Introduction: September 11, 2001, and Anti-American Terrorism
In 1993 the World Trade Center in New York City, a symbol of American financial wealth and power, was the target of international terrorists, who detonated a bomb in the underground parking garage, killing six people and injuring a thousand. On September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center once again became the target of a Muslim extremist terrorist group, along with other symbolic American targets such as the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. During the attacks, nineteen Middle Eastern men, fifteen of whom were Saudi Arabian and all of whom were members of al Qaeda, hijacked and then crashed four commercial jetliners.
FIGURE 6.4
Five of the terrorists hijacked American Airlines Flight 11, departing Boston, Massachusetts, for Los Angeles, California, at 7:45 A.M. At 8:45 A.M., they intentionally piloted the aircraft into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. (See Figure 6.4.) Another five terrorists hijacked United Airlines Flight 175, which departed Boston for Los Angeles at 7:58 A.M. At 9:05 A.M. they flew the plane into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. (See Figure 6.5.) The crashed planes, carrying tons of jet fuel in their full tanks for the long journey across the country, ignited upon impact, causing a fire with four-thousand-degree temperatures that melted the internal structure of the 104-story World Trade Center office towers. Both towers eventually completely collapsed, destroying other buildings and property as they fell. More than 255 firefighters and seventy police officers died inside the towers as they tried to rescue the thousands of office workers and facility personnel trapped inside.
When the official cleanup and recovery efforts in New York City ended with a final ceremony on May 30,
FIGURE 6.5
2002, the New York City Office of Emergency Management gave final totals for the destruction caused by the attacks. Of the 2,823 people killed in New York, 1,102 victims had been identified. An estimated 3.1 million hours of labor were spent on cleanup, and more than 1.8 million tons of debris had been removed in 108,342 truckloads. The leveling of the World Trade Center towers also caused property damage in the billions of dollars. Tens of thousands of people had to be evacuated from their homes in Manhattan. Air pollution initially increased, and authorities suspected there might be lasting health effects from the shattered debris, air pollution, and rubble.
Terrorists using knives and box cutters also hijacked American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 commercial airliner with sixty-four persons aboard. The plane had departed at 8:10 A.M. from Dulles International Airport, in suburban Herndon, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C. At 9:39 A.M., the terrorists directed the plane into the west side of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The left side of the building was destroyed. The number of those killed included sixty-four passengers and crew members aboard the plane and 125 military and civilian personnel on the ground. Another eighty were injured. (See Figure 6.6.)
FIGURE 6.6
Terrorists hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, also a Boeing 757, carrying forty-four passengers and crew from Newark International Airport in New Jersey to San Francisco International Airport in California. The hijackers took over the plane's controls and headed the aircraft toward Washington, D.C. It is believed the intended goal of the plane was the White House. But the passengers, having heard about the World Trade Center attacks during their flight, attempted to retake control of the plane and stormed the cockpit. The plane crashed in the countryside near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all aboard. (See Figure 6.7.)
The September 11 attacks were the most destructive acts of war or terrorist violence against Americans on U.S. soil since the Japanese attack on the naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 1941. The total estimated death toll from the September 11 attacks was nearly three thousand people, including citizens of seventy-eight countries.
The U.S. Justice Department quickly determined that the attacks were conducted by al Qaeda, under the leadership of Osama bin Laden. From 1998 to 2001 al Qaeda was suspected of being responsible for the majority of U.S. deaths from international terrorism. The attacks of September 11, 2001, followed the al Qaeda–attributed
FIGURE 6.7
bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen, on October 12, 2000, which killed seventeen U.S. sailors and injured thirty-nine others. The U.S. government also found al Qaeda responsible for the August 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, in which twelve U.S. citizens were killed.
There are also other bombings that may not have been the work of al Qaeda but of related Muslim extremist terrorists. These would include the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. In addition, in June 1996 the Khobar Towers military barracks near Dahran, Saudi Arabia, were bombed, and in 1994 a U.S. military assistance headquarters in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, was bombed.
These acts, occurring roughly over the decade 1992–2002, represent a resurgence of anti-American terrorism by Middle Eastern extremists. The first round of such attacks in the 1980s killed hundreds of U.S. military and diplomatic personnel. In 1983 an Arab terrorist organization bombed the American embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, beginning a sustained period of violence from Middle Eastern terrorist organizations against U.S. targets overseas—mainly embassies, barracks, and other facilities.
Attacks against diplomatic, military, and government personnel or facilities are significant because they are symbols of U.S. strength. They are usually better protected than most businesses but make more attractive targets. Military targets, in terms of U.S. troops, are found worldwide, with 257,692 U.S. military personnel stationed abroad as of March 31, 2004. (See Table 6.1.) More than 116,000 were stationed in Europe, and 98,000 were stationed in East Asia and the Pacific. About 211,000 troops were stationed in Iraq.
Al Qaeda—Understanding the Phenomenon
Many Americans were not familiar with the name Osama bin Laden and the group al Qaeda prior to September 11, 2001, but the rise of this enigmatic terrorist leader and his organization can be traced back to the early 1980s. Many Muslim leaders around the world were outraged by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 and rallied to declare a jihad ("holy war") against the invading superpower, which had an official platform of atheism. Many individuals, mainly Arabic, heeded the call and arrived in Afghanistan to fight as defenders of Islam. They came to be known as the "mujahideen," holy warriors who strove to protect their religion at all costs. One of these holy warriors was Osama bin Laden.
Bin Laden came from a wealthy Yemeni family in Saudi Arabia. Driven by the religious obligation he felt, he arrived in Afghanistan to defend his faith. Many scholars claim that bin Laden was more of a financier for the mujahideen than an actual fighter on the frontlines. Still, it was in Afghanistan that bin Laden met prominent militants, such as Muhammed Atef and Ayman al-Zawahiri, who would later become a vital part of the al Qaeda network.
After the Soviets left Afghanistan, bin Laden called for a worldwide jihad. He preached radical views of Islam and endorsed violent tactics, which led the Saudi government to strip him of his citizenship. He then moved to Sudan, where he set up a network of organizations and businesses to raise money for his cause. After being pressured by the United States, the Sudanese government asked bin Laden to leave. He relocated to war-torn Afghanistan, established a special relationship with the ruling Taliban authorities, and eventually was considered above the law in the country. Bin Laden set up various military camps to train young men from around the world in such skills as assassination and espionage.
The name al Qaeda ("the base") is not a term used by bin Laden himself. Western experts coined the phrase in order to label the unique loose-knit structure of the organization. There is not one cohesive group known as al Qaeda. Instead, it is primarily a network of various individuals, cells, and other organizations that come together for a main common cause, the defense of Islam. They receive military training and financial support from top al Qaeda leaders such as bin Laden.
Although the defense of Islam can be interpreted very broadly, bin Laden holds specific grievances against the United States. He specifically cites the U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia, U.S.-led sanctions against Iraq, U.S. support for Israel, and other historical U.S. "terrorist" acts, such as the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan during World War II. Bin Laden calls for the creation of an Islamic nation, something along the lines of the Ottoman Empire. (The Ottoman Empire was a powerful Islamic kingdom that spread across Europe and parts of the Middle East from the early fourteenth century to the end of World War I.)
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. military attacked Afghanistan, the one central location that could be associated with al Qaeda. The group's training camps were captured and destroyed. After that, the organization became even more decentralized. Although bin Laden eluded capture as of 2004, he remains a high-priority target for counterterrorism agencies everywhere and continues to boost the morale of his followers through video- and audiotaped recordings he has secretly delivered to news agencies. The destruction of the al Qaeda network has become a top priority for the United States in its efforts to combat terrorism.
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