User:Acebrock/9/11

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[[Image:NonFreeImageRemoved.svg<|125px|thumb|right|A sequential look at United Flight 175 crashing into the south tower of the World Trade Center]] The September 11, 2001 attacks (often referred to as 9/11—pronounced "nine eleven") consisted of a series of coordinated suicide attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. The victims were predominantly civilians.

On the morning of September 11, 2001,

The attacks

Four commercial airliners were hijacked en route to California from Logan International, Dulles International, and Newark airports. Each of the airliners had a jet fuel capacity of nearly 24,000 U.S. gallons (91,000 liters) or 144,000 pounds (65,455 kilograms).^[3] Two of the airliners were flown into the World Trade Center, one each into the North and South towers, one was flown into the Pentagon, and the fourth crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

• Eastern Daylight Time, 12:46:30 UTC
  ).
• United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767-222,^[5] crashed into the South Tower at 9:02:59 a.m. local time (13:02:59 UTC), an event covered live by television broadcasters and amateur filmers from around the world who had their cameras trained on the buildings after the earlier crash.
• Boeing 757-223,^[6] crashed into the Pentagon
  at 9:37:46 a.m. local time (13:37:46 UTC).
• United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757-222,^[7] crashed in a field in southwest Pennsylvania just outside of Shanksville, about 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Washington, D.C., at 10:03:11 a.m. local time (14:03:11 UTC), with parts and debris found up to eight miles away. The crash in Pennsylvania resulted from the passengers of the airliner attempting to regain control from the hijackers.

During the hijacking some passengers and crew members were able to make phone calls using the cabin

The hijackers reportedly took control of the aircraft by using knives and box-cutters to kill flight attendants and at least one pilot or passenger. There were a number of reports from callers aboard the hijacked aircraft that suggest the hijackers killed several people aboard the planes before impact including the captain of Flight 11, John Ogonowski.^[10]

Some form of noxious chemical spray, such as tear gas or pepper spray, was reported to have been used on American 11 and United 175 to keep passengers out of the first-class cabin.^[11] Bomb threats were made on three of the aircraft, but not on American 77. According to the Commission Report the bombs were probably fake. The 9/11 Commission established that two of the hijackers had recently purchased Leatherman multi-function hand tools.

On

World Trade Center - 1366 people died who were at or above the floors of impact in the North Tower (1 WTC); according to the Commission Report, hundreds were killed instantly by the impact while the rest were trapped and died later.[22]

As many as 600 people were killed instantly or trapped at or above the floors of impact in the South Tower (2 WTC). Only about 18 managed to escape in time from above the impact zone and out of the South Tower before it collapsed.

An estimated 200 people jumped to their deaths from the burning towers (as depicted in the photograph "The Falling Man"), landing on the streets and rooftops of adjacent buildings hundreds of feet below.^[23] To witnesses watching, a few of the people falling from the towers seemed to have stumbled out of broken windows.^[24] Some of the occupants of each tower above its point of impact made their way upward toward the roof in hope of helicopter rescue, however; no rescue plan existed for such an eventuality, the roof access doors were locked and thick smoke and intense heat would have prevented rescue helicopters from landing.^[25]

According to the Associated Press, the city identified over 1,600 bodies but was unable to identify the rest (about 1,100 people). They report that the city has "about 10,000 unidentified bone and tissue fragments that cannot be matched to the list of the dead."^[26] Bone fragments were still being found in 2006 as workers prepared the damaged Deutsche Bank Building for demolition. The average age of all the dead in New York City was 40.

The dead included 8 children: 5 on American 77 ranging in age from 3 to 11, 3 on United 175 ages 2, 3, and 4.^[27] The youngest victim was a 2 year-old child on Flight 175, the oldest an 82 year-old passenger on Flight 11. In the buildings, the youngest victim was 17 and the oldest was 79.^[28]

As the suburbs around New York City learned of the destruction so close to home, many schools closed for the day, evacuated, or were locked down. Other school districts shielded students from watching television because many of their parents held jobs in the World Trade Center towers. In New Jersey and Connecticut, private schools were evacuated. Many children in schools of Maryland, those nearest to DC, were sent home. Scarsdale, New York schools closed for the day. In Greenwich, Connecticut, about 20 miles north of the city, hundreds of school children had direct ties to victims of the attacks. Greenwich and nearby New Canaan, two of the wealthiest towns in the area along with neighboring Darien, had more residents killed, as a percentage of total population, than any other Connecticut towns. After New York, New Jersey was the hardest hit state, with the town of Hoboken sustaining the most fatalities. Almost all the killed were civilians, except some of the 125 victims in the Pentagon.

There were also a number of reports, some contradictory, from callers aboard the hijacked aircraft that suggest the hijackers killed several people aboard the planes before impact.^[29]

Damage

In addition to the 110-floor Twin Towers of the World Trade Center itself, five other buildings at the World Trade Center site, including

Communications equipment such as broadcast radio, television and two-way radio antenna towers were damaged beyond repair. In Arlington County, a portion of the Pentagon was severely damaged by fire and one section of the building collapsed.^[33]

Survivors

According to the 9/11 Commission, approximately 16,000 people were below the impact zones in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the attacks. The vast majority of those below the impact areas survived, evacuating before the towers collapsed.

The hijackers

Nineteen men of middle eastern descent boarded the four planes, five each on American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 77, four on United Airlines Flight 93. Fifteen of the attackers were from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon.^[34]

The group consisted of six core organizers, which included the four pilots, and thirteen others. Unlike many stereotypes of hijackers, most of the attackers were educated and came from well-to-do backgrounds.

Other potential hijackers

27 members of al-Qaeda attempted to enter the United States to take part in the September 11 attacks, only 19 participated. Other would-be hijackers are often referred to as the 20th hijacker:

• visa
  for entry into the U.S.
• Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
  .
• Richard Reid were due to hijack a fifth plane and fly it into the White House.^[35]

His defense lawyers dismissed this as fantasy on the part of Moussaoui, saying that he was not an operative in al Qaeda, but only a "hanger-on." In a video tape released in May 2006, Osama bin Laden claimed that Moussaoui had "no connection whatsoever with the events of September 11" and that he knows this because "I was responsible for entrusting the 19 brothers" who carried out the attacks.^[36] On

At Moussaoui's sentencing trial, FBI agent Greg Jones testified that prior to the attacks, he urged his supervisor, Michael Maltbie, "to prevent Zacarias Moussaoui from flying a plane into the World Trade Center." Maltbie had refused to act on 70 requests from another agent, Harry Samit, to obtain a warrant to search Moussaoui's computer.

Other al-Qaeda members who may have attempted, but were unable, to take part in the attacks include

Within hours of the attacks, the FBI was able to determine their names and in many cases details such as dates of birth, known and/or possible residences, visa status, and specific identity of the suspected pilots and hijackers.[38]^[39] Few had made any attempt to disguise their names on flight and credit card records, and they were some of the few people of Arabic descent on the flights. On the day of the attacks, the National Security Agency intercepted communications that pointed to Osama bin Laden,^[40] as did German intelligence agencies.^[41]

On

On December 27, 2001, a second bin Laden video was released. In the video he stated "Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a response to injustice, aimed at forcing America to stop its support for Israel, which kills our people," but he stopped short of admitting responsibility for the attacks.^[48]

Shortly before the U.S. presidential election in 2004 in a taped statement, bin Laden publicly acknowledged al-Qaeda's involvement in the attacks on the U.S, and admitted his direct link to the attacks. He said that the attacks were carried out because, "We are a free people who do not accept injustice, and we want to regain the freedom of our nation."

In a videotape aired on Al Jazeera on

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States was formed by the United States government and was commonly called the 9/11 Commission. It released its report on July 22, 2004, concluding that the attacks were conceived and implemented by members of al-Qaeda. The Commission stated that, "9/11 plotters eventually spent somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000 to plan and conduct their attack, but that the specific origin of the funds used to execute the attacks remained unknown.^[51] To date, only peripheral figures have been tried or convicted in connection with the attacks.

In "Substitution for Testimony of Khalid Sheik Mohammed" from the trial of

• Plunders the resources of the Arabian Peninsula.
• Dictates policy to the rulers of those countries.
• Supports abusive regimes and monarchies in the Middle East, thereby oppressing their people.
• Has military bases and installations upon the Arabian Peninsula, which violates the Muslim holy land, in order to threaten neighboring Muslim countries.
• Intends thereby to create disunion between Muslim states, thus weakening them as a political force.
• Supports Israel, and wishes to divert international attention from (and tacitly maintain) the occupation of Palestine.

The Persian Gulf War, the ensuing

Statements of al-Qaeda recorded after 9/11 add weight to the U.S account of who was responsible for the attacks. In a 2004 video, apparently acknowledging responsibility for the attacks, bin Laden states that he was motivated by the 1982 Lebanon War, for which he held the U.S. partially responsible. In the video, bin Laden also claims that he wants to, "restore freedom to our nation," to "punish the aggressor in kind," and to inflict economic damage on America. He declared that a continuing objective of his holy war was to, "[bleed] America to the point of bankruptcy."^[57] Bin Laden said, "We swore that America wouldn't live in security until we live it truly in Palestine. This showed the reality of America, which puts Israel's interest above its own people's interest. America won't get out of this crisis until it gets out of the Arabian Peninsula, and until it stops its support of Israel."

The

Arising directly from these beliefs, bin Laden designed a strategy of attacking the United States in order to establish this caliphate. Terming the United States as the "Far Enemy," bin Laden designed the attacks of 9/11 to cause the U.S. to increase its military and cultural presence in the Middle East.[59] Bin Laden believes that once Muslim citizens of the Middle East confront the evils of a non-Muslim government, one that is not a caliphate, a popular social and political movement will catalyze around the desire for very conservative and zealous Muslim governments in the Middle East.^[60]

According to Michale Doran, this goal is further demonstrated by bin Laden's use of the term "spectacular" as a noun when talking about the attacks of 9/11. For example, "This spectacular will greatly anger America." He hoped these attacks would provoke a visceral emotional response from the government and citizens of the United States. In so doing, he was attempting to ensure that Muslim citizens in the Middle East would react as violently as possible to an increase in U.S. involvement in their region.^[61]

Other potential attacks

Mohammed Afroze was convicted in India in 2005 after confessing to being involved in planning an attack on the Palace of Westminster in London and Tower Bridge. The attack was aborted at the last minute when the would-be hijackers, waiting to board the planes they were to hijack, saw the damage in the U.S., panicked, and fled. His lawyer claimed that the confession was obtained through torture.^[62][63]

In February 2006, President

The U.S. government initially claimed that the White House and Air Force One were also targeted, although the source and nature of these threats was not disclosed.[65] President Bush flew on Air Force One to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, and then flew to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, before returning to Washington. After criticism that Bush did not return immediately to Washington, the White House claimed the next day that a terrorist threat, "using code words," had been phoned in against Air Force One. White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer quoted the caller as saying, "Air Force One is a target." The White House later backed away from this claim after no evidence of the phone call was found.^[66]

Reactions

International reaction

The attacks had major

Numerous countries, including the UK, India, Australia, France, Germany, Indonesia, China, Canada, Russia, Pakistan, Jordan, Mauritius, Uganda and Zimbabwe introduced "anti-terrorism" legislation^[73] and froze the bank accounts^[74] of businesses and individuals they suspected of having al-Qaeda ties.

Law enforcement and intelligence agencies in a number of countries, including