The effect of this headline so startled me that I had to get a screen grab of it to see if others would have the same reaction.
In my estimation, this represents a major faux pas in the delivering of the 9/11 narrative---when human credulity could be so stretched that rebellion awaits and demands the fairy tale must stop. Not hard to sweep under the rug then, given the fierce pace at which the unfolding story was delivered---remember the first case of anthrax in 25 years was announced out of the blue on October 4---plus the sheer billions of words being produced every year kept a possibility of synthesis at bay. But now it can all be reduced to just seven little words---I saw the people in the cockpit.
Poor George Sleigh didn't make this mistake. A higher up in the writer's department would have had to take the fall for failing to anticipate the justice in human reactions. The exact same line was given to someone in Arlington to deliver, I forget now who---let's just say Tim Timmerman until I relocate the actual reference---but a greater passivity must grow out of nearness to all that Federal power, and a desire to please would quell speculation of the unfathomable
Saying "the people" was just fishing bait, which if we had bitten, would have quickly turned into "rag head" or "sand nigger," so we can give ourselves some credit for steering a course here. It motivated military heroes to prevent the synthetic introduction of post-facto WMD's into Iraq to justify our invasion. Making such predictions come true would have been easy in the old days for the dark side to fabricate.
What are we to make of CNN's version of this news---a companion news article that bears the exact same Greenwich Mean time-stamp as the the BBC's news does? An example of collaborative effort, shared risk-taking, or the collusive presence of a master distribution network like the control-room that admittedly overrode and operated all the television feeds out of New York via some pre-arraigned mechanism that kicked in within a few minutes of the first explosion
If these two articles are similar because they just recast another newspaper's original work, why does CNN misspell the source as the "Newscastle Evening Chronicle?" Meanness, dumbness, or satire?
They should be required to take coals there.
September 14, 2001, CNN News, Survivor saw inside hijacked jet, Posted: 10:18 AM EDT (14:18 GMT)
LONDON, England--A British-born architect who survived Tuesday's attack on the World Trade Center watched in horror from his 91st-floor office as a hijacked jet smashed into the building.
George Sleigh, 63, originally of Gateshead, England, told the Newscastle Evening Chronicle he was close enough to the point of the initial impact to see people in the cockpit of the hijacked American Airlines Boeing 767.
"When I close my eyes and picture that airline coming towards me and the people in the cockpit it is like a dream," Sleigh said.
Aftering hearing the whining engine of the jet, "I looked up out of the window and just a few feet away from the building was this huge jet plane," he said.
"The wheels were down and I could see the people in the cockpit. I thought to myself, 'Man this guy is low in the air,' but I still thought it would clear us. But then it smashed into the tower a few floors above me.
"I couldn't believe it, even now it seems insane that anyone would do that, even a crazed terrorist."
After the jet hit the north tower, Sleigh -- who worked for the American Bureau of Shipping at the WTC -- hid under his desk from debris raining down before fleeing down a fire escape to safety.
Sleigh said the stairwells became increasingly congested as hundreds of office workers fled, some of them badly burned. After 30 minutes he reached the 25th floor, where he saw the first firefighters going up the stairs to tackle the flames.
"Their faces were grim as though they knew what they would be encountering when they got there," he said. "When I saw afterwards how the towers fell I knew those men wouldn't have made it. It was heartbreaking."
But George Sleigh did make a bad mistake if he informed the Newcastle Evening Chronicle reporter that "For the last 15 years he has worked in the World Trade Centre for the American Bureau of Shipping."
Since the American Bureau of Shipping only announced their intention to sign a long-term lease in the Trade Center on September 28, 1991, moving their headquarters there from Paramus, New Jersey, that would make any tenure there under ten years, and not a legitimate expression, or "mistakable" for either George or the reporter. See: September 18, 1991, Real Estate Weekly, Full floor leased at 2 World Trade,
Maybe Phil Jahan is right in theorizing that the figure George is presenting never actually worked a day at the ABS, only stepping into an (under)rehearsed role at some point prior to 9/11.
Also, why would he indulge in the bombs-in-the-basement controversy unnecessarily?
"As Mr Sleigh reached the ground floor an explosion ripped through the concourse of the north tower, showering him in debris and causing him shrapnel wounds."
| Friday, 14 September, 2001, 14:18 GMT 15:18 UK
'I saw the people in the cockpit'
Mr Sleigh watched the first tower collapse as he was put on an ambulance
A British-born architect has spoken of the moment he saw the people in the cockpit of the first plane to hit the World Trade Center, it has been reported.
George Sleigh, originally from Gateshead, was in his 91st floor office in the North Tower as the doomed plane closed in.
The 63-year-old heard the engine noise from the American Airlines Boeing 767 and glimpsed the interior of the cockpit, the Newcastle Evening Chronicle reported.
He told the Evening Chronicle: "I was at my desk in the morning looking forward to a normal day when I heard this loud noise. Wheels down "I looked up out of the window and just a few feet away from the building was this huge jet plane. "The wheels were down and I could see the people in the cockpit. "I thought to myself 'Man this guy is low in the air' but I still thought it would clear us.
"I couldn't believe it, even now it seems insane that anyone would do that, even a crazed terrorist. "When I close my eyes and picture that airliner coming towards me and the people in the cockpit it is like a dream." Gateshead-born Mr Sleigh, a father-of-three, emigrated to Canada in 1962 and moved to America four years later. Congested stairwells For the last 15 years he has worked in the World Trade Centre for the American Bureau of Shipping. He also told the newspaper of his harrowing escape from the devastated building. The stairwells became increasingly congested as hundreds of office workers fled, some of whom were badly burned.
He said: "Their faces were grim as though they knew what they would be encountering when they got there. "When I saw afterwards how the towers fell I knew those men wouldn't have made it. It was heart-breaking." Disaster scene As Mr Sleigh reached the ground floor an explosion ripped through the concourse of the north tower, showering him in debris and causing him shrapnel wounds. He was photographed leaving the disaster scene with two other office workers, covered in ash and soot. Within a minute of Mr Sleigh being strapped into an ambulance he saw the south tower collapse before him. Until then he had not realised that both buildings had been hit. He told the Evening Chronicle: "I never imagined that a second plane would be flown into the other one." LINK |
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