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“We’ve been focusing on this perpetrator Osama bin Laden for 3 years, and yet

we didn’t see this one coming,” said Vincent Cannistraro, former chief of CIA. On

September 11, 2001, the unthinkable massive terrorist attack happened on the U.S soil.

As we all know, 6 years ago two planes crashed into the World Trade Center, one plane

crashed into the Pentagon , and another plane crashed into the fields in Pennsylvania. The

attacks on 9/11 changed our country forever, and the people living here today will never

forget the tragedy that no one ever expected. My 5th grade teacher told us that this was the

most devastating attack in U.S. history. I was very terrified. I had nightmares about planes

crashing into my house. As I grew, my fear turned into anger and frustration. I imagined

myself in Iraq killing all the terrorists for the people they killed in our country. I was very

frustrated with why the U.S. couldn’t stop the planes from crashing into the Twin Towers.

I was absolutely joyful when I heard Saddam Hussein was caught but still not satisfied

with Osama bin Laden not being found. The terrorists have been desperately killing their

own people to make a failure in our country. There are so many questions floating around

in my head. Why couldn’t the U.S. stop the successful attack? Is this tragedy a true

conspiracy? Why haven’t they found Osama bin Laden yet? With all the sources I have

around me, I will try my best to find the answers to my questions.

My Search Process

The hunt began! 28 students running off for their lives to find the items they need

for their mission. We all arrive at a destination called “Oviatte”, where they have

thousands and thousands of books. Searching and struggling, desperately trying to find

the perfect book in a matter of time. Finally, I find the book that will lead me to the top of

the world, a book that will change something inside of me. The item I chose was perfect,

unfortunately it had no basic information, therefore I had to travel up the massive stairs to

designate at a alternative place like Oviatte. There, I found something that will teach me

about the basics of my research topic. Everything was going well, but I was in lack of

information, so I hit up the wikipedia. I demanded to search my topic, 9/11 attacks. It

gave me overwhelming information’s, I was extremely pleased. I also found a article on

LA times, about a man confessing about the terrible actions he committed. All the sources

that I used were equally important, but the best of my sources was the book from Oviatte.

It was big, strong, useful, vivid, intelligent, and most of all, it had many important

information that I needed, which it made the best.  The least helpful resource was the

article on the man who confesses his sin. This source was quite important to me, however

it was not as much as the others, and sadly it was only 2 pages long. Obstacles, ah yes,

plenty of obstacles throughout my dangerous journey. While reading across my book,

these huge, long monsters popped out of no where! I didn’t understand what they were

and what they meant. Also, after 3 days of research, I tended to find the same facts over

and over again. Frustration got my hands to pull out my hairs out, but after a few more

days of my journey I found out new and interesting facts. The first week of my adventure

was boring. As days past, my adventure became exceedingly interesting. For instance, I

learned that the U.S government delayed their air forces after getting their confirmation

about a hijacked aircraft heading to New York to attack the World Trade Center. In the

time they delayed, the U.S air forces were capable to intercept the hijacked aircraft and

save thousands of innocent lives, but they didn’t. After learning this, I question myself,

“Why did they delay, why?”  Another interesting event during my quest was that on my

T.V., coincidently, there was a story about 9/11 on the history channel and I was quite

excited. Twenty-one days later, I achieved my goal by completing 100 index cards,

finding out all my answers to my questions, and citing all my sources. Now that’s an

accomplishment!
What I Have Learned

I learned many of the major facts about my topic. One thing I learned was that the

United States was warned by foreign governments. The United Kingdom, France, and

Russia warned the U.S about terrorists attacking the U.S. national landmarks by using

airplanes as weapons. “We had clearly warned them on several occasions about imminent

attacks on U.S. soil,” said the Russian Intelligence. Yet, our government did nothing,

until after the attacks were successful. Air traffic controllers are suppose to request a

fighter craft without the white house’s approval to intercept commercial airplanes that are

off their course within 15 degrees or 2miles. For example, when golfer Payne Stewarts

accidentally missed a turn, heading north instead of west to Texas, aircraft, F-16’s were

quickly called for to intercept the plane. The question is, why did the air traffic controllers

delay maximum time of 15min to send in the F-16s after they got confirmation that the

plane was hijacked? When the F-16s finally got off the ground and was headed to New

York City, there was no target to intercept because the commercial airplane has already

crashed into the north tower of the twin towers. If the F-16 arrived 4min earlier to

intercept the commercial airplane, the north tower would have been standing there today.

The World Trade Center was a strong building made out of steel that collapsed,

1hour after it was hit by an airplane.  After it collapsed, the cleanup crews stated that they

discovered melted steel in the basement. However, steel melts at a temperature of 2500

degrees and the temperature of the fire that was burning inside the towers were only 1800

degrees. Explosives such as C4s create temperature of 3000 degrees of Fahrenheit, which

would easily melt steel. What I’m trying to say here is that the World Trade Center could

not have possibly collapsed without a bomb or any explosives inside the twin towers.

Even though it collapsed, it should have collapsed over, not straight down, since the

towers were only hit on the top edge, two sides. After learning all these facts about the

September 11, 2001, I was extremely angry at the U.S government. Before I did this

research project, I thought our government was really perfect compared to the other

governments. When people in school and outside of school were saying that the 9/11 was

a conspiracy and that it was the governments fault for the tragedy, I defended the

government by saying that it wasn’t their fault and it was not a conspiracy.

I heard a lot of  things about 9/11. People were saying that the airport security let a

guy go with a pocket knife found inside his bag. First I didn’t believe this, but after

researching and learning about September 11, this could have been true.  I don’t get it.

When three other foreign governments are warning us about a terrorist attack on our

national landmarks, possibly the pentagon and the world trade center aren’t our

government suppose to do something about it? Don’t they need to warn the people that

are working in the world trade center and the pentagon? Aren’t our Air Forces supposed

to be in the air defending our country?

The U.S. government, the CIA, and the FBI disappoints me. I’m not really sure of

today if this is a true conspiracy or if it’s just in lack of U.S. intelligence. If I went back in

time, I would have done so much to protect the people in New York City, the people in

the pentagon and the people in flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania. I wish I can go

back to the past and save as many lives I possibly can. I got many of the answers from my

research questions. I learned that dust and smoke from the burning twin towers consisted

of more than 2,500 contaminants. People inhaling all these dusts can be in risk of getting

cancer. Many of the rescue and recovery workers were ill after this event and NYPD

officer James Zadroga, died of cancer. Conclusion of the 9/11 attack, Americans got more

patriotic. America got stronger. Before 9/11 people didn’t know the meaning of our flag,

they didn’t know why they sang the national anthem at ball games. After 9/11 not just

America stood up and sang our national anthem, but the whole world felt our pain and

stood up together as one and sang the Star Spangled Banner. Most of the questions for my

I-search project were answered, however only one question was not. The question was,

how many people died caused by the aftermath of the 9/11 attack? I only got an

information about a NYPD officer getting cancer caused by the dust and smoke from the

twin towers. After experiencing the I-search project like this one, the next topic I

would like to research on, is Walt Disney because I heard from many people that he has

the same genes as Adolph Hitler. Supposedly, Snow White is the cocaine and the seven

dwarfs are the symptoms.
What This Means to Me

I grew far beyond as a researcher. I started out as a young researcher who knew

only the basic information about September 11, 2001. It all happened when I started to do

my index cards. I learned 10 new facts about my topic. Everyday when I did the note

cards, I grew more and more as a researcher. I also learned the way to cite sources as

MLA format. The facts that that interested me was when our government stood down

when other governments all around the world were desperately warning the U.S. about an

attack on national landmarks. Another interesting fact I learned was when the FBI hired a

convict that was a conartist and committed 13 felonies. Randy Glass got a deal to reduce

his time in jail if he worked undercover for the FBI’s. Before completing this long

research project, I did not really feel anything towards our government, but now I am

awfully disappointed and ashamed. I feel extremely sad to the victims of that day and to

their families and friends.

References

Ahmed, Nafeez Mosaddeq. The War on Truth. Northampton: Olive Branch Press, 2005

Frank, Mitch. Understanding September 11th. New York : Penguin Books, 2002.

Roberts, Chuck. Personal interview. 23 Mar. 2007.

Spiegel, Peter. “9/11 planner confesses to many plots.” LA Times. 15 Mar. 2007. 27
Mar. 2007
<http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-             sm15mar15,1,1554784.story>.

Wikipedia contributors. “September 11, 2001 attacks.” Wikipedia. Vers. 118052661. 26
Mar. 2007. 26 Mar. 2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=September_11%2C_2001_attacks&oldi    d=118052661

LOS ANGELES – 6:49 a.m. It was a grey cloudy morning. Lighting striking upon the sky, thunder roaring loud as the hurricane. Tiny bits of water starting to drip from the grey clouds, and in a small ally with big garbage cans along the cracked and shattered wall, dirty cats searching  for food, rats running across the small puddles,  and a young man in the middle of the ally with a black hood on facing the red brick wall with a spray paint in his right hand ready to embellish the wall with his name and Evelyn, the girl he lives for.

Police sirens heard from the distance in the early morning. Shane Deck, panicly rushes his painting starting with his first initial, “S“. With his nervousness he wont be able to concentrate on his painting. He cant stop looking out the ally. The siren gets louder and louder by the second. Its impossible for him to finish on time.
Finally he hears a man with a gun yell out,” Freeze!”.
He turned his head really fast and found out it was a cop.
“Put your hands over your head!”, cop yelled.
Without a speech, Shane just stood there like a frozen ice cube.
“ I said put your hands over your head!”
The cop put away his gun and picked up a wooden bat from the side of the alley.
Shane saw it coming.

“Whoosh!”

He never felt so much pain in his life. The cop swung again and again. He wouldn’t stop even if the bat broke. Finally he threw away the bat. The cop didn’t think that was good enough, so he picks up a beer bottle from the trash can and smashes into Shane’s face. Then he walks away as if nothing happened.
Shane was horrified about his own thoughts. He stopped the painting and ran behind the large garbage can. Trying not to breath too loud, he closes his mouth and feels his heart beating really fast.

Thinking to himself,“ I can’t get caught , I can’t get caught”.

Few seconds later, the only thing he hears are the flies flying around him. With a relief, he stands up with wet pants and mud smooched on the back pocket of his light blue jeans and walks towards the brick wall and continues his work.

It was now 7:07 a.m. with the sound of his spray paint can, he awakens someone who lives inside that apartment. An old grumpy man around the age of mid 50s looking like a zombie with a white t-shirt on and messed up hair with some bold spots, slides open the window hard that he nearly breaks the glass.

He yells out,” scram you little piece of sh!^! Before I call the damn cops!”.
Shane tries to ignore what he is saying and concentrates on his art.
There was total silence.
Then suddenly from the tip of his eyes, he sees something falling rapidly fast towards him. He dives and lands on a puddle, dirty water splashed on his face and right where he was standing , a flower pot smashing right into the ground.

Shane angrily yells,” what the fu** is your problem!? You almost killed me! Go back to sleep, grandpa!”.

The man replies, “ If you don’t leave in 10 sec I’m calling the cops!”.

He hurries up his painting fast as he can. He hears the man counting down, “ 10,9,8”. The man reaches the number 2 and Shane is barley finished with his painting.

The man screams out,” Times Up!”.

Shane picks up his backpack and runs out the ally. The only thing remaining on the wall is the beautiful art work he had finished for his love.

As Shane runs out, the man shuts the window and says to himself in a whispering tone,” that’s one hell of a painting”.

Looking at his watch while running to school, it was 7:59 a.m.
“Damn I’m going to be late again!”
He arrives at 8:05 a.m. at South Central High School (SCHS). While running through the hall ways of his school, the school dean stops him.
“Shane Deck!, your late again”
“I’m only 5 minutes late this time”, said Shane.
“It doesn’t matter if your only a minute late, if your late then your late. Here’s your detention slip, you better go or else you wont be able to graduate.”

“Ring Ring Ring.”
The bell rings for 1st period. As he enters his geometry class a girl comes to him and gives him a hug.
“Hey Shane, where were you this morning?” said Evelyn.
“ I was drawing our names at this brick wall”
“I told you not to go vandalizing other people’s property!”
“ I wasn’t vandalizing, I did it for us. I thought you would like it. I’ll show you after school.”
“No, I cant.” said Evelyn
“why not?”
“You do know my dad is cop and if he finds out that your doing these stuff, he’s going to arrest you.”
“It’s ok, I wont get caught.” Said Shane.

“My dad has under cover cops that looks like high school students here.”
“What the?! You never told me about this.” In a surprised way said Shane.
“Because I’m not supposed to, I over heard my dad talking to this one guy that goes here. You should be very careful, there’s like a gang of them.” Said Evelyn.
“Do you know any of the undercover cops here?” asked Shane.
“I know one, his name is Steven Cooper.”

“Ring Ring Ring” The bell rings. Shane and Evelyn walks out the classroom.

As They walk to their next class Evelyn seems to hold Shane’s hand very tight.
“What’s wrong?” said Shane.
“Oh nothing, I just wanted to hold your hand very tightly”.
Shane realizes that there’s a same guy that has been following them ever since they walked out of their 1st period class.

When they reached their 2nd period class they see 1 2 3 4 5 kids surrounding them. They weren’t really high school students, they were the Undercover cops.

“What’s going on?” Shane asked.
“I’m so sorry, you were a very nice guy and when the time comes we can really get together.” Said Evelyn.
Evelyn slowing lets go of Shane’s hand walks away from the circle. While she walks out one of the guys says thanks for the help.

The guy surrounding Shane steps in.
“Shane Deck?”
“Steven Cooper?”
“Correct.”
“What do you guys want from me?”
“Nothing, we just want you.”

As Cooper walks slowly towards Shane, he takes out a handcuff.

Shane thinks back to the time when he was with Evelyn, the girl he thought he was going to be with forever and love her. He really thought she loved him back. He even thought about marriage with her.
He once said to Evelyn,” If there’s a 1000 bullets coming towards you, I will be your strongest shield till the very end and no matter how much pain it will cause me, I will protect you with my life.”

Cooper grabs Shane’s wrist. As small drops of tear falls out of Shane’s eye, he pushes Cooper out of his way and runs fast as he can to the school’s fence and climbs and jumps over the fence. The undercover cops chases him immediately, but they slow down as they try to climb the fence fast as Shane.

Shane runs fast as he can into the streets. He turns over his shoulder and sees the 5 cops running after him. Shane, running and thinking the first time he met Evelyn.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Evelyn.”
“Hey I’m Shane. Oh let me hold those books for you, they look very heavy.”
“Oh thank you, yea I have a lot classes for a senior.”
“Seems like your very smart, taking economic and physics.” Said Shane
“Ha Ha, just trying my best.”
“Well if you don’t mind, you want to go hang out, grab some lunch and maybe teach me some math?”
“Laughing out loud“, “Yea sure, I love to.”

It was his happiest day in life when she said the words,” I love to.” But it was the most gloomiest day thinking back at school when Evelyn turned him in to the cops. He was screaming inside his mind.

He turned back to is shoulder, there was no cops.
In a tired voice he says,” I guess I lost them.”
He goes back to the red brick wall where he was tagging earlier this morning. He sits in front of his drawing alone with the mind of Evelyn sitting right next to him. He looks down disappointed and wishes how Evelyn could be here. In a far distance out the alley, he sees a person walking towards him. He stands up slowly keeping an eye on the person. As the shadow gets closer he notices the figure.
“Evelyn?” said Shane
“ You went through all this trouble to show me this crappy drawing? It sucks, I hate it, Its ugly.”
“What’s wrong with you? You’ve changed.” Shane said in a sad voice.
“ Get over it, I never loved you nor your stupid drawings, why can’t you just figure that out?”

Evelyn walks out the alley.
“Evelyn wait!.”
Shane grabs Evelyn’s hand, but she forces him to let go. Shane chases her out the alley.
“Stop following me!” yelled Evelyn
“I need to talk to you.” said Shane
Evelyn ignores him and she runs across the street. Right when she places her feet on the street, Shane sees a truck coming in full speed towards Evelyn, the driver is busy fixing his radio and can‘t see Evelyn.
“Evelyn!!!” Shane yells out.
Evelyn turns and she sees the truck, but she’s frozen like a statue getting ready to get smashed into pieces. Finally the driver approaches her, he honks and tries to stop the truck, but too late, he’s already too close to Evelyn. Evelyn wants to move out the way, but the truck is too fast.
Shane pushes her out the way.
“NOOOOOOOOO!,” yelled Evelyn.
Shane is hit bad, he rolled all over the street, puddle of blood all over the place. Evelyn placed his head on her knees.
Coughing out blood Shane said,” I don’t know about you, but *cough’s blood* I will love you forever.
Evelyn pours out her eyes with tears and she says,” I never hated your drawings, I never thought it was ugly and I never thought it sucked. I loved your drawings and I loved you.”

As Shane takes a last glimpse of Evelyn, he closes his eyes with a drop of tear coming slowly down.
Evelyn hugs Shane and cries all her tears out.

David Kim
P.5
1/19/07

What do you think about?

• Love
When do people know when they are in love?
Does love really exist?
• Life
Which one was more in your life happiness or sadness?
Was there a time when you just wanted to go back in time?
• Happiness
Are you going to be happy when you think back to your childhood life?
When was, your happiest moments?
• Success
What does it mean to be successful?
Will success lead to happiness?
• Choices
Will I make the right choices in the future?
Am I making right choices right now?
• Friendship
Are my friends my true friends?
Is the friendship of my friends going to end after high school?
• Family
Will our family be there if we fail?
Does your family really love you?
• Your identity/Who Are You?

I know most of the students don’t like going to school, even some of the teachers don’t , however we must go. It is a law and mandatory thing to do so. Even though it is a mandatory thing to do, a lot of the kids choose to drop out and that’s a crime. Who ever is under 18 and drop out they already committed a crime and may continue to commit more in the public. In the America’s state prison 75% of the inmates are high school dropouts and the America’s federal prison 59% of the inmates did not finish high school. I am not saying people who dropout from high school will go to prison, but I am saying that the first step of your crime will be dropping out of school and it may lead to step 2 and step 3. Besides dropping out of school being a crime, we should still go to school to make friends, be educated, and be more social in life. In a matter of fact kids rather go to school for friends instead of education and that’s not really a bad thing because if you go to school for friends then you still get some education, but if you drop out you don’t get friends, social life, and education. In my opinion education is key to be successful in life. It doesn’t matter if you get into a really good college, it matters if you just get into any college and be well educated. You want a happy life? You want money? You want a nice spouse? You want anything you want? Then you go to school and stay in school and never drop out of school and go to college. Just because your friends may tell you to drop out with them, doesn’t  mean you have to listen to them and follow  their foot steps into misery. Like I said before if you dropout you will have low or even no education and if you have low education you have a greater chance to become unsuccessful in life and if you have a unsuccessful life than it is likely true that you will have low income. The statistics say students from low family income have a dropout rate of 10%, middle income families have a dropout rate of 5.2%, and 1.6% of students from high income families dropout. You don’t want your children to be in a risk of being dropped out of school, you don’t want your children to follow into your misery footsteps, you want them to become educated, have a lot of friends, and be social. If you want your kids to become well educated than stay in school! Do it for the kids or just do it for you.

The Author of this message is unkown. The site – http://www.skywriting.net/inspirational/humor/why_men_can’t_win.html

I posted this message here because I thought it was pretty much true and funny and I wanted share it with you guys.

                Hey William, long time no talk! Hows everything going at your school? Im doing prettty bad at my school =( I had A’s and B’s in all my classes but, everything dropped to a C haha. Well I had a Fail in spanish, but I rasied it up to a C in my 10 week report card, but I think I dropped back to a Fail lol because I did horibble on tests and quizes. I dont know about you but, spanish is very hard for me. Not only spanish is hard, the teacher is very stricked. I guess I should study and take notes in that class or in any other classes Im doing bad in. I hope your doing good in your classes By the 20 week, I will try to raise up my grades. Bye Will.