Walking a Wire Between The Trade Center Towers | Newsweek Entertainment: Movies

TERROR
This Fire Needs to Be Put Out
Fareed Zakaria 11/29/2008 12:00:00 AM
My first memories of the Taj Mahal hotel are probably of when I was 8 years old, going to the Sea Lounge restaurant with its lovely view of Mumbai's harbor to eat sev puri, a savory Indian treat. I also remember passing through its grand ballroom a few years later, while it was being decked out for a dinner in honor of the president of Bulgaria—crystal chandeliers, ice sculptures, bouquets of roses, platters of shrimp carted around by liveried waiters. My family would celebrate special occasions at the Golden Dragon, one of the best Chinese restaurants outside of China. The Taj is a fixture in the life of Mumbaikers (or Bombayites as we used to call ourselves). Last week, those memories came flooding back as I watched from New York, and saw the Taj hotel on fire.
BOOKS
‘The Stuff of Thought’
10/18/2008 12:00:00 AM
On September 11, 2001, at 8:46 a.m., a hijacked airliner crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York. At 9:03 a.m. a second plane crashed into the south tower. The resulting infernos caused the buildings to collapse, the south tower after burning for an hour and two minutes, the north tower twenty-three minutes after that. The attacks were masterminded by Osama bin Laden, leader of the Al Qaeda terrorist organization, who hoped to intimidate the United States into ending its military presence in Saudi Arabia and its support for Israel and to unite Muslims in preparation for a restoration of the caliphate.
BOOKS
War and Remembrance
Christian Caryl 9/26/2008 12:00:00 AM
Americans are tired of the war on terror. It's been a while now, and the images on the evening news don't seem to change much. We make progress in one place (Iraq) just as everything seems to fall apart in another (Afghanistan). And people have other things to worry about—like house prices, or their 401(k) plans or who's going to be the next president. Small wonder that media coverage of the war has dropped dramatically.
TECHTONIC SHIFTS
A Violent Virtual Cure
Christopher Werth
Imagine standing on an empty street corner when you hear the rumble of a bus coming around the corner. The breaks squeal as the vehicle stops in front of you. Its doors open; passengers begin to step off. A moment later, the bus explodes into flames, temporarily blinding you with light, and showering the street with shards of glass and burning shrapnel. The ground shakes. Body parts lie on the pavement around you. You hear screaming and the sound of sirens. And then you take off your headset—safe and sound in your therapist's office.
JUSTICE
Gitmo Grievances
Dan Ephron
You might think that the case against Mohammed Al-Qahtani would be relatively straightforward. The military prosecutors' file on him included strong circumstantial evidence that he was sent to the United States to be the 20th hijacker in the September 11 attacks. In August 2001, Qahtani traveled to Orlando, Fla., from Dubai, using the airline that a number of the other hijackers had used around the same time—but he was turned back at the airport by border authorities. About the time Qahtani's plane touched down in Orlando, 9/11 ringleader Muhammad Atta's car was photographed entering the airport parking lot, presumably to pick him up. When U.S. troops nabbed him in Afghanistan after the start of the war and sent him to Guantánamo, the 29-year-old Saudi allegedly confessed. So why did the Pentagon abruptly dismiss the charges against Qahtani last week—and without explanation?
IRAQ
Saddam’s Files
Michael Isikoff
President Bush said lots of things about Saddam Hussein in the run-up to the Iraq War. But few of his charges grabbed more attention than an unscripted remark he made at a Texas political fund-raiser on Sept. 26, 2002. "After all, this is a guy who tried to kill my dad at one time," Bush said. The comment referred to a 1993 claim by the Kuwaiti government—accepted by the Clinton administration—that the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) had plotted to assassinate President George H.W. Bush during a trip to Kuwait that spring. Ever since, armchair psychologists have suggested that personal revenge may have been one reason for the president's determination to overthrow Saddam's regime.