Posted on 09/12/2006 7:42:11 AM PDT by goalinestan
Just before sunset on Sept. 11, 2001, the worst day America has known, I snuck past police barricades and made my way to the roof of a high-rise building about eight blocks from ground zero - the closest I could get - and stared at the landscape of horror.
Smoke shrouded the 16-acre site. Twisted metal columns jutted from an enormous crater, all of it blanketed in white ash. The only flecks of color came from the yellow stripes on the coats of rescue workers.
Finally away from deadlines, it was supposed to be my moment to grieve. But I just stood there, my mind racing. Why did this happen?
It wasn't until 9 days later, on my day off, that I let pent- up emotions flow.
Images flashed in my mind. Dazed New Yorkers walking aimlessly, carrying photographs of missing loved ones. The woman with streaks of mascara on her face who told me her fiancé would be found. Groups of strangers standing around a TV propped on milk cartons on the sidewalk, shrieking in unison as they watched a replay of planes crashing into the towers.
On the first days, we thought survivors would be plucked out of the rubble alive. Throngs of reporters from all over the world stood outside hospital ER entrances, waiting for the miracle stories we all desperately wanted to hear.
We waited in vain. The miracles families prayed for never came.
People say 9-11 is the day America lost its innocence. To me, it was the beginning of a wake-up call. Terrorism was a problem over there. But this, the first major attack of civilians on U.S. soil, prompted us to start asking questions.
Why, indeed, did this happen?
For many of us, it sparked the beginning of our education on the collusion between government and multinational corporations.
On the surface it seemed that the federal government, under both the Clinton and Bush administrations, was asleep at the wheel - very much the way the Bush administration was when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans.
Bush claimed we'd bring back Osama bin Laden "dead or alive."
But the more we learn about the ties between the Bush family and the bin Ladens, questions like this one pop up: Did Bush really want to capture him?
With fewer than 50 ground troops surrounding the massive Tora Bora region in the mountains of Afghanistan
where bin Laden was hiding, ground commanders pleaded for 800 more soldiers, according to Gary Berntsen, the CIA field commander whose book "Jawbreaker" goes into amazing detail about the botched paramilitary operation. Bernt- sen and other ground commanders said the U.S. let Osama bin Laden get away.
Was this because of President George Bush's close ties to the bin Laden family?
In 1978, Bush and Osama bin Laden's brother, Salem bin Laden, founded Arbusto Energy, an oil company based in Texas.
Several bin Laden family members invested millions in The Carlyle Group, a private global equity firm based in Washington, DC. The company's senior advisor was Bush's father, former President George H.W. Bush. After news of the bin Laden-Bush connection became public, the elder Bush stepped down from Carlyle.
Interestingly, on Sept. 11, 2001, members of the Carlyle Group - including Bush senior, and his former secretary of state, James Baker - were meeting at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C., along with Shafiq bin Laden, another one of Osama bin Laden's brothers.
While all flights were halted following the terrorist attacks, there was one exception made: The White House authorized planes to pick up 140 Saudi nationals, including 24 members of the bin Laden family, living in various cities in the U.S. to bring them back to Saudi Arabia, where they would be safe. They were never interrogated.
Five years later, and we're still asking questions. We may have lost our innocence but we're also losing, thankfully, our ignorance.
A New Managing Director at Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm managing more than $10 billion, said today that it had hired Robert Grady, a former Robertson, Stephens investment banker, as a managing director in venture capital.
Carlyle is expanding its staff as it prepares to raise its second United States venture capital fund later this year, probably raising $750 million to $1 billion. Its first fund, Carlyle Venture Partners I, was $250 million, which included $40 million from the billionaire George Soros.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E6DB1F30F93BA15757C0A9669C8B63
Excellent! Would love to know if you get a response.
International financier George Soros invested $100 million in them [Carlyle Group],
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/linkscopy/CarlyleGroup.html
I'll post back if I do get a response but you know how liberals are with facts! They AVOID THEM! So I do not expect a response.
Thanks! You may be surprised. I have written to her before about her stance on illegal aliens (LET THEM ALL IN AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE BECAUSE WE SHOULDN'T HAVE DISCRIMINATORY LAWS ABOUT THIS ANYWAY) and she has responded. She's a complete hack and a moonbat, but you may be surprised.
I wrote her as well, so we'll see. Just didn't want it to go without a response and I never cease to be impressed with the research and rebuttal ability of those on FreeRepublic.
These people are great at seeing secret conspiracies. Its the ones that are right out in the open they can't see.
Here is her response (italics) and my original message (at the end) to her:
yes, soros was involved. so were many dems. a former clinton admin worker helped found it.
my point isn't about rep v. dems. this is about greed and the very rich making billions off of the war on terror. and greed knows no political boundaries.
______________________________ Cindy Rodríguez Columnist The Denver Post 101 W. Colfax Avenue, Suite 600 Denver, CO 80202 303-954-1211 crodriguez@denverpost.com To read previous columns, click here --> www.denverpost.com/rodriguez Cindy's blog is coming in two weeks!
Dear Cindy,
Maybe you should have just kept your editorial to a remembrance of the families who lost loved ones on September 11th, 2001.
Your lack of facts in your "Bush, bin Laden ties" piece is staggering to say the least. Do you have an editor there? Might want to get one, or someone who can do more than 5 minutes of fact checking.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E6DB1F30F93BA15757C0A9669C8B63
A little background on who's involved with the Carlyle Group...hmmm, George Soros...where have I heard that name before? And please note the date on the article from the New York Times (no doubt your favorite publication in the world).
And, dig into the 9/11 commission report a bit...I think you'll find that President Bush was cleared of any wrong doing regarding Saudi Nationals being allowed to leave the U.S.
Please stick to the facts when you write. I would at least help you to LOOK smarter than you seem to be.
Yep, I got a reply too! In the first sentence she is talking about the 9/11 Report that I showed her that says no Saudis were flown out during the grounded period. She says it isn't true so I wrote back and asked her to show proof that it wasn't true and I provided a link the 9/11 Report that shows that it is true that no Saudis flew out. She hasn't written back.
The second paragraph is her response to George Soros belonging to the Carlyle Group. I told her Soros profits from the Ira War and gives money to MoveOn.org but it seemed to matter very little that conflict of interest of MoveOn.org's.
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I'm sorry, Thomas, but what you pasted below is not true.
As for Soros, you are absolutely right. There were many democrats involved in the carlyle group. this is about greed at the highest levels. but bush sr.'s involvement gave it the ultimate credibility... soros is the president of the us.
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I'll give her (a small amount) of credit for responding, but she's ridiculous. Liberals and facts...just don't go well together.
Yeah she did respond to her credit! But her her rebuttal "it's just not true" is so typical liberal! "It's not true because I say it's not true!" LOL!
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