reaction paper

September 11, 2001

Saint Leo University

November 4, 2021

Dr. Dawna Komorosky

Abstract

Throughout history, disasters have presented themselves in various forms of human made and natural disasters. Events such as the Munich Airport attack, Munich Olympic Massacre, Temple Seizure, Air India Bombing, Naples USO Attack, and the World Trade Center Bombing are a small glance of human made terrorist disasters that have affected the social and economic standing of the impacted communities. Despite the fact that most of these disasters took place in the 1990’s, the readiness of the American emergency management culture could not withstand an unknown terrorist attack. On one day, in less than 24 hours, the American culture was weakened and destabilized by terrorists. Many Americans sat in class or at work and watched the television screen on what they thought was a movie but was reality itself. This reality depicted a disaster that would be referred to as the most deadly terrorist attack in history and known as 9/11. The emergency response that took place on September 11th, 2001, set the foundation for change in emergency management processes, plans, and strategies. Understanding the timeline of events prior, during, and after 9/11 are crucial to ensure that the United States of America will never have to live through a similar event.

September 11, 2001

For many Americans, September 11th, 2001, began as a normal routine day. On this day, kids went to school and adults went to work. For 3,000 Americans this day would be the last day of their lives and for the family members of these 3,000 individuals, this would be the last time they speak with their loved ones. The revolving factor in this day would be a group of terrorists whose goals were set to dismantle the American government by attacking key targets. The terrorists would aim to meet this objective through a series of actions dictated by their leader, Osama Bin Laden. The events that took place on 9/11 would change how emergency managers create plans and processes for future events. Amongst many of these changes, new programs were created to increase readiness in the event our adversaries attempted another attack. 9/11 will forever be a lesson learned in how to prevent terrorist attacks on this level to occur again.

Osama Bin Laden

Osama Bin Laden was born in 1957, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and was the 17th son of Mohamed bin Laden. Osama Bin Laden became the leader of a powerful radical Islamic terrorist organization that supported the policy in which religious Muslims had been ordered by God to kill all of the Americans. Much of Osama Bin Laden’s political ideology was influenced by Abdullah Azzam. Azzam was a radical Palestine professor who mentored bin Laden with the vision of defending Afghanistan. With the help of Osama Bin Laden, an al-Qaeda manual was created and benefited the September 11 hijackers by maintaining their cover. The manual instructed terrorists to refrain from an Islamic orientation appearance, withhold from mentioning common brother expressions, and avoid visiting famous Islamic places. The al-Qaeda manual allowed terrorists to pursue the most lethal terrorist attack in 2001 (Post, 2002).

The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks

Planning for the September 11th attacks did not begin on that specific day but required months beginning in early 1999. In 1999, Osama Bin Laden moved operations to Afghanistan to develop a list of potential United States targets and discussed the use of commercial aircraft as weapons. Hijackers began to obtain visas and passports for travel to the United States in April of 1999. Hijackers utilized Germany as a safe haven between 1999 and 2001 to prepare for the 9/11 attacks. After months of planning in Germany, many of the hijackers began arriving in late April 2001 to the United States with travelers checks, cash, and tourist visas that were obtained in the Middle East. Between the months of April and September 2001, the hijackers managed to enroll in flight schools and conducted cross-country surveillance flights. These flights aided the terrorist attackers by identifying aircraft, which would help produce their desired impact. On the morning of 9/11, hijackers survived multiple security screening and flags through four U.S. airports. Amid the ability to endure security checkpoints, the hijackers carried knives, box cutters, and concealed weapons on their person or in carry-on-luggage. Flight attendants and passengers began to report the airplane hijacking at 8:19 AM (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2011).

The first notification of hijacking was received by Betty Ong, a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11. American 11 failed to acknowledge instructions from the air traffic control center in Boston which raised red flags. At 8:46 AM, American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. As American 11 crashed into the World Trade Center, United Airlines Flight 175 illustrated abnormal actions when beacon codes were changed twice within a minute. Shortly after, United 175 deviated from the designated altitude and headed towards New York City. At 9:03 AM, United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center. American Airlines Flight 77 reached the assigned cruising of 35,000 feet at 8:46. At 8:54 Flight 77 deviated from its assigned course to Los Angeles and headed south. American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 at roughly 530 miles per hour. United Airlines Flight 93 was the last flight to be hijacked by terrorists. The hijackers on Flight 93 had an objective to crash into symbols of America such as the Capitol or the White House but was eventually defeated by the unarmed passengers (National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, 2004). The shock of these hijackings required emergency response from local, state, and federal agencies. After the terrible events that occurred on September 11th, 2001, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was established to strengthen the homeland security enterprise.

The Effects of 9/11

After 9/11, the United States federal government quickly realized the need to develop a security framework to protect the citizens from a similar attack. DHS collaborated with a variation of partners to present recommendations on how to continue efforts in protecting all Americans. Recommendations were based on thorough inspection of how the system failed American on 9/11 and what changes could be implemented to prevent another attack. These recommendations included providing incentives for information sharing, developing a risk based plan for transportation security, improving airline passenger prescreening and target terrorist travel, improving aviation security through enhanced explosive screening, assessing critical infrastructure, preventing radiological or nuclear terrorism, prioritizing sector preparedness, establishing a unified command system, and allocating funds (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2011). Since 9/11, the country has made extraordinary steps to achieve the implementation of the DHS recommendations to secure our nation.

Conclusion

No matter how old or young an individual may be, the remembrance of September 11th, 2001, will always remain. The radical Islamic terrorist group led by Osama Bin Laden planned to dismantle the American government by utilizing commercial aircraft as weapons to demolish key targets. Despite the grief and horror on 9/11, the United States of America remained resilient and determined to rebuild after this disaster. Sadly, over 3,000 individuals had to lose their lives to this terrible attack but the security system continues to expand on greater knowledge every day to ensure no one else encounters the same trauma.

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