(Note: I can guarantee no accuracy of information on this site. Below is what I've pieced together from radio, news, internet, etc...)

This is what I know so far. This morning at 5:45, a jet crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. Shortly, thereafter a SECOND jet crashed into the same building. A third unidentified plane later crashed into the army wing of the Pentagon. Naturally, terrorism is suspected.

In San Diego, all flights through at least 4pm have been cancelled, possibly all day. I'm uncertain yet about flights around the US. (Coincidentally, I have a family member scheduled for a flight today)

Internet coverage seems difficult for me to get right now, probably because of network congestion. I have TV in the background, I hear newscasters floating the word "war" around a lot.

Expect flight and border security to be much tighter for a long time.

From New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/11/national/11WIRE-PLAN.html

Plane Crashes Collapse World Trade Center Towers
By TERENCE NEILAN

In parallel attacks in New York City and Washington, planes crashed into each of the twin towers of the World Trade Center around 9 this morning and a plane later crashed into the outer ring of the Pentagon building, causing smoke, fire and a sense of panic in the streets.

Later, after a number of explosions, both towers of the World Trade Center collapsed. An enormous loss of life was feared.

In a short announcement during a visit to Sarasota, Fla., President Bush called the World Trade Center attack ``a national tragedy and an apparent act of terrorism against our country.''

Julian E. Barnes, a Times reporter, interviewed people who were in the towers at the time of the impact and people who witnessed the planes crashing into the towers.

A man who was standing on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge, Nicholas Gasper, who works for the New York City Transit Department, said he saw a four-engine plane ``doing a tilt into the building. From what I saw it looked like the place sliced into the tower,'' referring to the second impact. He said he heard the building shake. ``I am still shaking,'' he added.

A second man who was three or four blocks away from the tower, Terrance Phillips, 35, from New Jersey, said he was looking at the fire. ``Then I saw a 747 or some kind of plane. It crashed in and exploded. People were watching and then they started stampeding away.''

He added: ``People were jumping out of the building. People seemed to be deciding just to take their own lives. It was the most horrific thing I have ever seen.''

Television cameras captured the collapse in Manhattan. Both towers partially disappeared behind thick clouds of dark smoke; then the top floors of the south tower began to fall. Black smoke was all that remained. The camera's distance made it impossible to see people or details of the floors collapse, but witnesses said they had seen people jumping out windows.

After the second tower fell, the entire area was consumed with smoke, as if clouds had descended and enveloped the lower tip of Manhattan. The smoke continued to spread, over the harbor.

Further television coverage showed people running through the streets pursued by the smoke.

Sherri Day, a reporter at The Times, said she was forced to take refuge in a store to escape the billowing smoke. ``Everything's black,'' she said. ``It is impossible to see anything.''

In New York City, primary elections for mayor and other offices were called off after they had begun.

At a meeting in Lima, Peru, of the Organization of American States, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell spoke out against the attacks.

``A great tragedy has struck our country and it will not affect the nature of our society,'' he said. ``We'll find out who's responsible for this and bring them to justice.'' He took no questions and was returning to Washington, cutting short what was to have been a two-day visit.

After the crash at the Pentagon building, the White House, the Capitol building, the Treasury, State Department and all other federal buildings were evacuated. In New York, the United Nations building was also evacuated.

All airline travel within the United States was suspended and Mr. Bush was said to be on his way back from Sarasota to Washington. International flights were being diverted to Canada.

Mr. Bush said in Sarasota that he had ordered that ``the full resources of the federal government'' be used to carry out a full investigation to find out who was responsible for the World Trade Center attacks.

``Terrorism against our country will not stand,'' he said, before ending by leading a prayer for victims of the attacks.

Witness accounts differed over what kind of planes were involved in the impacts. One witness told CNN television that the first plane seemed to slow and deliberately line up before crashing into the north tower.

A witness who works in the strategic planning department at The New York Times, Alan Flippen, said that as he came to work on 46th Street just before 9 he saw an American Airlines Boeing 767 flying ``very low in the direction of the World Trade Center towers.''

He said he did not see the impact, but later reports said one of the planes that crashed into the towers was an American Airlines plane that had been hijacked on a flight from Boston.

In Washington, officials said the F.B.I. was investigating reports of the hijacking before the crashes.

Heavy black smoke billowed into the sky above the gaping holes in the side of the 110-story twin towers, one of New York City's most famous landmarks, and debris rained down upon the street, one of the city's busiest work areas. When the second plane hit, a fireball of flame and smoke erupted, leaving a huge hole in the glass and steel tower.

All New York City-area airports were shut down, and several subway lines were immediately shut down. Trading on Wall Street was suspended and many businesses were ordered to evacuate their personnel.

hi to all

this puts america on a freeze !!

i think flights will be cancelled for a long time
perhaps for another day or 2.

our airport security is a joke , they got Burger King workers going through my bags and xray machines operaters making less than the flower girls in tj

this is a wake up call
we need to act now

milkman

Tuesday September 11 10:37 AM ET
World Trade Center, Pentagon Hit by Planes
By Alan Elsner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three planes crashed into major U.S. landmarks in New York and Washington on Tuesday, destroying one of New York's mighty twin towers, in a dramatic and deadly attack on the United States.

Loss of life from the attacks was feared to be catastrophic and could number in the hundreds or even thousands.

Both of the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center were struck by planes deliberately plowing into them at the start of the workday. Shortly afterward, a third plane crashed into or near the Pentagon (news - web sites) in Washington, setting off a big fire.

The Pentagon, the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court and other key government buildings were evacuated as the nation ground to a virtual halt and panic spread throughout the country. Authorities grounded all planes in the United States, an unprecedented step.

President Bush (news - web sites) called the deliberate aerial assaults an "apparent terrorist attack," and ordered a full-scale investigation.

Early reports said all three planes used in the attacks were hijacked, two of them from Boston. It was not immediately known who flew the planes and what happened to them.

The first plane crashed into one of the twin towers of New York's World Trade Center as thousands of workers arrived to begin their day.

HUGE HOLE IN BUILDING

It opened a huge hole near the top of the building. Two hours later, the building in which thousands of people collapsed on itself in a huge cloud of smoke and fire.

TV stations caught the second plane plowing into the second of the twin towers, exploding in a fire ball a few minutes after the first impact.

"It's clear that this is terrorist-related. We're not sure who is responsible," a U.S. official said.

"There was no advance warning of this," the official said on condition of anonymity.

One of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center was American Airlines' Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles, said Lori Bassani, spokesperson for American's flight attendants union.

Bassani, who said she was in a meeting with American officials in Fort Worth, Texas, American's headquarters, said if full, the flight on the Boeing 767 would carry 158 passengers. That would include two pilots and nine or 10 flight attendants, she said.

She said she did not know how many people were on board.

Bush cut short a visit to Florida and rushed back to Washington to face the greatest crisis of his young presidency.

"Terrorism against our nation will not stand," Bush said before leaving for the capital.

"Today we've had a national tragedy. Two airplanes have crashed into the World Trade Center in an apparent terrorist attack on our country," he said, speaking before schoolchildren, teachers and parents at Emma E. Booker Elementary School, where he had planned to talk about education.

"I have spoken to the vice president, to the governor of New York, to the director of the FBI (news - web sites), and have ordered that the full resources of the federal government go to help the victims and the families and to conduct a full scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act," said Bush.

He called for a moment of silence. "May God bless the victims, their families and America," he said, his voice breaking with emotion.

I Agree:

last time we went throught Lindbergh field ( headed to s.e. asia) the Xray maching in the commuter terminal was down, they questioned a pack of flower tortillias we had and let my digital camera and laptop pass easily>

If they were more concerened with security and less with getting minimum wage ppl it would imporve.

keyyai

Here is a photo from Reuters


_{World Trade Center tower two falls to the ground after a fire, early September 11, 2001. Both towers have fallen after planes crashed into the buildings.
REUTERS/Jeff Christensen}

Here's a photo from Associated Press


_{Plumes of smoke pour from the World Trade Center buildings in New York Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. Planes crashed into the upper floors of both World Trade Center towers minutes apart Tuesday in a horrific scene of explosions and fires that left gaping holes in the 110-story buildings. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison)}

US Military is now on threat condition 'Delta'. That is Wartime condition.

Reserves are being called up, as fast as possible, and ALL active duty personel are on call, or called to report to their duty stations.

The 'Delta' condition is WORLD WIDE.


SE

Let's wipe them all out! Damn this makes me wish I had re-enlisted.

-Superman-

Careful what you wish for, Superdude.

I just got my reserve 'stand-by' call.


StrikeEagle

Fear of flying has taken a giant leap.This event will deeply affect much more than we can first imagine.Best of luck to all.

SE, I'm inactive reserve. Doubtful I would be called unless we go to full scale World War.

-Superman-

I heard the entire border with Mexico is closed down.

Live news reports on right now state that the border is still open but crawling, who knows if it will stay open, though.

Anyone notice that all of the webcams on the boarder are down? Not that the sites can't be reached, but there are NO PHOTOS from the cams.

Everything went off the air about 20 minutes ago.


SE

Borders Closed

I won't try to paraphrase more, I'm sure you can get it in better form from a reputable news agency. BBC is a good choice because of the larger portion of international information. See what I've posted to the Mexico board.

Interesting about the web-cams. I'm trying to find some archived live images from some of the destroyed cams, for legit. news stories. Any help? (I know, it sounds ghoulish; I do journalism, OK? No prurient interest here.)

Check out www.telnor.com, their border cams are still up.

Missile Attacks have started on Kabul, Afghanistan as I type. Being shown on MSNBC

Does anyone know if the border is open? Just curious to see how they're handling this situation at the border.

THe border is open, I crossed south bond a little while ago. North Bound has very little traffic, but EXTREMELY complete inspections of every car.

I am not one to jump off and bomb Medicine Factories in Sudan without having a clue as to who did something (ergo our asshole ex-president), but I would expect Bush to come down like a ton of rocks once the facts are in on whoever did this.

Gee....if only we had effective gun control and had closed the gun show loophole, maybe none of this would have happened...

Powerslave,

My thought exactly. In spite of recent reports of authorities being able to sneak in items like guns when they were testing security in airports I think they still do a pretty good job of keeping the guns out. Also from reports these particular terrorists used "knife-like" objects for their takeovers....why not give the guys in the cockpits guns? Guy has a plastic knife and the pilot has a 9mm...story over.

NO shit. Arming the pilots would have prevented all this. But the liberal maggots will probably whine about how maybe the pilots will land there planes' in a school playground and go kill kindergardeners...

Powerslave: " If only we had effective gun control and had closed the gunshow loophole, maybe none of this would happen?"
Are you kidding me? !!! What a ridiculous statement! Do you really believe this had anything to do with gun control laws? Do think these cowards give a damn about gun control laws? How many laws do you think was broken today when these SOB's hijacked a plane and crashed them into 3 buildings, murdering thousands!
Oh, yes! Effective gun control and a closed loophole would POSSIBLY have stopped these assholes in their tracks.
What a typically left-winged, liberal thinking reaction.
TRY THIS:
Maybe instead of all our tax money going to idiotic state and govt. programs we used it where it should have been going: Defense, Intelligence, Anti-terroism.
Oh, yeah... I almost forgot... maybe we should bomb another aspirin factory in Sudan! What a joke that was!
It's time to get serious people. It's time to find out exactly who did this, who wants to be allies or enemies, and unleash the dog's of war against whomever is responsible!
P.S. I agree with you Redongdo. If these pilots are intrusted with the lives of us as passengers, let them defend the goddamn plane! Also, can we get a better door on the cockpit? C'mon!

Ummm elfman why do not you RUN don't walk to the nearest dictionary and look up the word "Sarcasm". Also you might want to read some of my past posts when topics have digressed toward gun control.
Sheeesshhh

Powerslave: If your comments were sarcastic, I apologize for flaming. I guess this is another example of how difficult it is to tell when it's written and not spoken. I didn't catch your post previous to mine and yes, I can get your drift and intention there and ultimately, it sounds like we're coming from the same side, so in apology, I extend my hand. Friends again?
Cheers,
elfman

Sounds good to me....

What happens when a gun is fired in a plane at 30,000 feet?

If the bullet hits a window, the plane depressurizes rapidly, the little yellow oxygen masks drop down, and everything is sucked with incredible force towards the breach. If the plane depressurizes too quickly, everyone on board passes out and the plane eventually runs out of fuel and crashes.

-Superman-

A low caliber gun? Nothing. And 40,000 people do not die on the ground.

Got news for you, Powerslave. If you punch a hole in the cabin of a passenger liner at 30k, you're going to end up with a BIG hole in the airplane, and a crash.

In the 70s the Feds developed special ammo for the Sky Marshals. Low velocity .22 fragmenting bullets that wouldn't punch holes in the plane. (very similar to the bullets that Hinckly used to shoot Reagan) Further, the SMs were HIGHLY trained marksmen, not commercial pilots.

The estimate is that the Lockerby (sp?) bomb punched a 6" hole in the side of the Pan Am 747, and the plane was ripped in half as a result.

Think of it like a balloon and a pinprick. We all know the result of that combo.


StrikeEagle
As I still await reporting instructions.

SE, see my comment re a "low caliber gun". And explosive decompression would still have been better than what happened. The kind of ammo is not important. What is important is that the technology exists to make a bullet that will not destroy the plane, and this technology, if used, would have prevented this tragedy.
Also, of course, armoured and locked doors to the cockpit that are opened for NO reason after the plane takes off would seem to be called for. The present cockpit doors are a joke. Anyone with a strong foot could kick them open.

You are correct.

Maybe we can all take a tip from El Al.

The only question is if the public is willing to put up with the 'trouble' and pay the price.


SE

They need to beef up that cockpit door and institute a "no hostage" rule. Maybe an armed guard on each flight (undercover?) and better xray machine and personnel.

Then you have to worry about possible whacked out pilots like the one that took the planeload of people with him to go meet Allah a year or two ago.
I'm really surprised that these large capacity planes had such a low passenger count.
Taxibob

I'm aware of the danger of a bullet zipping through the plane at altitude...but they've got to give the crew some way of dealing with these things.

And as someone else posted they can devise a shell with low penetration. If nothing else they have guns that shoot bean bags etc. Hell give the pilot a switch that released some kind of sleeping gas throughout the plane and knock everyone out. The technology is there.

Taxibob-

I am also puzzled by the low passenger count on these large capacity planes and the fact that the media hasn't pointed this out. I wonder if the terrorist group bought out large blocks of the seats one by one so they wouldn't have many passengers to overpower with their knives and would have more room to control and herd the passengers. Seems like the airlines would be losing money jetting 30-40 passengers across the country coast to coast.

Kind of weird how it was only a few days ago that Vicente Fox was calling for a totally open border. And every talk show was about Gary Conduit, a member of the House Intelligence Committee. And the Democrats were all screaming that more money should be spent on social services instead of on defense.

More on INTELLIGENT defense, please. Less on star-wars, which would have been useless today, by the way ... oh, and raise taxes too.

GIVE BLOOD

a Democrat,
BG

The "experts" on TV all seem to expect to see beefed up pilot doors which will not be opened, and sky marshalls on even domestic flights.

Of course, when reading or watching any news story, you can mentally substitute the word "chimpanzee" for every occurance of "expert" and get a more accurate and amusing account.

The liberals who are against Stars Wars are the same ones who voted against the continued funding for the armed Sky Marshalls program a few years ago which probaly would have prevent what happened today. You liberals don't want to be reminded about that.

And ten years from now when it is a nuclear missile landing in New York that is a thousand times worse you will all be bitching why didn't our government protect us.

A star wars system may have been useless today, but it is still necessary. Russia has a massive amount of nukes pointed right at us, China has nukes, and Saudi Arabia is developing nukes.

-Superman-

Bull! Not even the Congressional advocates of this multi-trillion dollar idiocy tie this program to a hypothetical Russian threat. The repeated rationale is the need to protect us from some hypothetical attack from terrorist groups operating out of Libia or North Korea. The opponents(many of whom are Republicans) have repeatedly claimed that it would be foolish to spend trillions of dollars on some glitzy, hi-tec anti-ballistic system when the most obvious threat would come from small, well organized terrorist cells far more likely to use low-tec delivery systems like ships or trucks or ...OOPS... airplanes. For fifty years we lived under the very real threat of the Soviet Union without Star Wars. Now we are being stampeded by paranoids into bankrupting our economy to protect us against what? Afgani intercontinental ballistic missiles. Hell, if I were you I'd be a lot more concerned about a couple of ounces of anthrax dumped onto the LA watersystem.
And by the way, check your history. The Air Marshalls programs were dropped when thier funding ran out during the era of "read my lips .. no more taxes" economics as Air industry lobbyists (clearly the pawns of evil liberals) questioned the need for continuing the programs. Neither liberals or conservatives 'voted' it out, they simply did not renew its funding.

One minor problem. "Star Wars" does not work. It does not even come close. The scientists who work on the technology involved say that it is not going to work any time soon. These same people who have a vested interest in increased funding say that it is a bad idea to do so. There are plenty of conservatives opposed to it, because they think for themselves instead of believing everything the politicians tell them. That does not mean they are opposed to increased defense spending, they just want their tax dollars spent on something that might actually defend someone.

Strike Eagle, you are right, but the only problem with an EL AL approach is someone on the tube yesterday said this would probably reduce flights by 80 percent, as the security procedures take so long. It is going to be dificult to deal with this without disrupting the economy.

These terrible events may affect mongers and visa applicants, after all.

It's likely that American embassies will keep a much closer eye on visa applicants and INS will scrutinize more thoroughly the re-entry to the US. I bet that the Department of State will withdraw some visa-waiver programs like that of US-Argentina or US-EU nations. Don't travel without passport to Costa Rica nowadays!

In fact, I remember reading in the WSJ 3 weeks ago that one of the 1993 WTC attack participants held an F-1 visa. That promted the Department of State to require $100 to any student visa application, in effect since April 2001. That money would fund a system for tracking the each student's status and location.

Many foreign students may be denied visas in the future, and so turists. And so spouses from broad.

Cheers,

Andres

"After World War
II, the Americans grew more unfair and more oppressive towards people"

Interesting, since I don't see any americans enforcing their "crappy" Muslim laws on their own ppl.

Are they trying to blame us for their way of life?

IMHO: bin Laden types probably don't really beleive their own BS, they just use it to control ppl and have some power. ( be big shots),

I also agree/wonder why the planes had so few passengers. ( still glad it was so).

I think we are going to find out a lot of "interesting" things as a result of this, and probably things we will be very upset/pissed off by.


I still find it amazing that I can call up a sat pic on my computer and actually see the building I work in, but the gov ( ours) has not use the same tech and more to pinpoint and obliterate the scum that even suggests this kind of warfare.

the terrorists ( besides being nuts) seem to know we ) as a whole nation) are a sensitive ppl, and try to operate within humanitarian rules, and know they will get away with a lot b4 we do something about it.

some time ago I read All quiet on the western front

somewhere in there, I think one old german sgt. said something to the effect that all the world leaders seem to have some kind of agreement that no matter what kind of crap they pull, it is very unlikely they will personally suffer for it in any measure of what they cause.

Btw: the small knives the hijackers are said to have.---

keep in mind, the bottom seat cousions not only make good floatation devices, they are a pretty good shield in case you want to rush someone.

As I understand the reporting, these were the first west coast flights of the day for the respective airlines at those airports. First flights of the day are traditionally less occupied. Most travelers, business and personal, do not like to get up at 4am to leave at 5am to be at the airport by 6am for a 7am flight (unless they absolutely have to do so or to get a super fare). If you call the day before on well traveled routes those 6:45am flights are often the only ones with space.

I read this elsewhere today and found it interesting. Although I have general knowledge of this prognosticator, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this quote:

For those that are unfamiliar, Nostradamous predicted that "in the city of God, 2 twin brothers would fall...sparking the 3rd great war."

If anyone has a link to a site about Nostradamous' predictions, and specifically about this particular one, I would like to know. You can e-mail me at CAlivinlarge@hotmail.com

Strike Eagle, I've used those in a 'suppressed' Ruger 22/45. Silencer? Would you want to interupt the in-flight movie to foil a plan to sway the people into allowing Congress to spend into the 'lock box?' No.

There are some very bad people involed. Someone has "...put some money on the street..." They are expecting a great deal of money in return.

The heroics involved in the 'downing' of the 'failed' suicide flight provide suspicion.

Reading minds for peace.

Jocannon, you got me curious so I checked it out. The quote is not Nostradamus. Check below:

http://www.nostradamus-repository.org/cityofgod.html