Rescue efforts
The New York City Fire Department
deployed 200 units (half of the department) to the World Trade
Center. Their efforts were supplemented by numerous off-duty
firefighters and emergency medical technicians. The New York City
Police Department sent Emergency Service Units and other police
personnel and deployed its aviation unit. Once on the scene, the
FDNY, the NYPD, and the PAPD did not coordinate efforts and performed
redundant searches for civilians. As conditions deteriorated, the
NYPD aviation unit relayed information to police commanders, who
issued orders for its personnel to evacuate the towers; most NYPD
officers were able to safely evacuate before the buildings collapsed.
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 issued evacuation warnings. 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. Within hours of the attack, a substantial search and
rescue operation was launched. After months of around-the-clock
operations, the World Trade Center site was cleared by the end of May
2002.
Aftermath
The aftermath of the 9/11 attack
resulted in immediate responses to the event, including domestic
reactions, hate crimes, Muslim American responses to the event,
international responses to the attack, and military responses to the
events. An extensive compensation program was quickly established by
Congress in the aftermath to compensate the victims and families of
victims of the 9/11 attack as well.
Immediate response
At 8:32 a.m., FAA officials were
notified Flight 11 had been hijacked and they, in turn, notified the
North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). NORAD scrambled two
F-15s from Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts and they
were airborne by 8:53. Because of slow and confused communication
from FAA officials, NORAD had nine minutes' notice, and no notice
about any of the other flights before they crashed. After both of the
Twin Towers had already been hit, more fighters were scrambled from
Langley Air Force Base in Virginia at 9:30. At 10:20, Vice President
Dick Cheney issued orders to shoot down any commercial aircraft that
could be positively identified as being hijacked. These instructions
were not relayed in time for the fighters to take action. Some
fighters took to the air without live ammunition, knowing that to
prevent the hijackers from striking their intended targets, the
pilots might have to intercept and crash their fighters into the
hijacked planes, possibly ejecting at the last moment.
For the first time in U.S. history, the
emergency preparedness plan called Security Control of Air Traffic
and Air Navigation Aids (SCATANA) was invoked, thus stranding tens of
thousands of passengers across the world. Ben Sliney, in his first
day as the National Operations Manager of the FAA, ordered that
American airspace would be closed to all international flights,
causing about five hundred flights to be turned back or redirected to
other countries. Canada received 226 of the diverted flights and
launched Operation Yellow Ribbon to deal with the large numbers of
grounded planes and stranded passengers.
The 9/11 attacks had immediate effects
on the American people. Police and rescue workers from around the
country took a leave of absence from their jobs and traveled to New
York City to help recover bodies from the twisted remnants of the
Twin Towers. Blood donations across the U.S. surged in the weeks
after 9/11.
The deaths of adults in the attacks
resulted in over 3,000 children losing a parent. Subsequent studies
documented children's reactions to these actual losses and to feared
losses of life, the protective environment in the aftermath of the
attacks, and effects on surviving caregivers.
Domestic reactions
Following the attacks, President George
W. Bush's approval rating soared to 90%. On September 20, 2001, he
addressed the nation and a joint session of the United States
Congress regarding the events of September 11 and the subsequent nine
days of rescue and recovery efforts, and described his intended
response to the attacks. New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani's highly
visible role won him high praise in New York and nationally.
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 on
September 11, 2003, 2,833 applications had been received from the
families of those who were killed.
Contingency plans for the continuity of
government and the evacuation of leaders were implemented soon after
the attacks. Congress was not told that the United States had been
under a continuity of government status until February 2002.
In the largest restructuring of the
U.S. government in contemporary history, the United States enacted
the Homeland Security Act of 2002, creating the Department of
Homeland Security. Congress also passed the USA PATRIOT Act, saying
it would help detect and prosecute terrorism and other crimes. Civil
liberties groups have criticized the PATRIOT Act, saying it allows
law enforcement to invade the privacy of citizens and that it
eliminates judicial oversight of law enforcement and domestic
intelligence. In an effort to effectively combat future acts of
terrorism, the National Security Agency (NSA) was given broad powers.
NSA commenced warrantless surveillance of telecommunications, which
was sometimes criticized since it permitted the agency "to
eavesdrop on telephone and e-mail communications between the United
States and people overseas without a warrant". In response
to requests by various intelligence agencies, the United States
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court permitted an expansion of
powers by the U.S. government in seeking, obtaining, and sharing
information on U.S. citizens as well as non-U.S. people from around
the world.
Hate crimes
Shortly after the attacks, President
Bush made a public appearance at Washington, D.C.'s largest Islamic
Center and acknowledged the "incredibly valuable
contribution" that millions of American Muslims made to
their country and called for them "to be treated with
respect". Numerous incidents of harassment and hate crimes
against Muslims and South Asians were reported in the days following
the attacks. Sikhs were also targeted because Sikh males usually wear
turbans, which are stereotypically associated with Muslims. There
were reports of attacks on mosques and other religious buildings
(including the firebombing of a Hindu temple), and assaults on
people, including one murder: Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh mistaken for
a Muslim, was fatally shot on September 15, 2001, in Mesa, Arizona.
Two dozen members of Osama bin Laden's family were urgently evacuated
out of the country on a private charter plane under FBI supervision
three days after the attacks.
According to an academic study, people
perceived to be Middle Eastern were as likely to be victims of hate
crimes as followers of Islam during this time. The study also found a
similar increase in hate crimes against people who may have been
perceived as Muslims, Arabs, and others thought to be of Middle
Eastern origin. A report by the South Asian American advocacy group
known as South Asian Americans Leading Together documented media
coverage of 645 bias incidents against Americans of South Asian or
Middle Eastern descent between September 11 and 17. Various crimes
such as vandalism, arson, assault, shootings, harassment, and threats
in numerous places were documented. Women wearing hijab were also
targeted.
Discrimination and racial profiling
A poll of Arab-Americans, conducted in
May 2002, found that that 20 percent had personally experienced
discrimination since September 11. A July 2002 poll of Muslim
Americans found that 48 percent believed their lives had changed for
the worse since September 11, and 57 percent had experienced an act
of bias or discrimination.
By May 2002, there were 488 complaints
of employment discrimination reported to the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC). 301 of those were complaints from
people fired from their jobs. Similarly, by June 2002, the U.S.
Department of Transportation (DOT) had investigated 111 September
11th related complaints from airline passengers purporting that their
religious or ethnic appearance caused them to be singled out at
security screenings. DOT investigated an additional 31 complaints
from people who alleged they were completely blocked from boarding
airplanes on the same grounds.
Muslim American response
Muslim organizations in the United
States were swift to condemn the attacks and called "upon
Muslim Americans to come forward with their skills and resources to
help alleviate the sufferings of the affected people and their
families". These organizations included the Islamic Society
of North America, American Muslim Alliance, American Muslim Council,
Council on American-Islamic Relations, Islamic Circle of North
America, and the Shari'a Scholars Association of North America. Along
with monetary donations, many Islamic organizations launched blood
drives and provided medical assistance, food, and shelter for
victims.
Interfaith Efforts
Curiosity about Islam increased after
the attacks. As a result, many mosques and Islamic centers began
holding open houses and participating in outreach efforts to educate
non-Muslims about the faith. In the first 10 years after the attacks,
interfaith community service increased from 8 to 20 percent. and the
percentage of US congregations involved in interfaith worship doubled
from 7 to 14 percent.
International reactions
The attacks were denounced by mass
media and governments worldwide. Across the globe, nations offered
pro-American support and solidarity. Leaders in most Middle Eastern
countries, and Afghanistan, condemned the attacks. Iraq was a notable
exception, with an immediate official statement that, "the
American cowboys are reaping the fruit of their crimes against
humanity". The government of Saudi Arabia officially
condemned the attacks, but privately many Saudis favored bin Laden's
cause. Although Palestinian Authority (PA) president Yasser Arafat
also condemned the attacks, there were reports of celebrations of
disputed size in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.
Footage by CNN and other news outlets were suggested by a report
originating at a Brazilian university to be from 1991; this was later
proven to be a false accusation, resulting in a statement being
issued by CNN. As in the United States, the aftermath of the attacks
saw tensions increase in other countries between Muslims and
non-Muslims.
United Nations Security Council
Resolution 1368 condemned the attacks, and expressed readiness to
take all necessary steps to respond and combat all forms of terrorism
in accordance with their Charter. Numerous countries introduced
anti-terrorism legislation and froze bank accounts they suspected of
al-Qaeda ties. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies in a number
of countries arrested alleged terrorists.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said
Britain stood "shoulder to shoulder" with the United
States. A few days later, Blair flew to Washington, D.C. to affirm
British solidarity with the United States. In a speech to Congress,
nine days after the attacks, which Blair attended as a guest,
President Bush declared "America has no truer friend than
Great Britain." Subsequently, Prime Minister Blair embarked
on two months of diplomacy to rally international support for
military action; he held 54 meetings with world leaders and traveled
more than 40,000 miles (60,000 km).
In the aftermath of the attacks, tens
of thousands of people attempted to flee Afghanistan due to the
possibility of a military retaliation by the United States. Pakistan,
already home to many Afghan refugees from previous conflicts, closed
its border with Afghanistan on September 17, 2001. Approximately one
month after the attacks, the United States led a broad coalition of
international forces to overthrow the Taliban regime from Afghanistan
for their harboring of al-Qaeda. Though Pakistani authorities were
initially reluctant to align themselves with the United States
against the Taliban, they permitted the coalition access to their
military bases, and arrested and handed over to the U.S. over 600
suspected al-Qaeda members.
The U.S. set up the Guantanamo Bay
detention camp to hold inmates they defined as "illegal enemy
combatants". The legitimacy of these detentions has been
questioned by the European Union and human rights organizations.
On September 25, 2001, Iran's fifth
president, Mohammad Khatami, meeting British Foreign Secretary Jack
Straw, said: "Iran fully understands the feelings of the
Americans about the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on
September 11." He said although the American administrations
had been at best indifferent about terrorist operations in Iran
(since 1979), the Iranians felt differently and had expressed their
sympathetic feelings with bereaved Americans in the tragic incidents
in the two cities. He also stated that "Nations should not be
punished in place of terrorists." According to Radio
Farda's website, when the news of the attacks was released, some
Iranian citizens gathered in front of the Embassy of Switzerland in
Tehran, which serves as the protecting power of the United States in
Iran (U.S. interests-protecting office in Iran), to express their
sympathy, and some of them lit candles as a symbol of mourning. This
piece of news at Radio Farda's website also states that in 2011, on
the anniversary of the attacks, the United States Department of State
published a post at its blog, in which the Department thanked Iranian
people for their sympathy and stated that it would never forget
Iranian people's kindness on those harsh days.[255] After the
attacks, both the President and the Supreme Leader of Iran, condemned
the attacks. The BBC and Time magazine published reports on holding
candlelit vigils for the victims by Iranian citizens at their
websites. According to Politico Magazine, following the attacks,
Sayyed Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, "suspended
the usual 'Death to America' chants at Friday prayers"
temporarily.
In a speech by the Nizari Ismaili Imam
at the Nobel Institute in 2005, Aga Khan IV stated that the "9/11
attack on the United States was a direct consequence of the
international community ignoring the human tragedy that was
Afghanistan at that time".
In September 2001, shortly after the
attacks, Greek soccer fans burned an Israeli flag and unsuccessfully
tried to burn an American flag. Though the American flag did not
catch fire, the fans booed during a moment of silence for victims of
the attacks.
Military operations
At 2:40 p.m. on September 11, Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was issuing rapid orders to his aides to
look for evidence of Iraqi involvement. According to notes taken by
senior policy official Stephen Cambone, Rumsfeld asked for, "Best
info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H. [Saddam Hussein] at
same time. Not only UBL" [Osama bin Laden]. Cambone's notes
quoted Rumsfeld as saying, "Need to move swiftly – Near
term target needs – go massive – sweep it all up. Things related
and not." In a meeting at Camp David on September 15 the
Bush administration rejected the idea of attacking Iraq in response
to 9/11. Nonetheless, they later invaded the country with allies,
citing "Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism". At
the time, as many as seven in ten Americans believed the Iraqi
president played a role in the 9/11 attacks. Three years later, Bush
conceded that he had not.
U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan
The NATO council declared that the
terrorist attacks on the United States were an attack on all NATO
nations that satisfied Article 5 of the NATO charter. This marked the
first invocation of Article 5, which had been written during the Cold
War with an attack by the Soviet Union in mind. Australian Prime
Minister John Howard who was in Washington, D.C. during the attacks
invoked Article IV of the ANZUS treaty. The Bush administration
announced a War on Terror, with the stated goals of bringing bin
Laden and al-Qaeda to justice and preventing the emergence of other
terrorist networks. These goals would be accomplished by imposing
economic and military sanctions against states harboring terrorists,
and increasing global surveillance and intelligence sharing.
On September 14, 2001, the U.S.
Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against
Terrorists. It is still in effect, and it grants the President the
authority to use all "necessary and appropriate force"
against those whom he determined "planned, authorized,
committed or aided" the September 11 attacks, or who
harbored said persons or groups.
On October 7, 2001, the War in
Afghanistan began when U.S. and British forces initiated aerial
bombing campaigns targeting Taliban and al-Qaeda camps, then later
invaded Afghanistan with ground troops of the Special Forces. This
eventually led to the overthrow of the Taliban rule of Afghanistan
with the Fall of Kandahar on December 7, 2001, by U.S.-led coalition
forces. On August 15, 2021, the Afghan capital Kabul fell to a
surprisingly effective Taliban offensive, culminating in the fall of
the Afghan government and the rise of the Taliban to power once more.
Thus ended the conflict in Afghanistan between the Taliban insurgency
and the Afghan forces backed by NATO Resolute Support Mission. On
August 30, 2021, the United States completed a hasty withdrawal of
its military from Afghanistan, shortly before marking the 20th
anniversary of the attacks. The withdrawal was heavily criticized
both domestically and abroad for being chaotic and haphazard, as well
as for giving more momentum to the Taliban offensive. However, many
European countries followed suit, including Britain, Germany, Italy,
and Poland.
The Philippines and Indonesia, among
other nations with their own internal conflicts with Islamic
terrorism, also increased their military readiness. The military
forces of the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of
Iran cooperated with each other to overthrow the Taliban regime which
had had conflicts with the government of Iran. Iran's Quds Force
helped U.S. forces and Afghan rebels in the 2001 uprising in Herat.
Effects
Health issues
Hundreds of thousands of tons of toxic
debris containing more than 2,500 contaminants, including known
carcinogens, were spread across Lower Manhattan due to the collapse
of the Twin Towers. Exposure to the toxins in the debris is alleged
to have contributed to fatal or debilitating illnesses among people
who were at Ground Zero. The Bush administration ordered the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue reassuring statements
regarding air quality in the aftermath of the attacks, citing
national security, but the EPA did not determine that air quality had
returned to pre-September 11 levels until June 2002.
Health effects extended to residents,
students, and office workers of Lower Manhattan and nearby Chinatown.
Several deaths have been linked to the toxic dust, and the victims'
names were included in the World Trade Center memorial.
Approximately 18,000 people have been estimated to have developed
illnesses as a result of the toxic dust. There is also scientific
speculation that exposure to various toxic products in the air may
have negative effects on fetal development. A notable children's
environmental health center is currently analyzing the children whose
mothers were pregnant during the WTC collapse, and were living or
working nearby. A study of rescue workers released in April 2010
found that all those studied had impaired lung functions, and that
30%–40% were reporting little or no improvement in persistent
symptoms that started within the first year of the attack.
Years after the attacks, legal disputes
over the costs of illnesses related to the attacks were still in the
court system. On October 17, 2006, a federal judge rejected New York
City's refusal to pay for health costs for rescue workers, allowing
for the possibility of numerous suits against the city. Government
officials have been faulted for urging the public to return to lower
Manhattan in the weeks shortly after the attacks. Christine Todd
Whitman, administrator of the EPA in the aftermath of the attacks,
was heavily criticized by a U.S. District Judge for incorrectly
saying that the area was environmentally safe. Mayor Giuliani was
criticized for urging financial industry personnel to return quickly
to the greater Wall Street area.
On December 22, 2010, the United States
Congress passed the James L. Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation
Act, which President Barack Obama signed into law on January 2, 2011.
It allocated $4.2 billion to create the World Trade Center Health
Program, which provides testing and treatment for people suffering
from long-term health problems related to the 9/11 attacks. The WTC
Health Program replaced preexisting 9/11-related health programs such
as the Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program and the WTC
Environmental Health Center program.
Economic
The attacks had a significant economic
impact on United States and world markets. The stock exchanges did
not open on September 11 and remained closed until September 17.
Reopening, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell 684 points,
or 7.1%, to 8921, a record-setting one-day point decline. By the end
of the week, the DJIA had fallen 1,369.7 points (14.3%), at the time
its largest one-week point drop in history. In 2001 dollars, U.S.
stocks lost $1.4 trillion in valuation for the week.
In New York City, about 430,000
job-months and $2.8 billion in wages were lost in the first three
months after the attacks. The economic effects were mainly on the
economy's export sectors. The city's GDP was estimated to have
declined by $27.3 billion for the last three months of 2001 and all
of 2002. The U.S. government provided $11.2 billion in immediate
assistance to the Government of New York City in September 2001, and
$10.5 billion in early 2002 for economic development and
infrastructure needs.
U.S. deficit and debt increases
2001–2008
Also hurt were small businesses in
Lower Manhattan near the World Trade Center, 18,000 of which were
destroyed or displaced, resulting in lost jobs and their consequent
wages. Assistance was provided by Small Business Administration
loans, federal government Community Development Block Grants, and
Economic Injury Disaster Loans. Some 31,900,000 square feet
(2,960,000 m2) of Lower Manhattan office space was damaged or
destroyed. Many wondered whether these jobs would return, and if the
damaged tax base would recover. Studies of the economic effects of
9/11 show the Manhattan office real-estate market and office
employment were less affected than first feared, because of the
financial services industry's need for face-to-face interaction.
North American air space was closed for
several days after the attacks and air travel decreased upon its
reopening, leading to a nearly 20% cutback in air travel capacity,
and exacerbating financial problems in the struggling U.S. airline
industry.
The September 11 attacks also led to
the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as additional homeland
security spending, totaling at least $5 trillion.
Cultural influence
The impact of 9/11 extends beyond
geopolitics into society and culture in general. Immediate responses
to 9/11 included greater focus on home life and time spent with
family, higher church attendance, and increased expressions of
patriotism such as the flying of flags. The radio industry responded
by removing certain songs from playlists, and the attacks have
subsequently been used as background, narrative, or thematic elements
in film, television, music, and literature. Already-running
television shows as well as programs developed after 9/11 have
reflected post-9/11 cultural concerns. 9/11 conspiracy theories have
become social phenomena, despite lack of support from expert
scientists, engineers, and historians. 9/11 has also had a major
impact on the religious faith of many individuals; for some it
strengthened, to find consolation to cope with the loss of loved ones
and overcome their grief; others started to question their faith or
lost it entirely, because they could not reconcile it with their view
of religion.
The culture of America succeeding the
attacks is noted for heightened security and an increased demand
thereof, as well as paranoia and anxiety regarding future terrorist
attacks that includes most of the nation. Psychologists have also
confirmed that there has been an increased amount of national anxiety
in commercial air travel. Anti-Muslim hate crimes rose nearly
ten-fold in 2001, and have subsequently remained "roughly
five times higher than the pre-9/11 rate."
Government policies toward terrorism
As a result of the attacks, many
governments across the world passed legislation to combat terrorism.
In Germany, where several of the 9/11 terrorists had resided and
taken advantage of that country's liberal asylum policies, two major
anti-terrorism packages were enacted. The first removed legal
loopholes that permitted terrorists to live and raise money in
Germany. The second addressed the effectiveness and communication of
intelligence and law enforcement. Canada passed the Canadian
Anti-Terrorism Act, their first anti-terrorism law. The United
Kingdom passed the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 and
the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005. New Zealand enacted the
Terrorism Suppression Act 2002.
In the United States, the Department of
Homeland Security was created by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to
coordinate domestic anti-terrorism efforts. The USA Patriot Act gave
the federal government greater powers, including the authority to
detain foreign terror suspects for a week without charge, to monitor
telephone communications, e-mail, and Internet use by terror
suspects, and to prosecute suspected terrorists without time
restrictions. The FAA ordered that airplane cockpits be reinforced to
prevent terrorists gaining control of planes, and assigned sky
marshals to flights. Further, the Aviation and Transportation
Security Act made the federal government, rather than airports,
responsible for airport security. The law created the Transportation
Security Administration to inspect passengers and luggage, causing
long delays and concern over passenger privacy. After suspected
abuses of the USA Patriot Act were brought to light in June 2013 with
articles about collection of American call records by the NSA and the
PRISM program (see Global surveillance disclosures (2013–present)),
Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin, who
introduced the Patriot Act in 2001, said that the National Security
Agency overstepped its bounds.
Investigations
FBI
Immediately after the attacks, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation started PENTTBOM, the largest
criminal inquiry in the history of the United States. At its height,
more than half of the FBI's agents worked on the investigation and
followed a half-million leads. The FBI concluded that there was
"clear and irrefutable" evidence linking al-Qaeda
and bin Laden to the attacks.
The FBI was quickly able to identify
the hijackers, including leader Mohamed Atta, when his luggage was
discovered at Boston's Logan Airport. Atta had been forced to check
two of his three bags due to space limitations on the 19-seat
commuter flight he took to Boston. Due to a new policy instituted to
prevent flight delays, the luggage failed to make it aboard American
Airlines Flight 11 as planned. The luggage contained the hijackers'
names, assignments, and al-Qaeda connections. "It had all
these Arab-language [sic] papers that amounted to the Rosetta stone
of the investigation", said one FBI agent. Within hours of
the attacks, the FBI released the names and in many cases the
personal details of the suspected pilots and hijackers. On September
27, 2001, they released photos of all 19 hijackers, along with
information about possible nationalities and aliases. Fifteen of the
men were from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one
from Egypt, and one from Lebanon.
By midday, the U.S. National Security
Agency and German intelligence agencies had intercepted
communications pointing to Osama bin Laden. Two of the hijackers
were known to have traveled with a bin Laden associate to Malaysia in
2000 and hijacker Mohammed Atta had previously gone to Afghanistan.
He and others were part of a terrorist cell in Hamburg. One of the
members of the Hamburg cell was discovered to have been in
communication with Khalid Sheik Mohammed who was identified as a
member of al-Qaeda.
Authorities in the United States and
United Kingdom also obtained electronic intercepts, including
telephone conversations and electronic bank transfers, which indicate
that Mohammed Atef, a bin Laden deputy, was a key figure in the
planning of the 9/11 attacks. Intercepts were also obtained that
revealed conversations that took place days before September 11
between bin Laden and an associate in Pakistan. In those
conversations, the two referred to "an incident that would
take place in America on, or around, September 11" and they
discussed potential repercussions. In another conversation with an
associate in Afghanistan, bin Laden discussed the "scale and
effects of a forthcoming operation."
The FBI did not record the 2,977 deaths
from the attacks in their annual violent crime index for 2001. In a
disclaimer, the FBI stated that "the number of deaths is so
great that combining it with the traditional crime statistics will
have an outlier effect that falsely skews all types of measurements
in the program's analyses." New York City also did not
include the deaths in their annual crime statistics for 2001.
CIA
In 2004, John L. Helgerson, the
Inspector General of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), conducted
an internal review of the agency's pre-9/11 performance and was
harshly critical of senior CIA officials for not doing everything
possible to confront terrorism. According to Philip Giraldi in The
American Conservative, Helgerson criticized their failure to stop two
of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, as they
entered the United States and their failure to share information on
the two men with the FBI.
In May 2007, senators from both major
U.S. political parties drafted legislation to make the review public.
One of the backers, Senator Ron Wyden said, "The American
people have a right to know what the Central Intelligence Agency was
doing in those critical months before 9/11." The report was
released in 2009 by President Barack Obama.
Congressional inquiry
In February 2002, the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence formed a joint inquiry into the performance of the U.S.
Intelligence Community. Their 832-page report released in December
2002 detailed failings of the FBI and CIA to use available
information, including about terrorists the CIA knew were in the
United States, in order to disrupt the plots. The joint inquiry
developed its information about possible involvement of Saudi Arabian
government officials from non-classified sources. Nevertheless, the
Bush administration demanded 28 related pages remain classified. In
December 2002, the inquiry's chair Bob Graham (D-FL) revealed in an
interview that there was "evidence that there were foreign
governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least some
of the terrorists in the United States." September 11
victim families were frustrated by the unanswered questions and
redacted material from the Congressional inquiry and demanded an
independent commission. September 11 victim families, members of
congress and the Saudi Arabian government are still seeking release
of the documents. In June 2016, CIA chief John Brennan said that he
believes 28 redacted pages of a congressional inquiry into 9/11 will
soon be made public, and that they will prove that the government of
Saudi Arabia had no involvement in the September 11 attacks.
In September 2016, the Congress passed
the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act that would allow
relatives of victims of the September 11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia
for its government's alleged role in the attacks.
9/11 Commission
The National Commission on Terrorist
Attacks Upon the United States (9/11 Commission), chaired by Thomas
Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, was formed in late 2002 to prepare a
thorough account of the circumstances surrounding the attacks,
including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks.
On July 22, 2004, the Commission issued the 9/11 Commission Report.
The report detailed the events of 9/11, found the attacks were
carried out by members of al-Qaeda, and examined how security and
intelligence agencies were inadequately coordinated to prevent the
attacks. Formed from an independent bipartisan group of mostly former
Senators, Representatives, and Governors, the commissioners
explained, "We believe the 9/11 attacks revealed four kinds
of failures: in imagination, policy, capabilities, and management."
The Commission made numerous recommendations on how to prevent
future attacks, and in 2011 was dismayed that several of its
recommendations had yet to be implemented.
National Institute of Standards and
Technology
The U.S. National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) investigated the collapses of the
Twin Towers and 7 WTC. The investigations examined why the buildings
collapsed and what fire protection measures were in place, and
evaluated how fire protection systems might be improved in future
construction. The investigation into the collapse of 1 WTC and 2 WTC
was concluded in October 2005 and that of 7 WTC was completed in
August 2008.
NIST found that the fireproofing on the
Twin Towers' steel infrastructures was blown off by the initial
impact of the planes and that, had this not occurred, the towers
likely would have remained standing. A 2007 study of the north
tower's collapse published by researchers of Purdue University
determined that, since the plane's impact had stripped off much of
the structure's thermal insulation, the heat from a typical office
fire would have softened and weakened the exposed girders and columns
enough to initiate the collapse regardless of the number of columns
cut or damaged by the impact.
The director of the original
investigation stated that "the towers really did amazingly
well. The terrorist aircraft didn't bring the buildings down; it was
the fire which followed. It was proven that you could take out
two-thirds of the columns in a tower and the building would still
stand." The fires weakened the trusses supporting the
floors, making the floors sag. The sagging floors pulled on the
exterior steel columns causing the exterior columns to bow inward.
With the damage to the core columns, the buckling exterior columns
could no longer support the buildings, causing them to collapse.
Additionally, the report found the towers' stairwells were not
adequately reinforced to provide adequate emergency escape for people
above the impact zones. NIST concluded that uncontrolled fires in 7
WTC caused floor beams and girders to heat and subsequently "caused
a critical support column to fail, initiating a fire-induced
progressive collapse that brought the building down".
Alleged Saudi role
In July 2016, the Obama administration
released a document, compiled by US investigators Dana Lesemann and
Michael Jacobson, known as "File 17", which contains
a list naming three dozen people, including the suspected Saudi
intelligence officers attached to Saudi Arabia's embassy in
Washington, D.C., which connects Saudi Arabia to the hijackers.
Rebuilding
On the day of the attacks, New York
City mayor Rudy Giuliani stated: "We will rebuild. We're
going to come out of this stronger than before, politically stronger,
economically stronger. The skyline will be made whole again."
The damaged section of the Pentagon was
rebuilt and occupied within a year of the attacks. The temporary
World Trade Center PATH station opened in late 2003 and construction
of the new 7 World Trade Center was completed in 2006. Work on
rebuilding the main World Trade Center site was delayed until late
2006 when leaseholder Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority of New
York and New Jersey agreed on financing. The construction of One
World Trade Center began on April 27, 2006, and reached its full
height on May 20, 2013. The spire was installed atop the building at
that date, putting 1 WTC's height at 1,776 feet (541 m) and thus
claiming the title of the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.
One WTC finished construction and opened on November 3, 2014.
On the World Trade Center site, three
more office towers were to be built one block east of where the
original towers stood. 4 WTC, meanwhile, opened in November 2013,
making it the second tower on the site to open behind 7 World Trade
Center, as well as the first building on the Port Authority property.
3 WTC opened on June 11, 2018, becoming the fourth skyscraper at the
site to be completed. On the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a
writer for Curbed New York said that although "there is a
World Trade Center again", it was not finished, as 2 and 5
WTC did not have definite completion dates, among other things.
Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey Executive Director from 2008-2011, Christopher O. Ward, is a
survivor of the attacks and is credited with getting the construction
of the 9/11 site back on track.
Memorials
In the days immediately following the
attacks, many memorials and vigils were held around the world, and
photographs of the dead and missing were posted around Ground Zero. A
witness described being unable to "get away from faces of
innocent victims who were killed. Their pictures are everywhere, on
phone booths, street lights, walls of subway stations. Everything
reminded me of a huge funeral, people quiet and sad, but also very
nice. Before, New York gave me a cold feeling; now people were
reaching out to help each other."
One of the first memorials was the
Tribute in Light, an installation of 88 searchlights at the
footprints of the World Trade Center towers. In New York City, the
World Trade Center Site Memorial Competition was held to design an
appropriate memorial on the site. The winning design, Reflecting
Absence, was selected in August 2006, and consists of a pair of
reflecting pools in the footprints of the towers, surrounded by a
list of the victims' names in an underground memorial space. The
memorial was completed on September 11, 2011; a museum also opened on
site on May 21, 2014.
The Sphere by the German sculptor Fritz
Koenig is the world's largest bronze sculpture of modern times, and
stood between the twin towers on the Austin J. Tobin Plaza of the
World Trade Center in New York City from 1971 until the terrorist
attacks on September 11, 2001. The sculpture, weighing more than 20
tons, was the only remaining work of art to be recovered largely
intact from the ruins of the collapsed twin towers after the attacks.
Since then, the work of art known in the USA as The Sphere has been
transformed into an important symbolic monument of 9/11
commemoration. After being dismantled and stored near a hangar at
John F. Kennedy International Airport, the sculpture was the subject
of the 2001 documentary Koenig's Sphere by filmmaker Percy Adlon. On
August 16, 2017, the work was reinstated, installed at the Liberty
Park close to the new World Trade Center arial and the 9/11 Memorial.
In Arlington County, the Pentagon
Memorial was completed and opened to the public on the seventh
anniversary of the attacks in 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.
In Shanksville, a concrete-and-glass
visitor center was opened on September 10, 2015, situated on a hill
overlooking the crash site and the white marble Wall of Names. An
observation platform at the visitor center and the white marble wall
are both aligned beneath the path of Flight 93. A temporary memorial
is located 500 yards (457 m) from the crash site. New York City
firefighters donated a cross made of steel from the World Trade
Center and mounted on top of a platform shaped like the Pentagon. It
was installed outside the firehouse on August 25, 2008. Many other
permanent memorials are elsewhere. Scholarships and charities have
been established by the victims' families, and by many other
organizations and private figures.
On every anniversary, in New York City,
the names of the victims who died there are read out against a
background of somber music. The President of the United States
attends a memorial service at the Pentagon, and asks Americans to
observe Patriot Day with a moment of silence. Smaller services are
held in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, which are usually attended by the
President's spouse.
