9/11

9/11, Debra Burlingame, Rudy Giuliani, September 11

Rudy Giuliani’s “September 11” campaign advertisement

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America was attacked on September 11. No one has sole ownership of 9/11, including my family because we lost someone.

Here is the text of Rudy Giuliani’s advertisement:

“Right before September 11 and months before I had read this book about the greatest generation written by Tom Brokaw and the book explains how brave, and how persistent, and how courageous the people were in the generation that won the Second World War.

“And during the day of September 11 living through the things that I saw and observed, immediately, when I saw people helping each other, I saw the picture of the firefighters putting the flag up, I said these are the children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren of the greatest generation. They have the same resolve, the same understanding.

“When you challenge Americans, there’s no country that stands up stronger and better than the United States of America. When you try and take something away from us like freedom, my goodness, Americans are going to be one in resisting you.

“So, the Islamic terrorists would make a terrible mistake if they confuse our democracy for weakness.

“Our democracy means we disagree with each other but when you come and try and take away from us our freedom, when you try and come here and kill our people, we’re one and we’re going to stand up to you and we’re going to prevail.”

Debra Burlingame adds:

“It’s perfectly legitimate for Giuliani to remind us of that day, and how the country responded and his role in it,” said Debra Burlingame, co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America, and whose brother, Charles, was the pilot of the hijacked plane that crashed into the Pentagon.

“I was very moved by Giuliani’s great leadership on Sept. 11,” added Burlingame, who said the “silent majority” of families affected by the attacks are not Giuliani critics.

“He helped me get through that day. He helped rally the nation when we were on our knees.”

9/11, War on Terror

14 held in plot to free terrorist in Belgium

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The War on Terror continues on the European front, as the Associated Press reports:

Belgian police detained 14 suspected Islamist extremists yesterday, and the government said they were plotting a jailbreak to free an al Qaeda prisoner convicted of planning to attack U.S. military personnel. Authorities tightened security, warning of a heightened threat of attacks despite the arrests. Police stepped up patrols at Brussels Airport, subway stations and the downtown Christmas market, which draws large crowds of holiday shoppers. “Other acts of violence are not to be excluded,” said Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. The U.S. Embassy warned Americans that “there is currently a heightened risk of terrorist attack in Brussels,” although it had no information about specific targets.

In a series of overnight raids across the country, police picked up 14 suspects and seized arms and explosives. The prime minister and prosecutor’s office said the detained suspects were planning to use the weapons to free Nizar Trabelsi, a 37-year-old Tunisian sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2003 for planning to a drive a car bomb into the cafeteria of a Belgian air base where about 100 U.S. military people are stationed.
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Trabelsi came to Europe in 1989 for a tryout with the German soccer team Fortuna Dusseldorf. He got a contract but was soon let go. Over the next few years, he bounced from team to team in the minor leagues, acquiring a cocaine habit and a lengthy criminal record. Eventually, he made his way to al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, where evidence presented at his trial showed he placed himself on a “list of martyrs” ready to commit suicide attacks. Trabelsi has admitted planning to kill U.S. soldiers. He said he met al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and asked to become a suicide bomber. He was arrested in Brussels two days after the September 11 attacks and police later linked him to the discovery of raw materials for a huge bomb in the back of a Brussels restaurant.