Day 2: 'You're not the only one in pain' ( Copyright © Daily Herald,

Paddock Publications, Inc.

By James Fuller Daily Herald Staff Writer
http://www.dailyherald.com/special/9.11.02/journal.asp?intid=37495455
Songs of Freedom/Tears of Remembrance: This is Day 2 of a five-day journal detailing several days spent in
New York with firefighters and the Barrington man trying to heal them.
NEW YORK - We go back to ground zero today, this time inside the fences. For perspective, you have to
understand how massive the Twin Towers were. Each tower was 110 stories tall, the same as the Sears Tower
but with shorter floors. All of the buildings around them are 60 stories at best. There were six World Trade
Center buildings in downtown Manhattan. Of those, the North Tower, the South Tower, and the Marriott Hotel,
a.k.a. World Trade Center Building Three, made up a triangle of debris. In the middle of that triangle is the
memorial to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing victims that also collapsed. Across the street to the north
was World Trade Center Building 7. That collapsed. So did the north bridge connecting the World Trade Center
to the World Financial Center, northwest of the North Tower. The only non-World Trade Center building to
immediately collapse was the tiny St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church just south of the whole complex.
About 31 other buildings sustained some form of damage from the attack, mainly from debris. Those include World Trade Center 4, 5 and 6,
which suffered partial collapses and have been demolished since then.
All of that debris and human life fed into the giant 10-acre, 70-feet deep foundation hole of the World Trade Center and the streets surrounding
it, creating a pile so large that firefighters would trek up to the roof of some neighboring structures to walk out on top of it.
Right next door to the towers was Tenhouse, a firehouse that is awaiting repair before it is used again. The firefighters who worked there now
operate out of another station. "Still Standing" is the motto of their house now. Their home is charred and now decorated by firehouse patches
from different companies across the country. Flowers, letters and other memorials have joined the patches as people flock to ground zero for a
peek at what's left. The firehouse lies on a path that most people take to get to a viewing point on the south side of the grounds. All the
windows are boarded up - blown in during the collapses. Glass is a major component of the debris as most of the office buildings in the
immediate area had all their windows blown out. Most of the panes have since been restored. The Burger King is on the corner of the same
stretch as Tenhouse. Its upper portion is black with tar - the roof started to melt with the heat of the flame broiling it received at the site. For a
time, that same Burger King was a temporary base of operations for the New York Police Department. The whole block around it became a
triage center, more like a makeshift morgue. I people-watched for about 45 minutes while we waited for clearance to get inside the fences.
Young and old from all nations are here. Their skin, their clothes, their languages are different, but they all wear the same, plain stare and faint
grimace on their faces. Some hug each other. Some still cry. Joe was involved with a little of both. A woman in her late 50s arrived at the site
while we were there. I saw her as she got there, gripping a steel barricade with one hand, the other shielding her sun glass-covered eyes. A
whimper turned to a whine, the whine to a tear drop. She shook. "You're not the only one in pain," I said to Joe. Her looked at her and went
over, put his arms around her and that's when her walls came down. They had never met before, but Mary Anne Carne became Joe's blood
sister in that instant. She told her story. Many of her friends worked in and died in the towers. Now she comes back to the site once a month,
every month, but it hasn't gotten any easier. "Oh, God! Oh, God!" The words squeezed out of her 5-3 frame even as Joe squeezed her. And
then, after a few minutes and maybe for the first time in more than 300 days, her shoulders relaxed. She took a deep breath. It was like a
demon had left her body. Seeing Joe in that moment, I began to understand why he's doing this concert tour. Just like the firefighters, he didn't
know this woman. Everyone else walked around her and didn't give her a second thought, but Joe embraced her. For him, it's not enough to
feel sorry for someone else, he has to help them. Nothing he can do will ever wipe Mary Anne Carne's memories of Sept. 11 away, nor will he
bring back the five lost men of Engine 55. But if he can make them smile, breathe again, live life with their heads up, then he's done enough.
A little mix-up in meeting people at the right place at the right time prevented us from going into the pit. You need a captain or a chief with you
to get on the site. With all the heavy construction equipment, the living are a liability. I thought about Mary Anne Carne all the way back to the
firehouse. I watched the store fronts, the windows of the homes and noticed many of them had their own little memorials. A flag. A sign.
Pictures. Life and patriotism shining through all the loss. The city is encased in a shell with more shells inside. It's a communal grief, a national
tragedy, but an individual devastation. The firehouse itself shows the same signs. The memorials sent to the firehouse mingle with the
sadness. If a funeral home ever had a Fourth of July celebration, it would look like this. The gear of the five fallen men still hangs untouched
on the racks. Keys still stick out of some of the pockets. Pictures of Stephen Russell hang in a memorial cabinet. Once upon a time, he built
that cabinet that now hold his pictures and those of his lost comrades. They called him MacGyver for his skill with tools. Below the photos lies
a pulverized, dust-coated piece of twisted metal, the only remnant of the company's original fire rig. About half the size it used to be, its identity
as one of the doors from the fire rig is not recognizable unless someone tells you what it is. Now, they have a new truck, slower than the last
according to those who drive it. One man who drove the last engine remembers it as the shield that saved his life. Paul Quinn is alternately
called "Batman" for the way he jumps to get on the rig or "Mr. Magoo" for the time he cooked with Pine-Sol thinking it was cooking oil. He's also
the only man from the original response team to the World Trade Center who made it back. The driver of the rig must stay with it when the
firefighters go into a building so there's someone to pump the water. It was Quinn's job to do that Sept. 11. The rig was at the North Tower, the
first one hit. But the South Tower came down first, and as it did, Quinn dove under the truck. "I don't know what happened after that," Quinn
says. What happened after that was his colleagues found him wandering the streets in a daze, covered in concrete dusk and not remembering
much of anything. Quinn was no longer under truck when the North Tower collapsed. The debris crushed the fire truck, pushing the rig dozens
of feet underground. It was recovered at the very bottom of the pile. His fellow firefighters are careful about the subject, because Quinn has
had a tough time dealing with the emotions of surviving while his brothers perished. They worry about him, and Sept. 11 is not discussed in his
presence. That emotion was forever immortalized by Engine 55 firefighter Pete Metzger, who had the famous shot of him taken, seated, head
down in frustration and anguish at the scene. It was the pose of a man who just lost roughly a quarter of his family. That picture is often
transposed with angels by his side. On Sept. 11, Metzger was fortunate to have Faustino Apostal by his side. Apostal was a long-time Engine
55 guy who had recently transferred to another battalion. Apostal arrived at the towers in the same solo fashion in which many off-duty firemen
hit the scene that day. Upon arriving, he saw his old rig and asked Quinn where his Engine 55 buddies were. Quinn told him they were already
inside, so Apostal grabbed a 55 helmet and geared up to go in after them. Before he did, he saw Pete Metzger arriving at the scene. Metzger
hadn't strapped his gear on yet, so Apostal told him to just stay outside. High rise fires are some of the toughest fire calls of all, and the World
Trade Center towers were the tallest in the city. Metzger protested, but Apostal already figured this was going to be a job beyond anything the
young firefighter had experienced. "Stay outside!" He told Metzger. "Get across the street and watch for jumpers."
Even as Metzger asked him what he meant by jumpers, a body crashed into the street just 30 feet away from him. Metzger stayed outside.
Apostal went in. He never came out. His body was later recovered, sheared in half. So were the bodies of Russell, Lane and Freund.
Later that day, firefighter Steve Bennett took us around the city while we waited for Joe's first concert. The Statue of Liberty is still majestic on
the inside, but learning the inside was closed for a year to beef up the lady's security tainted the experience a bit. Even Lady Liberty will carry
mace in the future. We go over to Battery Park where "The Sphere," which once sat in the lobby of the World Trade Center, now resides. It's
shot full of holes from steel that pierced its inches-thick metallic skin. The black and copper, steel abstract globe was created as a symbol of
world peace that sat in the lobby of the World Trade Center to signify how all nations worked together in the towers. Now it is a crumpled mass
of metal that symbolizes the replacement of that dream with terror and death. Seeing a 45,000-pound sculpture beaten and dented, I think
about how it must have been for all the people who were in the towers as floor after floor came down upon them. In a twist of fate, we wind up
back at ground zero, and this time we're allowed in. Only, we can't get all the way to the bottom of the pit because one of the construction
bosses informs us that more pieces of one of the planes have just been discovered. Quickly, I scanned the footprint to catch a glimpse of what
was found, and I was taken again by just how much space there is to scan. The pit is a labyrinth of nooks that must be cleaned out, reinforced,
examined with a careful hand for body parts, skeletons and DNA. Ghosts of the recent past remain. Firefighter Bobby "Smokey" Yost is with
us. He tells a tale of how it would take a couple of hours to scale different parts of the pile at its worst. Different sections had different names
to facilitate the clean-up or recovery, depending on how you viewed the pile - "The Bathtub," "The Valley," even the landfill where truckloads of
dirt from the site were taken was called "Fresh Kills." The firemen of Engine 55 mostly concentrated on the northwest corner, near the North
Tower where their rig was recovered. That was the point they believed offered the best chance at finding their brothers. The day of the attack
was a beautiful, sunny day, but around the site, a mix of ash and asbestos filled the sky and blocked out the sun in a way not seen since Mount
St. Helens exploded. "Like the middle of the night," is how the firefighters describe it. Being inside the fences you realize what it must have
been like to be trapped inside. No idea exactly where you were, how far down, how much steel and concrete was waiting to come down on you
if the pile shifted, or if anybody could ever hear or find you. I catch myself listening to the wind. Everything is a little slower around you, even
the construction vehicles move at funeral procession speed. The air is chalky. The dirt is grainy. Above it all, the miracle of a naturally-
occurring cross of steel girders still stands, an American flag flapping near it. There is no construction site joking or whistling here. This is the
valley of no smiles. Everywhere you stand, you wonder what was there only months before. Chilling to the heart, burning to the eyes. If souls
exist, there are many here. I wish I could tell them that they are not forgotten. Back at the firehouse an event takes place to wash away the
somber mood I have. Capt. Dan Feliciano of the United States Marine Corps' "White Knights" is there. He's the brother-in-law of Steve
Bennett, the firefighter who guided us through the city today. He's recently returned from Afghanistan where, he tells us, he was busy "puttin'
heads to bed." While he was there, he carried an American flag on all the missions he flew in his CH-53 Echo "Superstallion," a helicopter
used for troop transport. The flag also went on missions with several Supercobras and Harrier jets as they dropped 500 pound bombs on the
Taliban soldiers. Pictures of the bombs hang in the firehouse, each with a special message written on them in chalk to avenge the fallen
firefighters of Engine 55: "E-55 FF Russell, F--- off Osama." The captain is from New York. He tells how the Taliban would shoot at the
helicopters and then try to explain that they were only celebrating a newborn baby or a wedding. The Marines would celebrate in turn by
dropping a bomb on them. The stories bring cheers and smiles to Joe and the firefighters. "Yeah, get those bastards." There is nothing
politically correct here. At night, it's show time. Joe plays his first show at an Irish tavern called "Molly Wee," where many of the Chicago
rescue crews would go for a break after digging. It's not a neighborhood bar. Salt and pepper shakers sit on the tables and the waiters wear
shirts and ties. Waiting inside is a face from Engine 55's past. Steve Buscemi was with Engine 55 before Hollywood came calling. His face is
recognizable to millions, but tonight he's just a firefighter again. At one point he blends in so well that a woman asks him to watch the men's
room door for her while she goes in to use the facilities instead of the crowded ladies room. He's not dressed for the red carpet tonight with
black pants and a short-sleeve, deep-orange, button-up shirt. But tonight, class has no position. Some Budweiser reps show up in their suits
and ties, but they mix right in with the jean shorts and sandals and start buying beer for everyone. Buscemi put on his gear and dug at ground
zero with the rest of them. Tonight, he sings almost every song from "We Won't Get Fooled Again" to "Born to Run." There are smiles again.
Towards the end of the show, a young man from Liverpool, England, comes into the bar. It's his 21st birthday. Someone introduces him to Lt.
John Olivero. Olivero offers his hand to shake but the young man kisses it. He joins in for the song "American Pie." As they sing, footage of
Sept. 11 plays on MSNBC during a story about the attacks. The firefighters don't see it - the television is over their heads. It is an odd mix of
tragedy and recovery. Joe does a four-hour set, without a break, finally wrapping up close to 1 a.m. Buscemi walks over to Joe and hugs him
at the end. "I didn't get it before, but now I do. This is a great thing you're doing for New York." Day 3: A glance around Little Italy
By James Fuller Daily Herald Staff Writer Songs of Freedom/Tears of Remembrance: This is Day 3 of a five-day journal detailing a week in
New York with Engine 55 firefighters and the Barrington man trying to help heal them.
NEW YORK - Thursday is more laid back. Mark and I decide to head out on our own and get some local color.
Our firehouse sits in a portion of New York called Little Italy but it's almost completely overrun by Asian fish
markets, food shops, restaurants and trinket shops.
The remaining Italians are old school, still speak with an accent and take every opportunity to talk about the
neighborhood in the good old days. Across from the firehouse lives a man known as "The Mayor." He must be
pushing 80, but no one is more current on the state of the neighborhood. He talks about the old times when the
area was strictly Italian, and how the Asians have moved in as the old-timers died off.
He lives next to a tenement building that is a sweat shop for local labor.
From his window, he scolds people who park too close to the firehouse entrance, because they might block the engine from leaving.
We walk around and take it all in. The fish markets have live fish on the ice in front, gills still pumping for breath. There's even a bucket of live
frogs to pick from if you wish. We didn't. Every building has a fire escape, some more elaborate than others. They are rarely used to escape
fires, doubling as more of a laundry drier than anything. Their age makes the neighborhood feel like it has history. It's no coincidence some
scenes from the Godfather were shot here. In the past 10 months, the fire escapes have also become modified flag poles. In the days after
Sept. 11, the neighborhood put together a benefit celebration for the local firefighters. Many people came. The firefighters have yet to see a
dime from it. Sadly, a lot of that pervades the area. Just a few blocks down from the firehouse, there's a place called "The Fire Store." It's wall-
to-wall T-shirts commemorating Sept. 11. None of the money made there benefits anyone but the shop's owners. Then there's the peddlers on
street corners throughout the city, offering picture books of the attacks and rubble at between $8 to $10 a pop. Some carts even offer a
"Ground Zero" baseball cap. "You might as well sell a '3,000 Dead' hat to go with it," remarks Joe later, when I tell him about it. The
firefighters agree, but there's nothing they can do about it in the end. They sell, as do each of the firehouses, their own T-shirts in an effort to
raise money for surviving family members. But they have to compete with the much more visible grief mongers looking to profit from mass
death. Tourists by and large don't know the difference. Mark and I hop the subway to head back to Battery Park where it's a peddlers' heyday.
You can even get a Rolex watch if you trust the man carrying the black case. Mark snaps off a few shots of the Statue of Liberty in the distance
against the skyline. The park is littered with tourists and musicians looking to catch enough quarters in their cases to get enough to eat. A
young group of performers bounces out a tap show and comes around with a bucket. "We're trying to make it out to Broadway," the kid with the
bucket says. There's a lot of would-be stars, photographers, authors and musicians sprinkled around the park. Professionally-taken pictures
are perhaps the only thing of true value being sold. Even they try to out-duel each other with the clearest, most descriptive shots of the World
Trade Center. As we wander out of the park, a corner here, a corner there, we suddenly find ourselves back at Ground Zero. It has a magnetic
source that draws you to it. "You haven't seen all there is yet. You don't understand what happened here yet." Those words seem to whisper to
me as we walk around the perimeter of the site. For the youngsters there, with no emotional attachment, it's just another construction site.
"What is it, Mommy?" asked one little boy I was nearby. He couldn't have been more than 3 or 4 years old. "That's where the big towers used
to be honey." "Oh. Why aren't they there anymore?" With a pat of the head, she dismissed the question. It's too tough to explain and why
shatter innocence with the horror of murder if it is avoidable. Some day, I think, he'll read about it in school, but probably never remember he
was there. The danger is forgetting, not learning from it and I'm tempted to stop the boy and explain even as his mother escorts him away.
Then I realize that even my explanation is just a periphery understanding. My grief comes as an American that's been only indirectly assaulted
and as person who respects life. I lost nothing but my American bravado. I have secondary grief.
We go up the makeshift bridge to the World Financial Center. The bridge is built in a way that it screens off any possible view down into
Ground Zero as you pass over it. There are gaps here and there, but there are burly, Fat Tony-types standing in the way of anyone who would
look out of them. Inside the World Financial Center, the windows that overlook Ground Zero and were blown in by the force of the collapse
have been replaced with smoked glass so you can't see out. The firemen say they felt the shock wave of the collapses as they stood in the
station nearly seven blocks away, an unseen push with a source heard seconds later. New York wants you to see the site, and yet they don't.
Not all of it. In that sense the city is like a wounded child unwilling to reveal how bad the bruise really is. We leave and come upon the North
Cove Yacht Harbor. Flags fly at half mast on the ships docked there, not nearly as many as there used to be. There is a memorial dedicated
specifically to the police and firefighters who died in the attacks. It's just off the water in a little white tent. Police and fire company patches from
all over the world surround the photos of the fallen heroes. A pair of construction hats sits near a poster. The giant, framed picture sits in the
middle with little head shots of each of the 343 firemen who died on Sept. 11. To see them all collected in one photo doesn't do them justice. To
see them only as firefighters is dehumanizing in a way. It's when those faces are pulled out individually by their family members that you learn
who they were. Many have their own little section of the memorial where there face accompanies an "I miss you, Daddy" or a "Gone too soon"
or an anonymous "Thank you for saving me." Mark and I head back to the firehouse after that. The house is locked, the engine gone. They are
out on a call. I watch the pigeons in front drink anti-freeze from a puddle in the street. In a little while, the engine returns. Angels with dirty
faces, their gear is smoky as always, but the call was minor. Dinner is a family event. Everyone eats together. They take turns cooking, but
they all know how to cook in large portions. The city doesn't pay for their meals. The firehouse is viewed as a country club in terms of the city
budget. Each firefighter must pay a fire tax for its general upkeep. Anything else is extra and must be paid specially by pooling money together
out of their own pockets. A visiting firemen from another company forks out $7 for his spaghetti. Nighttime comes and its time for Joe's show.
This one is at a bar called Danny Boys in Staten Island. Staten Island is still a true island surrounded by water. Joe is already in full song when
we walk in, but he glances over when he hits an interlude and asks, "Did you miss me?" The T-shirt selling station operates from a single table
near the door, but people aren't buying. A few are sold through the course of the night, but no major numbers. A fellow Barrington resident, Ron
DeAville, who is also a part-time firefighter, has taken time out of his life to come to New York with Joe to act as roadie pre-concert and sell
shirts during the show. He believes in the cause, but it's easy to feel like people are forgetting when the shirts aren't selling, he says. In the
middle of the set, Joe takes time out to talk about why he's playing. He touches on his family, what it all means to him, who the money goes to
and he tries to sprinkle in a little comedy every now and then. In telling about his own life, sometimes he plays a sampling of some of the songs
people would best remember his voice from. They aren't platinum hits, but when he belts out "Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce,
cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun," it usually gets a good laugh from the crowd. From there he mixes in the classic "You sweet
talker, Betty Crocker" and caps it off with the "Sh, Sh, Sh, Shasta" jingle. "Ha, I put those suckers out of business, didn't I?" He laughs into the
microphone. A heckler yells, "Shut up!" The firefighters turn around in unison. This guy just made a serious mistake. "Who said shut up?" Joe
asks. No one answers. "I'll come down there and kick your ass," Joe offers, but the threat is unnecessary. The crowd has put the heckler in
his place. If it wasn't for the presence of Bobby Lane's parents, the guy probably would have gotten a lot more than a hush. The Lanes are in
the front row at the bar. Mr. Lane sits on the corner stool, cane handing on the edge of the bar watching his wife dance to Joe's guitar. "My son
died 10 months ago today," he says. Only then does it sink in that today is July 11, an infamous anniversary. Tonight the firefighters dance
more than they sing. As it gets later, the bars gets smokier and I step outside. There I meet Cheryl, the wife of Fire Marshal Charlie Ferris. She
tells me about how the wives of "the guys" were frantic on Sept. 11. "Have you heard from So and So? Have you talked to this guy and that
guy?" she said, her hands working the story as much as her mouth. It's been 10 months. Flashbacks are common. The emotions are still
there. When you talk to somebody about it and they really allow themselves to step back in time to that moment, they either become
immediately somber or frantic. I discover that the way people deal with it is an individual effort. The firefighters mainly stare off when they talk
about it. Cheryl and her husband and family escaped most of it because they were on vacation in Disney World. But then Disney World was
closed, a potential target itself. While they tried to figure out how to get back to New York, they sat in the hotel watching for images of people
they knew. "It was so frustrating because everything they talked about had a Florida angle," she said. "Forget Florida, I want to know about
what's going on in New York." As all planes were grounded, they had to get a car to drive back. At 90 mph, the drive was fast and stressful, but
everyone was eager to get back and help and find out what and who were lost. She talks about Joe and what a wonderful thing it is that he's
doing, helping the families of the dead, helping the hearts of the living. I go back inside to catch the end of Joe's set. He's played for more than
three hours at this point. I sit down next to one of the three visiting firefighters from Emlenton, Pa., a small town just off I-80. He tells me how
he became involved with Engine 55. As the attacks unfolded, he and his brothers at Emlenton's Engine 55 wanted to help. They were
supposed to hook up with a team coming from Chicago on the way to New York, but missed them. So, they put their gear on, stood on the
interstate and collected money. In total, they raised $11,000. In deciding what to do with all the money, they came up with the idea of finding
out if there was an Engine 55 in New York. They found it, delivered the money and are now part of the New York family. Family. That's what it
comes down to. Everyone helps each other. They work as a team to stay alive and now they team up to help the families of those that died. In
the beginning, they tried to do it all themselves. When that became too hard, they sought help and found Joe Cantafio. They put their faith in
him.
"We just hoped he was for real," said Lt. John Olivero. "Now we've got a friend for life.

Day 4: A look at Angel Circle, dedicated to victims never recovered

By James Fuller Daily Herald Staff Writer

Songs of Freedom/Tears of Remembrance: This is Day 4 of a five-day journal detailing a week in New York with
Engine 55 firefighters and the Barrington man trying to help heal them.

NEW YORK - By Friday, the mornings are coming ridiculously soon. We've been on a rock star schedule, minus
the sleep-all-day part. The getting up at about 8 a.m., running around the city all day, going to Joe's concerts at
night and crashing into a squeaky firehouse bunk at about 3:30 a.m. for four hours of siren-wrecked sleep is
taking a toll on me.

At all hours of the night, the speaker pumps a two-tone siren into the bunk room. "Engine," calls a voice right
after. That means there's a fire call and before I can shake the smoke from the bar out of my eyes, the firemen
are in their 100-pound gear, flashing out of the station. But I don't mind. There's something about a shot of adrenaline right out of sleep that
puts a glint in your eye. I never seem to hear them come back. Even after a late-night call, risking their lives, the firemen are courteous,
creeping into their bunks like mice. I've never known a group of guys who are this selfless, giving their beds and their lives to complete
strangers. When I wake, the aroma of coffee and breakfast are already wafting up the fire poles. In the kitchen, plates are already washed and
newspapers are turning to the sports section. Nobody really wants to read the news side anymore. "Normal?" Asks one firefighter to my
question of what the normal Friday schedule is. "What's normal anymore?" Sept. 11 created a new normal. The recent past is still very recent
here. There is no compassion burnout among the firefighters. Some people think firefighters can adjust to this loss quicker than others. After
all, isn't it an inherent risk of the job? Don't these things happen from time to time? Not like this. Never like this. On Sept. 11, New York lost
343 firefighters. In the entire 136-year history of the department 752 firefighters have ever lost their lives in the line of duty. Sept. 11 was
roughly 70 years worth of death all in one day. It is incomprehensible in its enormity.

But it's not just the loss, it's the collective amount of bravery all mustered at once. Only battlefields see comparable heroics. I've only been here
five days, but I'd trust every one of these guys with my life. Around the firehouse, I'm known as "Jimmy Olsen" or "The Kid" now. Getting
ribbed isn't a disgrace here; it's a badge of honor. Everyone has a nickname. Even Capt. Tom Toomey is called "Short Stop" over his lack of
height. He's about 5' 6" or so, but he carries the muscular build fire fighting necessitate. There's Smokey, Flat Back, Rocky and Blockhead. The
list goes on but the meanings only become apparent after being around the guys for awhile. The highlight of the daytime activities is a place in
Staten Island dubbed "Angel Circle." There, on a tiny, pork chop-shaped patch of grass that would normally serve to form traffic and turning
lanes where people come to grieve who have nothing to say goodbye to. Here, family and friends, girlfriends and acquaintances have placed
pictures, mementos, funeral cards and candles in honor of people who were never recovered in whole or in part. It is a neighborhood-
maintained site that the city has no choice but to allow. It has obtained the sanctity of holy ground. The park district has even donated some
trees and a local florist, Ariemma's, has planted flowers in the shape and color of the American flag at the site. The same flowers form the
perimeter of what is now a memorial garden. There are many faces here. Some are dead, some only half alive. The pictures occupy 1-foot by
1-foot spaces and family gather in front of them at various points of the day. Some sob openly. But today, one family of regulars, the
Espositos, have news. For the people who frequent Angel Circle, it's great news, the best. "They DNA'd my son last week," Mr. Esposito says
with a swallow. Joe tells me that the last time he saw the Espositos, they were very sullen. Mr. Esposito used to wear a ball cap pulled close
down over his eyes, a shield for grief, too proud to cry in public. But there is no shame in this place. Now, Francis Esposito has been identified
and the cap is gone. Chris Mozzillo's picture is here. In front are several toys, a small fire helmet, some metal fire trucks and other trinkets.
They are his childhood toys, life in full-circle. The memorial site changes with the seasons. Pumpkins in October, turkeys in November and so.
Solange Berte, one of the neighborhood residents maintaining the site, tells the story of how the idea started last September with the seeds of
just a few pictures and an old fish tank with tea lights in it. Gradually, more pictures and ornamentation came including the three-foot high
angel statues that give the site its name. One of them was stolen around Christmas time and now they are chained and locked down to poles.

Berte is a nurse just retired last August. For 40 years she tended to the living. Now she tends to memories. This is a pain she has no medicine
for except an attentive ear when family are present. It is not the natural order of things. Parents do not grieve for their dead children, it's
supposed to be the other way around. Not in war. There is no natural order here. Here I begin to realize that New York lost 343 firefighters, but
New Yorkers lost 343 daddies, sons, brothers, wives, cousins, school mates, friends and neighbors. Firefighter is just the Superman persona, it
is the Clark Kent alter ego that will be missed. Lt. John Olivero's car, a deep-green Subaru Forester, has a new identity to me now. In the back
seat are "Bear in the Big Blue House" sing-a-long books. Olivero is a daddy to his children and that is his most important job. We also visit
Central Park today, a haven for a Beatle fan like Joe. Strawberry Fields has no strawberries, or fields for that matter, but the "Imagine"
memorial is a draw for everyone with a song in their head. Imagining a world at peace was John Lennon's vision. There is a plaque about 15
yards away from the circular memorial dedicating the revamping of the park following his assassination. Dozens of nations signed onto that
plaque in support of Lennon's vision of world peace. The first name on that list is Afghanistan.

Some massage merchants manage to swipe about $200 from Joe's pocket as we walk past them and their hands-on "demonstration." We
don't realize it until we leave the park. Joe was mugged in broad daylight, but he shakes it off. Those things somehow seem smaller now.
There are worse things that happen in New York. We catch a ride back to the firehouse in a private taxi afterward. The driver takes a phone
call and speaks in a tongue I've never heard before. "Bet you can't guess what that was," he says. He then tells us he's from the Middle East,
and now there's a tension in the air that makes everyone's eyes lock in on the driver. Mine shift from the driver to Joe, who's in the passenger
seat, and back. If he says he's from Afghanistan, I don't know what reaction he'll receive. "Egyptian. I'm Egyptian," he says. If I didn't know
about Joe's passionate feelings about the war on terror, I might have shrugged it off as just an odd moment. But Joe pulls no punches during
his shows. His beliefs are well-known. "Getting those bastards" is a phrase he often repeats, a feeling that seems to pervade much of New
York. Joe operates off raw emotion, that's what keeps him going. Sometimes he gets criticism at his shows for his eye-for-an-eye approach. It
doesn't faze him. The shows are for the firefighters and they share his beliefs. "If the people that come don't like it, they can leave," Joe tells
me one night I ask him about it. This night, Joe plays a late show at 10 p.m. Beforehand, he confesses to his fatigue. It's the first time he
admits it. Pushing 50 with knees that would make a retired football player call him brother, the Army recruiter didn't bat an eye when he turned
Joe down on Sept. 11. Joe laughs about it now. "The only way they'd want me is if the terrorists would die laughing as they saw me come up
over the hill," Joe says. He still manages to walk around the city all day, stand for a four-hour set without a break and then sleep on a couch in
the firehouse kitchen for little more than a nap. It's not because he couldn't sleep on a bed, he chooses not to. "Those beds are for the guys,"
he says. "They're the ones here working. I just play the guitar." It is a competition between Joe and firefighters over who can be more selfless.
Every dinner and lunch check, every bag to carry, who can cook the best meal, who brings the best dessert to he table, it's all a tug-of-war.
The Golden Rule has rarely seen more worthy representatives. Joe rides separately to the show and beats us there. We are lost. Even worse,
we have the stage equipment, guitar included. After spending 45 minutes looking for Molly Maguires, our guide, firefighter Charlie McElhore,
figures out that we're supposed to be looking for Marty O'Brien's. Charlie's nickname is "Blockhead." The show starts late, but it's not a big
deal. The bar isn't a huge venue and they aren't paying Joe to be there. The whole place is about the size of a Chicago gangway, but with
pictures on the walls. The graffiti in the men's room confirms it is a firefighter hangout. Various messages to Osama have replaced the for-a-
good-time-call innuendo. Back in the bar, in a corner alcove, something that used to be a couch in a former life serves as a temporary repose
after hauling in the gear. It is little more than a sheet-covered spring. At this point, everyone is already wiped out, so I help set up the
equipment. I've become a roadie straight out of something in "Almost Famous." The firefighters turn out in force tonight. Even Capt. Toomey
shows up and brings the house down with his back-up vocals of "I'm your captain" on a Grand Funk Railroad tune. He spends the rest of the
night trying to convince me to talk to a woman at the end of the bar. I am one of the guys. The firefighters are feeling bold tonight. Chris
Geraghty does his best Elvis hip-waggle and then follows it up with a convincing Mick Jagger peacock strut on "Satisfaction." Someone else
from the bar joins in and a dueling Mick competition breaks out. Joe sings his set and strums up the nightly highlight of "American Pie" when
all the firefighters come to the microphones to sing along. Tonight, they insist I sing too. As everyone stands huddled around the mikes, the
firemen slap me on the back. And even though Don McLean might cringe to the rendition, it is one of the greatest honors of my life just to be
there with them, in the circle. I can barely break my smile enough to get the lyrics out.

When the night is over, I have the best four hours of sleep I've ever had.

Go to Last Day

Last day: Meeting the Russells; the final concert

By James Fuller Daily Herald Staff Writer

Songs of Freedom/Tears of Remembrance: This is Day 5 of a five-day journal detailing a week in New York with
Engine 55 firefighters and the Barrington man trying to help heal them.

NEW YORK - Today was a journey into temporary insanity. Not the murderous kind, but the insanity that comes

with a quest for dead loved ones.

For seemingly endless days, Cliff Russell was a ghost chaser. Somewhere in the unnatural graveyard was his
brother, Stephen, an Engine 55 firefighter. Or maybe, in a please-God-let-it-be wish, Steve still walked the
streets in a daze. It was one of the rare times you'd ever wish a family member to be in a hospital with amnesia. Cliff Russell's basement is
filled with mementos of his quest. In one corner sits a large, homemade poster. On the right side, a photo of Stephen in his fire gear, smile on
his face. On the left side, a photo of Cliff Russell wearing that same gear, his little brother's gear, fatigue on his face. There is no hesitation in
his voice. He speaks like the words have waited to come out for years. He talks about how he, a civilian with no fire experience went
undercover as a fireman into ground zero to look for his brother. He takes me on a tour of the relics. A chunk of glass from a World Trade
Center window sits near a small box with Steve's name on it. There are only about 3,000 boxes like it in the world, each with a different name
on it. "It's what you have and if you were never recovered, it's still all you have," Russell says of the box. Then comes another box.

Out of a small plastic container Russell pulls out a small hand-size, Africa-shaped piece of cement. It's part of an area known as stairwell 6b.
Holding it, you feel as though you should set it down and say a prayer. It feels chalky to the touch, dust particles still clinging to it. "When you
smell this rock, its scent brings back some memories," Russell said. "This smell is the smell that permeated Manhattan and Brooklyn and
Staten Island and everything else. When you smell that smell, you'll connect right away."

I take a whiff gingerly, like I'm checking whether something has gone bad in the refrigerator. I immediately feel poisoned. A bitter taste shoots
up the back of my tongue and remains for several seconds, like someone lit a thousand sparklers and let them burn all the way down at once
while holding them.

It is the smell of 3,000 dead people mixed with molten metal and pulverized concrete.

Then Lt. John Olivero takes a small sniff and jerks back a foot, like someone had just placed smelling salts under his nose. It's an instant
flashback and his eyes are wide. To complete the journey, Russell shows us a photo album of shots he took with disposable cameras during
two days of digging at the site the week of the attacks. Everything has an inch of powder on it. He talks of sections still incredibly hot to even
walk across. There is a fire truck sitting in the middle of West Street with no tires on the rims. They melted off from raw heat. Every picture has
a story.

"This is a typical void where you could say, who knows?" Russell said. "Your head was always spinning with that."

He spoke of finding bodies in various condition.

"They looked just like sleeping men," Russell said of one group of firefighters discovered.
"In the night on this day, it was really bad because that's when we found legs, arms, torsos and nobody ever had a head. Nobody in the street
ever had a head," he said. I cannot imagine what it was like. The photos only capture one scene, they do not reveal the hearts of the workers.
What was it like to discover someone you had once sat and ate with, risked your life with, even loved, is now dead? And then to scoop up what
was left into an orange bag, a sterile goodbye. After, how do you put the image of that out of your mind enough to sleep? Sometimes, Russell
said, you'd be standing or kneeling on someone and not even know it. It was all just to find something to say goodbye to and to know that hope
was gone. Then the day Cliff Russell both prayed for and dreaded arrived. Another work crew in the early morning hours of Oct. 22 finally
turned over the right pile of debris and found Stephen Russell's broken body. Cliff Russell's heroic masquerade was over. "When they called,
'55 get up here!', I didn't know whether to thank God or hold out for another couple days of hope," Russell said. "I know what it's like not to be
recovered. That's another planet. It was like somebody came from behind me and picked up a whole desk off my back when I read that name
in the paper that day. "There are a lot of things that were answered. He's not wandering around. He's not in the hospital and doesn't know who
he is. He's not alive and in some kind of freaked-out state. I know where he is and we got him back and I can put him to rest. I made my peace.
I don't have to talk to the ghosts I used to talk to every morning." There are no pictures of body parts or men being pulled out. They would lend
nothing to experience, which is already evident even for someone without a personal connection. It seems unreal. As we flip through the
album, music plays in the background. It's "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd. Poetically appropriate for the moment as I look into Cliff
Russell's eyes. He looks sleepy, but yet he bounces around with great energy. His heart is numb, but the mind still remembers. There is no full
recovery, just acceptance in his demeanor.

It seems to be more than his parents have.

"People who lost somebody are not going to want to ask for money," Russell said of the charity efforts, Joe's included. "My mother gets a
check, she gets upset. If the money that was in the check ever gets spent in its total, she's going to be very upset. There's a connection. Now
the money becomes Steve. "I wouldn't even bring this conversation up in front of my folks. The person who's supposed to receive your hard,
unbelievably hard work is on the verge of a friggin' flip to receive that money because it becomes the person.

Everything becomes the person. It's whacked."

Hearing those words I begin to prepare myself for the visit to his parent's house. Everyone is quiet for a moment as the weight of his words
sink in. The money becomes the person. I feel sick about all the people who try to make a buck off ground zero merchandise for their own
profit. On the way over, we drive past some burned out buildings. They are the homes destroyed in the crash of the passenger jet that lost its
engine flying over a residential neighborhood just weeks after Sept. 11. To think that the Russells lost their child and then had a jet crash into
their own neighborhood is bewildering. How much is too much for a mind to take in at once?

Cliff Russell says he drives past the houses everyday, but doesn't even notice them anymore.

"I'm pretty sane," he said. "Well, I think I'm sane."

That gets a chuckle from everyone listening. The crash occurred just nine days after he had buried Steve.

The home of Russell's parents sits right off the East River, with a small pier in the back yard. Jets from nearby airports fly over the house, close
enough to hit with a good bottle rocket. I think that it must be like dangling the memory of the crashes in the faces of Marie and Cliff Russell Sr.
every day. The day of the attacks was clear and the skyline where the World Trade Center stood is very visible from the pier in back of the
house. Mrs. Russell stood there and watched the smoke billow out from the towers as they burned. She even began to video tape what surely
was an historic moment. Then the towers fell and she knew that Steve was likely inside. She went inside her home, shut the curtains that
looked out at the skyline and didn't open them for weeks. They both come out to meet us as we pull into the driveway. I ask John Olivero if
he's ready for this. Steve had an apartment branching off his parents' home. John had not been there since Steve died.

"This is a little weird," Olivero said. "But I want to do it."

Going inside the home, Mrs. Russell asks if we want to watch the two minutes of video she shot that morning. I'm taken by her bravery, but to
relive that moment in full color is something I have no right, or desire to put her through. We pass. She takes us over to Steve Russell's
apartment. Up a steep and narrow staircase we enter. The place hasn't been changed, nothing moved save to clean out the refrigerator since
September. The calendar in his office still reads September with a note that he was scheduled to go skydiving the week of the 17th.

"For my birthday," Olivero says when he sees it.

Cliff and his mom spend several minutes arguing about the disappearance of a card. It was yellow in color with a cat on it and depicted the
World Trade Center towers burning, a joke card created before Sept. 11.

"It's there, but then it's not there," Cliff says to his mom, miffed about its disappearance. "Somebody moved it."

"Nobody moved it," she responds rifling through drawers where it was last spotted. "It's here."

The money becomes the person. So do his belongings.

In the bedroom, there are still vacuum lines on the green carpet. Steve's laundry is folded on the made bed. Cliff says his mom probably folded
it.

"Steve had a tendency to roll his shirts," he said.

The kitchen table still has mail on it and a shopping list for an upcoming project: Hand tacks, saw gun, belt sander.

The living room feels lived in. There are symbols of Stephen Russell's many hobbies, diving, mountain biking, boating. The book shelf holds
titles from Stephen King to Andy Rooney and Howard Stern. A television guide from Newsday is on the coffee table for the week of Aug. 22 to
Sept. 1. A dive log book sits near it with pictures of his 40th birthday party. In the middle is a huge plant that is more like a tree. It is 30 years
old, an offshoot of a plant Steve gave to his mother when he was 10 years old. For just a minute, she and I are alone in the living room. I thank
her for taking time and taxing herself just to let me see where her son lived. She tells me that she comes in every day to water the plants and
sees the many trinkets reminding her of her son.

"I die every time," she says.

She speaks of all his hobbies. He has, he has, he has and then, finally, he did. It is setting in, you can see it on her face as she looks around.
This is her son's home, but he isn't coming home. If I knew her better, I'd hug her. We leave the home and walk back out to the driveway to
leave. Thank yous are exchanged in abundance. Mr. Russell shakes my hand. Mrs. Russell hugs me and kisses me on the cheek. I'm able to
give that hug after all. Driving away, I'm in a daze. Everyone is in a "wow" state of mind. I look at my left hand where I held the piece of
concrete from the World Trade Center. It is still chalky, still carries the scent of the stone as I sniff it. I let it lay on my leg, palm up. I want to
keep that smell with me a little longer so I don't forget. We have to rush back and get the equipment for Joe's show. The bar is called Bridget's
and it's larger than any of the three preceding venues. But the place is nearly empty, just a handful of people sitting at the bar. There will be few
T-shirt sales tonight. The event was not promoted and when Robin Freund, the widow of Lt. Peter Freund shows up, she blasts Olivero for at
least not having more Engine 55 guys there. He jumps on his cell phone and in an hour or so, a few more show up. Joe comes out of the
men's room before his set and tells me that he's never had a better men's room experience. I go in to see what he means and find that there's
a laminated picture of Osama bin Laden stuck to the bottom of the urinal. I'm totally burned out from the week and emotional experience of the
Russell home. I sit in the corner most of the night until Joe calls me up with the rest of the crew to sing "American Pie" again. They sing it every
night, but it never gets old. When the show is done, I begin to realize that I physically hurt. The week's activities have taken their toll on me. I
wonder what made me think jogging with John Olivero in the morning was a good idea. We run up to the waterfront and over behind Ground
Zero where the police and firefighter memorial was set up. We talk about life and how we both grew up, his time in the army, his desire to be a
firefighter. At the memorial, he pointed out many, too many, faces he knew. "I went to high school with him. I played ball with him. This guy was
a good guy." And so on. He doesn't mind talking about the attacks, it's therapy and an education for those who weren't there, like me. "If
you've got a problem talking about it, then you've got a problem," he reasoned. But many do have a problem talking about it. Even at the
firehouse, there are guys who just don't want to talk about it and you have to respect that. Some guys you don't talk to about it because they
are still having a very hard time dealing with it. We will leave in the morning. I know I'll be sad, "heartbroken" as Joe calls it. The firemen of
Engine 55 are some of the best guys I've ever met. Their story is real. Their loss is painful. Their hearts are golden. I've learned a lot about
Sept. 11 since I've been in New York, more than I ever could from a history book. Years from now, it will all just be another History Channel
documentary, but for me, it will remain current. Sept. 11 changed New York. Coming to New York changed me. I will never forget, nor do I want
to.
One family prepares for a day of emotions
By Patrick Waldron Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted on 9/11/02
http://www.dailyherald.com/special/waronterrorism/story.asp?intID=3751083
Unlike last Sept. 11, Spencer King and his family won't be tuned into the television today looking for answers.
Instead, King said, he will spend the day talking with other family members and trying to avoid the images of the World Trade Center being
destroyed. "I'm not turning on the TV," the 46-year-old St. Charles man said, "unless it's the Golf Channel." A year ago today, his brother,
Andrew Marshall King, went to work on the 104th floor of the Trade Center's north tower and never came home. Andrew King was one of the
700 employees at Cantor Fitzgerald who died that day. His wife lost a husband. His three children lost a father. Spencer lost his brother - a
man he described as his best friend. A native of St. Charles who lived in New Jersey, Andrew King is remembered as an athletic boy who grew
into a devoted family man. When he wasn't working or with his family, his passion led him to the golf course.
A scratch golfer, Andrew's love for the golf course was well known. So, when his brother and father began thinking of ways to honor his
memory, they knew any remembrance should be tied to the game. The family came up with a tribute they hope will grace the ninth fairway at
the Geneva Golf Club for 100 years. With financial support from friends and other supporters, they decided to build a graceful golf course
bridge. The arching bridge, modeled after the famous stone Swilcan Bridge at St. Andrews Old Course in Scotland, spans a small creek that
cuts through the ninth fairway and several other holes. About 200 family members and friends dedicated the granite stone structure, designed
by King's father, Wes, on May 18. A temporary plaque atop the Andrew Marshall King Memorial Bridge reads, "Dedicated to those lost. Sept.
11, 2001. From his family and friends ... He loved this course." Small boulders line the waterway just beneath the overpass. Flowers and other
plants grow at the bridge's footing on either side. "It's just beautiful," said Geneva Golf Club member Hadley Johnson. A family friend who
lives in Oregon is working on a permanent plaque to be mounted on the bridge. Spencer King has played the course a half-dozen times this
summer, many of those rounds with old friends of his brother. Each time he walks off the ninth tee he has mixed feelings. "We'll be walking
over the bridge and we'll...," he said, his voice trailing off. "It's emotional." But today, there won't be any golf for the King family. Or any special
ceremony. "Everybody is kind of dealing in their own way," King said. "It's just another day.
"And my brother is still gone."

Summary of evidence against Osama bin Laden

Posted on 10/5/01
The following is the full text of the summary of evidence against Osama bin Laden in U.S. terrorist attacks, released Oct. 4 by the British
government.
INTRODUCTION
1. The clear conclusions reached by the government are: Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, the terrorist network which he heads, planned
and carried out the atrocities on 11 September 2001; Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida retain the will and resources to carry out further atrocities;
the United Kingdom, and United Kingdom nationals are potential targets; and Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida were able to commit these
atrocities because of their close alliance with the Taliban regime, which allowed them to operate with impunity in pursuing their terrorist activity.
2. The material in respect of 1998 and the USS Cole comes from indictments and intelligence sources. The material in respect of 11
September comes from intelligence and the criminal investigation to date. The details of some aspects cannot be given, but the facts are clear
from the intelligence.
3. The document does not contain the totality of the material known to Her Majesty’s Government, given the continuing and absolute need
to protect intelligence sources.

SUMMARY
4. The relevant facts show:
Background
Al-Qaida is a terrorist organization with ties to a global network, which has been in existence for over 10 years. It was founded, and has
been led at all times, by Osama bin Laden.
Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida have been engaged in a jihad against the United States, and its allies. One of their stated aims is the
murder of U.S. citizens, and attacks on America’s allies.
Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida have been based in Afghanistan since 1996, but have a network of operations throughout the world. The
network includes training camps, warehouses, communication facilities and commercial operations able to raise significant sums of money to
support its activity. That activity includes substantial exploitation of the illegal drugs trade from Afghanistan.
Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida and the Taliban regime have a close and mutually dependent alliance. Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida
provide the Taliban regime with material, financial and military support. They jointly exploit the drugs trade. The Taliban regime allows bin
Laden to operate his terrorist training camps and activities from Afghanistan, protects him from attacks from outside, and protects the drugs
stockpiles. Osama bin Laden could not operate his terrorist activities without the alliance and support of the Taliban regime. The Taliban’s
strength would be seriously weakened without Osama bin Laden’s military and financial support.
Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida have the capability to execute major terrorist attacks.
Osama bin Laden has claimed credit for the attack on U.S. soldiers in Somalia in October 1993, which killed 18; for the attack on the U.S.
Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998 which killed 224 and injured nearly 5,000; and were linked to the attack on the USS Cole on
12 October 2000, in which 17 crew members were killed and 40 others injured.
They have sought to acquire nuclear and chemical materials for use as terrorist weapons.
IN RELATION TO THE TERRORIST ATTACKS ON 11 SEPTEMBER
5. After 11 September we learned that, not long before, bin Laden had indicated he was about to launch a major attack on America. The
detailed planning for the terrorist attacks of 11 September was carried out by one of Osama bin Laden’s close associates. Of the 19 hijackers
involved in 11 September 2001, it has already been established that at least three had links with al-Qaida. The attacks on 11 September 2001
were similar in both their ambition and intended impact to previous attacks undertaken by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, and also had
features in common. In particular:
Suicide attackers
1. Coordinated attacks on the same day
2. The aim to cause maximum American casualties
3. Total disregard for other casualties, including Muslim
METICULOUS LONG-TERM PLANNING
1. Absence of warning.
6. Al-Qaida retains the capability and the will to make further attacks on the U.S. and its allies, including the United Kingdom.
7. Al-Qaida gives no warning of terrorist attack.

THE FACTS
Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida
8. In 1989 Osama bin Laden, and others, founded an international terrorist group known as “al-Qaida” (the Base). At all times he has been
the leader of al-Qaida.
9. From 1989 until 1991 Osama bin Laden was based in Afghanistan and Peshawar, Pakistan. In 1991 he moved to Sudan, where he
stayed until 1996. In that year he returned to Afghanistan, where he remains.
THE TALIBAN REGIME
10. The Taliban emerged from the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan in the early 1990s. By 1996 they had captured Kabul. They are still
engaged in a bloody civil war to control the whole of Afghanistan. They are led by Mullah Omar.
11. In 1996 Osama Bin Laden moved back to Afghanistan. He established a close relationship with Mullah Omar, and threw his support
behind the Taliban. Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban regime have a close alliance on which both depend for their continued existence. They
also share the same religious values and vision.
12. Osama bin Laden has provided the Taliban regime with troops, arms and money to fight the Northern Alliance. He is closely involved
with Taliban military training, planning and operations. He has representatives in the Taliban military command structure. He has also given
infrastructure assistance and humanitarian aid. Forces under the control of Osama bin Laden have fought alongside the Taliban in the civil war
in Afghanistan.
13. Omar has provided bin Laden with a safe haven in which to operate, and has allowed him to establish terrorist training camps in
Afghanistan. They jointly exploit the Afghan drugs trade. In return for active al-Qaida support, the Taliban allow al-Qaida to operate freely,
including planning, training and preparing for terrorist activity. In addition the Taliban provide security for the stockpiles of drugs.
14. Since 1996, when the Taliban captured Kabul, the United States government has consistently raised with them a whole range of
issues, including humanitarian aid and terrorism. Well before 11 September 2001 they had provided evidence to the Taliban of the
responsibility of al-Qaida for the terrorist attacks in East Africa. This evidence had been provided to senior leaders of the Taliban at their
request.
15. The United States government had made it clear to the Taliban regime that al-Qaida had murdered US citizens, and planned to murder
more. The US offered to work with the Taliban to expel the terrorists from Afghanistan. These talks, which have been continuing since 1996,
have failed to produce any results.
16. In June 2001, in the face of mounting evidence of the al-Qaida threat, the United States warned the Taliban that it had the right to
defend itself and that it would hold the regime responsible for attacks against U.S. citizens by terrorists sheltered in Afghanistan.
17. In this, the United States had the support of the United Nations. The Security Council, in Resolution 1267, condemned Osama bin
Laden for sponsoring international terrorism and operating a network of terrorist camps, and demanded that the Taliban surrender Osama bin
Laden without further delay so that he could be brought to justice.
18. Despite the evidence provided by the U.S. of the responsibility of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida for the 1998 East Africa bombings,
despite the accurately perceived threats of further atrocities, and despite the demands of the United Nations, the Taliban regime responded by
saying no evidence existed against Osama bin Laden, and that neither he nor his network would be expelled.
19. A former Government official in Afghanistan has described the Taliban and Osama bin Laden as “two sides of the same coin: Osama
cannot exist in Afghanistan without the Taliban and the Taliban cannot exist without Osama.”
AL-QAIDA
20. Al-Qaida is dedicated to opposing ’un-Islamic’ governments in Muslim countries with force and violence.
21. Al-Qaida virulently opposes the United States. Osama bin Laden has urged and incited his followers to kill American citizens, in the
most unequivocal terms.
 22. On 12 October 1996 he issued a declaration of jihad as follows:
“The people of Islam have suffered from aggression, iniquity and injustice imposed by the Zionist-Crusader alliance and their collaborators.
...
It is the duty now on every tribe in the Arabian peninsula to fight jihad and cleanse the land from these Crusader occupiers. Their wealth is
booty to those who kill them.
My Muslim brothers: your brothers in Palestine and in the land of the two Holy Places (i.e. Saudi Arabia) are calling upon your help and
asking you to take part in fighting against the enemy the Americans and the Israelis. They are asking you to do whatever you can to expel the
enemies out of the sanctities of Islam.”
Later in the same year he said that “terrorizing the American occupiers (of Islamic Holy Places) is a religious and logical obligation.”
In February 1998 he issued and signed a ’fatwa’ which included a decree to all Muslims: ”... the killing of Americans and their civilian and
military allies is a religious duty for each and every Muslim to be carried out in whichever country they are until Al Aqsa mosque has been
liberated from their grasp and until their armies have left Muslim lands.”
In the same ’fatwa’ he called on Muslim scholars and their leaders and their youths to “launch an attack on the American soldiers of Satan”
and concluded: “We with God’s help call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God’s order to kill
Americans and plunder their money whenever and wherever they find it. We also call on Muslims ... to launch the raid on Satan’s U.S. troops
and the devil’s supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them.”
When asked, in 1998, about obtaining chemical or nuclear weapons he said “acquiring such weapons for the defense of Muslims (was) a
religious duty.”
In an interview aired on Al Jazira (Doha, Qatar) television he stated: “Our enemy is every American male, whether he is directly fighting us
or paying taxes.”
In two interviews broadcast on US television in 1997 and 1998 he referred to the terrorists who carried out the earlier attack on the World
Trade Center in 1993 as “role models”. He went on to exhort his followers “to take the fighting to America.”
23. From the early 1990s Osama bin Laden has sought to obtain nuclear and chemical materials for use as weapons of terror.
24. Although U.S. targets are al-Qaida’s priority, it also explicitly threatens the United States’ allies. References to “Zionist-Crusader
alliance and their collaborators,” and to “Satan’s U.S. troops and the devil’s supporters allying with them” are references which unquestionably
include the United Kingdom.
25. There is a continuing threat. Based on our experience of the way the network has operated in the past, other cells, like those that
carried out the terrorist attacks on 11 September, must be assumed to exist.
26. Al-Qaida functions both on its own and through a network of other terrorist organizations. These include Egyptian Islamic Jihad and
other north African Islamic extremist terrorist groups, and a number of other jihadi groups in other countries including the Sudan, Yemen,
Somalia, Pakistan and India. Al-Qaida also maintains cells and personnel in a number of other countries to facilitate its activities.
27. Osama bin Laden heads the al-Qaida network. Below him is a body known as the Shura, which includes representatives of other
terrorist groups, such as Egyptian Islamic Jihad leader Ayman al-Zawahri and prominent lieutenants of bin Laden such as Abu Hafas al-Masri.
Egyptian Islamic Jihad has, in effect, merged with al-Qaida.
28. In addition to the Shura, al-Qaida has several groups dealing with military, media, financial and Islamic issues.
29. Mohamed Atef is a member of the group that deals with military and terrorist operations. His duties include principal responsibility for
training al-Qaida members.
30. Members of al-Qaida must make a pledge of allegiance to follow the orders of Osama bin Laden.
31. A great deal of evidence about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida has been made available in the US indictment for earlier crimes.
32. Since 1989, Osama bin Laden has conducted substantial financial and business transactions on behalf of al-Qaida and in pursuit of its
goals. These include purchasing land for training camps, purchasing warehouses for the storage of items, including explosives, purchasing
communications and electronics equipment, and transporting currency and weapons to members of al-Qaida and associated terrorist groups in
countries throughout the world.
33. Since 1989 Osama bin Laden has provided training camps and guesthouses in Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Sudan, Somalia and Kenya
for the use of al-Qaida and associated terrorist groups. We know from intelligence that there are currently at least a dozen camps across
Afghanistan, of which at least four are used for training terrorists.
34. Since 1989, Osama bin Laden has established a series of businesses to provide income for al-Qaida, and to provide cover for the
procurement of explosives, weapons and chemicals, and for the travel of al-Qaida operatives. The businesses have included a holding
company known as ’Wadi Al Aqiq,’ a construction business known as ’Al Hijra,’ an agricultural business known as ’Al Themar Al Mubaraka,’ and
investment companies known as ’Ladin International’ and ’Taba Investments.’
OSAMA BIN LADEN AND PREVIOUS ATTACKS
35. In 1992 and 1993 Mohamed Atef traveled to Somalia on several occasions for the purpose of organizing violence against United
States and United Nations troops then stationed in Somalia. On each occasion he reported back to Osama bin Laden, at his base in the
Riyadh district of Khartoum.
36. In the spring of 1993 Atef, Saif al Adel, another senior member of al-Qaida, and other members began to provide military training to
Somali tribes for the purpose of fighting the United Nations forces.
37. On 3 and 4 October 1993 operatives of al-Qaida participated in the attack on US military personnel serving in Somalia as part of the
operation ’Restore Hope.’ Eighteen U.S. military personnel were killed in the attack.
 38. From 1993 members of al-Qaida began to live in Nairobi and set up businesses there, including Asma Ltd, and Tanzanite King. They
were regularly visited there by senior members of al-Qaida, in particular by Atef and Abu Ubadiah al Banshiri.
39. Beginning in the latter part of 1993, members of al-Qaida in Kenya began to discuss the possibility of attacking the U.S. Embassy in
Nairobi in retaliation for U.S. participation in Operation Restore Hope in Somalia. Ali Mohamed, a U.S. citizen and admitted member of al-
Qaida, surveyed the US Embassy as a possible target for a terrorist attack. He took photographs and made sketches, which he presented to
Osama bin Laden while bin Laden was in Sudan. He also admitted that he had trained terrorists for al-Qaida in Afghanistan in the early 1990s,
and that those whom he trained included many involved in the East African bombings in August 1998.
40. In June or July 1998, two al-Qaida operatives, Fahid Mohammed, Ali Msalam and Sheik Ahmed Salim Swedan, purchased a Toyota
truck and made various alterations to the back of the truck.
41. In early August 1998, operatives of al-Qaida gathered in 43, New Runda Estates, Nairobi to execute the bombing of the U.S. Embassy
in Nairobi.
42. On 7 August 1998, Assam, a Saudi national and al-Qaida operative, drove the Toyota truck to the U.S. embassy. There was a large
bomb in the back of the truck.
43. Also in the truck was Mohamed Rashed Daoud Al ’Owali, another Saudi. He, by his own confession, was an al-Qaida operative, who
from about 1996 had been trained in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan in explosives, hijacking, kidnapping, assassination and intelligence
techniques. With Osama bin Laden’s express permission, he fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan. He had met Osama bin Laden
personally in 1996 and asked for another ’mission.’ Osama bin Laden sent him to East Africa after extensive specialized training at camps in
Afghanistan.
44. As the truck approached the Embassy, Al ’Owali got out and threw a stun grenade at a security guard. Assam drove the truck up to the
rear of the embassy. He got out and then detonated the bomb, which demolished a multi-story secretarial college and severely damaged the
U.S. embassy, and the Co-operative bank building. The bomb killed 213 people and injured 4,500. Assam was killed in the explosion.
45. Al ’Owali expected the mission to end in his death. He had been willing to die for al-Qaida. But at the last minute he ran away from the
bomb truck and survived. He had no money, passport or plan to escape after the mission, because he had expected to die.
46. After a few days, he called a telephone number in Yemen to have money transferred to him in Kenya. The number he rang in Yemen
was contacted by Osama bin Laden’s phone on the same day as Al ’Owali was arranging to get the money.
47. Another person arrested in connection with the Nairobi bombing was Mohamed Sadeek Odeh. He admitted to his involvement. He
identified the principal participants in the bombing. He named three other persons, all of whom were al-Qaida or Egyptian Islamic Jihad
members.
48. In Dar es Salaam the same day, at about the same time, operatives of al-Qaida detonated a bomb at the U.S. embassy, killing 11
people. The al-Qaida operatives involved included Mustafa Mohamed Fadhil and Khaflan Khamis Mohamed. The bomb was carried in a
Nissan Atlas truck, which Ahmed Khfaklan Ghailani and Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, two al-Qaida operatives, had purchased in July 1998, in
Dar es Salaam.
49. Khaflan Khamis Mohamed was arrested for the bombing. He admitted membership of al-Qaida, and implicated other members of al-
Qaida in the bombing.
50. On 7 and 8 August 1998, two other members of al-Qaida disseminated claims of responsibility for the two bombings by sending faxes
to media organizations in Paris, Doha in Qatar, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
51. Additional evidence of the involvement of al-Qaida in the East African bombings came from a search conducted in London of several
residences and businesses belonging to al-Qaida and Egyptian Islamic Jihad members. In those searches a number of documents were found
including claims of responsibility for the East African bombings in the name of a fictitious group, ’the Islamic Army for the liberation of the Holy
Places.’
52. Al ’Owali, the would-be suicide bomber, admitted he was told to make a videotape of himself using the name of the same fictitious
group.
53. The faxed claims of responsibility were traced to a telephone number, which had been in contact with Osama bin Laden’s cell phone.
The claims disseminated to the press were clearly written by someone familiar with the conspiracy. They stated that the bombings had been
carried out by two Saudis in Kenya, and one Egyptian in Dar es Salaam. They were probably sent before the bombings had even taken place.
They referred to two Saudis dying in the Nairobi attack. In fact, because Al ’Owali fled at the last minute, only one Saudi died.
54. On 22 December 1998 Osama bin Laden was asked by Time magazine whether he was responsible for the August 1998 attacks. He
replied: “The International Islamic Jihad Front for the jihad against the U.S. and Israel has, by the grace of God, issued a crystal clear fatwa
calling on the Islamic nation to carry on Jihad aimed at liberating the holy sites. The nation of Mohammed has responded to this appeal. If
instigation for jihad against the Jews and the Americans ... is considered to be a crime, then let history be a witness that I am a criminal. Our
job is to instigate and, by the grace of God, we did that, and certain people responded to this instigation.”
He was asked if he knew the attackers: ”... those who risked their lives to earn the pleasure of God are real men. They managed to rid the
Islamic nation of disgrace. We hold them in the highest esteem.”
And what the U.S. could expect of him: ”... any thief or criminal who enters another country to steal should expect to be exposed to murder
at any time. ... The U.S. knows that I have attacked it, by the grace of God, for more than ten years now. ... God knows that we have been
pleased by the killing of American soldiers (in Somalia in 1993). This was achieved by the grace of God and the efforts of the mujahedeen. ...
Hostility toward America is a religious duty and we hope to be rewarded for it by God. I am confident that Muslims will be able to end the
legend of the so-called superpower that is America.”
 55. In December 1999 a terrorist cell linked to al-Qaida was discovered trying to carry out attacks inside the United States. An Algerian,
Ahmed Ressam, was stopped at the U.S.-Canadian border and over 100 lbs of bomb making material was found in his car. Ressam admitted
he was planning to set off a large bomb at Los Angeles International airport on New Year’s Day. He said that he had received terrorist training
at al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan and then been instructed to go abroad and kill US civilians and military personnel.
56. On 3 January 2000, a group of al-Qaida members, and other terrorists who had trained in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, attempted to
attack a U.S. destroyer with a small boat loaded with explosives. Their boat sank, aborting the attack.
57. On 12 October 2000, however, the USS Cole was struck by an explosive-laden boat while refueling in Aden harbor. Seventeen crew
were killed, and 40 injured.
58. Several of the perpetrators of the Cole attack (mostly Yemenis and Saudis) were trained at Osama bin Laden’s camps in Afghanistan.
Al ’Owali has identified the two commanders of the attack on the USS Cole as having participated in the planning and preparation for the East
African embassy bombings.
59. In the months before the September 11 attacks, propaganda videos were distributed throughout the Middle East and Muslim world by
al-Qaida, in which Osama bin Laden and others were shown encouraging Muslims to attack American and Jewish targets.
60. Similar videos, extolling violence against the United States and other targets, were distributed before the East African embassy attacks
in August 1998.
OSAMA BIN LADEN AND THE 11 SEPTEMBER ATTACKS
61. Nineteen men have been identified as the hijackers from the passenger lists of the four planes hijacked on 11 September 2001. At
least three of them have already been positively identified as associates of al-Qaida. One has been identified as playing key roles in both the
East African embassy attacks and the USS Cole attack. Investigations continue into the backgrounds of all the hijackers.
62. From intelligence sources, the following facts have been established subsequent to 11 September; for intelligence reasons, the names
of associates, though known, are not given.
In the run-up to 11 September, bin Laden was mounting a concerted propaganda campaign amongst like-minded groups of people
including videos and documentation justifying attacks on Jewish and American targets; and claiming that those who died in the course of them
were carrying out God’s work.
We have learned, subsequent to 11 September, that bin Laden himself asserted shortly before 11 September that he was preparing a
major attack on America.
In August and early September close associates of bin Laden were warned to return to Afghanistan from other parts of the world by 10
September.
Immediately prior to 11 September some known associates of bin Laden were naming the date for action as on or around 11 September.
Since 11 September we have learned that one of bin Laden’s closest and most senior associates was responsible for the detailed planning
of the attacks.
There is evidence of a very specific nature relating to the guilt of bin Laden and his associates that is too sensitive to release.
63. Osama bin Laden remains in charge, and the mastermind, of al-Qaida. In al-Qaida, an operation on the scale of the 11 September
attacks would have been approved by Osama bin Laden himself.
64. The modus operandi of 11 September was entirely consistent with previous attacks. Al-Qaida’s record of atrocities is characterized by
meticulous long term planning, a desire to inflict mass casualties, suicide bombers, and multiple simultaneous attacks.
65. The attacks of 11 September 2001 are entirely consistent with the scale and sophistication of the planning which went into the attacks
on the East African Embassies and the USS Cole. No warnings were given for these three attacks, just as there was none on 11 September.
66. Al-Qaida operatives, in evidence given in the East African Embassy bomb trials, have described how the group spends years
preparing for an attack. They conduct repeated surveillance, patiently gather materials, and identify and vet operatives, who have the skills to
participate in the attack and the willingness to die for their cause.
67. The operatives involved in the 11 September atrocities attended flight schools, used flight simulators to study the controls of larger
aircraft and placed potential airports and routes under surveillance.
68. Al-Qaida’s attacks are characterized by total disregard for innocent lives, including Muslims. In an interview after the East African
bombings, Osama bin Laden insisted that the need to attack the United States excused the killing of other innocent civilians, Muslim and non-
Muslim alike.
69. No other organization has both the motivation and the capability to carry out attacks like those of the 11 September only the al-Qaida
network under Osama bin Laden.
CONCLUSION
70. The attacks of the 11 September 2001 were planned and carried out by al-Qaida, an organization whose head is Osama bin Laden.
That organization has the will, and the resources, to execute further attacks of similar scale. Both the United States and its close allies are
targets for such attacks. The attack could not have occurred without the alliance between the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, which allowed bin
Laden to operate freely in Afghanistan, promoting, planning and executing terrorist activity.