SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 TERRORIST ATTACK

Box-cutter knives were apparently used in the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, though such knives are not usually considered weapons. The hijackers could have very easily gotten these type of knives past airport security since up until the attacks, they fit the qualifications to be permitted on U.S domestic flights: any knife with a blade up to 4 inches long was permitted. FAA rules placed into effect on September 13, 2001 prohibit any type of knife in secured airport areas and planes.

Airport security for the two flights out of Newark and Washington Dulles had been provided by Argenbright Holdings Ltd, a company which had plead guilty to federal fraud charges in May 2000 because they had hired 1,300 untrained security guards, including several dozens with criminal records, at Philadelphia International Airport. The company is still on probation.

See also airport security

Profiling on people who look Arabic was greatly stepped up after the attack.

September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack - Full Timeline
In Memoriam - Casualties - Missing Persons - Survivors - Personal experiences
Donations - Assistance - Closings and Cancellations - Memorials and Services
US Governmental Response - Responsibility - Hijackers - Political effects - Economic effects

See also: "War on Terrorism" -- U.S. invasion of Afghanistan -- 2001 anthrax attack -- World Trade Center -- The Pentagon -- New York City -- Washington, D.C -- AA Flight 11 -- UA Flight 75 -- AA Flight 77 -- UA Flight 93 -- U.S. Department of Defense -- Operation Bojinka -- terrorism -- domestic terrorism -- Osama bin Laden -- Taliban -- Islamism -- Afghanistan -- collective trauma -- September 11

External Links and References

THE INVESTIGATION: U.S. Identified Some Elements of Hijack Plot in Advance, New York Times, 9/21/2001 Minetta Congressional testimony

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Following the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, several institutions responded with closures, cancellations, and postponements. Some of the most significant included...

Closings

(taken to mean unusual closures on September 11, for any reason)

• The stock exchanges on Wall Street. Wall Street never opened its stock markets on September 11, even as CNN continued to show futures numbers early in the day. As Wall Street itself was covered in debris from the World Trade Center and due to infrastructure damage, it remained closed until Monday, September 17 - four days total.
• The Washington Monument
• The Statue of Liberty
• The Virginia State Capitol
• Other US landmarks, including the Seattle, Washington Space Needle.
• All federal buildings in Washington, D.C., including the White House. Approximately one million federal workers were sent home across the country.
• NASA
• The Supreme Court of the United States
• All schools in Maryland
• Resorts and vacation spots
  • Disneyland (only for September 11)
  • Walt Disney World (only for September 11)
  • Universal Studios Florida
  • SeaWorld
• Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
• All federal and state buildings in the state of Massachusetts
• US-Canada land border closed

Evacuations

(taken to mean evacuation in light of perceived threat of attack)

• the United Nations headquarters in New York City
• the Sears Tower in Chicago
• several skyscrapers in downtown Houston
• the Transamerica building in San Francisco
• the Renaissance Center in Detroit
• parts of Washington, D.C, and New York City
• airplanes over the USA were diverted to Canada

Cancellations

• Broadway theater shows (until Thursday evening when they resumed with dimmed marquees)
• US sporting events including: [1]
  • Major League Baseball. Games were first postponed for one day, then three, then all games through Sunday the 16th were postponed.
  • The National Football League postponed football games on Sunday, September 16 and the Monday night game the night following. This was not an insignificant decision; in 1963, then-NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle did allow games to be played the Sunday after the John F. Kennedy assassination, later calling that the biggest mistake he ever made.
  • NASCAR racing cancelled the Sunday, September 16 Winston Cup (NASCAR championship series) race.
  • Division I-A college football games to be played Thursday, September 13 and Saturday, September 15 were postponed.
  • The PGA golf tour cancelled the World Golf Championship (the American Express championship in Saint Louis, Missouri. This was the first time in five years the PGA cancelled a tournament.
• Voting in the city of New York (September 11 was a mayoral primary election day) was halted. Elections in Syracuse, New York and Buffalo, New York were delayed.

Postponments

• The 2001 Emmy Awards. Originally scheduled for September 16, 2001, the glamorous awards show was rescheduled twice (among rumors of cancelling the show entirely) before finally taking place on November 4, with a somewhat somber atmosphere.
• The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, a meeting of the heads of state of the nations of The Commonwealth to be held in Brisbane, Australia, was postponed. The organisers of the meeting claimed the cancellation was not so much a fear of terrorist attack on the meeting itself, but a desire by many Commonwealth leaders to stay at home in case of any further crisis-making world events (such as the commencement of overt military action in Afghanistan or elsewhere).

Travel effects

All civilian airplane traffic in the United States was grounded until Thursday, September 13. United Airlines cancelled all flights worldwide temporarily. First stranded planes were allowed to go to their intended destinations, then limited service resumed. On Thursday night the New York area airports (JFK, La Guardia, Newark) were closed again, and were reopened Friday morning. The only traffic from La Guardia during the closure was a single C9C government VIP jet, departing at approximately 5:15PM on the 12th.

All train service through Union Station was suspended.

Beginning September 27, one-occupant cars were banned from crossing into Lower Manhattan from Midtown on weekday mornings, in an effort to relieve some of the crush of traffic in the city (the morning rush hour was lasting from 5:30 AM to noon), caused largely by the increased security measures put in place.

September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack - Full Timeline
In Memoriam - Casualties - Missing Persons - Survivors - Personal experiences
Donations - Assistance - Closings and Cancellations - Memorials and Services
US Governmental Response - Responsibility - Hijackers - Political effects - Economic effects

External link

• SAFETY: One-Occupant Cars to Be Barred From Some Entrances to Manhattan, New York Times, 9/26/2001
  
  

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  Cell phones and in-plane credit card phones played a major role during and after the attack, starting with hijacked passengers who called family or notified the authorities about what was happening. Passengers and crew who made calls include Todd Beamer, Mark Bingham, Peter Hanson, Jeremy Glick, Barbara K. Olson, Madeline Amy Sweeney

  After the attack, the cell phone network of New York City was rapidly overloaded as traffic doubled over normal levels. Since three of the major broadcast networks had their transmission tower atop the North Tower (One World Trade Center), coverage was limited after the collapse of the tower.

  Emergency relief efforts in both Lower Manhattan and at the Pentagon were augmented by volunteer amateur radio operators in the weeks after the attacks.

  After the planes struck the World Trade Center, people inside made calls to loved ones; in many cases, the last ever heard from them.

  AT&T eliminated any costs for domestic calls originating from the New York City area (212/718/917/646/347) in days following.

  September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack - Full Timeline
  In Memoriam - Casualties - Missing Persons - Survivors - Personal experiences
  Donations - Assistance - Closings and Cancellations - Memorials and Services
  US Governmental Response - Responsibility - Hijackers - Political effects - Economic effects

  See also: "War on Terrorism" -- U.S. invasion of Afghanistan -- 2001 anthrax attack -- World Trade Center -- The Pentagon -- New York City -- Washington, D.C -- AA Flight 11 -- UA Flight 75 -- AA Flight 77 -- UA Flight 93 -- U.S. Department of Defense -- Operation Bojinka -- terrorism -- domestic terrorism -- Osama bin Laden -- Taliban -- Islamism -- Afghanistan -- collective trauma -- September 11

  External Links and References

  An Unimaginable Emergency Put Communications to the Test, The New York Times, 9/20/2001
  The Simple BlackBerry Allowed Contact When Phones Failed, The New York Times, 9/20/2001
  Using a Cellphone Signal to Hunt for a Victim in Desperate Need, The New York Times, 9/20/2001
  
  

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  This page is created in the interest of having a record of some of the rumors and misinformation that can arise in the face of tragedy. It is not intended to be disrespectful of those who, perhaps innocently, might relay such information believing it to be true.

  Kashmiri responsibility

  Early claim of Kashmiri responsibility quickly debunked.

  World Trade Center survivors after September 13

  Several reported rescues from the World Trade Center on September 13 proved to be false. The only ones rescued were some firefighters who became trapped earlier that day. In addition, an office worker called Carla Guzman was rescued from the remains of the South Tower on September 12. [1]

  All reports that cell phone messages were received from people trapped within the collapsed buildings have remained unconfirmed.

  Approximately 10000 people died in September 11

  The great volume of casualties and the chaos of the day meant that missing persons lists were greatly inflated. The true total casualty figure of the day was in fact approximately 3000.

  Many of the first media reports on the matter stated that 10000 people died on September 11. Many websites also used the practice of allowing users to add victims - a method that was not reliable.

  It turned out that many of the persons listed in these lists and websites as dead were fictional, counted more than once, survivors, added in error but never corrected or missing persons.

  False Nostradamus prediction

  The following (and variants) began to spread through the net within days of the attack:

  In the city of god there will be a great thunder,

  two brothers torn apart by chaos,

  while the fortress endures,

  the great leader will succumb.

  The third big war will begin when the big city is burning

  NOSTRADAMUS 1654

  This is not an authentic Nostradamus quatrain. It appears nowhere in his quatrains, and at any rate Nostradamus died long before 1654.

  Here's a webpage on the matter:

  http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/predict.htm

  Occurrences of certain numbers (23) leading to the Illuminati.

  See also numerology

  The Smoke Demon

  Several photographs were circulated through the Net the weekend following the tragedy, depicting smoke rising from the Twin Towers that resembled demonic heads. It has been confirmed by AP that at least one of these photos is authentic. See [1] and [1].

  The pictures certainly seem to be genuine, but to say that that they portray the Devil, or that this was his direct work, is ludricous. There is nothing in the Bible that says that the Devil has horns - this is a popular perception of that entity.

  It is much more reasonable to say that the resemblance is a grim coincidence.

  Passing UFO

  Soon after the attacks, a Japanese personal web page claimed to show 'unreleased' stills of an object claimed to be a UFO rushing past the towers, several seconds after the 2nd plane hit.

  Nothing has since emerged to substantiate or confirm the existence of a mysterious flying object anywhere near the towers after the attacks.

  CNN faking Palestinian cheers

  There had been early rumours that the footage shown by CNN and others, depicting Palestinians cheering after the attacks, was old. This is false. The demonstrations did happen and were condemned by Arafat; the footage was current. See here.

  There was indeed some footage that was faked, or rather staged, but it was actually shot by a Palestinian camera crew. The footage is of some cheering kids and a middle aged woman eating cookies. Reporters from Der Stern and Dagens Nyheter managed to trace down and interview the woman and she claimed to have no knowledge of the attack at the time she was filmed.

  False fundraising

  Scambusters reported instances of email fundraising scams in the wake of the tragedy, and posted tips to help consumers ensure their donations reached the right agencies.

  A tourist was having a photograph taken of himself on top of the World Trade Center just seconds before Flight 11 struck the north tower.

  An e-mail was circulated which showed a photograph of a tourist on top of the north tower just seconds before American Airlines flight 11 struck it. The view of the northern side of the city, and the American Airlines markings on the plane, are both unmistakable. However, this photograph is beyond any reasonable doubt a hoax.

  Flight 11 was moving at hundreds of kilometers per hour just before it struck the World Trade Centre. At that speed, it ought to have been a blur. Yet the shot of the plane in the photograph is very clear - it almost seems to be standing in the air.

  The aircraft pictured is a Boeing 757, while flight 11 was a Boeing 767.

  The 'tourist' seems very warmly clothed for a September morning.

  The World Trade Centre did not open its observation tower facilities until 9:30 AM. The plane struck at 8:46 AM.

  There is no explanation as to how the camera and the film in it could have survived a fall of 110 floors.

  Finally, there was no observation deck on the north tower.

  The original picture was taken when a Hungarian named Peter (who wished his last name to be withheld by the press) visited the Towers on November 28, 1997. The original picture without plane and other pictures of Peter can be found on Wired's website.

  Osama bin Laden owns part or all of Snapple soft-drinks and Citibank.

  He does not.

  Citibank is owned in part by Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who at some point after the attacks was apparently confused with Osama bin Laden. Bin Talal has no connection with al-Qaeda whatever.

  The New York Post reported the Snapple story, as part of a general story about the Saudi binLaden Group owning part of this company. The Chief Executive of Snapple, Michael Weinstein, released a statement denying it.

  September 11's events generated a baby boom

  There was no recorded rise in the US birth rate in June 2002, or in any other part of that year.

  (Jewish) Conspiracy to frame Arabs

  Various rumors circulated in the Arab world following the attack to the effect that non-Muslims, in particular Israelis or supporters of Israel, perpetrated the attack to frame Arabs and Muslims. These rumors included claims that several thousand Jews working in the World Trade Center were warned ahead of time and didn't show up for work on September 11. There is absolutely no supporting evidence. For further discussion, see Zionist conspiracy theories.

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  "Credible threat" against Bush

  After President Bush faced some criticism for flying around the US in Air Force One instead of returning immediately to Washington or New York, members of his administration (Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice) told the press on several occasions that there had been a "credible threat" against Bush by terrorists. Later, AP and CBS news investigated this claim and found it to be false. In response to this, the Administration officials said that there had been a "misunderstanding". White House officials also claimed that the plane which crashed into the Pentagon originally was aimed at the White House. That claim was also debunked.

  Osama and Evil Bert

  A photograph of a protest rally in Bangladesh supporting Osama bin Laden showed a poster of Osama bin Laden with a small but clearly identifiable images of Bert, a muppet from the children's television show Sesame Street, over his right shoulder. (Another smaller image of bin Laden is immediately to the right of Bert's image.) The photo is from Reuters, and was not doctored. In fact, the image of Osama and Bert had been created (using an image editing tool) by a humorist earlier and placed on a website, and the person who made the poster must have copied it from the World Wide Web, leaving the image of Evil Bert in.

  As a response to this, the creator of the "Bert is Evil" website has taken down the site and posted a note explaining the decision. "I am doing this because I feel this has gotten too close to reality," he says, "and I choose to be responsible enough to stop it right here." For full message text, see [1]. For a detailed account of the use of the image, in the Mideast as well as by Western news agencies, see [1]. (The latter also argues against the notion that inclusion of the Bert image of the photo is some kind of coded communication.)

  Avoid malls on October 31st email

  A number of people across the country received an email chain letter saying that an Afghan left a letter to his girl friend on Sept 10, asking her not to take any flight on Sept 11 and not to go to any shopping mall on Halloween. It was said that the letter is now in the FBI's hands. The letter implied that there is a second phase of the terrorist attacks and the targets will be the trick or treaters.

  The email was traced back to a person named Laura Katsis, who apparently has no first-hand knowledge of the event and regrets passing the note along. The FBI has investigated the matter, and took the unusual step of issuing a statement on a hoax, declaring the claim to be unsubstantiated. A few variations on this message are also circulating. [1] [1] [1]

  There have been several variations of this story, including one where Coca-Cola was reportedly poisoned on a certain date. All of these have been false.

  Atta was a known terrorist

  There have been persistent rumors that Mohammad Atta, the suspected leader of the September 11 attacks, was a known terrorists who had bombed an Israeli bus in 1986 and was freed from Israel on insistence by the US as a result of the Oslo peace accords. This is incorrect. The bus bomber is the Palestinian Mahmoud Mahmoud Atta. He is a naturalized US citizen and was extradited by the US to Israel in 1990, but freed after that extradition was held to be invalid by the Israeli supreme court. His whereabouts are unknown. He was 47 years old at the time of the September 11 attack, while Mohamad Atta was 33. [1] [1]

  Pentagon was not hit by a plane

  A French Web site has disputed that Flight 77 hit the Pentagon. It does not explain what happened to the plane and its crew and passengers. Its claims have now been published in a book.

  The claims include that an object depicted in a photograph showing it about to strike the building has a different shape and size than that of a Boeing 757, and that photographs taken after the Pentagon was hit and before the damaged part collapsed, show the hole being less than that a 757 would produce, even assuming that most of the wings did come off.

  In March 2002 the US authorities released photographs from a surveillance camera. The pictures, complete with times (set to another time zone) at the bottom corner, can be found on this BBC webpage. The first picture is timed 17:37:19 and the last 17:37:23.

  This is a webpage that claims it is mathematically impossible for the plane to have hit the Pentagon in that time without moving at mach speeds.

  US military aircraft shot down Flight 93 to stop it reaching Washington

  US authorities have denied undertaking any such action.

  One basis for the claim is the fact that wreckage (including engine wreckage) was found upwind of the crash site, and roughly in the direction from which the plane came, implying that the plane broke up at least to some degree before it crashed. However, this is ambiguous and much wreckage can be expected to be strewn as a result of the crash that occurred. Had the plane broken up in midair, at least some of the bodies would have been scattered. Instead they were all found in the crater.

  Another basis for the claim is the observations by many eye witnesses who saw other aircraft in the area. US authorities have said that they have identified a civilian aircraft that was in the area, and that it had nothing to do with the downing of Flight 93. On the other hand, eyewitness reports state that the plane crash upside down into the field, following a wobbling of its wings. No smoke from the plane or white planes shooting down Flight 93 were reported.

  A statement that a sonic boom was detected shortly before the crash has now been withdrawn by its author.

  Contrary to what several media reports have stated, passenger Edward Felt did not report seeing 'white smoke' pouring into the toilet from where he was making a phone call from the plane.

  Speculation continues on this topic, which is discussed in several websites.

  The towers were blown up

  The claim is that, considering that the plane fuel after the crash quickly burned, it is surprising that the remaining fuel (that burned at a slower rate with much less oxygen) should be able to melt the vertical steel beams weighing about 200,000 tons. It continues: even if this were the case it is surprising that the fall of the towers was as controlled as it was: In tower 2 the plane crashed in a corner of the building, but the building did not fall to that side. Subsequent computer analysis has allegedly shown that the amount of jet-fuel on the fully-fueled planes was enough to distort the beams enough to cause the collapse. Inspection of the beams allegedly confirms that they were distorted by extreme heat before breaking away from each other. However, none of this information is publicly documented either in pictures or in publicly available reports.

  This and video footage has led some people to believe that the buildings were demolished with explosives. A web page promoting this theory can be found at Serendipity on Freenet

  Some engineers believe the Twin Towers and 7 World Trade Center strangely collapsed, regarding the vertical collapse of the three buildings as an unlikely occurrence without the aid of explosives. "Explosives put in WTC concrete.."

  Former Iran/Contra figure Oliver North issued a warning about Osama Bin Laden during testimony in the 1980s to the U.S. Senate.

  This claim has been circulating via email since shortly after September 11. Oliver North did mention a terrorist during his testimony to the Iran/Contra committee, but the individual he mentioned was Abu Nidal, who has no connection to Bin Laden. The U.S. News and World Report looked into this urban legend and interviewed North himself, whose aides "confirmed the fake. North, in fact, suggests that at the time of the Reagan-era Senate hearings into the scandal, rebels like bin Laden were U.S. friends lined up against Soviet invaders."[1] The "Urban Legends" web site also has a page debunking the Ollie North story.[1]

  Bush knew in advance that the terrorists attacks would happen

  This conspiracy theory is discussed in 9/11 domestic conspiracy theory

  Other incidents

  Various incidents have occurred since September 11, 2001, with no evidence to support a causal link to the terrorist attack. They include:

  On September 21, 2001 a chemical factory in Toulouse, South France, exploded, causing 29 deaths. On October 4, 2001 France's environment minister declared that it may have been a terroristic attack.

  In the morning of October 3, 2001, a man slit the throat of the driver of Greyhound bus No. 1115, en route from Nashville to Atlanta, 50 miles southeast of Nashville. The bus crashed, killing four of the 36 passengers. Early reports stated at least 10 were killed. Later reports assert that the bus attacker was a drug addict with a history of erratic behavior.

  On October 4, 2001, a Russian jetliner en route from Tel Aviv to Siberia with 77 passengers exploded in mid-air before plunging into the Black Sea. All flights from Bengorian Airport were grounded in response. Later reports asserted that a Ukrainian missile mistakenly took down the jetliner. Missile fragments were recovered from the crash site, and the government of the Ukraine has accepted responsibility for the accidental targeting of the jet.

  On October 4, 2001, it is announced that Bob Stevens, a 63-year-old Lantana, Florida resident was admitted to a hospital on Tuesday with non-contagious pulmonary anthrax. He later died. Bob Stevens, a British-born outdoorsman and gardener, was a photo editor at the supermarket tabloid The Sun. On October 8, 2001 health officials and the FBI report that they have discovered bacillus anthracis spores on a computer keyboard at the offices of The Sun and in the nose of a co-worker, who was not diagnosed with the disease. The FBI sealed the building.

  On October 11, 2001, 700 pounds of explosives were discovered missing from a facility in Texas.

  On October 12, 2001, a case of anthrax was reported in New York City. A female NBC Nightly News employee was reported to have been exposed to anthrax. It was believed that she received it from a letter containing powder on September 25. The powder in the letter tested negative for anthrax. A skin test of the employee by the CDC returned positive for non-contagious cutaneous anthrax. She had been exposed on September 25. She began presenting symptoms on September 28. She began receiving Cipro on October 1. A biopsy was done on October 10 and sent to the CDC.

  September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack - Full Timeline
  In Memoriam - Casualties - Missing Persons - Survivors - Personal experiences
  Donations - Assistance - Closings and Cancellations - Memorials and Services
  US Governmental Response - Responsibility - Hijackers - Political effects - Economic effects

  See also: "War on Terrorism" -- U.S. invasion of Afghanistan -- 2001 anthrax attack -- World Trade Center -- The Pentagon -- New York City -- Washington, D.C -- AA Flight 11 -- UA Flight 175 -- AA Flight 77 -- UA Flight 93 -- U.S. Department of Defense -- Operation Bojinka -- terrorism -- domestic terrorism -- Osama bin Laden -- Taliban -- Islamism -- Afghanistan -- collective trauma -- September 11

  References and External Links

  • Urban Legends Reference Pages
  • About.com--Urban Legends and Folklore A site on rumor-mongering.
  • Scambusters
  • Coast To Coast AM.com Some pictures of ''The Smoke Demon' on this site.
  • RUMORS: As Thick as the Ash, Myths are Swirling, New York Times, 9/25/2001
  • A website - shows the phony tourist photograph and then has a bit of a go at it...
  • This urban legends website explores several September 11 myths.
    
    

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    Any tributes to the individuals lost in this tragedy are welcome and encouraged at our memorial site
    • Australia: 10
    • Belgium: 1
    • Bermuda: 1
    • Brazil: 3
    • Canada: 25+
    • People's Republic of China: 4
    • Côte d'Ivoire: 1
    • Colombia: 17
    • Democratic Republic of the Congo: 2
    • Dominican Republic: 1
    • El Salvador: 1
    • Ecuador: 3
    • France: 1
    • Germany: 11
    • Ghana: 2
    • Guyana: 3
    • Hati: 2
    • Honduras:1
    • India: 1
    • Indonesia: 1
    • Ireland: 1
    • Israel: 3
    • Italy: 4
    • Jamaica: 16
    • Japan: 26
    • Lebanon: 3
    • Lithuania: 1
    • Mexico: 16
    • Moldavia: 1
    • New Zealand: 2
    • Nigeria: 1
    • Peru: 5
    • Philippines: 16
    • Portugal: 3
    • Russia: 1
    • Sweden: 1
    • Republic of China (Taiwan): 1
    • Ukraine: 1
    • Uzbekistan: 1
    • United Kingdom: 68
    • Venezuela: 1

    Total: 235. Excludes the perpetrators. Approximately 2738 United States citizens also died.

    September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack - In Memoriam - Casualties - Survivors - Personal experiences - Memorials and Services
    
    

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    Many individuals were responsible for the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks

    Hijackers

    There were 19 hijackers in all; five on three of the flights, four on one.

    U.S. authorities believe that the hijackers were in two groups--six core organizers, who included the four pilots and two others, and the remaining 13, who came to the United States later, in pairs in the spring and summer of 2001 via the UAE.

    The six organizers were the pilots--Mohammed Atta, Marwan Alshehhi, Ziad Jarrah, and Hani Hanjour--and Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi.

    Several of the terrorist hijackers appeared to be traveling with false passports, assuming the identities of other people. Saudis Saeed Alghamdi, Abdulaziz Alomari, and Waleed Alshehri, whose photographs have appeared on CNN and other media outlets, have spoken to Saudi newspapers since the attack.

    Their profiles do not seem to match that of past suicide terrorists (young, poor, uneducated and indoctrinated): many were in their late twenties and thirties, most with college educations, and had lived for prolonged periods of time in western countries. 15 came from Saudi Arabia. The remaining four came from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon.

    There have been variations in the spelling of the names of the alleged hijackers in differing accounts of the attacks- one good example being the Alshehris from Flight 11. This is because there is no one correct way of translating from Arabic script to English letters.

    Network Map of how hijackers were connected to each other and color-coded by their flight.

    The hijackers aboard American Airlines flight 11 used the names

    • Waleed Alshehri
    • Wail M. Alshehri
    • Mohammad Atta
    • Abdulaziz Alomari
    • Satam Al Suqami

    Mohammad Atta is believed to have flown Flight 11 into the North Tower.

    Aboard United Airlines flight 175 the hijackers used the names

    • Marwan Alshehhi
    • Fayez Banihammad
    • Mohald Alshehri
    • Hamza Al Ghamdi
    • Ahmed Al Ghamdi

    Marwan Alshehhi is believed to have flown Flight 175 into the South Tower.

    The hijackers aboard American Airlines flight 77 used the names

    • Khalid al-Mihdhar
    • Majed Moqued
    • Nawaf al-Hazmi
    • Salem Al Hazmi
    • Hani Hanjour

    Hani Hanjour is believed to have flown Flight 77 into the Pentagon.

    The hijackers aboard United Airlines flight 93 used the names

    • Ahmed Al Haznawi
    • Ahmed Alnami
    • Ziad Jarrah
    • Saeed Alghamdi

    Ziad Jarrah is believed to have been at the controls when Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania.

    see also Ramzi Binalshibh and Zacarias Moussaoui

    The Hamburg Cell and other conspirators

    The terrorist attack itself was planned by Khalid Sheik Mohammed. He and Abu Zubaydah became the organizers of the plot. Investigators say that Mohammed Haydar Zammar acted as the "travel agent" to Afghanistan.

    Three of the hijackers, along with Ramzi Binalshibh, Said Bahaji, and Zakariyah Essabar were members of the Hamburg, Germany cell. After Atta, Al-Shehhi, and Jarrah left for the United States, Binalshibh provided money to the conspirators. Riduan Isamuddin, aka Hambali, met with two of the hijackers in Kuala Lumpur in 2000. Hambali also gave money to alleged 20th hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui. The members of the cell fled Germany before the terrorist attacks.

    Related topics

    September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack - Full Timeline
    In Memoriam - Casualties - Missing Persons - Survivors - Personal experiences
    Donations - Assistance - Closings and Cancellations - Memorials and Services
    US Governmental Response - Responsibility - Hijackers - Political effects - Economic effects

    See also: "War on Terrorism" -- U.S. invasion of Afghanistan -- 2001 anthrax attack -- World Trade Center -- The Pentagon -- New York City -- Washington, D.C -- AA Flight 11 -- UA Flight 175 -- AA Flight 77 -- UA Flight 93 -- U.S. Department of Defense -- Operation Bojinka -- terrorism -- domestic terrorism -- Osama bin Laden -- Taliban -- Islamism -- Afghanistan -- collective trauma -- September 11

    External Links and References

    • A Terrorist Profile Emerges That Confounds the Experts The New York Times 15-September-2001
    • F.B.I. Documents Detail the Movements of 19 Men Believed to Be Hijackers The New York Times 15-September-2001 To be incorporated
    • FLIGHT SCHOOL: Learning Where Suspects Studied Is 'Trickier Than It Sounds' The New York Times 15-September-2001 To be incorporated
    • The Immigration and Naturalization Service's Contacts With Two September 11 Terrorists: A Review of the INS's Admissions of Mohamed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi, its Processing of their Change of Status Applications, and its Efforts to Track Foreign Students in the United States U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General 20-May-2002 To be incorporated
    • portal.telegraph.co.uk (report that not all of the "hijackers" were actually on the planes)

    • Saudis Say Cash to Friend of Hijackers Was Charity, The New York Times, November 24, 2002 to be incorporated
      
      

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      There were reports that the Palestinian group DFLP (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine) took responsibility for the crashes, but this was denied by a senior officer of the group soon after. There are filmed reports of celebrations on the West Bank, although according to articles in the German magazine Stern and the Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter at least one of them was staged. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat denounced the attacks, saying it was counterproductive to any peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

      Next in line to claim responsibility were the Taliban of Afghanistan. The Taliban government subsequently denounced the attack and claimed that it was not connected to Osama bin Laden, the terrorist living in Afghanistan who the U.S. government declared the prime suspect.

      Although bin Laden's Al-Qaida organization has never explicitly claimed responsibility, it has praised the attacks and hinted that it was behind them and planning more. The group's spokesman, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, said in a video sent to al-Jazeera and broadcast in October 2001: "Americans should know, the storm of the planes will not stop. ... There are thousands of the Islamic nation's youths who are eager to die just as the Americans are eager to live."

      Furthermore, intelligence experts speak of a "short list" of prime suspects -- groups that possess both the means and the motive to carry out the crime. It appears certain that all hijackers have Arabic origins, and none are Afghani; moreover, both in their immense scale, careful planning and refraining from claiming responsibility, the attacks are reminiscent of Al-Qaida's previous attacks.

      Virtually all world leaders, including traditional enemies of the United States such as Libyan president Qadhafi, Palestinian leader Arafat, Iranian president Khatami, and the Afghanistan Taliban government, denounced the attacks and expressed sympathy for the American people. An exception was Saddam Hussein, then ruler of Iraq, who called the attacks the fruits of U.S. crimes against humanity.

      Various Arab- and Muslim-world news sources carried opinion pieces and articles that pointed to some form of Zionist conspiracy to frame the Arab world to the benefit of Israel. It is interesting to note that in a Gallup survey of 10,000 inhabitants of sample countries with a Muslim majority, only 18% believed that the Arabs responsible.

      Worldwide, a significant minority see the attack as an outcome of past United States involvement in the Middle East and surrounding area. They believe that such acts of terrorism are only to be expected given the economic and cultural power of the United States and the multinational corporations which are identified with it. The creation of pockets of hatred, according to this viewpoint, is an inevitable consequence of the overwhelming outside economic pressure placed on poor countries with minimal control of their political destiny. Notwithstanding this, the majority of people in most nations also believe that terrorism is an absolute evil, and that cause does not equal justification. However, some people who believe this also criticize the US's War on Terrorism, fearing that a violent response will only continue the cycle.

      While Jemaah Islamiah head Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, would not get the spotlight in the United States until after the Bali nightclub bombings, he had a hand in the planning of September 11. His front company, Konsojaya, which was founded in 1994, helped fund Manila-based Operation Bojinka, which was a massive planned terrorist attack that would be foiled on January 5, 1995, when Filipino police found the project on honcho Ramzi Yousef's laptop in his apartment after a chemical fire broke out in the apartment. Yousef would get arrested in Pakistan the following month, but Khalid Sheik Mohammed ran away, and used plans and lessons learned to help shape September 11. Hambali's company was narrowly overlooked, so Hambali was able to go underground. He met with two of the September 11 hijackers, Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi in the 2000 Al Qaeda Summit in January 2000. He also gave money to alleged "20th hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui. Hambali got arrested in Thailand on August 11, 2003.

      September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack - Full Timeline
      

      In Memoriam - Casualties - Missing Persons - Survivors - Personal experiences
      

      Donations - Assistance - Closings and Cancellations - Memorials and Services
      

      US Governmental Response - Responsibility - Hijackers - Political effects - Economic effects

      See also: "War on Terrorism" -- U.S. invasion of Afghanistan -- 2001 anthrax attack -- World Trade Center -- The Pentagon -- New York City -- Washington, D.C -- AA Flight 11 -- UA Flight 75 -- AA Flight 77 -- UA Flight 93 -- U.S. Department of Defense -- Operation Bojinka -- terrorism -- domestic terrorism -- Osama bin Laden -- Taliban -- Islamism -- Afghanistan -- collective trauma -- September 11

      External Links & References

      Official document containing information from intelligence and criminal investigation as released by the British PM Tony Blair on his official webside, October 4, 2001: Responsibility for the terrorist atrocities in the United States, 11 September 2001. See:

      • http://www.pm.gov.uk/
      • http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=97692
      • http://news.bbc.co.uk/

      Also see
      • THE INVESTIGATION: Fugitive on F.B.I. List Arrested Outside Chicago, New York Times, 9/20/2001
      • Millions of shares sold before disaster, The Times, 9/18/2001

      For a non-Islamic perspective unreservedly justifying the attacks, see Indian communist revolutionary Vaskar Nandy's article in the Oct 27, 2001 issue of Economic and Political Weekly, Bombay, India.([1])
      
      

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      It is usually claimed that the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack had immediate and far-ranging economic effects. The overwhelming majority of these effects, however, were not a direct result of the terrorist attacks, but a consequence of the subsequent actions of western people and their governments. This is particularly so with regard to long-term economic changes, such as the worldwide decline in the aviation industry, which still shows no sign of recovering. Nevertheless, it is convenient to discuss the effects of the attacks themselves and the effects of later actions by western economies together.

      Numerous investment firms housed in the World Trade Center lost hundreds of employees, including Cantor Fitzgerald and Marsh & McLennan.

      Stock exchanges all over the world plummeted; many of them--including the London Stock Exchange--were evacuated. The New York Stock exchanges remained closed until the following Monday. Gold and oil prices spiked upwards. See also Stock market downturn of 2002.

      Travel and entertainment stocks fell, while communications, pharmaceutical and military/defense stocks rose. Online travel agencies particularly suffered, as they cater to leisure travel.

      The Times reported on 18th September that investigations are under way into the unusually large numbers of shares in insurance companies and airlines sold off before the attack, in London, Italy, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, France and the US

      U.S. gas prices briefly shot up.

      ScamBusters reported that some email pleas for relief funds for victims of the attacks were simply scams to procure credit card numbers from inexperienced web users. ScamBusters offered tips to help donors ensure their contributions went to the right places.

      Tourism in New York City plummeted, causing massive losses in a sector which employed 280,000 people and generated $25 billion per year. In the week following the attack, hotel occupancy falls below 40 percent, and 3000 employees are laid off. Tourism and hotel occupancy also falls drastically across the nation.

      Share prices of airlines and airplane manufacturers plummeted after the attacks. Midway Airlines, already on the brink of bankruptcy, shut down operations almost immediately afterwards. Other airlines were threatened with bankruptcy. Tens of thousands of layoffs were announced in the following week.

      The New York City projected budget deficit for the 2003 fiscal year which begins July 2002 ballooned from $2-$2.5 billion to approximately $4 billion, though most direct expenses related to the rescue and recovery effort are to be covered by the expected $40 billion in federal aid. However, the related drop in tourism and Lower Manhattan tax revenue is not expected to be covered.

      Over the following months and years, western economies (the United States in particular) diverted massive sums away from productive activities and into activities that produce no economic return or even negative return, notably airport and aircraft security (producing long delays and depressing passenger numbers) and military action against states said to support terrorism. The total cost of the western reaction to the September 11th attacks is unknown, but clearly vastly higher than the cost of the attacks themselves.

      See also Closings and Cancellations.

      • Attack Gave a Devastating Shove to the City's Teetering Economy, The New York Times, September 8, 2002
      • As Companies Scatter, Doubts on Return of Financial District, The New York Times, September 16, 2002

      September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack - Full Timeline
      In Memoriam - Casualties - Missing Persons - Survivors - Personal experiences
      Donations - Assistance - Closings and Cancellations - Memorials and Services
      US Governmental Response - Responsibility - Hijackers - Political effects - Economic effects

      See also: "War on Terrorism" -- U.S. invasion of Afghanistan -- 2001 anthrax attack -- World Trade Center -- The Pentagon -- New York City -- Washington, D.C -- AA Flight 11 -- UA Flight 75 -- AA Flight 77 -- UA Flight 93 -- U.S. Department of Defense -- Operation Bojinka -- terrorism -- domestic terrorism -- Osama bin Laden -- Taliban -- Islamism -- Afghanistan -- collective trauma -- September 11