9-11

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About

The multi-target terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001 – commonly referred to as "9-11" ("9/11", the Sept. 11 attacks, etc.) – was an event with immense effects and implications worldwide.

A number of anomalies and objections to the official account have arisen, further widening the scope of the event's impact; considerable effort has also been spent trying to discredit the idea of investigating these anomalies. This has resulted in considerable disagreement, among even the most reasonable people, as to whether the official account is believable.

George W. Bush appears to have seen the instant "political capital" granted by these attacks as representing his golden moment to justify his pre-existing ambition of invading Iraq.

Several public figures have suggested that we need another 9/11 to unify the United States politically, suggesting that those figures value political unity over individual lives and giving a hint of the kind of mentality which might be necessary in order to be involved with committing such an act.

Pages

Main Players

  • WTC1, "The North Tower", a 110-story skyscraper (417m plus antenna)
  • WTC2, "The South Tower", a 107-story skyscraper (415m)
  • WTC7, a 47-story skyscraper (174m); a.k.a. The Salomon Brothers Building
  • The Pentagon, the world's largest office building
  • AA11 (Wikipedia) a Boeing 767-223ER which crashed into the North Tower (WTC1)
  • AA77 (Wikipedia), a Boeing 757-223 which crashed into the Pentagon
  • UA93 (Wikipedia), a Boeing 757-222 which crashed in Pennsylvania before reaching a target; its "black box" was later recovered
  • UA175 (Wikipedia), a Boeing 767-222 which crashed into the South Tower (WTC2)

Theatres

The main theatres in which the attacks played out:

  • /NYC: WTC1, WTC2, and collateral damage
  • /DC: the Pentagon
  • /PA: where UA93 crashed into a field before it could reach another target

Statistics

  • 2,973 people died, plus 24 missing (presumed dead), plus 19 hijackers
  • WTC2 collapsed 0:55:51 after impact
  • WTC1 collapsed 1:41:51 after impact

Key Events

see 9/11 timeline for a more complete listing of events

  • 08:46:30*: AA11 hits WTC1 at roughly 490 mph (*time also given as 08:46:40)
  • 09:02:59*: UA175 hits WTC2 at roughly 590 mph (*time also given as 09:03:11)
  • 09:06: FAA initiates First Tier Groundstop (no takeoffs within airspace of New York, Boston, Cleveland, and Washington Centers)
  • 09:08: FAA bans takeoffs nationwide for all flights going through New York Center airspace
  • 09:26: FAA imposes national groundstop (for the first time ever)
  • 09:37:46: AA77 hits the Pentagon
  • 09:45: United States airspace is shutdown; incoming international flights are redirected to Canada
  • 09:59:04: WTC2 collapses (0:55:51 after impact)
  • 10:03*: UA93 crashes in Pennsylvania (*or possibly 10:06 [1])
  • 10:28:25: WTC1 collapses (1:41:51 after impact)
  • 17:20: WTC7 abruptly collapses

International

  • The Taliban government of Afghanistan denounced the attacks
  • Iraq stated that the attacks are the fruit of "U.S. crimes against humanity" in an official announcement on state television
  • Some interesting events related to the Afghanistan Northern Alliance happened shortly before and after the 9/11 attacks

Subsequent Events

  • 2001-09-12 (reported 2002-06-20, Messages intercepted by U.S. on Sept. 10 revealed): "Messages intercepted by U.S. intelligence one day before the Sept. 11 attacks came from telephone conversations between people in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, sources said Thursday. ... One of the intercepts said, 'The match begins tomorrow.' The other said, 'Tomorrow is zero hour.' The intercepts however, were not translated and analyzed until Sept. 12 -- one day after the attacks." This at least somewhat legitimizes the Afghanistan invasion, but why did we accuse Iraq of harboring terrorists instead of Saudi Arabia?
  • 2001-09-17 U.S. Decision On Iraq Has Puzzling Past: Opponents of War Wonder When, How Policy Was Set "...six days after the attacks ..., President Bush signed a 2(?)-page document marked "TOP SECRET" that outlined the plan for going to war in Afghanistan as part of a global campaign against terrorism. Almost as a footnote, the document also directed the Pentagon to begin planning military options for an invasion of Iraq, senior administration officials said."

Notes

Effects

As poorly-prepared as we apparently were to deal with the 9/11 attacks, as a result of the US invasion of Iraq we are now far less ready to deal with another similar occurrence.

Motives for the Attacks

Osama bin Laden was fingered as a likely instigator/planner of the plot as early as 09:55, and indeed was known to have been "determined to strike US" many months earlier; CIA director George Tenet states that "al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan are essentially one and the same". (The connection between Osama and al Qaeda, though widely accepted, should also be documented...)

It seems likely that the planners of 9/11 hoped to provoke the United States into an intense, unplanned, unconsidered response, which would result in additional chaos and make the US look like a global bully, which would in turn increase global resentment against the US and increase the ranks of Islamic extremism. In that the US went into Iraq without a post-invasion plan, against global consensus, and are now watching the supposedly "accomplished mission" of Iraq slowly devlolve into civil war, those terrorist planners would seem to have succeeded admirably. --Woozle 19:15, 15 September 2006 (EDT)

The Bush Administration's Position

Links

Reference

Filed Links

Related


To Be Filed

Feature Articles

Speeches

Other

Topic-specific

  • 2007-12-04 Happy 2001 by Jerry Mazza: "And then my mind cut to 9/11/2001, the apocalypse, everyone in shock unless you were a dancing Israeli on top of a white van in Liberty Square Park facing the Hudson and the exploding towers. We heard first that they were Middle-Eastern men, Palestinians, dancing on the van, jumping for joy, and I hated the bastards immediately. But that was a lie." Links to various news stories indicating that there may have been two separate white vans, each with dancing Israelis. (is this a reprint of a WSJ online article? W..) More evidence of 9/11 foreknowledge?

News & Views

Miscellany