Sunday, February 26, 2006

An Accidental Brush with History

Longterm readers know that I am a Native New Yorker. I now work for DHS in Northern Vermont but this chapter of my life began thirteen years ago today. A chance trip downtown became a voyage into history.

On February 23, 1993 I was a brand new batchelor and behaving poorly. I wasn't seeing any one girlfriend in particular and juggling a few. There was no long term relationships so there was no misbehavior but I was in no definition a model citizen.
The story begins with a big mouthed coworker whom I also dated asked the wrong girlfriend about a Broadway show.

Well I had to think fast because Rosie was the cream of that crop. She wasn't the most beautiful but she was brilliant lively and a skilled professional. A logistics manager is trained to think on his feet. Every day we turn the impossible into the done and our reward is to do it again tommorow. Using the quick thinking I explained that my cowoker was mistaken and I see theatre all the time and that I was planning to take her the next day. Rosie had two minor flaws lousy taste in men and a fearsome temper. You did not want to be on the receiving end when she was angry.


The discount theatre ticket was at the WTC. The half price tickets for the Next days shows were in the mezzanine of one of the towers. A pain in the rear end buyer was breaking my chops about an airshipment to Rockford Ill and delayed me . My main job done I ran out to catch the N or R train. I just missed a train and these delays would prove significant later.

I think I went into the East River Savings bank that was across the street for cash.
I entered the builing after crossings Church Street. I heard a big bang and felt a vibration but I didn't seem to think about it too much . My main thought was getting
those tickets for Rosie.

I approached the mezanine an thick smoke was coming from the ground. Everyone thought a train crashed in the PATH station below . I was upset because there was no way I was going to get my tickets for Rosie.

I ran back out across Church Street and grabbed a bus going UPtown. This whole series of events seems like hours but it was less than ten minutes. I got a bite to
eat and returned to my office . My cowokers looked at me as if they had seen a ghost.
They told me the WTC was bombed and I told them that it isn't true I just came from there.

It was hard to get radio as the signals were knocked out and TV was even worse. The city was in a panic with a series of rumors Anarchists, FALN, Weatherpeople. Who else would attack an Office Building.

However my thoughts were not of explosions or the WTC. I was wondering what would I say to Rosie. At that moment I would rather have taken my chances in the WTC then to face an angered Rosie. I called Rosie and she let me have it. She yelled so loud the person two desks away could hear it. "You cheap %&%&*^%& go down to the box office
and pay full price. What do you think I am one of your discount ^*^*&( . "

I did run out my office straight to the box and got the best seats available. I took her to the show and an expensive dinner afterwards and believe it or not the subject
of my getting blown up never was discussed. She was angry at some inter office stuff and at some relatives and I had to listen. She was a remarkable woman in every other
respect just dangerous when angered.

For years later my cluelessness in the middle of a bombing and panic aqbout Rosie was a running joke for years. " He's so clueless he was in a building that was blown up and didn't even notice".

In many ways the Keystone Jihadists and the low death toll lulled us into a sleep. The ring was broken when a clown like terrorist tried to get a 500 deposit on the van he had just blown up. Sheik Rahman was dragged before the camera in an odd Santa Claus outfit looking like a dark skinned version of a really bugged out Jack Elam. We were to learn more in the days ahead about plans to blow up more sites. It seemed like every cab driver in Jersey City was involved. However there was an engineer and a gas station owner.

The part of the story you don't know is the cast of charachters from WTC was gathered
from the Kahane Assasination. However the Police decided the assasination of the troublesome Kahane was the work of a deranged assasin El Sayid Nossair. They ignored the implications of a get away driver. The story can be read in Mylroie's The War Against America.

People forget that the architect of the WTC 93 blast was a Baluchi Ramzi Youssef. Youessef's Uncle just happens to be Khalid Sheik Mohammed the numer three man in Al Queda who looks like Ron Jeremy. Saddam has intelligence networks among the Baluchis because he was trying to destabilize Iran. The whole angle was never investgated by a disinterested Clinton Administration. Clinton did not visit the WTC and to put it
mildly was interested in other matters.

Beamish in 08, Ducky to the bathtub and 167 to visit a Walmart and a truckstop in the Midwest.

8 comments:

Always On Watch said...

Beak,
An outstanding piece of writing here--the personal touch, with poignancy and humor.

Excellent conclusion, political and humorous, too:
The whole angle was never investgated by a disinterested Clinton Administration. Clinton did not visit the WTC and to put it mildly was interested in other matters.

My students recently wrote a memorable-day essay. Your essay could be a model!

beakerkin said...

In a way my experience made for a more dangerous experience on 9-11
years later. I was across the street on that day doing what seems stupid in hindsight but natural rubbernecking. My reaction at first was astonishment but also been there and done that. I had lived through it and the thought that the towers could collapse did not occur to me.

We kid ourselves but our first reaction to an accident is to look.
The next time you pass an accident on the highway try not to look. We as human beings can not fight our human inquisitive nature.

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

Also remember that Ramzi Yousef had intended the bomb to knock over one tower into the other and release a cyanide poison gas cloud, but his explosives weren't placed efficiently so the combustion burned the cyanide away and blew up floors above instead of supportcolumns and foundations out. New York City was lucky that day.

Then again, NYC wasn't lucky, because Bill Clinton, a Democrat, was President, and in the fine tradition of Democrat Presidents, he watched the attack on American soil and went back to masturbating or whatever it is that takes priority over national security to Democrats when Americans are killed.

So we watched the World Trade Center get hit AGAIN on September 11th, 2001, with the knowledge that the Al Qaeda terrorist conspirators from the 1993 bombing were still in Iraq and still being supported by the Mukhabarat.

And we watched Democrats throw a fit when this and other operational links between Iraq and Al Qaeda were brought up before the start of Operation: Iraqi Freedom. Democrats will ALWAYS oppose bringing justice to anyone that has killed an American and will ALWAYS oppose bringing war to any nation that threatens us with terrorist attacks.

If you've ever voted for a Democrat between the years 1836 and today, you should apologize to God and your fellow Americans for actively seeking to destroy the United States of America.

Jason Pappas said...

True, Clinton had 8 years. I don't always think Bush is tough enough but Clinton was clueless. He bombed and invaded Serbia (a country that was no threat to us) while our enemies were striking USA sovereign land (embassies in Africa) and attacking our military (the Cole.) Bin Laden even declared war on America--a formality Muslims usually dispense with.

Dan Zaremba said...

Beak,
I remembered 1993 bombing.

And I agree with AOW -

An outstanding piece of writing here--the personal touch, with poignancy and humor.

Always On Watch said...

Beak,
the thought that the towers could collapse did not occur to me.

I'll never forget how I felt when the towers came down. I couldn't believe what I was watching was real. I don't cry easily, but I sobbed and screamed for hours. All those people! All those brave firemen! My God!

How can so many have put those images out of their minds? I can't do it. And as I've said before, I'm not a New Yorker. But in the words of a WWII vet, "It took my breath away." Still does, which is one reason I don't have Cap'n Bob's animated graphic at my site. I can't think when I relive that day.

beakerkin said...

Jason

You live in NYC and were probably about three miles North . How many times does our City have to be attacked ? Why is the link between the cast of WTC bombing and the Kahane assasination so poorly understood ?

Has everyone forgotten that Ramzi Youseff is Khalid Sheik Mohammed's
nephew ? Khalid Sheik Mohammed is the number three man in Al Queda. This is no coincedence and the two attacks are linked.

Much of Al Queda's leadership is Baluch . My money is that Al Queda's big wigs are in the Baluch region . We have no assetts in the area and do not have the onions to bomb the place and risk a confrontation with Iran. I say damn Iran and if Bin Laden is in the Baluch area bomb first and ask questions later.

beakerkin said...

Bld

I am glancing through several books at the moment. One has a chapter on the Clinton failures with regard to terrorism. I also have Thomas Sowell's Black Rednecks and White Liberals.

I was thinking of serializing the chapter are Jews Generic. Sowell's middle man minority hypothesis is interesting.