The 1,776-Foot Target (World Trade Center new building)

[Eric J in MN]

The 1,776-Foot-Tall Target
By DANIEL BENJAMIN

Now that jihadists have carried out an attack that shook a Western European democracy, it should be clear that these terrorists still think big and possess a ghastly ingenuity, even after two and a half years of progress in dismantling Al Qaeda and its affiliates. The carnage in Madrid ? and the public hearings this week on the 9/11 attacks ? ought to remind us of the need to limit our own vulnerabilities. Yet on the site of America's greatest terrorist tragedy, where no reminder should be necessary, such thinking is virtually nonexistent.

The 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower, designed to be the world's tallest and to stand where the World Trade Center did, will become a top target for Islamic terrorists as soon as it is occupied. In the three months since the building's design was unveiled, we have experienced not only the Madrid attacks but also, for nearly three weeks in December and January, a national alert level of orange, or high risk, during which intelligence and law enforcement agencies labored to prevent another terrorist attack involving aircraft. Well after the level was reduced to yellow, or elevated, flights from Europe to the United States continued to be canceled.

The architects and engineers of Freedom Tower are working to devise ways to increase the security of the building's future occupants, pondering additional stairwells for escape, new supports that would prevent structural failure and better flame retardants. "Of high-rise buildings, I believe this is one of the safest," said David Childs, one of its principal architects.

But when one compares these engineering revisions to the continued proof of radical Islamists' determination to carry out high-casualty attacks, it's hard not to reach the conclusion that the plans for ground zero are profoundly irresponsible.

continued at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/23/opinion/23BENJ.html?pagewanted=all&position=

[qb]

1. Alarmist nonsense

This guy is assuming we'll still have a friend of the bin Ladens in the White House when the tower is finished. A competent administration will be able to protect buildings from hijacked airplanes.

[Eric J in MN]

2. Clinton was in office during the first WTC attack.

Clinton was in office during the first WTC attack.

If the bomb used for the 1993 WTC attack had been bigger, it would have toppled the building with people still inside and killed thousands.