The September 11 Attacks

Ø 1) What does the title of the text imply?

The September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the buildings. Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanks Ville in rural Pennsylvania after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane. There were no survivors from any of the flights.

2,973 victims and the 19 hijackers died as a result of the attacks. The overwhelming majority of casualties were civilians. In addition, the death of at least one person from lung disease was ruled by a medical examiner to be a result of exposure to dust from the World Trade Center’s collapse.

Al-Qaeda initially planned to fly hijacked jets into nuclear installations rather than the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but it was decided not to attack nuclear power plants “for the moment” because of fears it could “get out of control.”

The New York Police Department (NYPD) sent Emergency Service Units and other police personnel, along with deploying its aviation unit. Once on the scene, the rescue teams did not coordinate efforts, and ended up performing redundant searches for civilians. A total of 411 emergency workers who responded to the scene died as they attempted to rescue people and fight fires.

As conditions deteriorated, the NYPD aviation unit relayed information to police commanders, who issued orders for its personnel to evacuate the towers. With separate command posts set up and incompatible radio communications between the agencies, warnings were not passed along to FDNY commanders.

After the first tower collapsed, FDNY commanders did issue evacuation warnings, however, due to technical difficulties with malfunctioning radio repeater systems, many firefighters never heard the evacuation orders. 9-1-1 dispatchers also received information from callers that was not passed along to commanders on the scene. After months of around-the-clock operations, the World Trade Center site was cleared by the end of May 2002.

Within hours of the attacks, the FBI was able to determine the names and in many cases the personal details of the suspected pilots and hijackers. Mohamed Attar, the ringleader of the 19 hijackers and one of the pilots, died in the attack along with the other hijackers, but his luggage, which did not make the connection from his Portland flight onto Flight 11, contained papers that revealed the identity of all 19 hijackers (all men), and other important clues about their plans, motives, and backgrounds. On the day of the attacks, the National Security Agency intercepted communications that pointed to Osama bin Laden, as did German intelligence agencies. The hijackers were well-educated, mature adults, whose belief systems were fully formed.

The FBI investigation into the attacks, code named operation PENTTBOM, was the largest and most complex investigation in the history of the FBI, involving over 7,000 special agents. The United States government determined that al-Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden, bore responsibility for the attacks, with the FBI stating “evidence linking al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the attacks of September 11 is clear and irrefutable.”

The 9/11 attacks had immediate and overwhelming effects upon the American people. Many police officers and rescue workers elsewhere in the country took leaves of absence to travel to New York City to assist in the process of recovering bodies from the twisted remnants of the Twin Towers.

For the first time in history, all non-emergency civilian aircraft in the United States and several other countries including Canada had to be immediately grounded, stranding tens of thousands of passengers across the world. Any international flights were closed to American airspace by the Federal Aviation Administration.

The NATO council declared that the attacks on the United States were considered an attack on all NATO nations. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the Bush administration announced a war on terrorism, with the stated goals of bringing Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda to justice and preventing the emergence of other terrorist networks. These goals would be accomplished by means including economic and military sanctions against states perceived as harboring terrorists and increasing global surveillance and intelligence sharing.

Many relief funds were immediately set up to assist victims of the attacks, with the task of providing financial assistance to the survivors of the attacks and to the families of victims. By the deadline for victim’s compensation, September 11, 2003, 2,833 applications had been received from the families of those who were killed.

Numerous countries, including Canada, China, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Germany, India and Pakistan introduced anti-terrorism legislation and froze the bank accounts of businesses and individuals they suspected of having al-Qaeda ties. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies in a number of countries, including Italy, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines arrested people they labeled terrorist suspects for the stated purpose of breaking up militant cells around the world.

Repairing and replacing damaged infrastructure took billions of dollars. North American air space was closed for several days creating financial problems in the struggling U.S. airline industry. The thousands of tons of toxic debris led to debilitating illnesses among rescue and recovery workers, and some residents, students, and office workers of Lower Manhattan and nearby Chinatown.

In the days immediately following the attacks, many memorials and vigils were held around the world. In addition, pictures were placed all over Ground Zero.

The Pentagon Memorial was completed and opened to the public on the seventh anniversary of the attacks, September 11, 2008. It consists of a landscaped park with 184 benches facing the Pentagon. When the Pentagon was repaired in 2001–2002, a private chapel and indoor memorial were included, located at the spot where Flight 77 crashed into the building.

Ø 2) Which of the following sentences may be included into this text?

a) The hijackers redirected the plane toward Washington, D.C.

b) Nuclear installations are thoroughly secured in the USA.

c) Among victims there were nationals of over 90 countries.

d) Most NYPD officers were able to safely evacuate before the buildings collapsed.

e) Within hours of the attack, a substantial search and rescue operation was launched.

f) The abbreviation “the FBI” stands for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

g) Blood donations across the U.S. saw a surge in the weeks after 9/11.

h) The attacks had a significant economic impact on the United States and world markets.

i) Assassination can also e regarded as an act of terrorism.

Ø 3) Make up an outline of the text in writing.

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