In the summer of 2001, a woman holding a small white dog stepped into an elevator at the Delray Racquet Club in Delray Beach, Florida. A man inside the elevator held it open for her. They were both headed to the same floor and she knew he lived down the hall.
As the elevator door closed, the man extended a hand toward the dog. A mistake. The little guy snatched the hand in its jaws and wouldn’t let go. The woman was terribly embarrassed. The dog never bit anyone before, she told the man as they reached their floor. He stormed down the hall holding his bleeding hand.
Fearful that the man was going to call animal control and that she would lose her dog, the woman decided to act quickly. She called the Delray police to report the incident herself.
Police officer Tom Quinlan answered the service call. “She was nervous and didn’t want to get her dog in trouble.” So Officer Quinlan went looking for the man. “He answered the door,” Quinlin recalls. “He had his right hand wrapped up. But he said it was fine. He didn’t want to do anything about it.”
The woman was relieved. Her dog was safe. As the Palm Beach Post reported: “It seemed like one of those meaningless incident until weeks later, after a band of 19 suicide hijackers conducted a coordinated attack agains America on Sept. 11, 2001.”
In the aftermath, Quinlan found out the man bitten by the dog was none other than Mohamed Atta, the operational leader of the Al-Qaeda attack and the one who piloted the jetliner into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
In an interview with the Post, Quinlan said: “When I was there that day, I could see into the kitchen. There were four or five guys sitting around the kitchen table and they were looking at a blueprint. I thought they must have been engineers.”
We can only guess why the little dog bit Atta, but we like to think that she sensed the man was up to no good, that she should do something to warn her master. The dog couldn’t talk so she did what came natural. She chomped on Mohamed Atta’s hand. His action got the police involved, but that’s as far as it went.
Some days dogs more aware than people.
Whoot, when my youngest child was in pre-K, he came home one day and told me his teacher had gotten mad, and that he’d seen “a big ugly red light all around her” and it scared him. I showed him different shades of red and asked him if the light he saw around the teacher matched any of them, and he pointed to an awful shade of green-brown-red and said, “That one, Mommy! That’s the color!” We learned that he could see colors around people often, and we were able to determine what was happening in the person’s thoughts based on our little boy’s “sight”. He lost the ability…or it was submerged just by the business of living…as he got older, but he definitely saw auras until he was eight years old, and he could sense the feelings causing the colors. Children seem to retain their pre-birth abilities after they’re born, frequently for several years, if we just pay attention to them.
I’ll go ahead and say the first thing that pops into my head… EVERY day most dogs are more aware than humans!
What a great post! I would agree about animals for sure..and babies. So many times little babies at the mall will throw themselves out of their mother’s arms for me to hold them, or smile and wave at me. Even if I am busy, they do little tricks until I smile at them or touch them. They KNOW.
i agree about babies. They are often perceptive.
they know what Natalie???
That she’s a medium?!
a medium what?? he says with humbleness and respect…
Natalie answered your question, Whoot.
They can see a persons light, Whoot. They often look above my head, they can see something or someone in my aura that pleases them. Conversely, little children will give my sister in law a wide berth, even hiding under furniture to avoid her. She appears very nice on the outside, is exceptionally pretty too, but UGLY on the inside and little children just know which is which.
Glad you answered that one!
Wow…I’ve often been in a store or something and the little kid or baby will just stare and stare at me. I always feel uncomfortable, but in the past few years, I just imagined that they were seeing my aura and liking it, which is why they can’t turn away. Didn’t know if that was really true or not, but it helped me not be uncomfortable with their staring. I remember at one store in particular, one baby was sitting in a shopping cart and I had walked out of view and when I came back into view, I noticed that the baby had leaned out of the cart to see where I went and relaxed when I came back in view. I thought that was strange!
Seeing a baby smile at me for no reason at all is the most wonderful feeling in the world!
It is a bit like ‘The divinity in me, sees the divinity in you…’
Our souls lap it up like a thirsty men in the desert. 🙂
Namaste!
Interesting story! Never heard this one before.
In the aftermath of 9/11, the news in Atlanta was obsessed with finding “the Atlanta connection” (the local media always had New York envy and sought ways to localize big news stories with an “Atlanta connection”). One thing that surprised me was that when I saw photos of Mohammed Atta, he looked familiar. The local news said that he had used a Kinko’s in Decatur that I had used a lot in the spring and summer of 2001. I remember one time when I was in there, there was a foreign looking person who just glared at me. It was uncomfortable. I don’t know if it was Mohammed Atta, but I was stunned to learn that he had used the same Kinko’s I frequented that summer. Perhaps our paths might’ve crossed and that man who glared at me might’ve been him. Scary!
That same 6 degrees of separation!
he was also in the dc area that summer –
My husband has been reliving 911 today as well. After sending his annual thank you email to the CEO that was able to fly him, and his co-workers, out of an airport in Pennsylvania when no other planes were allowed to fly, he’s thankful he was only across the street from the twin towers and not in them as so many unfortunate people were. I’m grateful to that dog took a bite out of Atta’s hand – I hope it bothered him until the day he no longer existed.
I hope that dog bite still bothers him!
on the afternoon of friday 9/9/11, alejandro [aged 5 yrs] and i were coming home after school and errands – as we came into our development, alejandro looked up and said, “nonon, look, the birds are all flying and they’re all different, look!” – sure enough, there, in the sky, over at least 1/3 of this entire large development, was a huge swarm of birds – birds of all kinds – sea gulls, sparrows, black birds, crows, doves – you name it – it was there – flying together intermixed – all flying in just random swirls it seemed – chattering/chirping – very very low over the rooftops – the time: about 4:45 pm EST – within an hour of the vancouver 6.4 EQ that day –
Impressive that he noticed! The birds always seem to know, don’t they?
i know! that was my favorite thing about the incident! it was alejandro who noticed the birds – of course, when i’m out with the little ones, we’re in constant dialogue about what we see and feel around us in terms of the sky and earth and critters – but it’s wonderful to know that they “hear” and “understand” – and then, today when i got in from running an errand, he came out to the car and overhead was a flock of geese [the first of the season] in formation – he called out, “hi big birds” –
tonight, he caught one of the many memorial services to 9/11 on tv and without saying a word, went to his room and donned his big red fireman’s slick/head gear and got his big waterhose and then sat in front of the tv to watch the firefighters –
Do you think he might be the reincarnation of one of the 9/11 First Responders? That’s fascinating that he would leave the room when the TV aired 9/11 programs and put on firefighting gear.
Now there’s a thought, Gypsy!
Great insights, Nicholas.
OMG – how could i be so blind! that makes perfect sense – the thing is that since birth, he has had this – this thing – far more than mere fascination – with all things to do with firefighting – and police – but more firefighting – and he takes it very very seriously – he will play for hours and hours and hours with his firetrucks and related gear [which number more than i care to count – they fill his room and most of the family room] – he builds entire scenarios with his firefighters and “peacemen” – when he asks for a toy it’s always something to do with firefighting or police – always – every single halloween, with one exception [he was a train engineer that year] he has dressed as a firefighter or police – so sorry to keep going on and on – it’s just as if a light switch has been flipped in a dark room! thanks so very much for the observation and comment! now, i can’t wait till this afternoon when he gets in from school so i can talk to him about it! 😉
Have you heard about the book “Soul Survivor”? Its about a boy who kept having nightmares like he was in a plane that was hit in the air. His parents learned over a period time as he told them more and more information that he was the reincarnation of some WWII fighter pilot and they investigated the information he gave and it checked out. Fascinating story. You can see clips on YouTube when they were featured on a national news program.
Its kind of hard to get information out of children, though. They just tell things randomly and matter of factly. It will be interesting to hear what he might tell you! The boy obviously has a passionate interest that is a big clue about a past life.
One of the best cases in the western world for reincarnation.
It’s true, the animals do know.
This is not an animal story, but it is a 9/11 story.
In the year following 9/11, my daughter rented her first apartment. She took me with her when she was signing her first lease. She wanted me to see the place. The landlady said “Yeah, now we are real careful who we let in here. One of the terrorists lived here. He was in pilot school.” He had lived there for for more than a year. The apartment was in Clairemont.
In the end, this is a very small world.
https://www.cbs8.com/story/15430813/tracking-the-path-of-the-local-911-hijackers
You’re right. It IS a 9-11 story. A couple of the terrorists frequented the same gym we had gone to for years. In the end, it’s about 6 degrees of separation, isn’t it?
6 degrees or less, I have found!
My hubby is the quintessential “mush head”. We were strolling in a large outside mall in Atlanta a few years ago and passed a K-9 police officer with an enormous German Shepherd. We were about three feet from them. The haltered dog trotted over and licked hubby’s hand; hubby squatted on his haunches and began to pet the dog, sweet-talking it. The officer-handler was aghast. He said the dogs are super-trained to not allow themselves to be touched, or to touch, except on command, and his dog had never, ever done such a thing. I told him that there wasn’t an animal in the world that I’d seen be aloof or aggressive towards my hubby. On the contrary, all of them, even wild ones, come to him readily and often. In spite of hubby’s faults, (and all of us have faults), the animals can sense his true nature, which is genuine kindness and compassion and gentleness. I trust my Sunshine to guide me about people. She’s friendly but aloof; non-aggressive. But on rare occasions she will growl deep in her throat and her hair will raise around a stranger, and I’ve learned that these are warning she gives to “Stay away!” She senses what we can’t. Animals KNOW. They just know.
Megan has that same way with animals.
Haven’t heard this 9/11 story before but the little dog must have sensed something bad – as you say some dogs are more aware. Our last border collie, Toby, only ever bit one person and it was later proven that Toby’s judgement was right. He sensed something was wrong about this visitor to our home. We should ‘listen’ to the animals.
Megan just got a border collie pup, Mike. At least, we think that’s what she is.
Oh wow! Lucky Megan. My son may be getting one too as his friend’s border collie is pregnant. Not definite though as he is dad to my little grandson and is wondering if Samuel is a bit too young.
Samuel can be herded!
there’s no such thing as too young when it comes to puppies – [well, for me, anyway!] – and border collies are my favorites – such spirit!!!
and it’s true, samuel can be herded! 😉
keep us posted, mike!
I agree, when my son – Samuel’s dad – was born we already had a dog and it was great for him to grow up with. When he was about eight we had our first border collie and he herded up the cats and us when we went on walks.
For sure that dog knew this man was evil! Animals know so much but people who are not animal lovers think we are crazy for believing this. I’m sure there are many people who read this blog have some kind animal awareness story in their archive of memories.