Dirty diapers were still in the bedroom, food sitting out on the kitchen counter, unopened mail on the table. Two recently-registered cars were in the driveway, a brand new PT Cruiser in the garage. The residents of 4224 Escondito Circle in a posh gated-community in Sarasota, Florida, abandoned everything and hurriedly fled in a white van. Two weeks later, Saudi terrorists flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Center. The home on Escondito Circle was owned by Esam Ghazzawi, a Saudi national. Ghazzawi’s son, Abdulazzi al-Hiijii, and daughter-in-law, Anoud, and their small children were the residents. License plates automatically photographed by the gatehouse show that Mohamed Atta and Ziad Jarrah were visitors to the home. Subpoenaed phone records connect Walid al-Shehhri to the home. He was on the plane with Mohamed Atta – the first plane to fly into the World Trade Center. The FBI tied 10 other terrorists to the home. Venice, Florida is 10 miles away from the home on Escondito. Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, and Ziad Jarrah, all lived in Venice for most of 2001, leading up to 9/11. Atta and al-Shehhi took flying lessons at Huffman Aviation, at the Venice city airport. Jarrah got his pilot’s license from Florida Flight Training, a block away from the Venice airport. Emma E. Booker Elementary School located at 2350 Dr. Martin Luther King Way is 10.2 miles away from 4224 Escondito Circle. Bush was reading a fairy tale to children at Booker on the morning of September 11, 2001 when the first plane hit the building. Thirty-six days earlier the CIA had delivered a memo to the vacationing Bush in Crawford warning him that Osama bin-laden was determined to strike inside the US and that he wanted to use hijacked planes. The unreleased daily briefings (leading up to that one released memo) have been seen in portions by journalists who say the earlier warnings were more dire and imminent and had been consistently given to Bush since the Spring of 2001. I remember where I was. I remember what I felt. I remember a heart-broken county. I remember a unified country. I remember a swell of pride watching President Bush standing on the rubble with a megaphone. I remember the solidarity as we all tuned in to watch the prayer service, three days later at the National Cathedral. I remember the dean of the cathedral, a black minister, praying, and no one caring about the color of his skin. I remember a black pastor of a Methodist church in Huston reading scripture and no one saying that he wasn’t “one of us.” I remember a Jewish rabbi reading the Hebrew lesson from Lamentations and no one saying he “killed Jesus.” I remember Iman Muzammil Siddiqi of the Islamic Society of North America, praying, and no one saying that he was a terrorist or that his Koran advocates the killing of Americans. I remember the Catholic archbishop of Washington reading scripture with no one worrying that the church was trying to take over the state. I remember the physical frailties of Billy Graham and the humbleness and sincerity of his prayer. I don’t remember him questioning the sincerity of the president’s faith, as his son would later do with President Obama. And I don’t remember liberals blaming Bush for the attack, as conservatives would do with President Obama exactly 11 years later when a diplomatic outpost was attacked by terrorists. I don’t remember liberals accusing Bush of giving a “stand down” order to those protecting our country so the attack could proceed unimpeded. I don’t remember liberals accusing Bush of secretly wanting the enemy to succeed, even though he allowed a plane-load of Saudis to flee the country when all other fights were grounded and he held hands and kissed-on-the-mouth with the Saudi crown prince at the Crawford ranch. Liberals stood with Bush in spite of their disappointment over the Supreme Court stepping in, with no precedent, and shutting down a state’s recount, essentially appointing Bush to be president. Liberals stood with Bush from the time he looked up from reading the fairy tale in Sarasota, through the time he stood on the rubble, hosted the prayer service, and invaded Afghanistan. We only lost step with him in 2003 when he abandoned the mission and invaded an unrelated country which had no connections whatsoever to 9/11. What I will never understand, and what has never been articulated by any conservative, is why they hate President Obama...why they hate him so much that they will give aid and comfort to ISIL by attacking President Obama in front of the world and accusing him of being in cahoots with ISIL...why they hate him so much that they would embolden Putin by attacking President Obama in front of the world and saying that he looks “weak” compared to Putin. I’m still waiting on a reason for their hatred. And at least for the ones in the Teavangelical wing of the conservatives, they really need to come up with a reason. Because according to their interpretation of the Bible, one day they will have to give an account to God for their hatred.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 16:55:57 +0000
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