CBS Radio Commentator Misses a Frequency on 9/11 ‘Celebration’

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani

Many news media reports or commentaries have refuted the claim by Donald Trump, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, that “thousands and thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheered the destruction of New York City’s World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. A Dave Ross commentary (KIRO, syndicated by CBS Radio in Seattle and aired in Washington D.C. on WTOP-FM) on November 24, discussed an Atlanta-Journal-Constitution article. It noted five Israelis were taken into custody in New Jersey after being reported “clowning around” with the World Trade Center burning across the Hudson River in the background.

What of claims Muslims celebrated the Twin Towers destruction?

In the U.S.

•Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said on Dec. 1, 2015 to CNN: “We had some pockets of celebrating.” Asked how many people he witnessed celebrating the attacks, he said, “Ten. Twelve. Thirty. Forty. We had one situation in which a candy store owned by a Muslim family was celebrating that day, right near a housing development. And the kids in the housing development came in and beat them up.”

However, Giuliani said that had there been “thousands and thousands” of people cheering as the twin towers fell—as Trump claimed—he would have known.

•“We had a number of reports of people celebrating. I remember Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. There were some in Queens. There were also some in Patterson, New Jersey and Jersey City.”—Bernard Kerik, former New York Police Commissioner speaking to One America News on Dec. 1, 2015

•Breitbart unearthed a local CBS News (WCBS-TV in New York, Sept. 16, 2001) that also discusses Muslims celebrating in Patterson, New Jersey, subsequently investigated by the FBI, with eight individuals detained:

“Just a couple of blocks away from that Jersey City apartment the F.B.I. raided yesterday and had evidence removed, there is another apartment building, one that investigators told me, quote, was swarming with suspects — suspects who I’m told were cheering on the roof when they saw the planes slam into the Trade Center. Police were called to the building by neighbors and found eight men celebrating, six of them tenants in the building.

The F.B.I. and other terrorist task force agencies arrived, and the older investigators on the task force recalled that they had been to this building before, eight years ago, when the first World Trade Center attack led them to Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, whose Jersey City mosque lies between the two buildings getting attention today. And the older investigators remember that the suspects that eventually got convicted for the first Trade Center case … lived in the building where these same eight men were celebrating the destruction that they saw from the roof. Calling this a hot address, the task force investigators ordered everyone detained.”

•Breitbart also reported that The Washington Post wrote (“Northern New Jersey Draws Probers’ Eyes,” BY Serge F. Kovaleski and Frderick Kunkle) on Sept. 18, 2001:

“In Jersey City, within hours of two jetliners’ plowing into the World Trade Center, law enforcement authorities detained and questioned a number of people who were allegedly seen celebrating the attacks and holding tailgate-style parties on rooftops while they watched the devastation on the other side of the river.”

•And on Sept. 14 2001, a New York Post commentary by Fred Siegel said:

“Here in New York, it was easy to get angry listening to Egyptians, Palestinians and the Arabs of nearby Paterson, N.J., celebrate as they received word of the murderous attack in New York and Washington. But Mayor Giuliani (who has been tireless and magnificent in this crisis) rightly warned New Yorkers that it would be wrong to take their anger out on the city’s Arab and Muslim residents. Attacks on Arab-Americans in Paterson or elsewhere are utterly indefensible.”

According to Breibart: “Siegel told Daily Intelligencer that he first heard about the celebrations (and the nationalities of the perpetrators) on the radio, though he couldn’t remember which station. In addition to those news reports, he said, he believes that some Muslims did celebrate because he heard it from two sources: an acquaintance from Clifton, New Jersey, and an Arab-American professor with whom he corresponded.”

Outside U.S.—Palestinian Arabs

“In the wake of the September 11 atrocity, mass celebrations were held in Palestinian towns and cities. The incidents were far from isolated and sparsely attended as reported later by Palestinian apologists. Thousands of people took to the streets, chanting Allahu Akbar (God is Great), distributing candies to passerby, and shooting guns in the air to express their delight. To keep these disturbing scenes from world attention, PA [Palestinian Authority] security forces confiscated filmed footage and intimidated foreign journalists, news agencies, and television networks. In Gaza, Palestinian policemen detained cameramen who had filmed a Hamas demonstration in which Palestinians carried pictures of Osama bin Laden. In Nablus, foreign photojournalists were reportedly forced to remain confined in their hotels, guarded by armed Palestinians—both in uniform and in plain clothes—while crowds celebrated in the streets. A freelance photographer on assignment for Associated Press Television News, who had somehow managed to film the festivities, was summoned to the Nablus security office and warned that the material must not be aired. This was backed by death threats from Tanzim operatives. Ahmad Abdel Rahman, Arafat’s cabinet secretary, threatened Associated Press producers that the PA ‘cannot guarantee the life’ of the cameraman if the footage was broadcast.”

“In a terse protest to the Palestinian Authority, the Foreign Press Association, representing hundreds of mainstream journalists in Israel, expressed concern over:

‘The harassment of journalists by the Palestinian Authority as police forces and armed gunmen tried to prevent photo and video coverage of Tuesday’s rally in Nablus where hundreds of Palestinians celebrated the terror attacks in N.Y. and Washington. We strongly condemn the direct threats made against local videographers by local militia members and the attitude of Palestinian officials who made no effort to counter the threats, control the situation, or to guarantee the safety of the journalists and the freedom of the press (Efraim Karsh, Arafat’s War, Grove Press, 2003, pg. 224).’ “