Wikileaks Publishing 9/11 Text Messages

Damages determined for 9/11 attacks

(NEWSER) - Somebody tell al-Qaeda to get out its checkbook. A federal judge yesterday ruled that the terrorist organization owes $9.3 billion for the damage caused to businesses and properties in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, reports the AP . Several insurance companies started their suit in 2003 versus a variety of defendants, seeking compensation for the attack on the World Trade Center. The judge determined actual damages, then tripled them for punitive compensation. 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»

By almost mowing down jaywalker, making her late for work

(NEWSER) - Gwyneth Paltrow: actress, singer , chef , gangsta rapper , and ... unlikely 9/11 hero? For one woman, yes. On the Morton Report , Lara Lundstrom Clarke recounts her chance encounter with the actress on the morning of September 11, 2001. Lundstrom Clarke was jaywalking across 7th street to catch her train when a Mercedes SUV nearly ran her down. After it "screeched to a halt," Lundstrom Clarke looked in and noticed the driver: Paltrow, who lived down the street. More»