20 Years after 9/11 came about so fast. A lot of changes have happened in the world socially, technologically, politically, and economically over the span of two decades. One thing remains the same. It is that we believe in the same commitment to human justice for all. Still, after 20 years, I still believe in black liberation, in environmental justice, in voting rights, in economic justice, and in social justice. 9/11 started a new era of the 21st century that we still live in currently. Constantly, I contemplate about 9/11 a great deal. The vicious attacks on 9/11 were one of the most horrendous attacks on Americans in American history when almost 3,000 human beings (of many colors, creeds, sexes, and backgrounds) were unjustly murdered by terrorists. The pain of the victims' families is unfathomable. To this very day, the victims of 9/11 and their families continuously fight for health aide given to those who ingested the smoke from the debris. To this day, many heroic activists have endorsed the protections of our civil liberties and our democratic institutions. The irony is that now in 2021, the biggest terrorist threat domestically are not terrorists who claim to be Muslims (but they are not), but the biggest domestic threat are white racist nationalists who seek to destroy America. The terrorist insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 document that reality. 9/11 harmed human beings in three states during the morning of Tuesday on September 11, 2001. After 20 years, we know more of truth. Since that time, the haters of truth try to intimidate those who want independent investigations and further research. I don't believe in the view of these haters. The First Amendment dictates the freedom of speech, and there is no shame to expose the fact that the neo-conservatives exploited the evil events of 9/11 as an excuse for them to establish a war in Iraq and permit certain imperial policies in the War on Terror. It is right to condemn Osama bin Laden as an evil, disgraceful person who used terrorism against innocent human life. He lived wickedly, and he deserves no sympathy. On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda affiliated hijackers flew two Boeing 767 jets into the World Trade Centers. The hijackers used a plane to hit the Pentagon, and heroes stopped the hijackers from sending one plane into the U.S. Capitol. That plane was crashed in Pennsylvania. Also, it is important to be clear about the evil committed by Western imperialism too from secret torture centers to the cruel acts at Abu Ghraib. I still remember when the former Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency during the George W. Bush administration and former Governor Christine Whitman said that the air in New York City was safe to breathe immediately after 9/11. She was wrong. Investigations about 9/11 have existed. We know that many Westerner corporate interests were overt in trying to gain oil, gas, water, and mineral resources in the Middle East and Asia as a means for them to compete against Russian including Chinese geo-political hegemonic powerbases. We know about the warnings of terrorist attacks in American soil before 9/11 existed (as documented by mainstream news reports). The wild thing now is that some want to rehabilitate the bad legacy of the George W. Bush administration, because of the huge failures of the previous Trump administration. The reality is that the George W. Bush Presidency promoted torture memos, made a terrible response to Hurricane Katrina, advanced a NSA warrantlesss wiretap program, and caused the Iraq War (which ended in sectarian violence and divisions that hasn't stabilize Iraq in great measure. It is only recently when Iraq is in a better state than during the initial aftermath of the invasion of Iraq). So, Bush-era policies aren't things that should be greatly glorified. We know about the FBI agents trying to reveal to the public about these warnings before 9/11. Back then and today, multinational corporations, NGOs, and other organizations have huge international power. After 9/11, controversial anti-democratic laws existed like the Patriot Act and the USA Military Commissions Act. Therefore the truth about 9/11 is very real. The truth is that 9/11 was a product of many terrorists, and 9/11 was used by the Western imperialists to permit wars for control over the world's resources. We will never forget 9/11, because it was a traumatic event that taught us that unjust violence is evil. while joining a cause for justice via constructive means makes sense.
The World Trade Center was originally created by 1973, and it exists today in 2021 in a completely different format. The World Trade Center is made up of a complex of building in Lower Manhattan at New York City. The original 7 buildings were destroyed during the September 11 attacks. Today in 2021, the World Trade Center complex is rebuilt with 6 new skyscrapers. Four of them have been completed. There is a memorial and a museum to those who were murdered in the attacks. The elevated Liberty Park is adjacent to the site having the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and Vehicular Security Center; and a transportation hub. People know of the new 104 story One World Trade Center building, and the One World Trade Center is the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. The new complex includes One World Trade Center, 3 World Trade Center, 4 World Trade Center, 7 World Trade Center, and one other high-rise office building being planned at 2 World Trade Center.
The original World Trade Center was opened on April 4, 1973. The old complex had the the Marriott World Trade Center (3 WTC), as well as 4 WTC, 5 WTC, 6 WTC, and 7 WTC. Construction of the first World Trade Center started in August 6, 1968 after the groundbreaking ceremony took place on August 5, 1966. The complex contained 13,400,000 square feet (1,240,000 m2) of office space. The core complex was built between 1966 and 1975, at a cost of $400 million (equivalent to $2.27 billion in 2018). During its existence, the World Trade Center experienced several major incidents, including a fire on February 13, 1975, a bombing on February 26, 1993, and a bank robbery on January 14, 1998. In 1998, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey decided to privatize it by leasing the buildings to a private company to manage. It awarded the lease to Silverstein Properties in July 2001. The World Trade Center was first proposed in 1943. The New York State Legislature passed a bill to authorize New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey to start developing plans for the projects. Plans were stopped in 1949. Later, David Rockefeller wanted the Port Authority to build a World Trade Center to promote urban renewal in Midtown, Manhattan. On September 20, 1962, the Port Authority announced the selection of Minoru Yamasaki as lead architect and Emery Roth & Sons as associate architects. Yamasaki devised the plan to incorporate twin towers. His original plan called for the towers to be 80 stories tall, but to meet the Port Authority's requirement for 10,000,000 square feet (930,000 m2) of office space, the buildings would each have to be 110 stories tall. Yamasaki's design for the World Trade Center, unveiled to the public on January 18, 1964, called for a square plan approximately 208 feet (63 m) in dimension on each side.
The architect Yamasaki wanted narrow office windows and elements of Arabic architecture in the construction of the building. The structural engineering firm Worthington, Skilling, Helle & Jackson worked to implement Yamasaki's design, developing the framed-tube structural system used in the twin towers. The core of the towers housed the elevator and utility shafts, restrooms, three stairwells, and other support spaces. The core of each tower was a rectangular area 87 by 135 feet (27 by 41 m) and contained 47 steel columns running from the bedrock to the top of the tower. The large, column-free space between the perimeter and core was bridged by prefabricated floor trusses. The floors supported their own weight as well as live loads, providing lateral stability to the exterior walls and distributing wind loads among the exterior walls. The floors consisted of 4-inch (10 cm) thick lightweight concrete slabs laid on a fluted steel deck. A grid of lightweight bridging trusses and main trusses supported the floors. The trusses connected to the perimeter at alternate columns and were on 6 foot 8 inch (2.03 m) centers. The top chords of the trusses were bolted to seats welded to the spandrels on the exterior side and a channel welded to the core columns on the interior side. The floors were connected to the perimeter spandrel plates with viscoelastic dampers that helped reduce the amount of sway felt by building occupants. By March 1965, the Port Authority started acquiring property at the World Trade Center site. The World Trade Center 1 and 2 were controversial, because of the location and other reasons. Many businesses, industrial tenants, and property openly didn't like re-location. The original World Trade Center housed more than 430 companies. On a weekday, about 50,000 people worked in the complex along with 140,000 people being visitors. It had its own zipcode and had 13,400,000 square feet.
The new World Trade Center existed years after 2001. After years of delay and controversy, reconstruction at the World Trade Center site started. The new complex includes One World Trade Center, 3 World Trade Center, 4 World Trade Center, 7 World Trade Center, and one other high-rise office building being planned at 2 World Trade Center. The new World Trade Center complex also includes a museum and memorial, and a transportation hub building that is similar in size to Grand Central Terminal. In 2006, the Port Authority took over One World Trade Center's ownership from Silverstein Properties. 7 World Trade Center opened on May 23, 2006, making it the first of five skyscrapers to have been completed in the World Trade Center complex. In May 2006, architects Richard Rogers and Fumihiko Maki were announced as the architects for 3 and 4 WTC, respectively. The final designs for 2, 3, and 4 WTC were unveiled on September 7, 2006. 4 World Trade Center, the first building completed as part of the site's master plan, opened on November 12, 2013. The National September 11 Memorial opened on September 11, 2011, while the Museum opened on May 21, 2014. One World Trade Center was opened on November 3, 2014. The World Trade Center Transportation Hub opened to the public on March 4, 2016, and 3 World Trade Center opened on June 11, 2018. 2 World Trade Center's full construction was placed on hold in 2009, with a new design announced in 2015. The Freedom Tower was designed to be 1,368 feet (417 m) tall, the height of the original World Trade Center north tower, and its spire rises to the symbolic height of 1,776 feet (541 m), a reference to the year in which the United States Declaration of Independence was signed. Today, many stories are in the World Trade Center area, and a transportation hub does exist in the vicinity too.
The first Bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 is key in understanding 9/11. The events of the past relate to the present and future. This major terrorist attack took place on February 26, 1993. I was in the fourth grade of elementary school when it happened. I remembered it before. The bomb was a 1,336 pound urea nitrate-hydrogen gas enhanced device. The people involved in the evil action wanted both Twin Towers to all. It failed. 6 people were murdered and more than 1,000 people were injured in the blast. The attack was planned by a group of terrorists including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal A. Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin, and Ahmed Ajaj. They received financing from Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, Yousef's uncle. In March 1994, four men were convicted of carrying out the bombing: Abouhalima, Ajaj, Ayyay, and Salameh. The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property, and interstate transportation of explosives. In November 1997, two more were convicted: Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind behind the bombings, and Eyad Ismoil, who drove the truck carrying the bomb. Ramzi Yousef was born in Kuwait, and he spent time in an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Khalid Sheikh Muhammad Ali gave Yousef advice and tips over the phone. He funded the co-conspirator Mohammed Salameh with a US$660 wire transfer. Yousef came into America illegally on September 1, 1992. Yousef would live in Jersey City, New Jersey, and he traveled around New York plus New Jersey. Yousef assembled the gas enhanced device to deliver it to the WTC. As early as 1991, Ramzi Yousef spent time at an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan to plan a bombing attack within the United States.
On Friday, February 26, 1993, Ramzi Yousef and a Jordanian friend, Eyad Ismoil, drove a yellow Ryder van into Lower Manhattan, and pulled into the public parking garage beneath the World Trade Center around noon. They parked on the underground B-2 level. Yousef ignited the 20-foot fuse, and fled. Twelve minutes later, at 12:17:37 pm, the bomb exploded in the underground garage, generating an estimated pressure of 150,000 psi. The bomb exploded in the basement. The World Trade Center’s main electrical power line was knocked out. Smoke rose up to the 93rd floor of both towers. 6 people died in the blast along with over 1,000 people being injured. In the course of the trial it was revealed that the FBI had an informant, a former Egyptian army officer named Emad Salem. Salem claims to have informed the FBI of the plot to build a bomb that would eventually be used in the World Trade Center towers as early as February 6, 1992. Salem's role as informant allowed the FBI to quickly pinpoint the conspirators out of hundreds of possible suspects. The transcripts do not make clear the extent to which Federal Authorities knew that there was a plan to bomb the World Trade Center, merely that a bombing of some sort was being discussed. Salem said that the FBI plan was for Salem to give the conspirators with a harmless powder instead of an actual explosive. The FBI allowed him to do other actions. Also, the Salem secretly recorded hundreds of hours of telephone conversations with his FBI handlers. So, the FBI knew about such terrorism. It is no secret that the FBI has been involved in dubious conduct for decades from illegal spying to other actions.
A granite memorial fountain honoring the victims of the bombing was designed by Elyn Zimmerman and dedicated in 1995 on Austin J. Tobin Plaza, directly above the site of the explosion. It contained the names of the six adults who were killed in the attack as well as an inscription.
There is no question that there are business connections between the Bush and Bin Laden families. Osama bin Laden’s brother was Salem. English papers had shown a photograph from 1971 that showed Osama when he was 14 and Salem when he was 19. They were in a summer holiday at the Astoria Hotel in Falun, Sweden. So, the bin Laden family is a very wealthy family. According to the Daily Mail’s Peter Allen, “…Salem went on to become a business partner of the man who is leading the hunt for his brother… In the 1970s, he and George W. Bush were founders of the Arbusto Energy oil company in Mr. Bush's home state of Texas." During the 1970’s, the Bush and bin Laden family worked together a lot. Salem was the head of the bin Laden family business by 1977. George W. Bush set up his start up oil company called Arbusto Energy, Inc. and Salem invested in Bush’s Arbusto Energy, Inc. "Arbusto" actually means "shrub" in Spanish, but the Bush family interpreted it as "bush." Salem dealt with the construction industry. Many sources have said that James R. Bath used to send money to Salem bin Laden to set up George W. Bush in the oil business according to the Wall Street Journal and other sources. Salem met with a tragedy when he died in a flying accident near San Antonio in 1988. Salem was a close friend of Saudi King Fahd. Arbusto later became Bush Exploration, when Bush's father became vice president. As the company neared financial collapse in September 1984, it was merged with Spectrum 7 Energy Corp. in an effort to stay afloat. During the 1980’s, the controversial BCCI banking institution grew as well.
The BCCI was the Bank of Credit and Commercial International. It was a crooked offshore bank that the CIA used to run guns to Hussein, finance Osama bin Laden, move money in the illegal Iran-Contra operation, and carry out other secret agency “ops.” BCCI was created in 1972 by a Pakistani banker, Agha Hasan Abedi, with the support of Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan, ruler of Abu Dhabi and head of the United Arab Emirates. Its corporate strategy was money laundering. It became the banker for drug and arms traffickers, corrupt officials, financial fraudsters, dictators and terrorists. The CIA used BCCI Islamabad and other branches in Pakistan to funnel some of the two billion dollars that Washington sent to Osama bin Laden's Mujahadeen to help fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. It moved the cash the Pakistani military and government officials skimmed from U.S. aid to the Mujahadeen. It also moved money as required by the Saudi intelligence services.
The BCCI was so corrupt that it ended in 1991. The Washington Post reported that the Carlyle Group (which supported investments globally) met at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington, D.C. on the day of 9/11. In that meeting were former President George H. W. Bush, James Baker, and Shafiq bin Laden or the brother of Osama bin Laden. Shafig bin Laden is an investor. George H. W. Bush would make many speeches years ago on behalf of the Carlyle Group. No commercial planes, including chartered flights, were permitted to fly into, out of, or within the United States until Sept. 13, 2001. After the air space reopened, six chartered flights with 142 people, mostly Saudi Arabian nationals, departed from the United States between Sept. 14 and 24. One flight, the so-called bin Ladin flight, departed the United States on Sept. 20 with 26 passengers, most of them relatives of Osama Bin Laden. This is further documented in the article entitled, "Bush ties to bin Laden haunt grim anniversary" written by Cindy Rodriguez from the Denver Post (on September 11, 2006). The Bin Laden family liquidated its holdings in Carlyle's funds in October 2001, just after the September 11 attacks, when the connection of their family name to the Carlyle Group's name became impolitic.
In the beginning, music spread massively. The genesis of all human life came from black people in Africa. Every paternal and maternal haplogroup came from Africa. Religious songs were commonplace among humanity for thousands of years. Since human beings existed first in Africa, music was very much a widespread aspect of human expression. Flutes existed well beyond the time of the Middle Ages during the days of B.C. There was a song written in cuneiform in about 3,400 years ago from Ugarit in Syria. Ancient Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, and the Americas including Oceania had music all over the atmosphere. In ancient West Africa, there has been a multi-rhythmic sounds that influenced many musical styles in the Americas. The first black Africans in America (during the modern era of human history) came about in the 1500's. Then, black people were in Jamestown by 1619 from Angola. The African usage of the call and response, improvisation, polyrhythms, and precussive parts influenced heavily the modern development of gospel music (as documented by the art historian Robert Farris Thompson in his book entitled, "African Art in Motion: Icon and Act, Art").
Gospel music has a lot of origins. There is the Yale University music professor named Willie Ruff. He said that the singing of psalms in Scottish Gaelic by Presbyterians of the Scottish Hebrides evolved from "lining out"—where one person sang a solo and others followed—into the call and response of gospel music of the American South. Another theory notes foundations in the works of Dr. Isaac Watts and others. Dr. Watts (1674-1748) was a hymnist and theologian. He was born in England. He wrote over 750 hymns. His songs were so popular among African Americans that our people referred to him as "an old Dr. Watts." The Great Awakening took place in the 1730's. To learn about religion in America, always study the Great Awakening. It was a religious revival in North America where some people wanted to convert Africans to Christianity. It didn't work greatly. The reason was that many Africans saw the hypocrisy of faux religious people claiming to be for freedom, but these hypocrites enslaved human beings in the Americas. The actions of these evil enslavers are not representative of every Christian or believer in God. So, I want to make that clear. That is why black people in America used music as a means to promote liberation while recognizing the power of God. As others know, many Africans in America were Muslims, animists, and people of other religious beliefs.
Much repetition existed during the time where gospel music evolved to where it is today. Perhaps the most famous gospel-based hymns were composed in the 1760s and 1770s by English writers John Newton ("Amazing Grace") and Augustus Toplady ("Rock of Ages"), members of the Anglican Church. Starting out as lyrics only, it took decades for standardized tunes to be added to them. Although not directly connected with African-American gospel music, they were adopted by African-Americans as well as white Americans, and Newton's connection with the abolition movement provided cross-fertilization. In 1780, there was John Wesley’s A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodist is published. Songs such as “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood” and “Father I Stretch My Hands to Thee” quickly become standards of the African American sacred music tradition. After the African Methodist Episcopal Church was formed by black people in 1787, gospel music grew. By the 1800's, many African American gospel music used spirituals, shouts, lined hymns, and anthems.
Gospel music spread heavily during the 19th century. From churches to other places, gospel music was widespread. African Americans were always one large anchor of gospel music since the start of the American nation plus before. During the 19th century, spirituals was very popular in the black community. Many spirituals merged Christian beliefs with the music traditions of Africa. Drums, banjos, and other instruments were used by black people in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many songs from black Americans wanted freedom and used the story of enslaved Israelites as motivation for them to desire an end to oppression. The land of Canaan in the Bible was used as a motif in spirituals to seek out an end to slavery. Gospel spirituals focused on black joy, black pain, and hopes for a better future. Tons of black people escaped slavery to live in the North and in Canada to seek a much better life beyond tyranny. After the U.S. Civil War, legalized slavery was banned in 1865 via the 13th Amendment. Black people saw Reconstruction, then Jim Crow apartheid.
The Gospel song appeared in 1874 when Philip Bliss released a songbook entitled Gospel Songs. A Choice Collection of Hymns and Tunes. Gospel spread by people involving in using a new style to show church hymns. Dwight L. Moody had a revival movement that helped to spread musical expression. The revival movement employed popular singers and song leaders, the most famous of them being Ira D. Sankey. The original modern-day "gospel" songs were written and composed by authors such as George F. Root, Philip Bliss, Charles H. Gabriel, William Howard Doane, and Fanny Crosby. As an extension to his initial publication Gospel Songs, Philip Bliss, in collaboration with Ira D. Sankey issued no's. 1 to 6 of Gospel Hymns in 1875. Sankey and Bliss's collection can be found in many libraries today. The popularity of revival singers and the openness of rural churches to this type of music (in spite of its initial use in city revivals) led to the late 19th and early 20th century establishment of gospel music publishing houses such as those of Homer Rodeheaver, E. O. Excell, Charlie Tillman, and Charles Tindley. These publishers were in the market for large quantities of new music, providing an outlet for the creative work of many songwriters and composers.
One of the greatest, innovative gospel singers were called The Fisk Jubilee Singers. They were inspired by the spirituals. They set up to get money to help save Fisk University (a HBCU) from closure in 1871. They raised over $150,000 from America and Europe to save Fisk University. Fisk University was a Nashville school that former slaves opened in 1866. In fact, many HBCUs were created during the Reconstruction era of American history. The Fisk Jubilee Singers were made up of a group of 14 men and women students. Later, this gospel group toured the world. They used choir vocals that became a huge sound of black American music power. The Jubilee Singers were later made up of a tight, four part harmony that inspired future generations of gospel legends.
During the early 1900's, churches, colleges, social clubs, and factories had their own Jubilee Quartets. In 1901, songwriter and religious leader Charles Albert Tindley begins publishing songs in Philadelphia. Classic compositions by Tindley include “Stand By Me,” “We’ll Understand it Better By and By,” and “Some Day (Beams of Heaven).” Mondern Pentecostalism came from the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles from 1906. The music expanded the shouts of songs which was key in developing modern day gospel music. Modern day gospel was influenced by the shouts. The shouts are spiritual experiences that many African Americans have been involved to. Many of these experiences have religious followers claiming to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. A lot of people don't know that early gospel music was not beloved by all people. Many denominations were so extreme that they viewed using drums as part of the devil. There were honky tonks and juke joints back then with graphic lyrics. That is true. Yet, legitimate music praising God is not evil.
The advent of radio in the 1920s greatly increased the audience for gospel music, and James D. Vaughan used radio as an integral part of his business model, which also included traveling quartets to publicize the gospel music books he published several times a year. Virgil O. Stamps and Jesse R. Baxter studied Vaughan's business model and by the late 1920s were running heavy competition for Vaughan. The 1920s also saw the marketing of gospel records by groups such as the Carter Family. In essence, the gospel music was popular along with blues, ragtime, and early jazz. The songs of gospel artists like Arizona Dranes, Blind Willie Johnson, and Washington Phillips were fresh and raw. Some called this music as gospel blues and holy blues. In 1921, the National Baptist Convention published the songbook Gospel Pearls, the first hymnal from a major African American denomination to include selections of the new music that would become known as gospel.
The Pentecostal movement quickly made inroads with churches not attuned to the more conservative, traditional Black church music that had become popular over the years since Emancipation. These congregations readily adopted and contributed to the gospel music publications of the early 20th century. Sister Rosetta Tharpe, pioneer of rock and roll, soon emerged from this tradition as the first great gospel recording artist. Rosetta Tharpe played the guitar very powerfully. The first person to introduce ragtime to gospel (and the first to play piano on a gospel recording) was Arizona Dranes.
In 1931, Theodore Frye and Thomas A. Dorsey create the first gospel chorus. Sister Rosetta Tharpe scores the first million-selling gospel record with the hit single “This Train.” Tharpe was the dominant gospel music performer of the late 1930’s and 1940’s, mixing soulful guitar licks and big band accompaniment with sacred lyrics.
The 1930s saw the rise of Black gospel quartets such as the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi and the Five Blind Boys of Alabama. In addition to these high-profile quartets, there were many Black gospel musicians performing in the 1920s and 30s, usually playing the guitar and singing in the streets of Southern cities. In the 1930s, in Chicago, Thomas A. Dorsey turned to gospel music, establishing a publishing house. It has been said that 1930 was the year traditional black gospel music began, as the National Baptist Convention first publicly endorsed the music at its 1930 meeting. Dorsey was responsible for developing the musical careers of many African-American artists, such as Mahalia Jackson (best-known for her rendition of his "Precious Lord, Take My Hand"). Thomas Andrew Dorsey composed songs like Peace in the Valley, Highway to Heaven, Search Me Lord, Old Ship of Zion, Precious Lord, Hide Me in Thy Bosom, and over 1,000 songs. He was probably the most influential gospel songwriter of his time. Dorsey worked with singer and businesswoman Sallie Martin to create the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses.
Meanwhile, radio continued to develop an audience for gospel music, a fact that was commemorated in Albert E. Brumley's 1937 song, "Turn Your Radio On" (which is still being published in gospel song books). (In 1972, a recording of "Turn Your Radio On" by the Lewis Family was nominated for Gospel Song of the Year). By the 1940's to the 1970's, gospel music would be dominated by Mahalia Jackson and other artists who combined the old school songs with new school flavor. Gospel music in the modern sense developed by the later era of Mahalia Jackson.
By Timothy
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