9/11 - where were you?

[Juan Galonso]

Does anybody believe really that there were bombs planted in the buildings in these conspiracy theories. I remember watching a programme about the buildings and an expert was saying that there is no way that they should both have came down so quickly in 8 to 10 seconds unless detonated. He said they still could have come down but it should have taken roughly 30-40 seconds.

[WaltonRed]

Does anybody believe really that there were bombs planted in the buildings in these conspiracy theories. I remember watching a programme about the buildings and an expert was saying that there is no way that they should both have came down so quickly in 8 to 10 seconds unless detonated. He said they still could have come down but it should have taken roughly 30-40 seconds.

 

There is certainly something not right with the whole picture if you ask me

[aikido]

I was managing a restaurant in central New Jersey. I remember a cook coming in and saying a plane had just crashed into the Twin Towers. We all turned the T.V. on and wondered if a movie was being made. Then we saw the second plane hit. I get shivers thinking about it now.

 

Everyone start calling out of work. Servers, bartenders and cooks all knew someone who worked in the city. It was only a 40 minute drive away. An ex girlfriend of mine worked in the financial district. An Irish girl I had emigrated with but we had gone our separate ways. I spent hours trying to get through to her family in Dublin, to find out if she was safe. She called me later that night and said she got out on the ferry across the Hudson. She said everyone was covered in ash. I will never forget her crying and how upset she was. She lost a bunch of friends that day. Everyone felt useless. We wanted to do something to help. Move rubble, anything. It was a helpless feeling. I left work that night and gave blood.

 

Surreal is the only word I can use to describe the following week.

 

Servers who were in the reserves came to work with their full camouflage gear in tow and stored it in my office. Two guys got called up in the middle of a shift. They left straight away and were guarding the entrance to the Holland Tunnel withing two hours.

 

For a short while everyone was united. People shook each others hands. Patted each other on the back. It was like we wanted to be better people, to come together and show unity.

 

It's just a pity that we were led astray into Iraq and Afghanistan. At that stage Americans were blind and wanted their pound of flesh. Regardless of who gave it.

[JohnnyH]

Does anybody believe really that there were bombs planted in the buildings in these conspiracy theories. I remember watching a programme about the buildings and an expert was saying that there is no way that they should both have came down so quickly in 8 to 10 seconds unless detonated. He said they still could have come down but it should have taken roughly 30-40 seconds.

 

You just have to look at the close up pictures of the damage caused by the aircraft to see they were going to come down. I remember standing in my bosses office with about 20 others from the office as he had a tv and when they did a close up of the damage to the towers we all as a group said they were going to drop. With 25 floors above the damage, I thought the way the towers were going to collapse was fairly obvious. I remember watching the fire dept people going into the towers and knowing that they'd never been seen again. Terrible terrible stuff. I then sat at my desk which at the time was a few hundred yards to the side of the runway in Dublin, and a few hours later, one after another were all these BA 747s and Virgin A330s and many other airlines who don't fly to Dublin, lanidng in Dublin one after another. There was a real sense that this was the first day of WW3.

[Stu Monty]

I was temping for an insurance company, processing payments to garages who'd done car repairs. There was no internet access, so the first I heard was that it was a terrorist attack. While the rest of the office carried on with their work and made a few jokes, my sphincter started twitching uncontrollably and I decided to go to the loo just in cause. When I couldn't believe how casually everyone was taking it when I knew that it was going to change the world and set off all kinds of shit, although to be fair if they'd seen the pictures there and then I'm sure they would have taken on board how massive and horrific it was.

 

I wondered, four years after graduating from uni determined to do something that actually made some difference to the world, what the fuck I was doing there doing something so monumentally mundane when there was so much important stuff going on. It shook me up and made me pull my finger out to go back to uni and then build a career in something I actually care about.

 

 

 

 

 

It's extraordinary isn't it. America on 9/11 was the most powerful it's ever been and probably ever will be. It had the support and sympathy of virtually every country on earth. To go from that to being hated by most of the world in the space of 18 months takes a special kind of genius.

 

In the days after the attacks, despite the shock, I had a real sense of hope. Americans had tasted some of the suffering of people in the rest of the world, and they (and many others in the West) were starting to ask why people wanted to do things like this and how to stop it. I naively believed that enough of them would be prepared to accept an answer they didn't like for it to make a difference to their perception of the world and to America's foreign policy.

 

The thing that got to me most was a Palestinian girl in the West Bank holding up a placard saying "We share your pain – we are victims too". Here we go, I thought, people's eyes are going to open and we're all going to start pulling together.

 

Ah well.

 

Without wanting to completely derail the thread onto something far more argumentative I think that's miles from the truth. The people who were victims may have had sympathy but countries all over the world, in particular South America, the Arab states and Russia didn't suddenly forget the past. A lot of people thought it was chickens coming home to roost.

 

Part of me thought it could lead to a period of reflection and a positive change in the way things are but it was a very small part of me, that's the beauty/tragedy of being a cynic: you're rarely dissapointed.

[redrosetints]

In the back of a car on the M1 on my way to the Boavista game. They scored and the guy fired his 'Mirkin' style guns into the crowd, so apt.

[1892-LFCWasBorn]

I was working in Hammersmith at the time and was at work when a mate phoned me about the first plane hitting the WTC before 9am in the morning. We watched it on the TV in our office and couldn't believe the shit that was unfolding.

 

I still get goosebumps any time I see the footage.

 

If anyone hasn't seen United 93 (by Paul Greengrass), then watch it.

 

I was working in the City during the 7/7 attacks in London and was at work when all the bombs started going off. Luckily I got into work 10 mins before the first one went off.

[GJM]

I was returning from the most blissful of walks in the Italian countryside with my wife and then 2 year old son. It was one of those rare, savour it while you can, 'this is the life' moments. We got back to the house where we were holidaying with friends and they were furiously trying to get the World Service on the transistor radio after one of them had received a text saying that two passenger jets had hit the WTC. Our first thought was that it was some bizarre accident.

 

Went into a small cafe in the nearest town that evening and watched it all in silent horror.

[WaltonRed]

For a short while everyone was united. People shook each others hands. Patted each other on the back. It was like we wanted to be better people, to come together and show unity.

 

It's just a pity that we were led astray into Iraq and Afghanistan. At that stage Americans were blind and wanted their pound of flesh. Regardless of who gave it.

 

I think following it for me personally It was one of those moments that made me proud that the U.S and Britain have the relationship we do. You'd stood by us and it was time for us stand by you. It is a shame as you say that rather than look at the reasons as to why it happened we went in to Afghanistan and Iraq. Normal people being used as pawns yet again by those in power.

 

There was a real sense that this was the first day of WW3.

 

As soon as it became clear it wasn't an accident it was clear to me someone was going to pay and it was just a crazy crazy crazy time.

 

A lot of people thought it was chickens coming home to roost.

 

Part of me thought it could lead to a period of reflection and a positive change in the way things are but it was a very small part of me, that's the beauty/tragedy of being a cynic: you're rarely dissapointed.

 

I'm probably a cynic since 9/11. Before I had my doubts about stuff but since then and realising the bigger picture you actually see its 'reap what you sow' moment and that can be said for 7/7 as well.

[Cardie]

There is certainly something not right with the whole picture if you ask me

 

That would be the two planes full of people hitting a huge building.

 

The resources and manpower it would have taken to plan and execute a plan to bring down the towers with controlled explosions would be huge, especially to do it without rousing suspicion.

 

I was in work, sat infront of the computer with a few mates watching it unravel then realising an hour or so had gone and most people had left.

 

Completely bonkers day, of all the amazing images from that day it's the ones of people waving for help above the impact/people jumping and knowing their was no way they could be saved that were the worst.

[WaltonRed]

That would be the two planes full of people hitting a huge buildingQUOTE]

 

Ha ha

[Neil G]

Without wanting to completely derail the thread onto something far more argumentative I think that's miles from the truth. The people who were victims may have had sympathy but countries all over the world, in particular South America, the Arab states and Russia didn't suddenly forget the past. A lot of people thought it was chickens coming home to roost.

 

I don't mean that every government in the world suddenly considered itself a US ally and that the populations of all the countries wronged by America suddenly absolved it of all its past and current crimes and decided it was actually a nice country. I mean that governments and populations around the world recognised that terrorism of that nature and on that scale was a threat to civilised values everywhere and had to be stopped, and that America for all its faults was in a unique position to lead the fight against it.

 

If the US had shown responsible, open-minded and morally sound leadership in the fight against terrorism, most of the world would have rallied behind it, even while disagreeing with it and even condemning it on a whole host of other issues. Although that kind of leadership would necessarily have driven it to clean up its act on a lot of those other issues anyway.

[Bjornebye]

 

 

[Rico1304]

I was getting married.

 

(although several years later.  Never forget the date, plenty of pre warning) 

[Dr Nowt]

In genuine answer to the original question, sexing this lass I used to borrow in the woods then a seldom-used clifftop bus stop, for reasons of expediency.

 

A guy walked past with his dog at one point and it started sniffing at her foot, then her leg. Didn’t seem to put her off.

[TheHowieLama]

4 minutes ago, Lizzie Birdsworths Wrinkled Chopper said:

 

A guy walked past with his dog at one point and it started sniffing at her foot, then her leg. Didn’t seem to put her off.

What did the dog do?

[Scott_M]

On 11/09/2008 at 21:44, Scott_M said:

I was in work. I didn't see it until I got to the Supporters Club for the Boavista game at night and the news being on and being totally horrified by it.

 

We were all sat round watching the news on the big screen and the bar staff changed the channel to WWF Wrestling. At the time nobody could believe they changed the channel and they were politely asked to put it back.

 

Looking back on that, it's pretty sureal & funny - The biggest terrorist attack and news story ever and somebody decided to put 6ft5 oiled up men touching each other up on instead. What do some people think sometimes?

 

Anyway, it's still the most horrific thing I've ever seen. It really hit home last year when I went to NYC and went to Ground Zero. The hole site isn't as far off as being as Stanley Park. They were still digging out the foundations in Novemember over 6 years on. Of all the massive buildings in NYC, the 2 biggest ones are missing. You have to see it yourself to be fully able to understand.

 

I thought I’d already posted this so double checked before I posted it again. It still makes me laugh. 

 

The thousands who died doesn’t make me laugh, that’s tragically sad. The fact somebody thought people would rather watch Val Venus v De Lo Brown over the one of biggest (if not the biggest) news stories of all time, gives me a chuckle in disbelief. 

 

Anyway, I still don’t believe the footage in NYC that day. Beyond surreal. 

 

Imagine what it’d be like with today’s social media, some opportunist would have made a Cloverfield style film and sickeningly made millions. 

[Chairman Meow]

7 hours ago, Lizzie Birdsworths Wrinkled Chopper said:

In genuine answer to the original question, sexing this lass I used to borrow in the woods then a seldom-used clifftop bus stop, for reasons of expediency.

 

A guy walked past with his dog at one point and it started sniffing at her foot, then her leg. Didn’t seem to put her off.

Who did you borrow her from?

[Brownie]

I was working at Morrisons in Skipton (it was summer break from uni). Remember the news filtering across the shop floor and then going back to my birds house to watch it on the news.

 

Scary day.

[A Red]

Dunno but I bet our immersion was on

[easytoslip]

At work just outside Reading , my bird rang me , we’d not long been back from NY, told some lad on site and he didn’t know what the WTC was , then she rang again and I thought oh fuck , next everyone was getting calls.

Getting in the van after knocking off one lad imitated a plane and said it’s only a some Yanks the fuckin’ prick , he and others couldn’t grasp what had happened and it’s implications and I wasn’t my usual self on the journey back being mostly silent and upset while listening to idiots and their childish comments, obviously the penny still hadn’t dropped.

On the flight to NY Air India someone was standing by the plane door , I was shitting myself, I said to her I hope that’s not Bin Laden she said who’s he? She knows now albeit a few months later. We flew back out to the States a bit later on Bommy night so again my mind was weighing up all kinds of shit.Sound though.

Incidentally I can’t go with the conspiracy thoughts , no way, last nights programme which I’d seen before seemed pretty credible explaining the small explosions and dripping burning metal , due to the high volume of Aliminium and water creating a highly flammable mixture along with other materials thrown in the mix, plus the structure itself with its central steel structure,so I’ll go with that though the event still makes me sad and fearful for humanity.

[Chris]

Where were you when they built the ladder to heaven? 

 

 

[Brownie]

2 minutes ago, Chris said:

Where were you when they built the ladder to heaven? 

 

 

Fucking hell nearly spat my coffee out then just remembering this song.

 

Absolutely genius.

[Bjornebye]

I was in the Navy on a training course at HMS Raleigh in Torpoint. Was meant to be taking a girl out that night but the base got put on lock-down for 3 or 4 days. Never ended up taking her out and not long after ended up seeing some girl from Erdington in the Midlands. So yeah, thanks Bin-Laden. Thanks for fucking nothing. 

[easytoslip]

39 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

I was in the Navy on a training course at HMS Raleigh in Torpoint. Was meant to be taking a girl out that night but the base got put on lock-down for 3 or 4 days. Never ended up taking her out and not long after ended up seeing some girl from Erdington in the Midlands. So yeah, thanks Bin-Laden. Thanks for fucking nothing. 

Did she make yow a noice Kippa tie .