Ian’s Guesses & Opinions:

– Obviously the flights hijacked were picked because of their fuel loads — each of the flights was a cross-country flight that diverted to the area. The terrorists basically used the jets as incendiary devices.

– What’s amazing is that an impact near the top of the towers was enough to cause a total building collapse. I’m no engineer, but that seems like it should happen immediately after impact or not at all.

– Osama Bin Laden is as good as dead, whether or not he is responsible. The US and Britain will use this as an excuse to punish all terrorists worldwide in a massive cleanup.

– We haven’t heard anything about the fourth plane, likely because the USAF shot it down. There was a warning earlier in the day that all unauthorized aircraft of ANY sort would be shot down on sight, and there were F-22’s (I’m guessing, because it’s the only fighter that reporters would describe as “delta wing”) zipping all over the Eastern corridor.

– This will deepen America’s recession and cast world financial markets into chaos. The World Bank, among most major world financial institutions, is hosted (sorry, was..) at the World Trade Center.

-Ian.