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 Copyright ©2003-2008 Anthony Canales |
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 Anthony Canales is the President of the San Fernando Valley NRA Member’s Council. He works as a Quality Control Manager in Glendale, California. He is married with one son. The opinions expressed in 'News Briefs' belong soley to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Rifle Association of America or the NRA Members' Councils of California. |
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03-20-2008
12-31-2007 |
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September 11, 2004 "...From this and other evidence, we believe the hijacking
began at 8:14 or shortly thereafter.
Reports from two flight attendants in the coach cabin,
Betty Ong and Madeline "Amy" Sweeney, tell us most of what
we know about how the hijacking happened. As it began,
some of the hijackers--most likely Wail al Shehri and Waleed
al Shehri, who were seated in row 2 in first class-- stabbed the
two unarmed flight attendants who would have been preparing
for cabin service.
We do not know exactly how the hijackers gained access
to the cockpit; FAA rules required that the doors remain closed
and locked during the flight. Ong speculated that they had
" jammed their way" in. Perhaps the terrorists stabbed the
flight attendants to get a cockpit key, to force one of them to
open the cockpit door, or to lure the captain or first officer out
of the cockpit. Or the flight attendants may just have been in their
way.
At the same time or shortly thereafter, Atta-- the only terrorist
on board trained to fly a jet-- would have moved to the cockpit
from his business-class seat, possibly accompanied by Omari.
As this was happening, passenger Daniel Lewin, who was seated
in the row just behind Atta and Omari, was stabbed by one of the
hijackers--probably Satam al Suqami, who was seated directly
behind Lewin. Lewin had served four years as an officer in the
Israeli military. He may have made an attempt to stop the
hijackers in front of him, not realizing that another was sitting
behind him.
The hijackers quickly gained control and sprayed Mace,
pepper spray, or some other irritant in the first class cabin, in
order to force the passengers and flight attendants toward the
rear of the plane. They claimed they had a bomb.
About five minutes after the hijacking began, Betty Ong
contacted the American Airlines Southeastern Reservations
Office in Cary, North Carolina, via an AT& T airphone to report
an emergency aboard the flight. This was the first of several
occasions on 9/11 when flight attendants took action outside
the scope of their training, which emphasized that in a hijacking
they were to communicate with the cockpit crew. The emergency
call lasted approximately 25 minutes, as Ong calmly and pro-
fessionally relayed information about events taking place
aboard the airplane to authorities on the ground.
At 8:19, Ong reported: ' The cockpit is not answering, some-
body's stabbed in business class-- and I think there's Mace-- that
we can't breathe-- I don't know, I think we're getting hijacked. She
then told of the stabbings of the two flight attendants.
At 8:21, one of the American employess receiving Ong's call
in North Carolina, Nydia Gonzalez, alerted the American Airlines
operations center in Fort Worth, Texas, reaching Craig Marquis,
the manager on duty. Marquis soon realized this was an
emergency and instructed the airline's dispatcher responsible
for the flight to contact the cockpit. At 8:23, the dispatcher
tried unsuccessfully to contact the aircraft. Six minutes later,
the air traffic control specialist in American's operations center
contacted the FAA's Boston Air Traffic Control Center about the
flight. The center was already aware of the problem.
Boston Center knew of a problem on the flight in part because
just before 8:25 the hijackers had attempted to communicate
with the passengers. The microphone was keyed, and immediately
one of the hijackers said, ' Nobody move. Eveything will be okay.
If you try to make any moves, you'll endanger yourself and the
airplane. Just stay quiet.' Air traffic controllers heard the trans-
mission; Ong did not. The hijackers probably did not know how to
operate the cockpit radio communication system correctly, and
thus indavertantly broadcast their message ove the air traffic
control channel. Also, at 8:25, and again at 8:29, Amy Sweeney
got through to the American Flight Services Office in Boston but
was cut off after she reported someone was hurt aboard the
flight. Three minutes later, Sweeney was reconnected to the office
and began relaying updates to the manager, Michael Woodward.
At 8:26, Ong reported that the plane was ' flying erratically.'
A minute later, Flight 11 turned south. American also began
getting identifications of the hijackers, as Ong and then Sweeney
passed on some of the seat numbers of those who had gained
unauthorized access to the cockpit.
Sweeney calmly reported on her line that the plane had been
hijacked; a man in first class had his throat slashed; two flight
attendants had been stabbed-- one was seriously hurt and was
on oxygen while the other's wounds seemed minor; a doctor
had been requested; the flight attendants were unable to contact
the cockpit; and there was a bomb in the cockpit. Sweeney told
Woodward that she and Ong were trying to relay as much informa-
tion as they could to people on the ground.
At 8:38, Ong told Gonzalez that the plane was flying erratically
again. Around this time Sweeney told Woodward that the hijackers
were Middle Easterners, naming three of their seat numbers. One
spoke excellent English. The hijackers had gained entry to the
cockpit, and she did not know how. The aircraft was in rapid
descent.
At 8:41, Sweeney told Woodward that passengers in coach were
under the impression that there was a routine medical emergency
in first class. Other flight attendants were busy at duties such as
getting medical supplies while Ong and Sweeney were reporting
the events.
At 8:41, in American's operations center, a colleague told
Marquis that the air traffic controllers declared Flight 11 a
hijacking and ' think he's [American 11] headed toward
Kennedy [ airport in New York City ]. They're moving every-
body out of the way. They seem to have him on a primary radar.
They seem to think that he is descending.
At 8:44, Gonzalez reported losing phone contact with Ong.
About this same time Sweeney reported to Woodward, ' Some-
thing is wrong. We are in a rapid descent...we are all over the
place.' Woodward asked Sweeney to look out the window to
see if she could determine where they were. Sweeney responded:
' We are flying low. We are flying very, very low. We are flying
way too low.' Seconds later she said, ' Oh my God we are way
too low.' ...
The phone call ended.
At 8:46:40, American 11 crashed into the North Tower of the
World Trade Center in New York City. All on board, along with an
unknown number of people in the tower, were killed instantly..."
-Excerpts from "The 9/11 Commission Report-
Final Report of the National Commission on
Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States", 2004
"...No one has the answer,
But one thing is true,
You've got to turn on evil,
When it's coming after you,
You've gotta face it down,
And when it tries to hide,
You've gotta go in after it,
And never be denied,
Time is runnin' out,
Let's roll.
Let's roll for freedom,
Let's roll for love,
We're going after Satan,
On the wings of a dove,
Let's roll for justice,
Let's roll for truth,
Let's not let our children
Grow up fearfull in their youth.
Time is runnin' out,
Let's roll...."
- Partial Lyrics from the song,
"Let's Roll", by Neil Young
To All,
Just a reminder, in memory of Susan Ong, Amy Sweeney, Barbara Olson, the Passengers of Flight 93, the First Responders at the World Trade Center, and the men and women serving at the Pentagon that morning.
We Won't Get Fooled Again:
Edward Esptein wrote at the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday about the last-minute machinations of the nation's diminutive gun control lobby, as it tried to raise from the dead the 1994 Federal Ban on Bayonet Lugs, Flash Suppressors, and Folding Stocks. With it's sunsettng on September 13, lawful citizens and gun owners will finally be able to maintain parity with both law enforcement and the criminal elements that have remained largely unaffected by yet another diktat from Oligarchically-minded elites of the Establishment.
Still, that is not to say that the same old opponents did not go down swinging, so to speak. Senators Diane Feinstein and Chuck Schumer tried their best, but such rarified rhetoric was left wanting in the halls of a House of Representatives where hides are still smoking from the Great Shellacking of 1994. In fact, many of the sympathetic pols that Di Fi and Chuckles would have counted on in such a campaign have long been sent to the showers over the issue. In their place are a set of elected officials who would rather take their chances with the tender mercies of the Old Media than kick-start a political "Hurricane Ivan" so close to a hotly contested election.
Still, firearms activists have to maintain their vigilance lest any backsliding should occur. Activists should remember that rifles of all types, including "assault weapons", usually constitute a very small quantity of the total number of firearms used in homicides annually. (Here's a factoid- In 2000, more patients died at New York Presbyterian Hospital--where Bill Clinton was recently scheduled-- as a complication of cardiac surgery [13] than were police officers killed by rifles of all types nationally [10].). Dianne Feinstein has already promised that she would return again with an updated version, on the general principle that showmanship beats substance (and enforcement of more sensible firearms laws) in the political world. It will take diligence to make sure that the 1994 Ban remains where it belongs, in the Great Circular File of History.
Story elements may be found at:
Ruthless People:
The ongoing saga of CBS News' report on recently discovered documents purporting that a then Lt. George W. Bush "shirked" his duty reminds one of a sporting event.
Only in this case, it is trap shooting, and the folks at the Turn-A-Blind-Eye Network are doing a fair imitation of a box of clays.
For starters, it is now well known that Bloggerdom (specifically the folks at Powerline Blog, littlegreenfootballs, and others) rocked the credibility of the CBS documents in a new World Record of 12 hours. Discrepancies in type face, style, and even the possibility of a forged signature can lead one to reasonably believe that the documents were possibly manufactured using one of Bill Gates' little gifts to office productivity than that blast from the past, the venerable IBM Selectric. When Fox News' Brit Hume could have one of his staff duplicate the spacing exactly using "Word", Dan Rather should have known that he was going to come under some righteous scrutiny.
But despite Rush Limbaugh's pronouncement that it is not important that the public know where the documents came from (their presence in the hands of Media Partisans, and Terry McAuliffe's denial that the DNC "dood it" leave hints enough for even the most noveau of conspiracy theorists), one is left with the odd situation that Team Kerry and His Misfit Band of Jackasses come out the worse for wear in every scenario.
After all, claims of hidden documents, allegedly "scrubbed" by Bush Partisans, do not stand up to the reality of modern politics. Gov. Ann "Ma" Richards would be the laughingstock of modern Democrat Politics if it could be proved that documents indicating disobedience to orders and possible drug abuse were in her possible possession, but was unwilling to use them to save her hide (and Texas redistricting.).
Likewise into the circular file of probability goes the McAuliffe suggestion that "Karl Rove did it". If it could be proven that Democrat opposition researchers have been reduced in such a capability as to fail to recognize Word.doc's when they seem them, then perhaps it is best that the Donkey Party be kept from the reigns of power. If they could be fooled by such poor work, imagine what would happen if half the world's foreign ministries came to them denying evidence of weapons programs of mass destruction in Iran (Kerry would probably want the Iranians to launch an EMP strike against the West first, before deciding to Mirandize the Casbah of Tehran.).
In fact, political watchers may be forced to consider using Mr. Holmes' method of scientific inquiry to figure out where any fraudulent documents may have came from. Given the adverse reaction to the DUI story, it is more likely that Team Bush would wish to stear clear of insinuating a wilder and woolier youth. But then one is left with the question as to who could possibly benefit from an episode that proves certain elements of the Democrat Party to be inept, at least to the point of tanking the 2004 Campaign for the Democrats. Any such action would have to include the possible effect on the "Sick Men" of the Old Media, who have likely overstayed their stints at the helm of the Old Information Monopoly. One can only wonder who could be the next George Stephanopolous, at what network (Hint to Brian Williams- Get that contract in blood.), and whose ring he or she would have to kiss for the 2008 Campaign.
Lastly, one can assume, with a bit of enjoyment, that all those donors who have opened their wallets (and their veins, in some cases) for Team Kerry must be having the largest case of Buyer's Remorse since the Japanese bought the Rockefeller Center. Imagine the weeping and wailing over at the Casa de Soros, where it seems that $ 65 million only gets one an ass in lieu the preferred two ears and a tail. If Soros does not bail soon, that "blood on the sand" on November 3 might just end up being his.
Respectfully,
Anthony Canales
SFVMC-NRA
© 2004 Anthony Canales
All Rights reserved.
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