This weekend's web log is on the topic of 9/11. I will be elaborating on the subject for you.
Before The planning of the attacks are rumored to have taken place all the way back to 1996, when Khalid Sheikh Mohammed presented the idea to Osama Bin Laden. This was during a point of transition, when Bin Laden and al-Qaeda had moved back to Afghanistan from Sudan. Apparently, the US was warned of the planning of attacks, as the Director of Central Intelligence Counterterrorist Center (what a tongue-twister) reported to then President Clinton that they had the personnel trained in aircraft hijacking.
Later in the year, Bin Laden gave Mohammed approval to move forward with the plan and to continue organization. Bin Laden provided leadership and financial support, while Mohammed supplied the operational support, which included travel arrangements and potential targets. One target was the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles, which Bin Laden quickly rejected, claiming "there was not ample time to prepare for such an operation."
This is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of the masterminds behind to 9/11 attacks, and potentially the most generic looking terrorist you can imagine.
The Attacks The fateful attacks took place on the early morning of September 11th, of 2001. Everything felt normal until nineteen terrorists, all hand-picked by Bin Laden himself, hijacked 4 different planes headed to California and re-routed them. Two planes had hit the World Trade Center's North and South Towers (NYC) within fifteen minutes of one another. Thirty minutes of crying and screaming later, more chaos struck when a third plane hit the Pentagon, which is located in Arlington, Virginia.
A fourth plane headed towards the White House in Washington D.C. was fortunately made a crash landing when passengers on board decided to stop the terrorists from further ruining our day.
It had been reported that those who hijacked the planes used multi-purpose tools, boxcutters, and even mace to harm the pilots, flight attendants and patients to get what they want.
This is a picture of the Twin Towers after the collision of the hijacked planes
The Aftermath The total that was collected showed that nearly 6,000 people, including
the hijackers, emergency workers and bypassers who lost their lives in this horrid event. It was estimated that around 17,400 people were in the World Trade Center at the time, but only 2,600 people died, which may sound bad, but is actually a great ratio for a plane or two smashing into the side. People were desperate to escape the burning building, and some even resorted to jumping out the windows. Numerous buildings near the site of the World Trade Center were also damaged, which just tacks on the the countless number in dollars required to fix such a horrible mess.
I honestly think this just a horrible act of terrorism, which should never happen. I also think that it's insane people will sacrifice their lives just to prove a point. People shouldn't hate others because of religious beliefs. Everyone can only hope events like these will never occur again. Those who lost their lives and families affected by 9/11 should always be commomerated.
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