Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed
12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—take them out of this place! 13 For we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”
24 Then the Lord rained brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
Isaiah 30
A Rebellious People
8 Now go, write it before them on a tablet,
And note it on a scroll,
That it may be for time to come,
Forever and ever:
9 That this is a rebellious people,
Lying children,
Children who will not hear the law of the Lord;
10 Who say to the seers, “Do not see,”
And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things;
Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.
11 Get out of the way,
Turn aside from the path,
Cause the Holy One of Israel
To cease from before us.”
12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel:
“Because you despise this word,
And trust in oppression and perversity,
And rely on them,
13 Therefore this iniquity shall be to you
Like a breach ready to fall,
A bulge in a high wall,
Whose breaking comes suddenly, in an instant.
14 And He shall break it like the breaking of the potter’s vessel,
Which is broken in pieces;
He shall not spare.
So there shall not be found among its fragments
A shard to take fire from the hearth,
Or to take water from the cistern.”
15 For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
But you would not,
16 And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”—
Therefore you shall flee!
And, “We will ride on swift horses”—
Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift!
17 One thousand shall flee at the threat of one,
At the threat of five you shall flee,
Till you are left as a pole on top of a mountain
And as a banner on a hill.
25 There will be on every high mountain
And on every high hill
Rivers and streams of waters,
In the day of the great slaughter,
When the towers fall.
9/11: The Mother of All Coincidences
by Eric Margolis
... In 1993, I was hijacked over Germany on a Lufthansa flight bound for Cairo. The Ethiopian hijacker took us all the way back to New York City. The hijacker was threatening to crash our A310 jumbo jet into Wall Street. ...
One thing is certain: the attacks were planned and mounted from Germany, not Afghanistan. Of the 19 hijackers, 15 were Saudis, two from the United Arab Emirates, one an Egyptian and a Lebanese. ...
slguardian.org
The Banality Of Evil
33 years old Egyptian terrorist Mohammed Atta (1968-2001) was the leader of the nineteen Sept. 11 hijackers. After a last-minute change of plans, Atta arrived in Afghanistan just as Osama bin Laden had approved the plot.
'A Remarkable Coincidence'
It almost didn't happen. As the millennium approached, after long nights of debate, Atta and his friends made a decision. They would fight in Chechnya, against the Russians. By chance they met another Muslim on a train, who basically said, "How are a bunch of amateurs like you going to get to Chechnya?"
He suggested they go to Afghanistan instead and get training first.
"Coincidences just pile on top of each other," McDermott says. "It couldn't have been more than a month after bin Laden approved that plot that these guys stumbled into Kandahar. It's a remarkable coincidence."
Bin Laden had just given the OK to the plot — something he called "The Planes Operation." It required men who were willing to die, but also smart enough to fly a plane. They had to know the West and be able to get a U.S. visa. Then Atta showed up in Afghanistan. ...
Atta picked the date, Sept. 11. He bought plane tickets.
"It is truly the banality of evil. It isn't made up of high thoughts; it's made up of logistics," McDermott says.
Atta, the rule-follower, even had the guts to contradict his boss. Bin Laden wanted one of the planes to strike the White House. Atta argued that the Capitol building would be easier. ...
It's unknown if Atta followed the detailed instructions — if he sharpened his knife or said a prayer as he packed on the morning of Sept. 11.
It is known that at 5:33 a.m., Atta checked out of room 233 of the Comfort Inn and headed to the airport.
npr.org/2011/09/09/140321495/the-banality-of-evil-following-the-steps-to-sept-11
