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NJ.com: Some Jersey City Muslims did celebrate 9/11, cop and residents say

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by YankeeFan, Dec 21, 2015.

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  1. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Instead of just reacting to Trump, someone went out and did some reporting.

    While they didn't find evidence of "thousands" celebrating on Jersey City rooftops, what they did find is disturbing, and is in line with what many of us remember hearing at the time:

    But in a new examination by NJ Advance Media, a police officer who worked on 9/11 and residents on the outskirts of Journal Square say they witnessed small pockets of people celebrating before the groups dispersed or were broken up by authorities.

    The NJ Advance Media inquiry, encompassing more than two dozen interviews conducted since Nov. 25, found Trump's broad assertion that thousands of people cheered to be baseless. At the same time, the inquiry provides the first credible indication of at least two modest celebrations, as described by on-the-record sources who say they witnessed the behavior.

    "When I saw they were happy, I was pissed," said Ron Knight, 56, a Tonnele Avenue resident who said he heard cries of "Allahu Akbar" as he shouldered his way through a crowd of 15 to 20 people on John F. Kennedy Boulevard that morning.

    Collectively, the gatherings amounted to dozens of people at the two locations, the witnesses said. Callers also flooded the 911 system with accounts of jubilant Muslims on a rooftop at a third location, three police officers said, but a reporter was unable to find witnesses there 14 years later.

    Among the news organization's findings:

    A retired police captain, Peter Gallagher, said he cleared a rooftop celebration of 20 to 30 people at 6 Tonnele Ave., a four-story apartment building with an unobstructed view of Lower Manhattan, in the hours after the second tower fell.

    "Some men were dancing, some held kids on their shoulders," said Gallagher, then a sergeant. "The women were shouting in Arabic and keening in the high-pitched wail of Arabic fashion. They were told to go back to their apartments since a crowd of non-Muslims was gathering on the sidewalk below and we feared for their safety."

    FBI agents took several residents of the building into custody days later, according to neighbors and an account in The Star-Ledger. It is unclear why they were detained.

    • Knight was one of two Tonnele Avenue residents who said they witnessed a crowd celebrating on John F. Kennedy Boulevard not far from Masjid Al-Salam, the mosque where Omar Abdel-Rahman, known as the "blind sheikh," preached before the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

    Carlos Ferran, 60, who lives in the same building as Knight, said he was on his way to a liquor store to buy beer when he came across the gathering on the sidewalk.

    "Some of them had their hands in the air," Ferran said. "They were happy."

    • Numerous people called police to report an exultant crowd on the roof of 2801 John F. Kennedy Blvd., a distinctive, five-story apartment building at the intersection of Sip Avenue, said retired officer Arthur Teeter, who worked in the radio room at police headquarters on Sept. 11.


    EXCLUSIVE: Some Jersey City Muslims did celebrate 9/11, cop and residents say
     
  2. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    But why were they happy?
     
  3. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    If Donald Trump made up a story about seeing a forest fall over and 15 years later reporters were able to find witness who saw some trees fall over, did Trump really lie?
     
  4. BitterYoungMatador2

    BitterYoungMatador2 Well-Known Member

  5. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    If the media declares that there were no celebrations by Muslims in Jersey City on 9/11, and it turns out there were, do they correct their prior statements?

    Criticize Trump if you want, but the media made just as bad a mistake, and having demanded a retraction from Trump, they should follow their own advice.
     
  6. Mr. Sunshine

    Mr. Sunshine Well-Known Member

    Unless ALL the Muslims celebrated, it's not an issue.
     
    old_tony likes this.
  7. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    What do you mean?

    It's important on several levels.

    Firstly, we should have an honest accounting of what happened. News, and history shouldn't be shaped by what makes us feel good, or what we would like to be true. It should be fact based.

    Neither what Trump claimed, or what the media claimed in response was true. This, reported story, gets us much closer to the truth. That's important.

    Secondly, it is upsetting to realize that even a few dozen people, in the city where the first WTC attack was planned, celebrated the destruction and death of 9/11. Where are those people now? What kind of values did they instill in their now teenage children?

    Thirdly, the media cannot claim to hold public figures to a standard they don't live up to. Thankfully, at least one news organization looked into this. The media's credibility is at an all time low. Will they correct their own reporting? If they don't why should we believe them? This is especially important if they want to continue to report on someone like Donald Trump, who often stretches the truth.
     
  8. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    The media made no such declaration.

    That being said, this reporting probably should've been the first thing done, not the last, when this became a story.
     
  9. BitterYoungMatador2

    BitterYoungMatador2 Well-Known Member

    BREAKING - Not all Americans like America. Film at 11.
     
  10. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    Wrong. Trump said he saw reports of thousands of Muslims celebrating. The media checked and found no reports of thousands of Muslims celebrating. They checked the police and found no incident reports or calls about thousands of Muslims celebrating.

    The fact that witnesses now say some small groups may have does not mean they did not do their job. The media investigated what Trump said and he was full of it.
     
  11. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Numerous anchors/reporters made this very declaration to Trump in interviews. Many others did the same in news stories and articles.

    The WaPo and WCBS-TV walked back their own (never corrected or retracted) stories from the time.

    Even politicians like Chris Christie claimed there were no celebrations.
     
  12. bigpern23

    bigpern23 Well-Known Member

    Since you omitted this from your initial post, I'll put it here:

     
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