NY Judge: Al-Qaeda Owes $9.3B

New York trial represents proper US tradition, AG says

(NEWSER) - Confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his four co-defendants will face the death penalty, Eric Holder confirmed today, and the AG leapt to defend the decision to try them in a civilian court in New York. They will “answer for their alleged crimes in a courthouse just blocks away from where the Twin Towers once stood,” Holder said. “I fully expect to direct prosecutors to seek the death penalty against each of the alleged 9/11 conspirators.” More»

Core 'essentially gone,' but spinoff groups a concern

(NEWSER) - Al-Qaeda today is mostly a spent force, unable to carry out another 9/11-style attack, said US intelligence officials yesterday, reports Reuters . The mostly anonymous assessment—in a conference call led by Robert Cardillo, deputy director of US national intelligence—came one year after the killing of Osama bin Laden , with security experts also noting that al-Qaeda had been diminished by the Arab Spring around the Middle East. For the next year at least, an attack using chemical, biological, atomic, or radiological weapons by the "core" group was deemed extremely unlikely. More»

Fires kept burning long after terror attacks

(NEWSER) - Though you've no doubt read plenty of stories related to the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, here's one that's likely to surprise. Yahoo UK lists nine facts you probably didn’t know about the tragic day:

• Twenty survivors were pulled out of the rubble: One was a secretary rescued after 27 hours.
• One survivor escaped from the South Tower as it collapsed: Ron DiFrancesco was one of just four people who escaped from above the 81st floor. He was on his way out when the second plane hit; it collapsed just after he exited.

What happened after the attacks was unforgivable: Paul Krugman

(NEWSER) - For many Americans, the 10th anniversary of September 11 comes shrouded in feelings of grief and loss, but the overwhelming emotion for Paul Krugman is shame. The "atrocity should have been a unifying event," but instead "fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror," blogs the New York Times columnist. "What happened after 9/11—and I think even people on the right know this—was deeply shameful." More»

New audio published for the first time

(NEWSER) - The horror and confusion of Sept. 11, 2001, comes to gut-wrenching life in newly published audio offering a real-time picture of the civil and military aviation responses during the first two hours after the hijackings. The 114 recordings, published by Rutgers Law Review and available in part on the New York Times website, were originally prepared by 9/11 Commission investigators, but were not completed before the commission shut down. One of those investigators, Miles Kara, tracked down the files this year in order to review, transcribe, and publish them. More»