“I am convinced that there was a direct line between at least some of the terrorists who carried out the September 11th attacks and the government of Saudi Arabia,” former Senator Bob Graham, Democrat of Florida, said in an affidavit filed as part of a lawsuit brought against the Saudi government and dozens of institutions in the country by families of Sept. 11 victims and others. Mr. Graham led a joint 2002 Congressional inquiry into the attacks. Their affidavits, which were filed on Friday and have not previously been disclosed, are part of a multibillion-dollar lawsuit that has wound its way through federal courts since 2002. An appellate court, reversing an earlier decision, said in November that foreign nations were not immune to lawsuits under certain terrorism claims, clearing the way for parts of the Saudi case to be reheard in United States District Court in Manhattan.
Still, Washington has continued to stand behind Saudi Arabia publicly, with the Justice Department joining the kingdom in trying to have the lawsuits thrown out of court on the grounds that the Saudis are protected by international immunity.
The senators’ assertions “might inject some temporary strain or awkwardness at a diplomatic level,” said Kenneth L. Wainstein, a senior national security official in the George W. Bush administration. Even so, he said, “the United States and the Saudis have developed strong counterterrorism cooperation over the last decade, and that relationship will not be undermined.”
- NY Times article from today
I wasn’t planning on writing this week, but so much stuff has come out in the last two days that I couldn’t help myself from trying to get this information out to as wide an audience as possible. Those of you that have been long time readers are aware of the fact that I witnessed 9/11 firsthand. On that fateful morning, I was getting breakfast at 3 World Financial Center when all of a sudden people started panicking and saying we were evacuating the building. I never made it back up to my cubicle and instead took my toast and orange juice downstairs with me. When I got down there I couldn’t believe my eyes. There in from of me was a huge smoldering black hole in the first tower that was hit. I was one block away just starring at this symbol of the city I was born in with sheer terror. People all around starting speculating as to what caused it. I heard ridiculous theories such as a “helicopter hit it.” It looked like a bomb to me. In any event, we all stood there very close until out of nowhere I heard a massive explosion and saw debris spewing from behind the building. In case you are unaware of how the buildings were situated, from my viewpoint the first building that got hit totally blocked the second tower. I didn’t see or hear a plane, just a massive explosion. The ground shook and people started to stampede away. I almost got tossed into a nearby trashcan as my opened orange juice container spilled all over me. I retreated about one hundred yards back to regroup with the herd.
At this point the word had started to get around that two planes had hit the buildings. Several friends and I decided to walk back to my apartment, which at the time was on 12th street between 3rd and 4th avenue. Cell phones didn’t work. My parents and brother who was studying abroad in Australia at the time all thought I might be dead. I saw people jumping to their death. I saw the first building come down in person as I walked home. I never returned to 3 World Financial Center as it became a temporary morgue. Lehman Brothers relocated to the Sheraton Hotels in Midtown for the next several months and my group worked out of a small conference room.
While 9/11 was far more traumatic for many Americans than for myself, it really messed me up emotionally for a while. I thought about joining the armed forces or the newly created Department of Homeland Security. I almost quit my job to get a graduate degree in something I could do to help fight the “war on terror.” The city of my birth was attacked and two great symbols I had seen repeatedly growing up had suddenly vanished. I never once questioned anything about 9/11 for many, many years. I was emotionally reprogrammed. I now realize that was the intent and I am not happy about it.
Look, I will be the first to say I have no idea what really happened on that day, but I can tell you one thing. I am 100% convinced that it wasn’t 19 cave dwelling Al Qaeda members who hate us for our “freedoms.” I can also tell you that two planes didn’t take down three buildings.
2 comments:
Come on every one knows that 19 guys with box cutters did the deed. They planned it for a long time. Got on flight 11 and flight 175 (equals 13) and then made their way into the cockpits. They beat up the military trained pilots easily and gained control of the planes.
And those attackers were all Obama's cousins!
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