1.The WTC opened in 1970 after 8 years of construction. 2.The WTC was the dream of David Rockefeller, chairman of the Chase Manhattan Bank, and Nelson Rockefeller, former Governor of New York.
3.The Rockefellers wanted to name the towers after themselves, but the mayor of NY, John Lindsay, insisted on the World Trade Center. 4.The City chose to build the WTC instead of building a new tunnel and large bridge over the Hudson River.
5.The World Trade Center was designed by architect Minoura Yamasaki. 6.According to Yamasaki, downtown Manhattan was the perfect place to erect the towers because there wasn’t “a single building worth saving in the eighborhood.”
7.Owners of nearby buildings disagreed, and delayed demolition by three weeks with their protests. 8.Sixteen blocks were cleared to house the completed WTC.
9.More than 10,000 workers involved in building the complex. 10.More than 60 of them died during construction.
11.The excavation work displaced enough soil to create Liberty Park, where four 60-floor towers and four apartment buildings were constructed. 12.The WTC’s foundations were laid at 60 feet below ground level.
13.The complex covered 16 acres when finished. 14.In addition to the towers, five other office buildings made up the WTC complex
The WTC had 12 million square feet of space.
15.Each floor was 50,000 square feet. 16.The buildings had their own ZIP codes - 10047 and 10048.
17.The towers were designed to look like a futuristic sculpture. 18.The structure was revolutionary. Its main supports were external, lining the four corners of each tower.
19.Critics condemned the completed buildings as “boring.” 20.Completed, the buildings were 100 feet taller then the Empire State building.
21.Until the construction of Chicago’s Sears Tower and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, the twin towers were the world’s tallest buildings. 22.The North Tower’s 347 foot radio tower technically allowed the WTC to still call itself the world’s tallest building.
23.The towers were different heights. The South tower was 1,362 feet tall, and big brother North tower was 1,368. 24.Sixty-eight miles of steel were used in the construction of the buildings.
25.The concrete poured was enough to build a road from New York to Washington, DC 26.The steel inside the WTC could have made three more Brooklyn Bridges.
27.The Twin Towers had more than 16 miles of staircases. 28.There were 43,600 windows.
29.The windows were small to reduce the of heat or cold entering the building. Regular size windows would have made the heat unbearable in the summertime. 30.The WTC’s 600,000 square feet of glass was cleaned by an automatic machine.
31.The building had 20,000 elevator doors. 32.Of the WTC’s 239 banks of elevators, one was known as the fastest in the U.S.
33.The main elevators at 27 feet a second reached the top in less than a minute. 34.There were 828 emergency exit doors.
35.23,000 fluorescent light bulbs lit the interior. 36.Originally, there were no light switches in the towers, because energy prices were one-third less than they are today. In 1982,switches were installed.
37.12,000 miles of electrical cable snaked through the building, supplying power to 15 trading floors for stockbrokers. 38.The 75,000 telephones were maintained by 19,600 miles of cable.
39.There were more than 300 computer mainframes on site. 40.The WTC used more power in one day than most small American cities.
41.Steam supplied by a plant on New York’s East River was used to heat the buildings. 42.The buildings housed 49,000 tons of air-conditioning equipment.
43.More than 250,000 cans of paint were needed every year for upkeep of the Towers. 44.The surrounding shopping center complex included 3250,000 square feet of restaurants and stores.
45.Six banks, five investment firms and three insurance companies called their headquarters there, in the building. 46.The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had its headquarters in the building.
47.American Express had three floors in the WTC. 48.The WTC was home base for Bank of America.
49.The trade center housed two top restaurants - the Windows on the World and Wild Blue. 50.Windows on the World had one of the best vintage wine collections in the United States.
51.More than 50,000 people worked in the twin towers. 52.By 9 a.m. each weekday morning, the buildings had an average of 35,000 employees at their desks.
53.More than 200,000 people - half of them tourists - moved through the buildings each day. 54.The South Tower had an observation deck that was visited by more than 26,000 people a day.
55.An information sign at the top assured visitors that the buildings had been designed to withstand airplane crashes. 56.The towers could be seen from at least 20 miles away.
57.On a clear day, it was possible to see for 45 miles in every direction from the observation deck. 58.The express elevator to the observation deck was the largest in the U.S. with a 55-person capacity.
59.Every president since 1973 paid a visit to the landmark. 60.President Ronald Reagan watched July 4th fireworks celebrations from the WTC on two occasions.
61.Superstars Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, Mick Jagger and LizaMinelli all sang in WTC restaurants. 62.Two New York TV stations incorporated the twin tower image into their logos.
63.The towers served 10 New York TV stations with 10 antennas on the top. 64.More postcards of the WTC were sent each year than any other building in the world.
65.In 1974, a Frenchman, Phillipe Petit, strung a tightrope between the two towers and walked across. 66.Three men successfully parachuted from the top of the towers.
67.More than a dozen mountain climbers have scaled the building. 68.In 1975 a jobless construction worker parachuted from the South Tower to publicize the plight of the unemployed.
69.The most famous man to climb the building was George Willig - who was arrested at the top. Willig was fined one penny for each of the 110 floors he scaled. 70.Last year, a man in a micro-light aircraft crashed into the North Tower.
71.In the concourse beneath the towers, there were more than 75 stores. 72.Each day, over 150,000 commuters passed through the three subway stations there.
73.Eighty-seven tons of food was delivered to the building each day. 74.Over 30,000 cups of coffee were poured daily in the basement cafes.
75.Twenty-two doctors had practices there. 76.Seventeen babies were born on the site.
77.Irv Silverstein recently bought the WTC for almost $3.2 billion. 78.The WTC generated $110 million a year in profit.
79.More than three dozen movies have been filmed there. 80.The best known film to use the WTC as a location was the 1976 remake of King Kong.
81.The 1993 bombing of the WTC killed six people and injured 1,000 more. 1,300 pounds of explosives ripped through the garage in the 1993 attack. 82.That bomb created a crater 16 feet deep and badly damaged inner support beams.
83.Before the 1993 attack, there were three closed circuit television networks for security. 84.After the bombing, the cameras were increased to 300 monitored by computers.
85.More than 300 security guards worked there. 86.The WTC featured security centers on 14 different floors and its own police station.
87.The entrance lobbies had 16 concierge desks and 12 X-ray machines. 88.After the first bombing, no one could get inside the buildings without an ID check.
89.It took an average of five minutes for a visitor to pass through
security checks. 90.Before the 1993 bombing, there were more than 1,000 parking spaces beneath the buildings; 600 remained afterward.
91.All vehicles using the parking lot had to show FBI security passes. 92.On Sept. 11, the building was 95 percent full, with over 400 tenants.
93.New York Gov. George Pataki had an office in the WTC, but wasn’t there when the disaster struck. 94.Both the Secret Service and the FBI rented office space there.
95.$110.3 million in gold and 120.7 million in silver is buried in the rubble. 96.The combined weight of the towers was more than 1.5 million tons. 1Each tower was built to safely sway about three feet during strong wind storms.
97.Blue Cross-Blue Shield, New York’s largest health insurance company, moved into the building 3 years ago. 98.Nine chapels serving six different faiths called the WTC home.
99.Twenty-nine countries had trade mission offices in the buildings. 100. Every major U.S. airline had ticket offices inside the WTC.
101.It is the first skyscraper in the world destroyed by terrorists
History Professor David A. Bell at John Hopkins asks: Was 9/11 really that bad? Why even ask such a question? It is probably the greatest attack on American soil ever, excluding Pearl Harbor. So, yes it was really that bad. A little perspective for Mr. Bell and his Ivory Tower elitist’s friends who keep questioning how bad 9/11 was. First, Mr. Bell, more than 200,000 people - half of them tourists - moved through the buildings each day. Do you think the terrorists would have enjoyed killing 200,000 people that day? I’m going to have to say yes—9/11 could have been a lot worse, especially if the Towers would have fallen immediately. But to ask if 9/11 was really that bad does an injustice to all those innocent people that died that day and all of those who serve in the United States Military fighting the War on Terror. I don’t know what is going to take for the left in this country to understand the danger that not just Americans face but our allies throughout the world face from radical Muslims who want to cause as much damage as humanly possible.
Mr. Bell cites how political scientist John Mueller convincingly concluded in his book that threat to United States has been Overblown by the Federal Government, Politicians etc. Um, that is an interesting take—was it Overblown when British and American authorities broke up a plot to blow up jetliners heading for the United States? I’m just asking! Mr. Bell and Mr. Mueller are convinced that there are no real threats against the United States. Well, I guess Richard Reid A.K.A. the shoe bomber was just trying to light his cigarette on the plane. Was it overblown when In June, U.S. law enforcement officials arrested seven young men in Miami, plotting to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago and a federal building in Miami. We could go on and on listing all the attempts to blow up innocent Americans, but Mr. Bell and Mr. Mueller would not be convinced there is a threat. You guys and gals on the left just don’t get and you probably never will, but not matter how you spin it there is a ferocious enemy out there that would like to do unspeakable damage to innocent people—and calling the threat overblown is dangerous and quite frankly stupid. We know you real agenda is to appease the enemy and be passive with the enemy, because in the end, you lefties are a bunch of Ivory Tower Elitists who have never faced real danger in your life. I know this because you are stuck in Universities warping young minds to be appeasers and pacifists just like you!
Bryan K Cooper is the Editor-in-Chief of CooperRepublic.com He writes about National Security, Terrorism, Politics, and Presidential issues. You can contact Bryan K. Cooper at CooperRepublic@aol.com
Iranian intelligence is preparing for complete dominance of southern Iraq by penetrating Basra’s security network and political parties when the British withdraw. Iraqi intelligence sources disclosed to the Daily Telegraph that Iran plans to reap the huge financial rewards presented by the southern oil fields and prevent Western businesses from gaining a foothold inside Basra. British and American political and military leaders are also concerned over Tehran “giving succor” to terrorists who continue to kill troops every week. Commanders are anxious that once they pull out of Basra in May, the Iranian-backed militias will take over the political and security structures, undoing four years of work that has cost 129 British lives and millions of dollars. Only the Iraqi army stands in the way of the murderous militias. But while it is regarded as competent, the key moment will come when responsibility for administering Basra is given to the Iraqi government with local politicians taking over. At that point, a showdown between the Baghdad-controlled Iraqi army and Iranian-backed Basra militias is expected…
al-Qaeda is not the only terrorist group in the world. Al-Qaeda gets all the press, especially here in the States, but there are plenty of other terrorist groups operating in the world. This is a list of terrorist, insurgent, and extremist groups operating just in India. Disclaimer: Some of these groups are broken up, but the majority of them are still operating. India not only faces danger from al-Qaeda and their affiliates, but all of these groups shown below. This could keep one up at night, especially if you are in charge of securing the homeland.
United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA)
National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB)
United People’s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS)
Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO)
Bodo Liberation Tiger Force (BLTF)
Dima Halim Daogah (DHD)
Karbi National Volunteers (KNV)
Rabha National Security Force (RNSF)
Koch-Rajbongshi Liberation Organisation (KRLO)
Hmar People’s Convention- Democracy (HPC-D)
Karbi People’s Front (KPF)
Tiwa National Revolutionary Force (TNRF)
Bircha Commando Force (BCF)
Bengali Tiger Force (BTF)
Adivasi Security Force (ASF)
All Assam Adivasi Suraksha Samiti (AAASS)
Gorkha Tiger Force (GTF)
Barak Valley Youth Liberation Front (BVYLF)
Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA)
United Liberation Front of Barak Valley
Muslim United Liberation Front of Assam (MULFA)
Muslim Security Council of Assam (MSCA)
United Liberation Militia of Assam (ULMA)
Islamic Liberation Army of Assam (ILAA)
Muslim Volunteer Force (MVF)
Muslim Liberation Army (MLA)
Muslim Security Force (MSF)
Islamic Sevak Sangh (ISS)
Islamic United Reformation Protest of India (IURPI)
United Muslim Liberation Front of Assam (UMLFA)
Revolutionary Muslim Commandos (RMC)
Muslim Tiger Force (MTF)
People’s United Liberation Front (PULF)
Adam Sena (AS)
Harkat-ul-Mujahideen
Harkat-ul-Jehad
Lashkar-e-Omar (LeO)
Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM)
Harkat-ul-Ansar
Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT)
Jaish-e-Mohammad Mujahideen E-Tanzeem (JeM)
Harkat-ul Mujahideen
Al Badr
Jamait-ul-Mujahideen (JuM)
Lashkar-e-Jabbar (LeJ)
Harkat-ul-Jehad-i-Islami
Al Barq
Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen
Al Jehad
Jammu & Kashir National Liberation Army
People’s League
Muslim Janbaz Force
Kashmir Jehad Force
Al Jehad Force
Al Umar Mujahideen
Mahaz-e-Azadi
Islami Jamaat-e-Tulba
Jammu & Kashmir Students Liberation Front
Ikhwan-ul-Mujahideen
Islamic Students League
Tehrik-e-Hurriat-e-Kashmir
Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Fiqar Jafaria
Al Mustafa Liberation Fighters
Tehrik-e-Jehad-e-Islami
Muslim Mujahideen
Al Mujahid Force
Tehrik-e-Jehad
Islami Inquilabi Mahaz
Mutahida Jehad Council
Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front
All Parties Hurriyat Conference
Dukhtaran-e-Millat
United National Liberation Front (UNLF)
People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK)
Manipur People’s Liberation Front (MPLF)
Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP)
Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL)
Manipur Liberation Tiger Army (MLTA)
Iripak Kanba Lup (IKL)
People’s Republican Army (PRA)
Kangleipak Kanba Kanglup (KKK)
Kangleipak Liberation Organisation (KLO)
Revolutionary Joint Committee (RJC)
National Socialist Council of Nagaland — Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM)
People’s United Liberation Front (PULF)
North East Minority Front (NEMF)
Islamic National Front (INF)
Islamic Revolutionary Front (IRF)
United Islamic Liberation Army (UILA)
United Islamic Revolutionary Army (UIRA)
Kuki National Front (KNF)
Kuki National Army (KNA)
Kuki Revolutionary Army (KRA)
Kuki National Organisation (KNO)
Kuki Independent Army (KIA)
Kuki Defence Force (KDF)
Kuki International Force (KIF)
Kuki National Volunteers (KNV)
Kuki Liberation Front (KLF)
Kuki Security Force (KSF)
Kuki Liberation Army (KLA)
Kuki Revolutionary Front (KRF)
United Kuki Liberation Front (UKLF)
Hmar People’s Convention (HPC)
Hmar People’s Convention- Democracy (HPC-D)
Hmar Revolutionary Front (HRF)
Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA)
Zomi Revolutionary Volunteers (ZRV)
Indigenous People’s Revolutionary Alliance(IRPA)
Kom Rem People’s Convention (KRPC)
Chin Kuki Revolutionary Front (CKRF)
Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC)
Achik National Volunteer Council (ANVC)
People’s Liberation Front of Meghalaya (PLF-M)
Hajong United Liberation Army (HULA)
National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) – NSCN(IM)
National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) – NSCN (K)
Naga National Council (Adino) – NNC (Adino)
Babbar Khalsa International (BKI)
Khalistan Zindabad Force (KZF)
International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF)
Khalistan Commando Force (KCF)
All-India Sikh Students Federation (AISSF)
Bhindrawala Tigers Force of Khalistan (BTFK)
Khalistan Liberation Army (KLA)
Khalistan Liberation Front (KLF)
Khalistan Armed Force (KAF)
Dashmesh Regiment
Khalistan Liberation Organisation (KLO)
Khalistan National Army (KNA
National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT)
All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF)
Tripura Liberation Organisation Front (TLOF)
United Bengali Liberation Front (UBLF)
Tripura Tribal Volunteer Force (TTVF)
Tripura Armed Tribal Commando Force (TATCF)
Tripura Tribal Democratic Force (TTDF)
Tripura Tribal Youth Force (TTYF)
Tripura Liberation Force (TLF)
Tripura Defence Force (TDF)
All Tripura Volunteer Force (ATVF)
Tribal Commando Force (TCF)
Tripura Tribal Youth Force (TTYF)
All Tripura Bharat Suraksha Force (ATBSF)
Tripura Tribal Action Committee Force (TTACF)
Socialist Democratic Front of Tripura (SDFT)
All Tripura National Force (ATNF)
Tripura Tribal Sengkrak Force (TTSF)
Tiger Commando Force (TCF)
Tripura Mukti Police (TMP)
Tripura Rajya Raksha Bahini (TRRB)
Tripura State Volunteers (TSV)
Tripura National Democratic Tribal Force (TNDTF)
National Militia of Tripura (NMT)
All Tripura Bengali Regiment (ATBR)
Bangla Mukti Sena (BMS)
All Tripura Liberation Organisation (ATLO)
Tripura National Army (TNA)
Tripura State Volunteers (TSV)
Borok National Council of Tripura (BNCT)
Arunachal Dragon Force (ADF)
People’s Guerrilla Army
People’s War Group
Maoist Communist Centre
Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist)
Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) Janashakti
Tamil National Retrieval Troops (TNRT)
Akhil Bharat Nepali Ekta Samaj (ABNES)
Tamil Nadu Liberation Army (TNLA)
Deendar Anjuman
Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)
Asif Reza Commando Force
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
Kamatapur Liberation Organisation (KLO)
Ranvir Sena
Is the mainstream media giving the American People the whole story in Iraq? No! Here is an excerpt from the Iraq Study Group Report, which states: “We could support a short-term surge in American troops in Iraq: But the mainstream press has not told you this, because it would harm their antiwar agenda.” America is in real danger from extremists, not just in Iraq, but also worldwide, and our politicians better wake up to this fact. It is essential for the United States and our allies to win in Iraq or the Middle East could blow up into a huge regional war. Politicians, message, quit playing politics with national security—you are putting us all in danger.
We could, however, support a short-term redeployment or surge of American combat forces to stabilize Baghdad, or to speed up the training and equipping mission, if the U.S. commander in Iraq determines that such steps would be effective.
US forces have raided an Iranian government representative’s office in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil and made a number of arrests, according to local television reports. There has been no confirmation from the US military.
The Siniora Government Denies the CIA has received authorization to take covert action against Hizbullah, but if this is the case, then President Bush has made the decision to take on Iran and its proxy affiliate, Hezbollah. Here is an excerpt of the newspaper article.
US agents are poised to take covert action against the Lebanese group Hezbollah. The Central Intelligence Agency has been authorized to move against it as part of a secret plan by US President George W Bush to help the Lebanese Government halt the spread of Iranian influence. Senators and congressmen have been briefed on the classified “non-lethal presidential finding” that allows the CIA to provide financial and logistical support to Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. The finding was signed by Bush before Christmas after discussions between his aides. Details of its existence, known only to a small circle of White House officials, intelligence officials and members of Congress, have been passed to The Daily Telegraph. It authorizes the CIA and other agencies to fund anti-Hezbollah groups in Leb-anon and pay for activists supporting the Siniora Government. The secrecy of the finding means that US involvement is officially deniable.
Folks we live in a very dangerous world! Israel may have to take unilateral action against Iran. The Iranian regime has signaled that it is going to go ahead with their nuclear ambitions regardless of sanctions. Israel is in a precarious position due to the fact the Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he wants Israel wiped off the map. Iran having nuclear weapons will cause great instability in the region, but if Israel strikes Iran to no avail then it could turn into a regional war like we have never seen before, thus causing a nuclear showdown. What will Saudi Arabia do? What will Syria do? Will the Middle East form a coalition against Israel? Some believe we are already in World War 3, and some think the World War 3 talk is just extreme rhetoric; but If Israel strikes Iran with a preemptive strike then I’m sure everyone would agree World War 3 has really begun.
The stakes are extremely high in this dangerous chess match. A few things to consider: Iran with a nuclear bomb and their ability to use such a weapon against US troops in Iraq; Iran’s ability to pass a nuclear weapon and or weapons to a terrorist organization, like Hamas, Hezbollah, or Alqeda; Iran’s ability to create more havoc in Iraq with suicide bombings car bombings etc. The so-called Muslim street would rise up to unparalleled madness, but what is the choice, let a madman like Ahmadinejad get he hands on a nuclear weapon? These are the choices world leaders now face, and tough choices are going to have to be made. But sitting back and trying to get Iran to act rationally may have come and gone, but we are still holding out for a peaceful resolution. But I fear preemptive action may be the only option against a rogue regime like Iran. Time will tell and the world better start engaging this difficult and dangerous situation.
Bryan K Cooper is the Editor-in-Chief of CooperRepublic.com He writes about National Security, Terrorism, Politics, and Presidential issues. You can contact Bryan K. Cooper at CooperRepublic@aol.com
Mullah Krekar was the original leader of the Islamist armed group Ansar al-Islam, and considered to be radical by any standards. But the Norwegian government continues to let Krekar lead a normal everyday life. Keeping this man from be extradited is a horrible injustice and dangerous to the world. Norway should extradite this man immediately. See Video Below!