FEATURE REPORT: WHAT IS 9/11

 UNMASKING THE DETAILS OF THE HORROR STORY  CALLED 9/11

BY VIVIAN

Two weeks ago, the world remembered the horror which bruised the face of the world's Peace twenty years ago. Since 11/09/2001, the story of mankind has not been the same. This article tells the details of the story which you thought you knew.

On the 11th of September 2001 the world watched, as the infamous terrorist group known as Al-Qaeda led then by the late Osama bin Laden launched a series of attacks on the soil of the United States of America. 

Al-Qaeda, (which literally translates to “the base”) is a militant Sunni Islamist multi-national organization which is regarded as a terrorist group was founded by Osama bin Laden in 1988. 

The attacks were aimed at four strategic places.  They would cripple the US economy and her security, and as well compromise its leadership.  The attack can be seen as a combination of mass murder, suicide attacks, aircraft hijackings and Islamic terrorism.

 Terrorism had become more frequent than ever through the world-scape since 9/11. 

It started as an affront on the world powers, with the US being the focus. Now it is the challenge of the Third world countries being the newly found comfort zone of world's Islamic terrorism.

 Four premeditated attacks happened that day, at four different intervals.

 The first one was by 8:46am, the second by 9:03am, the third by 9:37am and the fourth by 10:03am. They chose flights going long distances because they knew they would be loaded with jet fuel thereby making it easy to transform ordinary passenger jets into guided missiles.

The attacks were carried out by selected and trained members of the Al-Qaeda terrorist group who were trained and prepared specially for that mission. They were nineteen of them all together and none of them survived the attack but it was clear that, they knew what they were getting themselves into. They were citizens of four different countries; one was from Lebanon two were from the United Arab Emirates and fifteen of them were from Saudi Arabia. They were a group of four hijacker-pilots and the rest being muscle-hijackers. They arrived at the United States of America at different intervals in order not to raise alarm; the first hijackers that arrived were Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi in January 2000, then three hijacker-pilots came after, Mohammed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah in mid- 2000 where they underwent flight training in South Florida. The fourth pilot Hani Hanjour, arrived in December 2000. The rest of the muscle-hijackers arrived early and mid-2001. Each flight that was hijacked had one hijacker-pilot and 3 or four muscle-hijackers. They killed the pilots of all the flights that were hijacked.

The first plane that was hijacked and crashed was the American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767-223ER that departed by 7:59am from Logan International Airport en route to Los Angeles International Airport. On board the flight were 11 crew members, 76 passengers and 5 hijackers. At 8:46 am the hijackers crashed the plane loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel into the Northern elevation of the World Trade Centre’s Northern Tower in New York city.

 The impact left a wide burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper. In the aftermath of the impact hundreds of people were killed and hundreds more were trapped in higher floors. At the time of the first attack it was thought to be an accident and not a calculated terrorist attack. Evacuations began for the tower and its twin. 

At 10:28am the North Tower collapsed after burning for 102 minutes. After it’s collapse debris from the building started fires on other buildings surrounding it, these fires burned for about 7 hours. 

The second plane that was hijacked and crashed was the United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767-222 that departed by 8:14am from Logan International Airport en route to Los Angeles International Airport. On board the flight were 9 crew members, 51 passengers and 5 hijackers. At 9:03am, 18 minutes after the first attack, the second plane crashed into the 60th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Centre in New York. The collision detonated a massive explosion that scattered burning debris around the premises. At 9:59am the South Tower collapsed after burning for 56 minutes. It was at this point that it was realized that the United States of America was under attack. 2,606 people including emergency workers and excluding the crew members, passengers and hijackers died from the impact of the first two attacks. 2,763 lives were lost in total in the attack on the World Trade Centre. Only 18 people were alive at the time of their rescue. 

The third plane that was hijacked and crashed was the American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757-223 that departed by 8:20am from Washington Dulles International Airport en route to Los Angeles International Airport. On board the flight were 6 crew members, 53 passengers and 5 hijackers. At 9:37am, the third plane crashed in to the west side of the Pentagon (Headquarters of the US department of Defense).   A raging mass of fire caused by jet fuel from the plane caused structural damage to the building leading to the collapse of a part of it. 125 military personnel and civilians lost their lives that day,70 were civilians and 55 were military personnel, excluding the passengers and hijackers.

The fourth plane that was hijacked and crashed was the United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757-222 that departed by 8:42am from Newark International Airport en route to San Francisco International Airport. On board the flight were 7 crew members, 33 passengers and 4 hijackers. At 10:03am, the aircraft crashed into a field in Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

 It is unclear whether it was the United States Capitol or the White House that was being targeted. In April 2002, an interview with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi bin al-Shibh who were perceived to have masterminded the attacks, they said the plane was targeting the Capitol because targeting the White House would have been too tough but also confirmed that final decisions on where to crash was left in the hands of the pilots. 

The mission proved abortive when passengers having learned through phone calls that previous planes were crashed into buildings sought to overpower the hijackers and when it became clear to the hijackers that they may succeed they crashed the plane into a field. Nobody apart from the people on board the aircraft died from this attack.

The attacks remain of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the history of the world. Weeks after the attacked the death poll was estimated at 6000 more than twice the eventually confirmed amount.

 The massive death toll includes 265 people on the planes (including the hijackers), 2,606 from the World Trade Centre and its environs (the 340 firefighters and 72 law enforcement officers included) and 125 at the pentagon bringing the total death poll to 2,996 people. Citizens from over 90 countries lost their lives to the attack. At least 200 died when they jumped out of the World Trade Centre in order to survive the fire. 

An investment bank on the 101st-105th floors of the North Tower of the World trade Centre lost 658 employees (more than any employer lost). Only the remains of 1,600 victims were able to be identified and about 10,000 bone fragments and tissue were collected but cannot be matched to anyone of the list of the victims. DNA profiling continues to this day in a bid to identify more victims. Through improved technology more victims have been able to be identified till today, recently two were identified in 2021 but as of September 2021 1,106 victims are yet to be identified.

After the attacks suspicion immediately fell on the terrorist group known as Al-Qaeda led then by Osama bin Laden. He denied the allegations at first in a statement broadcasted by Al Jazeera on September 2001 saying; “I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation”. In November 2001, the US recovered a videotape from a destroyed house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan and bin Laden is seen admitting he had foreknowledge of the attack. In a letter he sent to America titled letter to America he explicitly stated the al-Qaeda’s motive for their attacks which were;

The US support for Israel

Support for the “attacks against Muslims” in Somalia

Support of Philippines against Muslims in the Moro conflict

Support for Israeli “aggression” against Muslims in Lebanon

Support of Russian “atrocities against Muslims” in Chechnya

The sanctions against Iraq 

The presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia

Pro-American governments in the Middle East (who “act as your agents”) being against Muslim Interests

Support of Indian “oppression against Muslims” in Kashmir

Then shortly before the US presidential election of 2004 he released a video tape to publicly acknowledge al-Qaeda’s involvement in the attacks. He said they carried out the attacks because “we are free and want to regain control for our nation. As you undermine our security, we undermine yours”. He admitted to personally instructing his followers to attack the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. The US never formally indicted him on the attacks of September 11 2001 but he was on the FBI’s most wanted list for the bombing of several US embassies. After a 10-year manhunt he was finally killed in his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Shockwaves from the aftermath of the 9/11 attack is still being felt even after it has been so many years since it occurred. Even the survivors of the incident didn’t escape unscathed either they were injured or were infected with diseases (most of which are terminal in nature) they had to live with for the rest of their lives. 

Thousands of toxic debris containing about 2,500 contaminants from the collapse of the twin towers contributed to fatal or terminal illnesses suffered by people who were at ground zero and people around the site of the attack. Exposure to toxic dust and environment also had a considerable negative effect on fetal development with women who were pregnant and living or working around the World Trade Centre at the time of its collapse.

 The children born to these women had impaired lungs at birth and there was little or no improvement as they progressed in age. There were also cases of post-traumatic stress among the survivors and rescue workers. Respiratory problems like asthma and lung inflammation also developed at abnormal rates for those in and around the World Trade Centre during and after the attacks. 

The economy of the US also took a hit with the attack. The stock market was closed for a week from September 11 till September 17 2001. During the week that the stock market was closed the United States of America lost about $1.4trillion in valuation. But even with the tremendous loss that they suffered the US was still able to assist in aids both for the compensation of victims and their families but also for the reconstruction of properties that were lost. They gave up to $22.7 billion in aids. The US senate also passed a bill ensuring that a fund to compensate victims of the attack never runs out of fund and that first responders won’t have to return to congress to plead for more funding.

Considering the nature of the event that occurred it would be strange if there were no conspiracy theories surrounding them. The first theories appeared on the internet just hours after the attacks and with the increase in use of social media they have become even more creative and have been able to reach larger audiences. Some of the conspiracy theories that have been conceived include:

Some claim the US government staged the attacks or they knew about it before it occurred

A theory also falsely claims that no Jewish person was killed in the attacks because the 4,000 Jewish employees at the World Trade Centre were asked not to come into work that day but 119 of the people who were killed were Jewish and 72 unconfirmed are perceived also to be Jewish. That would constitute 9.2% of the victims

  There is a claim that the building containing offices of the CIA, the Department of Defense and the Office of Emergency Management collapsed hours after the Twin Towers without being hit by a plane or directly targeted but later after a three-year investigation it was discovered because they collapsed because of intense and uncontrolled fires.

There’s a theory that media organizations were part of an inside-job plot because the collapse of the World Trade Centre was reported live by BBC News correspondent Jane Stanley while it was still visibly standing behind her.

Some theorists suggest that US missiles were fired at the Pentagon as part of a secret government plot because the hole left in the building was too small to have been caused by a passenger plane. But it was later proved that the shape of the hole was due to one of the wings of the plane hitting the ground and the other being severed on impact with the building. 

On the 11th of September 2001 the world watched as two towers like the number 11 was brought to its knees by the Al-Qaeda. On the 11th of September 2012 extremists linked to the Al-Qaeda attacked the American diplomatic mission and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya just 11years after the 9/11. One might start to wonder of what relevance is the number 11 to the Al-Qaeda group and would there be another attack on the US after another 11 years? It is important to note that the number 11 can symbolize disorder, chaos and judgement.

It has been 20 years since these heartbreaking events took place and the world still continues to mourn the souls of the departed.

 The innocent lives lost because of the actions of misguided people in order to get their own version of justice. 

Most unfortunately the harsh measures of the US in addressing this tragedy has made the tragedy of terrorism multiply, instead of abating it. In 2001, there was just one known international terrorist group, now there are at least twenty of them, more vicious, more deadly, shedding innocent blood everyday.