Over the past few days, we’ve seen America’s best and worst.
Let’s start with the best.
America’s Intelligence Service and Its Sophisticated Military killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda leader who fabricated a twisted political theology that led to the September 11, 2001 murder-suicide operation.
In that attack — the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history — 19 al-Qaeda operatives, drunk on al-Zawahiri’s words, hijacked four commercial jets. The operatives first reportedly murdered most of each jetliner’s pilots and flight attendants, slitting their throats. Then, after taking control of jetliners, two crashed into his two skyscrapers at the World Trade Center in New York City, another at the Pentagon in northern Virginia, and a fourth at Pennsylvania. Crashed into a farm.
Nearly 3,000 innocent people died. His 19 hijackers, who also died, believed they were doing God’s will and earning martyrdom in “Paradise.” Or Al-Zawahiri told them so.
Meanwhile, LIV Golf at Trump National Bedminster
Fast forward to now. Al-Zawahiri’s death this week elicited justifiable and immense satisfaction in most of the non-terrorist world, but it also left a chilling dose of irony, not to mention utter shame here in New Jersey.
About 40 people were on a course owned by former President Donald J. Trump in Bedminster, New Jersey, when Al-Zawahiri was killed by a missile fired from a U.S. drone in Kabul, Afghanistan, last Sunday morning. of professional golfers received high payouts. of money to essentially stage a golf exhibition while rock music was playing. LIV Golf Tournament — whose slogan is “Golf, but Loud” — came from Saudi Arabia and concluded that the FBI was now the same source of logistical and financial support for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. I’m here.
Golfers had no problem with this. Neither did Trump. In fact, Trump, who specifically blamed the Saudis for his 9/11 attacks on his Fox news in 2016, said that in the heat and humidity of his golf course in Bedminster, Saudi Arabia I had a change of heart because I was standing there with 100% cash. He has poured into his business empire.
“Well, no one has ever figured out the truth about 9/11,” the former president told journalists.
nobody? Trump clearly doesn’t read thousands of FBI documents The FBI is pointing the finger directly at the Saudi government, particularly its intelligence services and its Ministry of Islamic Affairs, not to mention the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC.
When asked, the golfers tweeted versions of the “thoughts and prayers” they hear from clueless gun rights advocates when mass shootings occur. said.
But these golfers weren’t going to ditch the putter and forgo the LIV tournament. They told golfers to “take the money” despite criticism of Saudi Arabia’s involvement in 9/11 and other human rights violations, including the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. seemed more in harmony with
It’s America’s worst. Thankfully we got to taste the best too.
Other Mike Kelley:Saudi LIV Tournament Underway at Trump’s New Jersey Golf Course, 9/11 Families Grieve Newly
Other Mike Kelley:Trump, LIV Golf Finally Got Saudi and 9/11 Attention – For Now
Haunted and relentlessly fascinated by the story of 9/11
For 20 years I have followed the story of 9/11. My journey began on the morning of September 11, 2001 with a tugboat crossing the Hudson River. Then we went to Malaysia, Israel, West Bank, Gaza City, Washington DC, Iraq and US Naval Bases in Guantanamo Bay. ,Cuba.
But what brings me back to this story and often haunts me are the people who lost loved ones in the attacks on 9/11. Children lost fathers and mothers, husbands lost wives, wives lost husbands on Tuesday, September 2001, when smoke and ash obliterated the golden sun and stained the cloudless sky. Parents lost a son and a daughter. Many of us have lost friends.
In the New York metropolitan area, many of us were only two steps away from 9/11. I lost someone I knew or knew someone who lost someone. This tragedy was not just a story you read in a distant dated book or newspaper. Death was familiar and personal.
That’s why it’s worth listening to Juliette Scauso.
She was just four years old when her father, Dennis, a New York City firefighter who lived with his wife and four children at Huntington Station on Long Island, died in the rubble of the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan. Rescue workers never identified Denise’s body, as did her more than 1,000 of the nearly 3,000 dead at the trade center. According to the Better Angels website, all they found was his broken firefighter helmet.
His daughter, Juliet, is now 25 and is studying to become a physician at Trinity College Medical School in Dublin, Ireland. Returning to America over the summer, she took time to drive to Bedminster and listened to the voice of reason amid the dissonant cloud that seems to envelop Trump and his supporters whenever questions of truth and morality are called into question. raised.
Scouto joins 30 other relatives of 9/11 survivors and victims In Bedminster for some sort of protest against Trump and golfers. As she stepped into the line of news mics to speak, she described the father she lost — a pilot and animal lover who made Mickey Mouse pancakes and used duct tape. Reattached the head to the broken Barbie doll.
And Scouto asked the question looming over this uneasy alliance of Saudi money, greedy golf, and a decidedly unsympathetic Trump. It is supported by the inflow of money from the country.
“How much does it cost to turn your back on the country?” asked Scouto, adding, “Or Americans?”
Not long ago, Scouso pointed out, “My father wasn’t the buyable type.” And in another message to Trump and the golfers, she said:
Dennis Scorso died along with 18 other men from his fire station in Maspeth, Queens, which was the headquarters of two of the FDNY’s most elite units, 1st Hazardous Materials Company and Squad 288. Hazmat 1 caused the largest loss of firefighters of any FDNY fire department in the 9/11 attacks.
But the monument doesn’t tell the whole story. After 19 firefighters died, more than 50 children were forced to grow up without a father.
One of those children is Juliette Scouso. During the moral circus that hit New Jersey last week, she asked the right question.
She’s America’s best.
Mike Kelley is an award-winning columnist for NorthJersey.com, author of three critically acclaimed non-fiction books, and podcast and documentary film producer. For unlimited access to his insightful thoughts on how we live in New Jersey, subscribe now or activate your digital account.
Email: [email protected]
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com. Trump’s LIV Golf and the Death of Ayman Zawahiri