9/11
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September 11, 2001 was the day the World Trade Center in New York and part of the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. were destroyed in what was the worst terrorist attack in US history. The death toll has been estimated at over 3,000 people. Due to the peculiar and secretive actions of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney,[1] as well as the subsequent blaming of 9/11 on the government of Iraq, 9/11 has become a magnet for conspiracy theorists.
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[edit] What Really Happened
The story as pieced together by government and civilian authorities was that 9/11 was a followup to the failed Bojinka plot, created by the Islamist terrorist organization al-Qaeda under the auspices of founder Osama Bin Laden. On the morning of September 11, 19 men, mostly from Saudi Arabia, hijacked four planes out of Boston, New York City, and Washington, DC, and without giving away their intentions redirected the planes on kamikaze missions towards four American landmarks on the East Coast -- the Twin Towers of the WTC in New York, the Pentagon, and an unknown fourth location theorized by some to have been the White House or the Capitol building (the last plane was brought down, probably through passenger interference, in an open field outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania). The attacks resulted in the complete collapse of the World Trade Center twin towers in New York City (now known as Ground Zero) and heavy damage to one side of the Pentagon[2], and the deaths of over 3000 people, some 400 of whom were police, fire fighters (with 3/4 of the responder casualties) and EMS workers in and around New York City alone.
Later analysis showed that the World Trade Center towers, constructed as a stack of floors anchored between the building's facade and a central steel girder cage, had much of their steel structure weakened (not melted) by large amounts of burning jet fuel, a lot of which had been atomized on impact; a third tower on the site, WTC 7, was badly damaged by falling debris from the tower collapses and was on fire[3], and collapsed several hours later of its own accord. The Pentagon, where the impact site was in an area of the building that had been recently renovated and not fully reoccupied, had heavy but highly compartmentalized damage and light casualties.
The cleanup took many months, complicated by the jet fuel fire under the WTC debris and the need to recover the bodies of the dead.
[edit] Conspiracy!
See the main article about this subject, 9/11 conspiracy theories.
In the wake of 9/11, much criticism surrounded the actions of President Bush, who, after being informed of the attack, had returned to reading a children's book to a classroom in a Florida elementary school before boarding Air Force One for a complex and poorly-explained series of flights to random locations, and Vice President Cheney, who was evacuated to an "undisclosed location" (which quickly became a cliche of political comedy). Such criticism eventually gave rise to conspiracy theories, especially after Bush announced plans to invade Afghanistan (thought at the time to be harboring Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda's leadership) and later Iraq (which had no involvement at all in 9/11). This group of conspiracies, known collectively as the 9/11 Truth movement, makes varying assertions, most of which lay the culpability on Bush as either a plotter or enabler of the attack, and some of which implicitly or explicitly claim Jewish involvement in the attack.
[edit] External links
- See the Wikipedia article on the September 11, 2001 attacks.
- See the Wikipedia article on the Bojinka plot.
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ These actions were likely part of a Cold War-era continuity of government programs, but the Bush administration's lack of candor, and continuing obsession with secrecy, was a significant early blow to their credibility.
- ↑ The remainder of the Pentagon held up quite well, because at the time it was constructed it was intended for use as a library, which requires a sturdier structure than an office building.
- ↑ WTC 7 contained several large tanks of diesel fuel stockpiled by New York City's emergency management agency, and the main towers were still on fire at the time of their collapses.
