On the eleventh day of September year 2001, the United States of America was shaken to its core. 19 militants associated with the extremist Islamic group al-Qaeda conducted the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in U.S. history by hijacking four airliners and carrying out suicide attacks against different targets in the United States (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2015). Two of the hijacked planes were flown into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City, New York, a third plane flew into the west side of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field. The September 11th attacks caused disastrous death and destruction, and provoked the United States to wage war on terrorism.
…show more content…
According to Encyclopedia Britannica (2015), he presented plans to bin Laden in 1996 which talked about training pilots that would crash commercial jetliners into important U.S. buildings. Mohammed imagined the operation and al-Qaeda provided the necessary personnel, money, and operational support. Meetings for the operation were held in Malaysia, flight lessons were taken in the United States, plot leaders were based in Hamburg, Germany, money was transferred from Dubai, and recruitment of suicide personnel took place in countries all over the Middle East. After al-Qaeda had the attacks planned out with suicide operatives recruited and chosen for the task, on August 29, 2001 the group chose September 11th, 2001 as the day to carry out the attack (Encyclopedia Britannica, …show more content…
The United States heightened security at airports, government buildings, and major sports venues, passed the PATRIOT Act to greatly expand the surveillance powers of the FBI, and established the Department of Homeland Security (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2015, pg. 3). Soon after, it was obvious that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda had greatly underestimated the possible U.S. responses to their terrorist attacks. Cleanup at Ground Zero lasted until May 30th, 2002 with 3.1 million hours of labor put forward to clean up 1.8 million tons of debris at a cost of approximately $750 million (CNN Library, 2015). Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist group remained missing until May 2nd, 2011 when he was tracked and killed by U.S. forces at a hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan (History.com Staff, 2015). The United States’ war on terror continues to this day, fighting off new terrorist groups such as
According to Encyclopedia Britannica (2015), he presented plans to bin Laden in 1996 which talked about training pilots that would crash commercial jetliners into important U.S. buildings. Mohammed imagined the operation and al-Qaeda provided the necessary personnel, money, and operational support. Meetings for the operation were held in Malaysia, flight lessons were taken in the United States, plot leaders were based in Hamburg, Germany, money was transferred from Dubai, and recruitment of suicide personnel took place in countries all over the Middle East. After al-Qaeda had the attacks planned out with suicide operatives recruited and chosen for the task, on August 29, 2001 the group chose September 11th, 2001 as the day to carry out the attack (Encyclopedia Britannica, …show more content…
The United States heightened security at airports, government buildings, and major sports venues, passed the PATRIOT Act to greatly expand the surveillance powers of the FBI, and established the Department of Homeland Security (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2015, pg. 3). Soon after, it was obvious that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda had greatly underestimated the possible U.S. responses to their terrorist attacks. Cleanup at Ground Zero lasted until May 30th, 2002 with 3.1 million hours of labor put forward to clean up 1.8 million tons of debris at a cost of approximately $750 million (CNN Library, 2015). Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist group remained missing until May 2nd, 2011 when he was tracked and killed by U.S. forces at a hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan (History.com Staff, 2015). The United States’ war on terror continues to this day, fighting off new terrorist groups such as