Opixia

Terrorist Attacks in New York and Washington (9/20 - 9/25)

I was in Washington, DC when the terrorists struck. Here are my experiences and thoughts.

For my thoughts about Air Safety, even before these latest attacks, click here.

Click here for reports from Wednesday, September 26th

Click here for reports from Friday, September 14th to Wednesday, September 19th

Click here for reports from Tuesday, September 11th to Thursday, September 13th

Tuesday, September 25, 2001

Nothing much to report from yesterday. For me, it was a typical Monday in New York City, other than the fact that my neighborhood is so quiet due to the street closing by the UN. I walked up to Central Park in the middle of the day. It did seem a little quieter, but the last time I was up there during the week was back during the summer tourist season. Still, there were plenty of people just quietly going about their business. The streets seemed as active, noisy, and crowded as usual. Plenty of construction projects are active. I ate at a restaurant for dinner and it seemed to have about the same level of business as when I last ate there a month ago. So, it would seem that things are inching back to "normality" (as if that had relevance to life in the city).

It is fascinating how the "war" on terrorism is evolving. More people are talking about it as a "campaign" rather than a war. There is more emphasize on things like stopping money flows and covert operations. There is talk of a "rapprochement" with Iran (even though they are #1 on the list of countries supporting terrorism, but that's okay because Afghanistan is not even on the list!). There is only a moderate level of talk about Iraq even though there is a "camp" in the administration that wants to focus a lot of attention on "changing the regime" in Iraq. I suspect that the administration will wage a significant, but "secret" campaign in Iraq, funding and supporting the INC (Iraqi National Congress) and other opposition groups. Afghanistan may be used as more of a diversion to distract attention from our efforts in Iraq. The big risk with Iraq is that they still have SCUD missiles as well as chemical and biological weapons that they would use against Israel if we lean on them too hard. The Brits are going to be a major player in the campaign on terrorism. I read that they already have SAS (Special Services) soldiers assisting rebel fighters in northern Afghanistan.

I'll probably be heading back to DC this afternoon.

Monday, September 24, 2001

Friday I decided to go back to New York City for a few days. The city was more active than I expected from media reports. Some restaurants are just as busy and others very slow. The impact is very "uneven".

I took the Amtrak train from DC. Near Newark, the first glimpse of NYC was the Empire State Building and it took a little while to pick out lower Manhattan without the World Trade Center.

My apartment was incredibly quiet Friday night. On Saturday I found out why: they've blocked off the east end of 42nd Street at Second Avenue as well as First Avenue in front of the UN. Usually emergency vehicles use this route at all hours of the day and night, even if normal times.

Saturday I went on my usual walk down around lower Manhattan, with a few detours. The basic area of closure is south of Canal and west of Broadway. My biggest surprise was that I could not find ANY store that had the New York Times! I had to rely on the Daily News. Even the better-stocked newsstands said they only got a few copies that sold out quickly. I went to the Pier 17 shopping arcade at South Street Seaport where I usually stop for lunch. It was slow, but not a ghost town.

I took the NY Waterways ferry boat from Pier 11 on the East River over to Hoboken and Jersey City. That gave a very comprehensive view of lower Manhattan. The remains of the Trade Center and some of the damage to the World Financial Center were readily visible. There was still some smoke rising. You could see that most of the Winter Garden atrium glass was still intact, will a heavy layer of dust on top. The end nearest the towers was clearly damaged. The corner of the American Express building was also damaged (besides lots of broken windows) with some jagged pieces hanging out. Still, the World Financial Center at least LOOKED remarkably intact.

They were loading steel debris from the WTC on big barges at two sites, one on the Hudson and one on the East River near the Waterways ferry terminal. I watched from across the street for a while. It was amazing how even the heaviest of these steel beams was so twisted from the fire and collapse. Some of that steel is four-inches thick. When each large flat-bed trailer truck would pull up a team of three or four people would go over the steel (usually one peice) with a fine-tooth comb, looking for who-knows-what. Then a big crane would lift the beam and sometimes drop it onto the barge. That made so much noise, I can't imagine what the collapsing building must have really sounded like. No microphone or speaker would be able to record and reproduce it.

I walked down to the Battery Park area, but that's closed. But you could look up the streets to see glimpses of the Trade Center. There were a lot of tourists/locals "sightseeing". I walked up Broadway, but had to detour over to Nassau Street near the WTC. I passed the big bronze bull with the flags on its horns that you see in pictures. I saw the big flag on the New York Stock Exchange, but I didn't go down to the building itself since I was so busy. You could approach Broadway and the WTC area on Liberty Street. The street was blocked off about 100 feet from Broadway. This was a stone's throw from One Liberty Plaza which is the big black building that they thought was going to fall but is is good shape other than lots of broken windows. You could clearly see the remains of the WTC. It's amazing that about 10-15 stories of parts of the exterior frame of the towers is standing. They designed the towers so that most of the exterior "wind load" would be born by the exterior frame so that the interior could be lighter and require fewer columns. That's what made it so easy for the towers to collapse. It's a real shame that the design risks of the building were not known by emergency personnel.

There were lots of people milling around, taking pictures and videos. There were some survivors hanging around too. The remains of the towers were still smoldering. I was there until just after dark. When they turned on the big arc lights, they lit up the smoke/haze so brightly that you could barely see anything.

Sunday I went on my usual walk up through Central Park and over to the Hudson River. Lots of people out. You wouldn't have suspected that something had happened.

Friday, September 21, 2001

Nothing dramatic to report from the Senate Banking hearing yesterday.

I also went to the Senate Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee hearing on Air Security on Thursday. Nothing dramatic there, either. There will be a lot of cosmetic and inconvenient changes, but not much net improvement in air security. Having armed air marshals on the planes may be the best solution for now that people can have some faith in. It works for me. But there is some reluctance due to the cost. At the time of the attacks, there were 4,500 aircraft in the air over the U.S. That's a lot of marshals, not to mention flights on the ground, and shifts. And SOMEBODY has to pay for them. Still, if that's what it takes to restore confidence, go for it. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta was even reluctant to commit to providing air marshals for all the flights in and out of Washington's National Airport.

The President gave a good speech last night, but the big problem is that he is not being clear on a target date for completing the high-intensity part of the "war". I still expect in to last about two months and be followed by an extended indefinite period of lower-intensity "policing" and "surgical strike" activities.

Thursday, September 20, 2001

The House Transportation Committee hearing on the airline "bailout" was way too crowded for me to get in. They had an overflow room, but the audio wasn't working for the first half hour, but that's okay since there was so much repetition in the opening statements by the "members". The chairman kept imploring people to be brief, but being politicians, they wouldn't listen! I had something else to do at 1:00 p.m., so I only heard Jim Hoffa of the Teamsters Union. There were dozens of employees from Continental Airlines trying to get in. They all want National Airport re-opened ASAP. I agree with them. A lot of people are concerned that airline executives will use part of the bailout money to pay their bonuses even as they're laying off thousands of workers. A Continental worker from National Airport told me that they don't have to go to work, but they do get paid if they do come in (and don't get paid if they don't come in), even though they have little to do.

Security continues to evolve and is still sometimes extremely relaxed and sometimes oddly tightened.

At 10:00 a.m. there is a big hearing of the Senate Banking Committee with Greenspan, Treasury Secretary O'Neill, and the heads of the stock exchanges to discuss "The Condition of the Financial Markets". Witnesses include Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt, NYSE Chairman Richard Grasso, Nasdaq Chairman Hardwick Simmons, and NASD CEO Robert Glauber. I'll be in attendance. Here's what they'll say: "The U.S. financial system, the finest in the world, held up remarkably well and is more than capable of dealing with coming challenges." Paul O'Neill will tell us that there won't be a recession and that there will be strong economic growth next year. And Dick Grasso will tell us how wonderful the NYSE is. Nonetheless, the hearing will be quite interesting, especially when the Senators use their opening statements and questions to show off.

The administration talks about how secret their plans are and then "leaks" lots of little details. They're just way too sloppy in how they talk about this. They are not inspiring great confidence. The American people will not tolerate a long, dragged-out "war" (ala Viet Nam). The President currently has a blank check; the people expect him to cash it ASAP, so we can move on. Despite the talk, I suspect we'll see the bulk of the high-intensity military activity happen fairly quickly (start within weeks and done within two months) and then an extended, lower-intensity, anti-terrorism "policing" (surgical strikes, only as needed) for some time after that.