaginable, to say nothing of the hundreds of hostiles armed with automatic weapons and RPGs who would immediately surround them. Even if they weren't killed by landing on sharp rocks, they'd be fairly easy targets once they hit the ground. Osama bin Laden knew that the Coalition would invade his caves in reprisal for the attack. He's evil, yes, but not stupid. He hid, and it took a little while for the Yanks to find him. And he eluded capture again. And the Americans looked for him . And he his again. Seeing a pattern? bin Laden is a slippery little devil, and he has so many supporters that he could be hiding anywhere in the Islamic world. I wouldn't be at all surprized if he was in Riyadh in one of his family's many mansions.
 
Onhell said:
I am sick and tired of Bush using 9/11 to guilt trip the world and the country into getting his way or to justify his moronic international policies and wars. Whenever people question him, he never gives a straight answer, he just says "since 9/11..." and fills in the blank with a generic phrase about freedoms and liberty which he himself has taken from his people. We know 9/11 was horrible, but what is he, what is the world going to do NOW. What are they going to do about our CURRENT state of affairs? By now I could care less if it was a conspiracy or not. I think if our government really wants to honor those who died they should give them a real rest and quit using and abusing their memory to advance a clearly hostile agenda and restrict people's freedoms. As Amonica (Anomica :p) said, in a way the terrorists did win that battle.
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Well spoken, Onhell. I think that's what a lot of us are thinking too, but if I said it, I'd be branded an "America basher" and thus my words would count less. I find it appalling that our nations' leaders use the "...9/11"-line in every context in order to circumvent our different freedoms. Just a few months ago in Sweden, the government and the assembly voted on a law that basically means that the state will be able to monitor all electonic communication - e-mail, instant messaging, sms, mobile phone conversations, etc - to prevent terrorism and crime. That would never have happened if the US legislation hadn't broken the ground. (On another note, they also decided that file sharing is a crime and thus made 1/8 of Sweden's population - about 1 million people+, predominantly under the under-25s into criminals, over night. They've realised that it's a bad move to mark a whole generation as criminals and so have started to discuss changing the law again, but still...everything and anything can be done under the aegis of 9/11 and "the threat of terrorism".) :mad:
 
IronDuke said:
As for not sending in the airborne troops to kill bin Laden immediately...wow. I suggest you brush up on military strategy. You don't just parachute your best soldiers into the middle of the roughest terrain imaginable, to say nothing of the hundreds of hostiles armed with automatic weapons and RPGs who would immediately surround them.
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While I agree with you that it would have been a poor strategy, have you ever heard of Operation Eagle Claw to name but one?
 
I had just started a new job that very morning. I didn't watch any morning TV, and driving to work I listened to a CD rather than the radio. So I had no clue. The morning break was at 9am Denver time, about 2 hours after it all began. I walked into the cafeteria, and there was a crowd around the TV. I look, and the first thing I see is a replay of the second plane hitting the WTC - the one that had the giant fireball. It looked like a movie - how could that be real? I asked what movie they were watching, and all my new co-workers looked at me like I was insane.

At that time, the towers hadn't fallen yet. It happened shortly after our break was over, so I didn't hear about it till lunchtime. I remember being told about it, and I refused to believe it. I had visited New York City many times. I'd been to those towers - not inside them, but standing at their foot. I knew from personal experience just how huge they were. I simply could not believe they had fallen. Even though everyone said it was true, I refused to believe it. Complete and utter denial.

They let us out of work an hour early that day. I got home and turned on CNN as fast as possible. I still didn't believe it; I was waiting and hoping for the news report that would clarify this obvious mistake. Then after about 5 minutes, they showed the film. I don't remember much after that for the next couple of hours. I was in absolute shock.

I haven't mentioned this in a long while on this forum, so many here may not be aware: I'm a recovered alcoholic. At the time, I was still attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings several nights a week. I went to my regular meeting that night. I've been in thousands of AA meetings over the years. That one stands out as one of the most emotional meetings I ever attended. The room was full of both sorrow and fury. I don't think anyone could even think straight.

Back when I lived in Connecticut in the 90's, I had many friends who worked in New York City. I didn't know what buildings they worked in. Turns out no one I knew died. But on that night, I didn't know that. For all I knew, I had just lost dear friends. I was so desperate to find out and to help out with the effort somehow. If I'd still been living on the East Coast, I would have gotten down to the City somehow and done whatever I could to help (like thousands of other people did). If I'd had the money, I wanted to leave Denver and drive out there, but I was nearly broke at the time.

So some of you have said, the mourning's over. Get over it, move on. I understand where that sentiment comes from. To some extent, I agree. But as I've been writing this, all the emotions and memories have come flooding back. Especially that fear I had lost friends. Maybe it's easy for you to say get over it if your life never had any contact with the WTC or Pentagon. But those of us with some contact will never completely get over it.

I do agree with another point that got brought up here. Politicians - or anyone else - who tries to use 9/11 or invoke those memories for ulterior motives deserves to be skinned alive and fed to rabid rats.

Did the US government want it to happen? No. Of course not. Did they welcome the opportunities for aggression that 9/11 provided? Absolutely. It's well-known now that Bush was planning to attack Iraq from before he even got "elected". All he needed was an excuse, however flimsy, and 9/11 gave him that. I hope that idiot murdering fuckwad burns in some kind of hell for all eternity - along with Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz and all their fascist cronies. I'm an atheist, I don't really believe in hell, but I hope one somehow exists for them. And I don't give a rat's ass if the CIA or whoever reads this. It ain't a threat. It's just a desperate hope for some kind of justice.
 
Just a word of warning from your friendly moderator...  ;)

This thread is about telling our little community where you were when you heard of the attacks on New York and Washington, not to discuss the pros and cons of the event. You can share with us your feelings at the time, and how they evolved since, but please respect the most elementary courtesy.

I have already deleted some posts that didn't belong here, and I would like not to have to do it again. Thank you for your attention.
 
I was at home watching the morning news live.  I was shocked.  That day was my first day of classes for that year of university.
 
When I got home from school, I found out. When I had left school, though, they were saying "Go straight home!" to everyone, so I figured something was up. We were just in grade 6 at the time, so I figure that's why they didn't tell us exactly what was happening. When I got home my mother and sister were watching the television, and I joined them still not aware of what was going on. Shortly, though, I found out and grew very scared and confused.
 
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