Debra Burlingame | |
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![]() Burlingame in 2006 | |
Born | 1954 (age 69–70) Saint Paul, Minnesota, U.S. |
Alma mater | New York University Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law |
Occupations | |
Known for | |
Board member of | World Trade Center Memorial Foundation [1] |
Spouse | Robert Fraina (m. 2003) |
Relatives | Charles Burlingame (brother) |
Website | www |
Debra Burlingame (born 1954) is an American lawyer and political activist. She is the sister of Charles "Chic" Burlingame III, the pilot of the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 that was flown into The Pentagon during the September 11 attacks by Al Qaeda terrorists in 2001. [3] Burlingame has been criticized for making controversial and anti-Muslim statements. [4] [5] [6]
Burlingame was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and moved frequently as a daughter of an active duty member of the United States Air Force. She spent parts of her childhood in California and England. [7] [lower-alpha 1]
Burlingame is a graduate of New York University and Cardozo School of Law. [3] Before moving to Los Angeles, she was an airline flight attendant for Trans World Airlines, [8] a lawyer, [3] a television producer [9] at Court TV for 5 years (before it became truTV). [2]
On the morning of the September 11 attacks in 2001, Burlingame was living in Los Angeles, where she planned to establish her own production company. [8] Her brother, Charles Burlingame, was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, with First Officer David Charlebois, when it was hijacked and flown into the Pentagon. [10]
On the second anniversary of the attack, Burlingame launched a nonprofit foundation to provide college scholarships for young men and women wishing to pursue careers as officers in the United States armed services. "We are targeting young people who have demonstrated a wish to be a part of something bigger than themselves," she said.[ citation needed ]
Burlingame inspired blogger Robert Shurbet [11] to start Take Back The Memorial, a nonprofit group that opposed the International Freedom Center (IFC) being located at the World Trade Center site. [12] Burlingame is a columnist, political activist, and board member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. [3] Due to the efforts of Burlingame and others, New York Governor George Pataki barred the IFC from being located at the World Trade Center site, [13] causing it to be abandoned by its sponsors. [lower-alpha 2]
Relatives of 9-11 victims were invited to submit their names for a lottery for invitations to attend the hearings and trials of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the four other most senior captors. [14] Burlingame's name was one of six families chosen.
The Wall Street Journal has published numerous opinion columns by Burlingame. [15] Her columns have also appeared in the New York Daily News . [16]
In October 2009, Burlingame co-founded, with Liz Cheney, a non-profit 501(c)4 organization called Keep America Safe. [9] It drew strong criticism from conservative lawyers, many of whom worked for the Bush administration, [17] and information about the organization was removed from Internet shortly thereafter. [18] Burlingame then founded 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America with Tim Sumner, [1] an organization about 9/11 family members who consider national security the country’s top priority. [19]
Burlingame considers herself to be a critic of radical Islam. In 2010, she issued a press release denouncing President Barack Obama’s support of the Park51 community center. [20] She wrote: "Demolishing a building that was damaged by wreckage from one of the hijacked planes in order to build a mosque and Islamic Center will further energize those who regard it as a ratification of their violent and divinely ordered mission: the spread of shariah law and its subjugation of all free people, including secular Muslims who come to this country fleeing that medieval ideology, which destroys lives and crushes the human spirit." [21]
Burlingame also wrote a letter attacking the Liam Neeson film Non-Stop (2014), which portrays a 9/11 family member and military combat veteran as a vengeful murderer—and, in Burlingame's words: “Worse, the flight’s quiet hero who comes to the aid of the protagonist, thereby saving the day, is a Muslim doctor.” [22] She said that this was "ironic" given the fact that the leader of Al Qaeda, Ayman Al Zawahiri, was a doctor – a "complete [reversal] of the roles [of] victim and victimizer [in] 9/11". [4] In a tweet, Burlingame wrote "Liam Neeson and Universal have produced a liberal wet dream. 9/11 family member = terrorist hijacker, Muslim = peace". [6]
In 2014, Burlingame made several tweets attacking Islam and Barack Obama, calling the latter a "drug addict" in response to Obama's reaction to Trayvon Martin's death. [6] She also tweeted that "If someone calls U 'Islamophobe' for speaking truth, chances are they are [a] member of [the] Muslim Brotherhood, or an Obama's [sic] national security team." [6]
In 2017, Burlingame expressed support for Donald Trump's "Muslim travel ban" that prevented refugees from several Muslim-majority countries to enter the United States. [23]
Burlingame has been criticized for making controversial and anti-Muslim views which includes stereotyping and generalizing Islam. [4] [6] [5] [24] In a 2014 Twitter post, Burlingame wrote "When are citizens going to rise up and demand the govt acknowledge that Islam is a transnational threat." [5]
In a 2014 interview on Fox News, Burlingame was asked by the host whether she was a Islamophobe according to accusations from critics. Burlingame responded by saying "I am hard pressed to deny it. There's no such thing as an irrational fear of Islam or Muslims when we know that virtually 80% of terrorist attacks are committed by radical muslims who are motivated by what they deem to be an imperative from their sacred religious texts." [5] [25] This statement is contradicted by government collected data on terrorism statistics. [25]
In a 2010 interview, Burlingame claimed that Islamic law allows violence to fester when practiced "in extremes". [26] Burlingame also stated that the enemy of America is the "Muslim world" and has accused them as being a place where "the enlightenment hasn't even happened yet". She then stated that Americans are "light years ahead in terms of our consciousness." [26]
In a 2014, Burlingame said that Islamism is a "supremacist ideology which is very much a threat to Western ideology." [27]
American Airlines Flight 77 was a scheduled domestic transcontinental passenger flight from Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. The Boeing 757-223 aircraft serving the flight was hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The hijacked airliner was deliberately crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, killing all 64 aboard and another 125 in the building.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the United States government responded by commencing immediate rescue operations at the World Trade Center site, grounding civilian aircraft, and beginning a long-term response that included official investigations, legislative changes, military action, and restoration projects.
United Airlines Flight 93 was a domestic scheduled passenger flight that was hijacked by four al-Qaeda terrorists on the morning of September 11, 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. The hijackers planned to crash the plane into a federal government building in the national capital of Washington, D.C. The mission became a partial failure when the passengers fought back, forcing the terrorists to crash the plane in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, preventing them from reaching al-Qaeda's intended target, but killing everyone aboard the flight. The airliner involved, a Boeing 757-222 with 44 passengers and crew, was flying United Airlines' daily scheduled morning flight from Newark International Airport in New Jersey to San Francisco International Airport in California, making it the only plane hijacked that day not to be a Los Angeles–bound flight.
The September 11 attacks transformed the first term of President George W. Bush and led to what he referred to as the war on terror. The accuracy of describing it as a "war" and its political motivations and consequences are the topic of strenuous debate. The U.S. government increased military operations, economic measures, and political pressure on groups that it accused of being terrorists, as well as increasing pressure on the governments and countries which were accused of sheltering them. October 2001 saw the first military action initiated by the US. Under this policy, NATO invaded Afghanistan to remove the Taliban regime and capture al-Qaeda forces.
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum is a memorial and museum that are part of the World Trade Center complex, in New York City, created for remembering the September 11 attacks of 2001, which killed 2,977 people, and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six. The memorial is located at the World Trade Center site, the former location of the Twin Towers that were destroyed during the September 11 attacks. It is operated by a non-profit institution whose mission is to raise funds to program and operate the memorial and museum at the World Trade Center site.
The International Freedom Center (IFC) was a proposed museum to be located adjacent to the site of Ground Zero at the former World Trade Center in New York City, USA. It was selected in 2004 to comprise a "cultural space" near to the memorial for victims of the September 11 attacks, called Reflecting Absence.
The Flight 93 National Memorial is a memorial built to commemorate the crash of United Airlines Flight 93, which was one of four aircraft hijacked during the September 11 attacks in 2001. The memorial is located in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, with the vast majority in Stonycreek Township, and with a small portion in Shade Township. It is 78 miles (126 km) southeast of Pittsburgh and 226 miles (364 km) west of Philadelphia.
Take Back The Memorial is an organization which advocates keeping the memorial site of the World Trade Center in New York City focused on the memory of the victims who died there in the attacks of September 11, 2001. In 2005, the group was part of a successful effort to cancel the International Freedom Center as part of the World Trade Center Memorial.
Charles Frank "Chic" Burlingame III was the Captain of American Airlines Flight 77, the aircraft that was crashed by terrorists into the Pentagon during the September 11 attacks.
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on September 11, 2001. That morning, 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners scheduled to travel from the East Coast to California. The hijackers crashed the first two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, two of the world's five tallest buildings at the time, and aimed the next two flights toward targets in or near Washington, D.C., in an attack on the nation's capital. The third team succeeded in striking the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense in Arlington County, Virginia, while the fourth plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania during a passenger revolt. The September 11 attacks killed 2,977 people, making them the deadliest terrorist attack in history, and instigated the multi-decade global war on terror, fought in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.
Anwar Nasser Abdulla al-Awlaki was an American-Yemeni Islamic scholar, lecturer, and jihadist who was killed in 2011 in Yemen by a U.S. government drone strike ordered by President Barack Obama. Al-Awlaki became the first U.S. citizen to be targeted and killed by a drone strike from the U.S. government. U.S. government officials have stated that al-Awlaki was a key organizer for the Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda.
The following list contains dates beyond October 2001 involving the September 11 attacks.
The September 11 attacks of 2001 were the deadliest terrorist attacks in human history, causing the deaths of 2,996 people, including 2,977 victims and 19 hijackers who committed murder–suicide. Thousands more were injured, and long-term health effects have arisen as a consequence of the attacks. New York City took the brunt of the death toll when the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan were attacked, with an estimated 1,600 victims from the North Tower and around a thousand from the South Tower. Two hundred miles southwest in Arlington County, Virginia, another 125 were killed in the Pentagon. The remaining 265 fatalities included the ninety-two passengers and crew of American Airlines Flight 11, the sixty-five aboard United Airlines Flight 175, the sixty-four on American Airlines Flight 77 and the forty-four who boarded United Airlines Flight 93. The attack on the World Trade Center's North Tower alone made the September 11 attacks the deadliest act of terrorism in human history.
Talat Hamdani is a Pakistan-born American who became a commentator after her son was killed during Al Qaeda's attacks on September 11, 2001. Her eldest son, Mohammad Salman Hamdani, was a New York Police Department cadet, who had trained as a first responder.
On November 5, 2009, a terrorist mass shooting took place at Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas. Nidal Hasan, a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others. It was the deadliest mass shooting on an American military base and the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States since the September 11 attacks until it was surpassed by the San Bernardino attack in 2015.
Park51 was a development originally envisioned as a 13-story Islamic community center and mosque in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The developers hoped to promote an interfaith dialogue within the greater community. Due to its proposed location, two blocks from the World Trade Center site of the September 11 attacks, the proposed building was widely and controversially referred to as the "Ground Zero mosque".
Pamela Geller is an American anti-Muslim, far-right political activist, blogger and commentator. Geller promoted birther conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama, saying that he was born in Kenya and that he is a Muslim. She has denied genocides where Muslims were victims, including the Bosnian genocide and the Rohingya genocide.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the September 11 attacks and their consequences:
On December 2, 2015, a terrorist attack, consisting of a mass shooting and an attempted bombing, occurred at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California, United States. The perpetrators, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married couple living in the city of Redlands, targeted a San Bernardino County Department of Public Health training event and Christmas party of about 80 employees in a rented banquet room. Fourteen people were killed and 22 others were seriously injured. Farook was an American born citizen of Pakistani descent, who worked as a health department employee. Malik was a Pakistani-born green card holder. After the shooting, the couple fled in a rented Ford Expedition SUV. Four hours later, police pursued their vehicle and killed them in a shootout, which also left two officers injured.
Since the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, allegations of Saudi government involvement in the attacks have been made, with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia regularly denying such claims.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Six victims' families chosen by lottery traveled to Guantanamo to see the arraignment in person.