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THE VICTIMSB1 N A T I O N A L P O S T , W E D N E S D A Y , S E P T E M B E R 1 2 , 2 0 0 1

BY J O N A T H O N G A T E H O U S E

A N D C H A R L I E G I L L I S

It was the sound of screaming jet engines that caught DavidMcKenzies attention. It was 8:48a.m., and the streets around theWorld Trade Center were crowd-ed with men and women arrivingfor work. Everyone turned and looked up, the 34-year-old re-search director at a New York op-tions trading firm would later re-call. We could see a huge explo-sion. There was debris rainingdown everywhere, shooting outof the 80th floor, all over theplace. White office papers, tickertape. Building insulation. I had tosquint to see in front of me be-cause there was so much dust.Everyone in the street, includingme, turned and ran.

Meanwhile, on the 103rd floorof the World Trade Centers southtower, Clyde Ebanks, an insur-ance executive, started to thesound of his bosss voice. Look atthat! his supervisor exclaimed.

Mr. Ebanks had his back was tothe window, so he caught only thelast terrible moment before a full-sized United Airlines jet struckthe tower adjacent to him. Flameand smoke poured out the win-dows around the 80th floor.

It was an unthinkable, unprece-dented event, and emergencycrews and media immediatelysped to the southern tip of the is-land. The streets filled with thesound of sirens and honking traf-fic, as the radio and television sta-tions opened up live coverage

with reports from the scene. Wit-nesses who suggested the planeappeared to have been flown in-tentionally into the tower werecautioned by radio hosts not toleap to conclusions.

Within 18 minutes, it becameclear those suspicions were valid.

A second airliner, a twin-engineBoeing 767, made for the centressouth tower as television viewersaround the world watched in dis-belief. At 9:03, the plane plowedinto the building near the 67thfloor, crashing through the southface with such force it blew outwindows and sent a ball of flameout the north side.Within, there was confusion or

horror, depending on where youwere. Thirty-three floors belowthe first crash, Peter Dicerbo ofthe First Union National Bankteetered as the building rockedbeneath his feet. It knocked meon the floor, he later recalled. Itsounded like a big roar, then thebuilding started swaying. Thatswhat really scared me.

Anne Prosser, 29, rode the ele- vator high in the north tower,where her global banking officewas. As the doors opened, sheheard what seemed like an explo-sion. She didnt know it, but thefirst plane had just collided withthe building, just a few floorsabove her.

I got thrown to the ground be-fore I got to our suite, she said. Icrawled inside. Not everybodywas at work. She said she tried toleave, but there was so much debris in the air she could notbreathe. Rescue workers finallysteered her to a stairway. Jessica Escalera, 22, who

worked in a mail room on the39th floor, had just finishedbreakfast at her desk when thefloor went up. As she put it: It

swelled up and then swayed backand forth. I thought it was anearthquake or a bomb. We wereall panicking. We didnt knowwhat to do.

She followed others to the stairs.

Smoke from above began fillingthe stairways. When she was out-

side the building, she passed abody sheared in half, the personsintestines spilled on the ground.

Donald Burns, 34, who wasevacuated from a meeting on the82nd floor encountered four se-verely burned people on the stair- well. I tried to help them butthey didn't want anyone to touchthem, Burns said. The fire hadmelted their skin. Their clotheswere tattered.

They and others immediatelyfilled the stairways, most un-aware of the cause of the explo-sions. Matthew Cornelous, a NewYork Ports Authority employeewho worked on the 65th floor of

the north tower, said evacueeswere remarkably calm, despitechoking smoke and dust in thestairways. We maybe made afloor about every two minutes,he said. It was packed a virtualtraffic jam in the staircase, upand down. Everyone maintainedcalm really well, though, and Iwas really impressed. We got inand we were moving down. Acouple of people started crying

and we said, were going to getout of here, one step at a time.

We didnt know what was goingon. We just knew something ma-jor had happened, but we didntunderstand the full severity of the

situation, so people werent pan-icking. Once we got down on the

plaza level, it was disturbing.There was a lot of debris and a lotof carnage.

But the full scale of terror wasapparent to the crowds outside,who gawked from street cornersas sirens wailed and emergencyworkers rushed around them.

As the fires intensified, tiny fig-ures began stepping through the billowing smoke to the win-dows, and then into thin air, ap-parently preferring suicide tothe agony inside. Some heldhands with friends and col-leagues as they jumped. David Jersey, a Manhattan waiter, watched events unfold from a

window in a building on Cham-bers Street. I saw about 20 peo-ple jump from the building, hesays. I saw couples jump hold-ing hands. I could see their armsand legs flailing. They jumpedfrom 70 storeys up right abovethe flames. You could see themfalling all the way down.

Rudolph Giuliani, the Mayor,who arrived on the scene shortlyafter the first plane hit, was shak-

en, It was, he told reporters, ahorrible, horrible situation. What Mr. Giuliani witnessed,

however, was only the beginningof the worst day in his citys histo-ry. Shortly after 10 a.m., clouds of

smoke and dust began billowingfrom the World Trade Centers

south tower, causing some towonder aloud whether part of itmight fall, either onto the streetor in on the lower floors. NinaBall-Pesut, 24, an editorial assis-tant who watched from UnionSquare, got a dirty look for herobservation that the entire towerlooked ready to go down. Some-body else on the street turnedaround and said, The worldTrade Center has a very stronginfrastructure, she recalled. Ifelt bad for having said what Idid.

But collapse the tower did within 30 seconds of Ms. Ball-Pe-suts unwelcome remark. Fire-fighters, police officers and re-porters ran ahead of columns ofdust and debris, abandoning ve-hicles and in some cases col-leagues stuck in the disaster area.The rubble flew through the low-er half of Manhattan, leaving fivecentimetres of concrete dust insome places. Office papers flut-tered from the sky as far away asBrooklyn, some five kilometresdistant.

For long minutes, the dust ob-scured the absence of the build-ing, leaving all but those in thevicinity wondering how much, ifany, of the building still stood.But with the north tower stillburning, rescuers could not getback into the area to help anyone.A half-hour later, it too appearedto melt from the top down. At10:28, it came down. Those out-side the immediate area stoodstunned, some crying, some

silent. When the smoke thinned,all that remained of the TradeCenters symbols of Americancapitalism and dominance were two stumps less than 30storeys high.

The immediate aftermath washard for anyone to grasp, includ-

ing members of the city adminis-tration. At 11:30 a.m., commutersand residents obliged Mr. Giu- lianis request to evacuate the lower half of Manhattan. Withsubways and buses shut down, aribbon of pedestrians filled theBrooklyn Bridge on their way outof the city, blocking traffic and leaving an eerie calm in thedowntown area.

The debris was everywhere, pre-senting itself in often surreal im-ages. Office forms flutteredthrough the air and plastered thestreets. A giant airplane wheel blocked the office door of onebuilding. A burned out jet enginerested on a sidewalk near a Burg-er King.

There was no official estimate ofthe death toll, though union offi-cials estimated that more than265 firefighters were missing andpresumed dead and 85 city policeofficers were unaccounted for. Attempts to enact the citys

emergency plan, meanwhile,were hampered by the fact thecommand centre was located inthe World Trade Center itself.

It was one in a series of cruelironies that compounded thedamage over the course of theday. Roger Fawcett, a RomanCatholic priest and spokesman atSaint Vincents Medical Center,noted that emergency medicalstaff had set up a triage station atthe foot the towers following thefirst impact, unaware of the im-pending fall of the two buildings.Everything collapsed and killed

a lot of medical people, Mr. Faw-cett told reporters outsideGreenwich Village Hospital,which received many of the vic-tims.

See TERROR on Page B2

MARTY LEDERHANDLER / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

In front of New Yorks St. Patricks Cathedral, crowds react with horror as they look down Fifth Avenue toward the World Trade Center.

IT STARTED WITH A SCREAM

I saw couples jump holding hands.

I could see their arms and legs

flailing. They jumped from 70

storeys up right above the flames

A special report on the effect of the terrorist attacks on ordinary people around the globe

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B2 ~ NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001

Hospitals declared a bloodshortage as they treated thethousands of injured. Staff set upmakeshift blood clinics outsidehospitals to fulfill a need was sourgent they could not to questionpeople individually to ensuretheir blood was untainted . Somuch for confidentiality, saidone nurse, as she listed activitiesaloud that precluded donation.Yesterday morning, meanwhile,

President George W. Bush wasvisiting Sarasota, Fla., presiding

over a day celebrating his admin-istrations education reforms. Hebegan his day with a 4.5-mile runaround the exclusive LongboatKey Golf Course.At his first scheduled appear-

ance, at Emma E. Brooker Ele-mentary School, just before 9a.m., his chief of staff, AndrewCard, pulled the President asideand whispered in his ear. Mr.Bush frowned briefly and shotthe assembled reporters a warn-ing glance, saying he would talkto them later. He then sat pa-tiently as the cameras clickedand 18 young pupils in SandraKay Daniels Grade 2 class tookturns reading aloud from a storybook.

Later, as word of the secondplane crash spread, he spokebriefly with reporters, calling theincidents in New York a nation-

al tragedy, and observing Thisis a difficult moment for Ameri-ca. And he vowed to huntdown those responsible.

Mr. Bush cancelled the remain-der of his Florida visit. Aides said

he would return to Washingtonimmediately.About an hour after the first

Manhattan tower was hit, Wash-ington faced a similar terroristattack.

One of those on board a Boeing757 en route from Dulles Inter-national Airport in NorthernVirginia to Los Angeles was Bar- bara Olson, a former federalprosecutor and television com-mentator. After it was hijacked,she twice managed to call herhusband Ted Olson, the Solici-tor General during her ordeal.

On the first occasion, she toldhim that all the passengers and

the flight personnel, includingthe pilot, had been herded to the back of the plane. The only weapons she mentioned wereknives and cardboard cutters. Mr.Olson would later say his wife

made no reference to the nation-ality or motive of the hijackers.

She said to Ted: What do I tellthe pilot to do? CNN reportedyesterday. That was somewhattypical of Barbara, a take-chargekind of person. But there wasnothing they could do, they wereall kept in the back of the plane,said her husband

Mrs. Olson was originally notscheduled to take this flight she was supposed to fly on Mon-day but she decided she want-ed to have breakfast with herhusband yesterday, his birthday.At 9:43, the jet carrying Mrs.

Olson, 57 other passengers, two

pilots and four flight attendantsslammed into the side of the Pen-tagon, headquarters of the De-fense Department, Army, Navy,Air Force and Marines, and theworlds largest office complex.

It was a huge fireball, a huge,orange fireball, Paul Begala, apolitical consultant for the De-mocratic Party, told reporters onthe scene.

Lisa Burgess, a reporter for the Army newspaper, Stars andStripes,was walking down oneof the five-sided buildingslengthy corridors when a seriesof explosions shook the struc-ture and knocked her to theground.

I heard two loud booms onelarge, one small, she recalled.

Sirens wailed and emergencystrobes flashed as the Pentagonsroughly 20,000 employees

rushed to aid the wounded orhurriedly evacuated the massivebuilding.

People kept their cool, peoplestarted working with each otherto get out, said Lieutenant

Colonel Robert Snyder, who wasin the buildings basement whenthe plane hit. Its tail was stuckfrom the side of the familiarwhite building, near a helicopter landing area, surrounded byflame and smoke.

Hospital emergency roomsaround Washington were busythroughout the day dealing withscores of wounded. Alan Wallace, a Washington

D.C. firefighter was standing out-side his station talking with a col-league when the plane crashedfewer than 100 metres away.

We were talking about the job,talking about me retiring in a

year, Mr. Wallace said. I lookedup and I yelled. I saw what ap-peared to be a big airplane. Itwas white with orange and bluestripes on it. Mark and I ran upparallel to the building.

WALL STREET

There was nothing theycould do, theywere all kept in the back of the planeTE RRO R

Continued from Page B1

KATHY CACICEDO / NEWARK STAR-LEDGER

The New York City skyline is changed forever after hijacked airliners crashed into the World Trade Center towers causing both to collapse in about 90 minutes yesterday morning.

JERRY TORRENS / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PAUL HAWTHORNE / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AMY SANCETTA / THE ASSOCIATED PR

From left to right: Smoke and debris erupt from the south tower of the World Trade Center; a witness on the Brooklyn Promenade, which provides a view of the Manhattan skyline, reacts after seeing the smok-ing towers; pedestrians flee the vicinity of the World Trade Center while others scramble for safety in front of City Hall as the first tower collapses after being hit by an aircraft.

KATHY WILLENS/ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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B3NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 , 2001 ~

Hospitals declared a bloodshortage as they treated the thou-sands of injured. Staff set upmakeshift blood clinics outsidehospitals to fulfill a need was sourgent they could not to questionpeople individually to ensuretheir blood was untainted . Somuch for confidentiality, saidone nurse, as she listed activitiesaloud that precluded donation.Yesterday morning, meanwhile,

President George W. Bush wasvisiting Sarasota, Fla., presidingover a day celebrating his admin-istrations education reforms. Hebegan his day with a 4.5-mile runaround the exclusive Longboat

Key Golf Course.At his first scheduled appear-

ance, at Emma E. Brooker Ele-mentary School, just before 9a.m., his chief of staff, AndrewCard, pulled the President aside

and whispered in his ear. Mr.Bush frowned briefly and shotthe assembled reporters a warn-ing glance, saying he would talkto them later. He then sat pa-tiently as the cameras clickedand 18 young pupils in SandraKay Daniels Grade 2 class tookturns reading aloud from a storybook.

Later, as word of the secondplane crash spread, he spokebriefly with reporters, calling theincidents in New York a nationaltragedy, and observing This is adifficult moment for America. And he vowed to hunt downthose responsible.

Mr. Bush cancelled the remain-der of his Florida visit. Aides saidhe would return to Washingtonimmediately.

In an interview with CNN, re-tired Army General Wesley K.

Clark said the jetliner hit theArmy side of the complex, caus-ing significant damage to corri-dors four, five and six. Staff inthat section of the Pentagon areinvolved in planning and logis-tics for the military as well asCongressional relations. TheArmy leadership was probablyclose to where it impacted, saidGen. Clark, who until recentlywas NATOs supreme comman-der in Europe.

General Richard Myers, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs ofStaff, said military officials hadprior warning of a hijacked jetthat appeared to be headed for

Washington.Secondary explosions were re-

ported in the aftermath of the at-tack and great billows of smokedrifted skyward toward the Po-tomac River and beyond.

Glenn Flood, a Pentagonspokesman, said there were ex-tensive casualties and an un-known number of fatalities.

We dont know the extent ofthe injuries, he said.

The fierce blaze and thicksmoke hampered rescue opera-tions, driving back repeated at-tempts by military and fire offi-cials to reach the trapped and dy-ing inside.At midday, one hospital in sub-

urban Virginia reported 26 vic-tims had been brought from thePentagon for treatment. Seven all in critical condition withburns were taken to a Wash-

ington hospital.Casualty figures from the dev-

astating attacks were mostlyguess work in the chaos that fol-lowed the airline crashes, but lastnight U.S. military officials said

they believed 800 Pentagonstaffers were dead and another100 to 800 unaccounted for.

In New York, there were reportsthat police believe there may stillbe victims trapped alive in therubble of the collapsed officetowers.

The whole building shook with the impact, said TerryYonkers, an Air Force civilianemployee at work inside the Pen-tagon at the time of the attack.There was screaming and pan-demonium, but the evacuationwas carried out smoothly.

Within minutes of the crash,federal officials had issued the

evacuation order for all govern-ment buildings in the capital.The West Wing of the WhiteHouse, which contains the OvalOffice, the offices of the Presi-dents executive staff, the Cabi-

net Room and the Press BriefingRoom, was also evacuated. Se-nior Pentagon officials wereflown to an undisclosed locationaboard black and white army he-licopters.

At 9:49 a.m. the Federal Avia-tion Administration issued itsfirst-ever ground stop for flightsdeparting from American air-ports, shutting down air travel. Alittle more than a half-hour later,all trans-Atlantic flights headedfor the United States were divert-ed to Canadian airports.

There were also reports of a loud explosion near the U.S.

Capitol building, a car bomb det-onating outside of the State De-partment and other hijackedplanes on their way to rain devas-tation on government buildings.All proved to be unfounded.

NEW YORK

GULNARA SAMOILOVA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

People make their way amid debris near the World Trade Center. Hijackers crashed two airliners into the twin 110-storey towers; the first one hit a little before 9 a.m., the second ab out 10 minutes later.

JUSTIN LANE / THE NEW YORK TIMES DIANE BONDAREFF / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS JOSE JIMENEZ / PRIMERA HORA / GETTY IMAG

From left to right: Women walk near Wall Street shortly after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers; people run amid the falling debris, which looks like snowflakes; a survivor sits alone, apparentlystunned at the terrible events, while others who were caught near the devastation flee the scene.

The onlything I could think about was that this was the start of the next world war

SUZANNE PLUNKETT / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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By mid-morning, Washingtonresembled a city under militaryoccupation as the mayor declareda state of emergency and infantrytroops were deployed in thestreets. Soldiers and policearmed with submachine gunsguarded federal buildings andmonuments, and patrolled theWhite House grounds. F-16 fight-er jets circled overhead.

Near the Pentagon, a military of-ficial with a megaphone warnedbystanders of another imminent

attack. Theres another plane onthe way in. The F-16 is here toshoot it down. You cannot get farenough away from the Pentagon.Keep moving, he brayed.

The threat never materialized.

Kathy McFarlane, a Toronto na-tive, was waiting with othertourists inside the grounds of theWhite House when the air attackbegan.

Security guards told the crowdto head for cover. They wereshouting run, run, she said.Then they shouted: Hit theground.

We didnt know what to do,she recalled later, still shaking.We just ran. The only thing Icould think about was that this

was the start of the next worldwar.

Downtown streets were inhopeless gridlock as workerstried desperately to find a Metrostation that had not yet been shut

down. A special medical bus fromWalter Reed Hospital, protectedby National Guard members onfoot, tried desperately to pushthrough the jammed traffic on14th Street to cross the river tothe Pentagon, where 33 peoplelay injured. Officers from a dozenlaw-enforcement agencies triedto clear the blockages as trappedpolice cars and fire trucks sat im-potently, their sirens blaring.

Near the White House, franticpolice officers herded crowds of

people away from the presiden-tial residence with yells of Movealong! move along!

Im going to say it once and Imgoing to say it in English: Moveback! threatened a Secret Ser-

vice agent wearing a blue bullet-proof vest.

Lafayette Park, which bordersthe White House, was ribbonedwith yellow police tape. A ner-vous Secret Service officer ner-vously patrolled one entrance, hisGerman-made HK MP5 9mmsubmachine gun held at theready.

First Lady Laura Bush cancelleda scheduled appearance before aSenate committee and was takento a secure location. The Bush

daughters, Barbara and Jenna,were also moved to safe houses.

A tall man in a grey suit led asmall knot of people in prayer onthe lawn outside the Capitol. Peo-ple gathered around portable ra-

dios and televisions in shop win-dows, hoping to learn more aboutthe situation and gain comfortfrom their shared terror.

The sound of an approachingairplane caused near panicamong the milling crowd oftourists and office workers. Peo-ple froze in their tracks, craningtheir necks skyward, daring tomove and breathe only after thesound had faded.

This is the second Pearl Har-bor. I dont think that I overstate

it, said Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Re-publican from Nebraska.With fears of further terrorist

attacks in the capital, Air ForceOne was diverted to BarksdaleAir Force Base in Shreveport, La.,

where President Bush againspoke with the media.

The resolve of our nation is be-ing tested, he said. Make nomistake. We will pass the test.

In Palestinian refugee camps inLebanon and the West Bank, theattacks were greeted with jubila-tion. People danced and cheeredas armed men fired theirweapons in the air in celebrationas soon as the first images of thecarnage began to be broadcast on

television. Others distributedcandies and Palestinian flags tochildren in the crowd. Israelsstaunchest ally deserved the pun-ishment it was receiving, saidmany.

At left, the Pentagon at peace six weeks ago; and in the aftermath of yesterdays airliner crash, as smoke casts a pall over the Washington-area suburb of Arlington, Va. Below left: An injured Pentagon employee islifted into an ambulance by a soldier. U.S. President George W. Bush, below right making a brief statement in Sarasota, Fla., returned to Washington last night.

HYUNGWON KANG / REUTERS

Water cannons try to douse the flames licking up the west side o f the Pentagon yesterday, with the Washingon Monument in the background, after a jet slammed into the structure.

WILL MORRIS / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CHRIS O'MEARA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PENTAGON

GERRY J. GILMORE / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSEHYUNGWON KANG / REUTERS

This is the second Pearl Harbor. I dont think that I overstate it

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Two more views of the 58-year-old Pentagon, above left and right, as firefighters try to douse the flames. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeldwas in his office on the north side of the complex when the plane hit the opposite side and he went over to help the injured. Below: Workersflood out of buildings in the area near the White House as news spreads of the Pentagon airline crash.

This is the result of Americanpolicy. America and Israel areone, said one gunman.

This is the reaction required toconfront the American and Is-raeli arrogance, said MohamadHallak, a 40-year-old Palestinianrefugee from the southernRashidiyeh camp in Tyre.

Some Lebanese shared the joy.Were ecstatic. Let America

have a taste of what weve tasted,said Ali Mareh, a Lebanese resi-dent of Beirut.

People are happy. America hasalways supported terrorism.They see how the innocent Pales-tinian children are killed andthey back the Zionist army thatdoes it. America has never been

on the side of justice, said Samir,a Lebanese.

This is the language that theUnited States understands andthis is the way to stop Americafrom helping the Zionist terroristswho are killing our children, menand women everyday, said Mo-hamed Rasheed, a Palestinian.

Just after 10:30 a.m. Easterntime, news wires and televisionnetworks again buzzed with wordof further terrorist actions a

Boeing passenger jet had crashedinto the woodlands of westernPennsylvania, killing all aboard.United Airlines Flight 93, des-tined for San Francisco, left theairport at Newark, N.J., just out-

side Manhattan at 8:01 a.m. East-ern time. There were 38 passen-gers aboard, plus two pilots andfive flight attendants.

The plane plummeted to Earthnear the Somerset County air-port, 130 kilometres from Pitts-burgh, just after 10 a.m.

Emergency dispatchers in thecounty told reporters they had re-ceived a panicked cellphone callfrom a person they believe was apassenger aboard the plane, at9:58 a.m., about 12 minutes be-

fore the crash.We are being hijacked, we are

being hijacked! the male callertold a 911 operator. The fright-ened man identified the flightand said he was locked inside a

bathroom on the Boeing 757, andpleaded with officials not to dis-miss him as a crank caller.

The man told dispatchers theplane was going down. There was the sound of an explosionand the man said he could see white smoke. Then the callabruptly ended.

Michael Merringer and his wife,Amy, were out mountain bikingwhen they heard the sounds of anaircraft in distress.

I heard the engine gun two dif-

ferent times and the I heard aloud bang and the windows of allthe houses all around rattled,said Mr. Merringer. I looked upand I saw the smoke coming up.

The couple raced home to their

car and followed the plume ofdense black smoke to the crash site.

Everything was on fire andthere were trees knocked downand there was a big hole in theground, said Mr. Merringer.

Some reports said the planemay have been headed for CampDavid, the presidential retreat inthe mountains of Maryland.

The crash left an impact crater18 by 20 feet wide, and little evi-dence for investigators to workwith in the coming weeks.

We did not recover any debrislarger than a phone book, saidCapt. Frank Monaco, command-ing officer of the PennsylvaniaState Police.

The attacks, which for many people

unfolded live on television, causedfar-reaching panic yesterday.

Businesses across the UnitedStates and Canada closed, sendingrattled employees home for theday. Schools and daycare centreswere flooded with anxious parentswithin minutes of the World TradeCentre crashes. Phone circuits andcellphone networks across NorthAmerica jammed as calls floodedthe system.

In downtown Chicago, home tothe worlds fourth-tallest build-

ing, the Sears Tower, office com-plexes were evacuated, and col-leges, schools, museums, sportsstadiums, and banks closed theirdoors.

Continued on Page B8

BRENDAN MCDERMID / REUTERS

Pennsylvania Avenue, leading up to the steps of the Capitol, is nearly deserted in the late af ternoon, after all government offices were closed and workers sent home. Only hours earlier, the streets were j ammed.

WILLIAM PHILPOTT / REUTERS MOLLY RILEY / REUTERS

WASHINGTON

I heard a loud bang I looked up and I saw the smoke coming up

PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LUKE FRAZZA / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

A Department of Defense police officer, above, stands guard along oneof the highways near the Pentagon. The streets of Washington were

jammed with traffic, below, shortly after the Pentagon air crash.

KEITH ANNIS / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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The horrorof yesterdaymorningalmosttranscendslanguage.Secondsafter the explosionin LowerManhattan,Wall Streetworkers flee inthe kind of visceral terrorthatis virtuallyunknownin modernlife.SUZANNE PLUNKETT / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

B6 B7

PANIC IN THE STREETS

NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001

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Office buildings in Los Angeles,Boston, Cleveland and Min-neapolis were also shut down.State employees in Massachu-setts and Maine were sent home.

In Philadelphia, the NationalPark Service closed access to theLiberty Bell and IndependenceHall, as governments and busi-nesses closed. Customs officialsclosed the tunnel that links De-troit to Windsor, Ont.

Tourist attractions across thecountry closed, including Disney

World in Florida, Seattles SpaceNeedle which was feared to bea potential terrorist target duringthe Millennium celebrations and the Gateway Arch in St.

Louis.Security was tightened at the

Los Alamos National Laboratoryin New Mexico, and at Fort Det-rick in Fredrick, Md., the Armysbiological warfare centre.

Major league baseball cancelledits schedule of 15 games lastnight. Similarly, major leaguesoccer cancelled its four matches.Several National Hockey Leagueteams delayed the start of train-ing camp.

Overseas, U.S. military installa-tions and embassies were put onhigh alert and in some countriesAmerican citizens were warnedto limit their movements.

Tony Blair, British Prime Minis-ter, halted civil air flights overLondon. Israel closed its borderswith Egypt and Jordan, and its airspace for at least 24 hours to all

incoming flights from foreign air-lines.

Frankfurt, Germanys financialcapital, took steps to close all itsmajor skyscrapers, which includeEuropes tallest buildings, afterregional government authoritiesrecommended their closure.

The city is home to Germanystop banks and the European Cen-tral Bank, which occupies one ofthe citys largest office complexes.As soon as it became apparent

that the airline crashes were well-co-ordinated attacks rather thana series of horrific coincidences,suspicion fell upon Osama binLaden, the shadowy terrorist who

has attained almost mythic statusas the all-purpose bogeyman ofthe United States.

Shortly after noon ET,Afghanistans ruling Taliban mili-

tia, which shelters and supportsthe outlaw Saudi dissident andhis supporters, held a rare newsconference to deny suggestionsthat bin Laden had played a rolein the attacks. The Islamic mili-tias ambassador to Pakistan, Ab-dul Salam Zaeef, condemned theattacks. He said he hoped the per-petrators would quickly bebrought to justice.

Osama is only a person hedoes not have the facilities to carryout such activities, said Mr. Zaeef.We want to tell the Americanpeople that Afghanistan feels theirpain. We hope that the terroristsare caught and brought to justice.

Several of bin Ladens followerswere expected to be sentenced inNew York next week for their rolein twin embassy bombings in EastAfrica that killed more than 200

people and wounded some 4,000.The threat of further attacks kept

President Bush moving through-out the day. From Florida he wentto Louisiana, then flew to OffuttAir Force base in Nebraska, wherehe led a National Security Councilmeeting by teleconference.

The top leaders of Congress weretaken to the safety of a secure gov-ernment facility about 120 kilome-tres west of Washington.After a brief stay in Nebraska,

Mr. Bush again boarded AirForce One and headed back toWashington late in the afternoonto prepare for a televised addressto the nation in the evening.

The panic across the UnitedStates was replicated in Canada.Buildings in many major cities were closed and workers sent

home as a mixture of heightenedsecurity, tension, and tears madework impossible.

Torontos CN Tower was closedat 10 a.m. and the SkyDome wasevacuated 112 hours later.Just before noon the east sec-

tion of Ottawas Parliament Hillwas closed for an hour after a sus-picious package was found.

By 1 p.m. Eastern Time mostCanadian city centres were ghosttowns.

In Montreal, Rose Zia, whoworks for a chartered accountingfirm on the 25th floor of PlaceVille Marie office complex, ob-served that A lot of people are

crying. Nobody can work. After Isaw what could happen thismorning, I feel like working onthe 25th floor is pretty high upthere.

NORTH AMERICA

MARTA LAVANDIER / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

At Miami International, shock and tears.

KEVIN FRAYER / THE CANADIAN PRESS

At Torontos Pearson International, paralysis.

BRIAN SNYDER / REUTERS

Frantic calls in Boston, where one plane originated.

MARK COPIER / THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS

Holland, Mich., sing hymns during a prayer service.

MICHAEL DWYER / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Craig McFarland was supposed to be on Flight 11.

KEVORK DJANSEZIAN / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

In Los Angeles, tears for a missing aunt.


Consolation in Boston.

ANTHONY P. BOLANTE / REUTERS

Lowering the flag in Seattle.

PAT VASQUEZ-CUNNINGHAM / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

In Albuquerque, N.M., tears for colleagues.

BRYAN DIGGS / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

School comes to a stop in Round Rock, Tex.

DIANE BONDAREFF / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

In New York, a narrow escape, then a collapse.

DON RYAN / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Together at Portland International Airport.

DOUGLAS C. PIZAC / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A security conference in Salt Lake City.

SHANNON STAPLETON / REUTERS

In New York, powerless.

BEN MARGOT / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Mother and daughter embrace in Portland.

STUART DRYDEN / CALGARY SUN

In Calgary, a mother consoles her daughter.

TOM HANSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS

The Ottawa Citizen had a special afternoon edition.

TED S. WARREN / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Solidarity in Chicago.

ADREES LATIF / REUTERS

Los Angeles: Need to talk to you.

JAIME OPPENHEIMER / THE WICHITA EAGLE

After an emergency landing in Wichita, a call home.

TE RRO RContinued from Page B5

It was like a movie.We couldnt believe it.So we taxied back to the terminal

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B9NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 , 2001

I dont know whether to stay orgo home. They are talking aboutevacuating the building.At airports across the country,

officials struggled to deal with theunexpected influx of U.S.-boundinternational flights, forced toput down short of their destina-tions.At Halifax airport, one of two

runways was turned into an air-liner parking lot. By 4:30 p.m.,44 aircraft belonging to dozensof airlines, including Air Portu-gal, British Airways, and Singa-

pore Airlines, were lined up onthe tarmac, an astonishing sym-bol of the international ripple ef-fects of the tragedy.

The first plane landed at 11a.m., said Dave Deveau, a Hali-

fax airport construction workerwho was snapping pictures of thescene. This is absolutely mind-boggling.

About 9,000 people waited onthe Halifax runway until earlyevening, when officials decidedto unload the planes and buspassengers into the city. It was apainstaking process at an airportterminal already made chaoticby the hundreds of passengersstranded after their domesticflights were cancelled.

RCMP officers and sniffer dogs

were dispatched to inspect eachplane. Passengers were then ledinto the terminal, processedthrough customs and loaded on-to buses for the ride into the city.

The first wave of people arrived

at a sports complex in a Halifaxsuburb where a curling rink,hockey arena and weight roomwere hastily converted into re-ception areas. Wal Mart donatedcolouring books for children;grocery stores trucked in food;phone companies unloaded bagsof cellphones and hooked uptemporary phone lines.

The Nova Scotia Tourism De-partment set up a bed bank hotline, where residents could do-nate cots, mattresses or offerrooms in their homes. Water,

soup and sandwiches were pre-pared for busload after busloadof travellers. Dozens of Halifaxresidents also lined up at bloodbanks to donate blood to U.S.hospitals.

By late afternoon 27 aircrafthad landed at St. Johns twiceas many as the airport was builtto handle. About 20 aircraft hadlanded in Gander, Nfld., a townof 4,000. The military base atGoose Bay, Labrador, was ex-pecting about 30 jumbo jets. An-other eight aircraft had arrivedby late afternoon at the small air-field in Stephenville, Nfld., atown of 2,500.

In St. Johns, local businesses were turning office space intosleeping quarters for stranded

passengers, and churches wereclearing their meeting halls.

This is absolutely withoutprecedent, said Andy Wells, themayor.

One has an emergency plan for

dealing with numbers in thehundreds of people, but certainlynot in the thousands.

Brenda Murrin of Mount Pearlwas one of a number of people whoturned up at Mile One Stadium where passengers who arrived inSt. Johns were to be assembled forregistration and assigned accom-modations to offer her home todistraught passengers.

Some of these people are goingto like a place to lie down, to show-er, and even just to watch televi-sion to see whats happening, said

an emotional Ms. Murrin.If we can help out in any way, we

certainly will. We will take asmany as we can. I can accommo-date a family quite comfortablybut I mean weve got couches, a

floor, weve got food and a T.V. Wecan help out in any way we can.

Stranded passengers will likelyremain in Canada until at least 1p.m. ET today, the earliest hourU.S. air space is expected to re-open.Asked how she would pass the

time until then, Rita Vander-straeten, a passenger from Amster-dam who is stranded in Halifax,said: Saying a prayer for all thepeople that died ... Thats my firstpriority.

In Whitehorse, officials evacu-

ated schools and government buildings in response to con-cerns that a Korean Air 747 ap-proaching the territorial capitalmight have been under terroristcontrol.

OVERSEAS

GENT SHKULLAKU / REUTERS

Albanian girl lights candles in homage to Americans.

RAMZI HAIDAR / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Palestinians in Beirut watch deadly attack on TV.

HERBERTKNOSOWSKI / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder: Germany appalled.

DIMA KOROTAYEV / REUTERS

Russian prays outside U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

YVESHERMAN /REUTERS

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt: Sad day.

GENT SHKULLAKU / REUTERS

Albanian girls in Tirana mourn terrorist victims.

MISHA JAPARIDZE / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Moscow citizens pay their respects at U.S. Embassy.

DAN CHUNG / REUTERS

City worker in London pauses to witness attacks.

MENAHEMKAHANA / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Orthodox Jews tune in to the news in Jerusalem.

REUTERS

Russian President Vladimir Putin: Anger, sympathy.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Palestinian woman: Free sweets in East Jerusalem.

PHILIPPE DESMAZES / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin: Outraged.

MICHAEL KOOREN / REUTERS

Dutch and Icelandic sides pause in the Netherlands.

ALIHASHISHO / REUTERS

Palestinian children in Lebanon: A day of dancing.

MOHAMMED SABER / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat: Shock and horror.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Colin Powell, U.S. Secretary of State: Livid in Lima.

HEINZ-PETER BADER / REUTERS

Flag remains flying outside U.S. Embassy in Vienna.

YUN SUK-BONG / REUTERS

South Korean policemen at U.S. Embassy in Seoul.

TOBY MELVILLE / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

United Airlines at Heathrow: deserted terminals.

ALEXANDRA WINKLER / REUTERS

German policeman at U.S. Embassy in Berlin.

Ripple effect of tragedy, and fear of terrorism, quickly spreads to Canada

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HELP

PETER MORGAN / REUTERS

SHANNON STAPLETON / REUTERS

ANTHONY CORREIA / REUTERS

ANTHONY CORREIA / REUTERS

A New York City firefighter carries a water hose on Vessey and Greenwich streets in lower Manhattan afterthe World Trade Center buildings collapsed.

AMY SANCETTA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WILL MORRIS / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Pentagon employee is aided outside the Pentagon building after a devastating hit from an aircraft in theterrorist attack.

TEDDY BLACKBURN / REUTERS

The Whitehorse mayor advisedhis staff to get in their cars and dri-ve out of the city in case a planewas about to crash in the middle ofdowntown and radio shows wereflooded with calls from frightenedlocals.

The plane, escorted by Canadianand U.S. fighter jets, made a safelanding at the local airport. An au-tomatic signalling code from theplane indicating that the aircraftwas in danger was the cause of the

panic, but it turned out the pilotwas simply running low on fuel.

In Vancouver, two AmericanF-15 fighters escorted an AirChina jet to a safe touchdownafter it experienced communi-

cations difficulties.Heightened security concerns al-

so caused long lineups and hasslesin towns along the U.S.-Canadaborder yesterday.

In tiny Point Roberts, Wash., theimpact of events a continent away left people numb with shock.News reports blared from loudspeakers at gas bars and played onevery car radio. Some of thosewaiting in their cars at the bordercrossing bowed their heads and

wept as they contemplated theenormity of the tragedy.

I remember Pearl Harbor, saidJim Julius. I was a young man,just signing up for service then.This is like Pearl Harbor. Its an act

of war. I believe that. This is war all weve gotta do now is find outwhos on the other side of it.

Tommy Thompson, a retired air-line pilot from Canada who has acottage in the community, said hethought of the flight crews on thehijacked aircraft.

I dont know what I would havedone, he said. Id rather have tak-en a shot in the back and gone intothe ocean than to have crashed in-to that building. Maybe they shot

the pilot and co-pilot and draggedthem out. Maybe they flew it inthemselves. We dont know.

U.S. military authorities in Washington were moving war-ships into Seattle harbour and oth-

er strategic coastal locations, tak-ing up defensive positions. Ferrieswere cancelled and all navigablewaters were temporarily closed.The Amtrak train that providesrapid service between Seattle andVancouver was cancelled. Largeshopping malls in WashingtonState were also closed for the day.And hours after the crash of theplanes, the horror continued inNew York.At 5:15 p.m. ET, with a cloud of

smoke still blocking out the after-noon sun in the downtown, a thirdbuilding in the Trade Center com-plex the 47-storey structurehousing the citys emergency re-sponse centre collapsed.

The building had been on firefor several hours and the entiresurrounding area had been de-clared off limits, even to rescueworkers, because of the threat ofcollapse.

Most countries includingseveral states with whom theUnited States has had shaky re-lations condemned the attack.Libyan leader MuammarGaddafi, regarded as a pariah by Washington, offered condo-

lences at the horrific attacks.Mohammad Khatami, the Iran-ian President, likewise con-demned what he called the ter-rorist attacks on Irans arch-foeand offered deep sympathy to

the American nation.Terrorism is condemned and

the international communityshould take effective measuresto eradicate it, the official IRNAnews agency quoted Mr. Khatamias saying. Vladimir Putin, the Russian

President, called for a co-ordinat-ed international response to ter-rorism. Mr. Putin said in atelegram to George W. Bush, theU.S. President, that barbarous

terrorist acts aimed against whol-ly innocent people cause us angerand indignation.

The entire international com-munity should unite in the strug-gle against terrorism, he said.

Weve got couches, a floor, weve got food ...We can help out in any way we can

Emergency personnel, left, survey the World Trade Center collapse area, while an emergency worker, centre, treats an injured man and, right, firemen carry another injured man away from the wreckage to safety.

Rescue workers, left, remove a man from the World Trade Center tower in New York City, while medical personnel, right, wait outside St. Vincents Hospital for the injured.

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SIGNS

YVONNE BERG / NATIONAL POST

Flight cancellations are seen on a screen in the arrival area at L ester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto. Repercussions rippled across Canada as thousands of travellers were stranded at airports.

SUSAN RAGAN / REUTERSCARLOS OSORIO / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ANTHONY P. BOLANTE / REUTERS

JIM YOUNG / REUTERS

Police cordon off the area around the Canadian Parliament Buildings, left, after a bomb scare in Ottawa.The sign above the empty United Airlines ticket counter at Logan Airport in Boston, Mass., right, reads inits entirety All Flights Cancelled Due To Our National Disaster.


Travellers face a lot of cancelled U.S. flights at Frankfurt Airport, left, while smoke b illows from thePentagon in Washington, D.C., in a television frame grab, right, that announces America Under Attack.

OLIVER BERG / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

JIM RUYMEN / REUTERS

JUSTIN SULLIVAN / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEN MARGOT / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Delayed Southwest flights at Oakland International Airport, top left; cancellations at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, below left; a sign in front of the pedestrian path at San Franciscos Golden Gate Bridge announcing itsclosure, top middle; San Francisco financial centre building is closed, bottom middle; flight cancellations at Los Angeles International Airport, top right; Seattle-Tacoma International Airport cancellations, bottom right.

This is not a battle betweenthe United States of Americaand terrorism, but between thefree and democratic world andterrorism, Mr. Blair said afterchairing a crisis meeting ofBritains special security com-mittee.

Only Saddam Husseins Iraqraised a dissenting word. Thecountrys state television summedup the circumstances as the American cowboy reaping the

fruits of his crimes against hu-manity.

Last night, Senator Orrin Hatch,the top Republican on the SenateJudiciary Committee said U.S. in-telligence has convincingly linked

bin Laden to the attacks, inter-cepting communications betweenhis supporters discussing the ef-fectiveness of the strikes.

They have an intercept of someinformation that included peopleassociated with bin Laden who ac-knowledged a couple of targetswere hit, the Senator said.

He refused to give further details.Mr. Hatch also said law enforce-

ment officials have data linking atleast one of the passengers aboard

one of the four hijacked flights tothe Saudi dissident's organization.

TheBoston Globereported offi-cials at the citys Logan airport,where two of the doomed flightsoriginated, found a copy of the Ko-

ran, an instructional videotape onhow to fly commercial airliners,and a fuel consumption calculatorin a pair of bags that did not makeit on to American Airlines Flight11. The plane left Boston at 7:59a.m. and crashed into the WorldTrade Center an hour later.

The bags belonged to a man withan Arabic name who flew into Lo-gan from Portland, Maine, early yesterday morning. His bagsmissed his connection.

Just before 6 p.m. Eastern Time,Kabul, Afghanistans capital, wasrocked by a series of explosions, leading to speculation that theworlds one remaining superpow-er had commenced its inevitable

retribution. Anti-aircraft batteriesreturned fire, as red tracer bulletsand orange plumes of flame lit upthe night sky.

In a televised news conference ahalf-hour later, Donald Rums-feld, the U.S. Defense Secretary,denied responsibility for the at-tacks.

Ive seen the reports and in noway is the United States govern-ment connected to those inci-dents, he said.

As daylight faded in Washing-ton yesterday, Mr. Bush re-turned to the White House, hispresidential helicopter accom-panied by six Marine attackchoppers.

At 8:30 p.m. ET, a sombre Mr.Bush addressed the nation andthe world, delivering a messagethat shocked and shatteredAmericans wanted to hear.

These acts of mass murder areintended to frighten our countryinto chaos and retreat, but theyhave failed, he said.

These acts shattered steel butthey cannot dent the steel ofAmerican resolve.

Mr. Bush vowed that the full re-

sources of the worlds only re-maining superpower will be de-voted to bringing those respon-sible for yesterdays despicableacts to justice.

The search is already under-

way for those behind these evilattacks, said Mr. Bush. We willmake no distinction betweenthose who commit these actsand those who harbour them.

None of us will forget this day,but we will go forward to defendfreedom and all that is good andjust in the world.

National Post,with files from Steven Edwards

in New York, Peter Morton and

Jan Cienski in Washington,

Mark Hume in Vancouver,Richard Foot in Halifax,

Heather Sokoloff, FrancineDub, Chris Eby, Lauren

Mechling and Tom Arnold in

Toronto, and news services.

These acts shattered steel but theycannot dent the steel of American resolve

8/4/2019 0912b Local

11/11


DOUG KANTER / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

A man walks through the rubble looking for survivors after the collapse of the north tower of the World Trade Center yesterday morning. For many New Yorkers, shock quickly turned to anger.

Despite the red beltof flames encir-cling the middle ofthe World TradeCenter and the

plumes of black smoke that de-scended on downtown like a blanket of death, many NewYorkers stood in silence on theirrooftops this brilliant, sunnymorning, questioning whetherthey were dreaming.

Then in a moment, New Yorksskyline forever changed. No roar.No sirens. Just a collective gaspfrom the tenants gathered atopmy girlfriends five-storey apart-ment on West 14th Street, and onpractically every rooftop in Man-hattan.

Remarkably, the collapse of the

Twin Towers looked like a stagedtelevision event, the demolitionof a mothballed building.

Thirty minutes later I walked

around the corner to St. Vin-cents Hospital, the hospital thattreated most of the casualties following the 1993 World TradeCenter bombing, where hun-dreds of New Yorkers who toooften get a bum rap as being rudeand self-absorbed lined up togive blood.

Most people in the queue thatstretched up Seventh Avenue andaround the corner of 13th Streetappeared to be in a state of shock.At first I thought it was a joke,said one man in the line, hurried- ly filling out a blood donationform. Behind him, an eyewitnessto the calamity added: I thoughtthe pilot of the plane must havehad a heart attack God onlyknows how this is going to end.

For some, shock had changedinto anger about as fast as theambulances and police cars rac-ing down Seventh Avenue. Anyform of warfare will be accept-

able after this, seethed Sarah Al-lender, a college student major-ing in politics.

What do you mean? I asked.I understand that violence

begets violence, but we should dowhat we did the last time peopleattacked our land: Drop a nuclearbomb. That would be the ulti-mate message.

Ms. Allender neglected to men-tion just where to deliver such amessage. Gaza? Afghanistan?Americas heartland?

Meanwhile, a bearded homelessman in a Beatles T-shirt, holdinga bottle of beer wrapped in theThe Village Voice, managed tolook on the bright side of things.Today, Im able to drink my beerwithout getting a ticket. Normallythey treat me like a terrorist. Thisis the real terrorism today.

Indeed.On the roped-off sidewalk in

front of St. Vincents emergencyroom, scores of empty gurneyswaited for victims. Street trafficwas stopped in all directions, ex-cept for emergency vehicles,which today included a city bus.

It had been commandeered totransport dazed emergency workers, many of whom worewhite paper dust masks. And aburly construction worker tears

in his eyes, climbed on a blue po-lice barricade to scan the crowd,hoping to catch sight of his miss-ing brother, a banker who workedacross the street from where theTwin Towers used to stand.

I bump into my former doctor,David Feldman, who was about toreturn to his emergency station.Tell the people that everything isrunning smoothly, said Feldman,who nevertheless admitted thatthe ER was already packed, andthat patients were spilling out in-to other wards of the hospital.The first wave of people were notthat badly hurt smoke inhala-tion. But were starting to get peo-ple who were dug in with debrison top of them.

They are doing the same thingin my country, lamented NaimaEl Haddad, a Moroccan womanwho emigrated to Brooklyn tenyears ago.

She had come to St. Vincents to

visit her husband, who is dyingfrom lung cancer and is on a res-pirator. She looked frightenedand vulnerable, visibly trem-bling She worried that Muslims

in America, be they from Africa,Pakistan or the Middle East,might suffer for the sins of thosewho kill in the name of her reli-gion. I hope they dont put us allin a lot, she said,

Ms. El Haddad then produced aminiature Koran from her hand-bag. In my husbands room I saida prayer for the dead so they canget to God clean and safe andnice.

Her friend, Layla Abdul, origi-nally from Egypt, fretted lessabout a potential backlash. New York, she said confidently, isbigger than that. America is big-ger than that.

Nearby, a pair of priests walked by. Father Roger Fawcett, whopeeled surgical gloves off hishands, prepared to take a breakat a frozen yogurt shop with Fa-ther Robert, an Orthodox priestin a black cassock.

They had just helped unload the

first wave of patients arriving atSt. Vincents.Apparently, there was nothing

much they could do for the mo-ment while the triage team sep

arated the dead from the wound-ed and the wounded from thewalking wounded.

Were here to anoint the dying,said Father Fawcett. But theheavy part of the work will startlater, providing counselling to thebereaved families

Trite or not, I asked them: Isthere a God?

Oh yes, Father Fawcett saidsmiling. Hes in the faces, in thehands, in the feet of the doctorshere. This is where God is.

It's 6:45 p.m. now, and again Iclimb to the roof, the tar beach aswe call it in New York City, some-how praying that I'll awake froma bad dream. Yet a giant ball ofgray smoke still hovers where Ionce danced at Windows On The World, the famed ballroomcrowning the World Trade Cen-ter. A realization of the magni-tude of this horror is just begin-ning to set in.

There is no World Trade Center.Something is missing from theskyline of New York.And from our souls.

National Post

Changed forever, in an instantThe collapse of the Twin Towers looked like a staged television event, the demolition of a mothballed building

I understand that violence begets violence, but we should do what we did

the last time people attacked our land: Drop a nuclear bomb.

That would be the ultimate message

D A V I D W A L L I Si n N e w Y o r k

0912b local

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