New York to Build 'Dark Tower of Barad-dur' on WTC Site

[pynchonoid]

New York to Build 'Dark Tower of Barad-dur' on WTC
Site
by J.P. Zmirak
February 14, 2003

New York, N.Y., Feb. 1 – At a press conference held
today near Ground Zero in lower Manhattan, New York
City Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined New York Governor
George Pataki, Attorney General John Ashcroft and
other civic leaders to announce the final building
design selected to stand on the site of the former
World Trade Center. After much back and forth and
almost a dozen proposed designs, the plan chosen was
that entitled: "The Dark Tower: Barad-dûr," submitted
by the Chelsea-based firm of Shelob, Morgoth & Balrog,
LLP. The tower, when completed in 2006, is expected to
rise some 2,000 feet from the ground, making it the
tallest and most fearsome monument in Middle Earth.
Its walls of solid granite will be faced by black
obsidian, and punctuated irregularly by oval windows,
turrets, battlements, parapets and fully functional
gargoyles – rendering the new tower impermeable to
siege. The Dark Tower's security from the air will be
guaranteed by a squadron of specially designed
defensive drones or "Nazgul," which will seek out and
destroy any aircraft, bird, or other winged creature
that approaches within 1000 feet of the grim citadel.
To foster evacuation in case of disaster, the building
will eschew elevators, relying instead on 33
innovative spiral stone staircases that will snake
pathlessly around a central "bottomless chasm," down
which intruders or terrorist suspects will be cast
after questioning, noted Ashcroft.

The Dark Tower itself will serve primarily as
government office-space, containing the New York field
headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security,
the northeastern divisions of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, and the Justice Department – in addition to
slave armies of soulless goblins, which government
scientists hope to clone and breed in its vast dungeon
spaces, as cannon fodder in the War on Terror. Said
Mr. Ashcroft at the announcement: "There's nothing in
the Constitution protecting the 'rights' of
sub-humanoid orcs, crafted by torturing and twisting
the genes of hapless enemy prisoners. Or protecting
those prisoners, come to think of it."

At the apex of the Tower will stand the architects'
proudest achievement: the "Lidless Eye," an
ultra-modern, multi-dimensional surveillance device,
permitting federal anti-terror authorities to scan
radio, phone and other transmissions for signs of
terrorist activity – as well as to read the very
thoughts of their enemies, piercing the veil of their
inmost thoughts and rending their hearts with despair.
Privacy groups greeted this aspect of the announcement
with dismay. "I can understand the need for domestic
security – and the attractiveness of the design," said
Noah Jacobson, Secretary of the New York Civil
Liberties Union. "The sheer, soul-annihilating power
of this black monolith should serve to reduce all
manner of crime and anti-social activity within 100
miles," Jacobson predicted, "reducing a once-free city
to a necropolis of cringing slaves. We have no problem
with that. But a Lidless Eye that interrogates the
souls of every person who slinks or crawls through the
five boroughs – this could raise some serious Fourth
Amendment issues." Jacobson predicted that legal
challenges would dog the completion of the Tower, as
long as it included the surveillance component. 

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the ranking Bush
Administration official to attend the unveiling of the
plans for the Barad-dûr, dismissed such concerns,
averring, "Surely you cannot expect such halflings to
prevail against the Lidless Eye. No one can." 

Mayor Bloomberg also addressed the concerns of family
members of those killed in the terrorist attack that
brought down the original World Trade Center towers.
"I think we're all aware of the extreme sensitivity of
this site," said Bloomberg to the assembled crowd of
curious New Yorkers. "It's important that whatever we
build here symbolize three things: remembrance of the
fallen, enhanced domestic security, and savage
retribution. This memorable design fulfills all three
criteria." Bloomberg predicted that the Tower would
cost much less than the estimated $800 million
price-tag given by its architects, due to savings in
labor costs. "The vast reaches of the Barad-dûr will
be constructed by armies of slaves, whom we have
conquered in our wars and conveyed back to the Tower
in the bellies of black ships, who will labor in its
sunless depths for what remains of their days," he
explained. Members of New York City construction
unions are expected to contest this aspect of the
plan. 

In his closing remarks, Secretary Rumsfeld attributed
the original inspiration for the Tower to his
long-time associate, Richard "Prince of Darkness"
Perle, chairman of the Defense Policy Board, and key
strategist in the administration's War on Terror.
Rumsfeld linked the construction of the Tower to
projected major initiatives in that campaign –
including the forging of "rings of power," anti-terror
weapons which the U.S. will distribute to nations that
support its efforts. Highly-placed sources in the
White House have revealed that nine such rings will be
provided to key members of the European Union, seven
to friendly regimes in the Middle East, and three to
U.S. strategic partners Russia, China, and Japan.
External critics of the Bush strategy have pointed to
leaks suggesting that yet another ring will be forged,
to remain in American hands and reside within the Dark
Tower itself. Rumsfeld denied such reports, dubbing
these administration critics "unpatriotic," and
predicting that "the Master of the Precious will
punish them, yes he will."

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/zmirak3.html



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