The Roth Report
US Terror
Report #1Tuesday, September 11, 2001
7:30 a.m. PacificA phone call a few minutes ago alerted me to turn on my radio.
Not much detail yet, but….
New York City and Washington, DC, have been hit by major terrorist strikes.
Hijacked planes crashed into both World Trade Center towers (around 9:00 am Eastern) and into the Pentagon. Possibly also the State Department.
One of the trade center towers collapsed half an hour or so ago.
No-fly zone established in NYC, at least over Manhattan Island. Air force fighters aloft with shoot-down orders.
Nationwide air travel system shut down.
Too early for casualty counts.
Haven’t heard of claims of responsibility.
I used to produce a daily and/or weekly and/or otherwise email news report: The Roth Report. Here are more of that day’s reporting to my subscriber base:
The Roth Report
US Terror
Report #2Tuesday, September 11, 2001
10:00 a.m. PacificBoth towers of the World Trade Center are gone.
Continuing reports of a jetliner crashed at Camp David, the Presidential retreat.
Canadian air travel system shut down.
President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and leaders of Congress all reported safe, whereabouts secret.
White House protected by troops and/or Secret Service with machine guns.
No immediate threats or warnings just before this morning’s attacks.
50,000 people worked in the twin towers of the World Trade Center, so death toll expected to easily be in the thousands.
Pray that God’s people in New York City, Washington, DC, and around the nation would be mightily used by Him to convey His comfort, hope, love, and provision.
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NOW FROM CNN, JERUSALEM POST, REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS, NEWSMAX
—————————————————————–Three hijacked planes crashed into major U.S. landmarks, destroying both of New York’s mighty twin towers, hitting the Pentagon in Washington, and plunging the United States into unprecedented chaos and panic. Loss of life was expected to be catastrophic from the collapse of the giant towers of the World Trade Center where many thousands of people work. The two enormous edifices both fell in a huge cloud of smoke and fire two hours after the initial impacts.
In the first attack, a plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan shortly before 9 a.m., followed by another plane into the second tower about 20 minutes later. Both towers later collapsed. About an hour later, a plane crashed into the Pentagon, part of which later collapsed. 10,000 emergency workers head to scene.
Hospitals in New York were overwhelmed with patients as a massive cloud billowed into the blue skies over Manhattan where the city skyline had been dramatically and permanently altered. “Hundreds of people are burned from head to toe,” said Dr. Steven Stern at St. Vincent’s Hospital in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of lower Manhattan.
American Airlines says it lost two planes in “tragic accidents”: Flight 11 from Boston with 81 passengers and 11 crew aboard and Flight 77 from Washington Dulles airport with 58 passengers and six crew aboard. Both planes were en route to Los Angeles.
United Airlines Flight 93 airliner headed from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco, crashed near Somerset, Pennsylvania — police said initial reports indicated no survivors. United also confirmed the crash of Flight 175 from Boston to Los Angeles.
Reports indicate the hijacked plane that crashed in western Pennsylvania a short time ago was a United Airlines Boeing 747 en route from Chicago to New York City. The plane, which was said to being carrying about 400 passengers, crashed near Somerset, Pennsylvania.
President Puts Atlantic Fleet on “Threatcon Delta” — Highest Possible Alert — Full War Footing.
President: “We’ll Hunt Them Down, This Will Not Stand!”
The Pentagon, the White House, the State Department, the Justice Department, the Capitol, the CIA and all other government buildings in Washington evacuated.
Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, said in reaction to the news of the terror attacks that “we want to tell the American children that Afghanistan feels your pain and we hope that the courts find justice.”
In New York, more than 10,000 rescue personnel rushed to the scene. The entire downtown area of Manhattan was evacuated as far north as Rockefeller Center.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was preparing bioterrorism teams in case they become necessary.
The New York Port Authority said it had closed all bridges and tunnels into the city.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service has put the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada on highest state of alert.
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine has claimed responsibility for the attacks on the World Trade Center, according to the BBC and Abu Dhabi television. However, DFLP sources have denied any involvement.
Federal buildings, United Nations evacuated.
Israel all evacuates embassies worldwide.
Thousands of Palestinians celebrated Tuesday’s terror attacks in the United States, chanting “God is Great” and distributing candy to passers-by, even as their leader, Yasser Arafat, said he was horrified. In the West Bank town of Nablus, about 3,000 people poured into the street shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and government targets in Washington.
Hundreds of Palestinians distributed sweets in the West Bank city of Nablus to celebrate a series of aircraft attacks on two major U.S. cities on Tuesday. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat condemned the attacks. Several dozen Palestinian youths gathered in Arab East Jerusalem to celebrate as well, honking out wedding tunes on their car horns.
Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden warned three weeks ago that he and his followers would carry out an unprecedented attack on U.S. interests for its support of Israel, an Arab journalist with access to him said today.
Then…
The Roth Report
US Terror
Report #3Tuesday, September 11, 2001
1:30 p.m. PacificUS airports to continue shut down through at least noon tomorrow.
No more on that jetliner initially reported crashed at Camp David.
New and specific information since the attacks points strongly toward terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.
Over 300 people killed on the four airliners alone.
Russia goes into high alert, Putin supports tough response.
The President is reported safe at Strategic Air Command HQ in Nebraska after a flight there from Florida.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers moved quickly to deny that Saudi militant Osama bin Laden, whom they are sheltering, was capable of causing Tuesday’s colossal terror assault on the United States. Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and other officials of his hard-line Islamic movement condemned the attacks as terrorist acts and said they were too complex to have been organized by bin Laden from Afghanistan.
And finally…
The Roth Report
US Terror
Report #4Tuesday, September 11, 2001
10:15 p.m. Pacific—————————————————————–
Over the decades I have been pleased that the US has often been the only ally and defender of Israel. I wonder if this tragedy will cause the American people in general and the policy makers in particular to question the cost. Will this event mark a turning point downward in US-Israeli relations, or will it make the US more determined to continue to side with Israel?
—————————————————————–Just in: Investigators checking passenger list of the four hijacked jet planes have found the name of a supporter of Osama bin Laden on one of them.
Late-breaking report: Osama bin Laden denies involvement in today’s terror attacks, but expresses support for them.
The mayor of New York City this evening said some people are alive in the World Trade Center. They are trapped in the basement and had been making mobile phone calls to relatives and the emergency services.
The city’s fire department says there are around 300 firefighters missing, including senior officers. The police department are said to be looking for more than 78 missing officers. Two officers have been freed from the wreckage.
As many as 800 feared dead at the Pentagon.
Oregon Air National Guard fighters now on patrol around the clock.
President Bush faces growing calls for revenge. “This is comparable to Pearl Harbor and we must have the same response and the people who did it must have the same end as the people who attacked Pearl Harbor,” former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told CNN.
“I think that this act obviously is one which would constitute an act of war,” Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona told ABC News. “I am confident that our military and our president will find out the perpetrators of this outrage and we will not only punish those responsible but ensure that something like this never happens again.” Asked if the United States should “go to war” with a country that is the patron of those responsible, McCain said: “Absolutely, because they have committed an atrocity on a scale that is unprecedented.”The hijackers who crashed an American Airlines aircraft into the Pentagon brandished knives and cardboard cutters to take over the aircraft. The information was revealed during two telephone calls that Barbara Olson, wife of Solicitor General Ted Olson, made to him from aboard the aircraft before the crash. She told him that the hijackers, armed with knives and cardboard cutters, herded the passengers and crew, including the pilot, toward the back of the plane.
A total of 266 passengers were reported to have died in the four air crashes.
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THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS TO THE NATION THIS EVENING
—————————————————————–Good evening.
Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes or in their offices: secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers, moms and dads, friends and neighbors.
Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.
The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings, fires burning, huge structures collapsing have filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness and a quiet, unyielding anger.
These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation.
Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.
America was targeted for attack because we’re the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world.
And no one will keep that light from shining.
Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature, and we responded with the best of America, with the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for strangers and neighbors who came to give blood and help in any way they could.
Immediately following the first attack, I implemented our government’s emergency response plans. Our military is powerful, and it’s prepared. Our emergency teams are working in New York City and Washington, D.C., to help with local rescue efforts.
Our first priority is to get help to those who have been injured and to take every precaution to protect our citizens at home and around the world from further attacks.
The functions of our government continue without interruption. Federal agencies in Washington which had to be evacuated today are reopening for essential personnel tonight and will be open for business tomorrow.
Our financial institutions remain strong, and the American economy will be open for business as well.
The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts.
I’ve directed the full resources for our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.
I appreciate so very much the members of Congress who have joined me in strongly condemning these attacks. And on behalf of the American people, I thank the many world leaders who have called to offer their condolences and assistance.
America and our friends and allies join with all those who want peace and security in the world and we stand together to win the war against terrorism.
Tonight I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me.”
This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace. America has stood down enemies before, and we will do so this time.
None of us will ever forget this day, yet we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world.
Thank you. Good night and God bless America.