20 years since them slags smashed into the twin towers...

[touchingcloth]

They probably would have been happy with one tower, with the other tower as a back up. The pentagon being the second back up.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail, as the posters in Bin Laden's cave said.

[MikeP]

Crashing a plane into the containment vessel of a nuclear reactor would be pretty pointless.

Naturally they would have tried the same experiment on a control room mock-up and its backup bunker.

Maybe

[MikeP]

Why is 9/11 art and Hiroshima not?

Audience paticipation.

Is art art if no-one can see it?
This degenerates into earnest philosophical discussions over warm beer in a student bar.

[JaDanketies]

The flight that crashed into the Pentagon was a bit of a damp squib, wasn't it? And the one that the passengers took down - I believe that was headed for Camp David? Which is like Chequers for the President? Bin Laden's lucky that this plane crash-landed because his idea for it was tremendously shit and what really happened is a far better story.

[Buelligan]

Wake me up when someone a bit unique dies please

Shan't.  Enjoy them all or not at all.  You're not cherry-picking this.

[touchingcloth]

The flight that crashed into the Pentagon was a bit of a damp squib, wasn't it? And the one that the passengers took down - I believe that was headed for Camp David? Which is like Chequers for the President? Bin Laden's lucky that this plane crash-landed because his idea for it was tremendously shit and what really happened is a far better story.

They were actually heading for that field to smash it to pieces because Bin Laden thought it was that one from the XP wallpaper.

[JaDanketies]

Oh apparently it was heading for the US Capitol building and reports it was heading to Camp David were just speculation. Apologies to Al Qaeda

[Icehaven]

I always thought the field one was heading for Camp David too but one of the 9/11 docs I watched last week said it was aiming for the Capitol Building, and Wikipedia says the same. Maybe they were seeing how it went on the day. 

I can't be bothered to look up the exact dimensions but surely it'd be much harder to hit the Capitol building than the WTC or the Pentagon because it's much smaller than both, so ironically they probably had their best pilots on that plane. The ones that hit the WTC must have been the dunces of hijacking class.

[imitationleather]

How do they know where it was heading? The guys flying the plane are dead.

[idunnosomename]

intelligence recorded in the 9/11 commission report. It's pretty certain that flight 93 was heading for the Capitol. although it could've been the white house. Bin Laden was quite keen on the latter. but surely the Capitol would've been easier and more spectacular

the pentagon crash was total rubs i agree. the capitol and the white house were evacuated before 10 am. Flight 93 crashed at 10:03 because the passengers had learnt what was going on and the terrorists couldn't lie to them about them just going back to the airport like they did with the others

[JamesTC]

How do they know where it was heading? The guys flying the plane are dead.

Derek Acorah said so.

[touchingcloth]

How do they know where it was heading? The guys flying the plane are dead.

I find it grimly fascinating how much detail of what happened in the cabins on those four flights is known, or roughly known. I don't think I've ever been on a plane with telephones, but it seems like the passengers and crew on that day were auditioning for a BT advert with the amount of calls they were placing to the ground. "Hello, passenger in seat 8A has stabbed the one in 9B, I would estimate at roughly 09:01.23. Cheers."

[PlanktonSideburns]

Morning flights are probably the least likely to be delayed?

Seems a bit impatient

[PlanktonSideburns]

Crashing a plane into the containment vessel of a nuclear reactor would be pretty pointless. In 1988 a Japanese engineering company involved in their nuclear programme contracted the Sandia National Laboratory in the US to conduct a test that launched an F4 Phantom fighter attached to a rocket sled travelling at 500mph into a 3.7m thick 470-ton block of reinforced concrete that was a simulation of the outer containment vessel wall of a reactor. The Phantom was vapourised in the impact with barely any damage to the concrete (a 60mm deep crater on the surface)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ8uvQk1H9I

Must remember to sample that

[chveik]

it's very easy to criticise after the fact but i'd say they did a pretty good job as far as creating terror goes

[Buelligan]

I don't see the point of the WTC though, really.  If it was up to me it'd be -

• Whitehouse
• Capitol
• Pentagon x 2
• AOB

Whilst I accept personal choices and preferences are bound to come into it, I cannot, for the life of me, see their logic.

[idunnosomename]

It represents globalised western capitalism and all the decadent values it spreads. They were always very keen on it, since at least 1993

[robhug]

it would have been a bit shit just flying a plane into Camp David which would only be 1 person, whereas the TT got a much bigger headcount

[pigamus]

it's very easy to criticise after the fact but i'd say they did a pretty good job as far as creating terror goes

You do gotta hand it to them a bit

[idunnosomename]

RIP camp David. your mincing will be missed.

[Replies From View]

Yeah it's because they don't really care about death toll one way or another and first flights of the day were the easiest to pull off together. They wanted the symbolism above all and bloody hell they certainly got it.

It has been argued as the biggest piece of performance art in history. Which sounds wanky and offensive and maybe it is, but also it's got a point.

bit of an outlandish commercial for jenga but still good

[lankyguy95]

It represents globalised western capitalism and all the decadent values it spreads.

In another life, Mohamed Atta is merely a zealous CaB member.

[Replies From View]

Shan't.  Enjoy them all or not at all.  You're not cherry-picking this.

>:-(

[Buelligan]

You got away lightly this time, because I like you.  Now buck up and enjoy yourself.

[MikeP]

How do they know where it was heading? The guys flying the plane are dead.

Flight deck recorder.

[Buelligan]

Not a flight deck preempter, though, is it? 

[Zetetic]

What's genuinely surprising is that no terrorists have tried to copy the Boston sniper. Two guys - and you probably only need one - with a shit car and a cheap rifle - caused terror for 3 weeks. It may not have a big body count by terrorism standards, but it did generate terror.

You need quite a particular guy I think though, in terms of local experience and preparedness to murder individuals.

And again, it comes back to what you're trying to achieve.

[bgmnts]

Just get a few dozen medieval Mongol warriors, plonk them in the Midwest and give them some horses and boom, they will have half of the US fucked for years.

Our capacity to instil terror has definitely diminished. 

[Phoenix Lazarus]

And again, it comes back to what you're trying to achieve.

Because of course Islamic terrorists are so focused and defined in what effect they want their terrorism to achieve aside of the destruction, death and injury caused.

[Zetetic]

It represents globalised western capitalism and all the decadent values it spreads. They were always very keen on it, since at least 1993

I find to very hard to understand what the cultural relevance of the NY WTC towers was prior to 9/11.

I would have said that I'd never heard of them - but I know I'd have been wrong because they're featured in a mission in Red Alert 2 (albeit not in a way that I'd ever have connected to real life).