I was at WTC2 on 9-11-01. Ask me anything.

[Peak_Oil]

Fire away. I was there on that day, and I know what I saw and what I heard. No joke.

[Maat]

1. Tell us about your experience.

n/t

[Prodemsouth]

2. Describe from your personal prespective what you aw and heard- if it

is not painful for you?

[NMDemDist2]

3. OMG! what floor were you on? when did you leave?

holy cow, so glad you're here :hug:

[Peak_Oil]

9. I was on 61, went downstairs for a smoke

at 8:51AM.

I remember specifically what time I went down for a smoke. It was exactly 8:51, and I had a Kamel Red in my mouth, looking for a light when the first plane hit WTC1. I was in WTC2, not WTC1.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

4. what hit the buildings?

was there a series of implosive explosions? I was up at Times Square...all I could see was the smoke...

tP

[Peak_Oil]

10. From where I was...

I heard an explosion. I thought it was a bus hitting a wall. Somebody yelled "Bomb" and I looked up over my glasses and saw a brown cloud of something. Crazy.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

16. damn...that's rough

the scary part for me is that under normal conditions I would have been in WTC#7 that day were it not for an overbooking...

sorry you had to go through it!
theProdigal

[Catholic Sensation]

5. who's the idiot claiming it wasn't a plane?

[frankly_fedup2]

39. Isn't that what a lot of people are saying about the Pentagon . . .

not the WTC in New York?

[Peak_Oil]

62. That Pentagon thing pisses me off.

How stupid does Rummy think we are? There's not marks on teh building from the wings. Jesus Christ!

The plane never would have fit through the hole. I mean COME ON!!!!! What else do you NEED!!!

PNAC document calling for a new Pearl Harbor, invading Iraq, I feel like Mel Gibson from that fucking weird movie yelling about all kinds of tinfoil hat bullshit.

Seriously folks, how much evidence do we need to try GWB for treason and line his ass up against the wall?

And anybody who thought Kerry would be 5% better needs to have their heads examined. It's Dean or Green for me next time. I refuse to put my vote in the hands of a man who sells me out to corporate power.

Smedley Motherfuckin Butler. Read his legacy and get back to me. We need a populist government, or we need revolution. Violent revolution. Malcom X said we need the ballot or the bullet. Check Martin Luther King's later words. He said the same thing. Kerry was Bush Lite, and that's not good enough. Dean is the only one who cared about you and me, the common person, who has less than $2 million invested US, and who makes a salary that amounts to less than $200K. There's a 98% chance that you are a part of that group, and that you will always be a part of that group. Look yourself in the mirror and see where your interest lies. Trust Dean, and nobody else. Kerry came from the same college fraternity as Bush. WTF did you think he would do? He bent over and took it up the ass like the bitch that he is. Like the COWARD HE IS. He's NOTHING TO US. He's a TOOL.

Don't get fooled again. Edwards, Clark, etc.

[alittlelark]

6. Stream-of-Consciousness request....exp.in perception.

BTW- my Dad was rustled out of bed on that day... and he's in NM.

[DemonFighterLives]

7. Were explosives going off?

nt

[Peak_Oil]

11. From my perspecitve....

I have absolutely no idea whatsoever. After the initial explosion I ran back into the building. Some poor guy was in front of me, and I jammed his head into the glass door in front of me to get into the building. We broke through the door together, I landed on top of him, and we laid there for a few seconds while the people behind us got crushed under tons of WTC2 debris that dropped on their heads. Three people died 15 ft from where I stood looking for a light for my Kamel Red.

[Bouncy Ball]

12. This was obviously after the second plane hit the second tower?

[Peak_Oil]

14. Yeah, n/t

n/t

[Peak_Oil]

31. Whoops, I misread. No,

This was after the first plane hit WTC1. There was an enormous explosion behind WTC2 (from my perspective) which rocked the building forward and blew a chunk off the top of WTC2.

i think.

Maybe it was shit from WTC1 though.

Huh. I wonder if there's a video of that moment I can check to see just exactly where that stuff came from.

[Bouncy Ball]

8. How did you survive?

[Peak_Oil]

13. I bailed.

I left. As soon as I got outside, I kept moving away from the building until I was back at my hotel. I did call my office to see what I should do. If I was late to my 9AM meeting, I was fired. I called the LA office and asked what I should do. My manager held the phone to his chest and asked his assistant what she thought I should do. She said to head back to the hotel.

He said to head back to the hotel, we'd figure it out later.

How bout that? If he would have told me to head back in to WTC2, I would have gone, and I probably would have died. Instead, he said to head for the hotel, and I lived.

[Nobody]

21. I am so glad you did NOT go to that meeting

And your manager and his asst have good heads on their shoulders.

Your life is much more important than being on time for a meeting. At least your manager and asst understood that.

Do you have nightmares about that horrible day? Do any of them involve your boss telling you to get your ass back there for that meeting? I would hope that they aren't the type, given their response to your phone call. But anything is possible in nightmares.

[frankly_fedup2]

42. Why no profile about yourself Peak_Oil? I find some of your

responses an attempt at very dry humor. Why did you bring this up today?????

[Peak_Oil]

45. No particular reason.

And no attempt at dry humor today either. Dunno why, usually I try to be funny but not today.

[frankly_fedup2]

50. Are you watching the tsunami on the news all the time. If you . . .

are, maybe you need to take a break from all of it. I could see where it would bring back some fear of that day.

I know I had to cut the TV off because I just could not take anymore of 9/11 and/or what has happened in Asia.

[Hailtothechimp]

15. How does the relentless exploiting of 9/11 make you feel???

It makes me angry, but I wasn't there and don't know anyone who was.

[Peak_Oil]

19. It's fucked up.

I see all these people saying Nine eleven, nine eleven, nine eleven, nine eleven, nine eleven, nine eleven... it's just words to them, you know? Ask the actual families of those who were lost about how our government tried to stop the investigation into what actually happened there.

Here's the other thing. There's another message board, straightdope.com, that's usually pretty good. As smart as those guys usually are, they're using the 9-11 commission report as a source document for facts. I couldn't bring myself to read all those lies at one time, I just couldn't.

[Nobody]

22. It certainly is.

I've read about the character assassination done on the woman whose husband died in one of the towers. Lies. Lies. Lies. Chimpy sitting there for seven minutes doing absolutely nothing. More lies. Seven minutes is an eternity when a building is falling down around you.

What is your take on Our Fearful Leader just sitting there looking like an actor who forgot his lines?

[TexasChick]

57. Actually, it wasn't just 7 minutes he wasted. According to MM, the Chimp

spent an extra 20 minutes doing the photo op with the children.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=131

[frankly_fedup2]

44. The most outrageous Government lie that day was them . . .

stating they found Mohammid Atta's passport a couple blocks away. Or was it his wallet, or his suitcase.

I cannot remember; however, I remember it was no time before they had pictures of all of these men on the screen. Why did they suddenly have all this information (I remember thinking).

Also, both of these buildings pancaking . . .maybe one if they were really, really lucky if it was going to fall; however, two buildings. Too far fetched. Looked like these buildings were brought down by charges that had already been set.

Remember witnesses talking about how these buildings, when they were hit, kind of wobbled? It seems to me that when those planes hit, their impact would have taken the buildings infastructure out . . . and then they BOTH pancake down. No way.

[Peak_Oil]

46. And another one

that really chaps my ass is having the air certified clean so more people would die carting that crime scene evidence into a fucking landfill. How fucking outrageous! That one pisses me off! How mercilessly can one human being manipulate the good will of others?

What kills me is we all know this made the papers, but nobody's doing a goddamn thing about it. I'm pissed off!!!

[frankly_fedup2]

48. Are you having problems with your respiratory system or allergies

now after all of this? Have you applied for disability? Have you had any counseling??

[onecitizen]

69. I wondered the same thing.........

it was like: poof! Here are the people who did this. Just how did they know that in as short of time? There was nothing left with which to identify them with. And according to news reports, some traveled under aliases. So just how did they know these were the men? And they were oh-so-sure too.

[OneBlueSky]

17. so I guess smoking can actually SAVE lives, too . . .

glad you made it . . . so many didn't . . .

[pearl]

18. Dear Peak Oil

Are you experiencing any PTSD? I am, and I just watched on tv.
but I already had a PTSD diagnosis.

[amazona]

29. can't imagine the stress

I was the victim of a natural disaster and I felt weirded out for months. Can't imagine the awful feeling of something like that and knowing that evil people had deliberately attacked you and caused so much suffering to no purpose.

I guess I don't really have a question so much as I just want to say I hope you are doing OK physically and mentally.

[Peak_Oil]

36. Big time.

Yeah, it really fucked me up. I was a stockbroker that morning. The more I find out about our economy and how we in the US use violence to repress human rights across the globe to continue our merciless way of life the more disgusted I am by all of it. I've really come to despise my own participation in this setup, and have found it really difficult to control my consumption. It took almost a will of iron to not replace the DVD player that burned out in my bedroom. I have one in the living room and another in the computer in my office, but I just can't stand the idea of not being able to fall asleep without watching the first five minutes of Riddick. I had to grit my teeth like I was quitting smoking to not go to circuit city and buy a $30 DVD player. I can easily afford it, so why not? Because it feeds our economy. I don't want to support pumping petroleum out of the ground in Saudi Arabia to make the plastic that damages our environment and represses 99% of the people of Saudi Arabia and blah blah blah. I sound like the fucking Unabomber now.

I can't stop seeing the consequences of my actions ripple out into the world. I buy fruit from New Zealand. WTF???? We grow tons of fruit in California, why can't I just buy it locally? I don't even know what kind of fruit is in season. It's winter. What's in season? Apples, I think. I don't really know, though. How can I be a full-grown, self-supporting, college educated STOCKBROKER and not have any idea about something as simple as where my food comes from or what the conditions are under which milk is produced? It's insane that I've made it this long having no idea at all about these things. They've never been important to me. Why should I care? Somebody over there does it, and that's good enough for me.

Since 9-11, with George saying They hate us for our freedom, which was so much transparent bullshit, I had to find out why they really DO hate us. I don't blame them, frankly. I'd hate us too if I was one of them. It's like waking up from a long nap.

My friends all think I've gone totally bananas, and I think they might be right.

Then I find out about Peak Oil and all this other bullshit that's headed our way, and it's just so over the top that I can barely deal. How am I supposed to take anything seriously when our entire economy is going to go over Niagra falls in a barrel in the next five years or so? We're going to see shit go down in our lifetimes that is just going to make the Great Depression look like Disneyland on the 4th of July. We are so unprepared for this, and as a nation are so arrogant about how great we all are and how we'll just Manifest Destiny our way through it that we're going to be really surprised how far down we have to go.

Did you read all that shit? 9-11 made me a fucking lunatic.

[patdem]

52. You are NOT a lunatic..you simply had your eyes opened on 9/11

more than most. Since MOST people were not in the towers on 9/11...very few in fact and of the few that were there about 2,000 were killed that day.

You simply took the red pill and now you know and once you know you can never NOT know. That is why they call ignorance bliss!

Good luck! :hi:

[Alisa]

56. If your crazy so am I

time will tell us a lot, if not everything.

[SpiralHawk]

59. Spot-on observations, Peak

Thanks for stating them so plainly.

This is my articulation of what the traditional elders of this continent are saying in this era: learn to live simply and with respect, close to the earth. Mother Earth will sustain you and your family if you let her, and if you gratefully accept what she gives to you. Tough times are ahead. But we can and will pass through them if we remain close to the earth, treating all life with respect and following clear indications of inner guidance. This is how I have heard and understood these things. SH

[anarchy1999]

63. Take a chill pill dearest. It is okay. 9/11 made us all "lunatics".

If it makes you feel any better, that day we knew we were in for very dark days (I went on Xanax for 3 months). There are lots of us, we belong to unofficial clubs, like the Grassy Knoll Society and ChemTrails are US, and so on and so forth, you will find many outlets here. It's okay, somehow, someway.

Go see Motorcycle Diaries, it might cheer you up.

[Zhade]

65. Great post, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

I find myself in full agreement. If you ever visit Los Angeles (more specifically, Venice), I'll buy you a beverage of your choice, alcoholic or non. I have a feeling the conversation would be awesome.

[Acryliccalico]

67. If you are

then so am I. Until 11/2/04 I was a 55 year old grandmother just trying to make ends meet. Then the election happened. That was a real wake up for me,since I have a BA in Psy/Soc I could see what was going on in the election. You learn to watch how people communicate through body language and facial features( not the words they use). I could tell that the whole neocon right were telling lies. I also had a class in Business relations and knew that fear(in one form or another) is what is used to sell most of the products to the public. It is used as the fear of not being better than others, or having bad breath, not getting the best, not being able to keep up. There was so much fear used in this election that I thought WTF is going on. WMD, Iraq, not being loyal to US, and many many more blatant outright terror to sell themselves. I have never seen such a ramped up sell job in my life. Then when they said that * won, I just couldn't believe that could happen. I was in shock. Now I have joined a meet up group, have marched on our capital and am bogging all over the net. The things I am learning are shocking. Most of the time I am walking around in a half daze. I have turned into a Radical Dissonant. You are not alone!!!

[porkrind]

70. Sorry, Peak

You've gone through some pretty traumatic shit. I think anyone would freak out at that. Thanks for sharing your story.

[frankly_fedup2]

47. Me too pearl. As a matter of fact, a couple months after 9/11

I started suffering from intolerable pain . . . like I had the flu all the time. After 6 months of begging doctors for relief, I was told to apply for disability. I got the disability but it was not just based on this one diagnosis of fibromyalgia. I have had chronic depression, panic disorders, anxiety disorders, tendonitis, carpal tunnel, and PTSD.

I really feel this event caused the fibro (wherever it comes from). I have been in a constant state of pain since. I wear a morphine patch plus take hydrocodone as well as 20 other pills a day due to my other problems.

I cannot imagine living through it and actually being there and seeing those poor, poor people hitting the concrete after jumping. That is something I will never get out of my mind. Those poor people and their families.

[frankly_fedup2]

49. Sorry for the double post. Hopes this fixed it.

[InvisibleBallots]

20. Did you get a new ID card a few weeks before? Did you notice

extra security a short time before?

[frogfromthenorth2]

23. ?!?!?!

Weird question...

[Peak_Oil]

32. I was only there for two days.

It was supposed to be three weeks, but my business was obviously cut short. I got an ID card, still have it, but don't know if it's any different from any other. Good question, though. Wasn't some guy made head of security for the WTC shortly before all this went down? I think he was a whistleblower for something else and either jumped or was pushed into this new job.

[frankly_fedup2]

51. What about all of those "Put" stocks (is that what they call it???).

All of the airlines involved and companies in the WTC had unbelievably high trading on their stock just the day before.

What did you think about that? Why has no one addressed that?

It obviously proves someone (especially those making money), took advantage of a situation that had not even happened yet.

[mattclearing]

72. Well, this is a big deal. The MSM reported it, and when time came to

follow the money, they dropped it like a hot potato.

Somebody made a hell of a lot of money that day.

I have a feeling that if it was Osama, we'd have heard about it by now.

[Zhade]

66. John O'Neil.

I think I spelled that right...

[InvisibleBallots]

71. John O'Neill I think

Supposedly quit the FBI counter-terrorism division angry at coverup of Saudi nationals with ties to terrorists in the US. Became chief of security at the WTC summer 2001.

[Skittles]

24. how could anyone not have known it was a terrorist attack?

how could anyone seriously believe a plane hit the North Tower BY ACCIDENT? I said TERRORIST ATTACK as soon as I saw that burning tower on the news and was SHOCKED to find out later that apparently it took ANOTHER PLANE HITTING THE OTHER TOWER before most people freaking figured it out. HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[chefgirl]

25. Well, I don't know

Having only seen the aftermath on TV after a commercial break, my first thought was almost the same as what the asshole in chief said his thought was: "wow, bad pilot".
Living near NY for a lot of years, there has always been talk of small planes possibly crashing into one of the towers, and what would happen etc...

As soon as the second one hit, though, the first words out of my mouth were, "Holy shit, is anyone watching Washington..Have they gotten dickhead out of the White House?"

-chef-

[Skittles]

26. and that's another thing

how could anyone see the damage done to that building and surmise it was a SMALL PLANE!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

[frogfromthenorth2]

27. Wow... you are soooooo smart.... I wonder why you spend so much

time with a bunch of idiots like us...

[Skittles]

28. I dunno, maybe it's because I'm such a pessimist

when I saw The Sixth Sense, the second day it was out, I said HE'S DEAD as soon as the guy got shot. :o

[frogfromthenorth2]

30. Yeah... my 9 year old nephew said the same thing... that made me feel dumb

[Skittles]

33. LOL

the trailer flashed in my mind....I SEE DEAD PEOPLE. I said HE'S DEAD!

When the events of 9/11 happened, the first thing I thought of was that previous attack in '93 - I said THEY'RE DOING IT AGAIN. :(

[tx_dem41]

37. Now that's a great post!

:yourock:

[frogfromthenorth2]

41. *blushing*

:loveya:

[chefgirl]

35. Maybe because

Maybe people didn't know it wasn't a small plane based on the damage because we had no frame of reference.
As I said, there had always been talk of what it would look like if a small plane ever hit one of the towers. I'm not sure the average person ever considered the thought of passenger jets slamming into them.

Maybe it was because some of us were so shocked at the visual, we didn't have time to think about terrorists, but could only think about the people that were obviously in that building when whatever hit it, hit it.

-chef-

[Skittles]

38. aw, maybe because I was in the Air Force

I mentally detailed the width of the damage and figured it was a VERY LARGE PLANE! I mean, it was most of the width of the building. Maybe the average person didn't think about passenger jets, but Bush Inc sure should have - they had received several warnings about it. Still, they let the South Tower and Pentagon get hit and have YET to answer for it.

[Peak_Oil]

40. You should have been in Manhattan when we found out

the Pentagon had been hit. There were people in the streets screaming for Arab blood. It was crazy. You saw people in all stages all over the place. There's the guy with the suit and the briefcase still trying to dial his cell phone, somebody else in traffic who was still going to open up the Payless Shoe store that day, somebody else sitting on the ground crying, somebody else trying to get an Egg McMuffin before Mickey D's shut down for the day, weird secret service shit going on here and there, then whole blocks deserted... We all figured this was it. WWIII.

[chefgirl]

55. >>We all figured this was it. WWIII.

I'm sure you did. With no outside perspective (TV) and being in the thick of it, you must have been completely disoriented. Sounds like everyone else was too.
I would imagine the person trying to get an egg mcmuffin or the one wanting to open the pay less both knew, in their gut, that it was way beyond being able to do any of that stuff, but in a crisis we tend to grab onto the familiar...which, of course is what makes us behave a bit oddly. I can totally understand that.

Very glad you made it out of there safe and intact. You handled yourself much better than I think I ever could have. :thumbsup:

-chef-

[firebee]

34. I was on the Poe Fire over by Chico California in 2001

I remember people being huddled around the t.v. at the med tent. I asked what happened and a couple people told me a plane hit the WTC. Instantly, I said the Palestinians hijacked a plane and flew it into the World Trade Center. People around me we're saying.. nooo.. wait.. it could've been a bad pilot or an electronic malfunction. I said, nooo.. The chances of a commercial airline hitting the WTC due to an electronic malfunction or pilot error is slim to none. This was an intentional attack....... Then the second plane hit. I knew what it was when the first plane hit. The U.S.S. Cole and the Palestinian conflict were still fresh in my mind. What the hell was this administration's problem??? They're either completely inept and out of touch with reality or they knew what was going to happen and let it happen in order to push their agenda in the Middle East.

Of course... later on I would find out that Bush's oil buddies, the Taliban and Saudi Arabia, were responsible for the terrorists who attacked us.

[Skittles]

43. the chances of any plane accidentally hitting that tower in that weather

were absolutely ZERO. And yeah firebee, to those of us who knew immediately, the inactions of Bush Inc are especially sinister.

[frankly_fedup2]

53. Especially their calling Daschle immediately asking him not to . . .

ask for an investigation of the attack because it was such a shock to the Country.

Well, they got extra time before any investigation was done. Wonder if those two years before a full investigation helped them with whatever their reasoning was for in the first place???

[WI_DEM]

54. It would probably be best for you to describe what you saw

and if we have questions from your account we would have a better idea of what to ask you. But I'm glad you were able to escape.

[RedSock]

58. two questions

1. Have you read Mike Ruppert's book about Peak Oil and 9/11?

2. How's that guy whose head you rammed through the glass door? :)

... I worked in WTC1 (59th floor) for a few years, until 1999. I often wonder what it would have been like if I was still there on 9/11.

(You were on 61? That was Brown & Wood, right (or had they merged with Sidley Austin by then)?

[Peak_Oil]

60. Yeah and yeah

I read the book, and I like it. Not so sure about what to do with the info, I'm not ready to hunt anybody down yet, but whatever.

The guy was bleeding like a stuck pig. I brushed the glass off his face and apologized profusely. He didn't really care at the time, or so he said. Then I realized my glasses were missing and I had to go back outside to look for them.

I got lasik later that year. I never wanted to be in that situation again.

[metisnation]

61. sorry for your loss

my prayers go out to you and others who have suffered in this tragedy.

[nomatrix]

64. Thanks for letting us know. It must be hard for you

to get that visual to go away. (of those standing outside crushed)Do you think it is easier to talk now because of the new tragedy we are watching on TV?

Do you feel something really insincere about sales since what happened to you? I do. No dissing, I've been in sales for years. Just couldn't go back to commissioned sales. It's just not that important.

Are you still squeamish or jumpy?

[Peak_Oil]

68. Yeah.

The visual doesn't bother me much. It's the pic of that one guy in the khakis that jumped out of WTC1 in midair next to the building. That's just the most fucked-up pic of the whole thing. He's just some poor bastard who went to work on Tuesday morning, you know? WTF was he doing that day, faxing out TPS reports? It's just so ridiculous.

As far as sales and insincerity.... you don't really even need to ask, do you? I was in sales for ten years, and I'm walking away. I'm headed back to school to study nursing. I'm going to work for a living now.

As far as squeamish and jumpy, I don't like planes anymore. They still freak me out a little. I'm nowhere near as jumpy as I was in Sept 2001, but much more than I was in Aug 2001. No big deal, though. This whole experience really pulled up some stuff about trust and truth. I will not lie or support somebody who is full of shit in a political campaign anymore. Green for me. Let Kerry twist in the wind from now on, I won't cast my ballot for anybody who supports the war in Iraq. It's bullshit and we all know it. No mas.

[RobinA]

74. I Wound Up

with a similar existential situation. Although I was not anywhere near the WTC on 9/11 (I was vacationing in Montana), I am from the east coast, I had worked as a paralegal for large firms and corps for 14 years at that point, had done work at large NY law firms. I was laid-off in 1/01 and spent the summer of 2001 doing paralegal temp work on a large bank merger with several people from Morgan Stanley who were based in the WTC.

At the end of the summer I was fed up with years of shuffling boxes of paper for self-important fat cats conducting meaningless mega-deals and had decided to go back to social work. As of 9/11 I had actually secured my new social work job, but I was wondering if I was some kind of a nut, taking a huge cut in pay and giving up a cushy office to traipse though crack houses trying to get impossible people to be minimally OK parents.

The minute I saw all that paper come fluttering out of the WTC - paper that I knew about, paper the likes of which I had spent years playing with, poring over, filing, copying and redacting, I no longer questioned my decision. Know WAY was I ever going out in a flurry of paper drifting out of a cloudless sky. I may now get gunned down in a drive-by, but at least it will be because I was trying to make a difference to somebody.

[Stephanie]

73. The tsunami disaster is bringing back 9/11 for a lot of people

Which is why it's so shocking to see the apathy and disregard for the victims from the U.S. President. Imagine if the WTC had been hit on 12/26/01 - do you think we would have seen raucous New Years celebrations anywhere? The comparison is not good. The lack of respect, the lack of empathy, is shocking.