The Twin Towers at the
World Trade Center

I wish death upon them and theirs by the thousands.

Specific nations, and specific organizations are responsible for, support, allow, and encourage these horrific acts.  I want to see them all burn.

If you stumbled onto this page looking for emergency numbers, volunteer status, victim information, or other official announcements then please check out:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/US/Emergency_Information/

I am absolutely disgusted at what took place in front of me yesterday, September 11, 2001.  I witnessed most of the tragedy first hand, and I am still in utter disbelief as I watch the news footage; watching the planes crash into the tower and seeing them collapse, over and over.

Fundamentalist scum, hear this now - US Pres. Bush has officially declared, "... there will be no distinction made between terrorists or the nations that harbor them."

It is time for America and the world to physically and economically show these piece of shit terrorists and their host governments that their existence will no longer be tolerated.

Specifically, nations such as Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan, both physically and financially support known terrorist organizations.  There are others.  Fuck them.   Yesterday I saw footage of Palestinians dancing in the streets celebrating the collapse of the Twin Towers.  Fuck them too.  Bush has my full support if he should decide to turn these nations into a sheet of glass or a crater filled wasteland.

Here's how it happened.

I work near the Seaport, Downtown NYC.  This is about 6 blocks from the World Trade Center towers, but still in very plain sight.  I still cannot believe that they are gone...  I take the train into the Trade Center every day;  I did.   I was there at 8:15am, September 11th, 2001,  just 30 minutes before the first plane hit. 

So, this is what I saw yesterday morning.  At a little before 9:00am my co-worker and I looked out of our 34th floor window and saw the entire sky filled with papers.   It looked like a massive ticker-tape parade.  But the papers looked too big and there appeared to be a cloud of smoke in the sky just out of view from our vantage point.   Is that sirens on the street?  Let's go outside and see what the hell is going on.

When we got outside there were about 150 people standing around directly outside of my building, and hundreds more on the streets and different blocks, looking up at the Trade Center.  But you didn't need to follow their gaze to know something was fucked up - In plain sight was just massive amounts of smoke and fire pouring out of the upper levels of one of the towers. 

We walked up a couple of blocks to try and get a better look at what was obviously going to be a horrific tragedy for hundreds of people.  Keep in mind, at this point we had know idea that it had been a plane!  One person on the street had mentioned something about a plane, but there was a lot of speculation about various things that could be happening.

I saw 5 people jump to their deaths from the flaming building. 

I am an atheist, and therefore do not believe in the existence of one supreme, omniscient god.   But I prayed that should there be anything, god, powers, mythos, spirits, angels - please take care of these poor souls who are trapped in the building, and those who just jumped.   Scared, dying.

That was when the biggest explosion that I have ever seen in my life took place.

(newsbreak - It seems like they may already have some related suspects in custody- it is times like these when I wish our nation believed in torture)

So now, we are watching a massive inferno burning inside both of the towers.  Someone on the street confirms that he witnessed the second plane fly right into the tower, and that the first strike was a plane as well.

At that moment we knew it was terrorists.  And that it was massive.  I guessed correctly at that time that they would have used hijacked planes - another prayer goes out for the terrified people aboard the airlines, and again for those trapped in the two buildings.

We watched for a couple more minutes and then decided to head back to our building by the seaport.  I wanted to actually see or hear a news report to try and get more details - also, I knew that by now my wife and family would have heard and would be worried about me.

We listened to the radio and confirmed that it was 2 planes, hijacked and crashed into the towers, and a third plane was suspected to be hijacked and still in the air.   This is the plane, I believe, that later struck into the Pentagon.   HOLY SHIT - The towers, and now the Pentagon - WTF??  That is, as would later be said, an act of war.  There were also reports of a fire at the Washington Mall and suspicious smoke from behind the White House.
And please, let us not forget the fourth plane, and those aboard, who would eventually crash down outside of Pittsburgh. 

I went to phone my wife - As I was on the phone with her telling her that everything was okay, my building rumbled.  It was brief, maybe 2.5 seconds, but it felt as if a giant hand had grabbed us and given a quick shake.  I said, "Holy shit! Baby, I've got to go - I'll call you when I can!"

I had been discussing with others earlier that being up on the 34th floor of a very visible, wealthy, and prominent NY skyscraper may not be the best place to be hanging out at the moment.  Well, we didn't have a chance to leave before our building shook.   We went to an office down the hall where we had a direct view of the trade center towers - Tower 2 had just completely collapsed.  There was nothing left but wreckage and an enormous dust cloud rolling straight at us.

I don't know that I can accurately describe the pit that formed in my stomach when I saw that.  You have to understand, at any given time there may be up to one hundred thousand people in each tower - workers, tourists, commuters, rescue workers trying to get up to the fire floors - these are, were, massive structures!  Each one was like a small city, offices, restaurants, banks, trains...

It would be ridiculous to think, or even hope, that everyone had been evacuated before the building collapsed.  My heart went out to all those whose lives will be forever effected by the people that they had lost.  And to the people who must be inside the rubble, suffering and dying.

I said, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm getting the fuck out of this building (my office by the seaport) and I suggest that you do the same."

A co-worker and I left.  My building is entirely glass, so you can see out from the outer area.  When we stepped off the elevator on the ground floor the entire outside, as far as you could see in each direction (which wasn't far at all!), was engulfed in white ash and debris.  It was literally like looking into a snowstorm.

Although I knew it would be hard to breath outside, I wanted to get out of my building, away from the larger, more likely targets, and to someplace a bit safer.

It was a calm chaos outside.  There was not, thankfully, a lot of panic, but people were running and walking quickly to try and get away from the wreckage and dust.   Nobody felt entirely safe.  Thousands were heading over the Brooklyn bridge on foot, trying to get out of Manhattan.

We went down the street to the Seaport, called our families, and settled into a bar with a television for an hour or so.  In the bar we learned of the attack on the Pentagon, as well as the collapse of the second tower.  The second tower collapsed too!?!? FUCK.

All bridges, tunnels, airports, subways, and ferries - all means into and out of the island of Manhattan, were shut down for security purposes.  I knew that I would not be getting home anytime soon.

It was at this point that I decided that instead of just sitting around that I should go to ground zero and volunteer to help search for survivors. 

My co-worker and I walked the emptying, dust covered streets to a nearby hardware store to get some dust masks and heavy gloves.  As we were about to pay for our supplies, a busted and battered police van pulled up to the store - they had apparently been right there, at the towers, when they collapsed.  I asked if we could volunteer and ride up to the scene with them to help in the rescue efforts.  They graciously accepted.

Without trying to sound morbid, this was very exciting!  The police were looting the hardware store for all it was worth - batteries, flashlights, knives, power cords.   Everything.  We piled into the van, sans windshield and or any windows, and drove to the epicenter.

I couldn't see anything as we drove; everything was entirely clouded in ash.   Visibility was reduced to a few feet.

After arriving at the scene we got out of the van and stepped into total destruction.  
I stood in the intersection of Church St and Liberty, in front of 1 Liberty Plaza, by the Burger King. You can see in the background the area by the Trade Center where I had just been exiting earlier that morning!  Except, I couldn't see a thing.  I was right there, at the base of the towers, but because of the dust I could not even see where the towers were supposed to be.  

Then a breeze blew thru and I saw the twisted, skeletonized remains of the two towers.  The picture here is part of the framework of one side of a tower. 

Right in front of me, barely visible, was a 100 foot high pile of rubble, steel, and ash.   

We immediately started stocking the flashlights with batteries and running power cords from nearby establishments.  I did what I could, but I have to tell you that this is the most helpless that I have ever felt.  I went up their specifically because I knew that there would people inside the rubble, hurt, dying, and in desperate need of help, and here I am opening up packages of fucking batteries for easier access later.

This does not mean that our efforts were un-necessary.  Nor should it imply that the rescuers didn't want to help.  As I later learned, there had been over 300 fireman and police in the towers when they collapsed... not to mention the thousands of civilians.

But at this point there was very little else that could be done.  The dead and injured outside of the buildings' remains had already been removed.  You could not see.   You could not move massive pieces of wreckage without heavy equipment and careful planning.  People trapped inside could be killed by shifting debris.  It was not a good situation.

Feeling useless and defeated, eyes tearing from the dust, I left the scene.  As it turns out I do not think the first survivors were rescued for another 6 or 7 hours...   Who knows how many may have died in that time.  Another prayer goes out to all.

Well, that's it.  It was now late afternoon, around 3:00pm, and we started walking uptown.  Some transportation had been re-opened, and I began what turned out to be a 4 hour trip home.  I spent the time staring into space, deep in thought and reflection about all that I had seen on this dark day.

As of now there has not even been speculation as to a death count, but it will be in the thousands.  I pray that it is not in the 10's of thousands, but I just don't know.

Murdering, cowardly, scum.  Just like the bastards on TV who are celebrating this day, so too will I celebrate the days to come when we bomb your fucking asses back into the stone age.  Fuck you.

To those reading this, please take a moment to think about all of the people who had there lives stolen from them. And another moment to think about those whose lives are shattered by the loss of ones that they love. Innocent people.  Civilians.   Parents, children, siblings, mates.  Families torn apart. 

I will forever remember all that I saw, and there will always be a part of me that feels a loss for all of those who suffer because of this tragedy.