September 11, 2001

New York – Arlington – Shanksville

New York City

New York City

• In the early morning hours of September 11, 2001, four commercial airliners were hijacked.

• 8:46 a.m. – American Airlines Flight 11 was the first to crash into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

• Approximately seventeen minutes later, United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower.

Images from World Trade Center Building Performance Study conducted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

New York City• The second crash was

captured on live television.• Structural damage to both

the North and South Towers caused them to collapse.

• The South Tower collapsed first at 9:59 a.m.

• The North Tower collapsed 29 minutes later.

• Nearly 3,000 were killed including:– 343 Firefighters– 23 Police Officers– 37 Port Authority Police Officers– A bomb-sniffing dog named

Sirius

New York City

CICERO © 2011

Arlington, Virginia

• 9:37 a.m. – American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.

• The western side of the building was engulfed in flames.

• Part of the building collapsed.

• 189 people were killed:– 64 aboard Flight77

– 125 inside the Pentagon building.

Shanksville, Pennsylvania

On September 11, 2010, Former First Lady Laura Bush and First Lady Michele Obama visited the site of United Airlines Flight 93

airplane crash.

• The fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, was expected to head toward the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

• Passengers in that plane, however, prevented that from happening.

• Unfortunately, at 10:03 A.M., the plane crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing everyone onboard.

Rescue and Recovery Efforts

• It took months to complete the rescue and recovery efforts.

• Some survivors were found and rescued from under the rubble, but not many.

• The fires beneath the rubble burned for weeks, and the cleanup was not fully complete until May 2002.

• Relief funds were established to help the victims and victims’ families.

Lives Lost• In all, 2,996 people died that

day, including the 19 hijackers.– The youngest victim was a 2-year-

old girl on U.A. Flight175.

– The oldest victim was an 82-year-old man on A.A. Flight 11.

– To date, the remains of only 1,629 victims have been identified.

• More than 6,000 people were injured.

• It was the largest attack on United States soil since Pearl Harbor.

Broader Effects• Beyond those who lost their

lives on September 11, many thousands more were directly affected: – It is estimated that about 3,000

children lost a parent and more than 1,600 people lost a spouse.

– 20% of Americans knew someone who was either hurt or killed that day.

– Nearly 150,000 jobs were lost in New York City alone as a result of the attacks.

– 1 year later, 7 in 10 Americans reported they had experienced depression since the attacks.

Twin boys hold a photograph of their father, who was killed in the September 11th attacks.

The Bush Doctrine

•Bush Doctrine: In the war on terrorism, “we will make no distinction between the terrorists and those who harbor them.” This statement involves several key assumptions and positions, and will have enormous ramifications for America’s activities and relations with the world

The Bush Doctrine• The Preventive or Preemptive War Corollary: The

Administration states rather specifically that, when links between regimes and terrorists are readily identifiable, or when regimes have interests in and show willingness to arm terrorists (especially with WMD), the US has the right to preemptively depose those regimes– Though no explicit connection made, seems to

make targets of rogue states and, especially, the “Axis of Evil” (Iraq, Iran, North Korea)

– Key difficulty: Deciding what constitutes meaningful linkages – will necessitate decisions made by the US that will ultimately cost it the majority of its international support

How did the United States respond to the attacks?

War in Afghanistan• A group known as the

Taliban ruled in Afghanistan.

• Governed according to strict Islamic law

• Close relationship with bin Laden

• Bush demanded that the Taliban seize bin Laden and give him to the United States.

• The Taliban refused and so on October 7, 2001, the United States and Great Britain attacked the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Results of the War• U.S. and British troops relied

on fighters of Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance—a group that opposed the Taliban.

• The Taliban was defeated by early December.

• Bin Laden, however, managed to avoid being captured.

Fighting Terrorism at Home

Bush and Congress created the Department of Homeland Security.

After 9/11 the nation experienced another type of terrorist threat: deliberate anthrax poisoning.

The crisis was limited to a handful of specific locations, but it alarmed the American people.

The White House proposed the USA PATRIOT Act, which made it easier for law enforcement to secretly collect information about suspected terrorists.

Critics claimed this act gave law enforcement too much power and posed a threat to basic freedoms.