-------------------
Yamasaki
Minoru Yamasaki (1913 - 1986), a
Nissei Japanese, born in Seattle, Washington, was America's leading architect from 1he 1950s to the 1980s.
Some famous buildings designed by Minoru
Yamasaki:
From left to right:
Rainier Tower (Seattle) (1977),
Pacific Science Center (Seattle) (1962),
North Shore Congregation Israel (Chicago) (1979),
Main
Terminal of Louis Lambert International Airport (St. Louis) (mid-1950s),
Shiraz University (Iran) (1950s),
four buildings at Wayne State University (Detroit) (1958
- 1964).
Northwestern
National Life Building (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 1965.
The World Trade Centre
The Twin Towers
New
York City
Yamasaki presented his design in 1964.
World
Trade Centre - Twin Towers (110 stories) - south end of Manhattan Island (Lower Manhattan)
The view is from the west -
the Hudson River and New Jersey. The view is to the east.
The World Trade Centre was built from 1966 to
1975.
The
building (tower) with the antenna is the North Tower, or Building One, 1,368 feet high (417 metres). Construction was completed
in 1972.
The
North Tower was taller than the Empire State Building, until then the tallest building in the world.
The antenna mast, 362 feet tall (110 metres) was installed in
1978.
With the mast the building stood 1,730 feet tall.
The North Tower was the tallest building in the
world until 1974.
The South Tower, or Building 2
- 1,362 feet high (415 metres) - on the right in the photo, was completed in 1973. It
was the second tallest building in the world.
Aerial
photo of the World Trade Centre, the Twin Towers.
The view is from the south and west and to the north and east.
The building
with the antenna is the North Tower, also called Building One, or WTC1 or 1WTC. Its south facade is on the right. Its west
facade is in the left.
The river in the distance is the East River.
The island
of Manhattan. The view is from the south. In the foreground is Lower Manhattan. The Twin Towers are on the left of the south
end of the island. To the right of the island is the East River. On the left are the Hudson River and the state
of New Jersey.
Map of the New York Harbor area.
Manhattan is in the
centre. To the right (east) is Long Island. To the left (west) is New Jersey.
Aerial photo.
The view is from
the west and to the east.
The North Tower is on the left. The East River is in the distance.
Layout
The
view is from the northeast and to the southwest.
The
North Tower is on the right. Its north facade is on the right. The South Tower is on the left. The plaza -
the Austin J. Tobin Plaza - is at centre.
The view is from the east and to the west. The view is of the Twin Towers, the plaza and the Marriott Hotel.
The North Tower (1WTC) (east facade) is on the right.
The South Tower
(2WTC) is on the left. Its east facade is on the left and north facade is on the right.
The plaza
is between the North and South Towers.
The Marriott Hotel (3WTC) is south of the North Tower
and west of the South Tower.
The World Trade Centre Plaza or Austin J. Tobin
Plaza. The view is from the east and to the west.
The North Tower (east facade) is on the right. The South Tower (north facade) is on the
left. Behind the towers is the Marriott Hotel (3WTC) (east face).
World Trade Centre - Austin
J. Tobin - Plaza
On
the right is the North Tower - 1WTC.
On the
left is the South Tower - 2WTC.
Behind
the towers is the 22-story Marriott Hotel, also called 3WTC, built in 1981. The Marriott was actually directly south of the
North Tower and west of the South Tower.
The
view is from east, or southeast, and to the west.
The
small building on the right, at the base of the North Tower's east facade, is a concert stage.
Austin J. Tobin Plaza.
The view is from the east and to the west.
The North Tower is on the right and the South
Tower is on the left.
The
Marriott Hotel is immediately south of the North Tower and west of the South Tower.
The North
Tower (west façade) is the left in the above photo The South Tower (west façade) is on the right. The view is from the
west and to the east.
In
the centre of the photo is the Marriott Hotel (3WTC) (west façade and roof).
The Marriott Hotel is directly to the south of the North Tower and west of the South Tower.
The Marriott Hotel (3WTC). The view is from
the west.
On the left is the North Tower (west
facade, left, and south facade, right).
Behind
the hotel is the South Tower (west facade, left and south facade, right).
The
3WTC Marriott Hotel is immediately to the south of the North Tower (on the left in the photo) and west of the South Tower
(on the right). The view is from the west.
The First Attack
North Tower
February 26, 1993
12:18 p. m.
A van carrying a 1,200-pound bomb was parked in the garage under
the Marriott Hotel.
The bombers were two Pakistanis, two Palestinians, one Kuwaiti,
one Egyptian and one Iraqi-American.
The leader was a Pakistani.
View from
the southwest of the Twin Towers and the Marriott Hotel (above ground) and the shopping mall, car park and underground
rail (below the towers and hotel).
New York Times, February 27, 1993
The bomb was planted and exploded under the Marriott Hotel.
View of
damage to the basement.
View of the damage to the basement.
The bombers hoped to topple the North Tower.
The damage, mostly to the basement, was quickly repaired.
Six persons were killed and as
many as 1,000 injured.
All the bombers were caught and sentenced to life in prison.
The leader, Ramzi Yousef, a Pakistani, age 24, said
he bombed the WTC to avenge the Palestinians, who had long been mistreated by Israel, which was supported by the U. S.
-----------
Lower Manhattan at sunrise.
The view is from the west - the Hudson River and New Jersey
- and to the east.
The North Tower
is on the left.
2001 aerial photo.
The view is from the west and to the east.
The North Tower is on the left. The view is of its west facade.
In the foreground is the Hudson River.
In the distance is the East River.
The Second Attack
September 11, 2001 - 9-11
- Nine Eleven
19 hijackers, ages 20 to 33, in four teams. The
hijackers were almost all from Saudi Arabia. There were 15 Saudi Arabians, two from the United Arab Emirates, one
Egyptian and one Lebanese.
There was some question about the identities of the hijackers. There was a possibility that some used stolen
identities.
The
First Plane
Target:
North facade, North Tower, World Trade Centre, Manhattan
Scheduled take-off: 7:45 a. m. from Boston, Massachusetts
00:00 - Actual take-off: 07:59 a. m.; delay: 14 min.
E.T.: 00:15 - Hijacking: 08:14 a. m.; 15 min. after take-off
E.T.: 00:47 - Impact: 8:46 a. m. - 32
min. after hijacking
American Airlines flight 11, en route from
Boston to Los Angeles, crashes into North Tower.
The
hijackers and bombers
One Egyptian and four Saudi Arabians.
The Egyptian, Muhamed Atta, was the leader and pilot of the hijack team. At age 33, Atta
was the oldest of the 19 hijackers.
92 passengers and crew, including the five terrorists, were killed.
A plane heads for the North Tower, on the right.
Video photo
A
plane crashes into the north facade of the North Tower between floors 93 to 99.
On the right is
the North Tower. The view is from the east.
On the right
is the North Tower. The view is from the north. The plane made a huge hole in the north face of the tower.
Aerial photo of the North
Tower. The view is from the west. In the distance is the East River.
The island of Manhattan.
The view is from New Jersey.
Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys41jnL2Elk
Many may have assumed the plane struck the tower
by accident.
Some probably
suspected a suicide attack.
It
was not certain until . . .
The Second Plane
Target:
South Tower, South facade, World Trade Centre, Manhattan
Scheduled
take-off: 8:00 a. m. from Boston
00:00 - Actual take-off: 08:14
a. m.; delay: 14 min.
E. T.: 00:28 / 00:32 - Hijacking:
08:42 / 08:46 a. m.
E. T.: 00:49 - Impact: 9:03
a. m. - 21 min. after hijacking
United Airlines flight
175, en route from Boston to Los Angeles, crashes into South Tower.
The hijackers and
bombers
Two
from the United Arab Emirates and three Saudi Arabians,
The leader, who was also the pilot, age 23, was from the United Arab Emirates.
This team of hijackers, age 20 to 24, were the youngest of the four teams.
65 passengers and crew, including the five terrorists, were killed.
The view is from the east.
The view is from the
east.
The
North Tower, on fire, is on the right.
A plane is approaching the South Tower from the south.
The view is from the east.
The view is from the east.
The view is from the east.
Video photo, with view from east, of
the plane hitting the south facade of the South Tower.
Video photo, with view from the east,
of the plane striking the South Tower.
The view is from the south.
Video photo. The view is from the south.
The plane strikes the south facade of the South Tower.
The plane hit the south facade of the South
Tower between
floors 77 and
85.
The view is from the north.
The view is from the east,
or northeast.
The view is from the
north, or northeast.
The view is from the east.
The view is from the east.
Compilation
First plane
Second plane
The
diagram shows the points of impact of the two planes on the Twin Towers.
The first plane struck the north facade of the North
Tower (1 WTC) from the north.
The second plane struck the south facade of the South Tower (2 WTC) from the south.
Liberty Island and Manhattan Island. The view is from the
west.
----------------
Top floors, World Trade Centre,
North Tower (Building One).
The north facade is on the left.
The west facade is on the right.
Everyone
on the top floors was trapped and unable to get out. The elevators were stuck and the stairwells were filled with smoke.
Some went to the top of the buildings but helicopters
could not approach the buildings to rescue them.
Many
people went to the windows to escape the heat, the fire and the smoke.
Some may have slipped and fallen.
Some may have jumped in the hope they might survive the fall.
1.
North Tower
9:41 a. m.
The north facade.
The west facade is on the right.
2.
3.
West
face of the North Tower on the left;
south or west face of the South Tower on the right.
4.
This
photo is probably the most famous one of people falling from the towers.
5.
6.
7.
The view is upward from ground
level.
The view is from the west.
The west facade of
the North Tower is on the left.
The west facade of
the top stories and roof of the Marriott Hotel are in the lower half of the photo, at centre. (The hotel is to the south
of the south facade of the North Tower.)
Above and behind the hotel is the west facade of the South Tower, at the centre
and upper half of the photo.
7.
The Falling Man
Behind the Photo
Advertisement
Time Magazine
The Falling Man
Documentary
The
man in the famous photo called 'The Falling Man' was Jonathan Eric Briley (1958 - 2001) of Mount Vernon, New York, age 43, married,
6'5 1/2" tall. He was the sound technician for conferences and conventions in the restaurant complex Windows
on the World on the top floors (106th and 107th) of the WTC North Tower (Building One).
Briley landed in West Street on the west side of the tower.
Family Recalls 9/11
The plaza at the base of the towers with the bodies of people
who jumped or fell from the top floors.
Many fell also onto the roof of the Marriott Hotel.
At least 100 people fell to their deaths from the North Tower.
By some estimates, 200 or more people fell from the two
towers.
It was a ten-second fall
from the top floors of the towers.
Most
of the bodies that fell on the west side of the North Tower landed on West Street. Most of the bodies landed on the east
(near) side of the street. However, one body, that of a woman, fell on the
far side (west side) of the street and struck a fireman as he started for the towers. The woman's foot caught the fireman's neck and broke it. The fireman
was killed instantly or died later in hospital.
In the top photo, firemen
tend to a partner who was struck by a falling body. In the bottom photo, the firemen carry him away.
A brief
video clip, uploaded by National Geographic, describes the death of the fireman.
The clip
includes Jonathan Briley's fall.
---------------------
Many did not anticipate the collapse of the towers.
South Tower collapses
9:59 a. m.
56 minutes after impact
Video photo.
The South Tower crumbles.
South Tower collapses onto the Marriott Hotel.
The arrow points to a section of perimeter columns.
South Tower Collapse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhyu-fZ2nRA
With the collapse of the South Tower many assumed the North Tower
would eventually collapse too.
North Tower collapses
10:28 a. m.
1 hr., 42 min. after impact
29 min.
after the collapse of the South Tower
Photo of the top floors of the North Tower shortly before the
building collapsed. The photo was called Impending Death.
Many people, trapped on the top floors, are leaning out of windows to escape the heat, fire and smoke inside the
building.
Video photo of North Tower collapsing.
North
Tower Collapse
Manhattan Island
2,606 dead or missing in WTC and surrounding
buildings. 90% of the people killed in the WTC towers were trapped on the top floors. Most of the dead were Americans.
67 British citizens were killed.
Among the dead and missing
were 343 firemen, 72 lawmen and 55 military men. Firemen and policemen entered the towers to rescue persons trapped inside.
Eventually, they too were trapped or unable to get out in time.
The 3WTC Marriot Hotel after the attacks.
About 40 people, including two hotel employees and several firemen, were
killed.
The 9/11 Hotel
Documentary about the 3WTC Marriott Hotel on 9/11
Sketch points out damage to the World Trade
Centre complex.
The buildings in grey and pink in the sketch were completely destroyed.
The North Tower (1 World Trade Centre) and South Tower (2 World Trade Centre) were destroyed.
The Marriott (Vista) Hotel (3 WTC) was destroyed.
The 4 WTC, 5 WTC,
6 WTC and 7 WTC also were destroyed.
The train station under the Twin Towers was destroyed.
A nearby church was destroyed.
Many other buildings nearby were damaged.
The
Twin Towers and the Marriott Hotel were not rebuilt.
-----------
The Pentagon
Arlington, Virginia
Aerial view of the Pentagon, the five-sided five-story
building of the national headquarters of the U. S. Department of Defense in Arlington, Virginia. The Office of the Secretary
of Defense is in the Pentagon.
The western facade is at the bottom, on
the right, with the grass terrain, in the photo.
General Leslie
Groves
The project to build the Pentagon, started in September 1941 and completed
in January 1943, was overseen by US Army Colonel Leslie Groves (1896 - 1970), director of the Manhattan Project, which produced the atomic bomb in 1945.
The Pentagon was built
in 16 months.
Major-General Leslie Groves pins a medal on Major Robert R. Furman,
civil engineer, Groves' right-hand man in the construction of the Pentagon and the Manhattan Project.
Initially, it was thought the Pentagon
would serve as the headquarters of the War Department for the duration of the war and as a storage facility for documents
after the war.
The
Pentagon with the Pentagon Lagoon, Potamac River and the George Washington Monument (obelisk) beyond.
The
view is from Arlington. On the far side of the river is Washington, District of Columbia (D. C.)
The
view is from the south and west to the north and east.
In the foreground
is the Pentagon's South Parking Lot.
On the left is the west facade of the Pentagon.
Target:
The Pentagon - western facade
Scheduled take-off: 8:10 a. m. from
an airport in Virginia, near Wash., D. C.00:00 - Actual take-off:
08:20 a. m.; delay: 10 min.
E. T.: 00:31 -
00:34 - Hijacking: 08:51 - 08:54 a. m.
E. T.: 01:17 -
Impact: 9:37 a. m. - 43 - 46 min. after hijacking
American Airlines flight 77, en route
from Washington to Los Angeles, crashes into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
The hijackers and
bombers
Five
Saudi Arabians. The leader and pilot was age 29.
64 passengers and crew, including the five terrorists, were killed.
Plan of the Pentagon shows the area of impact.
Plan of
the Pentagon shows the area of impact.
Surveillance camera captured the moment of the plane's impact.
The second frame includes the plane, the white object on the right.
The plane crashed into the western facade of the first floor of the building.
Video
photo of surveillance camera catching the crash.
Western facade of the Pentagon.
Western facade of the Pentagon.
Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense (at centre in the photo), was in his office at the Pentagon when the plane
struck.
Rumsfeld and others became stretcher-bearers, carrying the injured.
Donald Rumsfeld
Recollections in a brief video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haCq-WS-VXU
Western facade of the Pentagon.
Photo shows area of impact in the western facade of the Pentagon.
The Fourth PlaneTarget:
Unknown
Scheduled
take-off: 08:00 a. m. from Newark, New Jersey
00:00 - Actual
take-off: 08:42 a. m.; delay: 42 min.
E. T.: 00:46 - Hijacking:
09:28 a. m.
E. T.: 01:21 - Crash: 10:03 a. m. - 35 min. after hijacking
Boeing 757-222
United Airlines Flight 93, en route from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco.
The four hijackers
and bombers
One from Lebanon, the leader and pilot, the oldest at age 26, and three from Saudi Arabia.
44
passengers and crew, including the four terrorists, killed.
The plane crashed into a farm field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:03
a. m.
Debris was recovered over a vast area of many miles.
The plane did not reach its objective, or hit its target,
the identity of which is unknown.
The target may have been in Washington. D. C. Some suggested the Capitol Building or the White House may have been
the target.
Something went wrong in the operation.
The hijack team may have been short-handed. There were only four hijackers on the plane instead of five as on each
of the three other planes. There may have been a fifth hijacker, his identity unknown, who was unable to join the
others late in the operation. If so, it did not dissuade the others from continuing.
The take-off was delayed forty-two minutes. The three other planes
took off within fifteen minutes of their scheduled take-offs.
The hijacking occurred 46 minutes into the flight instead of the half-hour taken by the hijackers
on the other planes.
Did the hijackers
consider calling off their mission?
The cause of the crash is unknown. It is believed the passengers broke into the cockpit and fought with the
hijackers, resulting in the plane's crash.
Wreckage
was recovered for many miles around the site.
------------
President George W. Bush was in Florida at the time. For his protection, he was kept away from Washington,
D. C. He was sent aloft in the presidential plane, Air Force One, to circle over the Gulf of Mexico at 45,000 feet. Two F-16s
flew cover alongside the plane.
Vice-President
Dick Cheney remained in Washington and ordered patrol planes to shoot down any hijacked planes. By that time, however, the
fourth and last of the hijacked planes had crashed into the farm field.
Air Force One stopped in Louisiana to refuel and then took President Bush to the headquarters of the US Strategic
Command (USSTRATCOM) at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.
Bush did not return to Washington, D. C. until the evening.
Newsweek (magazine)
People (magazine)
World
Almost all of the hijackers were
from Saudi Arabia.
Was
there a single mastermind who organised and coordinated the attacks of September 11? That is not certain. Real, credible evidence
is lacking.
But most
are agreed that the plot was financed by . . .
Osama
bin Laden of Saudi Arabia (1957 - 2011), a founder and leader of al-Qaeda.
Bin Laden and the CIA and Washington went back a long ways. They fought
together against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Afghanistan was a monarchy
until 1973 when it was overthrown
and a republic declared.
The republic eas
overthrown and a pro-Soviet socialist state proclaimed in 1978.
Many armed resistance groups - mujahadeen - formed
to oppose the govenment.
The Soviet Union
invaded Afghanistan in December 1979 and took over in Kabul.
The U. S. led regional and international support of many different guerrilla bands in Afghanistan against
the Soviet occupation.
One of the armed resistance
groups backed by the US was al-Qaeda, pan-Islamist Sunni jihadists, founded and led by Osama bin Ladin, a wealthy Saudi Arabian,
in 1988.
From neighboring Pakistan, Bin Ladin
supported Afghan resistance groups with men and arms against the Soviets since 1979.
The Soviets withdrew in February 1989.
A
civil war among the different groups followed. By 1993, the various mujahadeen occupied much of the country.
By 1996, one group, the Taliban, strict fundamentalist Sunni Islamists,
occupied most of the country. They formed a government based on strict religious principles.
The Taliban occupied the capital, Kabul.
Bin-Ladin was barred from Saudi Arabia in 1992. He moved his main base of operations to the Sudan. He
moved his base to Afghanistan when the Taliban established control in 1996.
Bin Ladin and al-Qaeda conducted acts of terrorism against the U. S. government, such as bombing American
embassies.
The U. S. claimed bin Ladin
and al-Qaeda were responsible for 9-11 and demanded the Taliban expel them from Afghanistan. The Taliban did not respond.
Bn Ladin and al-Qaeda declared:
Al-Qaeda destroyed the WTC because:
- U.S. support of Israel
- U.S.
troops in Saudi Arabia
- Sanctions against
Iraq
- General U. S. support of attacks
against Muslims throughout the world
The
U. S. led an international coalition of forces in an invasion of Afghanistan to depose the Taliban and get bin-Ladin.
'The War on Terror'
The
Allied intervention in Afghanistan
A martial action
Left to right: Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense; Dick Cheney, Vice-President;
and George W. Bush, President (son of President George H. W. Bush).
Going after al-Qaeda
NATO-led forces, the Northern Coalition,
enter Kabul, Afghanistan in 2002.
The invasion was a great success and moral victory.
Afghanistan was liberated from the Taliban.
But bin Ladin and al-Qaeda
escaped.
The Fall of Kabul
On the BBC TV's Panorama
John Simpson first to enter Kabul, ahead of the Northern Alliance
November 13, 2001
Shaky upload
Newsweek,
The Coalition defeated the
Taliban, liberated Afghanistan and chased bin Ladin and al-Qaeda out of the country.
But that
was not enough for some.
Almost all of the hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. Bin Ladin was from
Saudi Arabia.
The Allies were not about to invade Saudi Arabia, the world's second biggest
source of oil. In 2001, Saudi Arabia was the leading supplier of oil imports to the U. S. (It is currently the third.)
What
to invade?
For a while, the Allies considered invading Somalia, which was dominated by warlords. But
Somalia was not involved in 9-11. Bin Laden was not in Somalia.
It was suggested the Allies
finish the job on Saddam Hussein. President George H. W. Bush had chased Hussein out of Kuwait in 1991. Iraq was under surveillance
since then. But Iraq was not involved in 9-11.
It was recalled that the British sold
weapons and intended to sell weapons parts to Iraq.
it was recalled
that Germans sold toxic chemicals to Iraq in the 1980s and 1990s.
It
was recalled that the U. S. sold Iraq chemicals and viruses that Iraq used to create poison gases.
Iraq wanted to be a nuclear power. Could Iraq build nuclear missiles, too?
The Allied search for
Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq
The possibility that Iraq had nuclear
stockpiles or nuclear missiles provided the reason to invade Iraq.
A martial action.
Saddam Hussein, leader of Iraq
'Rumsfeld's War'
Rumsfeld with troops in Iraq
Allied forces enter Baghdad, Iraq in
2003.
American soldiers pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein
in Baghdad.
Widespread destruction of
archeological sites and looting of museums
Tens of thousands of priceless archeological relics were destroyed
or disappeared during the Allied invasion of Iraq.
Mushin Hassan, deputy director, National Museum, Baghdad, laments the widespread destruction
of museums in Iraq, 13 April 2003.
Rumsfled and Bush
AM New York
Time (magazine)
No WMDs were found in Iraq.
If the were WMDs in the Middle East, they were next door in Iran (uncertain).
Why invade Iraq if the objective is in Iran?
Otherwise, Israel was the
only country in the Middle East that had nuclear weapons.
The successful invasion of Iraq lifted
Americans out of a long depression caused by the country's disappointing involvement in Indo-China (1945 - 1975). But
the relief was short-lived. The cause for the invasion was a fraud. Thousands of priceless historical treasures were lost. Soon, the Allies were encountering resistance forces and terrorism
all over Iraq. There was a huge financial scandal involving the International Red Cross. And more evidence of the
complicity of present and previous Washington administrations with bin Laden was made
public.
An Iraqi-American military
interpreter captures Saddam Hussein in his hiding place on 13 December 2003.
Saddam Hussein
on trial
The
Secret History of 9/11
Canadian Broadcasting Company
(CBC) documentary (2006)
Saddam Hussein was hanged at an Iraqi military
base on 30 December 2006.
------------
A 20th hijacker?
Was there
a twentieth hijacker?
A 33-year-old French and Moroccan citizen, Zacarias Moussaoui, born of
Moroccan parents in France in 1968, was arrested in Minnesota in August 2001 and charged with violating immigration
laws.
Federal investigators suspected Moussaoui was involved in plotting terrorism
and believed they found evidence to that effect.
In December 2001, Moussaoui was charged with plotting terrorism.
Prosecutors
alleged that Moussaoui was to have been the twentieth man in the 9 -11 bombings - the missing
fifth man on the last hijacked plane, which crashed into a farm field. That plane had only four hijackers. The three other
planes each had five. Prosecutors alleged its target was the White House
or the Capitol Building.
Moussaoui was denied a fair trial and submitted to a shameful and
much criticised show trial in a federal court, the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria,
Virginia.
It appeared that administration officials in Washington,
D. C. - often accused by the public and the press of criminal negligence and even suspected of complicity in 9 -
11 - meant to scapegoat Moussaoui.
During the trial Moussaoui admitted he was with al-Qaeda but
denied involvement in the 9 - 11 attacks. He admitted to plotting a separate terrorist attack.
Moussaoui eventually pleaded guilty to the charges of plotting terrorism.
Prosecutors tried to persuade the jury to condemn Moussaoui to death by making
repeated emotional references to the sufferings of the innocent victims of 9 - 11.
Several jurors maintained that it was unclear to what extent, if any, Moussaoui was involved
in the 9 - 11 plot, or connected to the nineteen hijackers.
The judge did not sentence Moussaoui to death but to life in a maximum security
federal prison.
Moussaoui retracted his guilty plea and requested a new trial.
After
the trial, bin Ladin, or al-Qaeda, said Moussaoui was with al-Qaeda but not involved in the 9 - 11 bombings. Bin Ladin,
or al-Qaeda, had not decided how to use Moussaoui yet.
Bin
Ladin, or al-Qaeda, identified the twentieth man as a Saudi Arabian, Turki bin Fheid al-Muteiri, also known
as Fawaz al-Nashmi.
Al-Muteiri could not join the other hi-jackers on 9 - 11.
Al-Muteiri was killed in a gun battle with Saudi soldiers in Saudi
Arabia in 2004.
Moussaoui
was a sleeper agent for bin Laden and al-Qaeda. But there is no credible evidence that he was to have been the twentieth hijacker
on 9 - 11.
Moussaoui may have wanted to be a terrorist but he committed no acts
of terrorism. Now age 53, Moussaoui has spent more than twenty years in confinement.
--------
Osama bin Laden was killed in a raid by American soldiers on his home in Pakistan on
2 May 2011.
As the American soldiers (Navy SEALS) approached, bin
Laden, armed or unarmed, stepped
out of his apartment, or appeared at its door, and was shot and killed.
----------------
Guantanamo
--------------
Were American big-wigs in business and government involved in
the plot to destroy the Twin Towers?
Were
they involved in the previous bombings of American embassies by al-Qaeda?
There is evidence that the CIA was in direct contact with bin Laden
almost right up to 9-11.
There
is evidence the 9-11 pilots trained openly in the U. S.
There is evidence that someone high up got at least one of the
hijackers, who could not legally enter the U. S., through U. S. immigrations.
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The Empire State Building
The Empire State Building was built in
1931. It has 102 stories. Until the construction of the World Trade Centre Twin Towers in 1970, the Empire State Building
was the tallest building in the world. With the destruction of the Twin Towers, the Empire State Building was again the tallest
building in Manhattan - until 2012.
One World Trade Centre
In place of the Twin Towers today stands One World Trade Centre, completed in 2013 and opened in 2014. It
is the tallest building in Manhattan.
One World Trade Centre, designed by an American
architect, David Magie Childs, constructed from 2008 to 2013.
