11th September 2001
A horrifying day that shook America to the core. A day that perhaps changed the world forever. Even after 20 years, the effects of this day can be seen in your daily life. You won't believe it how this day has impacted your life.
It was the morning of 11th September, American Airlines Flight 11 takes off from Boston's international airport. The destination of this flight was Los Angeles. Around 92 people were aboard this airplane. Of whom 11 were crew members and 81 were passengers. About 15 minutes after the flight took off, it comes to be known that of the 81 passengers, 5 were hijackers. These hijackers hijack the plane. By overpowering the passengers. Forcing their way into the cockpit.
One of them was Mohamed Atta, he was trained as a pilot. By nationality, he was an Egyptian and was 33 years old. He takes away the control of the plane from the pilot and co-pilot. And flies the plane straight towards the World Trade Centre.
The World Trade Center was a monumental historic building in America then. And at one point, they were the tallest building in the world. It was the pride of New York. The hijackers crashed the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre. The President of the USA George Bush, was on a tour of a school in Florida. While he was on the way, his White House Cheif of Staff was informed of this crash. He tells George Bush but Bush couldn't believe it. He says that it's unbelievable that anyone could even do that. He says that surely the pilot would've suffered a heart attack that's why the plane crashed into the building.
Only 17 minutes later it comes to be known the United Airlines Flight 175 had also been hijacked. By 5 hijackers. Once again, the hijackers overpowered the pilots and take away the control of the plane. Because only 17 minutes after the first crash, these hijackers once again turn towards the World Trade Center and crashed the plane into the South Tower.
The second crash into the second tower. By this time, US President George Bush had reached the school. And was in a classroom. With the children of 2nd grade. He was in the midst of a reading exercise named The Pet Goat. This time, his Cheif of Staff Andrew Gadd, went in the classroom, and whispered into his ears. "America is under attack." But George Bush stays in the classroom. He continued the reading exercise. And for the next 7 minutes the exercise continued. He interacted with the children. He took photos with the children and the teachers. Complimented the children.
These 7 minutes were very critical because in these 7 minutes, the news spread worldwide that two planes crashed into the World Trade Centre. Later, many people criticised George Bush for this asking why he didn't take immediate action. When it was known that 2 planes were hijacked, America was attacked, there were crashes, he remained in the classroom in those minutes, ignoring all these.
A few minutes after the second plane crash, the news of two more planes being hijacked comes in. One was the American Airlines Flight 77. It had taken off from Washington's international airport. This flight was headed to Los Angeles and it was also carrying 5 hijackers. The second flight was United Airlines Flight 93. The flight going from New Jersey to California. Apparently, it had 4 hijackers. Both flights were rerouted to Washington DC.
Friends, Washington DC is the capital of the United States of America. On the outskirts of Washington DC is the headquarters of the US Department of Defence. It is called The Pentagon. The Pentagon is an iconic building too. Hijackers turn Flight 77 towards this And Flight 77 was crashed into the Pentagon building. At this point in time, after the third crash, the entire airspace of the United States was shut down. All the airplanes in the air, were ordered to land. At their nearest airport.
The third crash into the Pentagon building took place at 9:37 am. Because of this, a significant portion of the Pentagon gets destroyed. At 9:59 am, due to the plane crash into the South Tower, the whole building had caught on fire. Because of the fire and the crash, the structure of the building had weakened. And at this time, the entire building collapsed. The South Tower fell.
During this time, everyone was scared of the 4th hijacked plane. United Airlines Flight 93, the fourth plane to have been hijacked, people were scared about where the hijackers would crash the plane?
On the other hand, the people on this airplane, some of them had turned on their phones when the plane was hijacked. They started getting phone calls from their family members. They told them about what was happening in America then. That, three planes were crashed. World Trade Centre was attacked. And that, the World Trade Centre had collapsed.
Soon the passengers in this plane had realised what was happening. Their plane was also hijacked. And like the other hijacked planes were crashed, soon their plane could also be crashed. They didn't have many options. They could either sit back and watch the hijackers crash that plane too. Or they could be brave and fight the hijackers. And friends, these people showed the courage to fight the hijackers. The common people sitting in the United Airlines Flight 93 started to fight back against the hijackers. There was an uproar in the plane. The next part of the story isn't clear about what exactly happened in the plane. There are audio recordings from the plane then. Even today you can listen to them. But we don't exactly know if the passengers fighting back could actually reach the cockpit or not? If they could overpower the hijackers or not? We don't know this. But we do know that the passengers tried to fight back and eventually, the plane crash-landed in a field. In an empty field. One thing is certain because of the bravery of the passengers, the lives of many people were saved.
At 10: 28 am, the North Tower of the World Trade Centre collapsed as well. By the time this horrific morning turned into noon for America, it is revealed that a total of more than 3,000 people had died across the incidents. And more than 6,000 people were injured. Several were killed in the Pentagon, several in the World Trade Centre and several people that were present in the planes.
It's suspected that Osama bin Laden and the terrorist group Al Qaeda were behind this attack. But a few days after this 9/11 attack, Osama bin Laden releases a statement saying that he is not responsible for it. He denies any responsibility. But in the 2004 US Elections, about 3 years after this incident a public tape recording is published by Osama bin Laden, where he acknowledges the attack and takes responsibility for it.
Osama justifies it by saying that there were several motivations of Al Qaeda behind carrying out these attacks. The interference of the US in the Middle East. The US supporting Israel. Supporting the actions against the Muslims in Lebanon. Supporting Russia in crimes against Muslims in Chechnya. Sanctions that had been declared by the US against Iraq. The US collaboration with Saudi Arabia. Sending its troops to Saudi Arabia. Osama lists down several reasons saying that that was why they attacked America. That they were basically trying to teach a lesson to America. The main conclusion of all the reasons was that they were doing so because the Muslims were being abused.
Remember this point because, in the next part of the story, there is an important lesson about this. The 9/11 Commission report names a Pakistani terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to be the Principal Architect of these attacks. This person was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing as well. He along with four other accused people, were put in the Guantanamo Bay jail. He is still there undergoing trial.
On the other hand, Osama bin Laden is finally killed in May 2011. But perhaps here it is very important to know that how did these attacks affect the lives of a common man? And here I'm not only talking about the American common man, I'm talking about all the common people around the world. You can't imagine the level to which these attacks have an impact.
After 9/11 friends, another shocking change was in the airport security norms. You'd be surprised to know that before 2001, in most of the airports in the world, there wasn't much security checking. Sometimes they'd merely check the id and the metal detectors that you see while entering shopping malls, the security check was similar to that before boarding an airplane. You didn't even need to arrive long before boarding the flight. Arriving 15-30 minutes before was sufficient. But after 9/11, everything changed. Today, full-body scans, mandatory personal id checks, passport checks are done. Boarding passes are given you're told to empty your pockets, when bags are checked, you need to place laptops and other devices outside. The quantity of liquids you can carry on airplanes is also restricted. And there are various minute restrictions that weren't there before.
After December 2002, explosive detection systems were deployed nationwide. And later, it was done in the rest of the world. In early 2003, pilots were given weapons to protect themselves for the first time. Cockpit doors were reinforced so that they could be protected against intrusions, small firearms and even grenades.
For the attacks, Osama used the excuse of USA's interference in the Middle East.Do you remember how Osama had said that because Muslims were being abused he was taking revenge?
After 9/11, the attacks on Muslims increased even more. A new wave of xenophobia against Muslims and South Asians is seen. In 2001, 481 hate crimes took place against Muslims. Not only that, there are several hate crimes against Sikhs because many 'Nationalists' couldn't understand the difference between the beard and turbans of the Sikhs and the beard and turban of Osama bin Laden.
Perhaps the first victim of such hate violence was Balbir Singh Sodhi. On 15th September he had donated money for the 9/11 victims. He was planting some flowers outside his gas station in Arizona when he was killed. His killer Frank Roque was arrested and he is still serving a life sentence. After this, some Sikh people shaved their beards and stopped wearing turbans because of security concerns. But the hate crimes against the Muslims, Sikhs in fact against South Asians in general and the abuses kept on increasing.
The rise of fear in the Americans after these attacks, many people were arrested without any evidence and put into jails. Tortured. Human rights abuses were seen on a large scale. And the Americans were in favour of it, they supported it. They thought that the surveillance on them and the people that were being tortured the innocent people being arrested, was all justified.
In a fight against terrorism. Many critics claim that America's 'War on Terror' was synonymous with torture. Basically what happened because of it was that more people were choosing the path of terrorism. In anger or as revenge.
In this whole story friends, I see a very simple lesson. Extremism breeds extremism. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. Osama had said that he was taking revenge. Against what the USA had done. By killing several innocent people. And once Osama had done that, the USA said that it is taking revenge against what Osama had done by invading Afghanistan and Iraq. Killing many innocent people there. And the families of the people that are killed feel that because the USA had done that to them, they would take revenge by joining a terrorist group. So this story of a revenge for a revenge, this story will continue forever. This is an endless downward spiral. It has no end. When one terrorist is killed it creates another. And today you can see that though Osama bin Laden was killed the organisation ISIS has come to the forefront.
There is a second lesson for us as well. We should never let any government use an act of terrorism as an excuse to exploit us. The US government exploited the US citizens a lot after 9/11. Through the surveillance. Never be so blinded by fear that you stop seeing the reality.
If you have any questions feel free to ask me in the comments.
All references are sourced and free to use. No copyrighted material is used in this blog. All writing is my own by my hands on my mobile screen. Thanks...
