ATTACK, VICTIMS, SUSPECTS: 4 SECTIONS

U.S. VOWS REVENGE

7700 cceennttss plus applicable taxes

V O L . 3 N O . 2 6 9 W E D N E S D A Y , S E P T E M B E R 1 2 , 2 0 0 1 w w w . n a t i o n a l p o s t . c o m

ATTACKS UNPRECEDENTED IN AMERICAN HISTORY

Planes heavy withfuel chosen for

maximum damage

Survivors makingcellphone calls frombeneath the rubble

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS / CARMEN TAYLOR VIA KHBS/KHOG-TV

At 9:03 a.m. Eastern time, a commandeered airliner that had been scheduled to fly from Boston to Los Angeles is steered into the south towerof the World Trade Center. Eighteen minutes earlier, the north tower had been struck.

You can understand whythey’re jumping up and down

in the streets of Lebanon andPalestine, jubilant in their victory.They have struck a mighty blowagainst the Great Satan, mightierthan even the producers of far-fetched action-thrillers couldconceive. They have driven a gap-ing wound into the heart of hismilitary headquarters. They haveruptured the most famous sky-line in the world, the glitteringmonument to his decadence.They have killed and maimedthousands of his subjects, live onTV. They have reduced the hatedBush to a pitiful presidential re-fugee, spending the day of infamybounced to ever more remotemilitary airports, from Florida toLouisiana to Nebraska, by a staffwhich obviously knows less aboutthe power of symbolism thanAmerica’s enemies do.

And, for those on the receivingend, that “money shot,” as theycall it in Hollywood — the smok-ing towers of the World TradeCenter collapsing as easily as oldchimneys at an abandoned papermill — represents not just an awe-some loss of life but a ghastly in-telligence failure of the U.S. and aworse moral failure of the Westgenerally.

There was a grim symmetry inthe way this act of war interruptedthe President at a grade schoolphoto-op. The federal govern-ment has no constitutional re-sponsibility for education: It is astate affair, delegated mostly totiny municipal school boards. Butone of Bill Clinton’s forlorn lega-cies is that the head of state andthe Commander-in-Chief of themost powerful nation on Earthmust fill his day with piffling ini-tiatives designed to assuage theniggling discontents of pamperedsoccer moms and other preferreddemographics: elementary schoolprograms, prescription drugplans for seniors, “lock-boxes” forthis and that, and a thousand oth-er trivialities.

And so the President was re-minded of his most awesome re-sponsibility at a time when hewas discharging his most foot-ling. If you drive around Vermontand California, you spend a lot oftime behind cars with smugbumper stickers calling for morefunds to be diverted from defenceto education, as this would provewhat a caring society we are.

See STEYN on Page A16

M A R K S T E Y N

Our holiday fromhistory’s undertowhas come to an end

West’smoralfailure

at root oftragedy

ASIAN MARKETS SINK

B Y JA C Q U E L I N E T H O R P E

A N D S T E V E M A I C H

The devastating terrorist attackson the United States could tip thealready fragile world economy in-to recession, analysts say.

Stock markets around the worldfell into panic selling yesterday,and as anxiety swept trading

floors in Europe and NorthAmerica, investors flocked tosuch perceived safe havens as oilstocks, basic metals and govern-ment bonds.

Fears of a severe economic re-cession, or even war, promptedanalysts to warn of an initialslump in growth, lower interestrates and soaring oil prices.

“I think we have certified for allpractical purposes a recession asa result of this, with the marketbeing as fragile as it is,” said Stan-

ley Nabi, a managing director atCredit Suisse Asset Managementin New York.

“A full-blown global recession ishighly likely,” said Sung WonSohn, chief economist at WellsFargo & Co. in Minneapolis.

Financial markets in New York,Chicago, Canada, Brazil andMexico were closed shortly afterthe attacks.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 indexfell below the psychologically im-portant 10,000 point mark early

this morning as investors fled theequities market. The index wasdown 6.1% or 604.88 points to9,661.57 points by midday.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Sengindex lost 9% of its value shortlyafter opening. The initial plungewas by more than a thousandpoints, from 10,417 to just above9,300; by midday the index wasback up to 9,494.

At the New York Stock Ex-change, officials suspended trad-ing indefinitely. It will be the firsttime news has kept the exchangeclosed for two full days since theGreat Depression. “Nobody evenknows when the markets are go-ing to be open again,” said DavidRosenberg, chief Canadian econ-omist at Merrill Lynch in Toronto.

See RECESSION on Page A20

Terror paralyzes financial markets– ‘global recession highly likely’

B Y C H R I S WA T T I E

After the most catastrophic ter-rorist attack in history, the Unit-ed States vowed last night towreak vengeance on those re-sponsible for thousands of deathsand the destruction of the mostvisible symbols of U.S. financialand military might yesterday.

Shocked world leaders calledthe suicide assaults on NewYork’s World Trade Center andthe Pentagon in Washington a de-claration of war on civilization.

George Bush, the U.S. Presi-dent, said the United States will“hunt down and punish those re-sponsible for these cowardlyacts.”

“The search is underway forthose who were behind these evilacts,” he said in a televised speechlast night. “We will make no dis-tinction between the terroristswho committed these acts andthose who harboured them.”

No group took responsibility forthe attacks, but suspicion quicklyfell upon Osama bin Laden, anexiled Saudi dissident given asy-lum in Afghanistan. His followerswere responsible for murderousassaults on two U.S. embassies inAfrica and he is suspected ofhelping Egyptian fundamental-ists plant a bomb in the WorldTrade Center in 1993.

Orrin Hatch, the top Republi-can on the U.S. Senate JudiciaryCommittee, said U.S. officials al-ready have evidence to beginlinking bin Laden to the attack.

Mr. Bush told Americans hewatched the tragic images of hi-jacked airliners crashing into thebuildings “with disbelief, sadnessand a quiet, unyielding anger.

“A great people has been movedto defend a great nation,” he said.

The scale of the disaster, muchof it witnessed by millions live ontelevision, is almost incompre-hensible. In a co-ordinated at-tack, teams of hijackers took overfour wide-bodied commercialjets carrying 269 passengers andcrew and flew three of them intotheir targets. Two slammed intothe twin towers of the WorldTrade Center and the third roaredinto one side of the Pentagon. Thefourth crashed in a field nearPittsburgh, failing to reach its tar-get, which was believed to be theWhite House, the U.S. Capitol orthe presidential retreat at CampDavid.

The terrorists employed a cold-blooded logic in their choice ofplanes. Each had taken off froman eastern airport with a destina-tion on the West Coast, meaningthey were fully laden with avia-tion fuel, ensuring huge explo-sions.

There was no official figure onthe number of dead, but New YorkPolice Department officials esti-mated it will be in the “thousands.”Hundreds of casualties are expect-ed from the Pentagon attack.

Last night 265 firefighters werereported missing, including thefire chief and deputy fire chief.Eighty-five police officers weremissing. Many of the missing of-ficials were inside the towershelping with the evacuationwhen the towers collapsed.

See ATTACKS on Page A19

Jets crash into World Trade Center, Pentagon; thousands dead;Bush says ‘search is underway for those behind these evil acts’

~

NL0912A001C (R/O) 9/12/01 0:34NL0912A001C (R/O)

B Y JA N C I E N S K I

WA S H I N G T O N • With his na-tion in shock and a pall of smokerising above the commercial andpolitical capitals of the UnitedStates, a grim-faced PresidentGeorge W. Bush vowed to punishthose responsible for the terror-ist attacks that killed thousandsof people.

Speaking from the WhiteHouse, he said the “despicable”terrorist attacks on the WorldTrade Center and the Pentagonhad failed to shatter the steel ofAmerican resolve.

The United States would beopen for business today, hevowed. He also promised to hitback at the terrorists and thosewho had helped them.

“We will make no distinction be-tween the terrorists who commit-ted these attacks and those whoharboured them,” he said.

The President had begun hisday in Florida, taking part in theroutine visits that are so often thelot of the commander-in-chief,reading to Florida schoolchildrenduring a trip to the state to pushhis legislative package to reformU.S. education.

But three minutes after hestepped into the Sarasota, Fla.,classroom for a demonstration ofsecond-graders’ reading skills,Andrew Card, his chief of staff,leaned over and whispered in hisear. Mr. Bush’s expression hard-ened, but at that early hour, U.S.authorities thought the crash intoNew York’s World Trade Centerwas a horrible accident.

The President continued withthe reading session until wordcame that the United States wasunder attack.

He cut short the visit and televi-sion stations interrupted theirprograms to carry his remarks.

“Today, we’ve had a nationaltragedy,” Mr. Bush said.

“I’ve ordered that the full re-sources of the federal govern-ment go to help the victims andtheir families and to conduct afull-scale investigation to huntdown and to find the folks whocommitted this act.”

Then Mr. Bush boarded AirForce One and, under fighter es-cort, flew to Barksdale Air ForceBase in Louisiana, landing atabout noon. Soldiers dressed infatigues surrounded the airport.

He was rushed to a meeting withhis top security officials before is-suing another brief statement.

By that time, it was clear fourairliners had been hijacked andone had been piloted into thePentagon, the heart of U.S. mili-tary power.

The President put the U.S. mili-tary on high-alert status.

“The resolve of our great nationis being tested,” he said from thewindowless briefing room atBarksdale. “But make no mistake,we will show the world that we

will pass this test.”There are reports the fourth hi-

jacked plane, which crashed inwestern Pennsylvania, was beingaimed at Camp David, the presi-dential summer retreat in ruralMaryland, about 100 kilometresfrom Washington.

Worried the President was apossible target and the condi-tions in Washington were notready for his return, Mr. Bushwas flown to Offutt Air ForceBase in Nebraska, headquartersof the Strategic Air Command,the branch of the military incharge of U.S. nuclear missiles.

In Washington, the Secret Ser-vice hurried Laura Bush, the firstlady, to a secure location. Mr.Bush’s daughters were taken tosecure facilities at the universi-ties they attend.

Dick Cheney, the U.S. Vice-Pres-ident, remained at the WhiteHouse despite an evacuation or-dered by the Secret Service. Hereceived updates at the WhiteHouse situation room.

Donald Rumsfeld, the Secretaryof Defence, remained in the dam-aged Pentagon.

Fighter jets roared above theWhite House and a helicopter gun-

ship clattered over the Mall, theceremonial heart of Washington.

On the ground below, grim Se-cret Service agents toting subma-chine guns closed wide swaths ofthe city’s downtown.

Authorities also moved seniormembers of Congress to safety inundisclosed locations.

At Barksdale, reporters aboardAir Force One were not told oftheir destination and authorities

prevented them from using theircellphones before boarding theplane.

After landing at Offutt, Mr.Bush was whisked to a confer-ence call with his National Secu-rity Council.

The precautions were intendedto prevent Mr. Bush from beingthe target of an assassination at-tempt, as the government tried todetermine if there were any moreterrorist attacks coming.

“He understands that at a timelike this, caution must be taken,”said Ari Fleischer, the WhiteHouse spokesman.

“We’re in the process of main-taining the secure environmentthat the President has been [in]and will continue to travel in.”

While Mr. Bush spent much ofthe day aloft, his advisors, sensi-tive to the charge he was not atthe helm, assured the nation thegovernment was continuing tooperate normally.

“Your federal government con-tinues to function effectively,”said Karen Hughes, Mr. Bush’scounsellor.

Once it became clear yesterdaymorning’s four hijackings ap-peared to be the extent of the ter-rorist attacks, Mr. Bush reboardedhis Boeing 747 and flew back toWashington, the plane again close-ly shadowed by Air Force fighters.

His helicopter, Marine One,landed on the White Housegrounds yesterday evening.

Mr. Bush immediately went tothe Oval Office, where he met hisadvisors before addressing thenation.

National Post, with files from news services

A2 • ~ NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001

PAUL J. RICHARDS / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

George W. Bush, the President of the United States, receives word of the terrorist attacks on the World TradeCenter from Andrew Card, his chief of staff, during a visit to an elementary school in Sarasota, Fla., yesterday.

A M E R I C A N R E S P O N S E

BUSH VOWS RETRIBUTION

U.S. President’sroutine day

turns into a stateof high alert

‘WE WILL PASS THIS TEST’

‘TODAY, WE’VE

HAD A NATIONAL

TRAGEDY’

WA S H I N G T O N • Following areexcerpts from a speech by Presi-dent George W. Bush yesterday:

“Today, our fellow citizens, ourway of life, our very freedom cameunder attack in a series of deliber-ate and deadly terrorist acts ...

Thousands of lives were sud-denly ended by evil, despicableacts of terror. The pictures of air-planes flying into buildings, firesburning, huge structures collaps-ing, have filled us with disbelief,terrible sadness and a quiet, un-yielding anger.

These acts of mass murder wereintended to frighten our nationinto chaos and retreat. But theyhave failed. Our country isstrong. A great people has beenmoved to defend a great nation.

Terrorist attacks can shake thefoundations of our biggest build-ings, but they cannot touch thefoundation of America. These actsshatter steel, but they cannot dent

the steel of American resolve …Today, our nation saw evil, the

very worst of human nature, andwe responded with the best ofAmerica, with the daring of ourrescue workers, with the caringfor strangers, and neighbourswho came to give blood and helpin any way they could …

Tonight I ask for your prayers forall those who grieve, for the chil-dren whose worlds have been shat-tered, for all whose sense of safetyand security has been threatened.And I pray they will be comfortedby a power greater than any of usspoken through the ages in Psalm23: ‘Even though I walk throughthe valley of the shadow of death, Ifear no evil for you are with me.’

This is a day when all Ameri-cans from every walk of life unitein our resolve for justice andpeace. America has stood downenemies before, and we will do sothis time.”

Reuters

S P E E C H T O T H E N A T I O N

U.S. ‘has stood down enemies before’

‘Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature, and we respondedwith the best of America, with the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for

strangers, and neighbours who came to ... help’ — President George W. Bush

U . S . U N D E R A T T A C K

U.S. UNDER SIEGEGetting out alive,

Page A3

Republicans, Democratsunite in rage,

Page A4

Symbolic bunker of safetyis not safe any more,

Page A4

Why U.S. intelligencefailed,

Page A5

Striking back in haste mustbe avoided, Alexander Rose

Page A5

Borders on high alert,Page A6

Arab celebrations, Page A6

Airports shut down,Page A7

Atlantic Canada hostingthousands,

Page A7

Canadian military on guard,Page A7

The view from the cockpit,George Jonas

Page A8

Canadian cities on alert,Page A9

Scott Feschuk on TV coverage,Page A10

The rumour mill, Page A10

Web news sites jammed,Page A10

Film festival will go on,Page A11

Emmy Awards postponed,Page A11

Me, me, me and thousandsdead, Roger Ebert

Page A11

Sports stars consider stadium vulnerability,

Page A11

World Trade Center graphic,Pages A12, A13

Office buildings, CN Towerclosed as precaution,

Page A14

Torontonians line upto give blood, Joe Fiorito

Page A15

Former NHL player amongvictims, Page A23

IMAGES OF TERROR“The day the U.S. ran out ofluck”: Scenes of destruction

in New York and at thePentagon in Arlington, Va.,

Pages B1 to B11

Changed foreverin an instant,

Page B12

STOCK MARKET EXODUS

Panic selling predicted,Page C1

Holy war on economicfreedom, Terence Corcoran

Page C1

Airlines, insurers leadglobal market plunge,

Page C2

Gold prices soar as investorslook for safety,

Page C2

TSE should have closedsooner, William Hanley

Page C3

Global business grindsto a halt,Page C3

Disaster expected to launchdefence stocks,

Page C4

Closed market allows time toreflect, Jonathan Chevreau

Page C4

THE SUSPECTSOsama bin Laden profile,

Page D1

The legions that hateAmerica, Page D1

Is Afghanistan a safe haven for terrorists?

Page D2

Who else could be responsible?

Page D3

Restraint at home butruthless resolve, Page D6

Don’t be afraid to call it war,Charles Krauthammer

Page D7

A dark, dark age is upon us, Robert Fulford

Page A16

The Age of Irony is over,Andrew Coyne Page A18

An attack on civilization,Diane Francis Page A18

Yanks underestimated,Christie BlatchfordPage A18

Background, related links,discussion forum,

photo gallery and more atwww.nationalpost.com

A SECTION

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COMPLETECOVERAGE

The United States suffered an attack yesterdaywithout historical precedent, with thousands feareddead. Here is a summary of the National Post’s 46pages of coverage:

L O T T E R I E S Unofficial results

Pick 3 Sept. 11: 1 1 9Daily Keno Sept. 11: 6, 8, 17, 20,26, 28, 32, 34, 35, 37, 38, 44, 45,

49, 51, 52, 60, 61, 64, 68Winner Take All Sept. 11: 490714Encore Sept. 11: 569041

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H O W T O R E A C H U S

NL0912A002C 9/12/01 0:34NL0912A002C

V C E R T H O M N S

They jumped,some holding hands,

to avoid flames

B Y M A R Y VA L L I S

Office workers starting their dayin New York’s financial districtfirst realized something wasamiss at 8:45 a.m., when a Boeing767 flew low toward the WorldTrade Center.

Moments later it slammed intoone of the centre’s towers with anincredible impact, severe enoughto register on seismic equipmentin the region. People on the firstfloor felt the floor shudder be-neath their feet and could seepieces of the building drop pasttheir windows, before they ranfor the exits. United AirlinesFlight 175 was carrying 56 pas-sengers, two pilots and sevenflight attendants.

Eighteen minutes later, at 9:03a.m., American Airlines Flight 11glided into the centre’s second110-storey tower. Emergencyworkers rushing toward thescene dove beneath parkedtrucks and buses for cover afterthe second impact, which sent ashower of glass, wreckage and de-bris into the streets below.

A ball of fire two city blocks wideengulfed a helicopter hoveringnearby. Flight 11 was carrying 81passengers, two pilots and nineflight attendants.

“It was kind of like a rumble,”said Terence Watters, 38, a clerkat the New York Mercantile Ex-change. “I am sure that whole is-land shook.”

Fire began to envelop the towerfloor by floor. Some workerstrapped on the upper floors choseto leap to their deaths, ratherthan confront the flames. Some ofthem held hands as they jumped.Office workers watching the may-hem through their binoculars 40blocks away could see themfalling.

A crowd that had been watchingthe scene unfold turned in terrorand ran toward the waterfront.

The first tower, the south tower,

collapsed at 10:05 a.m. with astrange sucking sound. RobinBates, a Toronto native workingat a nearby ad agency, reeled fromher 18-floor office window as thebuilding disappeared into risingplumes of thick smoke. “Ithought, ‘This cannot be happen-ing,’ ” she said. “It just startedfloor by floor sinking, like a ba-nana, peeling right down.”

Clouds of dust more than 10storeys tall surged down the thenarrow streets of lower Manhat-tan like avalanche plumes.

“People were literally runningfor their lives,” said Keith Lane,38, a television cameraman cakedin grey ash. Realizing they couldnot outrun the debris, othershuddled for cover in telephonebooths and behind Dumpsters.

The second tower, the northtower, collapsed at 10:28 a.m.The towers had housed 40,000employees and 1,200 businesses,including some of the world’s ma-jor financial companies.

Dust settled like a winter snowon the streets as loans forms,AT&T bills, insurance applica-tions, résumés and other docu-ments fluttered down like tickertape. Police in riot helmetsworked to evacuate nearby build-ings while police officers clearedadjacent streets of screaming,crying people and establishedcommand posts in nearby con-struction sites and offices.

An eerie spectacle of abandonedcars and open-doored tour buseslined Wall Street. The touristshad escaped into nearby shopsthat became refuges from thehorror outside.

A plane engine came to rest onthe sidewalk near a Burger King.

Teams of firefighters and policeofficers emerged as silhouettesin the dust and raided hardwarestores for masks, shovels andbuckets and headed toward theWorld Trade Center once more.

Construction workers fromnearby building sites distributedboxes of dust masks among thecrews. Ambulances and policecars covered with ash screameddown Madison Avenue, carryingdozens of wounded toward hospi-tals and emergency triage centres.

The steel girders of the destroyedtower loomed behind them,stooped over like a dead tree.

By this time, the bridges, tun-nels and roads leading into Man-hattan were closed. The EmpireState Building and the New YorkStock Exchange were shutteredto prevent further damage.

Shocked New Yorkers gatheredaround television sets set up out-side grocery stores, huggingstrangers and listening to thenews of the events they had justwitnessed. Survivors who hadfled the towers moved like zom-bies, stunned to be alive. Smokestill covered the horizon.

St. Vincent’s Hospital set up amakeshift treatment unit in thestreet outside its building inGreenwich Village and at Belle-vue Hospital, 20 patients hadbeen admitted by 11 a.m., includ-ing a pregnant woman. Crowds ofpeople who had lost cellular phone

service jostled to use pay phonesto call their families.

Rudolph Giuliani, New York’sMayor, gave an early afternoonpress conference to report thatsubway and bus service had beenrestored throughout the city.

But reporters wanted to knowabout the number of peoplekilled: “I don’t think we want tospeculate about that,” Mr. Giu-liani said. “More than any of uscan bear.”

Thousands of potential blooddonors lined the walls outsidevarious New York hospitals ashospital workers canvassed fordonations on the streets.

Ambulances raced up and downNew York’s avenues depositingcasualties in uptown hospitalsbefore returning to collect more.Other emergency workers ferriedbodies across the Hudson River

to New Jersey. Paramedics wait-ing to head into the rubble werecautioned by Brian Stark, a for-mer U.S. Navy paramedic whovolunteered to help: “Once thesmoke clears, it’s going to be mas-sive bodies.”

By 1:00 p.m., two aircraft car-riers, the USS George Washing-ton and the USS John F.Kennedy, were steaming for theNew York coast, while frigatesand destroyers also left port, allof them deployed to protect theU.S. coast from further attack.

The rumble of military air-planes became familiar back-ground noise as workers stuckdowntown cleared the grocerystores shelves, using all of thecoins left in their pockets to buyfood because bank cards andcredit cards would not work.

As the day wore on, telephoneservice seemed to become morereliable and stranded workers fi-nally contacted their loved ones.

All day, fires had been smolder-ing in buildings surrounding thedisaster scene. Just after 4:00p.m., however, firefighters lostBuilding No. Seven of the WorldTrade Center Complex to ragingflames.

The 47-storey office building,one of seven that once made upthe complex, was badly damagedby falling debris when the tow-ers collapsed and had been evac-uated. By 5:00 p.m., it was fullyablaze and just 20 minutes later,it too collapsed in a heap of dust,smoke and ash.

Mr. Giuliani said the death tollwould ultimately be “horrific.”Hospitals were swamped with ca-sualties.

As the day became evening,families began to contemplatethe day ahead. Gina Webstercalled parents of her children’sfriends to spread the news thattheir school would be closed to-day as her six-year-old daugh-ter, Anna, drew a picture of theWorld Trade Center on Mars.

Ms. Webster was unable toreach the mother of one child inher daughter’s class, a womanwho had worked in the WorldTrade Center.

The death toll is unknown. Mr.Giuliani said at least 2,100 peoplewere injured.

A police source who spoke onthe condition of anonymity said78 officers were missing. A fire-fighters union official said an esti-mated 200 firefighters had diedin the rescue efforts.

National Post, with files fromMichael Friscolanti,

Andrew Mills, Francine Dubé and news services

Sidewalk carnage, Page A21Changed forever, Page B12

A3NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001 ~

JEFF CHRISTENSEN / REUTERS

People look out of the burning north tower of the World Trade Center yesterday after it was hit by a commercial jet. Shortly after this photograph was taken, the north tower collapsed.

The following is a transcribedinterview with a Canadian-bornoffice worker who was in thesouth building of the WorldTrade Center when a hijackedcommercial airliner struck the67th floor. The interviewee,who declined to be identified,escaped with a group ofco-workers.

Witness: I got to work probablyat 8:30 a.m. I was getting a cupof tea and there was a shudder inthe building and the lightsblinked on and off and then weheard a noise. I looked out thewindows and there was paperflying everywhere, and then Ilooked over at One World Tradeand it was on fire on the top of it.

So we all ran out to the elevator,got partway down and then hadto go the rest of the way down inthe stairwell. Probably halfwaydown the stairwell, the secondplane hit our building.

That was not a good moment.It felt like the building was go-

ing to fall over. It was swayingback and forth, shuddering …NP: Was there a loud explosion?W: I can’t remember. Everybodysaid, ‘Walk faster’ and everyonewas calm, cool and collected. Wegot down into the basement ofthe building and they pointed usthrough the mall.

We had to walk a long way.Then we had to go down anoth-er level and came out and sawthe buildings were in flames.From then on in, we were inshock. We just started walkingreally slowly, not realizing whathad happened. We felt like weneeded to get out of the area,and um, what happened? I wassomewhere downtown on aphone when the first buildingcollapsed. And, um …

I can’t really remember every-thing.

We walked quite a ways. Therewere no cars in the street. Lots ofambulances. Um, people reallydazed and, uh …NP: When you were standingthere making tea and you sawthe fire in the other building,did you automatically assumeanother bomb had gone off in

the World Trade Center?W: No, no. We saw the fire, andthen someone said a plane hit thebuilding and we, you know,thought it was just a plane acci-dent. An accident. So we weresomewhat calm until we were inthe stairwell and we felt theshudder, and that was a terriblemoment.NP: Was it the kind of shudderthat threw you off your feet?W: Yeah.NP: People fell down?W: Uh, I don’t think so. We allkept going.NP: Who organized the evacua-tion?W: No one. No one. There was noorganization. NP: You just decided to get out ofthe building because the otherone was on fire?W: Yup.NP: That was a good decision.W: It was an unbelievable deci-sion.NP: Once you were out, werethe streets filled with soot andsmoke? Could you see?W: Where we were, it was prettyclear but then we were in … Oh I

know what happened. We got toa gallery in Soho because wewere trying to call and none ofthe cellphones were working. Wegot into the gallery and they hada TV on and we could start to seewhat had happened. And that’swhen the first building [the onethe worker had escaped from]fell.

And then we were walking upBroadway and went into a storeto get a battery for our cell-phones and we heard a radiobroadcaster describe how shehad been at the base of thebuilding when a huge fireball ex-ploded out of the basement ofthe building. She was implyingthere was a bomb in the base-ment of the World Trade Center,as well.NP: Did you notice the buildingleaning or being off-kilter afterthe plane hit?

See ESCAPE on Page A4

‘We felt the shudder and that was a terrible moment’

Trapped workers leap to their deaths

‘We had to walk a long way. Then we had to go down another level and came out andsaw the buildings were in flames. From then on in, we were in shock. We just startedwalking really slowly, not realizing what had happened’ – trade centre office worker

W O R L D T R A D E C E N T E R C O L L A P S E

I N S I D E T H E S O U T H T O W E R

‘THERE WAS NO

ORGANIZATION’

U . S . U N D E R A T T A C K

DUST CLOUDS MORE

THAN 10-STOREYS

TALL SURGED

DOWN STREETS

NL0912A003X 9/12/01 0:07NL0912A003X

B Y J A N C I E N S K I

WA S H I N G T O N • U.S. politicalleaders were united in rage yes-terday as they vowed revenge forthe terrorist attacks on the coun-try and its capital.

“These acts clearly constitutean act of war,” John McCain, theU.S. Senator from Arizona, said.

The perpetrators will be hunteddown and “suffer the full mea-sure of our justice,” he said.

As flames leapt from the black-ened ruins of the Pentagon, theU.S. military headquarters a fewkilometres south of the Capitol, po-litical battles over budgets and par-tisan struggles for temporary ad-vantage faded into insignificance.

Mr. McCain was joined in hisanger by politicians from acrossthe political spectrum.

“We may have our differencesfrom time to time, but on a daylike this, which rivals, if not ex-ceeds the attack on Pearl Har-bor almost 60 years ago, westand totally united behind ourPresident and our government,”Senator Christopher Dodd, aConnecticut Democrat, said.

The Pearl Harbor allusion wasfrequently used as members ofCongress promised to fight back.Dana Rohrabacher, a CaliforniaRepublican, echoed the wordsPresident Franklin Rooseveltused after the surprise 1941Japanese attack.

“This is not just a day of infamy,this is a tragedy,” he said, blam-ing faulty intelligence for leavingthe nation unprotected in theface of the devastating attack.

“Those people, those senior ex-ecutives that we’ve been payingin our national security appara-tus to protect the American peo-ple have utterly failed. This is acatastrophic failure of Americanintelligence, and tens of thou-sands of Americans have paidthe price.”

As the scope of the attacks be-came clear, the Secret Servicerushed to protect top membersof the U.S. government.

Senior members of Congress,including the Senate majorityleaders and the Speaker of theHouse of Representatives, weretaken to an undisclosed location,authorities said.

From their safe haven, the lead-ers, including Republicans andDemocrats, issued a joint state-ment: “We are outraged by thiscowardly attack on the people ofthe United States. We standstrongly united behind the Presi-dent as our commander-in-chief.”

As sirens wailed across the cityand smoke rose from the Penta-gon, the attacks forced the firstmandatory evacuation of theCapitol building.

Reports, later proved wrong,circulated of car bombs going offoutside the U.S. legislature andat the State Department, on theother side of Washington’s down-town. The loud bangs may havebeen caused by jet fighters cir-cling high overhead, protectingthe city from any further attack.

Inside the Capitol, franticguards ran through the corridorsyelling, “There’s a plane coming!get out!”

The chaplain of the House ofRepresentatives said a prayer be-fore the building was evacuated.Most congressmen were in theiroffices in the blocks surroundingthe Capitol. They hurried fromtheir offices and huddled undertrees outside.

A quarter million federal work-ers also streamed from their of-fices, told to go home as quicklyas possible by a government fear-ful of further attacks.

U.S. politicians vowed to returnto work today, with the first orderof business being a resolutioncondemning the attacks. The nextwill be vengeance on whomeverwas behind the hijackings.

“This is total war. I think this isa wake-up call for America,” saidSenator Richard Shelby of Alaba-ma, the senior Republican on theSenate Intelligence Committee.

Standing in a park near the evac-uated Capitol, Senator JohnWarner, the senior Republican onthe Senate Armed Services Com-mittee, said: “This is our secondPearl Harbor, right here in the na-tion’s capital … These were not justcrimes against the United States,they are acts of war. We will pre-vail in this war, as we have pre-vailed in the past. May God blessus in this trial, defend us, andmake our justice swift and sure.”

Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio,a Republican member of the Se-lect Committee on Intelligence,called it “a horrible day in Ameri-can history we will always re-member.

“Terrorists have declared waron the United States and they’vetaken the war right to our heart.They’ve struck at our heart.

“We’re going to have to strikeback. We’re going to have to findthem, locate them and eliminatethem. That’s easier said thandone. We have to try and do that.”

Senator Orrin Hatch, a Repub-lican from Utah, pointed the fin-ger of blame at accused Sauditerrorist Osama bin Laden,thought to be responsible for along series of terror attacksagainst U.S. interests.

He called on the United Statesto support rebels fighting Afgha-nis-tan’s hardline Taleban gov-ernment, which shelters binLaden, and to put pressure onneighbouring Pakistan to cutties with the regime in Kabul.

“We’ll have to work with our al-lies, have an international strat-egy to combat this type of inter-national jihad against the West,”he said.

National Post

B Y M . E . S P R E N G E L M E Y E R

A N D R Y A N A L E S S I

The hijacked jet that crashed intothe Pentagon in Arlington, Va.,yesterday inflicted major damageon the fortress that houses the na-tion’s military command centerand serves as a symbol of Ameri-can power around the world.

Military officers in full dress uni-form were seen dazed and cower-ing as they abandoned their officesand ran.

“It’s the symbolic bunker of safe-ty. It isn’t safe any more,” said Mar-ty Lodge of Arlington, Va.

The Pentagon’s 20,000 employ-ees began their day yesterday muchlike the rest of the United States, bywatching shocking reports of air-planes that smashed into the WorldTrade Center in New York.

“I said, ‘There’s no way to defendagainst that and they could get thePentagon if they wanted to,’” saidDavid Young, who works for theDefense Contract ManagementAgency. “Those were my words fiveminutes before this happened.”

Brenda Davis and her colleaguesin the Army’s congressional liaisonoffice deep in the Pentagon’s bow-els were glued to CNN. Then her

office shook, just like those in NewYork. “We heard a big, loud crash,”she said, shaken and near tears.“Everyone was saying, ‘We have toget out, we have to get out.”’

Firefighter Alan Wallace wasstanding outside his fire stationwhen he looked across the nearbyinterstate and saw a white air-plane with orange and blue trimheading almost straight at him. Itslammed into the building just acouple hundred feet from him.“When I felt the fire, I hit theground,” he said.

Inside a courtyard deep insidethe Pentagon, program analystPeggy Mencl heard the blast. “Thedoors blew out and debris justcame flying out from the doors,”Ms. Mencl said. “It blew me 10feet.” She was uninjured but stillhad debris in her hair.

In the labyrinthine corridors ofthe Pentagon, which is located justwest of the Potomac River, it waschaos, said Richard Bristow, acivilian Air Force clerk. “We heardthe impact and the buildingshook. People were pushing eachother to get out. Panic is panic.”

“I looked out the window and in-to the courtyard, and there wasjust a fireball,” said one witness.

“It felt like a tornado — like some-thing was trying to lift the roof ofthe building,” said one employeewhose office was near the explosion

but who declined to give her name.At a media briefing, Pentagon

spokeswoman Torie Clark told thestory of Captain Lincoln Liebner,who was outside the Pentagonwhen the blast took place. Herushed into the building to help.His hands were burned, and afterhe was taken away to a hospital fortreatment, he returned later in theday to do more.

Outside the Pentagon, thousandsof misplaced workers meanderedaround, looking for co-workers orwaiting for orders of what to donext. Some were being helpedalong, suffering from stress or mi-nor wounds. One man collapsed,bleeding from the ankle.

Several times, official securitypersonnel swept through thecrowd shouting there were ru-mours of another hijacked jet onits way toward the Pentagon andordering everyone away from thebuilding. “Oh, my God,” severalsaid as the mob started running.

Even high-ranking military offi-cials, forced with everyone else toabandon their offices, were shak-en. But they were also angry. “Wehave a variety of plans for a varietyof things,” said Naval Rear Adm.Craig Quigley. “But what you’reseeing here is a full assault on theUnited States of America.”

Defense Secretary Donald Rums-feld was in his office inside the Pen-

tagon when the blast happened.Mr. Rumsfeld rushed to the areaof the blast helped load thewounded on to stretchers. Hethen retreated to the NationalMilitary Command Center wheresenior military leaders ponderedthe question: What now?

About 90 minutes after the ex-plosion, rescue teams formed insets of four to wade through thedeeper rubble. They enlisted Pen-tagon employees and average by-standers in the grim task of load-ing stretchers.

As rescue workers pulled out un-counted victims from the Penta-gon building, a caravan of waterand juice from nearby conve-nience stores streamed in by carand by grocery cart. Medical stafffrom across Maryland, D.C., andVirginia were forced to load vic-tims on everything from DullesAirport buses to Walter ReedMedical Center transport.

By noon, fires had spread throughthe Pentagon’s outer ring as far as20 offices to the left of the crash site.On the other side of the rubble, justa few offices were blackened. Con-struction crews had just finishedrenovating that part of the building,adding fire-retardant insulationand blast protection. The sidewhere fires burned was to be next.

Nicholas Holland, an engineerwith AMEC Construction Man-agement of Bethesda, Md., hadspent the last two years working toreinforce the walls. Two summersago, a blast wall of reinforced steeland concrete was installed rightwhere the plane hit. It stood for 25minutes after it was hit before col-lapsing, long enough for people toescape, Mr. Holland said. “It did itsjob. But now we’re going to have togo back and do it all over again.”

Scripps Howard news service

A4 ~ NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001

STEPHEN JAFFE / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

When a hijacked airplane crashed into the Pentagon yesterday, it “felt like a tornado,” said employees of the nerve centre of the U.S. military.“We heard the impact and the building shook. People were pushing each other to get out. Panic is panic,” one witness said.

P E N T A G O N

‘Wake-up call’puts partisanpolitics aside

SURVIVORS RECALL HORROR

‘WE STAND TOTALLY UNITED’

Republicans and Democrats

support President

‘It’s the symbolic bunker of safety. It isn’t safe any more’

DEAN TWEED, MIKE FAILLE / NATIONAL POSTSOURCES: CP, AP, AND REUTERS; RICHARD MCGAHA, UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY; MAJ. GEN. PERRY M. SMITH (USAF RET.)

THE ATTACK ON THE PENTAGON

9:43 a.m. American Airlines Flight 77, from Dulles Airport with 64 people on board, crashes into the west wall of the Pentagon between Corridors 4 and 5. Impact is above the first floor of the outer E Ring and penetrates through to the C Ring, in the newly renovated Army wing.

10:10 a.m. A steel and concrete blast wall at the impact site collapses. Fires spread through the building's outer ring. Damage and injuries are limited thanks to the shape of the building, and by the recent installation of blast-proof glass and fire-retardant insulation.

The PentagonThe Pentagon

Corridor 5

Ring BRing C

Ring DRing E

Corridor 4

Pe n ta g o n

WA S H I N GTO N , D. C .WA S H I N GTO N , D. C .

A R L I N GTO NA R L I N GTO N , VA .

U . S . C a p i to l

A L E XA N D R I AA L E XA N D R I A , VA .

95

95

95

295

495

395

Wa s h i n g to nM o n u m e n t

W h i te H o u s e

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Pentagon facts: Headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense Built during World War II 17.5 miles of corridors and 3,700,000 square feet of office space Employs about 23,000 people, 60% military, 40% civilian Evacuation time: 10 minutes

D u l l e s I n t ’ l A i r p o r t

‘Terrorists have declared war on the United States and they’ve taken the war right to our heart. They’ve struck at our heart. We’re going to have to strike back. We’re

going to have to find them, locate them and eliminate them’ — Senator Mike DeWine

U . S . U N D E R A T T A C K

A M E R I C A R E S P O N D S

W: I don’t know. I was so disori-ented. I was really off-kilter my-self. I don’t know if it was thebuilding or me.NP: After that, how did you getback to Brooklyn [where theworker lives]?W: Um, we heard on the streetthat we needed to get away fromdowntown so we just startedwalking north.

We also heard that everythingwas shut down. We got to afriend’s in the Village for a glassof wine and saw everything on TVand realized what we’d escaped.It was just devastating.

Then, oh, I know what we did!We decided we would go and giveblood and walked over to the hos-pital. It was quiet but in a state ofshock. There were people outsidewaiting to find people. Theyturned us away.

There had been a call on TV forblood but that hospital couldn’ttake us so we started walking fur-ther north.

We got to a subway where theysaid there was a train runningthat could get me home. So I goton the train, and that was not fun.Being down below, packed withpeople, what the terrorists hadtargeted …NP: How do you feel about NewYork City now?W:I don’t know what I thinkabout New York right now. I’m to-tally stunned. And, you know …there are people lost and missing.It’s bigger than New York. It’shuge. It’s a huge, huge thing thathas happened here in the U.S.

It’s not just New York.National Post

Survivor tries to donate blood

after escapeESCAPE

Continued from Page A3

NL0912A004X 9/12/01 0:05NL0912A004X

The dislike and fear of out-siders fighting dirty against

honourable Americans, especial-ly on their home turf, has a histo-ry dating back to the AmericanRevolution. The more hotheadedRevolutionary populists inces-santly warned of the underhand-ed British war tactics.

The fear of being caught un-aware reached its apogee in theaftermath of the Japanese sneakattack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7,1941, an offensive brilliant inmilitary and operational termsbut disastrous in the furious re-action it provoked. Slow to anger,but relentlessly vengeful whenroused, the United States deter-mined to annihilate the Empireof Japan. No conditional surren-der or armistice would ever beacceptable as payment for inno-cence betrayed.

Speaking volumes as to howdeeply the Day of Infamy is en-graved in the American nationalconsciousness, there were fewU.S. officials who today did notcall the terrorist attacks againstthe World Trade Center and thePentagon a “second Pearl Har-bor,” adding that the perpetra-tors would be hunted and found,brought to justice, vengeance ex-acted and freedom defended.

The nation’s blood is up, but therisk is not that Washington willstrike hard, but too fast. Al-though there are rumours of whois responsible, for the momentaccurate intelligence is scarce. Itwill emerge eventually, but eventhen the United States will be insomething of a bind.

How do you punish the puppetmasters if you cannot find them,and even if you can, what level ofpunishment is required? Willjust one massive retaliatory blowsuffice, or should Washingtonthink long-term, calmly collectthe evidence, solve the puzzle androll up those responsible one byone? The latter course may not beas immediately satisfying as theformer, but it may be more effec-tive. On the other hand, such a vi-olent rape might call for instant,devastating action.

Once the smoke had clearedfrom the listing decks of the ru-ined Pacific fleet in 1941, therewas a clear enemy to battle. Butthere is no clear enemy at workhere, only shadows and wraithsleading us up blind alleys. Full-blooded executive action shouldwait until these alleys can beproperly illuminated.

The United States must riseabove the red mist of its angerand not act prematurely. Actingin angry haste may quench thepopular thirst for bloody re-venge, but it leads to mistakesand misjudgments. When thetime comes, punishment may beadministered mercilessly andruthlessly toward the guilty, andappropriate measures takenagainst their accomplices andsympathizers.

The bright spot — the only one— in this tragedy is that, belated-ly, a few issues may be clarified.

First, the scoffers, both in Cana-

da and in the United States, whoconsistently poked fun at Wash-ington’s “paranoia” about terror-ists and its desire for stricter bor-der controls, have finally beenchastened into silence.

Secondly, those politicians,journalists at certain newspapersand activists who have made ex-cuses for terrorists — invariablyknown as “freedom-fighters” —and drawn a moral equivalencybetween the actions of a democ-ratic state and the work of hood-ed, ideologically fanatical “guer-rillas” should hang their headspermanently in shame.

Thirdly, the bombings will gal-vanize the United States securityapparatus. Under the Clinton ad-ministration, the terrorist threatwas not taken as seriously as itshould have been. Despite con-crete signs that Baghdad spon-sored the 1993 World Trade Cen-ter bombing in collaborationwith Osama bin Laden, the Clin-ton administration declared thatit was the work of an au-tonomous cell in order to avoidhaving to grasp the Iraqi nettle.Worse still, the effort to capturebin Laden was distinctly lacklus-tre. As a result, the U.S. counter-terrorism campaign appeared tolack teeth.

Henceforth, counterterrorismwill be the number one priority.The current heads of the CIAand the FBI counterterrorismunit may have to resign, and anew forward policy of activelypreventing terrorism, ratherthan just reacting to it, will be

put into place. There will be a re-alization there is no negotiatingwith terrorists. It may not go un-noticed in Washington that theIsraeli strategy of eliminatingterrorists and suicide bombersbefore they push the button mayelicit calls of “illegality” fromnice liberal democratic states,but it works.

Future policy in the aftermathof this second Day of Infamymust consist of more than blindrevenge. Domestically, the entirenational security infrastructureis going to have to be redesignedto account for this terrifying newera. Internationally, the bomb-ing must coalesce civilized na-tions into a cohesive frontadamantly opposed to terrorismof every sort. This front must domore than issue the usual con-demnations of terrorism: Itmust frame a systemic, long-term policy toward terroristsand those states that harbourand sponsor them.

Finally, on the conceptual lev-el, the West must grasp that it,as a whole, is in mortal dangerfrom fanaticism of variouscolours, and that terrorism isnot aimed exclusively at theUnited States.

National Post

U . S . U N D E R A T T A C K A5NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001 ~

A hijacked airliner crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York yesterday morning. The event was captured by TV crews covering a plane crash into the north tower minutes earlier.

ABC EPA-NTV FOX TELEVISION

FOX TELEVISION

C O M M E N T A R Y

Wait for red mist of anger to clear

B Y P E T E R M O R T O N

WA S H I N G T O N • U.S. intelli-gence received a number of ad-vance warnings that a terroristattack was imminent, but failedto react adequately, leading offi-cials admitted yesterday.

“We’ve known for some timethat some group has been plan-ning this,” said retired GeneralWesley Clark, the formersupreme NATO commander.“Obviously, we didn’t do enough.”

Bob Graham, chairman of theSenate Intelligence Committee,said the United States had beenwarned this summer and securityhad been stepped up at “key vul-nerable areas.”

“I’m not surprised there was anattack,” he said. “I’m surprised atthe size of the attack.”

U.S. military sources said aworld-wide advisory had beensent to all U.S. embassies in re-cent days, saying there could beattacks on U.S. targets.

“It wasn’t suggesting that weshould relax — we would expectto be cautious,” an official said.“But no one expected anythinglike this.”

His admission comes as intelli-gence experts ask how the UnitedStates could have been caughtnapping.

“It’s probably the biggest intelli-gence blunder in any of our life-times,” said Representative DanaRohrabacher, a Republican from

California. “The people that wehave given billions of dollars to toprotect us, have left us at the mer-cy of this type of major terroristoperation.”

He said the top officials at theFederal Bureau of Investigationand the Central IntelligenceAgency knew about the terroristthreat but did little.

“We should do a clean sweep [ofthem],” he said.

Although the FBI is the leadagency responsible for counter-terrorism, there are another 50U.S. agencies with similar respon-sibilities — often at odds witheach other. In May, George W.Bush, the U.S. President, ordereda complete review of the country’scounterterrorism policies to bet-ter co-ordinate activities.

But even if U.S intelligence wasmore effective, massive operationslike yesterday’s attack are difficultto combat, said Jerrold Post, aWashington anti-terrorist expert.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a massivebreakdown in intelligence, as in-credible as that sounds,” he said.

Rob Owen, executive vice-presi-dent of GlobalOptions, an inter-national company that special-izes in counterterrorism, saidpart of the problem has been theU.S. reliance on such technologyas spy satellites, rather than onbuilding up networks of opera-tives inside extremist groups.

“The United States has had diffi-culty with the human intelli-gence, with breaking into thesegroups,” he said.

The closed nature of Islamic ter-rorist groups makes it almost im-possible to penetrate them. TheUnited States would have to putSoviet-style “moles” and “sleep-

ers” in the organizations, whowould spend decades establish-ing themselves, attending radicalIslamic schools and winningtrust.

All the hijacked planes wereBoeing 757s and 767s, Mr. Owensaid, speculating the terroristshad been trained to fly those air-liners and were at the controlswhen the planes hit their targets.

“No pilot, even with a gun to hishead, is going to fly into theWorld Trade Center towers,” saidGene Poteat, president of the As-sociation of Former IntelligenceOfficers. “[The terrorists] flewthe planes themselves.”

While operating the planes re-quired substantial know-how,

yesterday’s attacks relied on so-phisticated overall orchestration,said Tim Brown, senior analystwith Global Security.org in Wash-ington, which researches the pro-liferation of nuclear, biologicaland chemical weapons.

“This goes to prove the whole ar-gument you don’t need weaponsof mass destruction; all you needis an airliner loaded with jet fuel,”he said.

“The actual skills of the individ-ual operators isn’t particularlygreat, but you need the imagina-tion to recognize the vulnerabilityand exploit it successfully in anorchestrated manner.”

Experts also pointed to key

breakdowns in airport security.Mr. Owen said he expected air-

port security would be beefed upafter the attacks, given that two ofthe flights originated at Boston’sLogan Airport, which has beencriticized for its sloppiness in thisarea.

“Maybe the federal governmentshould take over airport security,”he said.

“The people doing it now areearning the minimum wage.There is high turnover and therehave been many instances wherethey have been tested and theyhave failed.”

“One has to look at the fact thatwe are also looking at problemswith security at U.S. airports tocarry this attack out — thoseproblems are well documented.They are in the public domain,”added Chris Yates, an aviation ex-pert with Jane’s Intelligence Re-view in London.

“You could say this has been adisaster waiting to happen.”

Although few clues haveemerged about how the terroristsmanaged to get weapons throughairport security, it appears someat least were carrying knives.

Barbara Olson, who was onboard the American AirlinesFlight 77 that slammed into thePentagon, called her husband,Ted Olson, the U.S. Solicitor-General, to say the hijackers hadherded the passengers and the pi-lot to the back of the plane andwere carrying knives and card-board cutters.

The experts agreed that yester-day’s attacks pinpoint the vulner-ability of civilian airplanes.

“It drives home the point thatcivil aviation is still one of themost vulnerable entry routes forterrorists to engage in mass at-tacks,” said Paul Wilkinson at theCenter for Studies in Terrorism inWashington, adding this is thefirst time the flying bomb suicideweapon has been used since theSecond World War when Japan-ese kamikaze pilots crashed theirplanes into U.S. warships.

“It has been threatened fromtime to time but this is tragicallythe first time we have seen it im-plemented,” he said.

National Post, with filesfrom Jan Cienski

‘This goes to prove the whole argument you don’t need weapons of mass destruction;all you need is an airliner loaded with jet fuel. … You need the imagination to

recognize the vulnerability and exploit it successfully’ — security expert Tim Brown

A L E X A N D E R R O S Ei n W a s h i n g t o n

Intelligence knew ‘somegroup planning this’

N A T I O N A L S E C U R I T Y

C O U N T E R T E R R O R I S M

‘Obviously, wedidn’t do enough,’

retired general says

U.S. WARNED IN

SUMMER, SECURITY

RAISED IN KEY AREAS

THE NATION’S BLOOD

IS UP, BUT THE RISK IS

WASHINGTON WILL

STRIKE TOO FAST

NL0912A005X 9/11/01 23:43NL0912A005X

U . S . U N D E R A T T A C K A6 ~ NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001

RAMZI HAIDAR / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Palestinians celebrate at a refugee camp in Beirut yesterday at the news of terrorist attacks on the United States that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York.

B Y M A R I N A J I M É N E Z

Leaders of the Arab world werequick to condemn yesterday’s ter-rorist assaults in New York andWashington, but on the streets ofthe Middle East many ordinaryArabs paraded joyously, distribut-ing candies to celebrate the cata-strophic attacks.

“Bull’s eye,” exulted two taxi dri-vers in Cairo as they watchedfootage of the twin towers dissolvein plumes of smoke. “Congratula-tions,” shouted another crowd ofpeople, huddled around a shopwindow.

In Arab East Jerusalem, severaldozen Palestinians honked wed-ding tunes on their car horns. At arefugee camp in Lebanon, youngmen and women danced in thestreets to the beat of drums andthe explosion of fireworks. “Bigand small, America is full of pigs,”they chanted.

At another camp, Ain al-Helweh,in Lebanon, Palestinian refugeesfired assault rifles and grenadesinto the air jubilantly.

In Nablus, a town in the WestBank, 3,000 people poured intothe streets, including a 48-year-old woman in a long, black dresswho cried out in happiness:“America is the head of the snake,America always stands by Israel inits war against us.”

Others chanted “God is Great”and handed out sweets, even astheir leader, Yasser Arafat, con-veyed his condolences to theAmerican people and called the at-tacks “a crime against humanity.”

“This is something that is not be-lievable,” Mr. Arafat said. “I pre-sent my condolences to the Ameri-can people and to President Bushand his government, not only inmy name but in the name of all thePalestinian people.”

Other Arab nations, includingKuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia andYemen, roundly condemned theattacks.

Hosni Mubarak, the Presidentof Egypt and a key U.S. ally, calledthe terrorist blow “horrific be-yond imagination” and offered toassist the United States in anyway. But ordinary citizens inCairo rejoiced, saying the U.S. de-served the wave of deadly attacksagainst its cities and that justicewas being served for Washing-ton’s “bias” toward Israel.

“This was an expected thing, be-cause of the conditions in Pales-tine and the U.S. control overArabs and people. People havereached a state of despair,” saidMohamed Suleiman, a 41-year-oldartist.

Asked about the loss of innocentlives in the attacks, Mr. Suleimanshouted: “And what about the

Palestinians? ... Aren’t they civil-ians as well? Now the UnitedStates can feel what it’s like to beunder attack.”

Although the culprits areunidentified, Israeli and U.S. offi-cials pointed the finger at Islamicextremists.

The U.S. government has be-come increasingly unpopular inthe Middle East over what is seenas its unrestrained support for Is-rael in its bitter conflict with thePalestinians.

Perhaps fearing reprisals, radicalPalestinian groups, such as theDemocratic Front for the Libera-tion of Palestine, hurried to offercondemnations, denying their in-volvement in the co-ordinated actsof terrorism, which saw two jetscrash into the twin towers of theWorld Trade Center0 and a thirdaircraft crash into the Pentagon.

Afghanistan, which offers refugeto accused terrorist Osama binLaden, insisted it was not involvedin the attack.

“We want to tell the Americanchildren that Afghanistan feelsyour pain and we hope that thecourts find justice,” said MullahAbdul Salam Zaeef, the Talebanambassador to Pakistan.

He also denied that Osama binLaden, the Saudi fundamentalistwho is accused of mastermindingthe 1998 twin bombings of U.S.embassies in East Africa, hadplayed any role in the tragedy:“Osama [who the Taleban have re-fused to extradite] is only a per-son, he does not have the facilitiesto carry out such activities.”

Israel went into defensive mode,closing its airspace to all foreigncarriers for 24 hours and puttingits air force on high alert.

Ariel Sharon, the Prime Minister,pledged support for the UnitedStates, and the Defence Ministrydispatched army teams for theUnited States. Benjamin Ne-tanyahu, the former Israeli primeminister, called the events a “turn-ing point in history” and called forthe formation of an internationalfront against terrorism.

The time has come to “destroyterrorist regimes starting with thePalestinian Authority,” he said.

Daniel Pipes, director of thePhiladelphia-based Middle EastForum, said the American psychehas been largely indifferent to theprofound hatred toward them —although that attitude may nowchange.

“There is a huge anger built upagainst … the U.S. and there aremany causes for it, ranging fromthe trauma of modern Islam andthe difficulty Muslims have had tothe American support for Israel ata time of violence and crisis,” Mr.Pipes said. “It’s by no means unan-imous but it is a powerful politicalforce and it is on the streets.”

National Post, with files fromnews services

‘BULL’S EYE’

Many Arabs celebrate; leaders decry attack

B Y M A R I N A J I M É N E Z

in Toronto A N D C A R L H O N O R É

in London

Government leaders around theworld reacted initially with disbe-lief, and later with fury and re-solve, to terrorist attacks yester-day in New York and Washington,calling the blows a declaration ofwar on democracy and a turningpoint in history.

Many leaders called emergencysecurity meetings and shut downairports as the full scope of thetragedy unfolded, and as they re-flected on who could be responsi-ble for the carnage in the worstterrorist attack of all times.

Gerhard Schroeder, the GermanChancellor, called the aerial as-saults on New York’s World TradeCenter towers and the Pentagonin Washington a “declaration ofwar against the entire civilizedworld,” while Tony Blair, theBritish Prime Minister, called themass terrorism “the new evil inthe world today.”

“It is perpetrated by factionswho are utterly indifferent to thesanctity of human life and we thedemocracies of this world are go-

ing to have to come together andfight it together,” he said.

In a statement from Bucking-ham Palace, the Queen said shewatched developments in “grow-ing disbelief and total shock” andoffered her prayers to Americans.

Around the world, people fol-lowed the drama on television,transfixed by the horrifying imageof the second hijacked planecrashing into the World TradeCenter’s south tower. As both tow-ers collapsed into dust and flames,leaders in most Western capitalsmoved quickly to guard againstthe possibility of further attacks.

In Canada and the UnitedStates, all flights were cancelledand security was tightened at air-ports and along the Canada-U.S.border. The Mexico-U.S. borderwas closed. In Britain, the city’s fi-nancial district was evacuatedand civilian flights over centralLondon cancelled.

Throughout the afternoon andevening, as British televisionbroadcast rolling coverage of thedisaster, people gathered in pubs,homes and shops to watch thescenes of carnage. “Mother ofGod,” one woman whispered. “Ican’t believe this is happening.” Aman beside her added: “It’s likethe end of the world.”

At the Northcote, a trendy bar inBattersea, south London, the at-mosphere was funereal: “I feelsick,” said one man, pushing asidehis pint of lager. “It makes you feel

like nowhere is safe anymore.”To varying degrees, the rest of

Europe also went on a war foot-ing. NATO evacuated its head-quarters in Brussels. In Italy,Rome put its main internationalairport on maximum securityalert and flags were lowered at theoffices of the Italian prime minis-ter and at official buildings in Ger-many. Jacques Chirac, the FrenchPresident, cut short a visit to Brit-tany and rushed back to Paris,where he held an emergency Cab-inet meeting.

The European Union equatedthe attack with the one on PearlHarbor 60 years ago, which killed2,280 soldiers and 68 civilians.“This is an act of war by madmen,”said Chris Patten, the EU Exter-nal Relations Commissioner.“The fight against internationalterrorism is going to dominate theinternational agenda until it’swon.”

Later, after emergency securitymeetings, many Western leadersvowed unprecedented solidarityto fight the terrorist forces behindthe attacks. “This is not a battlebetween the U.S. and terrorism,but between the free and democ-ratic world and terrorism,” Mr.Blair said. “We in Britain standshoulder to shoulder with ourAmerican friends in this hour oftragedy and we, like them, will notrest until this evil is driven fromour world.”

In a “Dear George” telegram tothe U.S. President, VladimirPutin, the Russian Presidentsaid: “The series of barbaric actsdirected against innocent peoplefills us with indignation and re-volt. Such inhuman acts must notgo unpunished."

He also convened an emergencymeeting of his “power ministries”and the air force announced a se-ries of emergency anti-terror mea-sures to protect Russian airspace.

The world must unite to combatterrorism, “the plague of the 21stcentury,” Mr. Putin said later, de-scribing the terrorist strikes inNew York and Washington acts of“unprecedented aggression by in-ternational terrorism … a chal-lenge to the whole of humanity.”

Pope John Paul II said he was“shocked by the unspeakable hor-ror of [the] inhuman terrorist at-tacks against innocent people.”

Dozens of other world leaders is-sued statements of condolence,outrage and sympathy, includingthe presidents of the Philippines,Senegal and Mexico and the for-mer president of South Africa,Nelson Mandela, who was“stunned” by the news.

The Japanese Prime Minister of-fered to do “anything we can doon our part” to help Washington,and increased security around theU.S. bases in the country.

General Pervez Musharraf, thePakistani president and a key allyof Afghanistan, was also quick tocondemn the “brutal and horribleacts of terror,” and deploy police toprotect the U.S. embassy and con-sulates in Pakistan.

National Post, with files fromnews services

Britain, Russia sendmessages of support

to United States

Disbelief turnsto fury around

the globe

KIERAN DOHERTY / REUTERS

Tony Blair, the British PrimeMinister, called mass terrorism“the new evil in the world today.”

CROSSINGS REMAIN OPEN

B Y M A R K H U M E

in Point Roberts, Wash., A N D T O M B L A C K W E L L

Motorists heading to or from theUnited States can expect lengthywaits at border crossings today asCustoms agents maintain a highalert that has already jammed traf-fic, shut down bridges and held uptravellers for hours at a time.

Officers on both sides of the bor-der have been ordered to closelycheck vehicles traversing theworld’s longest undefended fron-tier in the wake of yesterday’s ter-rorist blitz against the UnitedStates.

“We are at threat-level one,which is our highest state of alert,”said Dean Boyd, spokesman forthe U.S. Customs Service.

“It means people will be work-ing extra long and hard and con-ducting additional searches usingthe technology they have. Theremay be delays but it’s an actionyou have to take given the cir-cumstances we have.”

Neither country has decided toclose the international border,despite reports to the contraryand sporadic, local shutdownsyesterday.

There were some major tie-ups,however.

In Sarnia, Ont., a major borderpoint for commercial traffic, theBluewater Bridge was shut downcompletely from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.for unspecified security reasons,said Danny Yen, spokesman forCanada Customs. He refused tosay if there had been a threatagainst the structure.

In nearby Windsor, Ont., whichlinks with Detroit, authoritiesclosed the cross-border tunnel andbridge for up to 90 minutes eachto try to manage the heavy traffic,Mr. Yen said.

Travellers are usually wavedthrough with a cursory question ortwo, not subjected to a grilling,and the result in Windsor waswaits of up to two hours.

“It was a rather unique day,” Mr.Yen said. “Traffic was very, very,very busy at times, with long back-ups and delays.”

At the Peace Arch border cross-ing, the main artery linking Seattleand Vancouver, RCMP officerswere flagging down cars and ad-vising drivers to turn back. Theborder was closed at times, thenre-opened. There were long line-ups as security officers searchedevery vehicle and drivers were toldthe wait would be indefinite.

Even at the rural Point Roberts,Wash., border crossing, where thetraffic is made up mostly of cot-tagers and boaters, two borderagents went through every vehicle,searching trunks, looking underhoods and checking the undercar-riages of vehicles.

Some of those waiting in theircars at the border crossing bowedtheir heads and wept as reportscame in from New York andWashington, D.C.

A bus carrying 44 tourists fromGreen Bay, Wis., to Sault Ste.Marie, Ont., had to turn aroundyesterday and drive the eighthours back home after border offi-cials in Michigan refused to let itinto Canada.

“They called us from the borderand told us they had to cancel theirreservations and go back to GreenBay,” said Jennifer Honka, a clerkat the Water Tower Inn in SaultSte. Marie, where the tourists hadbooked 26 rooms.

Michel Proulx, a spokesman forCanada Customs, had some advicefor travellers heading to the Unit-ed States.

“If they’re approaching one ofthe high-volume border cross-ings, it mightn’t be a bad idea tostop and pick up a book or maga-zine, because they may be therefor a while.”

In Point Roberts, residents werereeling from the wave of terroristattacks.

“I remember Pearl Harbor,” saidJim Julius. “I was a young man,just signing up for service then.This is like Pearl Harbour. It’s anact of war. I believe that. This is war— all we’ve gotta do now is find outwho’s on the other side of it.”

National Post, with files fromSarah Schmidt and Michael Friscolanti

BORDER ON‘HIGHEST STATE

OF ALERT’

PATRICK KOVARIK / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Jacques Chirac, the President ofFrance, rushed back to Paris foremergency Cabinet meetings.

‘I present my condolences to the American people and to President Bush and hisgovernment, not only in my name but in the name of all the Palestinian people’ —

Yasser Arafat, president of the Palestinian Authority

W O R L D R E A C T I O N

S E C U R I T Y

A L L I E S

NL0912A006X 9/11/01 23:34NL0912A006X

A7NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001 ~

TIM KROCHAK / HALIFAX CHRONICLE HERALD

A Lufthansa airliner prepares to land at Halifax airport yesterday, where by 4:30 p.m. more than 40 aircraft belonging to dozens of airlines, including Air Portugal, British Air-ways and Singapore Airlines, were lined up on the tarmac.

B Y R O B E R T F I F E

A N D JA N E T A B E R

O T TAWA • Jean Chrétien, thePrime Minister, yesterday or-dered heightened security andthe military was put on high alertin the aftermath of the “cowardlyand depraved” terrorist attacks inthe United States.

Although he said there did notappear to be a direct threat toCanada, security at border cross-ings and military installationswas tightened.

“Everybody has increased securi-ty everywhere,” Mr. Chrétien saidafter conferring with the Commis-sioner of the RCMP, Chief of theDefence Staff and Canada’s am-bassador to Washington.

Federal officials said CF-18fighter jets were put on high alertand Canada’s naval vessels wereordered to be ready to sail on amoment’s notice.

Giuliano Zaccardelli, the RCMPCommissioner, said the Moun-ties are investigating whetherthere is a Canadian connectionto the U.S. attacks. “We owe itnot only to Canadians, but weowe it to our American neigh-bours,” he said.

Mr. Chrétien cancelled all his ac-tivities, including a Liberal partyfundraising dinner in Halifax lastnight and a scheduled meeting to-day with the Prime Minister ofSlovakia to deal with the securityimplications of the terrorist at-tacks. He also attempted to reachGeorge W. Bush, the U.S. Presi-dent, to offer “any assistance thatour American friends may need atthis very, very difficult hour and inthe subsequent investigation.”

He said there was no evidenceCanada was under threat or wasused as a staging base by the ter-rorists, who carried out the as-saults in New York and Washing-ton.

Mr. Chrétien was having break-fast at 24 Sussex Drive withLorne Calvert, the SaskatchewanPremier, when he learned of theattacks. He immediately contact-ed the heads of the RCMP andArmed Forces while officialsphoned the mayors of Torontoand Montreal to assure them thetwo cities were not in danger ofbeing attacked.

Federal departments, includingthe military, the RCMP andTransport Canada, also held anemergency meeting to review se-curity, which was increased onParliament Hill, 24 Sussex Driveas well as the U.S. and Israeli em-bassies in Ottawa.

“Obviously you will see more po-lice cars around Parliament Hill.You will see more work done inthat security area in other parts ofthe country depending on whoneeds that heightened protection,”Commissioner Zaccardelli said.

Art Eggleton, the Minister ofNational Defence, who was inEastern Europe, said: “We’re tak-ing all necessary measures to en-sure the safety and security ofCanadians.”

David Collenette, the Ministerof Transport, said his departmentwas on “highest alert.”

Declaring a state of high alertincluded mobilization early yes-terday of the nuclear, biologicaland chemical response team, aswell as other specialty rescueteams. Local hospitals were onstandby, as was the Red Crossand other emergency servicessuch as fire departments.

Joe Clark, the Conservativeleader, called the attacks “an al-most unbelievable disregard forhuman life.

“I think there will almost cer-tainly be an overwhelming desireon the part of the American au-thorities to respond to this,” Mr.Clark said from Edmonton.

He also called for a federal re-view of Canada’s own securityprocedures at airports “or otherpotential sources of vulnerability,which could exist in our owncountry.”

National Post, with files fromThe Canadian Press

NAVY READY TO SAIL

Chrétien condemns‘cowardly and

depraved’ attacks

Canadianmilitaryon high alert

B Y R I C H A R D F O O T

H A L I FA X • More than 30,000passengers on approximately 150U.S.-bound international flightswere diverted from destinationson the U.S. eastern seaboard tocities and towns across AtlanticCanada yesterday, where theywere stranded overnight.

The rerouted aircraft, many ofthem Boeing 747s and other jum-bo jets on transAtlantic flights,clogged airport runways inMoncton, Halifax, St. John’s,Gander, Nfld., and Goose Bay,Labrador.

Civilian and military airports inthe region all set in motion emer-gency plans, cancelling regulartraffic to accommodate a massivegathering of incoming airlinersfollowing the U.S. disaster.

Municipal and Red Cross offi-cials also launched emergencyprograms to accommodate thetens of thousands of passengersdispersed around the region.

Rita Vanderstraeten, a passen-ger whose flight from Amster-dam was sent to Halifax, said noone on her plane knew why it wasbeing diverted until the aircrafttouched down.

“The pilot was really good. Hewaited until we landed so nobodywould panic. Then he told uswhat happened,” she said. “Theytold us that this terrible tragedyhad happened.”

She said the reaction on boardwas disbelief, then “just silence.”

In many towns and cities,schools, hockey arenas and bingohalls were turned into overnight

shelters for the passengers. Hun-dreds of local residents also re-sponded by offering to billet pas-sengers overnight in their homes.

Security was tightened at CFBHalifax, home of the East Coastnaval fleet, and at U.S. consularhomes in the region.

At Halifax airport, one of tworunways was turned into an airlin-er parking lot. By 4:30 p.m., 44 air-craft belonging to dozens of air-lines, including Air Portugal,British Airways and Singapore Air-lines, were lined up on the tarmac.

About 9,000 people waited onthe Halifax runway until late yes-terday afternoon, when officialsdecided to unload the planes andbus passengers into the city. Itwas a painstaking process at anairport terminal already madechaotic by the hundreds of pas-sengers stranded from cancelleddomestic flights.

The RCMP dispatched officersand sniffer dogs to inspect eachplane.

The first wave of people arrivedat a sports complex in a Halifaxsuburb, where a curling rink,hockey arena and weight roomwere converted into reception ar-eas. Wal-Mart donated colouringbooks for children; grocery storestrucked in food; phone companiesunloaded bags of cellphones andhooked up temporary phone lines.

Water, soup and sandwicheswere prepared for busload afterbusload of travellers. Dozens ofHalifax residents also lined up atblood banks to donate blood forU.S. hospitals.

Many stranded passengers wereweary, but understanding abouttheir plight.

“This is not the worst,” said Ed-ward Frerichs, another passengerfrom Amsterdam. “The worst isall those people who died.”

Up to 7,000 people from divert-ed flights were expected at theMoncton airport.

“I’m numb,” said one female pas-senger from Detroit. “It’s shock-ing … All I want to do is get home.”

In Newfoundland and Labra-dor, 10,000 to 15,000 passengerswere expected at airports acrossthe province. By late afternoon,27 aircraft had landed at St.John’s — twice as many as the air-port was built to handle.

About 20 aircraft had landed inGander, Nfld., a town of only4,000 people. The military baseat Goose Bay, Labrador, was ex-pecting about 30 jumbo jets.

Another eight aircraft had ar-rived by late afternoon at thesmall airfield in Stephenville,Nfld., a town of only 2,500 people.

In St. John’s, local businesseswere turning office space intosleeping quarters for passengers,and churches were clearing theirmeeting halls.

“This is absolutely without prece-dent,” said Andy Wells, the city’sMayor. “One has an emergencyplan for dealing with numbers inthe hundreds of people, but cer-tainly not in the thousands.”

Stranded passengers will likelyremain in Canada until at least 1p.m. eastern today, the earliest U.S.airspace is expected to reopen.

Asked how she would pass thetime until then, Rita Vander-straeten said she would pray.

“Saying a prayer for all the peo-ple that died,” she said, “That’s myfirst priority.”

National Post

Hockey arenas,schools turned into

overnight billets

Atlanticprovinces

shelterthousands

B Y F R A N C I N E D U B É

in TorontoI A N B A I L E Y

in Vancouver

International passenger jetscrammed Canadian tarmacs yes-terday after all United States air-ports were closed in the wake ofthe terrorist attack that levelledthe twin towers of the WorldTrade Center in New York.

About 400 planes were expect-ed to be diverted throughout theday, pouring 10,000 people intoHalifax alone.

By late afternoon, Vancouver In-ternational Airport had received34 planes diverted from NorthAmerican destinations, carryingas many as 6,000 people. Anoth-er 25 planes were expected atLester B. Pearson InternationalAirport in Toronto. St. John’s In-ternational Airport closed itsrunways after taking in 27 air-craft with 5,000 passengers.Fifty-seven flights were expectedto land into the night at the air-port in Gander, Nfld.

At least 100 controllers and oth-er staff were pulled out of coursesand called in on their time off tohelp handle the deluge of interna-tional flights, said Paul Horn-beck, a spokesman for Nav Cana-da, the agency that handles air

traffic control at Canadian air-ports.

International arrival terminalsacross the country were chokedwith people while departure ar-eas were virtually deserted — alloutbound flights across Canadawere cancelled, except for hu-manitarian or search-and-rescuemissions, police and militaryflights.

Passengers stood in line withtheir luggage, waiting for hoursto be searched before they couldbe permitted to leave.

Bev Aurich, a traveller fromSydney, Australia, who had beenheaded to Anchorage, Alaska, be-fore being grounded in Vancou-ver, said she did not mind the in-convenience.

“We shouldn’t be upset aboutmissing a little trip, when there is

such devastation in the UnitedStates. We’re better to be delayedand be comfortable than to keepto our schedule and risk some-thing,” she said.

In Toronto, some airport hotelsreacted to the situation by in-creasing their rates to the maxi-mum legal tariff. Meanwhile,concerned residents around thecountry showed up at airports tooffer their homes to travellers.

“I had to take the energy I feltand direct it,” said Ena Bendon, aVancouver woman who showedup at the airport to offer accom-modation. “I thought of someonewith kids here, terrified. I had todo something.”

Lufthansa pilot Axel Algner wasflying a passenger jet from Frank-furt to Chicago when he was toldthere had been an incident inManhatten and all planes werebeing grounded. It wasn’t until helanded his plane in Toronto thathe was informed of the details.

“What I thought is that it was ajoke. I couldn’t believe it, it’s stillhard to believe. It just gives megoosebumps even talking aboutit,” he said.

Another pilot said he was in-structed to lock his cockpit afterbeing told the news.

On the ground at Pearson, theairport began a news blackout at10:30 a.m., according to one pas-senger.

Travellers grouped around fel-low passengers with cellphonesto learn the details of what hadhappened. Others lined up to usepayphones. Rabbis and RomanCatholic priests were brought into counsel passengers.

In Calgary, which took at leastten diverted flights, every hotelroom was filled by early after-noon, but tourism officials saidresidents were opening up theirhomes to travellers.

In Winnipeg, hotels were alsobooked solid by early afternoon,prompting the city to invoke itsemergency measures plan,transforming public buildingsinto makeshift dormitoriesequipped with camp cots, saidPenny McMillan, of TourismWinnipeg.

The airport took in 14 diverteddomestic flights and three inter-national ones — generating 1,500overnight guests.

At Vancouver International Air-port, Layne Daggett, the airportchaplain, said he placed 500 peo-ple, but others still needed ac-commodation.

“I have a strong faith that God isin control even in these kinds ofatrocities,” he said.National Post, with files James

Cudmore in Edmonton andPeter Fitzpatrick, Tom Black-

well, Mark Gollom and BillCameron in Toronto

400 internationaljets diverted

across country

CANADIANSOFFER HOMESTO STRANDED

B Y P E T E R F I T Z PA T R I C K

Congestion from the shutdown ofNorth America’s airline industrycould begin clearing today, but it’slikely the recovery will be moredifficult than with previous ser-vice disruptions.

While airlines normally havecontingency plans to recoverfrom problems such as stormsand strikes, the complete closureimposed by the Canadian andU.S. governments yesterday isunprecedented.

“Airlines don’t normally plan forevents of this magnitude,” saidDouglas Reid, a professor of busi-ness strategy at Queen’s University

who studies the airline industry.“They have very complex com-

puter models to do scheduling,this is really complex mathematics… but I don’t know if anyone everplans for this because it’s so huge.”

The U.S. system was to remainshut down at least until noon today,said William Shumann, a spokes-man for the Federal Aviation Ad-ministration. The Canadian systemwas also to remain closed until fur-ther notice, said David Collenette,the Minister of Transport.

In the past, after major shut-downs, Air Canada has neededseveral days to recover. When a se-vere winter storm closed Air Cana-da’s major hub at Toronto’s airportin 1999 it took about three days for

operations to return to normal. Ittook a similar length of time forthe carrier to resume full activityafter a pilot strike shut down theairline for nine days in 1998.

Air Canada activated its emer-gency plan — including a specialoperations centre in Toronto —minutes after the first hijackedaircraft struck the World TradeCenter in New York.

Laura Cooke, a spokeswomanfor Air Canada, said it was diffi-cult to predict how the return tooperations will proceed becauseit is unclear what demands gov-ernments will make.

A major issue facing Air Canadaand other carriers is that manyplanes were not allowed to return

to their bases and are dispersedaround the world.

One Air Canada flight from Bei-jing was forced to land at KingSalmon Island in the Aleutian Is-lands yesterday. Even in caseswhere planes landed in Canada,some large planes landed at smallbases where the company doesnot have qualified technicians toapprove them for takeoff, so spe-cialists have to be sent in by bus.

“Be patient because nobody hasever seen this before. You havebad storms and things like that,but you very rarely shut down acontinent for weather … this ter-rorism is to some extent the worstweather possible,” said Mr. Reid.

National Post

‘Airlines don’t plan for events of this magnitude’

‘Be patient because nobody has ever seen this before. You have bad storms and thingslike that, but you very rarely shut down a continent for weather … this terrorism

is to some extent the worst weather possible’ — Professor Douglas Reid

T A R M A C S C L O G G E D

‘WE SHOULDN’T BE

UPSET ABOUT

MISSING A TRIP’

S E C U R I T YA I R T R A F F I C

U . S . U N D E R A T T A C K

F L I G H T R E C O V E R Y

NL0912A007X 9/11/01 23:35NL0912A007X

B Y G R A E M E H A M I L T O N

in BostonA N D A D R I A N H U M P H R E Y S

Seats on one of four civilian pas-senger aircraft used in suicide at-tacks in the United States wereoffered for sale by Air Canada,raising fears that Canadians wereaboard the doomed flight.

An Air Canada spokeswomansaid internal records show nocustomers were booked to travelon United Airlines Flight 93 fromNewark, N.J., to San Francisco,but the company was waiting forthe release of passenger informa-tion by U.S. authorities beforeconfirming none of the 38 pas-sengers who were killed when theplane crashed in western Penn-sylvania had booked their seatfrom Canada.

“When I say no Air Canada cus-tomers were booked on thatflight, it doesn’t mean an AirCanada customer didn’t walk upto buy a ticket this morning inNewark,” said Laura Cooke,spokeswoman for Air Canada.

Among the dead in yesterday’sstrikes against United Statesground targets are 233 passen-gers, 25 flight attendants andeight pilots aboard four aircraft.

The names of passengers havenot been released.

Garnet “Ace” Bailey, a formerhockey player with the Edmon-ton Oilers and current director ofscouting for the Los AngelesKings, is believed to have been apassenger on United Flight 175from Boston to Los Angeles. Mr.Bailey, born in Lloydminster,Sask., was scheduled to be aboardand has not been heard fromsince, said Mike Altieri, aspokesman for the team.

Investigators were expected to

be scouring through wreckageand examining flight informationand recorders today in a searchfor information on how the air-craft were redirected and howterrorists got aboard.

The Federal Bureau of Investi-gation is leading the investiga-tion. The Federal Aviation Ad-ministration (FAA) said it wouldassist the FBI and would turnover air traffic control tapes andall other relevant information.

At Logan International Airportin Boston, from where two of thedowned planes departed — Unit-ed Flight 175 and American Air-lines Flight 11 — federal investi-gators were combing the two ter-minals used by the airlines.

Tom Kinton, director of aviationfor the Massachusetts Port Au-thority, which manages the air-port, said hundreds of investiga-tors last night were interviewingstaff who had any dealings withpassengers aboard the flights,from caterers to security workersand ticket agents.

Mr. Kinton was unable to ex-plain the security lapses thatwould allow the attacks.

“We don’t know what, if any-thing, got through any of thecheckpoints,” he said.

When asked if knives could besmuggled aboard, he said, “Itwould depend on the length ofthe knife involved. We all pack ra-zors when we travel. It is part ofwhat you pack.”

He said Boston was likely cho-sen as an embarkation point be-cause of its proximity to NewYork and the presence of planesleaving for far-flung destinations,which carry more fuel.

“Tactically, it fits the terrorists’plan,” Mr. Kinton said.

Les Dorr, spokesman for theFAA, refused to discuss apparentsecurity lapses: “We don’t dis-cuss specific security measures atindividual airports ... [or] giveinformation to people who maymake use of it.”

The FAA, for the first time, is-sued a nationwide directivegrounding civil aircraft. Onlymilitary, law enforcement andemergency services aircraft werepermitted to fly, with the excep-tion of special care teams provid-ed by the airlines to help grievingfamilies at the airports.

“United is working with all therelevant authorities, includingthe FBI, to obtain further infor-mation on these flights. We havepledged our full co-operationwith the authorities,” Jim Good-win, United Airlines chairmanand chief executive officer, saidin a release.

United said it is advancingUS$25,000 to the families of vic-tims aboard its two downedplanes to help meet their imme-diate needs.

“United has identified all pas-sengers and crew membersaboard these two flights and is inthe process of notifying theirnext of kin and working to assistfamily members.”

American Airlines was refer-ring media calls to the FBI.

“Every effort is being made inevery corner of the company tohelp the families of our cus-tomers and our fellow employ-ees,” Donald J. Carty, chairmanand CEO of American Airlines,said in a release.

In Boston, families of victims ofthe two flights out of Logan air-port were taken to the AirportHilton Hotel, where a crisis cen-tre was set up and American RedCross officials were present tohelp grieving families.

Shortly after the attacks, steelgrates were pulled across the en-trances to departure gates. Pas-sengers were allowed to leave,but nobody was allowed in.

The brother of John Ogonowski,a pilot aboard American AirlinesFlight 11, which is believed tohave crashed into the south towerof the World Trade Center, saidhe would like an opportunity tostrike back at the attackers.

Jim Ogonowski, of Dracut,Mass., a member of the NationalGuard, said his brother left forwork at 6 a.m. yesterday andgave a customary toot of the hornas he passed his uncle’s home.

National Post

A8 ~ NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001

M y flying partner, an Airbuspilot with a major airline,

was at the controls of our single-engine four-seater yesterdaywhen a voice came through hiscommunication radio from ATC(Air Traffic Control). It saidCanada’s airspace was closed andall aircraft should land at thenearest suitable airport.

The time was around 9:20 a.m.My partner had never heard suchan ATC transmission before. Itflashed through his mind that itmight be a nuclear attack. Beingabout 30 kilometres south ofCYQA (Muskoka airport), heheaded for it. A few minutes lat-er, he and his passenger weresafely on the ground.

Just as controllers were closingCanada’s airspace to all civiliantraffic, a commercial jetliner wasslamming into the Pentagon inWashington, D.C. By then, twoother airliners had crashed intothe twin towers of the WorldTrade Center in New York, thefirst at 8:45 a.m., the secondsome 18 minutes later.

At present, no one knows whatexactly transpired in the cockpitsof American Airlines Flight 11 andUnited Airlines Flight 175 beforethey struck the twin towers inManhattan, or on the flight deckof American Airlines Flight 77 be-fore it crashed into the Pentagon.Possibly, no one will ever know forcertain. It is very likely, however,that Federal Aviation Administra-tion air traffic controllers wereaware of the hijackings inprogress, even though they mightnot have known their purpose, orguessed at their tragic end.

The procedures for hijacking(or “unlawful interference” as it’sofficially called) are standard-ized. Commercial pilots wouldfollow these procedures as a mat-ter of routine, unless preventedby incapacitation or some othercircumstances.

If intruders interfere with aflight crew, the routine calls forone of the pilots to select code7500 on the aircraft’s transpon-der. This activates an alarm onthe air traffic controller’s radar

screen, pointing out the aircrafton the display. If at that stage thecontroller isn’t sure the aircraft isbeing hijacked — a pilot couldtransmit 7500 by accident (forexample, while changing to orfrom an assigned transponderfrequency) — the controller willtransmit a standard message. Heor she will say: “You were as-signed Code such-and-such; con-firm you’re squawking SevenFive Zero Zero.” If the pilot trans-mits “yes,” the controller willalert the ATC system.

If an aircraft, after squawkingCode 7500, changes it to theemergency code of 7700, or usesa radio transmission to ATC thatincludes the words “transponderseven seven zero zero,” it tellscontrollers that the situation isdesperate and the skipper is re-questing armed intervention.

This, at least, is what the regu-lations say. What “armed inter-vention” might mean in practicehas, until now, been anybody’sguess.

A decision to send fighterplanes to shoot down a domesticairliner filled with vacationers orbusiness travellers would not be

easily made. Until yesterday’sevents, such a scenario wouldhave belonged to a B-grade Hol-lywood movie.

But the world had fundamen-tally changed yesterday.

Did the flight crews of FlightsAA11, AA77, and UA 175 obey thehijackers and crash their jetlinersinto the Twin Towers and thePentagon? As an air transport pi-lot, my partner doubts it. He doesnot think an air transport pilotcould simply be ordered or evenforced to crash into a building.Flying into a structure would en-tail certain death anyway, so pi-lots would resist. It is much morelikely the hijackers of Flights 11,77 and 175 incapacitated theflight crews before crashing theplanes into the World Trade Cen-ter and the Pentagon.

This means some of the terror-ists must have had at least rudi-mentary training as pilots. Fly-ing a sophisticated airliner anydistance requires a degree of

skill, even if the person at thecontrols wishes only to crash. ABoeing 757 or 767, the type of air-crafts involved in yesterday’s out-rage, cannot be steered into a tar-get building by someone who hasnever flown before.

The fourth plane that was lostyesterday, United Airlines Flight93, might have gone down nearPittsburgh (the flight was enroute from Newark to San Fran-cisco) because the hijackers whocommandeered it were too ineptto fly it. Conversely, the flightcrew might have resisted the ter-rorists’ attempt to crash the air-craft into some target in theWashington area, and lost theaircraft during a struggle.

The hijackers may not havebeen sufficiently skilled to navi-gate through the U.S. easternseaboard’s complex air traffic sys-tem, but they did not need to be.After forcing their way on to theflight deck, they might have or-dered the crew to a false destina-tion, such as New York’s Kennedyairport, then let the unsuspectingpilots fly the jetliners until thetargets were in sight. From thatpoint, in good visual conditions,guiding an airliner to crash into alandmark would have been rela-tively easy — that is, it would haverequired training in terrorismand inhumanity rather than inpilotage.

Voices in the media, especiallyin Europe, are warning Americanot to jump to conclusions aboutthe origin of this infamy. Severalpundits have pointed out that theOklahoma City bombing was atfirst falsely attributed to Arab orMuslim terrorists. It is true, ofcourse, that at this point it is im-possible to say with certaintywhere yesterday’s terrorists camefrom, but it is possible to makeone observation: The attacks onWashington and New York werenot only ignominious and merci-less, but suicidal. They not onlytargeted innocent civilians, fromairline passengers to office work-ers, but entailed certain death forthe perpetrators themselves.

While ignominious and merci-less terrorists abound in manycultures, in recent history suici-dal, or kamikaze, terrorists havebeen produced only by the cul-tures of the Middle East andJapan. As the likelihood of yester-day’s terrorists being of Japaneseorigin is extremely remote, thisleaves the Middle East.

National Post

G E O R G E J O N A S

Terrorists must haveovercome crew inthe final moments

No commercial pilotwould have hit towers

DAVID LLOYD / JOHNSTOWN TRIBUNE-DEMOCRAT

Firefighters and emergency personnel investigate the scene of the crash of hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757, yesterday morning near Pittsburgh. All 45 people aboard died in the crash.

Air Canadaheld seats on

doomed flight

‘The attacks on Washington and New York were not only ignominious and merciless,but suicidal. They not only targeted innocent civilians, from airline passengers

to office workers, but entailed certain death for the perpetrators themselves’

T H E C R A S H I N V E S T I G A T I O N S

NO BOOKINGS FROM CANADA

Hijacked planewent down inPennsylvania

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Garnet “Ace” Bailey: feared dead

U . S . U N D E R A T T A C K

THE WORLD HAD

FUNDAMENTALLY

CHANGED YESTERDAY

NL0912A008X 9/11/01 23:37NL0912A008X

B Y A A R O N D E R F E L

M O N T R E A L • Religious leadersof all faiths condemned yester-day’s terrorist assault on theUnited States, calling the acts“irrational evil” and urging Cana-dians to pray for the victims.

Rabbi Reuben Poupko, of Mon-treal’s Beth Israel Beth AaronSynagogue in Côte St. Luc, saidsynagogues will hold memorialservices tonight in honour ofthose who perished in the attacks.

“It’s a tremendous shock. Nor-mal vocabulary seems inade-quate in the face of such horren-dous loss,” Mr. Poupko said in aninterview.

“As a person of faith, my heartgoes out to all of the victims andtheir families, of this irrationalevil that has caused so much dev-astation and so much agony.”

Jewish community leaders areasking for increased police pro-tection for local synagogues,Jewish schools and residentialneighborhoods following yester-day’s terrorist attacks in the Unit-ed States.

“Everybody is in shock. We aretrying to calm people down,

telling them to avoid panicking,”said Joseph Gabay, the Quebecpresident of the Canadian JewishCongress. “But when you have analert like this, everything stopsand nobody takes any chances.

“Everybody is threatened —maybe not directly, but poten-tially.”

On the West Coast, tucked awayin a corner of the Vancouver In-ternational Airport, ReverendLayne Daggett and a group of vol-unteers were busy trying to findaccommodation for hundreds ofstranded travellers.

Mr. Daggett, a Baptist minister,said so far about 1,000 peoplehave called or e-mailed him offer-ing to provide accommodation,food or other assistance.

“We had a guy come in herefrom Edmonton who stoppedhere to see if anyone needed aride to Edmonton,” Mr. Daggettsaid.

He estimated he and his volun-teers had found accommodationfor about 500 people so far. Hesaid other organizations assistingin the efforts to accommodatepeople include the SalvationArmy, the United, Catholic andAnglican churches as well asSikh, Jewish and Muslim com-munities.

Imam Salam El Menyawi, of theIslamic Centre of Quebec, said nopolitical or religious cause couldjustify such violence.

“On behalf of the Muslim com-munity, we utterly condemn thisaction, this vicious and criminalattack on civilian lives,” ElMenyawi said.

“No political, religious or socialcause could be advanced or as-sisted by an immoral act such asthis. Our hearts go out to all thelives that were lost and to thefamilies of the victims.”

Anglican priests in the Dioceseof Toronto have been asked to of-fer special prayers and open theirchurches today to allow people aplace to pray and console eachother following the attacks.

“I am deeply shocked by thismonstrous tragedy and grieve for

all who are injured and have died,and for their families,” said Arch-bishop Terence Finlay.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte,of the Catholic archdiocese ofMontreal, issued a brief state-ment calling for prayer vigils forthe victims and for governmentleaders to show “wisdom andprudence” in the decisions theywill take in the coming days.

Canadians jammed a phone line

set up for those wanting to donateblood to the thousands of peoplehurt in the terrorist attacks.

The Canadian Red Cross alsoformed teams to help Canadiansfind loved ones in the UnitedStates and to help passengersstranded at airports, while 50paramedics headed south to lenda hand.

Health Canada said it “is work-ing with provincial govern-ments and other federal govern-ment departments to determinethe assistance we can provide tothe United States if we arecalled upon.”

Officials at Toronto’s Sunny-brook Hospital said two heli-copters were on standby to offermedical assistance.

“We are working to mobilizeourselves so we can accommo-date any victims,” said SandraCruickshanks of Sunnybrook,one of Toronto’s major traumacentres.

In Atlantic Canada, peoplecleared gyms, community centresand hotel rooms, and offeredtheir own homes as they bracedfor the arrival of thousands ofpassengers stranded by the ter-rorist attacks.

In Halifax, the provincialtourism department identifiedbetween 600 and 700 hotelrooms ready to receive strandedpassengers. The department alsoheard from some 1,000 individu-als volunteering to act as hosts.

“The whole thing is so horrific atthe outset, the only thing thatkeeps you going is the fact that weare hearing voluntarily from hun-dreds and hundreds of Nova Sco-tians saying: ‘Just tell me what Ican do,’ ” said Marsha Andrews,executive director of tourism.

The Gazette,with files from

The Canadian Press

‘Everybody is in shock. We are trying to calm people down, telling them to avoidpanicking. But when you have an alert like this, everything stops and nobody takes

any chances’ — Joseph Gabay, of the Canadian Jewish Congress

B Y J U L I E S M Y T H

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

The terrorist attacks in Washing-ton and New York caused panicin Canada’s North yesterdaywhen a Korean flight was escort-ed to Whitehorse by military jetsbecause of fears the plane hadbeen hijacked.

Canadian and American fighterjets accompanied the Korean Air747 to the Yukon capital after anautomatic signalling code fromthe plane raised alarm that theplane was in danger. It turned outthe flight was low on fuel.

The scare, just two hours after theU.S. attacks, caused the territory toevacuate all Whitehorse schoolsand government buildings. TheWhitehorse mayor advised hisstaff to get in their cars and driveout of the city in case a plane wasabout to crash downtown. Radioshows were flooded with calls fromfrightened people.

The Korean plane, which wascarrying around 200 passengersfrom Seoul, and a Korean Air car-

go plane were detained at White-horse airport for several hoursuntil Canadian officials were as-sured there were no bombs orterrorists on board. A crew mem-ber from the passenger plane wasdirected off the flight and told toraise his arms and take his shirtoff before approaching armedRCMP officers, witnesses said.

“Our understanding was therewas some concern with the aircraftand it was quite possible it couldhave been hijacked,” said CorporalAl Lucier of the WhitehorseRCMP. The Korean plane had dif-ficulty communicating with theairport, which caused concern thepilot was not co-operating.

The RCMP escorted the passen-gers off the plane and put themthrough security checks beforesending them to hotels for thenight, said Cpl. Lucier. Both Koreanflights were destined for Anchor-age, Ala. but were diverted whenAmerican airports were closed.

“A transponder code from theplane raised suspicion that itmight have been hijacked,” saidBob King, press secretary for Tony

Knowles, Governor of Alaska. “After the attacks, everyone was

on edge. … We were later informedby the [U.S.] Air Force that therewas a fuel problem,” he said.

Mr. King said three Americanfighter jets accompanied the planeto Whitehorse. The Department ofNational Defence would not con-firm the number of Canadian jetsinvolved but it is believed two CF-18s were employed.

Ernie Bourassa, mayor of White-

horse, said he received a call fromthe RCMP that there was “a po-tential situation” involving a Ko-rean plane. “Given what I hadseen on the TV from New York, Ithought the safest place for peoplewas to get out of the city, so I advised my staff to get in theircars and drive. The Yukon govern-ment ordered all schools to sendchildren home. The damage a 747could do in Whitehorse would behorrendous,” said Mr. Bourassa.

Whitehorse, population 23,000,has never experienced a terroristthreat, he said. The city’s small air-port has two flights a day from Van-couver operated by Air Canada.

Early yesterday, RCMP in White-horse caused alarm when it sentout a press release saying: “Due tothe arrival of aircraft from outsideCanada related to the incident cur-rently underway in the UnitedStates, Whitehorse RCMP haveasked that all schools be evacuated

and the children returned home.The Department of Education hasbeen asked to enact their plan toevacuate schools and they have pro-vided a contact number for parentsto call if they have any questions. Aswell as the school evacuation allother government agencies havebeen put on standby at this time.”

Pavlina Sudrich, 15, who wit-nessed the plane landing fromnear the airport, said she saw atleast four RCMP officers waitingfor the Korean crew member towalk off the plane. “I believe theyhad him at gunpoint — other peo-ple with binoculars saw the guns. Isaw the crew member come downwith his arms up. They yelled athim using a megaphone to take hisshirt off and to pat his legs to makesure he was not armed. There weretwo or three F18s circling above.”

A spokeswoman for VancouverInternational Airport confirmedyesterday that two F15s escortedan Air China plane to the airport,but she could not say why the mil-itary got involved. The planelanded safely.

National Post

B Y M I C H A E L H I G G I N S A N D

P E T E R K U I T E N B R O U W E R

The downtown cores of Torontoand Montreal along with mostmajor Canadian cities were quick-ly deserted yesterday as a tensecountry reacted to the terrorismoutrage in the United States.

Toronto’s CN Tower, the world’stallest free-standing structure,was closed an hour after the at-tack on the World Trade Centeras heightened security causedseveral alerts in Canada.

Security was stepped up at theU.S. Embassy in Ottawa, and thedowntown high-rise buildinghousing the Israeli Embassy wasclosed. So was a nearby buildingwhere other foreign delegationshave offices.

The East Block of the Parlia-ment buildings was evacuatedbriefly and the area cordoned offfor an hour after suspicious pack-ages were discovered in a van.

Later, armed Mounties in bullet-proof vests patrolled the grounds.

Security was beefed up at thePrime Minister’s residence at 24Sussex Dr., and Jean Chrétiencancelled a planned flight to Hali-fax for a Liberal party fundraiser.

“We are a city in a high state ofalert,” said Bob Chiarelli, Ot-tawa’s Mayor, who cautioned thatthe level of security in the capitalwas not as extensive as during theWar Measures Act of 1970, butsaid “the level of preparednessand response is certainly verysimilar to the first several days ofthe ice storm.”

Police presence on the streets ofOttawa doubled from the usual75 to 150. The local police force isco-operating with the RCMP.

“There are a number of em-bassies here that typically, whenthere are terrorist attacks in theworld, are potential targets,”said Vince Bevan, Ottawa’s po-lice chief. “We have staff rightnow working with the RCMP toidentify what risks might be inplace for any of these, and wewill continue to work with theRCMP to make sure any thatmight be experiencing a height-ened risk receive the protectionthey ought to.”

By early afternoon, most peoplehad left their downtown officebuildings in Toronto and Mon-treal as employers sent workershome. A security guard at Toron-to’s First Canadian Place saidthe 72-storey tower, the country’stallest office building, remainedopen, and decisions to close officescame from individual tenants.

Bud Purvis, president of Toron-to’s CN Tower, said his entirestaff was overcome with grief.Tourists from England, the U.S.

and Spain were turned away atthe tower although office staffwas not evacuated.

At 11:30 a.m. the SkyDome wasevacuated and organizers can-celled a fundraising dinner in hon-our of Dr. Tirone David, a Torontoheart surgeon. About 2,000 guestshad been expected, including MikeHarris, the Ontario Premier.

The Ontario Ministry of Justice,which occupies several floors inthe Exchange Tower of First Cana-dian Place, closed down beforenoon, as did the Ontario Court ofJustice at Toronto’s Old City Hall.

The Toronto International FilmFestival, which had drawn an A-list of Hollywood celebrities, can-celled events, leaving reportersfrom around the world glued totelevision sets instead.

A woman at Deutsche Bank ofCanada, in First Canadian Place,said her boss told workers theycould leave at around 11:30 a.m.“We were just standing therewatching the news on a TV screenand unable to move,” she said.“The boss said all our work goesthrough New York and we can’tcommunicate with New York, soyou might as well go.”

A lawyer at Osler Hoskin Har-court, who works on the 67th floorin the same tower, said he feared aplane diverted to Pearson Interna-tional Airport could slam into hisoffice. He said at 12:30 p.m. mostlawyers evacuated the building.“This is unbelievable,” the lawyersaid. “This is not the sort of thingyou want to take chances with.”

The prevailing mood among of-fice workers in Montreal’s tallerdowntown buildings was one ofnervous tension, horror and dis-belief. “This shows us how tenu-ous life is,” said Guy Lozeau, anengineer who works on the 13thfloor of the Bell building. “Ihaven’t been getting much workdone. I’ve spent the last hourwatching television.”

The Ontario Provincial Policesaid it wanted to reassure allcommunities in the province that“the well-being of all citizens isbeing taken very seriously.”

In Edmonton, about 100 peoplewere evacuated from City Hall af-ter two suspicious items werefound and the Mayor’s office re-ceived a phone threat from a manin the early afternoon who said abomb was going to be detonated.

Terrorism fears prompted a realestate firm in Vancouver to beefup their security. Bentall Real Es-tate Services warned tenants attheir building on downtown WestPender, which contains theFrench Consulate and the FrenchTrade Commission, that securitycards would be needed to gain ac-cess to the building, and securityguards were posted at entrances.

National Post, with files fromAdrian Humphreys, The Gazette

and The Canadian Press

U . S . U N D E R A T T A C K A9NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001 ~

Cities declarestate of alert,

step up securityBUILDINGS EVACUATED

People of all faiths condemn‘irrational evil,’ offer prayers

Military escorts jets to airports in Whitehorse, Vancouver after hijacking fears

C A N A D I A N S I N D I S B E L I E F , F E A R

VINCE FEDOROFF / THE CANADIAN PRESS

A transponder code sent from a Korean Air 747 flight raised suspicion the aircraft might have beenhijacked and headed for Whitehorse but the plane was low on fuel.

Jewish communityasks for increasedpolice protection

BILL KEAY / THE VANCOUVER SUN

Mourners at the First Baptist Church in Vancouver pray for the victims of yesterday’s attacks in the eastern United States.

R E L I G I O U S L E A D E R S

‘NO CAUSE COULD BE

ADVANCED BY AN ACT

SUCH AS THIS’

NL0912A009X 9/12/01 0:18NL0912A009X

U . S . U N D E R A T T A C KA10 ~ NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001

B Y D A N I E L G L O V E R

As word filtered in of the greatestsurprise attack on the UnitedStates since Pearl Harbor, newsorganizations scrambled to coverthe chaotic series of events. Radiostations throughout Canadaflipped from scheduled coverageto network feeds, and prime newssites on the Internet buckled un-der the pressure of millions ofhits from users arriving at officesacross North America.

Renowned for its coverage ofsuch complex breaking events,CNN.com was the first to fall un-der the avalanche of Internet use.As news filtered in at 10 a.m. EDTof the strike on the Pentagon,CNN’s home page turned intobroken graphics and simple bul-leted points, with no access to re-lated stories. Under continuingpressure later in the day, its homepage managed only to point to fiverelated stories.

Other Internet news networksacross the continent staggeredunder the pressure. While theirtelevision counterparts drew onnetwork affiliates and cellphonecalls from eyewitnesses to the ex-plosions in New York and Wash-ington, D.C., msnbc.com managedonly to put up a home page with asingle image of the World TradeCenter fires. All other storiespointed to dead-end pages stating,“The page cannot be displayed.”

With millions of users dialing infrom computers across the conti-nent, news organizations saw theirservers overwhelmed by a level ofactivity far outpacing their abilityto cope with the traffic. By latemorning, Google.com ran an un-precedented warning advisingusers to abandon the Internet forradio and television. Concedingthe difficulties facing the mostpopular Web sites, it providedlinks to images of the WashingtonPost and CNN’s sites as they ap-peared earlier in the day.

The New York Times, the majorbroadsheet in the New York citymetropolitan area, ran a newsalert across the top of its home

page, but as events unfolded, thepaper was hard-pressed to trans-fer the efforts of staff to live cover-age. By 12:45 p.m., staff coveragewas limited to a report filed byDavid Stout from the Pentagon.

Stuck without reporters on theground, Internet-only newspaperSalon.com relied on hastily writteneyewitness coverage from bookseditor Laura Miller in GreenwichVillage in Lower Manhattan andpolitical correspondent Jake Tap-per in the streets of Washington.The rest of its coverage was limitedto wire stories approximatingthose run by CNN.com.

The difficulty finding breakingnews stories was felt by listeners ofCBC radio’s This Morning, hostedby Shelagh Rogers, which carried apre-recorded interview with Mem-ber of Parliament Chuck Strahl.Aside from two brief bulletins,CBC radio did not start coveringthe story until 10 a.m.

“CBC Radio did a bulletin at 9 o’-clock Eastern time and again at9.40 a.m. Eastern time. Then,from 10:00 a.m., they were on-airlive,” said Ruth-Ellen Soles, a CBCspokeswoman. “The reason be-hind not going full live before 10o’clock is that they felt being radio,we couldn’t rely on pictures and wewent to air when we felt we had in-formation we could rely on.”

In early moments, with newsrushing in, radio delivered a lim-ited but fragrant view of the news.In Toronto, The FAN, an all-sports station, dropped earlymorning sports coverage infavour of direct feeds from ABCtelevision news. By 10:30 a.m.,stations all along the AM and FMdials had linked to one of the ma-jor U.S. television networks.

Many disc jockeys were caughtoff guard on morning radioshows. In the middle of a shout-out session on a Toronto reggaeradio program, a frantic listenerphoned in to inform other listen-ers about events in New York.

Many had trouble sifting truthfrom rumours, including Toron-to’s CFTR News, which contin-ued to run an hour-old Fox Newsreport of a bombing at the StateDepartment in Washington longafter other television networksreported it as a false alarm attrib-uted to the explosion and fire atthe Pentagon.

National Post

Radio stations deliver limited

emergency coverage

Internet traffic clogs news sites

‘The reason behind not going full live before 10 o’clock is that they felt being radio, we couldn’t rely on pictures and we went to air when we felt we had

information we could rely on’ — CBC spokeswoman Ruth-Ellen Soles

T H E W O R L D W A T C H E S A N D L I S T E N S

By yesterday afternoon, I hadwatched the twin towers of

the World Trade Center collapseat least 100 times. The buildingsdisappeared from the Manhattanskyline swiftly, readily, and in aghostly silence. “They are,” PeterMansbridge said of the video im-ages, “unlike anything we haveever seen before in real life.”Those final three words suggest-ed he was thinking as many peo-ple probably were yesterday: theiconic towers, the smoulderingPentagon, the hijacked aircraftveering sharply left in its finalseconds — it was so cinematic, sosurreal. It was as though we wereviewing the trailer for a sequel toIndependence Day.

Yes, I had watched the twin tow-ers of the World Trade Center col-lapse at least 100 times, and thenI watched them fall through theeyes of Dr. Mark Heath. Dr.Heath, video camera in hand, wasacross the street from one of thecompromised 110-storey struc-tures when it began to comedown. The footage he capturedwas aired on CBC at about 4:40 p.m. EDT, and though I con-fess that I rarely recall the preciselocation of keys and eyeglassesand, on occasion, pets, I am confi-dent I shall never forget those fewseconds of videotape: the ghastlyrainstorm of glass and steel andconcrete, the cloud of glisteningdebris and paper and blackness,which engulfed the camera justafter the doctor said to himself, “Ihope I live, I hope I live.”

He lived, and immediately start-ed searching for people to help.In the smoke, in the soot, the firstperson he encountered resem-bled an X-Files alien.

“Stunning,” Mansbridge saidsimply of the footage, and he wasright.

There was a time when theabrupt appearance of a BreakingNews logo was the TV equivalentof a phone call in the middle ofthe night: It always meant badnews, and bad news of no smallmagnitude. For the few secondsthat those words remained on thescreen, the mind was left to hasti-ly construct a score of macabretragedies of national or global im-port. Cut to the grim-faced newsanchor.

These days, the words BreakingNews are just as likely to cue cov-erage of a low-speed police chaseon the Santa Monica Freeway orthe revelation that Gary Condit,four months after the disappear-ance of his former intern, contin-ues to have a suspicious hairdo.Many more channels today pro-duce much more news content.They must be fed, and too oftenthey don’t much care what’s onthe menu.

That trend only accentuated thesense of utter disbelief at the im-ages being broadcast from NewYork and Washington, at thenews being reported by TomBrokaw and Dan Rather. It took amoment to comprehend thatsomething of such genuine enor-mity was being trasmitted on amedium that so often makes somuch of so little.

I once heard an airline pilot ex-plain why he and his colleaguesget paid so much money. “You ba-sically pay me $200,000 a yearfor a minute’s work,” he said. “Youjust never know when thatminute’s going to come, and youwant the best guy there when itdoes.”

Same goes for TV news anchors,really. Most anyone can learn to

read the news, but presiding overmany hours of live coverage de-voted to an incident of historicalgravity ... well, let’s just say thereisn’t a TelePrompter yet inventedthat can save a dimwitted hairdofrom being outed as such.

I spent the early part of the dayswitching among a dozen chan-nels, exposing myself to Rather’slittle-boy haircut and his mad-dening desire to try to describethe scene in A Profound Way.There was also, around the dial,the usual complement of bone-headed queries posed of dubious-ly credentialed experts (amongthe more indelible questions: “Isthe Israeli military on a high stateof alert?”).

But by late afternoon I foundmyself flipping between just twonetworks: the CBC and ABC. I’llbe honest: on most nights, theCBC news goes in one of my ears,covers my brain in a sleep-induc-ing fog, and promptly slips outthe opposite side, leaving no oth-er residual evidence of havingbeen viewed. The writing thesedays is just terrible. But Mans-bridge is a marvel on the fly, andhe and his team — especially cor-respondent David Halton — con-veyed far more and clearer infor-mation than some U.S. networks,especially in the early stages ofcoverage.

And then there’s Peter Jennings.As George W. Bush hopscotchedacross the land, from Florida toLouisiana to Nebraska and on,the President remained invisibleto the people of his nation savefor a brief, early-morning state-ment during which he pledged to“hunt down and find those folks”— those folks — who blew up hisPentagon.

Back in Washington, meantime,there was no public sign of hisVice-President, Dick Cheney. On-ly heightened security at theWhite House likely preventedAlexander Haig from storminginto the West Wing and onceagain proclaiming, “I’m in con-trol here.”

Haig would have had a tussleon his hands, however – if notfrom Cheney then from Jen-nings, who yesterday seemed totranscend his role as ABC’s newsanchor to become the country’sInvestigator in Chief. He bad-gered guests about the sorrystate of the U.S. intelligencecommunity. (“How did it get offthe radar?” he demanded, refer-ring to age-old terrorism optionssuch as hijacking.) He took noguff from political types, forcingthem to be more explicit aboutlaying blame.

He even scolded the Presidentfor not hightailing it back to theWhite House. When it was re-ported that Air Force One had de-parted Louisiana, Jennings reck-oned the President must surelybe on his way home. “You cannothave the President be seen to berunning around the country,” hestated. A couple hours later, AirForce One landed in Nebraska. Ifthere’s such a thing as rollingone’s eyes on the inside, Jenningsdid it.

He was startlingly opinionated,a fact sure to irritate those whotuned in for a just-the-facts ap-proach and perhaps a tender odeto American resilience. But it wasstrangely reassuring to watchhim preside over the network’scoverage. When so little elseseemed certain, there was nodoubt that at least Jennings wasin control.

National Post

S C O T T F E S C H U K

Scolds Bush for ‘running around the

country’

Jenningstranscendsanchor role

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

With the extensive coverage of yesterday’s events, for once, television’s use of the phrase Breaking News really meant something.

R A D I O A N D W E B

B Y N O A H R I C H L E R

Forty minutes into the worst at-tack in history on the continentalUnited States, a day of terrorismand murder that might, conceiv-ably, lead to a Third World War,and the CBC’s flagship program,This Morning, had still made noannouncement about the terribleevents in New York.

For an hour Manhattan burned,but CBC Radio One listeners incars, in offices, and in homeswithout televisions, heard She-lagh Rogers chatting with ChuckStrahl, rebel leader of the world’smost laughable and inconse-quential political coalition, abouthis new alliance with Joe Clark.Other than a short bulletin on the9 a.m. EDT newscast, CBC Eng-lish radio was mum on thegravest political crisis of the newmillennium for 40 minutes.

That very small number of lis-teners who had not already heardthe devastating news from con-cerned friends or colleagues nodoubt rushed to a television assoon as possible. On televisionthey watched the second planecrash into the tower, and later,saw the first of the two towers fall.They heard President Bushspeak. They saw the Pentagon onfire. But on This Morning, whatCBC listeners kept hearing wasChuck Strahl.

In those first 40 shameful min-utes, CBC Radio revealed itself tobe an irrelevant, unprepared, andidiotically prioritized station thatcompletely failed its remit. Did itreally think, at this crucial time,that what the public wanted tohear about was more of the Al-liance Party’s petty arguments?

In those moments our publicbroadcaster was a national em-barrassment, especially to aCanadian listening from London.

When asked to defend its deci-sion, the CBC’s corporate rela-tions department issued a state-

ment which said: “CBC Radio dida bulletin at 9 o’clock and again at9.40 a.m. Eastern Time, thenfrom 10:00 a.m. they were on-airlive. The reason behind not goingfull live before 10 o’clock is thatthey felt being radio, we couldn'trely on pictures and we went toair when we felt that we had in-formation we could rely on.”

The mind reels, as it contem-plates just what must have beenthe bureaucratic, incompetentdiscussions of the CBC man-darins deciding whether or nottwo jets crashing into the WorldTrade Center within 18 minutesconstituted an event newsworthyof disrupting the day's agenda.

Desperate for news, holdingmy phone call from London toher ear, my own partner lis-tened instead to CKTB from St.Catharines, Ont., and thenCHFI, a Toronto “easy listening”station, which immediately cutover to 680 News on AM radio,that in turn cut into CNN forup-to-date reports from theground.

Poor resources are no excuse.In England, where I was, thenation’s independent televisionchannel, ITN, suspended itschildren’s programming imme-diately. The news anchor, with-out a reporter, interviewed herhusband, resident in New York.He was pithy, eloquent, and firston the scene — what all con-sumers of news, radio or televi-

sion, want in the first instance.Why did we not do this?

It took producers on ThisMorning more than an hour tohave Shelagh Rogers speak toIan Williams in New York. She-lagh asked, “Did you see the sec-ond tower collapse?”

“Yes,” he said. “It was happen-ing during your local break.”

Clearly, CBC Radio has decidedit does not have the will to robust-ly compete with television, news-papers or the Internet.

In the United Kingdom, BBCRadio understands that it com-petes not just with hundreds ofradio stations, but also withnewspapers and its own televi-sion networks. In 14 years ofworking at BBC Radio, I neveronce heard a producer use theneed to “rely on pictures” as anexcuse for not performing.

National Post

Flagship programmum on crisis forfull 40 minutes

CBC listenersforced to

turn on TV

B Y A D R I A N H U M P H R E Y S

When the unexpected happens,the unbelievable seems plausible:Such as President George W. Bushtaking refuge from terrorist at-tacks by flying to Canada.

As the news broke — uncon-firmed reports of something hit-ting the World Trade Center inNew York City — the reaction wasintense and immediate; peopleturned on the radio and television,

logged on to the Internet and tele-phoned friends and family.

And when facts were unattain-able the gaps were filled with fuzzyrumours. To some it was a bomb,others a missile or plane. All of itwas passed along to others,unedited and unchallenged.

Some rumours were frightening,others weird, many implausible.And some turned out to be true.

The list of U.S. targets said to beunder attack blossomed within anhour of the first attack minutes

before 9 a.m. EDT. Many land-marks in Washington and NewYork were listed as having been hitor under siege that were not.

By noon, the rumours extendedto Canada. Word swept acrosssouthern Ontario that planesscheduled to land at Toronto’sPearson International Airport,were unaccounted for. One man,adding the detail that his brother-in-law is a member of the OntarioProvincial Police, claimed thatmore than one plane headed to

Toronto had been hijacked.By 12:15 p.m., “plane” had be-

come “train.”Soon, the rumour made it on to

the airwaves: A Toronto station re-ported that a British plane boundfor Toronto had been hijacked.

In Vancouver, similar stories ofmissing West Coast-bound planescirculated and in Halifax therewas chatter about the safety ofMaritime-bound flights.

When a passenger jet crashed inPennsylvania, two conflicting ru-mours started.

One version, on radio, had theU.S. air force shooting down thehijacked jet rather than risk

having it crash into a building. An-other had the pilot heroicallycrashing the plane in an unpopu-lated area.

By 3:30 p.m., there was a detailedstory of police storming aboard aplane on the runway at Calgary’s air-port with suspected terroristsaboard. Police and airport officialssaid it did not happen.

On the Internet Newsgroupalt.conspiracy, a writer noted theSept. 11 date on the daily desk cal-endar for the comic strip Dilbertfeatures a plane crash.

“Scott Adams probably knowssomething,” the writer suggests ofthe strip’s creator.

Rumours of attacks abound on airwaves, at airports

C O M M E N T

CBC RADIO REVEALED

ITSELF TO BE

IRRELEVANT

NL0912A010X 9/11/01 23:33NL0912A010X

U . S . U N D E R A T T A C K A11NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001 ~

CHARLES REX ARBOGAST / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Golfers Tiger Woods and Mike Calcavecchia react to the news that two jetliners had crashed into NewYork’s World Trade Center. The golfers were playing a practice round for the American Express World GolfChampionships outside of St. Louis. Tomorrow’s first round has been rescheduled for Friday.

DAILY RE-EVALUATION

B Y D A N B R O W N

A N D B R E N D A B O U W

T O R O N T O • The 26th annualToronto International Film Festi-val will continue this week de-spite yesterday’s suicide skyjack-ings in the United States.

Festival organizers announcedthe event would proceed withyesterday’s cancelled films beingrescheduled.

“We are trying to gauge the tem-perature, to some extent, in termsof the will to continue,” PiersHandling, festival director, saidat a news conference yesterday.

The Toronto festival, whichwas originally scheduled to winddown on Saturday, gatherscelebrities and media fromaround the world — many ofthem from New York City, site ofthe World Trade Center. They re-acted with shock as they learnedof the attacks.

Actor Anne Heche, who was intown doing media for her memoir,Call Me Crazy as well as for thefestival film Prozac Nation, said,“This is beyond crazy. I’m not evengoing to try and explain this.”

At Toronto’s Park Hyatt hotel,the festival’s headquarters, peo-ple clutched cellphones andpaced through the hallways.Those from New York desperate-ly tried to contact friends or rela-tives. Some wept openly.

Actor Gina Gershon, here topromote the Canadian featurePicture Claire, was stunned. “It’sjust horrible. It’s horrific. Mybuilding is right around the cor-ner [from the World Trade Cen-ter]. How can we let this hap-pen?” she said.

“We got here just in time,” saidMatthew Blank, the head of Show-time Television, who left on a flightout of New York at 8:20 a.m. “Weflew by the World Trade Center 10minutes before it happened. Wefound out when we got to customshere. I’m just in shock.”

Because authorities shut downair traffic into the United States,many celebrities attending thefestival were forced to stay intown.

Gene Hackman and Danny De-Vito, for example, had planned tofly out of the city yesterday morn-ing after Monday night’s galascreening for Heist. Othergrounded stars included SteveBuscemi, Heather Graham, BenKingsley, Juliette Lewis, DavidLynch and Harvey Keitel.

Inside the press room, there wasno talk of film. Grim-faced re-porters gathered around a televi-sion set as news of the attackstrickled in.

Festival administrators re-sponded immediately to the at-tacks by cancelling the day’s pub-lic and industry screenings, andsetting up an emergency traumaline for distraught festival staffand guests.

Last night’s two galas (MonsoonWedding and Cet Amour-Là)were also scrapped.

“I think dark screens are appro-priate today,” said Michèle Ma-heux, the festival’s managing di-rector. All of the day’s other festi-val-sponsored events were alsocancelled.

“We are certainly very sensitiveto security issues and are increas-ing security where appropriate,”said Mr. Handling, adding thatno threats have been made thisyear against the festival.

Threats were made six years agobecause of Tsahal, a film aboutthe Israeli army. “We took it ex-tremely seriously, we were intouch with officials from the Is-raeli embassy, the police [were]involved — RCMP as well as localToronto police. Police measureswere quite extraordinary; theywere virtually invisible to thepublic,” Mr. Handling explained.

Opinion was divided onwhether to forge ahead.

“You can’t do much about whathas gone on by stopping thingshere,” said Claudia Landsberger,a film buyer from Amsterdam.

But Florence Stern, a film buyerfrom France, thinks the festivalshould be called off. “There is noopinion to give, there are thou-sands of dead people. Just look atthe people — you can’t work.”With files from Rebecca Eckler,

Shinan Govani and Murray Whyte,

National Post

THE SHOWWILL GO ON,

FILM FEST SAYS

Buck Martinez’s father hasspoken often over the years

about the day he was working inHawaii, the day the Japanesebombed Pearl Harbor.

“Now I feel like he did,” Mar-tinez, the Toronto Blue Jays man-ager, said tersely from Baltimoreyesterday. “I am angry and disap-pointed. We were so naive to letthis happen.”

Amidst the confusion, outrageand fear generated by yesterday’sattacks, Martinez and everyoneinvolved in pro sports face an im-possible dilemma today.

They need to determine theproper time for athletes to returnto their fields of play. They arelooking for the dividing line be-tween respect for victims andtheir families, and their responsi-bility to furnish the greatest ofantacids to a country desperatelyin need of relief.

And beyond the scheduling dif-ficulty, they must now grapplewith a horrible new reality: Bytransforming commercial airlin-ers into cruise missiles with sim-ple hijackings, terrorists havemade the Pentagon, bastion ofthe United States military, as vul-nerable as an ant colony. Theyhave reduced the World TradeCenter towers, symbols of Ameri-can prosperity, to a crumbledmass of glass, concrete, steel andblood.

So how in the name of George

Washington can a stadium beprotected?

Monday night, 75,000 jammedDenver’s Invesco Field to watchthe NFL’s Broncos beat the NewYork Giants. The new stadiumcomes with luxury boxes, notradar dishes. Watching CNN 12hours later, the realization musthave hit those people hard.

They were sitting ducks.Major League commissioner

Bud Selig cancelled baseballgames yesterday. Dare he allow40,000 people into CamdenYards, maybe 10 minutes by airfrom Washington, D.C., for ameaningless game tonight be-tween the Blue Jays and Orioles?

“Why would you endanger thatmany people in a situation youare not sure of?” Martinez said.“There is no way to secure them.Nobody knows who did this. It isso bizarre that something of thismagnitude could happen.”

Inside his heart, he knows why.You would let the games go on

because in September, sportsfans can tailgate and stomp theirfeet at a football game. They canout-think managers in the heat ofa frenzied pennant race.

You would play because suchgames let us dismiss the tensionsbrought by mortgages, trafficcongestion, droughts, stockplunges, relationships, and yes,even horrific disasters.

“We will not let these horriblepeople change our way of life,”George Schultz, the former secre-tary of state, said yesterday.

But nothing like this has everhappened inside America before— the 1989 Bay Area earthquakethat delayed the World Series,Waco, Kent State and the riots ofthe 1960s ... nothing.

Arguably, only the assassinationof President John F. Kennedy in1963 gripped the country likethese hijackings, and former NFLcommissioner Pete Rozelle hassaid it was the one decision he re-gretted, allowing football games tobe played the following Sunday.

Live in the United States, andyou feel safe as a moth in a co-coon from international terror-ism. The car bombings executedby freaked-out zealots happen onthe streets of Belfast, London andJerusalem, not in New York andWashington, D.C. The OklahomaCity bombing, while bonding acountry in revulsion, was consid-ered an aberration. No one ex-pects to be living a nightmarishscene from Independence Day.

Now, everything changes. I took my family to New York

this summer, and we stayed inthe Marriott Hotel inside theWorld Trade Center. My wife andtwo children went to the roof.Imagine the commercial airlinerplunging into the building then.

Blue Jays CEO Paul Godfrey hastwo sons working in New York.They are OK. Jeff Farkas of the

Maple Leafs worried about thesafety of his girlfriend, Susan,who lives in Manhattan. She sur-vived, too. “It makes you wonderwhat is in the minds of peoplewho do something like this,”Farkas said after medicals at theAir Canada Centre yesterday.

Tie Domi brought his childrento New York last weekend. Hebroke down crying at the ACCyesterday, saying he only wantedto get home and be with them. OnMonday, Alexander Mogilny, thenewest Maple Leaf, pined for theview of Manhattan from hishome on the Jersey shore. Fromhis easy chair yesterday, he wouldhave seen the towers crumble.

Martinez’s wife, Arlene, anAmerican Airlines flight atten-dant, was an “emotional wreck.”

“It got me as an American first,”Martinez said. “We are devastatedthat something like this could hap-pen to our country. This is ourhome. When we drive to New Yorkfrom our home in New Jersey, thefirst thing you see is those towers.”

No more.National Post

Amid anger and outrage rises

a new fear

Pro teams ponderthe vulnerability

of the stadium

Iwalked into a movie at8:30 yesterday morning,and walked out two hourslater into a different world.The movie was a comedy

about a wedding in India. Smallhuman stories, little joys andheartbreaks, some music. Itmade me happy.

I left the Toronto InternationalFilm Festival screening and wasstopped by a woman who workswith the festival; I’ve neverlearned her name, but we smileevery year.

“Something very bad has hap-pened,” she said. She told mewhat it was. I walked over to thecoffee counter in the theatre lob-by. A crowd was watching the TV.You saw what I saw. We were allwatching TV.

My wife, Chaz, and stepdaugh-ter were in New York. They hadattended the Michael Jacksonconcert the night before. Myheart began to pound. I walked asfast as I could back to the hotel.

I tried to call New York but thelines were jammed. Also the linesto Chicago.

I saw the phone light blinking.There was a message from Chazsaying she and Sonia were safe.Thank God she got through. Onthe way to LaGuardia, they hadseen the World Trade Centerburning. At the airport, they raninto a woman Chaz knew whohad a car and offered them a ride

to her Long Island home. The air-port was being evacuated, andthe routes to Manhattan wereclosed. This woman saved themfrom standing on the street.

My story is like so many stories.Thousands of innocent victimsare dead, but we think first aboutthose we love.

What is new and frightening isthat yesterday when the tragedyhappened, we were all forced tothink in these personal terms.The war was here.

This day was going to come soon-er or later. In recent years, theUnited States has fought push-button wars thousands of milesfrom home. Today, the war is nolonger far away. The continentalUnited States, which was not in-vaded during any of the wars ofthe 20th century, has been stainedby the blood of countless victims.We are weeping. The 21st centurybegan today.

I sit in this Toronto hotel room,filled with sadness. It may be Iknow people who were helplesspassengers when those planeswent down. The tragedy of thecollapsing World Trade towers istoo sorrowful to contemplate.

One of my editors calls. Can Iwrite something about the reac-tion in Toronto?

Yes, I can. The reaction here isthe same as everywhere. We arestunned, we are in grief, and in thedark places of our hearts we fear atime of anarchy and violence — anapocalypse on Earth — unless menlearn to live together on a planetthat has grown too small.

The phone rings. It is my wife.She and her daughter are safe in ahotel on Long Island. I advisethem to rent a car right now, fill itwith gas, and wait until tomorrowto see what develops. They mayhave to drive back to Chicago.Who knows when the skies will besafe? I hear myself talking, and Ifeel like a character in one of thosedumb end-of-the-world movies.

I hang up and watch the Presi-dent on television. He is speakingon a pre-recorded tape, and thereis something wrong with thetape. Fox News keeps stopping it,backing it up, starting it again.He backs away from the podium,approaches it, backs away again. Ihave seen so many movies I won-der if he is there at all.

A few minutes later, of course,they are interviewing Tom Clan-cy: He wrote the book.

I call the Film Festival office. Allscreenings and other events havebeen cancelled today; they aretrying to decide about the rest ofthe festival. They tell me they areworking with local hotels to findplaces for stranded guests, sincethe airports are shut down andthe border has been closed.

The border between the UnitedStates and Canada has beenclosed. That takes a moment tosink in. How will I get home?Should I rent a car, too? ThankGod I have friends here.

Me, me, me — and thousandsdead. But that is what happenedtoday. Now it is about us, and notjust about them.

National Post

B Y B R U C E A R T H U R

Yesterday’s terrorist attacks on theUnited States resulted in a rash ofcancellations and postponementsof major sporting events, andsparked fears that security plansfor the 2002 Salt Lake CityOlympics are inadequate.

While the president of the orga-nizing committee vowed theGames would go on, he admittedthe US$200-million plan to pro-tect athletes and spectators is nolonger sufficient. “The Games forme are a symbol of the humanspirit and world peace,” said MittRomney. “That symbol is neededmore today than ever before.”

Major League Baseball, in themidst of its September pennantraces, cancelled its 15 scheduledgames yesterday. Aside fromwork stoppages, it was the firsttime since D-Day in 1944 thatbaseball wiped out a whole day ofregular-season play.

The NFL and major U.S. collegeconferences are considering thecancellation of this weekend’sfootball games. And the U.S. PGATour delayed the start of theAmerican Express Champi-onships in St. Louis and two othertournaments.

“I don’t understand how theseguys can even hit balls,” saidErnie Els, a South African golfer,pointing toward the practicerange. “What are they thinking?”

Various other college and prosporting events were also can-celled yesterday.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, whowere to fly to St. John’s, Nfld.,were one of two teams whosetravel plans were scuttled, whileseveral NHL teams called offteam functions and workouts.The league’s exhibition scheduleis set to begin Saturday. Therewas no word on whether thegames would go ahead.

“What we’re doing isn’t impor-tant,” said the Leafs’ Tie Domi.“I’d like to see my kids. I just wantto hug my kids right now.”

National Post, with filesfrom Scott Burnside, Sean

Fitz-Gerald and news services

Sporting eventspostponed; Salt Lake City

revisits security

‘The reaction here is the same as everywhere. We are stunned, we are in grief,and in the dark places of our hearts we fear a time of anarchy

and violence — an apocalypse on Earth’ — Roger Ebert

L O S A N G E L E S • Although theToronto International Film Festi-val will continue this week, sever-al other entertainment eventswill not.

Sunday’s 53rd annual Prime-time Emmy Awards are post-

poned indefinitely “out of respectfor the victims, their families andour fellow citizens,” said JimChabin, president of the Acade-my of Television Arts and Sci-ences.

The second annual Latin Gram-my Awards show was cancelled.The US$4-million production,which was to have been held lastnight and broadcast in 120 coun-

tries, was moved to Los Angelesfrom Miami last month for secu-rity reasons.

Walt Disney World in Floridaand Disneyland in southern Cali-fornia were closed.

And, although CBS pre-emptedBig Brother 2, the last threeguests remain in the house andhave been told about the disaster.CBS has not said how the newswill affect the remainder of thegame, which is scheduled to endon Sept. 20

National Post news services

DISNEY CLOSES THEME PARKS

Emmy Awards postponed

Roger Ebert finds that when disaster strikes, one’s thoughtsfirst turn not to the victims but to those we love

Me, me, me – andthousands dead

S P O R T S A N D E N T E R T A I N M E N T R E A C T I O N

NO ONE EXPECTS TO

BE LIVING A

NIGHTMARISH SCENE

FROM

INDEPENDENCE DAY

T O M M A L O N E Y

R O G E R E B E R Ti n T o r o n t o

NL0912A011X 9/11/01 23:33NL0912A011X

A12 A13

WORLD TRADE CENTERNATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001

Clockwise from top: A second aircraft approaches the World Trade Center just prior to hitting the skyscraper; Within a span of 18 minutes, two planes crashed into each of the twin towers of the Center; Peo-

ple jump to their deaths from the burning towers; Firefighters near the base of the Center following the collapse of the twin towers; The south tower of the Center begins to collapse; A fire ball erupts from

the upper floors of the south tower of the Center after a second plane hit the complex; The south tower collapses as smoke billows from both towers.

KELLY GUENTHER / THE NEW YORK TIMES

DAVID SUROWIECKI / GETTY IMAGES

JUSTIN LANE / THE NEW YORK TIMESAMY SANCETTA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

JIM COLLINS / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

KRISTEN BROCHMANN / THE NEW YORK TIMES

Church St.

Liberty St.

West St.

Vesey St.

1 2 3United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767, en route from Logan International Airport in Boston to Los Angeles, crashes. It is believed this plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center around the 80th floor. Fifty-six passengers, two pilots, seven flight attendants.

American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767, en route from Logan International Airport in Boston to Los Angeles, crashes. It is believed this plane hit the south tower of the World Trade Center around the 67th floor. Eighty-one passengers, two pilots, nine flight attendants.

South tower of the World Trade Center collapses.

8:45 a.m. 9:03 a.m. 10:05 a.m.

4World Trade Center's north tower collapses.

10:28 a.m.

TENANTS

Representing 10% of lower Manhattan's office market, the World Trade Center's 10 million square feet is almost twice the size of the entire downtown office market of Tampa, and larger than those of Miami, San Diego and San Jose. The complex, which had 435 tenants from 26 countries that employed 40,000 office workers, was one of only three New York properties with its own zip code.

The Center was a hub for international finance. Brokerage firm Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. was the largest tenant, occupying 1.19 million square feet, or 12.5%, of the space in tower 2. The Center's owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was the second-largest tenant, occupying 858,641 square feet, or 9% of the space. Insurance companies AON Corp., Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and Marsh & McLennan Cos. were the next three big tenants, each occupying more than 350,000 square feet. The next largest tenants were Bank of America and Deutsche Bank, followed by portfolio manager Oppenheimer Funds, insurance company Guy Carpenter & Co., and banking giant Credit Suisse. The top 10 tenants used half of the Center's office space.

Canadian companies also had operations in the complex, including Thomson Financial, Scotia Capital and TD Waterhouse, the U.S.-based discount brokerage giant owned by Canada's TD Bank. Only a block away, CIBC World Markets employs more than 1,000 people at the World Financial Center.

HISTORY

1945: Idea of a world trade center in Lower Manhattan is proposed.

1956: New York's most powerful banker, David Rockefeller, forms the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association (DLMA).

1958: Nelson Rockefeller elected Governor of New York.

1958: David Rockefeller, Nelson’s brother unveils billion-dollar Lower Manhattan Plan as “part of the national urban renewal movement.”

1961: Port Authority issues a report recommending the establishment of a World Trade Center.

1970: First buildings on the US$1.2-billion six-hectare project open.

1976: Towers completed.

1993: A terrorist car bomb attack killed six people, injured more than 1,000 and caused US$300-million in damage.

1995: Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and nine other militant Muslims were convicted on charges related to the bombing.

1998: Ramzi Yousef was convicted of the 1993 bombing and sentenced to life in prison.

1999: New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani opened a US$13-million emergency crisis center on the 23rd floor of 7 World Trade center — a building near the twin towers. Giuliani intended the center to serve as a command center during city emergencies like blackouts, storms and terrorist attacks.

2000: The emergency command center served as a command central for New York City Police during New Year's Eve activities, which were overshadowed by fear of terrorist attacks on the city.

2001: Silverstein Properties Inc. bought the center's 99-year lease in July from the Port Authority in a transaction valued at US$3.2-billion, in what was the largest real estate transaction to date.

MISSION

Marble Inscription in lobby of plaza level in Tower One.

“Designed to increase world trade by providing at a single location a home for international commerce with the necessary functions and services, and exchange for sharing and processing of information and a forum for the advancement of world trade education and the encouragement and stimulation of international business co-operation.”

1993 ATTACK

On Friday, February 26, 1993, 12:18pm, a bomb consisting of at least 454 kg of nitrate/fuel oil, hidden in a van parked in a sub-basement lot of the Vista Hotel separating the Twin Towers, exploded. The explosion tore a 100 x 100 foot diameter, three storey deep hole in the World Trade Center.

The blast killed six, injuring 1000 others, including 35 policemen, 88 firemen and one emergency service worker. The injuries were caused by flying shards of glass and smoke inhalation. The bomb also caused the evacuation of 40,000 workers and thousands of visitors.

The emergency response: 170 ambulances, hundreds of police and 7000 firefighters.

It cost US$300-million for repairs to the basement and its mechanical systems plus another US$225-million for cleaning the smoke damage on each story of the towers.

The 1993 attack was the first act of international terrorism committed on U.S. soil.

VISION

“I feel this way about it. World trade means world peace and

consequently the World Trade Center buildings in New York ... had a bigger

purpose than just to provide room for tenants. The World Trade Center is a living symbol of

man's dedication to world peace ... beyond the compelling need to make this a monument to world

peace, the World Trade Center should, because of its importance, become a representation of man's belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his beliefs in the cooperation of men, and through cooperation, his ability to find greatness.”

— Minoru Yamasaki, chief architect of the World Trade Center

FACTS

❚ 425,000 cubic yards of concrete used in building the Center could build a five-foot wide sidewalk form New York to Washington DC.

❚ 43,600 windows making up more than 600,000 square feet of glass.

❚ Originally planned to rise only 80-90 floors; only later was it decided to construct them as the world's tallest building, following a suggestion said to have originated with the Port Authority's (owner's) public relations staff.

❚ Innovative structural model: a rigid “hollow tube” of closely spaced steel columns with floor trusses extending across to a central core; the columns, finished with a silver-coloured aluminum alloy, were 18 and 3/4 inches wide and set only 22 inches apart, making the towers appear from afar to have no windows at all.

❚ Also innovative was the elevator design: worried that the intense air pressure created by the buildings’ high speed elevators might buckle conventional shafts, engineers designed a solution using a drywall system fixed to the reinforced steel core; for the elevators, to serve 110 stories with a traditional configuration would have required half the area of the lower stories be used for shaftways, so Otis Elevators developed an express and local system, whereby passengers would change at “sky lobbies” on the 44th and 78th floors, halving the number of shaftways.

❚ The World Trade Center may be the only high-rise building in the US with its own police department, 42 officers total. Port Authority Police have police powers in both New York and New Jersey. Officers are cross-trained as firefighters — and are a first response team to a fire. There are 11 officers on duty each day.

❚ Surpassed as the world's tallest building in 1974 by the Chicago Sears Tower.

❚ Structural engineer said it was designed to withstand being hit by a commercial airliner.

2WTC

1WTC

6WTC

Plaza

7WTC

3WTC3WTC

4WTC

5WTC

COMPILED FROM NEWS SERVICES BY: JOE O’CONNOR, SIOBHAN ROBERTS, JASON CHOW, BENJAMIN ERRETT, GRAPHIC BY: KAGAN MCLEOD / NATIONAL POST

C i t y H a l l

Wo r l d Tra d eCe n te r

N o r t hTowe r

S o u t hTowe r

N o r t hTowe r

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A m e r i ca nS to c kE xc h a n g e

M A N H AT TA N

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HOW THE PLANES CRASHED

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B Y J E N N I F E R P R I T T I E ,P E T E R K U I T E N B R O U W E R

A N D D E S M O N D B R O W N

Much of Toronto shut down earlyyesterday as office buildings wereevacuated or employees opted togo home, events were cancelledand rush hour transit service be-gan hours ahead of schedule.

Police were placed on height-ened alert and Toronto’s emer-gency planning committee tookover operations of the city from acommand centre in Don Mills.

The CN Tower was evacuatedfor the first time in its history, andthe Toronto International FilmFestival came to a standstill.

Sunnybrook and Women’s Col-lege Health Sciences Centre, withits renowned trauma unit, held ablood drive and was preparing toreceive patients from New YorkCity if necessary.

“We’re ready if we are asked,”Sandra Cruickshank, a hospitalspokeswoman, said.

The most immediate local reac-tion to the tragedy was visibleyesterday morning along BayStreet.

At 10:45 a.m., the Toronto StockExchange suspended trading,and by 11 a.m. work appeared tocome to a halt as the magnitudeof the news sank in.

Hundreds stood or sat on thefloor at Scotia Plaza’s InvestorUpdate centre, concern etched ontheir faces, watching a giant tele-vision.

“It’s unbelievable. It’s extremelyscary,” said Jen Hunter, a re-searcher at the recruitment firmRussell Reynolds Associates, whosat watching for 90 minutes.“Our head office is in New York.We have 300 people in theChrysler Building.”

A woman who works atDeutsche Bank in First CanadianPlace said her office’s 150 staffmembers spent two hours clus-tered around a TV.

“All of us were just standingthere unable to move. You just

can’t believe it. A few people hadfriends or relatives [in New York]so they left the office crying,” shesaid.

“Then the boss came and said‘All our work goes through NewYork and we can’t communicatewith New York so you might aswell go home.’ ”

By noon, King Street wasclogged with traffic as people leftdowntown. Many said they feltuncomfortable working in thecity’s skyscrapers after viewingthe collapse of the World TradeCenter towers.

“I’m up at Osler’s [Osler Hoskin& Harcourt, a law firm in FirstCanadian Place] on the 67thfloor and pretty much everybodyhas left,” a lawyer said.

“All the transcontinental flightshave been diverted to Pearsonand so one errant [airplane]could head this way and FirstCanadian Place is the target.”

Security guards said First Cana-dian Place, the country’s highestoffice tower, remained open andthat tenants of the 72-storey build-ing were free to come and go.

As a security precaution, work-

ers removed garbage containersaround Scotia Plaza. By 1 p.m.,most restaurants and stores inToronto’s vast underground citywere closed.

The Ontario Court of Justice atOld City Hall closed at noon. Sky-Dome was evacuated and a majorfundraising dinner for 2,000people scheduled for last nightwas cancelled.

Workers also poured out of tow-ers at the corner of Yonge andBloor streets. At 2 p.m., about300 people stood watching a livenews conference with Jean Chré-tien, the Prime Minister, dis-played on a giant TV screenmounted above the intersection.

Churches across the city heldspecial services and someplanned to remain open throughthe night.

At the U.S. consulate on Univer-sity Avenue, there was only a

small visible security presence.Several guards stood outside themain door and two policemenpatrolled the sidewalk.

A police truck with barricadesarrived in the early afternoon, butthey were not put up.

Franklin Huddle, the U.S. Con-sul-General, came out severaltimes throughout the day to ad-dress reporters.

“It’s a tragedy of unparalleledproportions. It’s a Pearl Harbor inthe 21st century,” he said. “Obvi-ously, we represent the UnitedStates in Ontario, and we’ll dothe best we can to soldier on.”

Mr. Huddle said his heart wentout to everyone who suffered in

the plane crashes and at theWorld Trade Center, includingthose working at Canadian com-panies in the centre’s towers.

Toronto police increased uni-formed patrols in the downtowncore to reassure citizens and tohelp deal with the extra trafficfrom the exodus of workers fromthe downtown core.

The city’s two local dailies, TheToronto Star and The TorontoSun, rushed extra editions on tothe streets in the afternoon.

The evacuation of the CN Towerbegan about 10 a.m. yesterday, al-though visitors were still leavingthe building an hour later.

Tom Hibbert, a tourist fromNorth Bend, Ore., was up on theobservation deck when staffasked him to leave. “They justsaid, we are closing the buildingfor people’s safety,” he said.“There wasn’t hysteria or any-thing like that.”

Patrons were brought down byelevator and tickets were refund-ed.

Bud Purves, president of the CNTower, said the building was shutpartly out of a concern for safety.But he said some of his staff alsohad ties to workers at the WorldTrade Center. The buildingsshared an industry association,he said, and staff worked togetherto co-ordinate the movement oftour groups.

Mr. Purves did not know whenthe tower would reopen.

At the Toronto InternationalFilm Festival, screenings werecancelled partway through theday. Press conferences, work-shops, question and answer peri-ods at screenings and all orga-nized social events includinglunches, dinners and parties werealso cancelled. The festival hasarranged for a trauma responseteam to assist guests and staff.

Screenings will resume today.National Post, with files from

Rebecca Eckler and Dan Ovsey

B Y M A R K G O L L O M

A N D B R A D M A C K A Y

Canada’s largest airport was shutdown yesterday to clear runwaysfor 25 of the 500 rerouted U.S.-bound flights.

Machine-gun toting officers incamouflage patrolled Pearson In-ternational Airport as officials ac-cepted thousands of displacedpassengers who could not land inthe United States.

All other scheduled departuresand arrivals from Pearson, whichhandles more than 1,200 flights aday, were cancelled soon after theattacks.

Last night, officials did notknow when the airport would re-sume operations, saying it was upto Transport Canada to lift its un-precedented no-fly zone on thecountry. The U.S. Federal Avia-tion Administration was hopingto open airports stateside bynoon today.

“It’s constantly evolving. Wedon’t know what is going to hap-pen from one hour to the next,”said Peter Gregg, spokesman forthe Greater Toronto Airport Au-thority.

Grounded planes had to bequickly moved to make room forthe incoming diverted flights. Mr.Gregg told reporters operationsran smoothly yesterday, addingthere was not an overwhelmingnumber of passengers stranded.About 75,000 passengers usuallytravel to Pearson per day, headded.

Mr. Gregg said the airport couldhave accommodated more air-planes but reroute decisions arebased on fuel reserves of the air-craft and the closest airports.

However, the stranded passen-gers created huge lines at payphones and scrambled to bookhotel rooms and rental cars.

“The Greater Toronto AirportAuthority called to put all ho-tels on alert,” said Stacey Coup-land, manager of the Best West-ern Carlton Place, who saideven though the hotel is soldout, they are trying to accom-modate as many flight crews aspossible.

Captain Axel Algner was flyingthe German Lufthansa flight 405from Frankfurt to Chicago whenhe received an order to reroute toToronto.

“They told me not to discuss iton the frequency and said theycould not say anything about thereasons or what happened,” hesaid.

“What I thought was that it wasa joke and then I couldn’t believeit. It’s still hard to believe it all. Itgives me goose bumps just talk-ing it about now.”

With American-based visitorsunable to leave by air, hotels weregiving priority to the clients al-ready here.

Some hotel managers in the air-port area were committed to dowhat they could for the incomingpassengers left in the lurch.

“We are trying to accommodateeveryone who is phoning the ho-tel. We’re going to set up cots inour meeting rooms and allaround the hotel to do whateverwe can to help out,” said RenéeJulien, manager of the HolidayInn Toronto Mississauga.

“The calls that are coming intomy office are unbelievable of peo-ple offering their homes to peoplewho have to land in Toronto andare looking for a place to sleep,”said Mel Lastman, the Mayor.

For many passengers, theshocking terrorist act was at theforefront of their thoughts.

Francine Lamontagne, who flewout of Washington, D.C., for Que-bec City at 7:30 a.m., said shegazed at the Pentagon as herplane took off.

“It was so perfect and blue outand I remember having a flashand thinking, ‘Oh that’s why theycall it the Pentagon because it’sfive-sided.’ I can’t believe whathappened after.”

National Post, with files fromDesmond Brown, Susanne

Hiller, Jacob Richlerand James Wallace

U . S . U N D E R A T T A C K A14 ~ NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001

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‘All of us were just standing there unable to move. You just can’t believe it. A fewpeople had friends or relatives [in New York] so they left the building crying’

— an employee at Deutsche Bank in First Canadian Place

R E A C T I O N I N T O R O N T O

Many working in skyscrapers felt

uncomfortable

Transport Canadawill decide when

flights resume

LYLE STAFFORD / NATIONAL POST

People watch coverage of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on a screen at the intersection of Yonge and Bloor streets.

PEARSONCOPING WITH

REROUTEDPASSENGERS

Office buildings, CN Towerclosed as precaution

‘I’M UP AT OSLER’S ON

THE 67TH FLOOR

AND PRETTY MUCH

EVERYBODY HAS LEFT’

NL0912A014X 9/11/01 23:59NL0912A014X

The things you learn. My blood type is AB, my

iron is very good, and my bloodpressure is normal for a guy myage on a deadline. Here’s how Iknow.

I’d just come back from takingour sick cat to the vet. My wifewas getting ready for work. I wasabout to call upstairs and tell herwhat the vet said when she calleddown to me and asked if I’d heardthe news.

I turned on the downstairs tele-vision. And I blinked.

It was not real. There was a plume of smoke in

the clear blue sky of New York.And then suddenly, before I couldabsorb the fact that the first towerhad been hit, there was an air-plane coming in low and out ofnowhere, and it flew in a swiftand graceful arc and disappearedinto the face of the second tower.A moment’s pause, a crash ofglass, a burst of flame, a cloud ofsmoke.

It was real.My first thought — I can be a bit

naive — was that the plane wasprobably empty; it must be just acouple of guys in a couple ofplanes they’d stolen.

And then I understood.The scene was repeated on one

channel after another — the bil-lowing smoke, the graceful arc ofthe second plane, and the secondcrash — one man said it hit thetower like an axe cutting into acake.

After a time, I couldn’t look.I went to the basement and put

a load of laundry in the wash. Icame back up and looked at theTV again. In the moment it tookto focus on the screen I saw thefirst tower collapse and fallstraight down and disappear in acloud of smoke. I wondered ifthere’d been a bomb. I saw peoplecover their mouths and run. Iwondered if the smoke heldnerve gas.

How could it happen?It happens in a graceful arc. The garbage truck passed by

outside. I thought the guys wouldnot have heard the news. I wentout to tell them but they’d pulledaway, and as I put the lid on thecan, a couple pushing pramspassed by and smiled and askedhow I was.

I told them. They hadn’t heard. The woman

wondered who could have done

such a thing. The man said some-thing about the world these days,the lousy politicians, the way theenvironment is going …

I wanted to slap him.Back inside, someone on TV

said the hospitals were going toneed a lot of blood. I called theCanadian blood agency. It took adozen calls to get through. Atfirst, no one could or would tellme if any blood was being collect-ed for New York. And then some-one said they were.

I’ve never given blood before. It was something I could do.There were a hundred people in

the line at 67 College St. at 1:30p.m. I waited with a woman whoworks at the Art Gallery of On-tario; a man with a plastic tray ofchicken teriyaki; a first-timedonor who has American friendsand was close to tears; a studentwho said all the TVs in all thesports bars were tuned to CNN;and woman with a dog on aleash.

A hundred people, when nor-mally there are three or four. Theline snaked slowly through theatrium. A lab technician in a

white coat on the second floorlooked down on us and winkedand gave the thumbs-up sign.

A kid in the row ahead of me —curly hair, baggy pants, skinnyarms — said, “I don’t want towatch this on television. I want todo something.”

There were 10 stations set up totake blood. I saw a sign on acounter: “Please open blood bagpouches only as required. Clinichas not been busy.”

They were busy yesterday. Theywere opening blood bag poucheshand over fist. No idea at thatpoint how they were going to getthe blood to New York. It didn’treally matter. Blood was needed,blood was given, blood was beingtaken.

A nurse asked me if I’d everbeen tested for AIDS, traded sexfor drugs, had sex with a man,used a needle, been to Africa, etc.

No, no, no, etc.Another nurse showed me to a

bed and stuck a needle in my armand said men can give a unit ofblood in five minutes but mostwomen require 10 minutes.

I hate needles. I didn’t ask why.And I didn’t look at my arm. Fiveminutes later I had a cup of juiceand a cookie and I made my wayto the door, past a line of peoplewaiting patiently.

There are days when Toronto isa mean and selfish town. Yester-day was not one of those days.

National Postjfiorito@nationalpost.com

A15NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001 ~

J O E F I O R I T OC i t y c o l u m n i s t

‘I want to do something,’ kid with

skinny arms says

Torontonians line up to give their blood

LYLE STAFFORD / NATIONAL POST

The Canadian Blood Services’ College Street location is filled with donors yesterday. At 1:30 p.m., 100 people were waiting in line to give blood,the one thing they could do to help victims of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

B Y JA M E S WA L L A C E , D O N WA N A G A S

A N D R O B E R T B E N Z I E

Mel Lastman, the Mayor, ap-pealed for calm in the city yester-day in the wake of deadly terror-ist attacks in New York andWashington.

“There’s no reason for panic.There’s no reason to be scared,”Mr. Lastman said during an af-ternoon news conference. “Thereis no threat to the people ofToronto. This city is in goodhands. This city is safe.”

The Mayor condemned the at-tacks and asked residents to opentheir homes to accommodatepassengers from airplanes divert-ed here after U.S. airports wereshut down yesterday.

“It’s a cowardly act done by ma-niacs,” Mr. Lastman said of theterrorists’ action. “These peoplemay think they’re going to Heav-en, but I think they’re goingstraight to Hell.

“On behalf of Toronto CityCouncil and the two-and-a-half

million people of Toronto, I wantto extend our thoughts andprayers to all the victims andtheir families who have beenharmed by these unspeakableterrorist attacks in the UnitedStates,” he said.

“Everybody in the City of Toron-to is moved by it and shaken by it.Like all of you, I’m in shock andoutraged at these vicious attacks.”

Moments before the Mayor wasoriginally scheduled to hold hisnews conference, a fire alarm wastriggered in the basement of CityHall. Many people who had gath-ered around several large televi-sions in the building’s groundfloor rotunda rushed for thedoors in panic.

Fire trucks, with sirens blaring,had difficulty negotiating streetsclogged with traffic trying to leavethe downtown core.

“There was a broken steam pipe,but no fire,” a relieved Al Speed,the Fire Chief, reported.

The Mayor’s news conferencewas then moved to the nearbyMarriott Eaton Centre Hotel.There, Mr. Lastman announcedofficials had activated the city’semergency operations centre todeal with the evacuation of sever-al downtown buildings and to ad-dress potential security concerns.The city is also prepared to acceptU.S. casualties at local hospitalsand to send emergency crews tothe United States if needed.

“We will do everything possibleto assist the people of the UnitedStates to cope with their emer-gency,” Mr. Lastman said. “All ouremergency services are ready tohelp.”

Ron Kelusky, general managerof the city’s emergency medicalservices, said paramedics, ambu-lance crews and firefighters fromcities surrounding New York willlikely be used to bolster rescue ef-forts in Manhattan.

Toronto paramedics and asmany as 10 ambulances could besent to surrounding areas to cov-er for U.S. crews working at theWorld Trade Center site.

In anticipation of demands forblood supplies and hospital bedsfrom New York City, the Ontariogovernment mobilized its emer-gency response centre, said MikeHarris, the Premier.

“I have instructed all branchesof the provincial government thatOntario will provide whateversupport is needed,” he told re-porters at Queen’s Park.

Mr. Harris asked Ontarians withrequisite skills for coping withsuch a disaster to be on standby.

Mike Boyd, the deputy chief ofpolice, said police are reviewingthe potential for terrorist attackshere and possible repercussionsagainst communities who may beblamed for the attacks.

“Please be assured that all rea-sonable precautions are presentlybeing taken,” he said. “We wouldurge all people to be calm. Therehas been no threat to the citizensin the city.”

Mr. Lastman said there was lit-tle officials could do to preparefor the sort of determined terror-ist attacks that struck New Yorkand Washington.

“Nobody’s up to airplanes crash-ing into buildings,” he said. “No-body’s prepared for that.”

National Post

READY TO ASSIST

‘This city is ingood hands,’Mayor says

B Y C H R I S T O P H E R R E A D

Members of Toronto’s Muslimcommunity yesterday urged peo-ple not to rush to judgment aboutthe identity of those responsiblefor the terrorist attacks in theUnited States.

“In the absence of clear evidenceand the true identity of the perpe-trators we urge all media outletsand other opinion makers not toindulge in any speculation,” theIslamic Foundation of Torontosaid in a news release, condemn-ing the terrorist acts.

Mel Lastman, the Mayor, reject-ed the notion yesterday’s attackscould provoke backlash againstthe local Muslim community be-cause of speculation an Islamicterrorist group was involved.

“This is a city made up of peoplefrom 170 different countries,” hesaid. “We don’t bring our prob-lems here. That’s the magic ofToronto.”

Outside the Islamic Circle ofNorth America Book Service inScarborough, Nazir Khan, 61,was distraught.

“I’m in a daze this morning. Ifeel very saddened by the accusa-tions,” he said.

Mr. Khan said he does not agreewith violent action as a means toachieve Muslim goals, noting thatthat counters Muslim scripture.

“No religion allows this,” saidMohammed Atieque, a socialworker, outside the adjacentMuslim Welfare Centre.

“It was the same thing as whenthe Oklahoma bombing hap-pened,” said Mr. Atieque of specu-lation that Muslim terrorists wereresponsible for that bombing.

National Post

DON’T RUSHTO JUDGMENT,MUSLIMS URGE

‘Please be assured that all reasonable precautions are presently being taken. We would urge all people to be calm. There has been no threat to the citizens in the city’ — Mike Boyd, deputy chief of police

U . S . U N D E R A T T A C K

R E A C T I O N I N T O R O N T O

NL0912A015X 9/12/01 0:03NL0912A015X

A16 ~ NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001

Americans woke up as a differ-ent people today, trans-

formed by the events of Tuesday,altered by a new and horribleknowledge.

They learned that for all theirbrains and money they are weakerthan they imagined, and morevulnerable. They know somethingnow that they never wanted tolearn: Chaos, which all sane soci-eties struggle to keep at bay, hasrushed into their midst, proven itsunthinkable power to kill, and leftthem feeling, at least for the mo-ment, swamped and helpless. Ona beautiful autumn day in NewYork, the havoc of war made itsmost spectacular appearance onthe American mainland since the1860s. Worse, the fact that thismuch evil could be visited uponthe United States made it clearthat even more terrible crimesmight well be committed nexttime.

In future, when discussingWashington foreign policy andperhaps even the organization ofAmerican society, we may wellspeak of pre-September 11 andpost-September 11. A new con-sciousness seems likely to develop

from yesterday’s terror, in theUnited States and elsewhere,though we can’t yet know whatshape it will take. The Americansand their friends have nowglimpsed, in an oblique and baf-fling but freshly terrifying way, thedark shadow of our enemies.

The catastrophe that unfolded atthe World Trade Center and thePentagon, echoing quickly acrossthis continent and much of theworld, was the work of patient ex-perts with large sums of money.Only careful planning can pro-duce this much chaos. As theevents unfolded, like a bad moviethat some madman had turnedinto reality, America discoveredthat its most hate-filled enemies

are more clever and resourcefulthan anyone imagined. Assump-tions have been shattered. A for-mer New York police commis-sioner, Ray Kelly, remarked “Wehave relied for years on the rela-tive lack of sophistication of ter-rorists.” That was an innocent as-sumption, based on the belief thatthe industrially successful are su-perior in all ways. It’s a form of in-nocence that no one can ever suc-cumb to again.

Terrorism normally expressesthe desperation of frustrated andrage-driven militants. The peoplebehind yesterday’s events proba-bly meet that description, butclearly they are also much more

than that. They proved it by re-defining terrorism, moving it upto new levels of competence. Any-one who spent more than 10 min-utes wondering how September 11happened was forced to deal withdistressing and ominous answers.

These terrorists knew how tomake the most detailed plan, howto train and control a collection ofcrazed suicide pilots, how to infil-trate an airport and maybe evenan airline or two. They knewabout the psychological effect oftiming, and figured out how tomake it work for them. No onewithout extensive resources couldco-ordinate, almost down to theminute, four hijackings of com-mercial aircraft, each of them Cal-

ifornia-bound and therefore heav-ily loaded with combustible fuel,calculated to create the most ter-rible explosion possible. The sui-cide crews who took over thoseplanes required many helpers inthe background.

And all of them, killers andhelpers, required a talent for si-lence that terrorists have not al-ways exhibited in the past.

These enemies are so ingeniousthat Prime Minister Tony Blair wasright to speak yesterday of “the newevil in our world today.” No one hasever before turned a passenger air-craft into a bomb. People havethought of it, both terrorists andmoviemakers, but no one has done

it — and that alone would makeSeptember 11 an historic day.Putting that monstrous notion intopractice required a psychopathicimagination of diabolical originali-ty. And, like the invention of air-craft hijacking some four decadesago, it seems likely to be followedby crimes of emulation.

The fact that this extensive ter-rorist network was never pene-trated by the FBI, the CIA, or theNational Security Agency throwsa dark shadow over the reputationof all those institutions. Ameri-cans, as they ponder this disaster,will look critically at their leader-ship. At a minimum, September11 was a monumental failure ofthe counterterrorism system. TheU.S. taxpayers, who spend billionsa year on that system, withoutever knowing where the moneygoes, have every right to feel in-dignant.

They may also reconsider someof the freedoms they take forgranted. In recent years, manyAmericans and others across theWest have argued that our society,with its omnipresent securitycameras, metal detectors, andeven phone taps, is over-regulatedand over-scrutinized. But yester-day this elaborate apparatus wasdiscovered to be inadequate. Is itpossible that the vulnerable West-ern democracies do not haveenough security cameras, enoughairport checks, enough intelli-gence on those who move acrossborders? Post-September 11, itseems quite possible.

Something else changed. In thelast few days, discussing the Sec-ond World War heroes in theminiseries Band of Brothers, crit-ics have remarked that young peo-ple of today have no similar way ofdiscovering their own capacity forcourage. Those who spent painfulhours yesterday watching thou-sands of firefighters, police offi-cers and paramedics rushing to-ward the burning World TradeCenter probably won’t worryabout that problem for a longtime.

National PostRobert.fulford@utoronto.ca

AMERICA DISCOVERED ITS MOST

HATE-FILLED ENEMIES ARE MORE CLEVER

THAN ANYONE IMAGINED

The beginning of adark new era

COMMENTGORDON FISHER

DAVID SWAIL

SENIOR V.P. & GENERAL MANAGER

CRAIG BARNARD

V.P. READER SALES & SERVICE

DENNIS SKULSKY

NATIONAL V.P. READER SALES & SERVICE

PUBLISHER

VERONICA WILLIAMS

V.P. ADVERTISING

LYNNE MUNRO

V.P. PROMOTIONS

PATRICK BRENNAN

V.P. MANUFACTURING

Yesterday was a rebuke to thosefatuities: The first charge of anygovernment is the defence of itsborders — and, without that, itmakes no difference how muchyou spend on prescription drugplans for seniors.

From the end of the Gulf War toSeptember 11th 2001, the world’sonly superpower took a long week-end off, loaded up the SUV, wentto the mall. Yesterday’s atrocitieswere a rude awakening from theindulgences of the last decade,with some awful stories to remindus of our illusions — disabled em-ployees in wheelchairs, whom theAmericans with Disabilities Actand the various lobby groups in-sist can do anything able-bodiedpeople can, found themselvestrapped on the 80th floor, unableto get downstairs, unable even todo as others did and hurl them-selves from the windows ratherthan be burned alive.

The first named victim I wasaware of was the wife of the Solici-tor-General, Barbara Olson,whom I sat next to at dinner a fewweeks ago. She was one of thosegood-looking blond “former feder-al prosecutors” who turned up onLarry King every other night dur-ing impeachment — smart, witty, afearless scourge of the Clinton ad-ministration. She was on theAmerican Airlines plane thatcrashed into the Pentagon and hadtime to call her husband, Ted (yes-terday was his birthday), to tellhim her flight was being hijackedand that she had been hustled tothe back of the cabin with the pas-sengers and flight crew — includ-ing the pilots. God knows whatthose final moments were like: Atwhat point did she realize she was-n’t in the hands of some jerk whowants his pals sprung from jail

and a jet to Cuba but a cooler cus-tomer with bigger plans?

President Bush, echoing a longline of British prime ministers re-sponding to IRA attacks on shop-ping streets and railway stations,called the perpetrators “a facelesscoward.” “Cowardly,” agreed RudyGiuliani, and Jim Baker. ThoseBritish prime ministers werewrong and so are the President,the former Secretary of State andthe Mayor of New York. The menor women who do such things arecertainly faceless but not, I think,cowards. A coward would notagree to hijack a plane. Many oth-ers might do it for, oh, $20-mil-lion, a change of identity and re-tirement in the Bahamas: Thosewould be the stakes if life was runby Warner Brothers or Paramountand the terrorist was played byJohn Travolta or Bruce Willis. Butvery few of us would agree to hi-jack a plane for the certainty ofdeath. We should acknowledgethat at the very least, it requires akind of mad bravery, a bravery99% of those of us in the West can

never understand and, because ofthat, should accord a certain re-spect. Assuming (as Barbara Ol-son’s phone call seems to confirm)that no United or American Air-lines flight crew would plough intoa crowded building even with agun at their heads, the men whotook over the controls were so-phisticated, educated people,trained jet pilots who could bepulling down six-figure salaries inmost countries but preferred in-stead to drive a plane throughcrowded offices in one all-or-noth-ing crazed gesture. If these menwere cowards, this would be aneasier war. Instead they are notjust willing to die for their cause,but anxious to do so.

What causes are we willing to diefor? By “we,” I mean “the West,”though in truth these days thatumbrella doesn’t cover a lot — theUnited Kingdom, most of the time;France, when it suits them; Cana-da, hardly at all, not in any usefulsense. But even America’s sense of

purpose has shrivelled away overthe decade since the Gulf War:Why was there such a comprehen-sive intelligence failure? Is it be-cause the U.S. has come to rely toomuch on electronic surveillance —satellites, telephone interceptions—and virtually eliminated humanintelligence — the old-fashionedspies who go into deep cover atgreat risk to themselves? And isthe delusion that you can fight ter-rorism with computers from outerspace just another wretched exam-ple of the nouveau warfare pio-neered by Mr. Clinton in Kosovo?Or, to be more accurate, not inKosovo but far above it, and thenonly after dark on clear nights,dropping Tomahawks at a millionbucks a pop on empty buildings.One quasi-governmental terroristgroup can find four jet pilots will-ing to commit suicide on the sameday, but the Clinton Doctrine toldthe world that the greatest militarypower on the face of the earth nolonger had the stomach for a singlebody bag. The doughboys of theGreat War went off singing, “Wewon’t come back till it’s over/OverThere!” But not Mr. Clinton’sarmy: We won’t go over till it’sover/Over There! It ill behovessuch a craven warmonger to callanybody else a “faceless coward.”

There are cowards elsewhere,too. The bleakly funniest moment

in the non-stop coverage camewhen some portentous anchorsolemnly reported that “the Unit-ed Nations building had not beenhit.” Well, there’s a surprise! Whywould the guys who took out theWorld Trade Center and the Pen-tagon want to target the UN? TheUN is dominated by their apolo-gists, and in some cases thefriends of the friends of the fellowswho did this (to put it at its mostdiscreet). All last week, theplenipotentiaries of the West werein Durban holed up with the emis-saries of thug states, treating themas equals, negotiating over howmany anti-Zionist insults theycould live with and over how ab-ject the West’s apology for pastsins should be. Yesterday’s sober-ing coda to Durban let us knowthat those folks on the other sideare really admirably straightfor-ward: They mean what they say,and we should take them at theirword. We should also cease digni-fying them by pretending that the

foreign ministers of, say, Spainand Syria are somehow cut fromthe same cloth.

But there is a long-term lessonfor the U.S., too. It is an historicalanomaly: the first non-imperialsuperpower. Britain, France andthe other old powers believed inprojecting themselves, both terri-torially and culturally. As we sawin Durban, they get few thanks forthat these days. But the Americanposition — that the pre-eminentpower on Earth can collectivelyleap in its Chevy Suburban anddrive to the lake while the worldgoes its own way — is untenable.The consequence, as we nowknow, is that the world comes toyou. Niall Ferguson, in his bookThe Cash Nexus, argues that impe-rial engagement is in fact the hu-manitarian position: The twomost successful military occupa-tions in recent history were the Al-lies’ transformation of West Ger-many and Japan into functioningdemocracies. Ferguson thinks theU.S., if it had the will, could dothat in Sierra Leone. But why stopthere? Why let ramshackle basketcases like the Sudan or Af-ghanistan be used as launch padsto kill New Yorkers?

Instead of empire, the U.S. be-longs to NATO, a defence allianceof prosperous Western nations inwhich only one guy picks up thetab. The U.S. taxpayer’s willing-ness to pay for the defence ofCanada and Europe has con-tributed to the softening up ofAmerica’s so-called “allies,” freeingthem to disband their armedforces, flirt with dictators andgangster states, and essentiallyconvert themselves to semi-non-aligned. Our own peace-lovingDominion is a haven for terroristgroups of every stripe, any mem-ber of which can get a Canadianpassport just by faking a Quebecbaptismal certificate and then dri-ving a rental car over to Vermont.Ottawa had better hope none ofthe fingerprints on yesterday’smayhem belong to chums ofAhmed Ressam, or Washingtonmight realize that the undefended49th parallel is a concept from an-other age — when the U.S. andCanada were both serious West-ern powers. That is no longer thecase. Those nations who persist infinessing and nuancing evil shouldunderstand now that what is atstake is whether the world’s futurewill belong to liberal democracyand the rule of law, or to darkerforces. And after yesterday Ameri-ca is entitled to ask its allies notfor finely crafted UN resolutionsbut a more basic question: Whoseside are you on?

National Post

M A R K S T E Y N

FROM THE END OF THE GULF WAR TO YESTERDAY,

THE WORLD’S ONLY SUPERPOWER TOOK

A LONG WEEKEND OFF

The consequences offinessing evil

The acrid and unexpungable odour of terror-ism, which has hung over Israel for many

years, is now a fact of American life. Tuesdaymorning, Americans were drawn into the worldthat Israelis live in every day.

Just at the moment when American politicaldebate had reached a nadir of frivilousness,with wrangling about nonexistent “lock boxes”and the like, the nation’s decade-long holidayfrom history came to a shattering end. Afterabout half a century of war and Cold War,Americans came to feel, understandably, thatthe world was too much with them, and theyturned away from it. What happened Tuesdaymorning, and can happen again, underscoredthe abnormality of the decade.

Terrorism is usually a compound of the tangi-ble and the intangible — of physical violenceand political symbolism. The terrorists’ targetson Tuesday were symbols not just of Americanpower, but also its virtues. The twin towers ofthe World Trade Center are, like Manhattan it-self, architectural expressions of the vigour ofAmerican civilization. The Pentagon is a sym-bol of America’s ability and determination toproject and defend democratic values. Thesetargets have drawn, like gathered lightning, theanger of the enemies of civilization. Those ene-mies are always out there.

At times like this, confused thought breedsconfused action. The American mind must notbe cluttered with two familiar clichés. One isthat terrorists are “desperate” people. Tuesday’sterrorists probably were akin to evil soldiers,disciplined and motivated but not desperate.

The second cliché is that terrorism is “sense-less.’’ Terrorism would not be such a plague if ei-ther cliché were true.

Far from being senseless, much terrorism issensible in that it is “cost-efficient.’’ Or, to bor-row the language of the stock exchange, terror-ism is “highly leveraged.’’ Even sporadic terror-

ism can necessitate the constant costly deploy-ment of defences against it. Furthermore, theeffectiveness of terrorism is enhanced by in-stant and mass communication, especiallygraphic journalism.

One purpose is to deprive a government of re-spect and legitimacy by demonstrating that it isunable to guarantee public safety, the prerequi-site of all justice. The United States, no fragilething, is invulnerable to that purpose.

However, many years ago a Chinese theoristsaid: “Kill one, frighten 10,000.” A modern stu-dent of terrorism has correctly said that in theage of terrorism, the axiom should be: “Kill one,frighten 10 million.”

In thinking about terrorism, democracies aresometimes plagued by bad sociology and badphilosophy feeding upon each other. From thefalse idea that extreme action must have justifi-cation in the social environment, it is but a shortintellectual stagger to the equally false idea thatsuch acts can and should be eliminated by ap-peasement tarted up as reasonableness. The re-al aim of terrorism is not to destroy people orphysical assets, still less to score anything re-motely resembling military victories. Rather, itspurpose is to demoralize.

Terrorism acquires its power from the specialhorror of its randomness, and from the magnifi-cation of it by modern media, which make theperpetrators seem the one thing they are not —powerful. Terrorism is the tactic of the weak.

To keep all this in perspective, Americansshould focus on the fact that such acts as Tues-day’s do not threaten America’s social well-be-ing or even its physical strength. However,weapons of mass destruction are proliferating.Some of them, such as nuclear weapons, canbe delivered to their targets in shipping con-tainers or suitcases or the ubiquitous automo-bile. Imagine a car driving down 5th Avenuespewing anthrax.

The complexities of urban industrial societiesmake them inherently vulnerable to well target-ed attacks that disrupt the flows and intercon-nectedness of such societies. The new depen-dence on information technologies multipliesthe vulnerabilities.

The grim paradox is that terrorism, a partic-ularly primitive act, has a symbiotic relation-ship with the sophistication of its targets.And opportunities for macro-terrorism di-rected against urban populations and theirwater, food-handling and information sys-tems multiply as societies become more so-phisticated.

There can be no immunity from these vulner-abilities, but that is not a reason for fatalism. Aproactive policy begins with anticipation.Therefore, the first U.S. policy response mustbe to re-evaluate and strengthen the nationalintelligence assets, particularly the CIA andFBI, which are the sine qua non of counterter-rorism.

Americans are slow to anger but mighty whenangry and their proper anger now should be al-loyed with pride. They are targets because oftheir virtues — principally democracy — andloyalty to those nations which, like Israel, areembattled salients of our virtues in a still-dan-gerous world.

Washington Post Writers Group

R O B E R T F U L F O R D

THE TRADE CENTER IS AN

ARCHITECTURAL EXPRESSION

OF THE VIGOUR OF

U.S. CIVILIZATION

Our virtuesmake ustargetsG E O R G E F. W I L L

i n W a s h i n g t o n

Continued from Page A1

NL0912A016X 9/11/01 22:48NL0912A016X

A17NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001 ~

EDITORIALS

A day ofinfamy

Sept. 11, 2001, is a day of in-famy that equals Dec. 7, 1941,for not just the United Statesbut for all of humanity. MayGod bless the victims and fam-ilies of this horrific terrorist at-tack. This has destroyed anyinnocence that we as a worldcommunity still had left.Dan Kowbell, Toronto.

This was an act of pure, well-planned murder by terroristsand the nations that supportthem.Richard Gladwin Murray,Vancouver.

This was obviously an expertlyplanned and executed raid. Allthe terrorists’ social objectivesseem to have been realized, ifnot all their physical targets.And watch out, as the worstmay be yet to come.

God help us all.M.J. Ackermann, Sherbrooke,N.S.

This is an act of war, pittinghumanity against malfeasanceand those who make them-selves its willing subjects, per-verting reason, truth and theright to justify the indefensi-ble. And because of thismalevolent quality, this is awar that cannot be foughtwith the normal restraints of“civilized” warfare.

The evil we are faced withhere is no different than thatthat underpinned the SecondWorld War: It is a war of ab-solutes that leaves no reason-able room for the hope thatmaybe, in our adversary, thereis some goodwill. We shouldnot hesitate to strike withoverwhelming force againstthe guilty party, whomever itmay turn out to be.P. de Jocas, Hull, Que.

SurvivorMy 22-year-old cousin Annieworked in the World TradeCenter. She was being evacu-ated from one tower when thesecond plane crashed into thesecond tower. Thankfully she

survived, but for her, the mosttraumatic sight was seeingpeople falling from above totheir deaths.

I hope that none of those ter-rorists entered the UnitedStates through Canada, takingadvantage of our immigrationpolicies or our acquiescence togroups that have been fund-raising on behalf of terroristgroups.David Passalent, Hamilton,Ont.

I woke yesterday to a beautifulsunny fall morning, and satdown in front of the computerto send an e-mail to my unclein New York City, when I heardwhat had happened. My unclewas one of the lucky ones whoescaped with his life. But therewill be hundreds, possiblythousands, who will not be solucky.

These appalling acts makemy heart ache for those inno-cents that did not escape. I amleft with empty thoughts and astrange new numbness anddisbelief that I’d never wish onany creature.Jamie McLeod, Toronto.

We will now witness the emer-gence of a united America,strengthened in its resolve,emboldened to defend thefreedom of its patriots.

We can expect a swift coun-terstrike of deadly force. TheUnited States may now revisitthe Reagan-era doctrine ofpeace through strength.David C. Searle, Toronto.

Democracyunder attack

When an attack on a democra-tic nation takes place it touch-es us all. Freedom is some-thing we sometimes take forgranted. This event not onlyreminds us how lucky we are,it also reminds us of ourfragility.

What do you tell your chil-dren — how do you explainman’s capacity for such evil? Itis a sad day for all of us who re-spect and treasure human life,who enjoy the freedom that a

democratic society affords usand wish only to live in peace.Michael Teal, Hamilton, Ont.

The only positive thing thatcould emerge from this attackon the United States is a prop-er approach to combatting ter-rorism. The past policy of ap-peasing terrorist organiza-tions merely encourages themto shed more blood.

The United States must takesubstantive military actionagainst all known terroristbases as well as governmentsthat sponsor terrorism. Hadthis approach been imple-mented sooner, the tragicevents of Sept. 11 would nothave occurred.Glenn Woiceshyn, Calgary.

The United States will go onwith the strength and deter-mination of her people. As thePhoenix is born from the fire,the country will emerge fromthis fire, stronger and moredetermined.Aaron Evans, Calgary.

AngerThe situation in the freeworld is devastating. Myanger is at a peak, especiallywhen the celebrations of somePalestinians are shown. Thishas strong possibilities of trig-gering more carnage through-out the country.

My sympathies are with theAmerican people this day.William Down, Regina.

The attacks in the UnitedStates are tragic. But do we re-call the time when NorthAmericans smugly watchedsimilar destruction perpetrat-ed by Americans on peoplemuch further from home? Themedia has targeted Muslims intheir speculation on who toblame. And the Canadian Mus-lim community’s condemna-tion of the attacks was not aired,yet scenes of a few people cele-brating in East Jerusalem wasplayed repeatedly.Naeem Siddiqi, Toronto.

Thousands of innocent liveshave been destroyed in a horri-fying terrorist attack, perpe-

trated against two of the great-est symbols of Western hege-mony and upon the nation thatrepresents the height andbreadth of capitalism. There isno justification that can exon-erate the people who commit-ted this crime, but I hope thatcalm, rational thought will pre-vail. Let us not fight hate withhate.Colin Anderson, Toronto.

What’s next?With the sincerest regard forthe terrible deaths after theterrorist acts in Washingtonand New York, I am convincedthat the massive tax cuts in theUnited States have lessenedsecurity inside its borders. Iam also convinced demand forthe highest airline profits hasundermined security, makingit very easy for these acts ofwar to succeed. Robert Mosurinjohn,Ottawa.

Terrorists play the numbergames where they are willingto sacrifice one life for thedeath of many. The only lan-guage terrorists understand isthat if they kill 100 people,then the rest of the worldshould kill 1,000 inhabitantsof the country that harboursthese terrorists. The motto tocombat terrorism should notbe an eye for an eye, but onethousand eyes for one eye. Tony Markle, Victoria.

In the Sept. 11 This day in His-tory article in the NationalPost, it was mentioned that itwas on that day in 1922 that aBritish mandate was pro-claimed in Palestine, over theprotests of Arabs. Perhapssomeone else also remem-bered that, in planning the at-tacks that took place yesterday.Steven M. Koning, Bloom-field, Ont.

I pray for all those who losttheir lives and for the familiesand friends who live with theloss. I pray that the violencewill end, and that peace willprevail. Teresa Buonafede, Bramp-ton, Ont.

T H E N A T I O N R E A C T S

The visceral shock of watch-ing the World Trade Centerdemolished by terroristswhile thousands of peoplewere inside will indelibly

mark those who saw it — which is mostof the world. In every time zone, peoplewho were waking and turning on the ra-dio, commuting, arriving at work, head-ing out to lunch, leaving for home, orwatching the evening news on televi-sion, were witnesses to a crime so devas-tating that it will likely change the wayliberal democratic societies organizeand protect themselves for a generationto come.

But before considering what may hap-pen in the future, let us dwell for a mo-ment on the immediate past, on the ter-rible event that engulfed so many inno-cents, on the tens or hundreds of thou-sands of people for whom the attack wasnot just a numbing though mercifullydistant shock, but an immediate tra-gedy. Some 40,000 people worked inthe World Trade Center, and upward of10,000 are thought to have perishedthere. A smaller, though terrible num-ber also died in a parallel attack onWashington. Only a tiny proportion ofthose in the New York twin towers andthe Pentagon were soldiers who might,by a stretch of terrorist logic, be regard-ed as legitimate targets. Rather, theywere secretaries, paralegals, stockbro-kers, bureaucrats, journalists, janitorsand security personnel who rushed totry and rescue them — ordinary, privatepeople with friends and families whoseemotional lives have now been rippedapart.

It is hard to fathom the fact that any-one could rejoice at this, and yet it is so.The terrorist commanders are doubtlesscelebrating, and in the Middle East yes-terday, the enemies of Western civiliza-tion danced in the street and cheeredthe flow of innocent blood, just as theydanced and cheered the murder of Is-raelis in a Jerusalem pizzeria lastmonth. They know that the people theyhave attacked will never sink to theirlevel; if they did, the party-goers inDamascus, and Cairo and Ramallahwould be incinerated. It is scant comfortin the short term, but is sustaining inthe long term, to know that terrorist cel-ebrations are predicated on the fact thatthe democracies they seek to destroy aretheir moral superiors. That superioritymakes it imperative that the UnitedStates and liberal democracies every-where fight terrorism in all its formsand wherever it lurks.

The last time a large aircraft crashedinto a New York City skyscraper was in1945, when a B-25 bomber accidentallyhit the 78th and 79th floors of the Em-pire State Building. That plane is a relic

of an age in which wars were foughtagainst armies, not against office recep-tionists and airline passengers. As for-mer Central Intelligence Agency direc-tor R. James Woolsey said a few yearsback: “Following the Cold War, the U.S.is like the knight who has slain the drag-on, only to find himself among numer-ous poisonous snakes.” It is long sincetime that those snakes were crushed.

U.S. intelligence failed yesterday, butthe CIA, National Security Agencyand others have detailed informationabout where many terrorists are inhiding. And it is obvious to everyoneelse who is harbouring and encourag-ing the killers. Osama bin Laden isprotected by the Taleban in Afghan-istan, and in Palestinian-controlledterritory, Yasser Arafat has a symbiot-ic relationship with bombers who arewaging a war of destruction againstIsrael on his behalf. Mr. Arafat, theTaleban and others who nurture ter-rorists must be punished. Whenkillers and their commanders areidentified, they should be hunteddown and destroyed. But similarly,when foreign governments are discov-ered to be giving aid and succour toterrorists, they too must be hit. Theymust be hit as hard as possible and asoften as necessary to deter them.

When explosions lit the night sky overKabul eight hours after the New Yorkand Washington attacks, it was brieflypresumed the U.S. retaliation had be-gun. That presumption turned out to bemisplaced, but Washington must andwill hit back. Only minutes before theKabul skyline was set ablaze, LawrenceEagleburger, former U.S. secretary ofstate, made the blunt but accurate as-sessment that people were going tohave to be killed in retaliation even ifthose directly responsible are neveridentified. It should not be sufficient de-fence for state sponsors of terrorism tosay that there is no proof of their in-volvement in a particular murder. Ifthey deliberately operate outside hu-mane, international norms and harbourterrorists, they cannot expect to benefitfrom those norms. President George W.Bush promised yesterday that he wouldhunt the killers down. He is right to doso. He should make a start by destroy-ing those who have created and perpet-uated the murderous culture that hasnow brought mass death to the heart ofWestern civilization.

September 11 marks perhaps thegreatest single-day tragedy in the Unit-ed States since the Civil War. It shouldalso mark the end of a contemptible anddebilitating epoch in which some peopleliving in civilized democracies havemade excuses for what has, all along,been inexcusable.

National Post welcomes letters to the editor by mail, fax or e-mail. Please include name, home address and daytime telephone number.We reserve the right to edit, condense or reject letters. 300-1450 Don Mills Road, Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3R5, Canada.

Telephone: (416) 383-2300; fax: (416) 383-2439; e-mail: letters@nationalpost.com

KENNETH WHYTE

MARTIN NEWLANDDEPUTY EDITOR

ALISON UNCLESASSOCIATE EDITOR

MARVIN ZIVITZ

PAUL WALDIENATIONAL EDITOR

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

HUGO GURDONMANAGING EDITOR

DOUGLAS KELLYEXECUTIVE EDITOR

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR

DAVID WALMSLEYPOLITICAL EDITOR

Death inthe morning

NL0912A017X 9/11/01 22:47NL0912A017X

A18 • ~ NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001

The Age of Irony died yester-day. Some events change his-

tory, some change lives. This willchange us. We will be differentpeople from this day; our values,our attitudes, our very personali-ties will change, as happens withsurvivors of disasters. For we areall survivors today, all of us, inevery part of the free world.

The free world: one of thosephrases, relics of the Cold War,that many found hard to say — notwithout a little ironic smirk. Youknow: the “free world.” Those ofus too young to have known theSecond World War, who remem-ber only the ambivalence and con-fusion of Vietnam — or are tooyoung even for that — never reallyunderstood the generation thatfought “the last good war”: theirplodding earnestness, their blindloyalties, their repressed stiff up-per lips. It was all just irresistiblycomic.

In the sunny afternoon of ourown epoch, a time of such peaceand plenty as previous generationscould only dream about, the donething was to cultivate an attitudeof ironic detachment, skeptical ofevery belief, mocking of everyvirtue. To be sure, our age had itsshare of fanatics, full of passionate

intensity. But even these were odd-ly undermined, both by the small-ness of the stakes — Down withMcCulture! — and, as often as not,by their own undergraduate rela-tivism: There Are No Absolutes!

That has all changed, as of yester-day morning. Just as it is not pos-sible to overstate what has hap-pened, neither is it possible toover-react. The horrific attack onthe World Trade Center alonewould see to that. With a com-bined capacity of 40,000 people inits two 110-storey towers, the Cen-ter is a small city: Taking it out isthe nearest thing to dropping anatomic bomb on lower Manhat-tan. The attacks on the Pentagonand, as it seemed was the terror-ists’ intent, on the Capitol onlycompound the impression: PearlHarbour had nothing on this. Thiswas not just an attack on NewYork, or the United States. Thiswas an attack on civilization.

So we are at war, we pamperedBoomers and whining Xers, butwith a clarity of purpose not givento us until now. Our enemies de-

fine themselves by their actions:people who do not flinch at mur-dering 40,000 innocent people atone go, without provocation,without warning. Their cause,whatever it may be, cannot in-clude human life, or humane val-ues. It is dedicated, in fact, to theireradication. As we defend our-selves, then, we are also defendingthose same values: of freedomand democracy, or more broadlyof decency. Of that there can be nodoubt. Not any more.

Americans, it should be said,have always been a little clearerabout this than Canadians. As agreat power, with great responsi-bilities, they bear the burden of liv-ing in the real world, full of real en-emies. We often mock their imper-ial seriousness, their corny patrio-tism. That now will cease, too.

Perhaps, in fact, we will come tobetter understand our parents, andgrandparents — the Greatest Gen-eration, as they are justly called —and to bear ourselves a little as theydid. I suspect we will see some-thing of this in the popular reac-tion to the day’s events. There willbe no maudlin displays, no flowersand teddy bears left for the victims:the tragedy is too enormous, toobracing for that. Neither will therebe any of those tasteless jokes thatsurface after every disaster — ordid, in the Age of Irony.

Rather, I suspect we will re-spond with something our soci-eties might be thought to have inshort supply: mature resolve. Nodoubt there will be anger, evensome panic — not unreasonably,as there is no reason to think thisis the end of it. Whoever did this isas well organized and well fundedas they are depraved. Any planecould be hijacked from any air-port, and rammed into any build-ing — in the United States, or any-where else. And if that possibilitycould be foreclosed, others can-not. As tight as we might make se-curity, it is impossible to defendevery public space against everyconceivable threat.

Yet there is a certain liberation inthat. If there is nowhere to hide,there is no point in hiding. Whenyour back is against the wall, ittends to stiffen the spine. We mustteach ourselves, as Faulknertaught us, that “the basest of allthings is to be afraid.” There will betime enough to debate the politicalramifications of all this, to consultamong the allies, to decide on anappropriate response. But for nowthe fight is on the home front.

New Yorkers have had a taste ofwhat life was like in London dur-ing the Blitz — that shot of the is-land of Manhattan, wreathed insmoke, conjured up the famousphoto of St. Paul’s. So, vicariously,have we, who watched in horror athousand miles away. Very well.Let us have something of the spiritof the Blitz. Let us carry on aboutour business, undeterred.

Let us ride the subways. Let usfill the office towers. Let us gatherin public places, at rallies and cer-emonies of remembrance. Let ussay — let us shout — individuallyand collectively: We stand togeth-er, we the civilized peoples of theworld. And we are not afraid.

And one day soon it is my hope tosee the World Trade Center re-built, exactly as it was: twin towersrising to the skies, symbols of defi-ance, the new Statues of Liberty.

National Post

We arenot afraid

M y late father loved Americans,as I do. I could hear his voice

yesterday, stilled 15 years ago nextmonth, as surely as if he were in thecar beside me.

“Fuck ’em,” he would have said.“Nuke ’em.”

His generation was not beset, asmuch of mine is, with the ambiva-lence engendered by decades of peace.He never had any trouble recognizingthe enemy and he wouldn’t have anynow. Made king of the world, he al-ready would have bombed any nation,and the lair of any group, that hadever done anything to aid or abetOsama bin Laden, the Palestine Lib-eration Organization or any of theother Islamic terrorist groups.

His loyalties were always perfectlyclear: America; Britain; Israel; theEuropean allies; Australia and NewZealand. Because I am my era’s child,as well as his, I rush to add, he em-braced these countries not becausethey were white — they weren’t, eventhen — but because they knew rightand had the courage to act on thatknowledge.

My dad’s faith in the Yanks, as he al-ways called them, would be unwaver-ing today, correctly.

Canadians know Americans as wellas an outsider can, far better thanthose who unleashed the beast yester-day. To borrow from Winston Chur-chill in Britain’s darkest hour, a half-century ago, we have been on theirbeaches, we have flown into their land-ing grounds, we have played in theirfields and on their streets. They are ourfriends, and if as friends do, we havemocked them and caricatured themand been too often too quick to sepa-rate ourselves from them in our ownpained quest for identity, we know thestuff of which they are made.

The people who did this have under-estimated them.

They have looked upon the most af-fluent and overweight people in theworld, seen softness and not under-stood that underneath, there is ironand resolve and unfathomable will.They have seen the startling diversityof race and religion and ethnicity andheard the cacophony of voices in thatremarkable country, and failed tograsp that beneath the heart of everyhyphenated American, there rages theheart of an American, period.

You want the best peacetime pictureof an American, think of any OlympicGames you can remember. Americansare the most feared athletes on Earth,not because they have the best perfor-mance-enhancing drugs (though theymay, now); not because they spend themost money; not because they hire thebest coaches or have the best pro-grams. Americans win, too many timesto count, because they refuse to lose.They thrive on the enormous pressure,especially, and always, before a home-town crowd, or an audience that in-cludes a U.S. president.

Last night, as National Post photog-rapher Chris Bolin and I were drivingto New York City, the first flag at half-mast we passed was on the Queen

Elizabeth Way, not far from Toronto,at a shoe clearance factory. It was aCanadian flag; I wanted to pull off theroad, find the owner, and throw myarms around him.

The first sign for a vigil came in thelittle border town of Lewiston, N.Y., afew minutes after a pair of U.S. cus-toms officers, still with that odd,trusting American-ness, had glancedat our identification and waved usthrough.

The sign was taped to the front win-dow of a gas station.

“Join our prayers for our country,our leaders, those injured or be-reaved by today’s attacks, for the re-sponders who are working to rescue

and bring order,” it read.It was a classic piece of Americana —

open as the typical Yank’s face; full offaith in God; striking exactly the righttone.

I thought of the day before yesterday,before everything changed forever,and the call-in radio show I’d heardwith half an ear. The host was idly de-bating with his listeners the merits ofCanada becoming a part of the UnitedStates. People were phoning in to talkabout the lure of U.S. lucre, and notmuch else.

Yesterday morning — as airplaneswere directed into the buildings of theWorld Trade Center and the Pentagonand a field, as the wail of sirens fromthe city that never sleeps played againand again on television sets and ra-dios and ensured that no one wouldsleep well for days, as the uncountedinnocent were slaughtered — this ef-fectively happened.

In the souls of many of us who con-sider Americans our friends, the dif-ferences between us no longer mat-tered. The time has come, as the oldsaying has it, to stick with the guy thatbrung you.

National Post

Emotionally, I’m flying the U.S. flag

Y esterday’s tragedy representsan act of war against global-

izationandcivilization.Ironically, the attacks will propel

the process of globalization as civi-lized people everywhere now havewitnessed a hideous act of terror-ism that underscores just how vul-nerable and interdependent theworldhasbecome.

Newpowerfulglobal institutionsand initiatives must be forged tocounteract the fact that terroristscanbringtheworld’seconomytoitsknees and can humiliate the mostpowerful military force in history.If these instruments are not creat-

edquickly,moreattackswill followwith the result that targetted na-tions will be forced to undertakeunilateral action with escalatingnegativeconsequencesforall.

It’s too easy to dismiss this as anattack against the United States,which happens to have mademany enemies. What’s most chill-ing is that these terrorists were somurderous and so capable. Theyplanned and executed a complexoffensive that circumvented toughsecurity measures at several air-ports.Theyhijackedfourcommer-cial jets, boarding flights that tookoff within minutes of one another.They used them as flying bombsand chose those headed for westcoast destinations to insure therewas a large amount of fuel on-boardtoenhancethedamage.

They humiliated the U.S. govern-ment by pulling off an attackagainst the most fortified buildingin America — the Pentagon. Afourthhijackedplane,thatditchedin the Pennsylvania countryside,was probably aimed toward theWhite House or Capitol Hill. In amatter of one hour, they drove outofthenation’scapitalthePresident

of the United States, Congress andthe Supreme Court and sent themscurrying to secure bunkers atundisclosedlocations.

Clearly, targets were chosen foroptimal effect. The World TradeCenter towers were the ultimatesymbols of American wealth. ThePentagon, a symbol of American

military might. But theirs was alsoadirectattackagainsttrade,multi-nationals, democracy and free en-terpriseitself.

It was also a slap in the face to-ward civilization and the UnitedNations, currently the world’smost legitimate, and earnest, in-strumentofglobalization.

Because the deed was so pain-stakinglyplanned,thedatechosenhad to be symbolic. Just minutesbefore the first jet slammed intothe World Trade Center, UnitedNations Secretary-General KofiAnnan issued a statement that

September 11 marked the 20th an-niversary of the UN’s Internation-alDayofPeace.“TheInternationalDay of Peace should be a day ofglobal ceasefire and non-violence,”hesaid.

Some day, some peace. An houror so later, the UN’s workforce of12,000 was being evacuated from

itsNewYorkheadquarters.September 11 also marked the

day in 1996 that the man who as-sassinated Israel Premier ItzhakRabin at a Tel Aviv peace rally wasconvicted. It was the date thatChile’s Communist leader Sal-vadore Allende was overthrownand murdered with the help ofWashington’s CIA. It was also onSeptember 11, 1940 that the Ger-mans scored a direct hit on Bri-tain’s ultimate symbol, Bucking-hamPalace.

The crime also underscored theworld’s interdependence. The fi-

nancial fallout everywhere wasdramatic and took mere minutes.Sodidpoliticalreaction.

At 8:45 a.m., when the first high-jacked commercial jet torpedoedthe World Trade Centre in NewYorkCitystock,bondandcurrencymarketswerequiet.AtinyrecoverywasunderwayinEurope. TheU.S.dollar remained strong. At 8:56a.m., Russian stocks were edgingup and Dow Jones reported afirmer U.S. dollar against the Euroin early New York trading “buoyedbyarecoveryinglobalmarkets.”

Early reports were sketchy butwhen another jet hit the secondtower at 9:03 a.m. reaction world-wide was instantaneous. Futuresbegan sinking in value, the U.S.dollar fell and stocks began a freefall before markets were shutdownindefinitely.

By9:26a.m.,LisbonandLondonwere in disarray; Germany suc-cumbed by 9:31 a.m. and Mexicoby9:32a.m.By10:04thefirsttow-er collapsed along with SouthAfrica’s currency. Traders de-scribedmarketsas“chaos”inLatinAmerica and elsewhere. Aroundthistime,teenagersbeganpouringinto the streets of Palestine by thethousands smiling and cheeringthenews.

Then, one by one, most of the

world’s heads of state expressedtheir shock and support for theAmericans in statements to themedia. They closeted themselvesalldaylongwiththeirownsecurityadvisors in order to tighten theirown national security. Then stockexchangesannouncedthattradingwould be halted indefinitely, nottemporarily, and heads of the ma-jor central banks pledged to shoreup the world’s financial system.Federal Reserve Chairman AlanGreenspan was hidden some-where in Switzerland after hisplane, headed home, was sentback.

Now what’s left is shock abroadand essentially martial law southof the border. The airspace hasbeen secured. The Canadian andMexican borders have been sealedandbusinesshasgroundtoavirtu-alhalt.

But there is no place to hide.Globalization is complete. Thereare no borders and the world’seconomies are forever enmeshed.Yesterday, humanity got closerthan ever before in history. NowCanadians and everyone elsemust realize that the enemies ofour friends happen to be our ene-mies too. And do somethingabout it.

National Post

An attack on globalization

SO WE ARE AT WAR, WE

PAMPERED BOOMERS

AND WHINING XERS,

WITH A CLARITY OF

PURPOSE NOT GIVEN

TO US UNTIL NOW

COMMENT

A N D R E W C O Y N E

C H R I S T I E B L A T C H F O R D

D I A N E F R A N C I S

MY DAD’S FAITH IN THE

YANKS, AS HE CALLED

THEM, WOULD BE

UNWAVERING TODAY,

CORRECTLY

TRADERS DESCRIBED MARKETS AS ‘CHAOS’

IN LATIN AMERICA AND ELSEWHERE

NL0912A018C 9/11/01 23:17NL0912A018C

U . S . U N D E R A T T A C K A19NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001 ~

AT TAC K SContinued from Page A1

The death toll from the fourplanes alone — 266 people —eclipsed the 168 deaths in the1995 Oklahoma bombing, theprevious worst terrorist attackin the United States.

John McCain, a senior Repub-lican senator, called the attacks“an act of war.”

“None of us will ever forget thisday,” Mr. Bush said.

The Boston Globe reports thatinvestigators suspect Islamic ex-tremists after finding a copy ofthe Koran, a videotape on how tofly commercial airliners and afuel consumption calculator inluggage that did not make it onto one of the doomed jets thatcrashed into one of the WorldTrade Center towers.

The bags belonged to a manwith an Arabic name who inves-tigators believe was one of thehijackers. He got on AmericanAirlines Flight 11 after flying in-to Boston from Portland, Me.,but his bags missed the connec-tion.

Even as the realization set inthat the world might never bethe same, the airspace overNorth America was closed to allbut essential military traffic.

Flights scheduled to land in theU.S. were diverted to Canada orturned back to the originatingforeign airport.

Air travel is expected to remainhalted until at least noon today,while stepped up vehicle inspec-tions caused huge lineups at theCanada-U.S. border.

A passenger on one hijackedplane called her husband on hercellphone to tell him the flighthad been commandeered bymen armed with knives who hadherded passengers and the flightcrew into the rear of the plane.

Barbara Olson, a former feder-al prosecutor, asked her hus-band: “What do I tell the pilot todo?” Minutes later, the planeripped a gaping hole in one sideof the Pentagon’s stone exterior.

Ms. Olson, the wife of Theodore

Olson, Mr. Bush’s Solicitor-Gen-eral, was aboard American Air-lines Flight 77 that left Dulles In-ternational Airport in Washing-ton and was crashed into the Pen-tagon.

Also among the dead wasCanadian Garnet (Ace) Bailey,the director of pro scouting forthe Los Angeles Kings, who wasa passenger on United AirlinesFlight 175. Mr. Bailey, 53, a na-tive of Lloydminster, Sask., wasa former Edmonton Oilers play-er and scout who was once alinemate of Wayne Gretzky.

The pilot of one of the planesthat crashed into the WorldTrade Center has been identifiedas John Ogonowski.

Apocalyptic scenes were wit-nessed in New York as newschannels showed first one, thenthe second tower of the land-mark New York buildings shud-der and collapse within hours ofthe first attack at 8:45 a.m.

Some of the estimated 40,000workers in the twin towersjumped or fell to their deaths asflames and smoke engulfedthem.

“I saw couples jump holdinghands. I could see their armsand legs flailing.” said David Jer-sey, a waiter in Manhattan.

Just before the buildings col-lapsed, someone who answeredthe phone on the trading floor atinterdealer-broker CantorFitzgerald, located near the topof the Trade Center, said: “We’ref---ing dying!” and hung up.There was screaming and yellingin the background.

The Trade Center towers col-lapsed within a few minutes ofeach other, in a burst of smoke,glass and metal.

“We have entire companiesthat are just missing ... we lostchiefs ... we are going to havebury a lot of people,” said MikeCarter, the vice-president of theNew York firefighters union.

Officials said they believedthere were survivors in build-ings next to the collapsed TradeCenter towers.

Two people have been rescuedfrom the World Trade Center

rubble, Rudolph Giuliani, theNew York Mayor, said late lastnight.

“We have been able to get twopeople out who have been iden-tified as Port Authority police of-ficers,” he said. “I don’t havetheir identities, I don’t have theirconditions.”

Mr. Giuliani also confirmedthat police had received phonecalls from people trapped in thetwin towers.

Mr. Giuliani along with NewYork Police CommissionerBernard Kerik, said emergencyservices were receiving phonecalls from people trapped insidethe remains of the 110-storytwin towers.

A police department sourcetold Reuters the trapped callershave dialed the 911 emergencynumber and were trying to de-scribe to police where they weretrapped.

Mr. Giuliani said the callers arealso saying there are other peo-ple alive nearby them.

Maral Gibbs, a volunteer fire-fighter from Vineland, N.J.,spent more than 10 hours work-ing around the collapsed build-ings and was part of several res-cues, one involving a man whowas trapped in a collapsed sub-way beneath the building.

“There are still a lot of peoplealive in the rubble, but becauseof the risk of collapse and theheat, we can’t get in there andget them,” Mr. Gibbs said. “Youcan hear them yelling, ‘Help me.’You hear people crying, and it’sso frustrating because of the riskthat it’s going to collapse again.”

The collapse of the towers sentweeping New Yorkers streamedthrough the city’s streets to es-cape dust, flying debris and theterrible scenes.

“People were hysterical, saying’We’re going to die,”’ said eyewit-ness Marjorie Olster.

Firefighters struggled late intothe night to control fires aroundthe collapsed buildings, includ-ing a smaller 47-storey towernear the two larger structuresthat collapsed later in the after-noon.

Paramedics waiting to be sentinto the rubble were told that“once the smoke clears, it’s goingto be massive bodies,” said BrianStark, a former U.S. navy para-medic who volunteered to help.

Rescuers were hampered byraging fires and falling debris atthe scene of the flattened TradeCenter, scrambling to get todead and injured victims.

As darkness fell, the army of10,000 searchers brought indogs and lights so that theycould work through the night totry to reach any survivors. Itcould take weeks to dig throughthe rubble for trapped victims.

As the extent of the devastationbecame clear there was criticismof intelligences services for anapparent failure to warn of sucha massive attack.

Sen. Bob Graham, chairman ofthe Senate Intelligence Commit-tee, said there had been warn-ings, but none had anticipatedsuch a catastrophe.

An Arab journalist with accessto bin Laden said yesterday thatthe renegade Saudi had warnedthree weeks ago of an “unprece-dented attack” on U.S. interests.

The attacks left the UnitedStates and the world stunnedand furious, and were widelycompared to the 1941 sneak at-tack on Pearl Harbor that thrustAmerica into the Second WorldWar.

“This is comparable to PearlHarbor and we must have thesame response and the peoplewho did it must have the sameend as the people who attackedPearl Harbor,” said HenryKissinger, the former Secretaryof State.

The attacks set off major secu-rity alerts around the world,grounding commercial flights asfar away as Asia and bringingvirtually all non-military avia-tion in North America to a halt.

U.S. forces everywhere wereput on their highest state of alertand government buildingsaround the country began to beevacuated, including the WhiteHouse.

The Secret Service rushed to

protect top members of the U.S.government. Senior members ofCongress, including the Senatemajority leaders and the speakerof the House of Representatives,were taken to an undisclosed lo-cation, authorities said.

The United Nations was closedas were New York’s subways,tunnels and bridges.

Canadian flights were alsogrounded yesterday and JeanChrétien, the Prime Minister,ordered heightened security andput the military on high alert.

Federal officials said CF-18fighter jets were put “on highalert” and Canada's naval vesselswere ordered to be ready to sailon a moment's notice.

World leaders were unanimousin their condemnations and sup-port for the U.S. GerhardSchroeder, the German Chancel-lor, called the attacks a “declara-tion of war against the civilizedworld.”

“Whoever helps or protectsthese terrorists, violates all thefundamental values which makeit possible for peoples to live to-gether,” Mr. Schroeder told anews conference in his chan-cellery in Berlin, broadcast liveon German television.

An emotional Tony Blair, theBritish Prime Minister,pledged unswerving supportfor the U.S.

“This in not a battle betweenthe United States of Americaand terrorism, but between thefree and democratic world andterrorism,” Mr. Blair said. “We,like them, will not rest until thisevil is driven from our world.”

Ariel Sharon, the Israeli PrimeMinister, put his nation on alertfor further terrorist attacks anddeclared a national day ofmourning in sympathy for thevictims of the New York andWashington attacks.

“I believe that together we candefeat these forces of evil.”

Benjamin Netanyahu, the for-mer Israeli prime minister, sug-gested yesterday was a water-shed for the entire world. “Whathappened in the United States isa turning point in history.”

Even the Taleban, the hardlineIslamic militia which controlsalmost all of Afghanistan, wherebin Laden is based, condemnedthe terrorist attacks and deniedhe was involved.

“It is premature to level allega-tions against a person who is notin a position to carry out such at-tacks,” said Abdul Salam Zaeef,the Taleban’s ambassador toneighbouring Pakistan. “It was awell-organized plan and Osamahas no such facilities.”

Palestinian leader YasserArafat denounced the attacksand two radical Palestinianguerrilla groups also denied in-volvement with the devastatingattacks.

However, thousands of Pales-tinians throughout the Israeli-occupied territories and inLebanon celebrated news of theattacks, shooting rifles into theair and handing out candies tochildren to celebrate.

In Washington, the Council onAmerican-Islamic Relations, aleading U.S. Islamic advocacygroup, called on Muslims acrossthe nation to offer whatever as-sistance they can to help victimsof the attacks, but braced for abacklash. It suggested AmericanMuslims increase securityaround mosques and avoidwearing Islamic attire in publicareas.

“This is indeed the most tragichour in American history,” saidJohn Warner, the Republic Sen-ator on the Armed ServicesCommittee. “It is a series of ter-rorist attacks unprecedented inworld history.”

National PostWith files from Mick Higgins,

Adrian Humphreysand Chris Eby

‘Tragic hour in American history’

‘The terrorist attacks are a declaration of war against the civilized world. Whoeverhelps or protects these terrorists violates all the fundamental values which make it

possible for peoples to live together’ — German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder

D A Y O F T U R M O I L

PETER MORGAN / REUTERS

Terrorists who crashed two jetliners into New York City’s World Trade Center yesterday reduced the towers into a massive pile of rubble. Officials say people trapped in the debris are using cellphones to call for help.

CNN / REUTERS

Barbara Olson

NL0912A019X 9/12/01 0:33NL0912A019X

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U . S . U N D E R A T T A C K

F I N A N C I A L M A R K E T S S H A K E N

RECESSION Continued from Page A1

“It could be tomorrow, it couldbe next week. The financial in-dustry for all intents and purpos-es has been shut down.

“Think of the talent that was inthat building,” he added.

Of the 300 companies in theTSE’s benchmark index, 229 fellyesterday. The only two sectorsgaining were oil and gas stocksand mining companies specializ-ing in such basic metals as gold –a sure sign the market is bracingfor a worldwide political crisis,analysts said.

“Effectively, this is an act of war,like Pearl Harbor,” said DougDavis, president of Davis-Rea In-vestment Counsel in Toronto.

“In a war, the safest investmentsare the things that help you fight,and oil is one of them.”

The price of crude oil surged asmuch as 13% to US$31.05 a bar-rel in London, later pulling backto US$29.06. It was the mostvolatile day for oil since January,1991, when the Gulf War began.

“People are fleeing into some-thing that, if there is a world cri-sis, there will be some kind ofsafety,” said Joe Connolly, direc-tor of trading at Cockfield, Porret-ti and Cunningham InvestmentCounsel in Toronto. “There’snothing you can compare this to... It’s a nightmare.”

Trading in Toronto was stoppedat about 10:30 a.m., but not be-fore the benchmark TSE 300plummeted 295.9 points to7048.8, its lowest point in more

than two years. As shockwaves from yesterday’s

disaster spread across the globe,stock markets in Europe plum-meted. The London and Parisstock exchanges suffered theirbiggest one-day declines since thestock market crash of October,1987.

Fear of a widening conflict ledinvestors to sell the U.S. dollar,instead buying gold and the cur-rencies of nations not directly im-pacted by the disaster. The Cana-dian dollar initially plunged by al-most half a cent against theAmerican dollar, though it laterrecovered and closed off 0.11 centat US63.90 cents.

Gold prices had their biggestgain in two years, rising 5.4% toUS$286.25 an ounce in London.

“It’s all panic right now,” saidBrad Willock, U.S. equity strate-gist at RBC Investments.

“People will pump money intogold and they’ll sell practicallyanything else, in order not to takeany risk.”

Insurance stocks in Europe, in-cluding Alianz AG and Zurich Fi-nancial Services, plunged on con-cern that the attacks may be themost expensive man-made disas-ter ever in the U.S. The WorldTrade Center alone was valued atabout US$1.2-billion.

“The economic outcome of thisis so huge,” Conrad Mattern, afund manager at Deka Invest-ment Management GmbH inFrankfurt, said. “Consumer senti-ment will be hit hard, which maylead to less consumer expendi-ture next month. This will have anegative impact on U.S. growth.”

Around the United States andCanada the dumbfounded invest-ment community focused on thefate of people working in the va-porized skyscrapers.

“I’m sure I’ll have lost somefriends,” said Peter Godsoe, chair-man of the Bank of Nova Scotia.

The world’s second-biggest se-curities dealer, Morgan StanleyDean Witter & Co., was thebiggest tenant in the World TradeCenter, occupying approximately50 floors of office space with3,500 employees.

A company spokesman saidthey had no way of knowing howmany of their employees wereable to get out of the buildingsbefore they collapsed.

Bank of America had 4,000 em-ployees in Manhattan, includingan unspecified number at theWorld Trade Center.

Hundreds of people were em-ployed at Cantor Fitzgerald, oneof the largest traders of U.S. Trea-suries in the world.

The U.S. economy was alreadyin a precarious state before yes-terday, having seen growth stallto 0.2% in the second quarterfrom 1.2% in the first and debateis raging over whether it wouldfall into recession. A recession isgenerally defined as two quartersof negative growth. Much of theworld, including Canada, hasbeen fighting the U.S. drag astheir main export destinationpulls in its horns.

Analysts said the immediate is-

sue would be to keep the financialgears moving and both the U.S.Federal Reserve Board and theBank of Canada moved quickly toassure investors they were openfor business and would provideliquidity to financial markets.

The longer term impact wouldbe hard to judge and dependedon how long it takes for the econ-omy to get moving again, econo-mists said.

“We don’t know how long thatwill last but it’s clearly not goodfor growth,” said DouglasMcWilliams, head of indepen-dent think-tank the Centre forEconomic and Business Researchin London.

The biggest uncertainty will behow investors and consumers re-act.

Paul Ferley, assistant chief econ-omist at Bank of Montreal, said:“Certainly people are devastatedby what has occurred but it may

not be sufficient in terms of indi-viduals retrenching in a dramaticsort of way. Spending and confi-dence numbers will be watchedclosely. We’re in new territoryhere.”

Analysts expect the U.S. FederalReserve and other central banksto cut interest rates in an effort tokeep spending going.

“What will really matter, leavingaside the tragedy of the wholething, is the policy response tocome out of America,” saidMichael Lenhoff, chief portfoliomanager at British fund managerGerrard Ltd. “We’re talking abouta dip in U.S. gross domestic prod-uct that nobody ever thoughtcould have happened.”

Analysts said that if events es-calated into war, they could pro-long the economic difficulties —in the Gulf War oil prices contin-ued to surge — or they couldeventually spur activity and cause

an uptick in growth.Robert Mundell, professor of

economics at Columbia Universi-ty and 1999 winner of the NobelMemorial Prize in Economic Sci-ence, said the U.S. economy couldwithstand the attacks.

“It will have a little effect but nota big effect” on economic growth,he said. “What the governmentdoes may go in the other direc-tion — you’re going to have a newbuilding, and there may be a stepup in military” spending, he said.

When trading finally resumes,most expect stocks to fall, buthow sharply is anyone’s guess.

“They don’t even know who’sdone this,” said Mr. Willock. “So ifnothing happens in the shortterm, the markets may just grindlower, rather than jumping lower.But it’s not going up.”

National Post, with filesfrom Charles Foran and news services

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PETER J. THOMPSON / NATIONAL POST

Stunned Bay Street workers stop to read the latest news about yesterday’s World Trade Center attacks.

Attacks throwworld’s economyinto uncertainty

NL0912A020 9/12/01 0:35NL0912A020

B Y S T E V E N E D WA R D S

NEW YORK • The sheer terror in-flicted by the Nazis’ V1 buzzbombs as they dropped on to Lon-don during the Second World Warwas relived yesterday by thou-sands streaming away from theWorld Trade Center — and memarching toward it.

As the centre’s twin towersblazed from impacts of two hi-jacked airliners, a deafening rum-bling filled the air.

Like the roar of a jet aircraft on arunway as it takes off or lands, itpersisted, growing louder, con-vincing us a third plane was head-ed at the area.

Screams rose up from the crowd.“It’s another attack,” yelled oneperson. Another cried, “Oh myGod, we’re going to be hit again.”

Almost everyone in the crowded,narrow street began running.

Some dodged into building arch-ways. Some tried to get as far awayfrom the World Trade Center aspossible. An old woman struggledto keep her balance with her three-pronged walking stick. We werelittle more than two blocks fromthe towers, but the canyon effect ofthe skyscraper-lined streets madeit impossible to see what was hap-pening only 100 metres away.

No third plane landed, but mil-lions of tons of steel and concretecrashed to the ground as the first ofthe towers collapsed. A dust cloudpowered up the street like anavalanche, devouring all in its path.

We were plunged into total dark-ness, unable to see even a hand infront of the face. The elderlywoman next to me grabbed hold ofmy shirt and begged me to staywith her. Another woman took myhand and asked me to take herhome to Brooklyn, across the riverfrom Manhattan. Voices cried outin the darkness, calling for helpand mercy from the Almighty.

People began coughing as the

dust-filled air entered their lungs."We’re going to choke to death,”

said my elderly friend, who wascalled Edith Zoualy. “Don’t leaveme. I don’t want to die.”

The two women did not knowtheir presence was as much a com-fort to me as mine was to them.We made our way to the sidewalkand felt for the building’s wall.

“We’ll just walk slowly along thewall until we start to see somelight,” I said.

The dust entered our eyes, sting-ing them. Gradually, silhouettes ofother stranded people began toappear. We emerged into a half-light and gazed upon an eeriespectacle of abandoned cars and aline of tour buses for nearby WallStreet, their doors left open.

The tourists had escaped, possi-bly into nearby stores, which hadbecome havens from the horroroutside. We slipped into a phar-macy behind scores of other dust-plastered people, and had bottlesof water thrust into our hands tohelp us clear our clogged lungs.

The floor was flooded as thepharmacy’s staff poured waterover the heads of people arrivingto clear them of the dust. Many in-side were coughing and spitting.Some were crying.

Catherine Wilson, 32, a legal sec-retary who worked near the WorldTrade Center, came with an eyebath so I could see without blink-ing. “I heard the rumbling, and wethought it was another bomb,” shesaid.

Nearby, Roberto Cruz, 42, a hotelworker, sat groaning and pressinga bandage to a gash on his fore-head. “I bumped into something,”he murmured.

A man cried, “He needs a doctor.”But there were only victims. To

drive home the point, a womanscreamed, “There’s someone witha broken leg in the hallway.”

Detective Steven dePaola, hisblue police badge now grey withdust, did what he could to comfortpeople in distress. He told me howand his two partners had seen thefirst tower start to crumble andjust ran. He lost them in the dark-ness and did not know whetherthey made it out alive.

“These people … ,” he said.In a show of solidarity that was to

manifest itself through the disas-ter area and beyond, the pharma-cy’s staff handed out not only wa-ter, but medicine, food, first-aiddressings — “anything peopleneeded to overcome the emer-gency,” said manager Asif Khan.

Half an hour later, people re-turned to the street to head awayfrom the area. By that time, thesecond tower had also collapsed.

Around the World Trade Center,darkness still reigned. The roadand sidewalk were covered inchesthick with dust, as well as page af-ter page of loans forms, phonebills, insurance applications, exec-utive summaries, and all mannerof other documents.

On a normal day, they wouldhave filled the workday of thethousands of people who earned aliving at the World Trade Center.

But this was to be the day of thebiggest terrorist attack on U.S.soil. The streets looked as if theyhad been dressed for a scene inThe Day After, which told of the af-termath of a nuclear attack on theUnited States. The windows ofstores facing the towers weresmashed in. Around the corner on

Broadway, the spire of St. Paul’sChapel protruded defiantly, as hadthe dome of St. Paul’s Cathedralduring the London Blitz.

Through the silence, teams offirefighters and police began to ap-pear. They entered hardwarestores and pulled out masks, shov-els, buckets. “Anything we thinkwe can use,” said Officer JohnKeane.

Reports began to filter throughthat thousands had been trappedand killed when the buildings fell.

“We know there are bodies andsurvivors in there,” said one feder-al official. “But we have to go backin slowly. We have to get otherpeople out of danger as well.”

As more of the dust cleared fromthe air, the skeleton of one of thetowers became visible, a blackstructure that stooped over like anold man who had had the life beat-en out of him.

“It’s hard to think that that wasonce part of two beautiful build-ings,” said Giselle Alicea, 29. “Howmany families will now have to besupported because of what thesepeople have done?”

New rumbles, like aftershocks,sent shudders through people asthe structures toppled. Intermit-

tently, groups were herded out ofbuildings where they had shel-tered and rushed to the limits ofthe disaster area.

“This morning I saw peoplejumping out of the top floors of theWorld Trade Center as they triedto escape the flames,” said a shak-en John Acquavella, 31, a comput-er consultant. “What do you thinkthat does to a person? We livedthis with the first bomb attack onthe World Trade Center almost 10years ago. This city is too danger-ous to live in.”

The day had begun normalenough, with people turning upfor work in downtown Manhattan,the financial centre of the UnitedStates. This is old New York, so thestreets are narrow and winding.There are numerous garden areasaround the World Trade Centerwhere workers eat doughnuts andsip coffee. An untold numberwould have died after being hit byfalling debris that eyewitnessessaid spewed out of the buildingsafter the impacts.

Walking briskly from the area af-ter the first plane hit, Dan, 28, saidhe’d seen an aircraft approachfrom a window of his office.

“It looked like the sort of planethat would take passengers toFlorida,” he said. “I saw it comeround the tip of the island, thendovetail, and head straight for thetower. I saw it impact. Flames flewout 200 feet. In our building, therewas no panic, but everyone left,and I am going to keep walkinguntil I get well away from there.”

Al, a financial analyst, said hiscompany ordered workers to re-main in the building after the firstplane hit. “That impact shook thewindows,” he said. “I could see de-bris flying and that the top of thetower had been blown out. I was inshock. Suddenly I saw someonejump. People were screaming inmy building.” In the second im-pact, “the plane came out ofnowhere, then there was a secondmassive explosion,” Al said. “Stuffwent flying. I decided to get out ofthere.”

Michael Seifer, 29, said the exitfrom his building was blocked by agiant tire from one of the aircraft.“I’m heading for the suburbs. Theydon’t attack the suburbs.”

Just outside the disaster area,New Yorkers lined the streets,watching the parade of people be-ing evacuated. It was as if veteranswere returning from war. Someonlookers offered cups of water;some even opened their homes toanyone who wanted to rest.

“You have to help out in a nation-al crisis,” said Ralph DiToro, whooffered washroom facilities to any-one who needed them. “It’s theleast we can do.”

National Post

A21NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001 ~

‘This morning I saw people jumping out of the top floors of the World Trade Center as they tried to escape the flames. What do you think that does to a person? We lived

this with the first bomb attack almost 10 years ago. This city is too dangerous to live in’

ANDREA MOHIN / THE NEW YORK TIMES

Joseph Sylvester crosses the Brooklyn Bridge to escape the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Mr. Sylvester works across the street from the World Trade Center at the World Financial Center.

U . S . U N D E R A T T A C K

New York’s streetsresembled London’s

during the Blitz

Reliving theSecond World Warin the 21st century

S C E N E S F R O M G R O U N D Z E R O

‘I’M HEADING FOR THE

SUBURBS. THEY DON’T

ATTACK THE SUBURBS’

B Y M I C H A E L H I G G I N S

“Oh my God, we’re going down,”screamed a female flight atten-dent into a cellphone aboardAmerican Airlines Flight 11. Mo-ments later at 8:45 a.m. the jetcrashed into the World TradeCenter.

Another passenger aboard thedoomed United Airlines Flight93, which crashed outside Pitts-burgh, phoned his mother to say:“I love you very much, in case Idon’t see you again.”

Seconds earlier he told her:“We’ve been taken over by threemen that say they have a bomb.”

Mark Bingham, a 31-year-oldCalifornia public relations officialtravelling on the plane — one offour that crashed during a waveof terrorist hijackings — calledfrom the plane’s airphone yester-day morning, his mother AliceHoglan said last night.

Mr. Bingham’s flight was boundfrom Newark, N.J. to San Fran-cisco International Airport whenit was hijacked.

“There was a lot of commotionin the background when hecalled,” recalled Ms. Hoglan.“Lots of voices, but I couldn’tmake them out individually.”

The FBI has been interviewingthe Hoglans at a hotel near SanFrancisco airport.

Yesterday it was revealed theflight attendant and at least fourpassengers had managed tomake a final call to loved ones orauthorities.

The flight attendant on Flight 11was reported to have called hersupervisor from the plane to re-port that “a Middle Eastern-look-ing man” in business class hadstabbed several passengers andflight attendants.

“We are being hijacked,” shesaid, according to a source.

The calls paint a terrifying pic-ture of the terrorists stabbingpassengers and flights attendentsin order to gain control of theplanes.

Passengers and crew were thenherded into the back of the planesas the terrorists are believed tohave taken over the controls.

The hijackings all appeared tofollow the same pattern, accord-ing to the calls.

A businessman aboard a Unit-ed flight that left Boston andcrashed into the World TradeCenter twice called his father ashis plane was being hijacked, alaw enforcement official said.

The official, speaking on condi-tion of anonymity, said the vic-tim’s father was interviewed bythe FBI.

The father indicated his sonmade two calls — both times thephone cut off.

In the first call, the businessmansaid a flight attendant had beenstabbed.

In the second call, the son saidhis plane was “going down.”

Another man aboard Flight 93was reported to have locked him-self in a toilet and called an emer-gency dispatcher, according toCNN.

He said: “We are being hi-jacked.” The plane “was goingdown,” the man said.

It was reported the caller, be-lieved to be on board the flight,reported an explosion and sawwhite smoke in the cabin beforethe line went dead.

Glenn Cramer, a dispatcher inWestmoreland County, Pa., saidthe distress call was made at 9:58a.m. Mr. Cramer said the manstressed that the call was not ahoax.

On board American AirlinesFlight 77 that left Dulles Inter-national Airport in Washingtonand was forced to crash into thePentagon, was Barbara Olson,the wife of Solicitor GeneralTheodore Olson who called herhusband as the hijacking wasoccurring. “We’re being hi-jacked,” she said. “What should Itell the pilots to do?”

In a second quick call, Ms. Ol-son said two hijackers, armedwith knives and a box cutter, hadherded most of the 58 passen-gers, the four flight attendantsand a pilot into the back of theplane, her husband said in an in-terview.

He said she did not describe theattackers, but clearly referred tothere being more than one ofthem.

“She called from the plane whileit was being hijacked. I wish itwasn’t so but it is,” he said.

National Post, with files fromThe Associated Pres

‘I love you very much,in case I don’t see you again’

Frantic calls made on board flights

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NL0912A022X (R/O) 9/11/01 23:56NL0912A022X (R/O)

B Y B E L L A E N G L I S H A N D

T H O M A N FA R R A G H E R

B O S T O N • Kenneth A. Angell,the Roman Catholic bishop ofVermont, held a Mass at noon yes-terday to pray for the people whohad been killed on the planes in-volved in yesterday’s tragedies.Within hours, he learned hisbrother and his sister-in-law wereamong them.

The tragedy sliced painfullythrough New England, where thetwo flights headed for New Yorkoriginated.

Bishop Angell’s brother, DavidAngell, 54 — a native of West Bar-rington, R.I., and a long-timeNBC producer who played a lead-ing role in creating Frasier,Wings and Cheers — was on hisway to Los Angeles with his wife,Lynn, when they were killed.

Canadian Garnet “Ace” Bailey,the director of pro scouting forthe NHL’s Los Angeles Kings,died in the attack. He won twoStanley Cups with the BostonBruins and was a former line-mate of Wayne Gretzky’s in Ed-monton.

A mother of two from Worces-ter, Mass., who was an infrequentflyer who fretted about leavingher children behind, also died.

“She was very into being a mom,”said John Creamer, who kissedhis wife, Tara, goodbye before

dawn as she headed for Logan air-port and her flight to Los Angeles.The couple have two children:Colin, 4, and Nora, 1. “She wasjust a kind and loving wife andmother. And she was everythingto me and my children.”

Jim Ogonowski, the youngbrother of John Ogonowski, thepilot on American Airlines Flight11, struggled to absorb the enor-mity of the events that claimedhis brother’s life.

“I think I’m in shock,” he said. “Ikeep looking at the cornfield be-hind me, hoping my brothercomes walking on out.”

Two airliners, one from Ameri-can Airlines, the other United, leftBoston for Los Angeles with morethan 150 on board.

As the echoes of what authori-ties called the deadliest act of ter-rorism in U.S. history reverberat-ed around the globe, the awfulnews of death in the family wasdelivered more simply:

A telephone call from a relative.A knock on the door. An an-guished glance at a travel itinerary.

“My brother-in-law calledAmerican’s special number andwas on hold forever,” said ChristieCoombs, 40, who was planning tocelebrate her 17th wedding an-niversary with her husband, Jef-frey, later this month. “First theysaid [Jeffrey] wasn’t on the list —that he missed his flight. But thenthey came back and said, yes, hewas on the plane.”

Like many passengers, Mr.Coombs, 42, was a businessman,a manager for Compaq Computerwho travelled to stock exchangesaround the world. His three chil-

dren — Meagan, 10, Julia, 7, andMatt, 12 — returned home fromschool yesterday and ran up thefront lawn, and cried, hoping forthe news to be wrong.

“His birthday is next Tuesdayand mine is Saturday,” his widowsaid. “Some birthday present —burying my husband.”

Daniel “Danny” M. Lewin, awell-known businessman ofBoston’s “new economy,” was on abusiness trip — and on AmericanFlight 11 — as well.

A math guru, entrepreneur, andPhD candidate at MIT, the 31-year-old was a founder of Akamai Tech-nologies Inc. in Cambridge. Hewas a husband and father of twoyoung boys, and once served as asoldier in Israel’s Defence Forces.

“He was one of the most extra-ordinary and brilliant people Iever met,” said Paul Sagan, presi-dent of Akamai, a company thatmakes the Internet work fasterfor stock markets, entertainmentgiants and news organizations.

Alexander Filipov, father ofDavid Filipov, the Boston Globe’sMoscow bureau chief, was onFlight 11, but he was not sup-posed to be. Alexander Filipovhad a ticket for a Delta flight, buthe changed it at the last minute.

“It was one of those last-secondswitches. Usually you hear aboutthe switch the other way,” DavidFilipov said from Moscow.

Alexander Filipov, 70, was anelectrical engineer by trade andwas on his way to a businessmeeting with the company withwhom he worked as a consultant.

If Alexander Filipov was on thefatal flight by chance, Thelma

Cuccinello boarded her flight bydesign. Her daughter, CherylO’Brien, is a travel agent who lastmonth found her mother a gooddeal on a fare to Los Angeles. Ms.Cuccinello, 71, was headed for avisit with her sister and brother-in-law in San Luis Obispo, Calif..Her discount voucher expired atmonth’s end.

“Don’t forget to call me so I canpick you up at the airport,” CherylO’Brien told her mom before sheleft. Then she kissed her mother,told her she loved her and saidgoodbye.

“It’s funny, I watched Okla-homa City and I saw those peo-ple’s faces and I sat there andcried for their families,” she said.“I can’t believe they picked thisday to do this, and that Iwatched that crash. And I didn’tknow. I can’t believe this hap-pened. I still feel like I’m goingto wake up at any minute and it

will have been a bad dream.”Also among the victims is Mark

Bavis, 32, a scout for the Los Ange-les Kings hockey team. Mr. Bavisplayed on three championshipteams for Catholic Memorial HighSchool and played for four yearson Boston University’s hockeyteam. Mr. Bavis also ran summerhockey camps for local youth.

Mr. Bavis, who had a twinbrother, was the youngest of eightsiblings. The family has sufferedthrough tragedy before, havinglost a brother 15 years ago andtheir father 10 years ago, saidPatrick Bavis, Mark’s brother.

“You think you’re through itenough, and then it just hits youagain,” Patrick Bavis said. “The kidwas at the prime of his life. Every-thing was going well for him. Hewas just such a happy kid.”

At least two dozen relatives andfriends of the Boston passengersstreamed into the Logan Hilton

yesterday, seeking news about thevictims and support from priests,ministers, and Red Cross and Sal-vation Army volunteers.

“It’s horrible,” one volunteersaid. “You just want to cry, you’reso upset. And they’re in shock. It’sjust unbelievable that this wouldhappen in the United States.”

As Americans searched theheavens for answers — about3,500 people attended a vigil atMemorial Church off HarvardYard late yesterday afternoon —families of the victims sought asolace of their own.

“You know, it hasn’t even hit menow,” said John Creamer. “Tofathom what has happened toTara and me and our families andall the other poor families whoare going through what we’re go-ing through. My prayers are withthose families, too. This is just atragic waste of life.”

The Boston Globe

U . S . U N D E R A T T A C K A23NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001 ~

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T H E V I C T I M S

‘I can’t believe they picked this day to do this, and that I watched that crash. And I didn’t know. I can’t believe this happened. I still feel I’m going to wake up at any

minute and it will have been a bad dream’ — Cheryl O’Brien, who lost her mother

‘I think I’m in shock,’says brother of

pilot on Flight 11

Former NHLer, TVproduceramong those aboard jets

Garnet “Ace” Bailey, left, a former player for the NHL’s Boston Bruins, and John Ogonowski, the pilot onAmerican Airlines Flight 11, were among those who lost their lives in yesterday’s attacks.

DAVID BROW / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NL0912A023X 9/12/01 0:27NL0912A023X

B Y S I O B H A N R O B E R T S

Only days ago, the structural en-gineer who in built the WorldTrade Center boasted that he’ddesigned it to withstand the im-pact of a plane.

“I designed it for a 707 to smashinto it,” said Les Robertson, whotogether with John Skilling com-mandeered the structural feat oferecting the world’s tallest build-ing in 1970.

That was Mr. Robertson’s re-sponse last week to an off-the-cuff question at a conference ontall buildings in Frankfurt. Hewas asked what he had done to

protect the twin towers from ter-rorist attacks.

After the 1993 attempt to fellthe towers with a bomb, Mr.Robertson had similar confi-dence in the structural integrityof his design.

Mr. Robertson, who has workedon three of the five tallest build-ings in the world, said, “If youwent in with a hacksaw and tookout columns, the building wouldstill be standing.”

But yesterday the twin towersimploded, leaving structural en-gineers confounded.

Ron Klemencic, president ofSkilling, Ward, Magnusson andBershire (the structural engineer-

ing company that in 1970, thenunder Skilling and Robertson,built the towers) watched thefootage several times yesterday.

“I’m speculating,” he said, “butwhat we are imagining is that theairplanes damaged and probablydestroyed a number of the perime-ter columns and weakened theperimeter of the buildings.”

The structural design of theWorld Trade towers was uniquein that all the vertical load-bearing columns were on theperimeter, with none in the cen-tre as with conventional design,leaving an acre of floor space foropen-concept office layout oneach of the 110 storeys.

“Or because the building didstand for more than an hour afterthe impact, it wasn’t so much theinitial impact but the ensuing fire.As steel heats up it loses itsstrength. The fire had burned longenough and hot enough that thesteel likely was damaged to thepoint that it gave way,” he said.

“What happens then, in technicalterms, is a progressive collapse —in other words, a domino effect,”Mr. Klemencic said. “If you watchthe tape carefully you’ll notice thatthe top of the building includingthe antenna fell down straight fora long time.”

Roger Nicolet, a structural engi-neer at the Montreal firm thatbuilt the CN Tower, speculated onthe terrorists’ strategies.

“They were obviously hopefulthat they would provoke immedi-ate structural damage,” Mr. Nico-let said. “They tried to knock offcritical supporting elements likethe corner columns. I suspectthat within their ability to pilot ordirect the aircraft, they tried tohit as low as possible. The lowerthey hit the more effective itwould have been, with the weightof above floors accumulatingdownward and cutting off circu-lation to the top. But it took anhour and a half before the dam-age fully materialized.”

Ned Baldwin, the architect whodesigned the CN Tower, comment-

ed from New York on whethersuch a collapse could be avoided.

“Nobody would ever anticipatethis sort of destruction,” Mr. Bald-win said. “We design for windloads and natural phenomenon,not for this.”

Nevertheless, when Mr. Bald-win designed the CN Tower, heconducted studies on whetherthe proposed tower could with-stand the impact of a DC-8 jet.

“The result was an 8-foot by 10-foot diameter hole. We felt thatthe integrity of the tower wouldnot suffer and that it would be re-pairable damage. When I firstsaw the pictures here in NewYork, I thought, ‘We know bloodywell that that structure is dam-aged irreparably.’ ”

The World Trade Center had notbeen intended to be such a struc-turally precarious masterpiece. Itsarchitect, Minoru Yamasaki, de-signed it for 80 to 90 storeys. Onlylater was it decided to increase theheight to make the towers theworld’s tallest buildings, a sugges-tion said to have originated withthe Port Authority.

“It takes a certain kind of insani-ty to tell an architect, ‘Build 10million square feet of office spaceon 16 acres and then shove asmany people as you can into it,’ ”said Eric Darton, author of Di-vided We Stand: A Biography ofNew York’s World Trade Center,published last year. He noted thecomplex was built to be out ofscale with other buildings in thesouth end of Manhattan, so they“would still stick out like two gi-gantic sore thumbs,” he said.

Mr. Barton, who watched the ru-ins smolder yesterday from hisManhattan apartment, said he hasmixed feelings about the towers.

“For me the only thing worsethan the World Trade Center, wasthe World Trade Center gettingblown up.”

National Post, with files fromJakob Von Baeyer, Benjamin

Errett and the Chicago Tribune

U . S . U N D E R A T T A C K A24 NATIONAL POST, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2001

Towers designed tosurvive plane’s impact

T H E S T R U C T U R E

‘NOBODY WOULD EVER

ANTICIPATE THIS SORT

OF DESTRUCTION’

‘What we are imagining is that the airplanes damaged and probably destroyed a number of the perimeter columns and weakened

the perimeter of the buildings’ — Ron Klemencic

PORT AUTHORITY OF NEW YORK

The World Trade Center’s twin 110-storey towers were constructed to “stick out like two giant sore thumbs.’’

NL0912A024X (R/O) 9/12/01 0:07NL0912A024X (R/O)