A story that haunts me about 9/11 is how all but 13 of Morgan Stanley's approximately 2,700 employees made it out of the South Tower alive because their head of security over rode the NYC Port Authority's instructions and started evacuating immediately.
Rick Rescorla was born in Cornwall and fought for both the UK and US militaries, most famously in the battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam, of We Were Soldiers fame. He was awarded a Silver Star and two Bronze Stars.
Rescorla left active duty, went to law school and ended up working as head of security for Dean Witter (which later merged with Morgan Stanley) in their World Trade Center offices. When the World Trade Center was bombed in 1993 he was the last person out of the building.
Rescorla was concerned the World Trade Center was still a target for attack and recommended Morgan Stanley move their offices, but they had lease obligations. So he started instituting quarterly evacuation drills. Everyone thought this was overkill and more than a bit of a pain.
When the plane hit the North Tower on the morning of 9/11, Rescorla was in his office on the 44th floor. The Port Authority asked everyone in the South Tower to stay calm and at their offices. Rescorla was worried the North Tower would collapse and take the South Tower with it.
So Rick Rescorla, who was 62, ordered a full evacuation for all of Morgan Stanley's employees. Because of the drills, everyone knew what to do. He led the employees down the stairwell, singing Cornish songs, and then he turned around and went back up.
Rick Rescorla was last seen on the 10th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center, heading up, to see if he had left anyone behind. He had two of his security employees with him. His body was never found.
9/11 is always a hard day to be on social media. So this year I'm trying to focus less on where I was, and more on the people who were there.
This year I'm remembering Rick Rescorla, the 62 year old Vietnam veteran and cancer survivor who annoyed everyone with his evacuation drills, told the people telling him to stay put to piss off, trusted his instincts, and helped over 2,600 get to safety. And then went back up.
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And there it is. Even George W. Bush now recognizes Trump, his supporters and those who directly participated in the 1/6 Coup attempt are terrorists - surely as the 9/11 ones were. I’ll say it again: Trump damaged America in a way Bin Laden only dreamed of pic.twitter.com/9BJbPnxqWN
Mark Fallon, former head of the #Guantanamo investigative task force said the post-9/11 system “violated the inalienable human rights America was founded upon”& that the Bush administration's treatement of detainees "amounted to war crimes."https://t.co/mjhlsMJeLu via @Yahoo
Rudy Giuliani did everything wrong before, during, and after 9/11. Just an awful person. People ask “what happened” to him, but the ghoul he is today is the ghoul he was 20 years ago. https://t.co/M18uZXd8OMpic.twitter.com/9bSzMQozdH
An absolute monster who only cared about his own fame.
One of the worst people on the planet, then and now
And then, after all of that, he tried to use the attack as an excuse to cancel the mayoral election and remain in power.
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@RudyGiuliani“But I heard her (@HillaryClinton) say she was there that day. I was there that day. I don't remember seeing Hillary Clinton there. “... what do we call it? A lie!” Oops. Look to your left Rudy. pic.twitter.com/hQuT4OKspZ
2/ “Byrne, the former CEO of https://t.co/H2X7hgcYoh who resigned in 2019 after revealing he had an affair with Russian agent Maria Butina but not before he cashed out $90 million worth of stock, went to great lengths to stay anonymous in Sarasota County.”
Political scientist Marlene Laruelle of George Washington University, who is an expert on the Kremlin and its influence on far-right nationalist movements, told Hatewatch that the country’s involvement in extremist groups beyond Russia’s border often originates from the existence of a grey zone for “ideological entrepreneurship.” She said that when pro-Kremlin entrepreneurs like Bausman take independent actions to promote extremism outside Russia’s borders, it’s part of a decentralized campaign, making it tricky to prove direct coordination with Putin or Russian military intelligence.
“Each ideological entrepreneur has his own portfolio, and is put in competition with others; nothing is secured or guaranteed. They create new networks and platforms that may be later approved or disapproved by the Kremlin. This is a largely decentralized process: the centralization only comes later, post-factum – if successful,” Laruelle explained in an interview. Laruelle also noted that pro-Kremlin ideological entrepreneurs sell “services – websites, military advisors, paramilitary training – to local groups or individuals,” to provide support, without necessarily giving them marching orders.
Members of former President Donald Trump’s inner circle have reportedly been paying teenage boys—some of them as young as 14—to post MAGA content on their Instagram pages. https://t.co/X5HiHZTYi7
BREAKING: Trump Jr. announces that he “has a feeling” that Trump will tell “the real deal about Area 51 and aliens” while commentating tonight’s boxing match. RT IF YOU THINK THAT THE APPLE DIDN’T FALL FAR FROM THE CRAZY TREE!
Proud Boys & the Far Right use Pinochet's terror in Chile as shorthand for the nightmare they want to create in the US. They don't even pretend helicopter memes are 'just jokes' anymore. 9/11 is the anniversary of the coup that saw thousands killed, tortured, and 'gone missing.'
But seriously, why are we debating whether Biden's vaccine mandates are constitutional? All he has to do is enforce them using private citizen vigilantes who get a bounty for turning in the unvaxxed & according to SCOTUS, the courts' hands are tied. https://t.co/rRw15TohcX
Does the GOP project much? Biden is a dictator. Biden is an insurrectionist. Biden has dementia. Biden's son is a criminal. Biden has conflicts of interest. Biden gaslights America.
Tomorrow's preview: Biden cheated on his wife with a porn star, paid her off to keep her silent.
Congratulations to @EmmaRaducanu who has just made history by becoming the first British woman to win a Grand Slam singles title since 1977. Read her full interview from the October issue of British Vogue: https://t.co/RKeRZKrOe6pic.twitter.com/ZDoPJd8vaV
