Monday, May 16, 2011
The U.S. hadn’t finished the job but now was redeploying resources to Iraq.
The news of Osama bin Laden’s death brought back memories of the time I reported from Afghanistan eight years ago. Afghanistan was not my original assignment. It was March 2003 and the United States had just invaded Iraq. Afghanistan had been knocked off the front page, the nation’s attention was focused on this new war and we had a new public enemy. Afghanistan, the Taliban, Osama bin Laden, that was old news. I was working for The Morning Call at the time and was selected to be embedded with a Pennsylvania National Guard unit based in Allentown. After months of preparation, we were all set to go to Iraq. I had been sent to train with British soldiers for a week. That meant learning what to do in a poison gas attack, how to behave at …
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
But we still need to prepare and be vigilant, city health director says.
It’s hard to remember now how anxious we were then. When the planes hit the Twin Towers almost 10 years ago, neighborhood moms gathered in my home and, as we watched CNN in collective anguish, debated whether to go to Western Salisbury Elementary School to bring our kids home. We didn’t know that day if the terrorist attacks were a one-time strike or the beginning of a war. With the subsequent deaths from anthrax delivered by mail to unsuspecting victims, that question would hang in the air for weeks like fallout. I actually talked to my husband about whether we should ask my parents to take our children to New Zealand until we knew whether anthrax was the beginning of a wave of bioterrorism here. Looking back it sounds silly, but I was …
Monday, May 2, 2011
Tom De Martini says bin Laden's death does not make up for thousands he caused that day.
Tom De Martini, local editor of the Upper Macungie Township Patch, was a writer who commuted to New York’s financial district for 14 years. For the last eight of them – ending in 2001 – he worked at One World Financial Center. He was within spitting distance of the twin towers. He has been silent on the subject of the attacks ever since. None of his colleagues ever guessed he was there that day. Though he has written volumes about news, finance and sports, he has never written a word about his experience on September 11. “I couldn’t,” he said, “I saw things that day that no human being should ever see.” He’s glad for the demise of Osama bin Laden, but that one life does not come even close to settling the score for him. “It’s not enough…
Folks at the Emmaus Public Library share their thoughts on the news that Osama Bin Laden has been killed by U.S. troops.
Everyone in town was talking about the historic moment Sunday night, during which President Barack Obama announced to the nation that al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden has been put to his death by U.S. forces. Here's what they had to say at the Emmaus Public Library earlier today.
El and Bill Sugra's son was killed in the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
El and Bill Sugra were watching Donald Trump on “Celebrity Apprentice” Sunday night in the living room of their Salisbury Township home when it was interrupted by a news bulletin that flashed across the bottom of their TV screen. Elma turned to her husband and said, “What could be so important that the President Obama would be speaking to the nation 11 o’clock at night?” This time it wouldn’t be about a birth certificate. The couple flipped the channel to the Phillies game and heard chants of “USA! USA!” This time the news crawl read: “Osama bin Laden has been killed.” Bill and El Sugra burst into tears. It has been nearly 10 years since their 30-year-old son, Bill, a network administrator for eSpeed, a division of Cantor Fitzgerald, …
With the news that Osama bin Laden was killed late last night, is it time to celebrate?
Last night, President Obama revealed how a U.S. operation, launched eight months ago, ended in a firefight that killed the most wanted man in the world, Osama bin Laden. U.S. intelligence led a small team to Abbottabad, Pakistan, where they killed Bin Laden and took possession of his body, the President said. That happened last week. This morning, the mother of World Trade Center victim Bill Sugra is happy Osama bin Laden is dead, according to a report early this morning on lehighvalleylive.com. "I’m totally happy, I guess," El Sugra, of Salisbury Township, said in the report. "It’s a horrible thing to say. But we’re happy that he’s dead." The Sugras' son, who was 30 when he was killed, worked at Cantor Fitzgerald Securities in the World …
Wendy Solomon
10:11 pm on Thursday, May 19, 2011
Thanks, Pam. As a fellow journalist who's been to Afghanistan, I knew you could relate. more ›