The consequences of how we're responding to these terrorist acts are far more damaging to the U.S. then the actual event. I've noticed that we are shutting down and paralyzing the country for the sake of "security". It was a small terrorist group that blew there wad in a matter of a couple hours but we respond as if we're being attacked by an entire nation or army of terrorists.

Even at Luke Air Force Base they're not allowing the military on the base to go to work. The actual airmen are being turned away at the gate. Parents weren't allowed to pick up there children at the military day care center, no one is allowed to drive over Hoover Dam, the entire Canadian border was shut down, etc, etc. We have NOT been invaded and we're doing EXACTLY what the terrorists set out to accomplish which is the paralyzation of the country due to paranoia and overkill. A very small, yet extremely clever group of people have done something that no war has ever been able to do and that is shut down our financial centers and most government because everything has been precautionarily evacuated.

We can spend $300 billion on defense per year but all it does it keep the defense lobby and contractors filthy rich.

There timing is extraordinarily well positioned because the global economy is already teetering. This could certainly be the straw that broke the camels back and the American bureaucrats are unknowingly in collusion with the terrorists. In the very near future every single American will be treated like a potential terrorist every time we board a plane, cross the border, visit a national monument, etc, etc, etc. Shit, I can see it now where everyone will have to run a background check before bording a plane and if you've had a felony in your past you won't be able to fly. Think that's an exaggeration, wait to you see how the bureaucrats handle it.

I can't believe they shut down air travel across the entire nation. The world has been forever changed today. Welcome to the future.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley1@netzero.net), September 11, 2001

Answers

Security tightened across nation

I agree 100 per cent. Here are a few more of the stupid things from today. Horse races?

Hundreds flee as Capitol evacuated By ARLENE LEVINSON, Associated Press

(September 11, 2001 6:22 p.m. EDT) - Becky Cruz was on a flight from Indianapolis to Las Vegas when the plane was diverted to Albuquerque.

"The captain just said there was a national emergency and we needed to land at the nearest airport," Cruz said. "We don't know what to do now."

When told the reason for the emergency - that hijacked planes had crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a grassy field 80 miles from Pittsburgh - Cruz burst into tears and walked away.

The effects of an unimaginable terrorist spree quickly spread across the country on Tuesday. Within hours, America was locked down.

Air traffic was halted. Tourists were turned away at popular spots, from Philadelphia's Liberty Bell to Disneyland. Air Force bases were on high alert, from Hawaii to Florida. The United Nations shut down.

Secret Service agents at the White House yelled at tourists to get away. Inside the Capitol, guards ran through the hallways shouting at people to leave.

The tunnel between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, was closed to cars. At Newark International Airport, officers with shotguns blocked the road to the air traffic control tower.

Operators of hydroelectric dams across the West closed visitor centers and limited access.

Louisiana's Offshore Oil Port suspended tanker operations and the state's 19 oil refineries were on alert.

Security was tighter at San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. And while the U.S.-Mexico border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana remained open, federal agents were on security alert for terrorism.

Nuclear and weapons installations battened down, including the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons and research complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington and the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, site of the Army missile command.

The 192nd Virginia Air National Guard squadron of F-16 fighter jets was on alert to shoot down unauthorized aircraft.

Federal courthouses and offices nationwide were closed or put on stricter security.

Scott Coogler, a supervisor at a car rental company, was being questioned for jury service in a Miami courtroom when a marshal told prospective jurors to go home.

"The federal building, you just don't know," Coogler said. "I'm on the 11th floor. Something happens, I'm toast."

Precautions were taken at all levels of government.

California, Colorado and Illinois state government buildings were under stricter security.

Shon Hines works for a real estate company in Rockefeller Center in New York. After employees were sent home, he prepared to hike the many miles home from midtown Manhattan to the Bronx.

He wasn't thinking about the hard road ahead.

Feeling "very vulnerable, very distressed," Hines said he was more concerned "for the lives that were lost."

A sense of vulnerability led Oklahoma City police to create a one- block perimeter around the jail where bombing conspirator Terry Nichols is housed. Nichols was convicted in the 1995 bombing that destroyed a federal building in Oklahoma City.

Space shuttle operations halted and 12,000 employees of Kennedy Space Center were sent home while surveillance was stepped up, with helicopter patrols and extra gate checks in place.

The precautions also were taken in less-obvious places.

City Hall in El Paso, Texas, closed and Denver City Hall opened an emergency preparedness office in its basement.

Greensboro College in North Carolina canceled classes and closed offices so staff and students could follow the news.

"This is history and we want them to follow it," spokesman Mike Clark said. "We can't expect them to sit in class and think about differential equations while this is happening."

The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., was shuttered.

Security increased at Las Vegas casinos and no visitors were allowed at St. Louis' 630-foot-tall Gateway Arch.

The Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles was closed, as was the city's 74-story Library Tower, at 1,700 feet the tallest building west of the Mississippi.

"I was like, 'Get me out of here,'" said Angela Nalu, on her first day of a new job in the tower.

Closures and evacuations nationwide in response to Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington:

TRANSPORTATION:

- Federal Aviation Administration shuts airports nationwide.

- Greyhound cancels bus service in the Northeast. Bus terminals closed within one mile of federal office buildings.

- Amtrak temporarily suspends train service along the northeast corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C.

- U.S. section of the St. Lawrence Seaway closed.

- Manhattan subway lines shut down; limited service later restored. Bridges and tunnels leading into Manhattan closed.

- Louisiana's Offshore Oil Port handling supertankers in the Gulf of Mexico suspends operations.

- Security for Great Lakes shipping tightened. Coast Guard inspecting ships at St. Mary's River, which links Lakes Huron and Superior.

BORDERS:

- Tunnel between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, closed to car traffic. Security tightened at all U.S.-Canada border crossings, including the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and the Ambassador Bridge.

-Ports of entry along the U.S. Mexico border remain open with officials on high security alert.

MILITARY/POLICE:

- Space shuttle operations halted. Some 12,000 employees of Kennedy Space Center in Florida sent home.

- Nonessential personnel from the Naval Weapons Station in Goose Creek, S.C., evacuated and 1,700 workers at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center sent home.

- Montana's Big Sky resort locked down, highway blocked and 20 National Guard troops brought in to secure a meeting of the emergency management directors.

- Oklahoma police created a one-block perimeter around jail where bombing conspirator Terry Nichols housed.

MARKETS:

- All U.S. financial markets close, including New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq Stock Market and Chicago Board of Trade.

BRIDGES AND DAMS:

There was heightened monitoring of all bridges and dams:

- Grand Coulee Dam and powerhouse in central Washington state locked down, tours canceled and visitor center closed.

- Hoover Dam on Nevada-Arizona line closed, including highway that crosses it.

- Heightened security at Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco<

BUILDINGS CLOSED:

- United Nations building evacuated.

- General Motors Corp. gives 6,000 employees at Detroit's Renaissance Center headquarters the day off.

- Ford Motor Co. closes world headquarters in Dearborn.

- Michigan's Internal Revenue Service closed its 18 tax offices and sends 1,600 employees home.

- Sears Tower shut down in Chicago.

- Upper floors of Louisiana's 34-story Capitol building closed.

- 51-story IDS Center closed in Minneapolis, as is the Mall of America in suburban Bloomington and World Trade Center in St. Paul.

- Various state and federal buildings closed nationwide.

ELECTIONS/GOVERNMENT:

- New York City's mayoral primary election postponed. Syracuse and Buffalo elections also delayed.

- Southern Governors' Association cancels annual fall meeting.

- Democratic National Committee canceled meetings scheduled to begin on Thursday in Miami.

SPORTS:

- All major league baseball games postponed.

TOURIST ATTRACTIONS:

- All Broadway shows canceled.

- In Florida, Walt Disney World evacuates and closes four theme parks and shopping and entertainment complex.

- Philadelphia Liberty Bell and Independence Hall closed.

- Seattle's Space Needle evacuated and closed.

- New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art shut down.

- In California, Knott's Berry Farm in Orange County closed. The Museum of Tolerance and the 1,700-foot Library Tower in Los Angeles shut down.

- New Mexico State Fair closed; horse races canceled.

http://www.nandotimes.com/nation/story/77023p-1081268c.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 11, 2001.

The Washington, DC, Metro (subway) stayed running. How do I know? I was on it. I was at the Mall (between the Washington monument and the Capitol) at 10:am. I could see the smoke. I heard sirens everywhere. Then I heard an explosion.

I immediately headed home. I went down into the Metro tunnel and found the platform full of people. The Blue line train came in about 10 minutes. People were cramming in (orderly) and they could hardly get the doors closed.

I needed an Orange line train. Then my train came. I got on. People were behaving calmly. Their buildings had been evacuated. Many had abandoned their cars in the city.

The Metro employees told us what was going on as the train made its way past Rosslyn, neat the Pentagon. I was heartened by the professionalism.

When I got to my car, there was a mass exodus out of the parking garage -- at the end of the line. People were driving much more carefully and politely than ever.

People come together in a tragedy.

Sally

-- Sally Strackbein (Sally@Y2KKitchen.com), September 11, 2001.

Shades of Y2K. Rumors and lies abound. If someone has first hand knowledge to rebuke the initial claim, they lift your voice high and loud, and cast this rumor out. Stand Firm...

-- My Story (andIam@sticking.com), September 11, 2001.

Wedon't know how many more terrorists are involved. The ones (we do not know how many on each plane nor how many supporters) who took the planes had to have been well-trained. Is there an agenda for more destruction? What are the targets?

I have to say that shutting down air traffic was a wise precaution. Many of the buildings that closed could have been targets. We just don't know.

Tens of thousands of families are grieving tonight. It is a national tragedy. The attention paid is appropriate.

-- John Littmann (johntl@mtn.org), September 11, 2001.

I can only agree, 100%, Guy. The extent of the overreaction is beyond belief.

-- RogerT (RogerT@c-zone.net), September 11, 2001.

"Knife like" weapons? What if they were only sharpened bamboo sticks?, painted a dark color? Bamboo might escape detection at the airport. Why were the passangers so afraid of what ever human made or natural weapon that was waved before their eyes? Would that be a joke, Americans frozen by the sight of a Bamboo stick. Come on, Viet Namn, there are enough of you still here......

-- My Story (andIam@sticking.com), September 11, 2001.

I can certainly agree that some key airports and suspected target government buildings in key cities should have been shut down in key places, but, c'mon, museums, and bridges in obscure places. That's over-reaction.

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), September 11, 2001.

Sorry John Littman, but I have to say this:

"That is one of the most idiotic things imaginable, to cave in to paranoia." Lets extrapolate. Why not close down for business permanently? Do you think we've seen the last terrorist? Lets permanently evacuate and close all our American symbols. After all, we could and most probably will, be struck by terrorists again.

You and all the bureaucrats are anxious to cater to the terrorists will. However, we don't have the balls to eradicate them because we're too worried about world public opinion (Oslama bin Laden, case in point). Instead we'll bully 100s of millions of U.S. citizens for what a handful of terrorists did today for the rest of our lives.

Don't forget Tim McVeigh was a terrorist, your frickin neighbor COULD be a terrorist. Shall we shut down the country? The business of America is business. You forget that, and you're damning America, thoughtlessly I might add. The economic impact of what happened today was hundreds of times the cost of the WTC epicenter.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley1@netzero.net), September 11, 2001.