War & Life in the Twenty-first Century

...Native Americans from New Mexico are sending dream catchers (which snare bad dreams) to NYC; donations accepted as well as hand made items, and 10,000 were delivered at the end of November...children of Jemez Pueblo donating teddy bears as Christmas presents to families of New York firefighters...three additional anthrax hot spots found in the Senate Hart building, seven more discovered during the second week in November...Osama bin Laden claims he has chemical & nuclear weapons, and will unleash them if the US uses them first against his armies...President Bush: Terrorists are evil people who are planning more attacks against our country, and meets with President Putin of Russia to discuss disarmament of nuclear weapons...four post offices in Trenton, NJ closed due to anthrax detection...another letter with anthrax appears at the Sterling, VA post office...anthrax is also found on a pallet of stamps that was mailed from the Brentwood Post Office in DC to Raleigh, NC; supposedly it is too small an amount to cause any danger...Howard U of DC finds 8 hot spots that test positive for anthrax, university stays open...the war continues through Ramadan, a Muslim holy period...by mid-November, the Taliban & Al-Qaeda are claiming victories against us & the Northern Alliance; but on 11/13/01, Kabul falls to the Northern Alliance, and they enter the city, ignoring request from USA to wait until a new broadbased government can be formed by the UN and the major supporters of this war...Whoops! Many pints of blood donated to the Red Cross spoils due to lack of planning & adequate storage for the abundant amount...car companies attempt to stir patriotism by providing 0% interest on certain car models; the first end date was 10/31/01, which was changed to 11/18/01 and has been extended to 1/2/02...the Taliban vows the extinction of America in the near future and will fight with a vengence...tests on NY subways yield no traces of anthrax...11/19/01: 4 journalists were ambushed, then stoned & shot; all died from their wounds; to date, 10 journalists have died...30 pounds of TNT was found in downtown Chicago; however, there was no fuse, so the conclusion is that is was part of a supply order that fell of a truck...

...11/12/01: American Airlines Flight 587 from JFK airport en route to the Dominican Republic crashes three minutes after takeoff, people hear explosion noise, parts fall into neighborhood, destroying at least 4 homes and killing at least 6 people; all local airports closed but initial reports conclude not a terrorism attack; verified by NTSB as accident...the reason was a possible wave vortex caused by the preceding plane; flight 587 might have left too early to avoid this weather problem...others point to two control that failed tests to detect microscopic defects in the rudder & tail, which resulted in violent side-to-side movement...the FBI will not release the black box transcripts since it is evidence in a criminal investigation...

...a showdown at Kunduz took place by 11/25/01; if the Taliban surrender, the Northern Alliance controls all of northern Afghanistan, including Kunduz; prisoners will be detained in Guam or American Samoa...Afghan Talibans may be granted amnesty, but other prisoners have staged rebellions, using grenades to kill themselves and bystanders...but the US wants all Taliban leaders turned over to America's custody...the Taliban have surrendered to the UN; however, the Northern Alliance have them...the prisoners will be handled fairly but treated as terrorists, and were led through Kunduz...talks will begin near Bonn, Germany for the fate of Afghanistan, to create an interim power sharing authority for the Afghan government...these talks do not include the Taliban, who lost control of Spin Boldak on the Afghan/Pakistan border, 11/27/01...11/30/01: the talks have stalled due to the failure of the Northern Alliance to be the only one of the four represented groups to not present a list of people that should represent them in the new government...late on 12/01/01, the empasse was broken, but no one will say how...meanwhile, in Hamburg, Germany a man was arrested for being connected to the Sept. 11 events...events continue below...

...the fighting moves out of the cities & into the terrain, which will be more difficult since the Talibans know the land, while the US forces have learned the topography...Osama bin Laden is believed to be near Kandahar, the final outpost for the Taliban, located in southern Afghanistan....the returning Afghan president wants to be the leader of his country again and says that his people, not outsiders, should determine who will govern...1,000 Marines are being called in to help the Army & Navy fight the war; they arrived during the Thanksgiving weekend, and will carry out their orders with a vengence...Osama bin Laden has instructed his lieutenants to kill him instead of surrendering him to the enemy...the Northern Alliance may know where Osama bin Laden is located, near Kandahar or Tora Bora in southern Afghanistan (verifying above factoid), somewhere in the mountains which consist of a numerous network of caves...in early December, Britain & French forecs joined the battle...next country for possible attack is Iraq, who kicked out weapons inspectors in 1998...Somalia is also thought to be housing Talibans...other terrorist countries include Iran, Syria, Cuba & the Sudan...5 US forces wounded in Uzbekstan when bomb drops near them (aka Friendly Fire)...an northern Afghan woman is killed when food bundles carrying humanitarian aid crash through her roof and land on her...

"We will not tire, we will not falter, we will not fail!" President George W. Bush, 2001

...a broken metal detector in Seattle caused the evacuation of both Seattle & Oakland airports...John Wayne Airport (Ontario, CA) closed when a woman bypassed the security checkpoint...a man did the same thing in Memphis, TN...freight train derailed along the Northeast Corridor, delaying Amtrak trains on Sunday...additional delays occurred on Tuesday...then a bomb scare on Wednesday stopped trains across the country!...in December, an Acelo train killed 3 people who were on the tracks; this occured in PA; an AMTRAK train in CA struck a vehicle, killing all passengers; the truck was at a crossing that had signals & crossbars, yet was on the track...12/19/01: an AMTRAK train derailed near Rio Puerco, NM; 400 people were stranded and had to be bussed to ABQ...repairs should be completed by 12/20/01...

...Ottilie Lundgren, 94, who lived in Oxford, a town 30 miles southwest of Hartford, CT died after testing positive for inhilation anthrax; it was initially thought that she contracted pneumonia...the disease is the same type as found in NY, identified as a 'natural' strain...her death may be classfied as 'homicide' or 'natural causes'...she is the fifth person to die; 1 in NY and FL, 2 in NJ...none of her neighbors or friends tested positive...1200 postal workers in the Wallingford, CT area were offered CIPRO...funeral services for the victim were held on 11/25/01...postal union workers say they will not work in contaminated offices...11/29/01: a letter with anthrax was received in a town near Oxford, CT...theory is that mail sent to the deceased was at some point in NJ and got cross-contaminated...traces of anthrax was found on a machine in Wallingford, CT...

"If a country develops weapons of mass destruction, they will be held accountable; as well as those countries which house known terrorists, whether they have knowledge that these people are in their country!" President George W. Bush, 2001

...80% of Afghanistan's food production can be restored within 3 years after the new government is formed, say analysts...but it will take 7 years to clear all land mines...

Portugal, the wine country!

...today's news is lots of headlines, great beginning, weak middle, and no end...there is little follow-up or results or conclusions, a never-ending story (that is cynicism!)...

...on a lighter note, Harry Potter earned $90.3 million during its first weekend (Nov. 16-18), and beat Jurrasic Park...it then made over $100 million in five days, the same as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, and is now hoping to reach $200 million in 13 days, to tie the amount earned by Star Wars 1: The Phantom Menace in 1999...unfortunately, it took 15 days for Harry Potter to reach the $200 million mark...and, soon to be on the movie screens is Lord of the Rings, which will be released December 19...