A New Jersey newspaper's extensive investigation into Muslim celebrations after the the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks turned up what one officer called a "disturbing" amount of evidence.
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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump claimed in November to have seen "thousands of people" celebrating the destruction of the World Trade Center. Twenty-four witnesses who spoke to NJ.com for an investigative report published Monday disputed that number, but confirmed the attendance of dozens of people at two Jersey City, New Jersey, parties.
Retired police captain Peter Gallagher told the newspaper he was tasked with clearing a rooftop party of 20-30 people at 6 Tonnele Ave.
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"Some men were dancing, some held kids on their shoulders," said Gallagher, then a sergeant. "The women were shouting in Arabic and keening in the high-pitched wail of Arabic fashion. They were told to go back to their apartments since a crowd of non-Muslims was gathering on the sidewalk below and we feared for their safety."
Retired officer Arthur Teeter, who worked in the radio room at police headquarters on Sept. 11, said he was troubled by the volume of calls related to 9/11 celebrations.
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"There were enough calls that it was disturbing. That's the only word I can use," Teeter said.
FBI agents detained several people from the building after 9/11. Cops dispatched to a celebration on John F. Kennedy Blvd. were unable to reach the five-story building's roof before attendees dispersed.
"By the time I got to the roof, no one was there," retired officer Bruce Dzamba said.
FBI Special Agent Celeste Danzi, a spokeswoman for the agency's Newark division, declined to comment on the newspaper's investigation.
Three active Jersey City officers confirmed the parties happened on condition of anonymity because they were concerned about Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop's reaction. Fulop has denied Muslim 9/11 celebrations took place.
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"I saw it with my own eyes. In the end, police officers are professionals, so we just observed that stuff and sucked it up," a ranking officer said.
The officers' testimony corroborates a Sept. 16, 2001, video by New York City's WCBS-TV, which referenced 9/11 terror parties "swarming with suspects."
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Mayor Fulop still maintains that Muslim 9/11 parties are "urban legends."
"There are no records of this," Fulop told the newspaper. "What has happened is that it has become urban legend in many cities where people say they heard or saw something. At the end of the day, the only thing we can go on are facts. There is no media record. There is no police record. There is nothing."
The mayor said Gallagher's claim was suspect because no report was filed. The retired cop countered that a non-violent party on the Jersey City Police Department's busiest day in its history did not warrant a report because no crime was committed.
"At the time, the assignment to clear the sidewalk and roof was what the JCPD calls a [Disorderly Group] call, " said Gallagher. "If no violence is involved it is, and was, a minor assignment. The people on the roof were cooperative as were the people on the sidewalk. No report was necessary."
Gallagher said he was sent to end the party for the attendees' "own safety" because non-Muslims were starting to gather below.
The newspaper spoke to two former Jersey City police chiefs, both who said Gallagher was a "good cop" and a man of integrity.
A September 18, 2001, report by the Washington Post report lends credence to Gallagher's story.
"In Jersey City, within hours of two jetliners' plowing into the World Trade Center, law enforcement authorities detained and questioned a number of people who were allegedly seen celebrating the attacks and holding tailgate style parties on rooftops while they watched the devastation on the other side of the river," the piece read, WND reported Nov. 26.
John Farmer Jr., New Jersey's former attorney general, said the area had people known to harbor "sympathies" with Islamic radicals who carried out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, but that no 9/11 celebrations took place.
"Would it surprise me to know there were small groups of people in that neighborhood who might have been happy? No. But was it on a scale that would have caused us to send in the troops and suppress a riot? No," Farmer told NJ.com.
Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as the "blind sheikh," preached at the nearby Masjid Al-Salam mosque. The Egyptian cleric was convicted in 1995 of seditious conspiracy for attempts to incite his followers to violence in New York City. Abdel-Rahman is serving out his life sentence at Butner Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina.
Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as the "blind sheikh," was convicted of seditious conspiracy in 1995
