20 Years Of 9/11

 

9-11 When The World Changed

It's been 20 years since hijacked passenger planes were flown into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon just outside Washington DC. This incident killed 3,000 people in World Trade Center.

A whisper in the president's ear set in motion actions that changed the US and the world. After 3 days of the attacks, President George Bush stood atop the rubble of lower Manhattan and assured vengeance.

 

One Whisper That Changed History

It began as a clear sunny Tuesday morning. Along east coast of USA, on September 11 2001, American airlines flight 11 takes off from Boston followed by United Airlines flight 175. A short while later American airlines flight 77 departs from Washington's Dulles airport and United Airlines flight 93 from New Jersey. At 8:46 am, flight 11 crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York.

More than a 1,000 first responders head to the scene. Few minutes later, flight 175 crashes into the south tower. Then American airlines flight 77 hits the Pentagon. All flights were grounded across the United States but one more plane was still in the air. United 93 was headed for Washington DC, possibly the White House, capital building, or other targets. The passengers and crew on United 93 overpower the hijackers and the plane crashes into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

After burning for 56 minutes, the south tower of the WTC collapses and at 10:28 am, the north tower of WTC also collapses. About 3,000 people were murdered including citizens from more than 90 countries.

Collapsing Towers Of WTC

Blame immediately fell on Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda, organization based in Afghanistan, which had already carried out several deadly attacks on US targets abroad. In less than a month after the 9-11 attacks, the America began military action in Afghanistan. Osama Bin Laden fled but was traced down in Pakistan nearly a decade later. Osama bin Laden was killed in an operation conducted by Seal Team 6 of US Marines. But even with Bin Laden dead, the war in Afghanistan dragged on for another 10 years ending in a Taliban victory.

Osama Bin Laden - Leader Of Al-Qaida

The September 11 attacks were a profound shock with images playing out on TV. In the repercussion, lawmakers rushed to renovation of national security laws with little or no argument. The new enhanced security state came at the airport which includes the magnetometer, metal detector, x-ray machines. You had to start having your ID scrutinized, then taking off your shoes, limitations on liquids and in 2010, the full body scanners were also introduced. Things that few Americans would have contemplated before now were widely accepted.

“The government initially was intercepting virtually all of the metadata on all of our e-mails and telephone conversations without any warrants. this was just dragnet surveillance”, Bruce Fein, Constitutional Lawyer.

Bruce Fein - Constitutional Lawyer

The invasion of Iraq in 2003, overthrew Saddam Hussein who was later captured and executed but it produced no weapons of mass destruction. 200,000 Iraqis and more than 4,000 US troops were killed. The naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba became a prison where so-called enemy combatants were held indefinitely. Some remain there till present day.

Saddam Hussain - Ex-President Of Iraq

A color-coded system of threats was introduced keeping citizens on edge. “That was the goal frightening the American people you know inflate the risk factor a million fold and then people say Oh! well we have to accept this because otherwise there will be bodies on the sidewalks and on the streets and everywhere else”, Bruce Fein, Constitutional Lawyer.

The abuse of detainees by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, appalled many in the US and around the globe, but, unfortunately, at the same time in America, adoration of the military grew.

Abu Ghraib Prison

4 Presidents and 2 wars later, the US is a far different country from the one that existed 20 years ago.