While newly released images of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed have brought "the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks" back into the public eye just before their anniversary, it was his skyscraper-hating lieutenant Mohamed Atta who had trained to be an architect before becoming an airborne suicide terrorist. Slate's Daniel Brook goes on a three-part expedition in search of Atta's architectural education, from despised tourist projects in Cairo's dilapidated Islamic Quarter to utopian urban planning for an idealized "Islamic-Oriental City" like Aleppo. [more inside]
posted by Doktor Zed on Sep 11, 2009 - 56 comments

When Man on Wire won a Grand Jury Prize: at Sundance this year, many could hazily remember Philippe Petit's high-wire walk between the World Trade Center Towers in New York in 1974 (previously) but few knew the extent to which the entire endeavor was a wacky multinational caper. [more inside]
posted by jessamyn on Oct 11, 2008 - 32 comments

Matt Taibbi vs. David Ray Griffin Taibbi, to whose writing Metafilter frequently links, and who is currently on retainer at Rolling Stone, takes on Griffin, who is perhaps the most prominent member of the so-called "9/11 Truth Movement," in a knock-down, drag-out multiple-round bout (in three parts). Part II. Part III.
posted by Hat Maui on Oct 6, 2008 - 99 comments

In 2002 Salon.com ran an article on "forbidden thoughts" about 9/11 that they had heard expressed around them or reported by others. Apparently the response from their viewers was so overwhelming that they ran a second feature based on emails they received. All of which goes to show that while 9/11 united people in thinking about a certain subject, it certainly didn't mean that everyone thought the same thing about that same subject.
posted by clevershark on Sep 11, 2006 - 188 comments

Oliver Stone's World Trade Center movie trailer is released. Some say it's too intense. Previously discussed here. (various QT video formats)
posted by fourcheesemac on May 19, 2006 - 162 comments

Kristine Larsen: Before and After 9/11
posted by matteo on Feb 27, 2006 - 71 comments

Osama bin Laden, littérateur and new-media star. A thought-provoking analysis of bin Laden's adept use of Koranic language and the Internet by Bruce B. Lawrence, an Islamic scholar at Duke who edited a new anthology of bin Laden's public statements called Messages to the World. The Western media -- says the millionaire mass-murderer formerly trained as a useful ally by the CIA via Pakistan's ISI -- "implants fear and helplessness in the psyche of the people of Europe and the United States. It means that what the enemies of the United States cannot do, its media are doing!" Know thy enemy. [via Arts and Letters Daily.]
posted by digaman on Nov 3, 2005 - 57 comments

The (Mostly Improbable) Materials Science and Engineering of the Star Wars Universe; The Reel Thing: One Editor’s List of Great Material Moments in the Movies; Toy Story: Materials Engineering at Play, featuring an MPEG of Fluffy the three headed dog from Harry Potter barking thanks to Nanomuscle; Things that Go Boom in the Night: The Art and Science of Fireworks; Built to Battle, Robots Test Designers’ Mettle; Fabricating the Weapons and Armor of The Lord of the Rings; and, finally, Why Did the World Trade Center Collapse? Science, Engineering, and Speculation. All articles from the surprisingly interesting JOM: The Member Journal of The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society.
posted by OmieWise on Jul 29, 2005 - 8 comments

Going for broke. With four days to go before the election, Bush-Cheney '04 finally pulled the last stop and started sending out anti-Kerry mailings using images of the burning World Trade Center. The ads are paid for and officially endorsed by Bush's campaign.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Oct 29, 2004 - 87 comments

Project Rebirth went live today. Six time-lapse cameras are shooting one frame of film every five minutes from rooftops near the World Trade Center site. Explore the cameras, or watch the (rather lovely) film trailer.
posted by stonerose on Sep 8, 2004 - 9 comments

EPA misled public on 9/11 pollution
"In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, the White House instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to give the public misleading information, telling New Yorkers it was safe to breathe when reliable information on air quality was not available."
posted by jpoulos on Aug 23, 2003 - 17 comments

The two finalists for the WTC site have reportedly been chosen. The Think design and the Daniel Libeskind submission. I just hope its the 'high funded' Think version. (Although I'm also sruprised (in a good way) that it actually made it through ... considering it doesn't replace the missing office space)
posted by MintSauce on Feb 4, 2003 - 21 comments

Reader-submitted designs for the WTC I know I'm going to hell for saying this, but some of these are tremendously funny...
posted by oissubke on Dec 4, 2002 - 74 comments

New Plans for the World Trade Center. Call Frank Gehry, and keep Eric Owen Moss far, far away.
posted by four panels on Nov 20, 2002 - 41 comments

Did Lenient Fire Codes Make 9/11 Worse? Tony Fitzpatrick, the designer of the London Millennium Bridge, developed computer simulations with the help of an engineering consulting firm, in order to generate new suggestions for safeguarding buildings from terrorist attack. Fitzpatrick's conclusion: In the end, ordinary fire codes might have saved the World Trade Center victims.
posted by jonp72 on Sep 26, 2002 - 10 comments

The Voice of the Prophet. Rick Rescorla was Head of Security for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in New York. A vet of three wars and a survivor of the 1993 WTC bombing. He saved many lives that day, but lost his own on Nine Eleven, no doubt again attempting to save lives as he had eight years before. If this is what Shrub means by a Patriot, he should listen to patriots instead of try to name Nine Eleven after them. Rescorla's words echo now in a startling matter-of-fact yet poignant way. I'll copypaste a partial transcript into the body of the thread for those who can't stream video.
posted by ZachsMind on Sep 12, 2002 - 3 comments

NPR's Lost & Found Sound brought together radio producers, artists, historians, archivists, and the public broadcasting community came together to collect and preserve audio traces of the World Trade Center, its neighborhood and the events of 9/11.

What they came up with is sonicmemorial.org. [more inside]
posted by lampshade on Sep 8, 2002 - 5 comments

"Thank goodness they got those buildings. I've always hated them! They're so ugly." This article goes to show it's not just extremists who have (or initially had) inappropriate feelings about 9/11.
posted by etc on Sep 8, 2002 - 55 comments

This is the history of the WTC I've been waiting to read. The Height of Ambition, from tomorrows NYT Magazine, collects all the strings that I haven't been able to tie together myself.
posted by djacobs on Sep 7, 2002 - 17 comments

Now that's more like it. Finally a design for rebuilding the WTC that captures the appropriate spirit. Far better than the other designs I've seen. No doubt some will think it too much, though. What's your opinion?
posted by rushmc on Jun 24, 2002 - 84 comments

Cantor Fitzgerald tells its stories in new ad campaign ...the brokerage house that lost 658 employees from the 9/11 attacks on the WTC is telling its story in some nationally released television spots. The ads can also be found at Cantor Fitzgerald's site under the "View our stories" link (flash and quicktime required).
posted by tpl1212 on May 29, 2002 - 47 comments

Bag +bag=bag
posted by swift on May 24, 2002 - 12 comments

Well, well, well... it's amazing the unrelated links Google can turn up when you're careless about your keywords. Looking for the 75th anniversary Hallmark commercial (with all the people on the hillside), got this PDF file [110kb] from a UK insurance actuaries organization about the possible risks at the World Trade Center.
posted by baylink on May 17, 2002 - 9 comments

An interview with Joel Meyerowitz, the photographer granted permission to document the recovery, reclamation, demolition, and excavation work underway at the World Trade Center site. "I try to take pictures that make sense photographically, that make sense visually as art. I don't shoot evidence exclusively. I don't copy. But visual evidence is important to record. The stuff in the background is historically important and it feeds you some of the feel of the place."
posted by junkbox on May 10, 2002 - 5 comments

The worst banner design ever? I've seen some tasteless advertising in my day, but this simple animation leaves me speechless. Is there any depth to which advertisers will go to hawk their services?
posted by mathowie on Jan 21, 2002 - 56 comments

Memories from a vanished life Paul Battaglia died in the World Trade Center attacks. His Web page, however, lives on, complete with photos of his now-crumbled office and the view he once had. He also had a Blogger-powered Weblog on the front of his site, the last post of which is on Aug. 23.
posted by GaelFC on Dec 26, 2001 - 22 comments

As the September 11 Fund gets ready to release another 75 million dollars in aid money to the victims of the World Trade Center attacks, the House O.K.'s an 11.3 billion dollar aid program for New York City, and the scholarship fund for Trade Center families gets under way, Governor Pataki hands a memo to the struggling State University of New York school system demanding zero budget growth for this fiscal year and a continued tuition freeze. Oh yeah, and he doesn't want anyone to get laid off, either. Of course New York City took the brunt of the attack, but isn't it about time to remember that an entire state took a serious financial blow?
posted by xyzzy on Dec 12, 2001 - 9 comments

The WTC death count falls closer to 3,000 and the New York Times assesses the range of reactions. Some think the drop in the death toll makes a big difference; others consider it inconsequential.
posted by jjg on Dec 2, 2001 - 16 comments

Payout for TV trauma of Trade Centre relatives. "British families who watched their relatives die during live television coverage of the World Trade Centre atrocity are to be compensated for the trauma they suffered, The Telegraph has learned." We're all aware of Road Rage and Airport Anxiety; now there's a new diagnosis: Televised Trauma. Whatever happened to British stiff upper lips?
posted by Carol Anne on Nov 18, 2001 - 26 comments

Towers of Light.
"Towers of Light is a proposal for a temporary art action conceived for downtown New York City in response to the September 11, 2001 tragedies"link from the good ppl at www.haddock.org
posted by monkeyJuice on Oct 16, 2001 - 27 comments

World Trade Center Massacre: Why did it happen and where was god?
posted by racer271 on Oct 11, 2001 - 159 comments

Defend NYC From Hijacked Airplanes [Flash Required] You're somewhere in NYC shooting down incoming jets as they try to crash into the World Trade Center. The text is in French, but the mechanics are easy to understand if you know how to play missle command. Is there going to be a mod for "Hunt the Wumpus" called "Hunt The Osama".
posted by RoyalJack on Oct 7, 2001 - 21 comments

From safety to where. This article provides a great, in-depth look at the World Trade Center from an architectural standpoint. Beginning with its lead architect, a Japanese man who suffered himself from the racism of the WW2 era, it goes over the structure of the buildings and reasons why the center withstood the 1993 bombing -- and, for a while, the impacts of the two hijacked planes -- and what the future for New York and the businesses affected may hold. (Thanks to overmorgen for the link.)
posted by moz on Sep 26, 2001 - 5 comments

Interesting intelligence report points possible responsibility to terrorists other than bin Laden... Israel’s military intelligence service, Aman, suspects that Iraq is the state that sponsored the suicide attacks on the New York Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington. Directing the mission, Aman officers believe, were two of the world’s foremost terrorist masterminds: the Lebanese Imad Mughniyeh, head of the special overseas operations for Hizbullah, and the Egyptian Dr Ayman Al Zawahiri, senior member of Al-Qaeda and possible successor of the ailing Osama Bin Laden.

Includes information about connections and previous activities... check it out...
posted by adamholz on Sep 19, 2001 - 12 comments

Help create a historical record of web sites about the attacks. The Library of Congress and others want to create "a solid historical record of this time". They particularly want to find sites and blogs belonging to individuals. They're asking you to put a little "note this" linklet in your browser toolbar (like blogger's "blog this!") and click it when you see a blog or other site that has anything to do with the attacks. They'll archive it. I think this is a great idea and I know they'll need a lot of help from people like us to carry it through.
posted by jill on Sep 17, 2001 - 3 comments

Having removed ten thousand tons of debri in the first four days, it will take close to a year to remove 1.25 million tons for the two 110-story buildings.
posted by HoldenCaulfield on Sep 16, 2001 - 21 comments

Opportunism in FUD? Once a term used only for Microsoft, it seems FUD is a common problem these days. The linked site is decidedly anti-MS and seems to be appropriating FUD for their own ends. When someone uses the WTC tragedy to try and discredit their opponent in a technical debate have they gone too far?
posted by soulhuntre on Sep 16, 2001 - 5 comments

GE pledges $10 million to a fund that will assist the families of the firefighters, police officers and emergency rescue personnel who perished while responding to the attack on the World Trade Center. Cisco Systems has made gifts to key relief and support organizations serving the New York City and Washington D.C. areas, including a $6 million donation. Microsoft is making a donation of $10 million in cash and technical services. Know of any other companies that are doing something similar?
posted by riffola on Sep 14, 2001 - 23 comments

"Levine frequently would say that 'if a fire breaks out above the 64th floor, that building will fall down.'" 70s-era asbestos concern/hysteria may have exacerbated the tragedy. If some of you can get past the fact that this is a Fox news link, the story raises interesting questions about our tendency to over-react to every perceived scare, without considering the consequences.
posted by pardonyou? on Sep 14, 2001 - 15 comments

Rebuild It, Bigger! America will find an appropriate way to mourn. But if we must have a shrine or monument for our remorse, let's put it on the 200th floor, right next to the antiaircraft guns.
posted by dagny on Sep 14, 2001 - 13 comments

Creepy Animation from CNN shows the disasters in 3d... its real food for thought to think about some dude in an SGI shirt tweaking colors on the explosion plugin while a project manager asks if the more pizazz can be added... For a neat trick, notice you can watch from below as the building sinks underground (use all your mouse buttons)
posted by mantid on Sep 13, 2001 - 7 comments

extremely good photographs non graphic, but so excellant in showing many facets of this disaster.
posted by JackthaStripper on Sep 13, 2001 - 12 comments

Amazon donations page passed $1M during the last hour This is one minor lift to my spirit as I refresh the page to watch the tally grow. (Just wanted to get the link to the top of the page for those who may not have seen it)
posted by jonah on Sep 12, 2001 - 8 comments

World Trade Center tenants rosters: 1, 2
posted by dagny on Sep 12, 2001 - 14 comments

You Have Been Warned... Lois Farakhan famously said that "God will not give Europe and Japan the honor of bringing down the United States. That honor will fall to the muslims". But Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman was more specific. Check out this article by Andrew McCarthy, an assistant professor of law at Fordham University and New York Law School, who prosecuted the blind sheik for the bombing of the World Trade Center. We were - and are - more than warned. So who is blinder?
posted by MiguelCardoso on Sep 12, 2001 - 8 comments

Paratroopers? Or cruise missiles? What will America's military response be if the Taliban are determined to be liable? The Russians certainly didn't too well with a conventional military attack on Afghanistan.
posted by MattD on Sep 11, 2001 - 34 comments

Is the DFLP responsible? The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) has reportedly claimed responsibility for the attacks on the World Trade Center. This report, from a television station in Abu Dhabi, is unconfirmed. The attacks differ significantly from the DFLP's previous methods of operation. Likewise, the resources and infrastructure necessary for such attacks are far beyond the group's traditional means. Either the DFLP's claims are spurious, or it has joined forces with other groups.
posted by Davezilla on Sep 11, 2001 - 18 comments

Osama Bin-Laden confederate due to be sentenced tomorrow. Saudi citizen Mohammed al'Owhali, convicted for arranging the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Africa, is due to be sentenced on September 12, 2001. From indications, that would be at the US Courthouse in Foley Square, which is about a mile from the World Trade Center. A possible reason for the timing?
posted by dhartung on Sep 11, 2001 - 17 comments