9-11

Overview

The multi-target terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001 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.

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.

There have recently (mid-2007) been suggestions that we need another 9/11 to unify the United States politically.

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)

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 "...six days after the attacks ..., President Bush signed a 2½-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."

Links

Reference

• Wikipedia:
  • September 11, 2001 attacks
  • wikipedia:9/11 conspiracy theories
  • September 11, 2001 attacks timeline for the day of the attacks
  • Communication during the September 11, 2001 attacks
  • Organizers of the September 11, 2001 attacks
  • Responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks
  • 9/11 Commission Report
• Complete 911 Timeline: starts decades before the attack itself; very detailed, with sources (although some links are dead)

Feature Articles

• 2001-09-12 The Nation Reels
• 2001-09-14 Timeline of Disaster: may not reflect the most accurate understanding of what happened, but is historically useful as it shows much of what was known or believed a mere 3 days after the attacks. Note, for example, the quote claiming that the terrorists were good pilots.
• 2001-09-?? Some Notes About Calamity... and Opportunity by David Brin: an early analysis of the causes of 9/11, along with a catalog of suggestions (and one or two prescient warnings) for possible responses
• 9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes By Michael Bronner, Vanity Fair

Speeches

• 2002-04-19 Robert S. Mueller, III, Director, FBI discusses the events of 9/11

Other

• 2001-09-12 and 2001-09-20: Gray Watson Personal Thoughts 2001.09.12 The New Day of Infamy, with more thoughts added a week later and a collection of links

Related Articles

• Pre-9/11 warnings
• The Path to 9/11: a movie dramatizing the events leading up to the attacks
• 9/11 anomalies: anomalies in the official story, and (conspiracy) theories surrounding those anomalies
  • 9/11 anomaly denial argues against the idea that there is anything significant remaining to investigate, largely by attacking the most far-out conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11
• 9/11 videos: the New York attacks may have the most eyewitness video footage of any event in history
• 9/11 Commission
  • 9/11 Commission Report
  • Philip Zelikow

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

• 2006-09-07 White House Targets Conspiracy Theorists As Terrorist Recruiters: specifically mentions 9/11 conspiracy theorists, and implies that the 9/11 truth movement is itself a conspiracy to support terrorism

News

• 2007-04-17 France knew of and told CIA about al-Qaeda hijack plans prior to 9/11
• 2007-03-15 Transcript of 9/11 confession by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed released
• 2001-09-16 The Vice President appears on Meet the Press with Tim Russert: Dick Cheney's first press conference since July 16. ("MR. RUSSERT: Do we have any evidence linking Saddam Hussein or Iraqis to this operation? VICE PRES. CHENEY: No." Of course, this was early on...) The conversation gets into a lot of important details, about the attacks, the response, and the likely effects.
• 2001-09-12:
  • Remarks by the President In Photo Opportunity with the National Security Team The Cabinet Room
  • Presidential Determination #2001-26, Continuation of the Exercise of Certain Authorities Under the Trading With the Enemy Act
• 2001-09-11:
  • 09:30: Remarks by the President After Two Planes Crash Into World Trade Center, Emma Booker Elementary School, Sarasota, Florida
  • ??:??: Remarks by the President Upon Arrival at Barksdale Air Force Base Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana (time unknown; takes place after the Elementary School remarks, according to WH timeline)
  • 13:47: Press Briefing to the Pool By Ari Fleischer Aboard Air Force One
  • 17:30: Press Briefing to the Pool By Ari Fleischer Aboard Air Force One En Route Andrews Air Force Base
  • 19:15: Press Briefing by Attorney General, Secretary of HHS, Secretary of Transportation, and FEMA Director: Press Briefing by Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of HHS Tommy Thompson, Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta, and FEMA Director Joseph Allbaugh, The Briefing Room
  • 20:30: Statement by the President in His Address to the Nation
  • ??:??: Statement by the Press Secretary (time unknown)
  • ??:??: Press Briefing by Karen Hughes, Counselor to the President National FBI Headquarters (time unknown): summarizes where all the top officials are

Miscellany

• 9/11 DETAILS THE AMERICAN MEDIA HOPES YOU FORGET: a collection of news stories mostly involving supposed Israeli connections to 9/11