Latest news with #Flight93
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Town of Barre dedicates new 9/11 memorial ten years in the making
Veterans and civilians came together on Memorial Day to formally dedicate the town's latest war memorial. It's a powerful remembrance of the thousands of lives lost in the global war on terror. Dennis Fleming, along with many others, helped complete a mission ten years in the making. Fleming recalled the horrific events of 9/11. 'I was at the dentist's office over here and from the time I left my house and went to the dentist, the first plane had already hit and they're watching it on tv and I'm standing there and all of a sudden, a second plane hit and you know the rest of that is history," Fleming said. A history now etched in blocks of granite. 'I think for us, our generation, being the children of 'The Greatest Generation,' this is our Pearl Harbor,' Fleming said. As a marine, Barre's Police Chief James Sabourin was stationed in Hawaii on 9/11. 'I can remember a lot of confusion and then we deployed shortly thereafter,' he said. 'So I am a veteran of the global war on terror. It's a little surreal looking at a memorial like that come together.' Sabourin says the memorial fills his heart with pride and it makes him proud of the town. To help fund the project, a favorite brick program was established and donations were accepted. Carved into the statues are the times the towers were hit. Behind the towers are subway rails recovered from the lower level of the World Trade Center complex. To the left is the Pennsylvania monument for the lives lost in Shanksville on United Airlines Flight 93, along with the last words spoken by passengers and crew, 'let's roll.' Finally, the memorial pays tribute to the lives lost in the Pentagon crash. Barre native William O'Donnell, a Navy veteran, was in the Pentagon on 9/11. When he heard about the tribute, he offered up a piece of the Pentagon which is now housed at the memorial in Barre. 'I think it's something the entire town and area can be proud of,' O'Donnell said. 'And they did it out of the goodness of their hearts.' Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Travel Weekly
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Travel Weekly
Proposed budget cuts threaten National Park Service and tourism economy
Over $1 billion in federal funding for the National Park Service (NPS) could be slashed in the proposed 2026 federal budget, in what would be the largest funding cut in the agency's history. Advocates say tourism in and around the 433 parks and sites in the NPS system will suffer, along with the tour operators that offer national park itineraries. The proposed budget would cut almost a third from the $3.1 billion the NPS has for fiscal year 2025. It would remove $900 million from NPS operations alone, much of it targeting sites that the budget request submitted May 2 described as not being parks "in the traditionally understood sense," suggesting that some smaller sites would be "better categorized and managed as state-level parks." Advocates sounded the alarm. "We worry [about] places like Flight 93, presidential birthplaces, Civil and Revolutionary War battlefields and places that preserve and teach Americans about some of the more difficult chapters of history, like Minidoka, the Japanese internment camp," said John Garder, a senior director for the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association. He said the NPS creates "significant economic value," with $21 in visitor spending for every $1 Congress invests. Garder said "countless" local economies depend on park tourism from visitors spending money in "hotels, restaurants, gas stations, souvenir stores" nearby and along the way. According to the NPS, the 2023 economic output for economies around the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park near Hodgenville, Ky., was $23.4 million. The Blue Ridge Parkway generated $1.8 billion along the 469-mile Appalachian Mountains drive from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina. The Department of the Interior already terminated 1,000 full-time NPS employees earlier this year, and Garder said its workforce has been reduced by 13% since January. National Tour Association (NTA) president Catherine Prather said putting national parks "on the chopping block" will only further diminish the tourism economy, not only for gateway communities but for tour operators: More than 75% of NTA members operate tours in national parks. Caleb Lawson, vice president of Sunrise Tours, which offers national parks itineraries, said the company has fielded calls from clients about the impact of NPS budget and staffing cuts. Despite the concern, he said, the tours continue to "have very strong reservation numbers." "I'm not sure what to attribute that to, other than that we are all in a wait-and-see situation in so many ways right now," Lawson said, citing everything from park funding to tariffs. Tauck is "cautiously optimistic about the upcoming season," a spokesperson said, adding that one product manager was recently in Yellowstone and had visited Bryce and Zion during spring break and saw no long lines or anything amiss. "While it's still early, we've been running some of our national parks tours [for] the past several weeks now without experiencing any real issues at all," the spokesperson said. Xanterra Travel Collection, which handles concessions and lodging in several national parks, is also the parent company of tour operators Country Walkers and VBT Bicycling Vacations, which offer park tours. Both operators have more guests booked for 2025 than they did for last year. Todd Walton, director of marketing and sales for Xanterra's Yellowstone offerings, said the company's Yellowstone National Park Lodges have seen few cancellations this year. Guests typically book six months to one year in advance, he said, but the company is now noticing a 60- to 90-day window for bookings. Like Lawson, he attributes this to a "wait-and-see" mentality from guests. Walton said that NPS superintendents recently shared at a meeting that Yellowstone and Grand Teton are both fully staffed for the season and that "NPS is doing a fantastic job making sure people have a great experience." But Garder said the impact of cuts are not just what's visible to visitors. "What's critical for people to understand is that it's not just the things they notice, like trash cans and bathrooms and visitor centers, but the work that's being done to protect those resources," he said -- for example, the monitoring of invasive species. "People may not see it, but there's damage." Intrepid Travel's president of the Americas, Leigh Barnes, said he hopes the proposed and previous NPS budget cuts will serve as a "rallying cry" that pushes consumers and other brands to take action in support of the NPS. Intrepid expects impacts to maintenance and scheduling to be visible on its tours but is also waiting to see what happens. The company is hoping to inspire more travel to the U.S. and its parks with a 20% discount on U.S. tours, including to 18 national parks.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Pennsylvania Turnpike expecting 2 million+ drivers for Memorial Day weekend
(WHTM) – The Pennsylvania Turnpike is expecting more than two million drivers to hit the highway for Memorial Day weekend. Turnpike officials project that, from May 23-26, approximately 2,190,000 motorists will travel on the Turnpike. This is nearly a 3% increase from last year's holiday weekend. The busiest day is expected to be Friday, with more than 700,000 motorists projected on the turnpike. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Maintenance and construction on the turnpike will be suspended starting at 3 p.m. on Thursday, May 22, until 11 p.m. on Monday, May 26. Those heading westbound in the Somerset (Exit 110) to New Stanton (Exit 75) corridor Sunday, May 25 are being warned that traffic could be slower from 3 to 5 p.m. as the Run for the Wall veteran's organization is hosting their annual 300+ unit motorcade that travels from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. and the Flight 93 National Memorial, Somerset County. Riders will travel west from the Somerset Interchange starting at approximately 3:15 p.m. Sunday. The motorcade is planning a fueling stop at the New Stanton Service Plaza (MP 77.6) around 4 p.m. before exiting at New Stanton around 5 p.m. and continuing onto Interstate 70 toward their final destination at the Middle East Conflicts Wall Memorial in Illinois. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
27-04-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Recently surfaced 9/11 evidence was not shared with FBI field agents or top intelligence officials
Evidence has emerged that could change our understanding of the 9/11 terrorist attacks more than two decades ago. It was turned over to the FBI in the weeks after 9/11, but our reporting has uncovered it was never shared with the bureau's own field agents or top intelligence officials. Why after all these years is this crucial information just surfacing? The evidence is coming to light as part of a long-running lawsuit against the Saudi government by the families of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks, and it includes a chilling video of a Saudi national filming the U.S. Capitol. A voice on the video says in Arabic, "I am transmitting these scenes to you from the heart of the American capital, Washington." This video, recorded in the summer of 1999, was unsealed in federal court last year as part of the 9/11 families lawsuit accusing Saudi Arabia of providing crucial support to the hijackers. Exhibit A in their case: the man who made the video, Omar al-Bayoumi – who asked a bystander to film him in front of the Capitol. The FBI says Bayoumi was living in the United States on a student visa and being paid by a Saudi aviation company in California – despite not showing up for classes or work. Investigators say, in fact, Bayoumi was an operative of the Saudi intelligence service and had close ties to two of the hijackers. The video was filmed over several days. Bayoumi recorded entrances and exits of the capitol, security posts, a model of the building, and nearby landmarks. Bayoumi points out the Washington monument and says, "I will get over there," and "report to you in detail what is there." He also notes the airport is not far away. Richard Lambert: What I see Bayoumi doing is going out and making a detailed video record of the Capitol from all its sides, and then conducting that 360° panoramic view. Richard Lambert and Cecilia Vega 60 Minutes Richard Lambert is a retired FBI supervisor who led the initial 9/11 investigation in San Diego, where Bayoumi and the two hijackers lived prior to the attacks. He's now a consultant on the case filed by the 9/11 families. Richard Lambert: If you've ever flown into Washington D.C., one of the first things you see on the horizon is the Washington Monument. So, if you know where your other targets are, it helps guide you to your intended target. Federal investigators believe the hijackers on Flight 93, which crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, planned to hit the U.S. Capitol as their likely target. In the video, Bayoumi references a, quote, "plan." Richard Lambert: "You said that in the plan." What plan? Cecilia Vega: What do you think he's talking about? Richard Lambert: I think he's talking to the al Qaeda planners who tasked him to take the pre-operational surveillance video of the intended target. Cecilia Vega: So, this video is taken in late June and early July of 1999. What does that timing tell you? Richard Lambert: Well, that means it was taken within 90 days of the time when senior al Qaeda planners reached the decision that the Capitol would be a target of the 9/11 attacks. That's when Osama bin Laden decided to approve the so-called "planes operation" proposed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11. During a raid on Bayoumi's U.K. apartment about 10 days after the attacks, British police discovered the Capitol video, along with about 80 other tapes and a trove of documents now being used as evidence in the families' lawsuit. This internal FBI report, dated October 11, 2001, shows that "copies of all recovered exhibits" were "sent to FBI-New York via Federal Express," but the Capitol video never made it to the San Diego field office. Danny Gonzalez: I had not seen that video. Retired FBI special agent Danny Gonzalez, one of the lead 9/11 investigators in San Diego, says he never knew about the video during the 15 years he worked on the case. He is also a consultant for the 9/11 families' lawsuit. Retired FBI special agent Danny Gonzalez 60 Minutes Danny Gonzalez: Not only did I not know, all of the case agents in San Diego didn't know, and the case agents in New York didn't know. And we're talking about the Joint Terrorism Task Forces that not only have F.B.I., but we have other state, local, and federal agencies, they did not know either. Cecilia Vega: How is that possible? Danny Gonzalez: I don't have that answer, and that-- that angers me. When I saw that video, I knew exactly what it was. Cecilia Vega: Did you need this information to do your job? Danny Gonzalez: Absolutely. He believes he could've used the Capitol video to build a case against Bayoumi. Danny Gonzalez: I would've taken it to the United States Attorney's Office–who was requesting from us, the F.B.I.--anything that we had they wanted to look at. Cecilia Vega: Meaning what? That they would have filed charges? That they would have indicted? What were you hoping that would be? Danny Gonzalez: It was a terror investigation, but it was also a mass murder. Cecilia Vega: In your view, this video was so significant that it should've gone all the way to the top to the White House? Gina Bennett: I think it should have because it's the Capitol building. Gina Bennett was a senior counterterrorism analyst at the CIA for 20 years. Gina Bennett: In the aftermath of 9/11, we were briefing the President and the National Security Council. We didn't expect that this was a 'one and done'. We expected al Qaeda to continue to try. So, resources were going entirely to trying to undermine any additional plotting. Cecilia Vega: The Saudi government says, "This is a tourist video. That there's nothing to see here." You–you don't buy that? Gina Bennett: No, I don't. Who does a tourist video that is reporting back on, "This is where that building is, and here's where the security guards are." Gina Bennett was a counterterrorism analyst at the CIA during the terror attacks. 60 Minutes Now retired, she was the first person in the U.S. government to warn of the dangers of a global jihadist movement led by Osama bin Laden. Bennett has no involvement with the 9/11 families' lawsuit and says she too was unaware of the video's existence until we asked her to evaluate it. As we discovered, she was not the only one at the CIA in the dark. Cecilia Vega: George Tenet, the CIA director at the time, says he wasn't aware of the video. Same for Michael Morell, the president's daily intelligence briefer at the time. Does it surprise you that they didn't know about this? Gina Bennett: It does surprise me, again, because we're talking about the U.S. Capitol. And in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 Bayoumi was a suspect. Cecilia Vega: A lotta people will see this video for the first time and think, "How is it remotely possible that it's just coming to light now?" Could it really have been sitting in an evidence locker room all of these years? Seems like a pretty epic failure-- Gina Bennett: Well, I think it's a matter of did they lose the evidence or had they filed it away in a way that it would not have seemed relevant? That I can see. As it turns out, there was more evidence: specifically, this airplane sketch and math formula that was also seized from Bayoumi's U.K. apartment and turned over to the FBI in 2001. It was stashed away for more than a decade until Danny Gonzalez in 2012 got a phone call out of the blue from an FBI evidence technician in Washington. Cecilia Vega: What did they tell you? Danny Gonzalez: They told me that they had these boxes with the name of Omar al-Bayoumi written on it. And they were sitting in a warehouse in Washington, D.C., and they were gonna relocate these boxes or destroy these boxes, and they wanted to know if I-- if I wanted 'em. And I said, "Absolutely." Cecilia Vega: But as one of the lead investigators into these attacks, did you have any idea that this sketch had even existed before you got that phone call? Danny Gonzalez: No, I didn't. He had aviation and aerospace experts analyze the equation for the FBI. Their conclusion: a pilot could use it to calculate the rate of descent to hit a target on the horizon. In 2004, the 9/11 Commission produced what was at the time considered the definitive account of the attacks. Its executive director, Philip Zelikow, told us he was also unaware of it during his investigation. So were former senior U.S. intelligence officials we spoke to. As for Bayoumi – who was never charged with a crime and moved back to Saudi Arabia after 9/11 – he was asked about the sketch as part of the lawsuit in a 2021 deposition. He confirmed the sketch was his, but said he remembered little else about it, including his handwritten notes that say, "hight (sic) [of] the plane from the earth in mile" and "distance from the plane to hurrizen (sic)." When pressed about it, he came up with a far-fetched explanation. Omar al-Bayoumi (translator speaking English during deposition): Perhaps this was an equation that we studied before in high school and I was trying to remember whether I'm going to be able to figure out and solve it or not. Attorney (during deposition): And what is it an equation for? Omar al-Bayoumi (during deposition): I don't know. Just– just doesn't matter. Just equation. There's no proof that Bayoumi shared the equation with any of the hijackers. What we do know is that he met the first two to arrive in the U.S. nearly two years before 9/11. Bayoumi claims he met them in a chance encounter at a restaurant here on Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles. He then helped them move to San Diego, finding them a place to live in his own apartment complex, co-signing the lease, and helping them open a bank account. He even threw a party, which he also videotaped, capturing one of the hijackers on camera. He then introduced them to others who helped them obtain government IDs and enroll in English classes and flight schools. Bayoumi and the Saudi government say his actions were innocent, the result of a remarkable series of coincidences. Cecilia Vega: Is it at all possible in your mind that Bayoumi wasn't actually involved in all of this, it's pure coincidence, as the Saudis claim? Danny Gonzalez: No, no. I don't believe that for a second. Cecilia Vega: Why not? Could've been a guy who just wanted to help his-- Danny Gonzalez: No. Cecilia Vega: --brothers adjust to a life in a new country. Danny Gonzalez: Who else did he help besides those two hijackers? I don't know of any, and I couldn't find any. Cecilia Vega: Omar al-Bayoumi is living as a free man in Saudi Arabia. What do you think about that? Danny Gonzalez: Awful, awful. He should be here under the court system. Cecilia Vega: The 9/11 Commission concluded that Bayoumi was, quote, "An unlikely candidate for clandestine involvement with Islamic extremists." Does that still hold? Gina Bennett: I think the 9/11 Commission is just not fully informed. It's not their fault, but it's not fully informed. Cecilia Vega: So, all the evidence you've seen: the material support, the Capitol video, the sketch-- your conclusion is what? Gina Bennett: My conclusion is that Bayoumi was an al Qaeda facilitator. He had sympathies with al Qaeda–I mean ideologically–and that he provided substantial support to these two individuals, these two hijackers, without which they may very well have been caught. Bennett says Bayoumi was indispensable to the success of the hijackers' plot-- because they spoke no English, had little formal education, and no prior exposure to life in the West. Gina Bennett: I don't see al Qaeda, as meticulous as it was with its planning, just throwing two operatives that are so instrumental to the success of this operation into a massive city without a soft landing, without a network there to catch them. She says the new evidence raises a lot of important questions. Cecilia Vega: Like what? Gina Bennett: Who else? Were there other networks? Are any of those individuals still active here or elsewhere in the world? Is there any other evidence that's sitting in a– in a box somewhere or, you know, locked up? And work from that new information to learn. To learn what you got wrong. To learn how not to get it wrong again. The government of Saudi Arabia has filed a motion in federal court to dismiss the 9/11 families' lawsuit, saying neither the kingdom nor Omar al-Bayoumi had anything to do with the attacks. The judge overseeing the case is expected to rule on the motion soon. As for the FBI, it told us it would not comment on ongoing litigation. Produced by Richard Bonin and Mirella Brussani. Broadcast associate, Katie Jahns. Edited by April Wilson.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOGE lists Flight 93 Learning Center as a possible cut. What to know
It appears the Department of Government Efficiency, aka DOGE, has recommended the closure of the nearly 10-year-old Flight 93 National Memorial Learning Center as part of the Trump administration's efforts to reduce federal government spending. Among the more than 600 lease terminations listed at the DOGE website is a 2,361-square-foot building in Somerset, Pennsylvania, leased by the National Park Service. According to a lease cancellation post dated March 3, DOGE claims the National Park Service pays $29,693 per year to lease the building, and canceling this lease would save the federal government a total of $86,720. The Flight 93 National Memorial Learning Center opened to the public on Sept. 10, 2015, as "a multi-purpose gathering space for education, programming and special events," according to a National Park Service media announcement at the time the center opened. Share the road: Farm equipment will be on the roads as spring ramps up. How to drive safely near them The Flight 93 National Memorial's Visitor Center also opened on the same day, but to date, it has not been targeted by DOGE for closure. The Daily American emailed the National Park Service for more information, asking for confirmation of the building's location, its annual and total lease cost, and from whom the building is leased. Helping veterans: Somerset Veterans Affairs outreach is one of the state's best. How they do it The National Park Service Office of Public Affairs did not answer those specific questions, but provided this statement: "This location is used for meetings, trainings and by park partners, as well as a Flight 93 National Memorial learning studio. We are actively working with GSA (the General Services Administration) to ensure that every facility and asset is utilized effectively, and where necessary, identifying alternative solutions that strengthen our mission. These efforts reflect our broader commitment to streamlining government operations while ensuring that conservation efforts remain strong, effective and impactful. "This process is ongoing, and we will provide updates as more information becomes available." This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Flight 93 Learning Center among DOGE lease cut targets
