Target Centermass

Day: March 13, 2006

  • Quietly, Controversially, Work Begins on WTC Memorial

    While seemingly slipping in under the scope of most American media, work on the memorial honoring the Twin Towers is beginning, despite the reservations of the families of several victims of the 9/11 terrorist devastation.

    Without political ceremony, construction began [today] on the memorial to the thousands of people who died in the 9/11 World Trade Centre attacks – even as relatives of some of the victims headed to court to fight plans to build at the site.

    Lorries [Edit: lorries? Hey, it’s the Scotsman, a damn fine paper that can call trucks lorries if it chooses] laden with timber and other equipment rolled down a ramp as construction workers began cleaning the memorial area of debris and installing protective wooden coverings over parts of the original foundations of the twin towers.

    After six to eight weeks of preliminary work, concrete will be poured to create supports for the “Reflecting Absence” design.

    George Pataki, the New York state governor, last week called the event “a very important milestone,” but no ground-breaking ceremony is planned for several weeks.

    Officials said they wanted to meet a schedule to build the memorial by 2009.

    Some families of 11 September victims who oppose the underground memorial design are trying to stop the construction before the memorial is set in concrete.

    The Coalition of 9/11 Families last week filed a lawsuit charging that the memorial would damage the historic “footprints” – the foundations of the two towers. Preservation groups have made similar arguments in letters to rebuilding officials. An initial court hearing was scheduled for yesterday.

    The Reflecting Absence design, by the architect Michael Arad, was chosen two years ago out of more than 5,200 competition entries.

    It marks the fallen towers with two stone reflecting pools at street level, surrounded by trees.

    The pools drop 70ft below ground, where visitors find surrounding each pool the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 2001 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing.

    Families have said the memorial would dishonour the dead by placing their names below street level and might be difficult to evacuate quickly.

    And what about those concerns of the families, both in terms of dignity and public safety?

    Stefan Pryor, the president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the agency in charge of rebuilding at Ground Zero, said the design would “fulfill the highest standards of both safety and beauty”.

    He said the agency would continue to listen to family members’ concerns.

    Apparently, Mr. Pryor’s definition of listening equals my definition of ignoring. At least that damned freedom center idea still appears to be dead.

  • Brits to Withdraw 800 Troops from Iraq

    Our British allies have announced a pending reduction in forces on the ground in the Sandbox.

    The number of British troops serving in Iraq is to be cut by 800 to just over 7,000, it was announced yesterday.

    John Reid, the Defence Secretary, told the Commons that the reduction would begin when the next brigade moves to Iraq in May. He insisted that the cut was not triggered by the increase in violence.

    “It is an operational decision not a political one,” he said.

    With more than 235,000 trained members of the Iraqi security forces and 5,000 recruits joining each month, the country now had enough resources to conduct independent operations, he said.

    The announcement came as many observers believe Iraq is descending into even greater chaos with the prospect of civil war.

    Well, this certainly doesn’t sound like the course of action one would choose were one to believe the doom-and-gloom media’s prognostications of a pending civil war. One would anticipate a variety of reactions to such a situation, among them an increase in forces, a constancy of troop levels or a large-scale withdrawal, depending upon expectations and dangers. Rather, a small reduction points towards a phased handover of responsibilities, as has been predicted by the coalition leaders and appears to be the case here.

    But despite the recent sectarian violence after the dome of the Shia shrine in Samarra was destroyed, the Ministry of Defence’s analysis was that civil war was “neither imminent nor inevitable”.

    Mr Reid hinted that some of Iraq’s 18 provinces could be entirely free of foreign troops after the Joint Committee to Transfer Security Responsibility meets this month.

    He said that the occupying forces were not about to “cut and run”, insisting that their commitment was “steadfast until the job is done”.

    No, historical instances of cutting and running, be it from Viet Nam, Beirut or Somalia, are what put us in the boat we’re in today — our enemies are expecting it, playing every twist for its media value in an attempt to undermine our resolve. Indeed, it is their only hope, as they cannot withstand us militarily, nor can they deny that the Iraqi people are slowly embracing democracy and the Iraqi security forces are slowly but surely growing in competency and numbers. Time is not on the side of our enemies in Iraq, unless the defeatists among us get their way.

  • March Madness, Blogosphere Style

    Six Meat Buffet‘s Preston Taylor Holmes has announced that it’s time for the 2006 Six Meat Basketball Challenge.

    The brackets were just released. Number one seeds include Duke, UConn, Memphis and Villanova. Are you ready to rumble? I think so.

    We’re bringing back the Six Meat Basketball Challenge this year. Last year, you may remember, The Kid from Deliverance won the whole thing, which got him a custom ad graphic and a month-long ad at Six Meat Buffet at the top of our sidebar. This must have sent a month-long avalanche of traffic from which he barely recovered. We had 11 participants last year – let’s get more involved this year.

    Need some help with your brackets? Here’s a list of twenty tips for ya.

    Need another tip? Always bet on black! No, wait, that’s a tip for roulette. No, wait again, that’s just an asinine line from a crappy movie. Oh … never mind.