Vatican II was one of the most important events in religious history. It changed the Roman Catholic Church forever. It has been called The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican. It was the twenty first and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. This meeting was in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican II from October 11, 1962, to December 1965. The two popes who presided over Vatican II were Pope Jon XXIII and Pope Paul VI. The Vatican II conference didn't compromise too much from Vatican documents. It promoted a renewal of Catholic life and discipline, had liturgical reform, promoted ecumenism, and dealt with the modern world. The part of ecumenism called Unitatis redintegratio (or the Restoration of Unity) made it very clear that they want all Christian denominations to be controlled by the Vatican. Its opening words of this decree were "The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council." Therefore, the Vatican wants all of Christendom to be under the unity of the Vicar of Christ or the Pope. On the other hand, real believers in God must be unity with God alone. Pope John Paul II decades later built on the teaching of unitatis Redintegratio in his encyclical letter of May 25, 1995 called Ut unum sint. Vatican II had four constitutions and nine decrees. The Vatican II event deals with ecclesiology, and the Church's approach to religious freedom. There were controversies of the Council among Protestants and Baptists who viewed it as promoting the heresies of Catholicism. Many traditionalist Catholics disagreed with the Vatican II conference as going too far in compromising in their minds and the traditionalists sought a more hardline approach to Catholic theology. The schematic Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) was founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who is against the Vatican II's decrees. Lefebvre was excommunicated from the Vatican in 1988 after consecrating bishops without papal approval. Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications of the surviving bishops consecrated by Lefebvre, while stating the SSPX had no canonical status in the Church (and its ministers didn't exercise legitimate ministry). As of 2026, the SSPX in its entirety has been excommunicated.
The group called sedevantists believe that the Vatican has been vacant since the death of Pius XII or John XXII, while sedpreivationists hold that later popes are materially but not formally popes. The degree of Digitatis humanae (Of the Dignity of the Human Person) related to religious freedom issues. It spells out the church's support for the protection of religious liberty via a vote of 2,308 to 70. It was significant and promoted by Pope Paul VI on December 7, 1965. This was opposed by many traditionalist Catholics. The Vatican II's views dealt with the evolving world around all of us, but they didn't reject its core doctrines. The Roman Catholicism affirms the head of the church being the Pope, centralized power of the Vatican, the Roman priesthood being celibate by force, sacramentalism, veneration of Mary and the saints, and other false doctrines. The Vatican II Council was an official Catholic doctrinal convocation lasting more than three years and attended by more than 2,400 Roman Catholic bishops. Vatican II believes that the mass is a re-sacrificed, that Christ is present physically and spiritually in the Mass, and the mass's wafer Host must be adored in communion. This is heresy as Communism is symbolic to celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Vatican II is clear that they believe that the Catholic Church alone is where all Christians must get salvation through. Obviously, I don't subscribe to this view. Vatican II believes in the old heresy that Mary is the co-redemptress and intercessor. The Bible is clear that the only mediator between human beings and God is Jesus Christ. So, the Vatican II council have minor changes in some views, but the core doctrines of Roman Catholicism remain very firm.
Building and infrastructure are made up of two main categories being substructure (items made below ground) and super structures (buildings made above ground). They have to have a combination of structural elements, utilities (or building services), and civil works to allow infrastructure to be safe, functional, and connected. There are three major groups of essential components of building and infrastructure. One part is called the structural components (or the skeleton). The skeleton has the foundation (or the lowest load bearing element that transfers the weight of the structure into the soil), columns and beams (or vertical columns supporting the weight from above, while horizontal beams connect them to support the floors and roof), slabs and floors (or flat, horizontal surfaces that act as ceilings, floors, or the foundation for the next level), and walls (or vertical structures that divide rooms, provide security, and support the roof. It can be called partitions or load bearing walls). The 2nd part of infrastructure is the architectural and finishing elements (with the shell and interior). This part has the DPC (or damp proof course being a waterproof layer typically found above the foundation to prevent ground moisture from seeping into the walls), doors and windows (giving access, natural light, and ventilation), staircases plus elevators (or vertical transportation systems connecting different levels), and finishes (or paint, plaster, ceiling tiles, and flooring that give the building its final, aesthetic appearance). The third part deals with utility services like the mechanical/HVAC (dealing with heating, ventilation, and air coordinating systems), pluming and sanitation, electrical and telecom (with power grids, lighting, internet connectivity, and broadband access), and fire and safety (with fire detection, suppression, systems, and emergency exits). The overall point that deals with the broader picture is that true infrastructure is filled with transportation, unities and energy, and water and waste (made up of infrastructure).
The 9/11 Truth Movement remains one of the most controversial social movements in human history. It still is very much powerful in modern day society. To the mainstream corporate media, 9/11 Truth is seen as persona non-grata. In the corporate media, the 9/11 Truth movement has been dismissed and disregarded as lunatic fringe and ought not to be given any serious discussion. Many mainstream newspapers, television hosts, and journalist castigate everyone in the 9/11 Truth movement as extremists without any nuance. We have to reject unnecessary hysteria and view any form of dissent as wrong. In our generation, we should evaluate the 9/11 truth from a fair appraisal. Since we are living in the 25th year anniversary of 9/11, we have to evaluate this movement conclusively for historical and research purposes. Now, the 9/11 truth movement is very diverse in their members. Yet, they are unified in believing in the premise that the official story of 9/11 is false. The official story of the September of the September 11 attacks that a group of Al-Qaeda terrorists had hijacked four airliners and crashed them into the Pentagon and the original World Trade Center Twin Towers (without any governmental knowledge), which consequently collapsed. The 9/11 truth movement rejects the major findings of the 9/11 Commission and the official National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reports, such as the collapse of 7 World Trade Center. They are divided into many categories. One group believes overtly that the Bush administration or other government/corporate entities engineered the September 11th attacks themselves. Another faction of 9/11 truth believe that the U.S. government had foreknowledge and intentionally allowed the 9/11 attacks to exist. Another group believes that the government covered up the 9/11 attacks for various nefarious purposes. All of these factions are mostly unified in opposing the war on terror, opposing the Patriot Act including the USA Military Commissions Act, and desiring to see social changes in the world. 9/11 Truth members have been made up of people from across the political spectrum like liberals, conservatives, and libertarians. They have promoted their messages via new media platforms like online social networks, blogs, documentaries, podcasts, etc. In 2004, John Buchanan ran for president on a 9/11 truth platform. Jeff Boss ran in the 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 US presidential elections on platforms promoting the movement. Many desire an independent investigation into the attacks of the September 11 attacks. By June and July 2001, William Cooper and Alex Jones claimed that the US government planned terror attacks that would be blamed on Osama bin Laden. Both began broadcasting the "controlled demolition" conspiracy theory on the day of the 9/11 attacks. Alex Jones is compromised now, and he has been one of the major voices of the 9/11 Truth movement. Other members are Michael Ruppert, Barrie Zwicker, Charles Brisard, Andreas von Bulow, and other people. President George W. Bush has publicly criticized 9/11 Truth as promoting "outrageous conspiracy theories." A major percentage of 9/11 Truth believe that the Twin Towers and Building Number Seven collapsed by a controlled demolition like Steven E. Jones in his 2006 paper, "Why Indeed the WTC Buildings Completely Collapse?" Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth is an organization of architectural and engineering professional who agree with Steven E. Jones. Critics of the 9/11 Truth movement include Matt Tabbi of Rolling Stone, MIT professor Thomas W Eagar, and other people.
My contention or belief is that I agree with the 9/11 Truth Movement on some issues and not on others. Ironically, the 9/11 Truth Movement has did some good in getting more people interested in researching the war on terror, promoting human freedom, and questioning authority. They have done a great job in organizing people to promote human civil liberties and peace in the world. We all know about the imperfections found in the Patriot Act and in the USA Military Commissions Act. We know of the high level of surveillance technology in the world that came after 9/11 too including the excessive actions of ICE in communities nationwide. Many 9/11 Truth members unfortunately have promoted overt hoaxes that only advance falsehoods and not the truth. There are two major factions of the 9/11 Truth Movement. One faction is made up of sincere human beings who try to document information. They want serious research to be presented to the public. The other faction of this movement is made up of people who advance disinformation, falsehoods (like the myth that no plane hit the Pentagon which only distracts from real issues), and don't advance serious, documented information.
Back in March of 2004, the 9/11 Truth movement members met in March 2004 at the International inquiry into 9/11 being held at San Francisco, California. There is the intersectionality of 9/11 Truth members working in peace, environmental, and anti-imperialist movements too. It is not unusual to find that governments throughout human history organize terror to advance fear and control over the people. For example, Operation Gleiwitz was done by the Nazis in order to provoke the Nazi Germany invasion of Poland. We know about Operation Northwoods when some in the government wanted to bomb places in America to provoke an invasion of Cuba. President John F. Kennedy rejected that plan outright. We know about President LBJ exploiting the Gulf of Tonkin situation to advance the Vietnam War in another level. Operation Ajax was when British and American intelligence used a false flag operation to overthrow a democratically elected leader Muhammad Mossadeq from power in Iran (so, Western forces can get the oil resources in Iran. The Shah was installed, and the Shah was a dictator in Iran for decades). Operation Gladio was involved by NATO. Many 9/11 related questions still remain. By the end of this prose, you will know where I agree and disagree with 9/11 Truth. We know that just before 9/11, George W. Bush was ready to sign papers to involved the U.S. in Afghanistan (as sited by the British Jane's International Security magazine, the magazine of India Reacts from June 26, 2001, and from an article from Julian Boger as cited in The Guardian). Also, many of the same folks who claim to be against governmental corruption are allied with the far-right movements of extremists (and excuse neoliberal capitalism).
Some far right extremists even falsely equate neoliberalism with socialism when socialists defended labor rights, civil rights, and human rights for decades and centuries. Some of the fake "patriots" even equate any kind of government intervention with communists. These folks are the paleoconservative, anti-governmental individuals who dismiss any health care programs and have a fetish of gun rights (there is nothing wrong with an innocent person owning a gun, but criminals should never own a gun. A gun is a tool not a god). In our time, we have many of these paleoconservative, info-entertainers who want to sell products and are multimillionaires at the expense of promoting paranoia, xenophobia, nativism, and other evils. We know which info-entertainer that I'm talking about. He's from Austin, Texas. His name is Alex Jones. On February 12, 2016, Alex Jones praised Barry Goldwater. Goldwater was the man who disgracefully opposed the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and didn’t rule out using nuclear weapons in Vietnam. His friend was General Curtis LeMay (he executed firebombing of even Japanese civilians during World War II) who tried to provoke war with the Russians during the 1950’s and the 1960’s. Alex Jones is silent on the American Security Council, the World Anti-Communist League, the Council for National Policy, the Western Goals Foundation, and Le Cercle. Alex Jones is also the friend of the notorious racist and sexist Ted Nugent. Birds of a feather do flock together.
It is true that many political elites have done evil against many people and the Third World people, but I reject anti-progressive lies that are meant to advance xenophobia, sexism, and racism. Now, it is very important to expose government corruption. We know that the oligarchy has done illegal actions. I have noticed that these paleaoconservatives only attack the so-called “liberal” Eastern Establishment. They never attack the conservative establishment groups like the Council for National Policy, the American Security Council, Le Cercle, the Pilgrim Society, the John Birch Society, etc. because many of these groups have links to the far-right movements that they endorse. One leading Skulls & Bones author is Kris Millegan. He published the works of Sutton, Iserbyt, and others. His father is Lloyd Millegan, who was a ranking OSS, Army G2, and CIA officer. Lloyd Millegan Sr. was acquainted with John Foster Dulles from a very young age. A few years later Millegan, Sr. was recruited into the OSS and kept tabs on the notoriously reactionary and stubborn General Douglas MacArthur as one of the general's staffers. A full decade later, in 1956, years before the massive American troop involvement in the Vietnam War broke out, he was partying with General Edward Lansdale and even a few North Vietnamese leaders in Saigon. The common lie and myth was that JFK started American military involvement in the Vietnam War. The truth is that Eisenhower had military advisors in Vietnam long before JFK was President. Dulles, along with his brother, later belonged to the Pilgrim Society. MacArthur and Lansdale were favorites of the American Security Council. Even author Alexandra Robbins was a member of the Scroll & Key.
Gordon Duff is senior editor of Veterans Today, has promoted the missile into the Pentagon myth. Dick Eastman is not only a person who believes in the lie that no 757 hit the Pentagon. He is an evil anti-Semite who believes in the slander of Holocaust denial. Jewish people, Roma people, black people, Slavic people, etc. died in the Holocaust by the murderous actions of the evil Nazis. I’m glad that the Allied forces defeated the Nazis by 1945. Many of the disinformation agents are racist Holocaust deniers like Ryan Dawson. Dr. Richard Falk is a CFR member, a proponent of the no plane hit the Pentagon myth, and he was a vocal support of the radical Ayatollah Khomeini back in the day. The CNP have members with links Oliver North and Jack Abramoff. The son of CNP board member Elsa Prince, Erik Prince, later founded and chaired Total Intelligence Solutions and Blackwater USA (with links to the Knights of Malta), the private CIA and Bush White House nexus of the JSOC assassination programs in the post 9/11 world. The CNP or the Council of National Policy is like the conservative version of the CFR where conservative leaders unite to promote their political philosophies. Blackwater later changed its name to Academi, with the new chairman being a long-time key shareholder in Coast to Coast AM. Top-level neocon, former CIA director and known CNP speaker James Woolsey chairs the advisory board of Executive Action, LLC, a firm named after the CIA's term for assassination. Also, these palaeconservatives who talk about conservativism readily believe in unrestrained corporate fascism by opposing any kind of involvement of the state in the market. Some want a ban on taxes and a powerless government. There is a huge difference between moderate socialism and communism. Even socialism is a reality in the world, and some aspects of socialism has helped many people. The corporations that treat its personnel the worst - the lowest wages, the least amount of benefits, the longest hours, the harshest spy and enforcement measures against unionists, etc. are abysmally unjust. Even the good parts of FDR's New Deal program (with similar programs appearing in Western Europe) had progressive parts to it. The New Deal established a minimum wage, a maximum number of working hours, abolished child labor, provided pensions, and set up watchdog agencies for banks and corporations. To a large extent it ended the age of the robber barons and is one of the cornerstones of the modern social democracy. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with exposing real conspiracies, yet we must use accurate information and inspiration to call for justice too. The official story is accurate to mention that many Islamist extremists wanted to attack America, and these extremists did attack America. Yet, it ignores how that anger is a product of U.S. and Western intervention in the Middle East. Also, the official story definitely ignores how governments have exploited terrorist attacks for their own aims of expanding the power of the oligarchy. The official story ignores how U.S. allies provided specific warnings about terrorist threats to America. Many FBI agents who tried to stop the attacks were blocked by headquarters. That was obstruction not incompetence. The official story ignores the CIA’s “plane into building exercise” and NORAD war games (which were conducted by Western forces) during that morning. Around noon on 9/11, air traffic controllers who handled some of the hijacked flights made a recording recalling their experiences of the events from a few hours earlier. The tape was later destroyed by an unidentified FAA supervisor without any transcripts taken. These men were involving in having great influences in the entire WTC complex from leasing to security or involvement in the Western establishment. They are Peter G. Peterson, David Rockefeller, and Maurice Greenberg. Peterson was part of the Blackstone Group, he was a member of the Pilgrim Society, and he visited the Cercle group too. Sir Ronald Grierson was a long-time advisory board cochairman of the group. David Rockefeller, Maurice Greenberg, and Henry Kissinger are friends of each other and part of the political establishment. Many of these people have links to the Trilateral Commission and the Pilgrim Society. Blackstone is headquartered at 345 Park Avenue in Manhattan, New York City, with eight additional offices in the United States, as well as offices in London, Paris, Dusseldorf, Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai, Madrid, Mumbai, and Dubai. The 9/11 Truth Movement correctly says that there was a deliberate conspiracy (by the neo-cons and other political establishment figures) to use the attacks as an excuse to promote the war on terror, an invasion in Middle Eastern and Central Asian nations, and for the West to get resources throughout the Earth. The 9/11 Truth movement is right that the 9/11 Commission is a complete whitewash of the facts. Some 9/11 truth people unfortunately mix true conclusions with myths and falsehoods (like the no plane hit the Pentagon myth, only explosives alone caused the Twin Towers to fall, and the pod myth). So, the 9/11 Truth Movement has been praised, reviled, and slandered. One thing is true. The 9/11 Truth Movement is here to stay. The 9/11 Truth movement has been courageous to show their views whether people agree with them or not. I agree with 9/11 Truth on some issues and not on others. I want to make that point known.
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a prelude to the September 11th attacks. It took place on February 26, 1993, when I was in the fourth grade of elementary school. I remembered the bombing just like yesterday. On that date, Ramzi Yousef and associates carried out a van bomb terrorist attack below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,336-pound (606 kg) urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device was intended to make the North Tower collapse onto the South Tower, taking down both skyscrapers and killing tens of thousands of people. While it failed to do so, it was successful in killing six people, and caused over a thousand injuries. About 50,000 people were evacuated from the buildings that day. The attack was planned by a group of terrorists including Yousef, Ahmed Ajaj, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammed A. Salameh, Eyad Ismoil, Nidal Ayyad, and Abdul Rahman Yasin. In March 1994, four men were convicted of carrying out the bombing: Ajaj, Abouhalima, Ayyad, 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 organizer behind the bombings, and Eyad Ismoil, who drove the van carrying the bomb. Emad Salem, an FBI informant and a key witness in the trial of Yousef, Abdul Hakim Murad, and Wali Khan Amin Shah, stated that the bomb itself was built under supervision from the FBI. During his time as an FBI informant, Salem recorded hours of telephone conversations with his FBI handlers. In tapes made after the bombing, Salem alleged that an unnamed FBI supervisor declined to move forward on a plan that would have used a "phony powder" to fool the conspirators into believing that they were working with genuine explosives.
Yousef arrived illegally in the United States on September 1, 1992, traveling with Ahmed Ajaj from Pakistan, though both sat apart on the flight and acted as though they were traveling separately. Ajaj tried to enter using a forged Swedish passport, though it had been altered and thus raised suspicions among Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) officials at John F. Kennedy International Airport. When officials put Ajaj through secondary inspection, they discovered bomb-making instructions and other materials in his luggage, and arrested him. The name Abu Barra, an alias of Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, appeared in the manuals. Yousef entered on a false Iraqi passport claiming political asylum, and was given a hearing date. Yousef set up residence in Jersey City, New Jersey, traveled around New York and New Jersey and called Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, a controversial blind Muslim cleric, via cell phone. After being introduced to his co-conspirators by Abdel Rahman at the latter's Al-Farooq Mosque in Brooklyn, Yousef began assembling the 1,500-pound (680 kg) urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device for delivery to the WTC. He ordered chemicals from his hospital room when he had been injured in a car crash – one of three accidents caused by Salameh in late 1992 and early in 1993.
El Sayyid Nosair, one of the blind sheikh's men, was arrested in 1991 for the murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane. According to prosecutors, "the Red" Mahmud Abouhalima, also convicted in the bombing, told Wadih el Hage to buy the .357 caliber revolver used by Nosair in the Kahane shooting. In the initial court case in NYS Criminal Court, Nosair was acquitted of murder but convicted of gun charges (in a related and follow-up case in Federal Court, he was convicted). Dozens of Arabic bomb-making manuals and documents related to terrorist plots were found in Nosair's New Jersey apartment, with manuals from Army Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, secret memos linked to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and 1,440 rounds of ammunition. According to the transcript of his trial, Yousef hoped that his explosion would topple Tower 1 which would fall into Tower 2, killing the occupants of both buildings, which he estimated to be about 250,000 people in revenge for U.S. support for Israel against Palestine. According to journalist Steve Coll, Yousef mailed letters to various New York newspapers just before the attack, in which he claimed he belonged to "Liberation Army, Fifth Battalion." These letters made three demands: an end to all US aid to Israel, an end to US diplomatic relations with Israel, and a pledge by the United States to end interference "with any of the Middle East countries' interior affairs." He stated that the attack on the World Trade Center would be merely the first of such attacks if his demands were not met. Yousef did not make any religious justification for the bombing. When asked about his religious views, he was evasive. The attack took place after noon. Ramzi Youself worked with his Jordanian friend Eyad Ismoil to use a yellow Ford Econoline Ryder van to attack the World Trade Center. They parked on the underground B-2 level. Yousef ignited the 20-foot (6.1 m) fuse, and fled. Twelve minutes later, at 12:18 p.m., the bomb exploded in the underground garage, generating an estimated pressure of 150,000 pounds per square inch (1.0 GPa). The bomb opened a 100-foot-wide (30 m) hole through four sublevels of concrete. The detonation velocity of this bomb was about 15,000 feet per second (10,000 mph; 4.6 km/s) The bomb instantly cut off the World Trade Center's main electrical power line, knocking out the emergency lighting system. The bomb caused smoke to rise to the 93rd floor of both towers, including through the stairwells (which were not pressurized), and smoke went up the damaged elevators in both towers. With thick smoke filling the stairwells, evacuation was difficult for building occupants and led to many smoke inhalation injuries. Hundreds were trapped in elevators in the towers when the power was cut, including a group of 17 kindergartners on their way down from the South Tower observation deck, who were trapped between the 35th and 36th floors for five hours.
Six people were killed: five Port Authority employees, one of whom was pregnant, and a businessman whose car was in the parking garage. Additionally, over 1,000 people were injured, most during the evacuation that followed the blast. A report from the US Fire Administration states that "Among the scores of people who fled to the roofs of the towers, 28 with medical problems were airlifted by New York City police helicopters." It is known that 15 people received traumatic injuries from the blast and 20 complained of cardiac problems. One firefighter was hospitalized, while 87 others, 35 police officers, and an EMS worker were also injured in dealing with the fires and other aftermath.
Also as a result of the loss of power, most of New York City's radio and television stations (except WCBS-TV (channel 2)) lost their over-the-air broadcast signal for almost a week, with television stations only being able to broadcast via cable and satellite via a microwave hookup between the stations and three of the New York area's largest cable companies, Cablevision, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable. Telephone service for much of Lower Manhattan was also disrupted. Yousef's plan was that the North Tower would fall onto the South Tower, collapsing them both. The tower did not collapse, but the garage was severely damaged in the explosion. Had the van been parked closer to the WTC's poured concrete foundations, Yousef's plan might have succeeded. Yousef escaped to Pakistan several hours after the bombing. The bomb had 200 to 300 pounds of a plastic explosive called Semtex. According to the FBI, Yousef was assisted by Iraqi bomb maker Abdul Rahman Yasin, who helped assemble the complex 1,310-pound (590 kg) bomb, which was made of a urea nitrate main charge with aluminum, magnesium and ferric oxide particles surrounding the explosive. The charge used nitroglycerine, ammonium nitrate dynamite, smokeless powder and fuse as booster explosives. Three tanks of bottled hydrogen were also placed in a circular configuration around the main charge, to enhance the fireball and afterburn of the solid metal particles. The use of compressed gas cylinders in this type of attack closely resembles the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing 10 years earlier. Both of these attacks used compressed gas cylinders to create fuel-air and thermobaric bombs that release more energy than conventional high explosives. According to testimony in the bomb trial, only once before the 1993 attack had the FBI recorded a bomb that used urea nitrate. Moreover, FBI agent Frederic Whitehurst was strongly critical of the procedures used to determine that the bomb contained urea nitrate; according to his testimony, he urinated in a vial, dried the urine and gave a sample of it to the analysts, who still concluded that the substance handed to them was urea nitrate. There is the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing Memorial located at the North Pool on Panel N-73.
The capture of Salameh and Yasin led authorities to Ramzi Yousef's apartment, where they found bomb-making materials and a business card from Mohammed Jamal Khalifa. Khalifa was arrested on December 14, 1994, and was deported to Jordan by the INS on May 5, 1995. He was acquitted by a Jordanian court and lived as a free man in Saudi Arabia until he was killed in 2007. In 2002, it was made public that Yasin, the only person involved in the bombing who was never convicted by US authorities, was being held as a prisoner on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq since 1994. When journalist Lesley Stahl interviewed him there for a segment on 60 Minutes on May 23, 2002, Yasin appeared in prison pajamas and handcuffs. Yasin has not been seen or heard from since the interview. He was not located during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In March 1994, Salameh, Nidal Ayyad, Mahmud Abouhalima and Ahmad Ajaj were each convicted in the World Trade Center bombing. In the course of the trial, it was revealed that the FBI had an informant, a former Egyptian army officer named Emad Salem. Salem claimed FBI involvement in building of the bomb. He secretly recorded hundreds of hours of telephone conversations with his FBI handlers. Federal authorities denied Salem's view of events and the New York Times concluded that the tapes "do not make clear the extent to which Federal authorities knew that there was a plan to bomb the World Trade Center, merely that they knew that a bombing of some sort was being discussed." On September 22, 2011, the New York Court of Appeals, in a four to three ruling, excluded the Port Authority from claims of negligence related to the 1993 bombing. In May 1994, they were sentenced to 240 years in prison. In the years since, they have received several sentencing reductions, which could allow them to walk free in their 90s or 100s.
Women's basketball started before 1900. It was part of a dream for women to play basketball professionally. So, women's basketball started in the fall of 1892 at Smith College. Senda Berenson was recently hired as a young physical culture director at Smith. Senda taught basketball to her students, hoping that the activity would improve their physical health. While for men, basketball back in the day was created as an indoor addition to existing team sports like baseball and football. Basketball was the first women's team sport, followed shortly after by hockey, rowing, and volleyball. Basketball's early adherents were affiliated with YMCAs and colleges throughout the United States, and the game quickly spread throughout the country. However, Berenson was taking risks simply in teaching the game to women. Nineteenth-century Victorian culture stressed the frailty of women and prioritized the status of women in the home, and Berenson expressed concern about the women suffering from "nervous fatigue" if games were too strenuous for them. In order to keep it acceptable for women to play at all within Victorian ideals of refinement and gentility, she taught modified rules. To be clear, these Victorian rules are blatantly sexist, but I cite this information for historical context of this time. She increased participation to nine players per team, and the court was divided into three areas. Three players were assigned to each area (guard, center, and forward) and could not cross the line into another area. The ball was moved from section to section by passing or dribbling, and players were limited to three dribbles and could only hold the ball for three seconds. No snatching or batting the ball away from another player was allowed. A center jump was required after each score. Variations of Berenson's rules spread across the country via YMCAs and women's colleges, where educated middle-class women were following the prevailing trend in men's games of playing intercollegiate sports.
Early basketball was played with peach baskets and soccer balls, similarly to the men's game, but women's uniforms again reflected the Victorian culture of the times and were designed to be practical, yet maintain the woman athlete's dignity and femininity. While upper-class women had been playing sports at country clubs since the mid-nineteenth century, they were able to participate in activities such as tennis and croquet in full-length skirts and corsets. However, similar attire was impractical for a more active sport like basketball, so the first trousers for women were worn. Initially loose and covered by a knee-length skirt, these early pants were replaced soon after by loose bloomers over stockings. Despite men being forbidden from watching these collegiate games, the attire still drew public ridicule.
Originally exclusively intramural, the first intercollegiate women's basketball game was played between teams from Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, on April 4, 1896. Berenson herself opposed intercollegiate play for women and prioritized the health and fitness benefits for a larger goal: she believed that women, newly entering the workforce and seeking paid jobs outside the home, were at a health-related disadvantage to men, which she saw as limiting women's opportunities and the possibility for equal wages. Obviously, Berenson is wrong to oppose intercollegiate play for women. For much of the early 20th century, other coaches and administrators felt similarly, due in part to an increasing sentiment that men's college sports were becoming too commercialized and exploitive of the athletes. The women's branch of the National Amateur Athletic Foundation was founded in the 1920s, and the organization's goals included keeping women's sports non-competitive by discouraging travel and awards, discouraging publicity, and keeping women coaches and administrators in charge of women's sports. From 1895 until 1970, the term "women's basketball" (or, in New Zealand, "outdoor basketball") was also used to refer to netball, at the time a women's only sport broadly derived from basketball, which evolved in parallel with modern women's basketball. The first professional women's basketball team were the All-American Red Heads. They were founded by C. M. "Ole" Olson in 1936. A lot of people don't know the history of African American history involving basketball during the early 20th century. During the early 1900s, there was the Black Fives Era. This was when many independent all-black women teams existed like the New York Girls, the Spartan Girls of Brooklyn, and the Golden Arrows. The Tribune Girls and The Romas were famous teams. They were sponsored by the Philadelphia Tribune; The Tribune Girls was led by the pioneering athlete Ora Mae Washington. The Tribune Girls had a record of 102-12 record between 1931 and 1934. The Bennett College built one of the best women's basketball teams in America in the 1930s, and the team was disbanded by the 1940s in favor of intramural sports. The Chicago Romas was another great black women's basketball team that went undefeated for six years after World War II. African American women played basketball for sports and to refute the lie that African Americans lacked discipline, leadership skills and intelligence involving athletic expression. Everything changed in 1972 with Title IX. It was passed as an amendment to the Higher Education Act of 1965. The legislation didn't mention sports, but Title IX helped to increase the number of women to compete in amateur and professional athletics. Title IX opened doors to African American and women of every color to be players, coaches, and administrators. Then, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) gained a lot of control of women's collegiate sports.
By Timothy
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