Look up 911 in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

911 is a year.

911 may also refer to:

• 911 (number)
• 911 BC, a year before the common era
• 9-1-1, emergency telephone number in most of North America
• Porsche 911, a series of cars of the automobile marque
• September 11 attacks (9/11), the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States
• 911 Agamemnon, an asteroid
• BOAC Flight 911, a British Overseas Airways flight that crashed in 1966

Media and entertainment[link]

• 911 (wrestler)
• 911 (band)
• "911" (Wyclef Jean song)
• "911" (King Giddra song)
• 9.11 (album), by Bumblefoot
• "911" (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit)
• 9/11 (film), a documentary
• 9-11, a book by Noam Chomsky
• "911", a song by Cyndi Lauper on the album True Colors
• "911", a song by Gorillaz, D12 & Terry Hall on the Bad Company soundtrack

See also[link]

• September 11, in month-day date notation
• 9 November, in day-month date notation

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same number. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

The Falling Man is a photograph taken by Associated Press photographer Richard Drew, of a man falling from the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 9:41:15 a.m. during the September 11 attacks in New York City. The subject of the image—whose identity remains uncertain but is speculated to be that of Jonathan Briley, who worked in a top-floor restaurant—was one of the people trapped on the upper floors of the skyscraper who apparently either fell as they searched for safety or jumped to escape the fire and smoke. At least 200 people fell or jumped to their deaths that day;^[1] there was no time to recover or identify those who were forced out of the buildings prior to the collapse of the towers. Officially, all deaths in the attacks except those of the hijackers were ruled to be homicides due to blunt trauma^[2] (as opposed to suicides), and the New York City medical examiner's office stated that it does not classify the people who fell to their deaths on September 11 as "jumpers": "A 'jumper' is somebody who goes to the office in the morning knowing that they will commit suicide... These people were forced out by the smoke and flames or blown out."^[1]

The photograph, shown on the right gives the impression that the man is falling straight down. However, this is one in a series of photographs of his fall, and viewed with the others it is evident that he is tumbling through the air.^[3]

The photographer has noted that, in at least two cases, newspaper stories commenting on the image have attracted a barrage of criticism from readers who found the image "disturbing."^[4] Regarding the social and cultural significance of The Falling Man, theologian Mark D. Thompson of Moore Theological College says that "perhaps the most powerful image of despair at the beginning of the twenty-first century is not found in art, or literature, or even popular music. It is found in a single photograph."^[5]

Publication history[link]

The photograph initially appeared in newspapers around the world, including on page 7 of The New York Times on September 12, 2001. It appeared only once in the Times because of criticism and anger against its use. ^[6] Six years later, it appeared on page 1 of the New York Times Book Review on May 27, 2007.^[7]

"The Falling Man" is also the title of an article about the photograph by Tom Junod that appeared in the September 2003 issue of Esquire magazine and was later made into a documentary film. The article and film reveal who "The Falling Man" actually may have been: Jonathan Briley. Briley worked on the 106th floor of the north tower of the World Trade Center. It was there, in the restaurant, that he either fell accidentally while searching for fresh air and safety or decided to jump. He was an asthmatic and would have known he was in danger when smoke began to pour into the restaurant.^[8]

Identification[link]

The identity of the subject of The Falling Man has never been confirmed. The fact that so many people were trapped in the tower has made identifying the man in the 12 photos difficult. It is thought that at least 200 people fell to their deaths, though the actual number is not certain.^[1]

The faller was initially suggested by The Globe and Mail reporter Peter Cheney to be Norberto Hernandez, but upon closer examination of the entire photo sequence it was felt by his family that it was clearly not Hernandez. Three other families claimed him to be a relative, but careful analysis of the photo confirmed the claims to be incorrect.

Finally, The Falling Man was identified by chef Michael Lomonaco as Jonathan Briley, a 43-year-old employee of the Windows on the World restaurant. Briley was a sound engineer who lived in Mount Vernon, New York and worked in the North Tower restaurant.^[9] The victim was initially identified by his brother, Timothy.^[8] Lomonaco claims that he was able to identify Briley by his clothes and body-type. In one of the pictures, The Falling Man's clothes were blown away, revealing an orange undershirt similar to the shirt that Briley wore to work almost every day. His older sister, Gwendolyn, asserted he was wearing that shirt on the day of the attack. She told reporters of The Sunday Mirror, "When I first looked at the picture...and I saw it was a man - tall, slim - I said, 'If I didn't know any better, that could be Jonathan.'" A charity has been set up for Briley's family, and many news programs have aired his story as being the one of The Falling Man. Another of Briley's brothers, Alex, was an original member of the 1970s disco group Village People.

Documentary film[link]

9/11: The Falling Man is a 2006 documentary film about the picture and the story behind it.^[10] It was made by American filmmaker Henry Singer and filmed by Richard Numeroff, a New York-based director of photography. The film is loosely based on Junod's Esquire story. It also drew its material from photographer Lyle Owerko's pictures of falling people. It debuted on March 16, 2006, on the British television network Channel 4. It later made its North American premiere on Canada's CBC Newsworld on September 6, 2006, and has been broadcast in over 30 countries. The U.S. premiere was September 10, 2007, on the Discovery Times Channel.

Use in literature[link]

The picture plays an important part in the book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. The last 15 pages of his text comprise a flip-book collection of images of a similar man shot by photographer Lyle Owerko falling upwards toward the top of the World Trade Center. Although he is not the first to make the claim, Foer demonstrates how the falling man is used as a symbol for grieving families much like the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier."

Falling Man, a novel by Don DeLillo, is about the events of 9/11. The Falling Man in the novel is a performance artist recreating the events of the photograph.^[11] DeLillo says he was unfamiliar with the title of the picture when he named his book. The artist straps himself into a harness and jumps from an elevated structure in a high visibility area (such as a highway overpass), hanging in the pose of the falling man.

The Falling Man is also referenced in the poem "Out of the Blue" by Simon Armitage. The poem is written from the falling man's point of view as he falls.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• 9/11: The Falling Man (March 16, 2006). Channel 4.

Further reading[link]

• Friend, David (2007). "Thursday, September 13". Watching The World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11. I.B.Tauris. pp. 106–163. ISBN 1-84511-545-7. 
• Ingledew, John (2005). Photography. Laurence King Publishing. p. 76. ISBN 1-85669-432-1. 
• Tallack, Douglas (2005). New York Sights: Visualizing Old and New New York. Berg Publishers. pp. 174–181. ISBN 1-84520-170-1. 

External links[link]

• NPR interview with Esquire magazine writer Tom Junod, August 21, 2003

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2011)

Jason Bermas was born July 24, 1979 in Hollywood, Florida. He studied at SUNY Oneonta located in Oneonta, NY, where he currently lives. Bermas is also a filmmaker, and has played a large role in the creation of many controversial films such as Fabled Enemies, Loose Change and Invisible Empire.

Media[link]

The Infowarrior

Jason Bermas hosts The Infowarrior, a political, caller-based talk show that is broadcast nationally across the USA, streamed live over the Internet (including subscription based video), and made available as a podcast after every live show. As of May, 2010, the radio show has been canceled.

The Alex Jones Show

Jason Bermas is the alternate host of The Alex Jones Show, another syndicated radio program broadcast by Genesis Communications Network to over 60 stations across the nation. The show is broadcast Monday-Friday 11:00 am to 3:00 pm, CST.

On April 15 of 2010, Bermas released "Invisible Empire."

References[link]

Michel Chossudovsky (born 1946) is a Canadian economist.

He graduated from the University of Manchester, England, and obtained a PhD at the University of North Carolina, USA; he is professor of economics (emeritus) at the University of Ottawa. Chossudovsky has been a visiting professor in countries throughout Western Europe, Southeast Asia and Latin America. Also, he has been involved with consulting several different international organizations and has been an advisor to governments of developing countries. Chossudovsky is a signatory of the Kuala Lumpur declaration to criminalize war. He is the author of The Globalization of Poverty and The New World Order (2003) and America's "War on Terrorism" (2005). His most recent book is entitled "Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War" (2011).^[1][2][3][4]

Prof. Michel Chossudovsky is President and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), an independent research and media organization based in Montreal, Canada. CRG maintains the website GlobalResearch.ca which promotes viewpoints critical of United States foreign policy and NATO, as well as theories concerning the 9/11 attacks and the war on terror, media disinformation, poverty and social inequality, the global economic crisis, and politics and religion.

Biography[link]

Chossudovsky is the son of a distinguished academic, Russian born Evgeny Chossudovsky (1914–2006) and a Northern Irishwoman, Rachel. He is founder, editor, and director of the Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), which is "committed to curbing the tide of globalisation and disarming the new world order".^[5]

In 1999, Chossudovsky joined the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research as an adviser.^[2]

Chossudovsky was profiled in the Ottawa Citizen in an article by Juliet Oniell.^[6]

Writings[link]

Global economic crisis[link]

Chossudovsky believes that the financial meltdown of the world's market was caused by deliberate fraud of powerful institutions. This coupled with increased militarization around the world is contributing to mass unemployment, global poverty and decrease of government social.^[7] He predicted that "The late 20th century will go down in world history as a period of global impoverishment marked by the collapse of productive systems in the developing world, the demise of national institutions and the disintegration of health and education programs."^[8]

HAARP[link]

Chossudovsky argues that from a military standpoint, the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is an operational weapon of mass destruction with the potential to be used against "rogue states", with the power to alter the weather, disrupt regional electrical power systems, and modify the Earth's magnetic field, as well as potentially trigger earthquakes and affect people's health. Chossudovsky stated that the policy guidelines already contain weather intervention techniques and that the technology has finished its final stages of development according to an interview with physicist Bernard Eastlund in 1997.^[9][10][11] He explains that these techniques are not a new concept and that mathematician, John von Neumann, had begun research on the topic in the late 1940s in coordination with the U.S. Department of Defense.^[12]

IMF[link]

Chossudovsky asserts that Dominique Strauss-Kahn was framed with sexual assault charges by powerful members of the financial establishment in order to install a more compliant leader. Dominique Strauss-Kahn was pushing for reforms within the IMF.^[13] Like Naomi Klein and Thomas Pogge, he has also argued that the IMF's structural adjustment programs lead to further famine in sub-saharan Africa.^[14]

Libya[link]

Chossudovsky asserted at the outset of the Libya conflict that this was part of a larger agenda for corporate interests to take over 60% of the world's oil reserves.^[15] He claimed that the rebels of Libya, which had formed an alliance with NATO, were former members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and that this same group was listed as a bona fide terrorist organization with the United Nations Security Council.^[16][17]

Syria[link]

Chossudovsky asserts that the protestors against the government regime are covertly supported by western intelligence and are the cause of the unrest in Syria. He claims the western media shows bias in their reporting by not showing the evidence of massive support for Assad shown in a rally on March 29, 2011 in Damascus and claims that there are Assad forces that are also being killed, which he says is also ignored.^[18]

Swine flu[link]

Chossudovsky has argued that reports released in the British press regarding the plans for mass morgues due to H1N1 were "totally fabricated" and that "the British government is deliberately misleading the British public", claiming that there were reports from Britain's Health Protection Agency that confirmed that the proposed vaccines would be more deadly than the disease.^[19]

Terrorism[link]

After the September 11 terrorist attacks he highlighted the historical relationship between the US government, Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. On Russia Today, he stated that President Obama, not Osama bin Laden, is the biggest threat to global security.^[20] In the Preface of America's "War on Terrorism" he wrote:

The myth of the "outside enemy" and the threat of "Islamic terrorists" was the cornerstone of the Bush administration’s military doctrine, used as a pretext to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, not to mention the repeal of civil liberties and constitutional government in America. Without an "outside enemy", there could be no "war on terrorism".^[21]

In a speech given at the Perdana Global Peace Forum in 2005, Chossudovsky stated that "Osama bin Laden and the Taliban were identified as the prime suspects of the 9/11 attacks, without a shred of evidence" and that "Amply documented, the war on terrorism is a fabrication."^[22]

He has also asserted that the invasion of Afghanistan had long been planned by the United States and NATO, with the 9/11 attacks used as an excuse to justify the war.^[23][24]

Yugoslavia[link]

Chossudovsky has questioned the widespread notion that the Yugoslav wars were primarily motivated by ethnic or nationalist conflict. In his 1996 article "Dismantling Yugoslavia: Colonizing Bosnia", he wrote that the macroeconomic restructuring and the deep-seated economic crisis of the 1980s helped destroy Yugoslavia, but that the global media have carefully overlooked or denied the central role of Western-backed neoliberal policies in the process, and that after the war the Western powers have concentrated on debt repayment and potential energy bonanzas rather than rebuilding the economy.^[25]

Criticism[link]

In an op-ed in the conservative Canadian news outlet, Western Standard, Chossudovsky was listed as one of Canada's nuttiest professors "whose absurdity stands head and shoulders above their colleagues."^[26] Specifically, the op-ed criticized GlobalResearch.ca as "anti-U.S. and anti-globalization"^[26] and criticized Chussodovsky's "wild-eyed conspiracy theories", which provided the following three of his theories: that the U.S. had knowledge of the 911 attacks before they happened; that Washington had weapons that could influence climate change; and lastly, that the large banking institutions are the cause of the collapse of smaller economies.^[26]

An article in The Jewish Tribune has also criticized GlobalResearch.ca as "rife with anti-Jewish conspiracy theory and Holocaust denial." B'nai Brith Canada had complained that there were comments on a forum moderated by Chossudovsky that questioned how many Jews died in the holocaust. Chossudovsky responded that there was a disclaimer that the website was not to be held responsible for the views expressed in the forum, and he had the comment removed. He also said that he was of Jewish heritage and would be one of the last people to condone antisemitic views.^[27] The same article also reported that B'nai Brith Canada wrote a letter to the University of Ottawa asking for the university "to conduct its own investigation of this propagandist site."^[27]

Chossudovsky has also been criticised as an "apologist for the Milošević regime", and for systematically distorting events in Albania and the wars in the Balkans in the 1990s.^[28]

Bibliography[link]

• With Fred Caloren and Paul Gingrich, Is the Canadian Economy Closing Down? (Montreal: Black Rose, 1978) ISBN 0-919618-80-4
• Towards Capitalist Restoration? Chinese Socialism After Mao (New York: St Martin's, 1986 and London: Macmillan, 1986) ISBN 0-333-38441-5
• The Globalization of Poverty: Impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms, (Penang: Third World Network, 1997) and (London: Zed, 1997) ISBN 81-85569-34-7 and ISBN 1-85649-402-0
• Exporting Apartheid to Sub-Saharan Africa (New Delhi: Madhyam, 1997) ISBN 81-86816-06-2
• 'Washington's New World Order Weapons Can Trigger Climate Change', (November 26, 2000)
• Guerres et Mondialisation: A Qui Profite Le 11 Septembre? (Serpent a Plume, 2002) ISBN 2-84261-387-2
• The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order (Oro, Ontario: Global Outlook, 2003) ISBN 0-9731109-1-0 – Excerpt.
• America's "War on Terrorism" (Pincourt, Quebec: Global Research, 2005) ISBN 0-9737147-1-9

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Michel Chossudovsky

• Chossudovsky's articles at Centre for Research on Globalization
• A list of audio interviews: (French Connection Audio Archive)
• War and Globalization presentation. (Google Video)

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