SpecialFeature |
| "The last month has been a living nightmare..." |
|
Special Feature |
| "The last month has been a living nightmare..." |
|
Antoine Zammit, one of the Internet pioneers of Malta and webmaster of searchmalta.com, is resident in Boynton Beach, Southern Florida, USA, not far from where the first case of Anthrax was discovered raising fears that terrorist were launching a new and equally deadly form of terrorism - bioterrorism. Here is what Antoine had to say about the terrible month following the September 11 attacks and the fear of reprisal by terrorists: "I became a US citizen last year after living in the US for nine years. My wife and children are all US citizens born here in this great land. I could have become a citizen back in 1994 but I waited a further 6 years until I took the oath. I did not fully understand some items and amendments in the US constitution so I did not want to take the oath until I fully understood what this country stood for. Once the revelation came then it was easy to take the oath and be proud to be a citizen of the greatest nation on Earth. September 11th, 2001 started out like a regular day. I arrived at work at 7:45 AM and settled into my routine. At around 8:50 AM one of my coworkers heard that a plane had crashed in the World Trade Center. When we first saw the pictures on CNN's site I assumed that it was probably a stunt gone wrong. I used to fly in between those towers in my flight simulation years. The time passed and the second airline hit and then it was chaos. I called my wife to go pick up Paul my elder son from school, (he goes to a Jewish Day School). As the events unfolded we started hearing stories of friends who lost loved ones and others who barely escaped. Then the most chilling stories came out on how these terrorists trained down here. Up to 12 of them had lived down here before the attack. There faces looked familiar, a co-worker of mine had one of them living in her apartment complex. A Greek restaurant owner nearby told me the story on how they (the terrorists) would go there to buy pita bread. Then stories of crop-dusters came out that Terrorist Mohamed Atta was looking at crop-dusters. Not until last week when we first heard of the case of Anthrax did my spine finally freeze. The authorities kept calling it an isolated case but something inside told me it wasn't. This was confirmed last Monday when we heard of the second case and the spores found at the American Media (Inc.) building. As the investigation was handed over to the FBI, concern got even greater. The only Antibiotic that is effective on Anthrax is selling out fast. As far as the employees of American Media (Inc.) are concerned they have now been moved to the same building complex that I work in. Although I know that it is not contagious I still feel funny when I ride in the same elevator with them." Antoine Zammit Boynton Beach, Southern Florida, USA
|
|
|
| CLICK HERE TO VIEW TODAY'S NEWS FROM MALTA |
