Reflecting on the horrors of September 11, 2001

The terrorists attacks on America, and the World Trade Center

Another anniversary of arguably the worst terrorist attack in history is upon us. A heinous assault that irrevocably changed the landscape of the modern mindset of humanity and resulted in the spending of hundreds of billions of dollars, not only from the damage of the actual attacks, but in the ensuing wars and increased security spending of governments and organisations alike.

Was it the worst terrorist attack ever witnessed by mankind?

Well, much of this depends on opinion.

Some define the nuclear attacks on Japan by the United States towards the end of World War Two as the worst terrorist offensive. But by most definitions of terrorism, this was not such, as it was a “state or government organised strike”.

The very definition of terrorism is debatable, with the United Nations never truly agreeing on a set understanding, and most governments having differing ideas.

Alex P Schmid, a Dutch expert on the matters, broadly defines an Act of Terrorism as a Peacetime Equivalent of a War Crime. A full definition by Schmid and AJ Jongman can be found below.

On the morning of that fateful day in 2001, nineteen hijackers took control of four commercial airliners, American Airlines Flight 11 (92 on board incl. Crew and hijackers), United Airlines Flight 175 (65 on board), American Airlines Flight 77 (64 on board), and the infamous United Airlines Flight 93 (44 on board).

At 8:46 am New York time, AAF 11 crashed into the World Trade Center – a cluster of buildings dominated by the North and South towers, both 110 stories high and completed in the early 1970’s – hitting the North Tower, followed by UAF 175 hitting the South Tower at 9:03 am.

Both these airliners were Boeing 767’s.

These moments are indelibly etched into our subconsciousness. Most people will remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when quite possibly the most significant event of the 21st century occurred.

The third flight, AAF 77, hit the Pentagon at 9:37 am.

The fourth flight, UAF 93, which was originally planned to hit the United States Capitol Building, crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:03 am, after the passengers on board attempted to retake control of the plane.

Both of the planes were Boeing 757’s.

The World Trade center’s two towers collapsed at 9:59 am (South Tower/2 WTC) and at 10:28 am (North Tower/1WTC).

As a result of these attacks, a total of 2,993 people died; a total of more than 90 nationalities. All of the deaths were civilians, with the exception of 55 military Pentagon staff. 411 Emergency staff died trying to fight the havoc created, with the New York City Fire Department losing 341 fire fighters.

The attack caused chaos to the organisational systems of the United States. Air Traffic Controllers were in disarray, and for the next three days all civilian airflights were directed away from the country.

Some regarded the strikes as an “Attack on Freedom”. Such a cataclysmic event has bred numerous opinions and countless conspiracy theories, from the attacks being engineered by the US Government, through to being crafted by business rivals to certain airlines.

There was also focus on the government themselves, from the focus of George W Bush taking minutes to react when first informed of the attacks, through to the ensuring responses, including the eventual attack on Iraq.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is the name said to be indirectly responsible for the attacks, an al-Qaeda connection and lieutenant of Osama Bin Laden, who is compared to being this centuries equivalent to Hitler.

Evidence of this information and the identity of the hijackers were fortuitous, with Mohamed Atta’s (one of the hijackers) luggage not making his flight connection, and within it contained papers with key details of the attacks.

This sparked the largest ever investigation by the FBI (codenamed PENTTBOM) where they were informed by communications specialists from the NSA and German intelligence that Bin Laden’s broadcasting has been intercepted. On September 27th, 2001, the FBI released photos and details of all the hijackers, and so began the manhunt and wars, many of which – most notably the occupations of Afghanistan – are still in effect today.

Conspiracy theorists had a field day with this, arguing the Bin Laden himself was a by-product of the American system, with the man himself indirectly funded by America to fight the Soviets when they invaded Afghanistan in 1979.

Still, while some doubt Bin Laden, who initially rebuked any claims he was responsible for the attack, was responsible, there is no doubting the “evil” (as stated by Bush) of him and his organisation.

He has ushered alleged quotations of the Koran stating “slay the pagans wherever ye find them”, and this is then enhanced by al-Qaeda to say it is the duty of every Muslim to kill Americans anywhere.

Bin Laden would then state, in his famous “Letter to America” in late 2002 - "You are the worst civilization witnessed by the history of mankind: You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator."
( ^ "Full text: bin Laden's 'letter to America'". The Guardian. 2002-11-24. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/nov/24/theobserver. )

It is difficult to think of a time when a society or religion has uttered such hatred.

The political, economic, social and overall fallout from this event continues today.

Irrespective of the various views of people, governments and religious groups around the world, the one thing that struck me in the aftermath of the event was this.

Like the Crusades, here was an attack that has the absurdity to be justified in the name of religion.

While the United States may need to be answerable for errors they have made in judgement over the last hundred years, nothing could ever validate what was one of the darkest days in our history.

Schmid and Jongman (1988) DEFINITION OF TERRORISM: "Terrorism is an anxiety-inspiring method of repeated violent action, employed by (semi-) clandestine individual, group or state actors, for idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby - in contrast to assassination - the direct targets of violence are not the main targets. The immediate human victims of violence are generally chosen randomly (targets of opportunity) or selectively (representative or symbolic targets) from a target population, and serve as message generators. Threat- and violence-based communication processes between terrorist (organization), (imperilled) victims, and main targets are used to manipulate the main target (audience(s)), turning it into a target of terror, a target of demands, or a target of attention, depending on whether intimidation, coercion, or propaganda is primarily sought".