Nine-Eleven

Nine-Eleven refers to the September 11^th, 2001 attacks by terrorists against the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Virginia. Osama bin Laden released a statement in 2002, which stated these attacks were done because of U.S. support of the state of Israel, as well as their actions against Muslims.

The attacks were planned by Osama bin Laden, the founder of the Al-Qaeda terrorist group, as well as several of his helpers. The plan was to get multiple terrorists to the United States on Visas and train them in flight schools. They would then board four airplanes, hijack them, and crash them into buildings. The first of these terrorists arrived in the U.S. sometime in 1999, and trained in flight schools in Florida. The second group arrived in early 2001. They set their targets to the Twin Towers, a pair of skyscrapers called the North Tower and the South Tower, together they made up the World Trade Center. These were the tallest buildings in the world at the time. The terrorists' other targets were the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Department of Defense, and the Capitol Building.

By this time, certain officials at the CIA and FBI had started to figure out that something was about to happen. They had tapped the phones of two of the terrorists and found out that they were linked to Al-Qaeda. However, communication between the CIA and FBI was disorganized. They knew that an attack would happen in the United States, and that it would involve airplanes, but failed to stop the plot.

On the morning of September 11^th, 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial planes in the air. They attacked the flight attendants and overpowered them. Five hijackers flew the first plane into the North Tower at 8:46 AM. At first, people thought it was merely a bad accident, but then the second plane hit the South Tower fifteen minutes later. At 9:37 AM, a third plane was flown into the Pentagon, destroying part of it. Passengers on the fourth plane, which was flying towards Washington D.C., heard through phone calls that three other planes had been crashed into buildings. The passengers then attacked the terrorists who had hijacked the plane. The terrorists, afraid the passengers would overpower them, intentionally crashed the fourth plane in a field in Pennsylvania at around 10:00 AM.

Around that same time the South Tower, which had been burning from the jet fuel, collapsed, and the North Tower followed forty minutes later. The collapse of these buildings damaged several others in the area. The attacks resulted in the deaths of 2,996 people from over 90 countries, most of which were civilians. This includes 411 firefighters and policemen who were trying to save people. The death toll made 9/11 the worst terrorist attack in world history.

People all over the country were grieving for the victims and frightened. President George W. Bush went on television to mourn victims and to announce the War on Terror. Just one month later, the War in Afghanistan began. The U.S. suspected the Taliban, the rulers of Afghanistan, of helping Al-Qaeda. The Iraq War began in 2003 as a result of 9/11. Both wars lasted over 10 years.

Osama Bin Laden, who was behind the attacks, was caught in 2011 by Seal Team Six and killed. The One World Trade Center was built in 2013 on the site of the Twin Towers. However, the attack had started the post-9/11 era, in which Americans were more suspicious of the Middle East. It resulted in higher security in airports, more paranoia among American citizens, the setting up of the Guantanamo Bay prison, and the Patriot Act, which allows the US government to invade the privacy of citizens to find terrorists.