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| Sunday, 12 September 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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9/11 revisited : Learning to live with tragedy For the family of Rahma Salie, the Sri Lankan passenger on board American Airlines Flight II, which slammed on to the North Tower of the World trade Centre in Manhattan, New York on September 11,2001, three years hasn't mitigated the horrors of that fateful Tuesday. Learning to live with the loss, Rahma's parents Yusuf and Haleema who were in Sri Lanka recently, talk about 9/11 and the pain of losing a beloved daughter. by P. Muthiah
September 11, 2001. Tuesday., It was a peaceful morning. All along the East Coast of America, the weather was beautiful. Sun shone brightly and the temperature was mild. Logan Airport in Boston was busy as American Airlines Flight II was getting ready to leave for Los Angeles. Rahma Salie, a 28-year-old Sri Lankan Muslim and her Greek husband, Michael Theoridis boarded the flight. Rahma was seven months pregnant. The happily married couple were on their way to a friend's wedding in California. But they never made it. Along with 160 other passengers, Rahma and Michael, became victims of a tragedy that held the world spell-bound and glued to the TV, in what became known as 9/11 in the ensuing days. At precisely 7.59 a.m. American Airlines Flight II left the Airport. Within minutes of take-off, the Boeing made a sharp left turn to the South, and put itself on a head-on collision course with the World Trade Centre in Manhattan. Rahma's and Michael's fate, along with that of 160 others were sealed by Mohamed Atta, the perfect soldier in bin-Laden's army and four of his colleagues, Satam al Suqami, Waleed M. Alshehri, Wali Alshehri and Abdul Aziz Alomari who wrested control of the plane and put it on kamikaze mode.
Mohamed Atta travelling on a passport from the United Arab Emirates, had lived in Germany for a time, studying at the Technical University in Hamburg. Atta had plenty of cash. He wrote a US$ 10,000 dollar cheque for flight lessons from one of Florida's many flight schools. By one account, the five hijackers who got on the plane in Boston started killing flight attendants in order to get the pilots out of the cockpits. They did not use guns or other explosive, but crude weapons, ensuring no distress calls were made from the flight. Atta took control of the flight. The plane bore-down on Manhattan and precisely at 8.45 a.m. slammed into the top section of the North Tower of the World Trade Centre-the symbol of world capitalism. About 18 minutes after the first attack, United Airlines flight 175, also began its journey from Boston and bound for Los Angeles with 92 crews and passengers-came treaking into the South Tower. The Third plane dived into Pentagon and the fourth plummeted to the earth in Pensylvania. All in all there were 266 crew and passengers on all four flights.Thousands more lost their lives trapped in the rubles of the World Trade Centre wreckage. For the first time ever, all American airports were closed. Americans who have never experienced the horrors of terrorism or enemy action of any kind within their borders, learnt what it was like to be helpless and vulnerable to attack. The 1,368 feet tall World Trade Centre, that once stood tall, proclaiming America's wealth and world dominance was reduced to rubles, that resembled bombed-out streets of the Middle East that had been familiar to Americans on the evening TV news.
Salie who was in Colombo last week says he didn't know his only daughter was on that particular flight as she was frequently flying out of Boston. His friend, after ten minutes called with the tragic news the that Rahma had indeed been on flight II. "I did not believe him and checked my computer. I found the dreaded information. My daughter, her husband and their unborn child, who did no harm to anybody, had been on that flight. The whole family was obliterated in the wink of an eye. If she could have given birth to the child, naturally she would have left it with us." Rahma was only 28 when this tragedy happened to us says Salie, still grieving the loss of his beloved daughter. "She worked for an IT company as Chief Operating Officer, and visited Sri Lanka every year to see this beautiful land of her forefathers," says Salie, adding that at that time of sorrow, Senator Edward Kennedy's office in Boston was much helpful. "They were able to understand our plight as the Kennedy family had undergone too many tragedies. In Boston alone 197 families suffered loss of kin from these attacks. Salie says they were never political people."I could not understand why these terrorists chose to kill my daughter and others. In Islam only the Almighty decides everything. No one can take law unto their hands. Actions of a few bring sorrow to the whole world," he bemoans. Asked about post 9/11 anti-Muslim sentiments, Salie says their family was never mistreated, though everyone in Boston knew they were Muslims. "They do not hate Muslims. There are Arabs, Muslims and others in Boston being treated equally. American society was always with us in our tragedy". The Salie family recently decided to erect a memorial to remember Rahma and Michael and the others who lost their lives in the tragedy. "This is our way of finding solace of the loss," says Salie, explaining that his wife helps poor students of her school in the name of Rahma."What we want is that this sort of tragedy should not happen to anyone in the world. Terrorism has no place in democracy. My wife and I never travel together after the incident. Even this time when we came to Sri Lanka, she arrived first and I came later,"he says. Rahma, the second of Salie's three children, studied at an International School in Japan, before joining Wellesley College, where she majored in International Relations and Japanese Studies. She is described by her friend an active, vibrant and loving person who believed in peace through friendship irrespective of difference in people. Her husband Michael was a Greek Orthodox Christian. Haleema, Rahma's mother says There is nothing that could erase the image of that fatal incident from her mind. Addressing the Democratic Convention in July she stated: "As the families, we stood in cloths of mourning and wiped our children's tears. The whole country grieved with us and we leaned on their support. Human life was valued above all else. It was and must remain the defining moment that reminds what unites us is stronger than what divides us." |
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| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
At the time the first flight was slamming on to the famous Manhattan
land mark, Yusuff M. Salie, father of Rahma, was getting ready to go to
his office. He received a telephone call from his friend saying a flight
from Boston was hijacked and had slammed on to the World Trade Centre. He
wanted to know whether Rahma was on the flight.
