MINISTERUL EDUCAŢIEI CERCETĂRII ŞI TINERETULUI

Profesor coordonator : Realizator :

POPA IULIANA CATANĂ ALINA

2008

Contents
Chapter I : The descriptions of World Trade Center
1.1 Planning and construction …………………………………3
1.2 The complex ……………………………………………….6
1.3 Life of the World Trade Center ……………………………8

1.3.1. February 13, 1975 fire………………………………..9

1.3.2. Bombing of February 26,1993 ………………………9
1.3.3. Lease ………………………………………………...13
1.3.4. September 11, 2001 …………………………………14

Chapter II : The attacks of the 11th september 2001

2.1. The attacks………………………………………………..15
2.1.1. Fatalities……………………………………….17
2.1.2. Damage………………………………………..18
2.1.3. Survivors………………………………………18
2.2. Responsibility
2.2.1. The hijackers…………………………………..19
2.2.2. Other potential hijackers………………………19
2.2.3. Osama bin Laden……………………………...20
2.2.4. Other al-Qaeda members……………………...21
2.2.5. Motive…………………………………………21
2.3. Reactions
2.3.1. International reaction…………………………23
2.3.2. Public response……………………………….24
2.3.3. Muslim American reaction…………………...24

2.4. U.S. Gonernement response

2.4.1. Rescue,recovery,and compensation…………….25
2.4.2. Immediate national response…………………...25
2.4.3. The War on Terrorism………………………….26
2.4.4. Domestic response……………………………...26
2.4.5. Investigations…………………………………...26

Chapter III : The effects of the dissaster

3.1. Long term effects…………………………………………..28
3.2. Memorials …………………………………………………30
3.3. Film and media…………………………………………….30
3.4. Rebuilding the World Trade Center………………………..31

Bibliography …………………………………………….33

Annexe……………………………………………………34

Chapter I : The descriptions of World Trade Center

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 The World Trade Center in New York City, United States, (sometimes informally
referred to as the WTC or the Twin Towers) was a complex of seven buildings in Lower
Manhattan, mostly designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki and engineer Leslie Robertson and
developed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It was initiated in 1960 by a
Lower Manhattan Association created and chaired by David Rockefeller, who had the original
idea of building the center, with strong backing from the then-New York governor, his brother
Nelson Rockefeller.The World Trade Center, New York, like most World Trade Centers located
around the globe, belonged to the family of World Trade Centers Association. Prior to its
destruction, Larry Silverstein held the most recent lease to the complex, the Port Authority
having leased it to him in July 2001.The complex, located in the heart of New York City's
downtown financial district, contained 13.4 million square feet (1.24 million m²) of office space,
almost four percent of Manhattan's entire office inventory at that time.
Best known for its iconic 110-story twin towers (101 usable floors, eight engineering-
only "service" floors on top of a lobby which was three stories high) the World Trade Center was
beset by a fire on February 13, 1975 and a bombing on February 26, 1993.

All seven original buildings in the complex were destroyed by terrorists linked to Al-
Qaeda on September 11, 2001. Three of the buildings collapsed: One World Trade Center (1
WTC, the North Tower), Two World Trade Center (2 WTC, the South Tower), and 7 World
Trade Center (7 WTC). The Marriott World Trade Center (3 WTC) was crushed by the collapses
of 1 WTC and 2 WTC. 4 World Trade Center (4 WTC), 5 World Trade Center (5 WTC), and 6
World Trade Center (6 WTC) were damaged beyond repair and later demolished. Three
buildings not part of the complex were also destroyed: St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was
destroyed by the collapse of 2 WTC. The Deutsche Bank Building and Borough of Manhattan
Community College's Fiterman Hall were damaged beyond repair by the collapse of 7 WTC;
these are currently being deconstructed.

1.1 Planning and construction

During the post-World War II period, the United States thrived economically, with
increasing international trade. At the time, economic growth in New York City was concentrated
in Midtown Manhattan, with Lower Manhattan left out. To help stimulate urban renewal, David
Rockefeller, with support from his brother, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, suggested
that the Port Authority should build a "world trade center" in Lower Manhattan.[6] Initial plans,
made public in 1961, identified a site along the East River for the World Trade Center.
Objections to the plan came from New Jersey Governor Robert B. Meyner, who resented that
New York would be getting this $335 million project. Meanwhile, New Jersey's Hudson and
Manhattan Railroad (H&M) was facing bankruptcy. Port Authority executive director, Austin J.
Tobin agreed to take over control of the H&M Railroad, in exchange for support from New
Jersey for the World Trade Center project.

With this acquisition, the Port Authority would obtain the Hudson Terminal, and decrepit
buildings located above the terminal in Lower Manhattan. The Port Authority decided to
demolish these buildings, and use this site along the Hudson River for the World Trade
Center.The towers in the complex were designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki with Antonio
Brittiochi and Emery Roth & Sons as associate architects. The World Trade Center was one of
the most striking American implementations of the architectural ethic of Le Corbusier, as well as
the seminal expression of Yamasaki's gothic modernist tendencies.

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 a. Structural design (see annexe 1.1. a)

The World Trade Center included many structural engineering innovations in skyscraper
design and construction. The towers were designed as framed tube structures. There was a frame
of closely-spaced columns tied together by deep spandrel beams along the exterior perimeter.
The interior had 47 columns, all concentrated in the core. Engineer Felix Samuely used a similar
concept in his "Mullion wall" buildings in the early 1950s as did Eero Saarinen in his US
Embassy, London (1955-60); but these projects were low to medium rise and may not have been
influences.

The perimeter columns supported virtually all lateral loads, such as wind loads, and
shared the gravity loads with the core columns. All columns were founded on bedrock, which
unlike Midtown Manhattan, where the bedrock is shallow, is at 65 feet (20m) below the surface.
Above the seventh floor there were 59 perimeter columns along each face of the building. The
perimeter columns had a square cross section, 14 inches on a side (36 cm), and were constructed
of welded steel plate. The thickness of the plates and grade of steel were varied over the height
of the tower, ranging from 36 ksi to 100 ksi, with the steel strength and plate thickness
decreasing with height. The perimeter structure was constructed with extensive use of
prefabricated modular pieces, which consisted of three columns, three stories tall, connected
together by spandrel plates. The spandrel plates were welded to the columns at the fabrication
shop. The modular pieces were typically 52 inches (1.3 m) deep, and extended for two full floors
and half of two more floors.

Adjacent modules were bolted together, with the splices occurring at mid-span of the
columns and spandrels. The spandrel plates were located at each floor, and served to transmit
shear flow between columns, thus allowing them to work together in resisting lateral loads. The
joints between modules were staggered vertically, so the column splices between adjacent
modules were not at the same floor.

The building's core housed the elevator and utility shafts, restrooms, three stairwells, and
other support spaces. The core in 1 WTC was oriented with the long axis east to west, while that
of 2 WTC was oriented north to south. The core of each tower was a rectangular area 87 by 135
feet (27 by 41 m) and contained 47 steel columns running from the bedrock to the top of the
tower. The columns tapered with height, and consisted of welded box sections at lower floors
and rolled wide-flange sections at upper floors. All of the elevators and stairwells were located in
the core.

The large, column-free space between the perimeter and core was bridged by
prefabricated floor trusses. The floors supported their own weight, as well as live loads, provided
lateral stability to the exterior walls, and distributed wind loads among the exterior walls. The
floors consisted of 4 inch (10 cm) thick lightweight concrete slabs laid on a fluted steel deck. A
grid of lightweight bridging trusses and main trusses supported the floors. The trusses had a span
of 60 feet (18.2 m) in the long-span areas and 35 feet (11.0 m) in the short span area. The trusses
connected to the perimeter at alternate columns, and were therefore on 6 foot 8 inch (2.03 m)
centers. The top chords of the trusses were bolted to seats welded to the spandrels on the exterior
side and a channel welded to the core columns on the interior side. The floors were connected to
the perimeter spandel plates with vicsoelastic dampers, which helped reduce the amount of sway
felt by building occupants. The trusses supported a 4-inch (10 cm) thick lightweight concrete
floor slab, with shear connections for composite action.

Hat trusses (or "outrigger truss") located from the 107th floor to the top of the buildings were
designed to support a tall communications antenna on top of each building, though only 1 WTC

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(north tower) actually had an antenna. The truss system consisted of six trusses along the long
axis of core and four along the short axis. This truss system allowed some load redistribution
between the perimeter and core columns and supported the transmission tower.

b. Design innovations

To solve the problem of wind sway or vibration in the construction of the towers, chief
engineer Leslie Robertson took a then unusual approach — instead of bracing the buildings
corner-to-corner or using internal walls, the towers were essentially hollow steel tubes
surrounding a central core and perimeter columns sharing the loads. The 208 feet (63.4 m) wide
facade was, in effect, a prefabricated steel lattice, with columns on 39 inch (100 cm) centers
acting as wind bracing to resist all overturning forces; the central core took the majority of the
gravity loads of the building. A very light, economical structure was built by keeping the wind
bracing in the most efficient area, the outside surface of the building, thus not transferring the
forces through the floor membrane to the core, as in most curtain-wall structures. The core
supported the weight of the entire building and the outer shell containing 240 vertical steel
columns called around the outside of the building, which were bound to each other using
ordinary steel trusses. In addition, 10,000 dampers were included in the structure. With the large
core and high load-bearing perimeter for structural integrity, Robertson created a tower that was
extremely light for its size.

The buildings were also the second supertall buildings to use sky lobbies, after the John
Hancock Center in Chicago. Skylobbies are floors where commuters can switch from an express
elevator that goes only to the sky lobbies to a local elevator that goes to each floor in a section.
The local elevators were stacked on top of each other, within the same elevator shaft. Located on
the 44th and 78th floors of each tower, the sky lobbies enabled the elevators to be used
efficiently while taking up a minimum of valuable office space. Altogether, the World Trade
Center had 95 express and local elevators. This system was inspired by the New York City
Subway system, whose lines include local stations where local trains stop and express stations
where all trains stop.[

The site of the World Trade Center was located on landfill, with the bedrock located
65 feet (20 m) below.[12] In order to construct the World Trade Center, it was necessary to build
the "bathtub", with the slurry wall along the West Street side of the site, which serves the
purpose of keeping water from the Hudson River out. The slurry method involves digging a
trench, and as excavation proceeds, filling the space with a "slurry" mixture, composed of
bentonite, which plugs holes and keeps water out. When the trench was dug out, a steel cage was
inserted, with concrete poured in, forcing the "slurry" out. The "slurry" method was devised by
the Port Authority's chief engineer, John M. Kyle, Jr.

c. Construction

Groundbreaking for the construction of the World Trade Center was on August 5,
1966.[13] The construction was under the auspices of the semiautonomous Port Authority of
New York and New Jersey. Thirteen square blocks of low rise buildings in Radio Row, some
of which predated the American Civil War, were razed to clear the site for construction.

The excavation of the foundations of the WTC complex, known as the Bathtub, was
particularly complicated since there were two subway tubes close by needing protection without
service interruption. A six-level basement was built in the foundations. The excavation of about 1
million cubic yards (760,000 m³) of earth and rock created a $90 million real estate asset for the
project owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which helped offset the

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enormous loss in revenues which came from the tax breaks given to the Trade Center itself. The
soil was used to create 23 acres (93,000 m²) of landfill in the Hudson River next to the World
Trade Center site, which became the site of Battery Park City (still under development).

In 1970, construction was completed on One World Trade Center, with its first tenants
moving into the building in December 1970. Tenants first moved into Two World Trade Center in
January 1972. When the World Trade Center twin towers were completed, the total costs to the
Port Authority had reached $900 million. The ribbon cutting ceremony was on April 4, 1973.

d. Architectural criticism

Although the towers became an undeniable symbol of New York City, they were not
without flaws and were handicapped in many ways. Initially conceived (as the name suggests) as
a complex dedicated to companies and organizations directly taking part in "world trade," they at
first failed to attract the expected clientele. During the early years, various governmental
organizations became key tenants of the World Trade Center, including the State of New York. It
was not until the 1980s that the city's perilous financial state eased, after which an increasing
number of private companies — mostly financial firms tied to Wall Street — became tenants.

Moreover, the trade center's "superblock", which replaced a more traditional, dense
neighborhood, was regarded by some critics as an inhospitable environment that disrupted the
complicated traffic network typical of Manhattan. For example, in his book The Pentagon of
Power, the technical historian Lewis Mumford denounced the center as an "example of the
purposeless giantism and technological exhibitionism that are now eviscerating the living tissue
of every great city." On the other hand, Mr. Yamasaki saw the expanse as a focal point of serenity
amidst the chaos of the city. The twin towers' narrow office windows, only 18 inches (460 mm)
wide, were also disliked by many for impairing the view from the buildings. This design element
reflected on Yamasaki's fear of heights and desire to make building occupants secure with narrow
windows.

For many years, the immense Austin J. Tobin Plaza was unwelcoming, and often beset by
brisk winds at the ground level. In 1999, the outdoor plaza reopened after undergoing $12
million renovations, which involved replacing marble pavers with gray and pink granite stones,
adding new benches, planters, new restaurants and food kiosks, and outdoor dining areas. In later
years, the plaza became a center for outdoor concerts and other activities.

1.2 The complex

a. The Twin Towers

Ultimately the complex came to consist of seven buildings, but its most notable features
were the main twin towers. Each of the WTC towers had 110 stories. 1 WTC (the North Tower,
which featured a massive 360-foot (110 m) high TV and radio antenna added in 1978) stood
1,368 feet (417 m) high, and 2 WTC (the South Tower, which contained the observation deck)
was 1,362 feet (415 m) highThe length and breadth of the towers were 208 feet (63.4 m) x 208
feet (63.4 m). Although only Tower 1 featured an antenna, the structure of each building was
designed to carry a broadcast mast, and in the basement of the complex, The Mall at the World
Trade Center was Manhattan's largest mall until 9-11

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 When completed in 1972, 1 WTC became the tallest building on Earth, unseating the
Empire State Building after a 40 year reign. 2 WTC became the second tallest building in the
world when completed in 1973. The difference in height between the two towers was because of
a Port Authority request to have two floors, the 43rd and the 67th, in 1 WTC raised, the lower of
the taller floors being a cafeteria for PANY workers. 2 WTC did not need these facilities, so it
remained 1,362 feet (415 m). Regardless, the WTC towers held the height record only briefly. As
the building neared completion in 1973, work had already begun on Chicago's Sears Tower,
which ultimately reached 1,450 feet (442 m). With the World Trade Center's destruction, the
Empire State Building again became the tallest building in New York, after spending almost 30
years as the third-tallest in the city.

The towers' sheer size was the subject of a joke during a press conference unveiling the
landmarks. Minoru Yamasaki was asked: "Why two 110-story buildings? Why not one 220-story
building?" His response was: "I didn't want to lose the human scale". Another popular joke
among New York urbanites that died out late in the 1970s from overtelling was that the towers
looked like the boxes in which the Chrysler Building and Empire State Building were packaged.

Of the 110 stories, eight were set aside for technical services (mechanical floors) Level
B6/B5, Floors 7/8, 41/42, 75/76 and 108/109, in four two-floor areas evenly spread up the
building. All the remaining floors were free for open-plan offices. Each floor of the towers had
40,000 square feet (3,700 m²) of space for occupancy. Each tower had 3.8 million square feet
(350,000 m²) of office space. Altogether the entire complex of seven buildings had 11.2 million
square feet (1.04 km²) of space.

During the 1990s, approximately 500 companies had offices in the complex, including
many financial companies such as Morgan Stanley, Aon Corporation, Salomon Brothers, as well
as the Port Authority itself. Electrical service to the towers was supplied by Consolidated Edison
(ConEd) at 13,800 volts. This service passed through the World Trade Center Primary
Distribution Center (PDC) and sent up through the core of the building to electrical substations
located on the mechanical floors. The substations "stepped" the 13,800 primary voltage down to
480/277 volt secondary power and further to 120/208 volt general power and lighting service.
The complex also was served by emergency generators located in the sublevels of the towers and
on the roof of 5 WTC.

The 110th Floor of 1 WTC (North Tower) housed commercial and public service radio &
television transmission equipment. The roof of 1 WTC contained a vast array of transmission
antennas, including the 360 ft (approx 110m) center antenna mast, which was rebuilt in 1999 by
Dielectric Inc. to accommodate DTV. The center mast contained the television signals for almost
all NYC television broadcasters: WCBS-TV 2, WNBC-TV 4, WNYW 5, WABC-TV 7, WWOR-
TV 9 Secaucus, WPIX 11, WNET 13 Newark, WPXN-TV 31, and WNJU 47. It also had four
NYC FM broadcasters on it as well: WPAT-FM 93.1, WNYC 93.9, WKCR 89.9, and WKTU
103.5. Access to the roof was controlled from the WTC Operations Control Center (OCC)
located in the B1 level of 2 WTC.

The World Trade Center complex was protected by an extensive fire detection and voice
evacuation paging system upgraded after the 1993 bombing. Fire Command Stations, staffed by
Fire Safety Directors were located in the lobbies of each building and the Operations Control
Center (OCC) monitored these systems. An extensive study of the performance of World Trade
Center Fire Protection Systems was conducted by the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) following 2001-09-11.

b. Observation deck and Windows on the World

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 Although most of the space in the WTC complex was off-limits to the general public, 2
WTC (South Tower) featured a public observation area named "Top Of The World." When
visiting the observation deck, visitors would first pass through security checks added after the
1993 World Trade Center bombing. Next, visitors were whisked to the 107th floor indoor
observatory at a height of 1,310 feet (399 m) and greeted with a 360 degree view of the New
York City skyline, and exhibitions including a three-dimensional scale model of Manhattan, and
a simulated helicopter ride around the city. Weather permitting, visitors could take two short
escalator rides up from the 107th floor and visit what was the world's highest outdoor viewing
platform. At a height of 1,377 feet (420 m), visitors were able to take in a view of the North
Tower and New York City unlike any other. On a clear day, visitors could see up to 49 miles (78
km) in any given direction. An anti-suicide fence was placed on the roof itself, with the viewing
platform set back and elevated above it, requiring only an ordinary railing and leaving the view
unobstructed, unlike the observation deck of the Empire State Building.

The North Tower (1 WTC) had a restaurant on the 107th floor called Windows on the World,
which was an elegant restaurant known as a place for big celebrations, such as weddings. In its
last full year of operation, 2000, Windows on the World reported revenues of $37.5 million,
making it the highest-grossing restaurant in the United States.

c. The other buildings

Five smaller buildings stood around the 16 acre (65,000 m²) block. One was the 22-floor
Vista Hotel (3 WTC) at the southwest corner of the site, that was crushed between the two
towers. Three low-rise buildings (4 WTC, 5 WTC, and 6 WTC) in the same hollow tube design
as the towers also stood around the plaza. 6 World Trade Center, at the north west corner, housed
the United States Customs Service and the U.S. Commodities Exchange. 5 World Trade Center
was located at the northeast corner, above the PATH station, and 4 World Trade Center was at the
southeast corner. In 1987, a 47-floor office building called 7 WTC was built north of the block.
Beneath the World Trade Center complex was an underground shopping mall, which in turn had
connections to various mass transit facilities, including the New York City Subway system and
the Port Authority's own PATH trains connecting Manhattan to Jersey City, Hoboken, and
Newark.

One of the world's largest gold depositories was stored underneath the World Trade
Center, owned by a group of commercial banks. The 1993 bomb detonated close to the vault, but
it withstood the explosion, as did the towers. Seven weeks after the September 11th attacks, $230
million in precious metals were removed from basement vaults of 4 WTC, which included 3,800
100-Troy-ounce registered gold bars and 30,000 1,000-ounce silver bars.

1.3 Life of the World Trade Center

On a typical weekday 50,000 people worked in the towers, with another 200,000 passing
through as visitors. The complex was so large that it had its own zip code, 10048. The towers
offered spectacular views from the observation deck (located on top of the South Tower) and the
Windows on the World restaurant (located on top of the North Tower). The Twin Towers became
known worldwide, appearing in movies, TV shows, postcards, merchandise, magazines and
much more, and became a New York icon, such as the Empire State Building, or Statue of

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Liberty. French high wire acrobatic performer Philippe Petit walked between the towers on a
tightrope in 1974, and Brooklyn toymaker George Willig scaled the south tower in 1977.

1.31. February 13, 1975 fire

On February 13, 1975, the WTC North Tower was beset by a fire which spread over
nearly half of the 11th floor. The fire spread to other floors through openings in the floor slabs
which were used to carry phone wires. The fires on other floors were extinguished almost
immediately, and the main fire was put out in a few hours. Fireproofing protected the steel from
melting and there was no structural damage to the tower. This event led to the installation of a
sprinkler system in both towers. Firefighters claim that had the sprinklers been installed when the
tower was built, the fire probably would not have spread as much as it did. Other than the
damage caused by the fire, a few floors below suffered water damage from the extinguishing of
the fires above.

1.3.2. 1993 World Trade Center bombing

In the 1993 World Trade Center bombing (February 26, 1993) a car bomb was
detonated below Tower One of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,500-lb (680 kg)
urea nitrate-hydrogen gas enhanced device[1] was intended to knock the North Tower (Tower
One) into Tower Two, bringing both towers down and killing thousands of people. It failed to do
so, but did kill six people and injured 1,042.

The attack was planned by a group of conspirators including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud
Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin and Ahmad Ajaj. They
received financing from al-Qaeda memberKhaled Shaikh Mohammed, Yousef's uncle. In March
1994, four men were convicted of carrying out the bombing: Abouhalima, Ajaj, Ayyad and
Salameh. The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property and interstate
transportation of explosives. And in November 1997, two more were convicted: Yousef, the
mastermind behind the bombings, and Eyad Ismoil, who drove the truck carrying the bomb.

The bomb exploded in the underground garage at 12:18 P.M., generating a pressure
estimated over one GPa and opening a 30-meter-wide hole through four sublevels of concrete.
The detonation velocity of this bomb was about 15,000 ft/s (4.5 km/s). a quote from the claim of
responsibility letter written by one of the terrorists, "We are, the Liberation Army fifth battalion,
again. Unfortunately, our calculations were not very accurate this time. However, we promise
you that next time it will be very precise and World Trade Center will continue to be one [of] our
targets unless our demands have been met.

 Planning and organization

Ramzi Yousef, born in Kuwait, began in 1991 to plan a bombing attack within the United
States. Yousef's uncle Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Ali Fadden, who later was considered "the
principal architect of the 9/11 attacks," gave him advice and tips over the phone, and funded him
with a US$660 wire transfer.

Yousef entered the United States with a false Iraqi passport in 1992. Police found
instructions on making a bomb in Yousef's partner; Ahmed Ajaj's luggage. The name Abu Barra,
an alias of Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, appeared in the manuals. Yousef's partner was arrested on
the spot for his false passport and his bombmaking instructions. Immigration and Naturalization
Service (INS) holding cells were overcrowded, and Yousef, claiming political asylum, was given
a hearing date.

9
 Yousef set up residence on Nicole Pickett Avenue in Jersey City, New Jersey, traveled
around New York and New Jersey and called Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a controversial blind
Muslim cleric, via cell phone. After being introduced to his co-conspirators by Abdel Rahman at
the latter's Al-Farooq Mosque in Brooklyn, Yousef began assembling the 1,500-lb urea nitrate-
hydrogen gas enhanced device for delivery to the WTC. He ordered chemicals from his hospital
room when injured in a car crash - one of three accidents caused by Salameh in late 1992 and
early in 1993.

El Sayyid Nosair, one of the blind sheik's men, was arrested in 1991 for the murder of
Rabbi Meir Kahane. According to prosecutors, "the Red" Mahmud Abouhalima, also convicted
in the bombing, told Wadih el Hage to buy the .38 caliber revolver used by Nosair in the Kahane
shooting. In the initial court case in NYS Criminal Court Nosair was acquitted of murder but
convicted of gun charges. (In a related and followup case in Federal Court, he was convicted).
Dozens of Arabic bomb-making manuals and documents related to terrorist plots were found in
Nosair's New Jersey apartment, with manuals from Army Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg,
North Carolina, secret memos linked to Joint Chiefs of Staff, and 1440 rounds of ammunition.
(Lance 2004 26 )

 Bomb characteristics

Yousef was assisted by Iraqi bomb maker Abdul Rahman Yasin .Yasin's complex 1310 lb
(600 kg) bomb was made of a urea nitrate main charge with aluminum, magnesium and ferric
oxide distributed throughout, and several "booster" explosive components.He also used three
tanks of bottled hydrogen to enhance the fireball and afterburn of the bomb. The use of
compressed gas cylinders in this type of attack closely resembles the 1983 Beirut barracks
bombing 10 years earlier.

The Ryder van used in the bombing had 295 ft³ (8.3 m³) of space, which would hold up to
a ton (907 kg) of explosives. However, the van was not filled to capacity. Yousef used four 20 ft
(6 m) long fuses, all covered in surgical tubing. Yasin calculated that the fuse would trigger the
bomb in twelve minutes after he had used a cigarette lighter to light the fuse.

Yousef wanted the smoke to remain in the tower, therefore catching the public eye by smothering
people inside, killing them slowly. He anticipated Tower One collapsing onto Tower Two after
the blast.

 Yousef's view of the attack

According to the journalist Steve Coll, Yousef mailed letters to various New York newspapers
just before the attack, in which he claimed he belonged to 'Israel's Army, Fifth Battalion'. These
letters made three demands: an end to all US aid to Israel, an end to US diplomatic relations with
Israel, and a demand for a pledge by the United States to end interference "with any of the
Middle East countries interior affairs." He stated that the attack on the World Trade Center would
be merely the first of such attacks if his demands were not met. In his letters Yousef admitted
that the World Trade Center bombing was an act of terrorism, but that this was justified because
"the terrorism that Israel practices (which America supports) must be faced with a similar one."

 Connection to Mujahideen and US training

The perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing used a manual written by the
CIA for the mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan on how to make explosives. Sheik Abdel
Rahman was allowed to come to the U.S. to recruit Arab-Americans to fight in Afghanistan
10
against the Soviets. The early foundations of al-Qaida were built in part on relationships and
weaponry that came from the substantial U.S. support for the Afghan mujahideen during the war
to expel Soviet forces from that country. The role of the U.S. in arming, training, and supporting
the radical Islamic Mujahideen of Afghanistan in the 1980s has been called the model for state-
sponsored terrorist.The attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the attack on the
USS Cole, and the attacks of 11 September all have been linked to individuals and groups that at
one time were armed and trained by the United States and/or its allies.

 The attack
The bomb exploded in the underground garage at 12:17 pm, generating a pressure
estimated over one GPa and opening a 30-meter-wide (98 foot) hole through four sublevels of
concrete. The detonation velocity of this bomb was about 15,000 ft/s (4.5 km/s). Contrary to
popular belief there was no cyanide gas attached to the bomb, although Yousef had considered
adding cyanide to the bomb, and is said to have regretted not doing so in Peter Lance's book
1000 Years For Revenge.

Six people were killed and 1,040 others were injured, most during the evacuation that followed
the blast. The towers were not destroyed as Yousef intended. However, the WTC’s architect
would later tell jurors that if the van had been left closer to the poured concrete foundations, they
would have succeeded; the tower would have toppled.Yousef escaped to Pakistan several hours
later.

The bomb cut off the center's main electrical power line and cut off telephone service for
much of lower Manhattan. The bomb caused smoke to rise up to the 93rd floor of both towers,
and cut off the towers' four stairwells and emergency lighting system. Also as a result of the loss
of electricity most of New York City's radio and television stations lost their over-the-air
broadcast signal for almost a week, with television stations only being able to broadcast via cable
and satellite via a microwave hookup between the stations and three of the New York area's
largest cable companies, Cablevision, Comcast, and Time Warner Cable.

 Aftermath and arrests

Agents and bomb technicians of the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms (ATF) responded to the scene of the blast. An ATF bomb technician subsequently found
the axle in the bomb crater with the VIN of the Ryder truck that was used to contain the
explosives. Further investigation by ATF found that the vehicle had been rented by a Palestinian
named Mohammad Salameh. Yousef's friends reported the van was stolen in an attempt to slow
investigators down.

On March 4, 1993 authorities announced the capture of Salameh. In a sweep the same
day, Salameh's arrest led to the apartment of Abdul Rahman Yasin in Jersey City, New Jersey,
which Yasin was sharing with his mother, in the same building as Ramzi Yousef's apartment.
Yasin was taken to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters in Newark, New Jersey,
and was then released. The next day, he flew back to Iraq, via Amman, Jordan. Yasin was later
indicted for the attack, and in 2001 he was placed on the initial list of the FBI Most Wanted
Terrorists, on which he remains a fugitive today. He disappeared prior to 2003's U.S. coalition
invasion in Operation Iraqi Freedom. In March 1994, Salameh, Nidal Ayyad, Mahmud
Abouhalima and Ahmad Ajaj were each convicted for the World Trade Center bombing. In May
1994, they were sentenced to life imprisonment.

11
 The capture of Salameh and Yasin led authorities to Ramzi Yousef's apartment, where
they found bomb-making materials and a business card from Mohammed Jamal Khalifa. Khalifa
was arrested in relation to the crime on December 14, 1994, and was deported to Jordan by the
INS on May 5, 1995. He was acquitted by a Jordanian court and lived as a free man in Saudi
Arabia until his death in 2007.

 Impact

Despite its relatively low death toll, the bombing shocked the American public.According to
testimony in the bomb trial, only once before the 1993 attack had the FBI recorded a bomb that
used urea nitrate.[12][13] The FBI has recorded a total of about 73,000 explosions.

 Memorial

A granite memorial fountain honoring the six victims of the bombing was designed by
Elyn Zimmerman and dedicated in 1995 on Austin J. Tobin Plaza, directly above the site of the
explosion. It contained the names of the six people who perished in the attack as well as an
inscription that read:

"On February 26, 1993, a bomb set by terrorists exploded below this site. This horrible
act of violence killed innocent people, injured thousands, and made victims of us all."

The fountain was destroyed during the September 11, 2001 attacks. A recovered fragment
from the 1993 bombing memorial with the text "John" (from John DiGiovanni, a victim) is being
used as the centerpiece of a new memorial honoring the victims of the 2001 attack.

 Allegations of FBI foreknowledge

In the course of the trial it was revealed that the FBI had an informant, a former Egyptian
army officer named Emad A. Salem. Salem claims to have informed the FBI of the plot to bomb
the towers as early as February 6, 1992. Salem's role as informant allowed the FBI to quickly
pinpoint the conspirators out of the hundreds of possible suspects.

Salem, initially believing that this was to be a sting operation, claimed that the FBI's
original plan was for Salem to supply the conspirators with a harmless powder instead of actual
explosive to build their bomb, but that the FBI chose to use him for other purposes instead. He
secretly recorded hundreds of hours of telephone conversations with his FBI handlers.

In December 1993, James M. Fox, the head of the FBI's New York Office, denied that the
FBI had any foreknowledge of the attacks. The 1993 WTC sting operation was depicted as a
false flag operation and was a plot device for the 1996 fictional movie The Long Kiss Goodnight
with Geena Davis.] Allegations of Iraqi involvement

In October 2001 in a PBS interview, former Clinton CIA Director James Woolsey argued
a supposed link between Ramzi Youssef and the Iraqi intelligence services. He suggested the
grand jury investigation turned up evidence pointing to Iraq that the Clinton Justice Department
"brushed aside." Neil Herman, who headed the FBI investigation, noted that despite Yasin's
presence in Baghdad, there was no evidence of Iraqi support for the attack. "We looked at that
rather extensively," he told CNN terrorism analyst Peter L. Bergen. "There were no ties to the
Iraqi government." Bergen writes, "In sum, by the mid-'90s, the Joint Terrorism Task Force in
New York, the F.B.I., the U.S. Attorney's office in the Southern District of New York, the C.I.A.,

12
the N.S.C., and the State Department had all found no evidence implicating the Iraqi government
in the first Trade Center attack."

Claims that Saddam Hussein was behind the bombing are based on the research of Laurie
Mylroie of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. Her research has been heavily
criticized and terrorism experts consider her argument utterly baseless. Bergen, for example,
calls her a "crackpot" who claimed that "Saddam was not only behind the '93 Trade Center
attack, but also every anti-American terrorist incident of the past decade, from the bombings of
U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania to the leveling of the federal building in Oklahoma City
to September 11 itself." Daniel Benjamin, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, points out that "Mylroie's work has been carefully investigated by the CIA
and the FBI.... The most knowledgeable analysts and investigators at the CIA and at the FBI
believe that their work conclusively disproves Mylroie's claims.... Nonetheless, she has remained
a star in the neoconservative firmament." Dr. Robert Leiken of the Nixon Center comments on
the lack of evidence in her work: "Laurie has discovered Saddam’s hand in every major attack on
US interests since the Persian Gulf War, including U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and
even the federal building in Oklahoma City. These allegations have all been definitively refuted
by the FBI, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and other investigatory bodies...."

 Legal responsibility
The victims are suing the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for damages
connected to the bombings. A decision was handed down in 2006, assigning liability for the
bombings to the Port Authority. The decision declared that the agency was 68 percent
responsible for the bombing, and the terrorists bore only 32 percent of the responsibility. In
January 2008, the Port Authority asked a five-judge panel of Appellate Division of State
Supreme Court in Manhattan to throw out the decision, describing the jury’s verdict as "bizarre".

1.3.3. Lease

In 1998, plans were approved by the Port Authority to privatize the World Trade Center.
In 2001, the Port Authority sought to lease the World Trade Center to a private entity. Bids for
the lease came from Vornado Realty Trust, a joint bid between Brookfield Properties Corporation
and Boston Properties, and a joint bid by Silverstein Properties and The Westfield Group. By
privatizing the World Trade Center, it would be added to the city's tax rolls. The lease was also
intended to raise funds for other Port Authority projects. On February 15, 2001, the Port
Authority announced that Vornado Trust Realty had won the lease for the World Trade Center,
paying $3.25 billion for the 99-year lease. Vornado Realty outbid Silverstein by $600 million,
though Silverstein upped his offer to $3.22 billion. However, Vornado insisted on last minute
changes to the deal, including a shorter 39-year lease, which the Port Authority considered
nonnegotiable. Vornado later withdrew and Silverstein's bid for the lease to the World Trade
Center was accepted on April 26, 2001, and closed on July 24, 2001.

1.3.4 . September 11, 2001

13
 On September 11, 2001 at 8:46 a.m. Eastern Time, Al Qaeda suicide hijackers crashed
American Airlines Flight 11 into the northern facade of the North Tower. Seventeen minutes
later, at 9:03 a.m., a second team of hijackers crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the South
Tower,[36][37] which collapsed and disintegrated at 9:59 a.m. At 10:28 a.m., the North Tower
collapsed and disintegrated. At 5:20 p.m., 7 World Trade Center collapsed as a result of damage
from the North Tower's collapse. The four remaining buildings in the WTC plaza sustained
heavy damage from debris, and were ultimately demolished.

At the time of the incident, media reports suggested that tens of thousands might have
been killed in the massacre, as on any given day upwards of 50,000 people could be inside the
towers. Ultimately, 2,750 death certificates were filed relating to the 9/11 attacks, as of May 23,
2007. Of these, 1,614 (59%) were identified from recovered physical remains. 340 Emergency
personnel and 60 police officers were killed in the collapse of the Twin Towers. Morgan Stanley
was the largest tenant in the World Trade Center, with approximately 2,500 employees in the
South Tower and 1,000 in the North Tower. For the following 8½ months, the World Trade
Center site cleanup and recovery continued 24 hours a day and involved thousands of workers.
The massive pile of debris smoked and smoldered for 99 days.

Chapter II : The attacks of 11th september 2001

14
 The September 11, 2001 attacks (often referred to as 9/11) were a series of coordinated
suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States.

On that morning, nineteen terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial
passenger jet airliners. Each team of hijackers included a member who had undergone some pilot
training. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners (American Airlines Flight 11 and
United Airlines Flight 175) into the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane into each
tower (1 WTC and 2 WTC), resulting in the collapse of both buildings soon afterward and
extensive damage to nearby buildings. The hijackers crashed a third airliner (American Airlines
Flight 77) into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. Passengers
and members of the flight crew on the fourth aircraft (United Airlines Flight 93) attempted to
retake control of their plane from the hijackers; that plane crashed into a field near the town of
Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

Aside from the 19 hijackers, 2,974 people died as an immediate result of the attacks, and
the death of at least one person from lung disease was ruled by a medical examiner to be a result
of exposure to WTC dust.Another 24 people are missing and presumed dead, bringing the total
number of victims to 2,998, the overwhelming majority of whom were civilians. The dead
included nationals from over 80 different countries.

2.1. The attacks ( see annexe 2.1 )

Four commercial airliners were hijacked en route to California from Logan International,
Dulles International, and Newark airports. Each of the airliners had a jet fuel capacity of nearly
24,000 U.S. gallons (91,000 liters). Two of the airliners were flown into the World Trade Center,
one each into the North and South towers, one was flown into the Pentagon, and the fourth,
whose ultimate target was probably either the White House or the U.S. Capitol building, crashed
near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

• American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767-200[8] wide-body aircraft, crashed into the
northern side of the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) at 8:46:30 a.m. local
time (Eastern Daylight Time, 12:46:30 UTC), hitting at the 94-98th floors
• United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767-200, crashed into the 78-85th floors of the
South Tower at 9:02:59 a.m. local time (13:02:59 UTC), an event covered live by
television broadcasters and amateur filmers from around the world who had their cameras
trained on the buildings after the earlier crash.
• American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757-200, crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37:46 a.m.
local time (13:37:46 UTC).
• United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757-200, crashed in a field in southwest Pennsylvania
just outside of Shanksville, about 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Washington, D.C., at
10:03:11 a.m. local time (14:03:11 UTC). The crash in Pennsylvania resulted from the
passengers of the airliner attempting to regain control from the hijackers.

Three buildings in the World Trade Center Complex collapsed due to structural failure on
the day of the attack. The south tower (2 WTC) fell at approximately 9:59 a.m., after burning for
56 minutes in a fire caused by the impact of United Airlines Flight 175. The north tower (1
WTC) collapsed at 10:28 a.m., after burning for approximately 102 minutes. A third building, 7
World Trade Center (7 WTC) collapsed at 5:20 p.m. as a result of debris damage from 1 WTC
and subsequent fire.

15
 Tommy Dunn, a firefighter on the scene described the collapse of the tower. "I looked up
and I could very clearly see that the entire top section of the tower had begun to collapse and was
falling down on us. … The best I can compare it to is when you were a kid and you were in the
water and you ducked down, down, down and let a wave come over your head. That's what the
debris was like. It was spread so far that you were not gonna outrun this."

During the hijacking of the airplanes, some passengers and crew members were able to
make phone calls using the cabin GTE airphone service and mobile phones. They reported that
several hijackers were aboard each plane.

The terrorists reportedly took control of the aircraft by using knives and box-cutter knives
to kill flight attendants and at least one pilot or passenger, including the captain of Flight 11,
John Ogonowski.

Some form of noxious chemical spray, such as tear gas or pepper spray, was reported to
have been used on American 11 and United 175 to keep passengers out of the first-class cabin.
Bomb threats were made on three of the aircraft, but not on American 77. According to the 9/11
Commission Report, the bombs were probably fake. The 9/11 Commission established that two
of the hijackers had recently purchased Leatherman multi-function hand tools.

On United Airlines Flight 93, black box recordings revealed that crew and passengers
attempted to seize control of the plane from the hijackers after learning through phone calls that
similarly hijacked planes had been crashed into buildings that morning. According to the
transcript of Flight 93's recorder, one of the hijackers gave the order to roll the plane once it
became evident that they would lose control of the plane to the passengers. Soon afterward, the
aircraft crashed into a field near Shanksville in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County,
Pennsylvania, at 10:03:11 a.m. local time (14:03:11 UTC). Al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed mentioned in a 2002 interview with an Al Jazeera journalist that Flight 93's target
was the United States Capitol, which was given the code name "the Faculty of Law."

The attacks created widespread confusion across the United States. All international
civilian air traffic was banned from landing on US soil for three days; aircraft already in flight
were either turned back or redirected to airports in Canada or Mexico. Unconfirmed and often
contradictory reports were aired and published throughout the day. One of the most prevalent of
these reported that a car bomb had been detonated at the U.S. State Department's headquarters,
the Harry S Truman Building in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C. This erroneous report, picked
up by the wire services, was reported on CNN and in a number of newspapers published that day.
Soon after reporting for the first time on the Pentagon crash, CNN and other media also briefly
reported that a fire had broken out on the Washington Mall. Another report went out on the AP
wire, claiming that a Delta 767—Flight 1989—had been hijacked. This report, too, turned out to
be in error; the plane was briefly thought to represent a hijack risk, but it responded to controllers
and landed safely in Cleveland, Ohio.

Chairman Rudman of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) Committee released in a press
statement that it was not necessary to activate the EAS due to near immediate coverage by News
Media. Rudman kept the 34 main PEP stations on high alert if needed, but as time passed, using
the EAS was no longer necessary.

2.1.1 Fatalities

16
 There were 2,974 fatalities, not including the 19 hijackers: 246 on the four planes (no one
on board of the hijacked aircrafts survived), 2,603 in New York City in the towers and on the
ground, and 125 at the Pentagon.Lieutenant General Timothy Maude was the highest ranking
military official killed at the Pentagon. John P. O'Neill was a former assistant director of the FBI
who assisted in the capture of Ramzi Yousef and was the head of security at the World Trade
Center when he was killed trying to rescue people from the South Tower. An additional 24
people remain listed as missing.

1,366 people died who were at or above the floors of impact in the North Tower (1
WTC). According to the Commission Report, hundreds were killed instantly by the impact while
the rest were trapped and died after the tower collapsed. As many as 600 people were killed
instantly or were trapped at or above the floors of impact in the South Tower (2 WTC). Only
about 18 managed to escape in time from above the impact zone and out of the South Tower
before it collapsed. At least 200 people jumped to their deaths from the burning towers (as
depicted in the photograph "The Falling Man"), landing on the streets and rooftops of adjacent
buildings hundreds of feet below. To witnesses watching, a few of the people falling from the
towers seemed to have stumbled out of broken windows. Some of the occupants of each tower
above its point of impact made their way upward toward the roof in hope of helicopter rescue,
but no rescue plan existed for such an eventuality. The roof access doors were locked and thick
smoke and intense heat would have prevented rescue helicopters from landing.

A total of 411 emergency workers who responded to the scene lost their lives as they
attempted to implement rescue and fire suppression efforts. The New York City Fire Department
lost 341 firefighters and 2 FDNY Paramedics. The New York City Police Department lost 23
officers. The Port Authority Police Department lost 37 officers. Private EMS units lost 8
additional EMTs and paramedics.

Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., an investment bank on the 101st–105th floors of One World Trade
Center, lost 658 employees, considerably more than any other employer. Marsh Inc., located
immediately below Cantor Fitzgerald on floors 93–101 (the location of Flight 11's impact), lost
295 employees, and 175 employees of Aon Corporation were killed.

The dead included 8 children: 5 on American 77 ranging in age from 3 to 11, 3 on United
175 ages 2, 3, and 4. The youngest victim was a 2 year-old child on Flight 175, the oldest an 82
year-old passenger on Flight 11. In the buildings, the youngest victim was 17 and the oldest was
79. After New York, New Jersey was the hardest hit state, with the town of Hoboken sustaining
the most fatalities All of the fatalities were civilians except for some of the 125 victims in the
Pentagon.

According to the Associated Press, the city identified over 1,600 bodies but was unable to
identify the rest (about 1,100 people). They report that the city has "about 10,000 unidentified
bone and tissue fragments that cannot be matched to the list of the dead." Bone fragments were
still being found in 2006 as workers prepared the damaged Deutsche Bank Building for
demolition. The average age of all the dead in New York City was 40.

2.1.2 Damage.

17
 In addition to the 110-floor Twin Towers of the World Trade Center itself, numerous other
buildings at the World Trade Center site were destroyed or badly damaged, including 7 World
Trade Center, 6 World Trade Center, 5 World Trade Center, 4 World Trade Center, the Marriott
World Trade Center and St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. The Deutsche Bank Building
across Liberty Street from the World Trade Center complex was later condemned due to the
uninhabitable, toxic conditions inside the office tower, with deconstruction once scheduled for
completion in September 2007. The Borough of Manhattan Community College's Fiterman Hall
at 30 West Broadway was also condemned due to extensive damage in the attacks, and is slated
for deconstruction. Other neighboring buildings including 90 West Street and the Verizon
Building suffered major damage, but have since been restored. World Financial Center buildings,
One Liberty Plaza, the Millenium Hilton, and 90 Church Street had moderate
damage.Communications equipment, such as broadcast radio, television and two-way radio
antenna towers, were damaged beyond repair. In Arlington County, a portion of the Pentagon
was severely damaged by fire and one section of the building collapsed.

2.1.3 Survivors

According to the 9/11 Commission, approximately 16,000 people were below the impact
zones in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the attacks. About 92% of those below
the impact areas survived, evacuating before the towers collapsed.

2.2. Responsibility
Al Qaeda's origins date back to 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Soon
after the invasion, Osama bin Laden traveled to Afghanistan and with American government
assistance, helped organize Arab mujahideen, creating Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK), to resist the
Soviets. In 1989, as the Soviets withdrew, MAK was transformed into al-Qaeda, as a "rapid
reaction force" in jihad against governments across the Muslim world.Under guidance of Dr.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama became more radical.In 1996, Bin Laden issued his first fatwā which
called for "American soldiers to get out of Saudi Arabia".A second fatwa, issued by bin Laden in
1998, "directed his followers to kill Americans anywhere". In the fatwa, bin Laden outlined his
objections to American foreign policy towards Israel, as well as the continued presence of
American troops in Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War.

As media covered the 9/11 attacks unfolding, many quickly speculated that Bin Laden
was behind the attacks. Within hours of the attacks, the FBI was able to determine the names and
in many cases details such as dates of birth, known and/or possible residences, visa status, and
specific identity of the suspected pilots and hijackers. Few had made any attempt to disguise
their names on flight and credit card records, and they were some of the few people of Arabic
descent on the flights. Mohamed Atta's luggage, which did not make the connection from his
Portland flight onto American Airlines Flight 11, contained papers that revealed the identity of
all 19 hijackers, and other important clues about their plans, motives, and backgrounds. On the
day of the attacks, the National Security Agency intercepted communications that pointed to
Osama bin Laden, as did German intelligence agencies.

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States was formed by the
United States government and was commonly called the 9/11 Commission. It released its report
on July 22, 2004, concluding that the attacks were conceived and implemented by members of
al-Qaeda. The Commission stated that "9/11 plotters eventually spent somewhere between
$400,000 and $500,000 to plan and conduct their attack, but that the specific origin of the funds
used to execute the attacks remained unknown." To date, only peripheral figures have been tried

18
or convicted in connection with the attacks. Bin Laden has not yet been formally indicted for the
attacks.

2.2.1 The hijackers

Nineteen men boarded the four planes, five each on American Airlines Flight 11, United
Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 77, four on United Airlines Flight 93. Fifteen of
the attackers were from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and
one from Lebanon.

The group consisted of six core organizers, which included the four pilots, and thirteen
others. In sharp contrast to the standard profile of suicide bombers, the hijackers were well-
educated, mature adults, whose belief systems were fully formed.

2.2.2 Other potential hijackers

27 members of al-Qaeda attempted to enter the United States to take part in the September 11
attacks, but only 19 participated. Other would-be hijackers are often referred to as the 20th
hijacker.

 Zacarias Moussaoui

Buildings surrounding the World Trade Center were heavily damaged by the debris and massive
force of the falling twin towers.

Zacarias Moussaoui was reportedly considered as a replacement for Ziad Jarrah, who at
one point threatened to withdraw from the scheme because of tensions amongst the plotters.
Plans to include Moussaoui were never completed because the al-Qaeda hierarchy allegedly had
doubts about his reliability. He was arrested on August 16, 2001, about four weeks before the
attacks, ostensibly for an immigration violation, but FBI agents suspected he had violent
intentions after receiving flight training earlier that year. In April 2005, Moussaoui pleaded guilty
to conspiring to hijack planes, and to involvement with al-Qaeda, but he denies foreknowledge
of the 9/11 attacks. Moussaoui, at his sentencing hearing in March 2006, claimed that, upon the
personal directive of Osama bin Laden, he and Richard Reid were due to hijack a fifth plane and
fly it into the White House.

His defense lawyers dismissed this as fantasy on the part of Moussaoui, saying that he
was not an operative in al Qaeda, but only a "hanger-on." In a video tape released in May 2006,
Osama bin Laden claimed that Moussaoui had "no connection whatsoever with the events of
September 11" and that he knows this because "he was responsible for entrusting the 19
brothers" who carried out the attacks. On May 3, 2006, a federal jury rejected the death penalty
and sentenced Moussaoui to six life terms in prison without parole.

At Moussaoui's sentencing trial, FBI agent Greg Jones testified that prior to the attacks,
he urged his supervisor, Michael Maltbie, "to prevent Zacarias Moussaoui from flying a plane
into the World Trade Center." Jones said it had been a "lucky guess." Maltbie had refused to act
on 70 requests from another agent, Harry Samit, to obtain a warrant to search Moussaoui's
computer.

19
  Potential hijackers denied entry into U.S.

Ramzi Binalshibh allegedly meant to take part in the attacks, but he was repeatedly
denied a visa for entry into the U.S. Mohamed al-Kahtani, a Saudi Arabian citizen, may also
have been planning to join the hijackers, but U.S. Immigration authorities at Orlando
International Airport refused his entry into the U.S. in August 2001. He was later captured in
Afghanistan and imprisoned at the U.S. military prison known as Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba.

 Other names of potential hijackers

Other al-Qaeda members who may have attempted, but were unable, to take part in the
attacks include Saeed al-Ghamdi (not to be confused with the successful hijacker of the same
name), Mushabib al-Hamlan, Zakariya Essabar, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Tawfiq bin Attash.
According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the attack's mastermind,
wanted to remove at least one member—Khalid al-Mihdhar—from the operation, but he was
overruled by Osama bin Laden.[

2.2.3 Osama bin Laden ( see annexe 2.2.3 )

On September 27, 2001, the FBI released photos of the 19 hijackers, along with
information about the possible nationalities and aliases of many. The FBI investigation into the
September 11, 2001 attacks, code named operation PENTTBOM, was the largest and most
complex investigation in the history of the FBI, involving over 7,000 special agents. The United
States government determined that al-Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden, bore responsibility
for the attacks, with the FBI stating that evidence linking Al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the attacks
of September 11 is clear and irrefutable. The Government of the United Kingdom reached the
same conclusion, regarding Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's culpability for the September 11,
2001 attacks.

Osama bin Laden's declaration of a holy war against the United States, and a Fatwā
signed by bin Laden and others calling for the killing of American civilians in 1998, are seen by
many as evidence of his motivation to commit such acts.

Bin Laden initially denied, but later admitted involvement in the incidents. On September
16, 2001, bin Laden denied any involvement with the attacks by reading a statement which was
broadcast by Qatar's Al Jazeera satellite channel: "I stress that I have not carried out this act,
which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation." This denial
was broadcast on U.S. news networks and worldwide.

In November 2001, U.S. forces recovered a videotape from a destroyed house in

Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in which Osama bin Laden is talking to Khaled al-Harbi. In the tape, bin
Laden admits foreknowledge of the attacks. The tape was broadcast on various news networks
from December 13, 2001.

On December 27, 2001, a second bin Laden video was released. In the video, he stated
"Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a response to injustice, aimed
at forcing America to stop its support for Israel, which kills our people," but he stopped short of
admitting responsibility for the attacks.

Shortly before the U.S. presidential election in 2004, in a taped statement, bin Laden
publicly acknowledged al-Qaeda's involvement in the attacks on the U.S, and admitted his direct

20
link to the attacks. He said that the attacks were carried out because, "We are a free people who
do not accept injustice, and we want to regain the freedom of our nation."

In a videotape aired on Al Jazeera, on October 30, 2004, bin Laden said he had personally
directed the 19 hijackers. In the video, Bin Laden said "we had agreed with the Commander-
General Muhammad Atta, Allah have mercy on him, that all the operations should be carried out
within 20 minutes, before Bush and his administration notice.Another video obtained by Al
Jazeera in September 2006 shows Osama bin Laden with Ramzi Binalshibh, as well as two
hijackers, Hamza al-Ghamdi and Wail al-Shehri, as they make preparations for the attacks.

 Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

The idea for the September 11 plot came from Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who first
presented the idea to Bin Laden in 1996. At that point, Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were in a period
of transition, having just relocated back to Afghanistan from Sudan. The 1998 African Embassy
bombings marked a turning point, with Bin Laden intent on attacking the United States. In late
1998 or early 1999, Bin Laden gave approval for Mohammed to go forward with organizing the
plot. A series of meetings occurred in spring of 1999, involving Khalid Sheikh Mohammed,
Osama bin Laden, and his deputy Mohammed Atef.[ Bin Laden provided leadership for the plot,
along with financial support. Bin Laden was also involved in selecting people to participate in
the plot, including choosing Mohamed Atta as the lead hijacker. Mohammed provided
operational support, such as selecting targets and helping arrange travel for the hijackers. Bin
Laden overruled Mohammed, rejecting some potential targets such as the U.S. Bank Tower in
Los Angeles.

In a 2002 interview with Al Jazeera journalist Yosri Fouda, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admitted
his involvement, along with Ramzi Binalshibh, in the "Holy Tuesday operation".Mohammed was
arrested on March 1, 2003 in Rawalpindi, Pakistan Mohammed ultimately ended up at
Guantanamo Bay. During US hearings in March 2007, which have been "widely criticized by
lawyers and human rights groups as sham tribunals",Mohammed again confessed his
responsibility for the attacks, "I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z."

2.2.4 Other Al-Qaeda members

In "Substitution for Testimony of Khalid Sheik Mohammed" from the trial of Zacarias
Moussaoui, five people are identified as having been completely aware of the operations details.
They are: Osama bin Laden, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Ramzi Binalshibh, Abu Turab Al-
Urduni and Mohammed Atef.

On September 26, 2005, the Spanish high court directed by judge Baltasar Garzón
sentenced Abu Dahdah to 27 years of imprisonment for conspiracy on the 9/11 attacks and as
part of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. At the same time, another 17 Al Qaeda members were
sentenced to penalties of between 6 and 12 years. On February 16, 2006, the Spanish Supreme
Court reduced the Abu Dahdah penalty to 12 years because it considered that his participation in
the conspiracy was not proven.

2.2.5 Motive

The September 11 attacks were consistent with the overall mission statement of al-Qaeda,
as set out in a 1998 fatwā issued by Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Ahmed Refai Taha,
Mir Hamzah, and Fazlur Rahman. In the fatwa, Bin Laden directed his followers "to kill
Americans anywhere".He also outlined his objections to American foreign policy towards Israel,
21
as well as U.S. aggression against the Iraqi people, the ensuing sanctions against Iraq, as well as
the continued presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia after the Persian Gulf War. The fatwa
also specifically condemns the U.S. for "plundering" the resources of the region, oppressing the
people by supporting abusive regimes in the region, and dictating policy to legitimate leaders. It
also opposes the presence of U.S. military bases and installations in the region, especially on
Muslim holy land, which are used to "threaten" Muslim countries, while fomenting disunity and
strife. By a similar token, it decries the continued refusal to address the occupation of
Palestine.[111] The fatwa uses Islamic texts to exhort violent action against American military and
citizenry until the alleged grievances are reversed, stating "ulema have throughout Islamic
history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim
countries."

Statements of al-Qaeda recorded after 9/11 add weight to the U.S account of who was
responsible for the attacks. In a 2004 video, apparently acknowledging responsibility for the
attacks, bin Laden states that he was motivated by the 1982 Lebanon War, for which he held the
U.S. partially responsible. In the video, bin Laden also claims that he wants to "restore freedom
to our nation," to "punish the aggressor in kind," and to inflict economic damage on America. He
declared that a continuing objective of his holy war was to "bleed America to the point of
bankruptcy." Bin Laden said, "We swore that America would not live in security until we live it
truly in Palestine. This showed the reality of America, which puts Israel's interest above its own
people's interest. America will not get out of this crisis until it gets out of the Arabian Peninsula,
and until it stops its support of Israel."

The 9/11 Commission Report determined that the animosity towards the United States
felt by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the "principal architect" of the 9/11 attacks, stemmed "not
from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S.
foreign policy favoring Israel." The same motivation was shared by the two pilots who flew into
the WTC: Mohamed Atta was described by Ralph Bodenstein—who traveled, worked and talked
with him—as "most imbued actually about... U.S. protection of these Israeli politics in the
region." "When someone asked why he and Atta never laughed, Shehhi retorted,"How can you
laugh when people are dying in Palestine?" Mohammed Atta is described in Lawrence Wright's
account to have committed himself to martyrdom in immediate response to the Israeli strikes at
the beginning of Operation Grapes of Wrath. Abdulaziz al-Omari, a hijacker aboard Flight 11
with Mohammed Atta, said in his video will, "My work is a message those who heard me and to
all those who saw me at the same time it is a message to the infidels that you should leave the
Arabian peninsula defeated and stop giving a hand of help to the coward Jews in Palestine."

 Statements by others

The motives of al-Qaeda have also been extensively analyzed by other parties, including
politicians, academics, and media commentators. In a 2001 speech, U.S. President George W.
Bush explained the general motivations of the perpetrators as "They hate ... a democratically
elected government. ... They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of
speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other." [116] However, this view
has been criticized by experts such as Former CIA Bin Laden Unit Chief Michael Scheuer, who
explain that "politicians really are at great fault for not squaring with the American people. We're
being attacked for what we do in the Islamic world, not for who we are or what we believe in or
how we live."

Many of the eventual findings of the 9/11 Commission with respect to motives have been
supported by other experts. For instance, Counter-terrorism expert Richard A. Clarke, explains
that foreign policy decisions including "confronting Moscow in Afghanistan, inserting the U.S.

22
military in the Persian Gulf," and "strengthening Israel as a base for a southern flank against the
Soviets" contributed to al-Qaeda's motives. Others, such as Jason Burke, focus on a more
political aspect to the motive, stating that "Bin Laden is an activist with a very clear sense of
what he wants and how he hopes to achieve it. Those means may be far outside the norms of
political activity [[..]] but his agenda is a basically political one."

A variety of scholarship has also focused on bin Laden's overall strategy as a motive for
the attacks. For instance, Peter Bergen argues that the attacks were part of a plan to cause the
United States to increase its military and cultural presence in the Middle East, thereby forcing
Muslims to confront the "evils" of a non-Muslim government and establish conservative Islamic
governments in the region. Michael Scott Doran further emphasizes the "mythic" use of the term
"spectacular" in bin Laden's response to the attacks, explaining that he was attempting to
provoke a visceral reaction in the Middle East and ensure that Muslim citizens would react as
violently as possible to an increase in U.S. involvement in their region

2.3. Reactions
2.3.1 International reaction ( see annexe 2.3.1)

A solitary firefighter stands amid the rubble and smoke in New York City. Days after the
Sept. 11 attack, fires still burned at the site of the World Trade Center.

The attacks had major global political ramifications. They were denounced by
mainstream media and governments worldwide, with the headline of France's Le Monde
newspaper summing up the international mood of sympathy: "We Are All Americans" (Nous
sommes tous Américains). The most publicized exception was that some Palestinians celebrated
jubilantly upon hearing about 9/11. There was a report by a journalist about public
demonstrations of enthusiasm for the attacks conducted by Chinese students in Beijing, China
during the night after the attacks. Although the journalist was not in China on the day of 9/11, he
reported the event on the 5th anniversary of 9/11 based on accounts he had learned from his
sources. Leaders in most Middle Eastern countries, including Afghanistan, condemned the
attacks. Iraq was a notable exception, with an immediate official statement that "the American
cowboys are reaping the fruit of their crimes against humanity."

Approximately one month after the attacks, the United States led a broad coalition of
international forces in the removal of the Taliban regime for harboring the al-Qaeda organization.
The Pakistani authorities moved decisively to align themselves with the United States in a war
against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Pakistan provided the U.S. a number of military airports and
bases for its attack on the Taliban regime and arrested over 600 supposed al-Qaeda members,
whom it handed over to the U.S.

Numerous countries, including the UK, India, Australia, France, Germany, Indonesia,
China, Canada, Russia, Pakistan, Jordan, Mauritius, Uganda and Zimbabwe introduced "anti-
terrorism" legislation[128] and froze the bank accountsof businesses and individuals they suspected
of having al-Qaeda ties.

Law enforcement and intelligence agencies in a number of countries, including Italy,

Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines arrested people they labeled terrorist suspects for the
stated purpose of breaking up militant cells around the world. In the U.S., this aroused some
controversy, as critics such as the Bill of Rights Defense Committee argued that traditional
restrictions on federal surveillance (e.g. COINTELPRO's monitoring of public meetings) were
"dismantled" by the USA PATRIOT Act; civil liberty organizations such as the American Civil

23
Liberties Union and Liberty argued that certain civil rights protections were also being
circumvented.

The United States set up a detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to hold what they
termed "illegal enemy combatants". The legitimacy of these detentions has been questioned by,
among others, the European Parliament,the Organization of American States, and Amnesty
International.

In the United Kingdom, outrage swelled in the media when Jo Moore, a special adviser to
Transport Secretary Stephen Byers, sent an email to staff an hour after the attacks, but before the
towers had collapsed, suggesting that "It is now a very good day to get out anything we want to
bury. Councillors' expenses?" Moore faced calls for her resignation, but after apologising and
receiving backing from Byers and Downing Street, she remained in her job until February 2002,
when a further 'burying bad news' scandal finally led to her resignation.

2.3.2 Public response

The 9/11 attacks had immediate and overwhelming effects upon the people of the United
States. Gratitude toward uniformed public-safety workers (dubbed "first responders"), and
especially toward firefighters, was widely expressed in light of both the drama of the risks taken
on the scene and the high death toll among the workers. Many police officers and rescue workers
elsewhere in the country took leaves of absence to travel to New York City to assist in the grim
process of recovering bodies from the twisted remnants of the Twin Towers. Blood donations
also saw a surge in the weeks after 9/11.

Numerous incidents of harassment and hate crimes were reported against Middle
Easterners and other "Middle Eastern-looking" people, particularly Sikhs, due to the fact that
Sikh males usually wear turbans, which are stereotypically associated with Muslims in the
United States. There were reports of verbal abuse, attacks on mosques and other religious
buildings (including the firebombing of a Hindu temple) and assaults on people, including one
murder; Balbir Singh Sodhi was fatally shot on September 15. He, like others, was a Sikh who
was mistaken for a Muslim.

Following the attacks, President Bush's job approval rating soared to 86%. On September
20, 2001, the U.S. president spoke before the nation and a joint session of the United States
Congress, regarding the events of that day, the intervening nine days of rescue and recovery
efforts, and his intent in response to those events. In addition, the highly visible role played by
New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani won him high praise nationally and in New York.

2.3.3 Muslim American reaction

Top Muslim organizations in the United States were swift to condemn the attacks on 9/11
and called "upon Muslim Americans to come forward with their skills and resources to help
alleviate the sufferings of the affected people and their families". Top organizations include:
Islamic Society of North America, American Muslim Alliance, American Muslim Council,
Council on American-Islamic Relations, The Islamic Circle of North America, and the Shari'a
Scholars Association of North America. In addition to massive monetary donations, many
Islamic organizations launched blood drives and provided medical assistance, food, and
residence for victims.

24
  Conspiracy theories

Various conspiracy theories have emerged subsequent to the attacks suggesting that
individuals inside the United States knew the attacks were coming and deliberately chose not to
prevent them, or that individuals outside of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda planned or carried
out the attacksThe community of civil engineers generally accepts the mainstream account that
the impacts of jets at high speeds in combination with subsequent fires, rather than controlled
demolition, led to the collapse of the Twin Towers.

2.4. U.S. Government response

2.4.1 Rescue, recovery, and compensation

The FDNY deployed 200 units (half of the department) to the site, whose efforts were
supplemented by numerous off-duty firefighters.

NYPD Emergency Service Units (ESU) and other police personnel, along with numerous
EMTs rushed to the scene. NYPD helicopters were soon at the scene, reporting on the status of
the burning buildings. Though, FDNY commanders lacked communication with the NYPD, as
well as with 9-1-1 dispatchers to provide good situation awareness. FDNY commanders also had
difficulties communicating evacuation orders to firefighters inside the towers due to
malfunctioning repeater systems in the World Trade Center.

Within hours of the attack, a massive search and rescue (SAR) operation was launched.
Initially, only a handful of wounded people were found at the site, and in the weeks that followed
it became evident that there were no survivors to be found. Rescue and recovery efforts took
months to complete. It took several weeks to simply put out the fires burning in the rubble of the
buildings, although there was smoldering and smoke for 99 days, before the fire was completely
out. The clean-up was not completed until May 2002. Temporary wooden "viewing platforms"
were set up for tourists to view construction crews clearing out the gaping holes where the
towers once stood. All of these platforms were closed on May 30, 2002.

Many relief funds were immediately set up to assist victims of the attacks, with the task
of providing financial assistance to the survivors and the families of victims. By the deadline for
victim's compensation, September 11, 2003, 2,833 applications had been received from the
families of those killed.

2.4.2 Immediate national response

For the first time in history, all nonemergency civilian aircraft in the United States and
several other countries including Canada were immediately grounded, stranding tens of
thousands of passengers across the world. Any international flights were closed to American
airspace by the Federal Aviation Administration, causing flights to be redirected to other
countries, such as Canada.

25
 Contingency plans for the continuity of government and the evacuation of leaders were
also implemented almost immediately after the attacks. Congress, however, was not told that the
US was under a continuity of government status until February 2002.

2.4.3 The War on Terrorism

In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the Bush administration declared a war on
terrorism, with the stated goals of bringing Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda to justice and
preventing the emergence of other terrorist networks. These goals would be accomplished by
means including economic and military sanctions against states perceived as harboring terrorists
and increasing global surveillance and intelligence sharing. Immediately after the September 11
attacks U.S. officialsspeculated on possible involvement by Saddam Hussein; although
unfounded, the association contributed to public acceptance for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The
second-biggest operation of the U.S. Global War on Terrorism outside of the United States, and
the largest directly connected to terrorism, was the overthrow of the Taliban rule from
Afghanistan, by a U.S.-led coalition. The U.S. was not the only nation to increase its military
readiness, with other notable examples being the Philippines and Indonesia, countries that have
their own internal conflicts with Islamist terrorism.

Because the attacks on the United States were judged to be within the parameters of its
charter, NATO declared that Article 5 of the NATO agreement was satisfied on September 12,
2001.[158]

2.4.4 Domestic response

Within the United States, Congress passed and President Bush signed the Homeland
Security Act of 2002, creating the Department of Homeland Security, representing the largest
restructuring of the U.S. government in contemporary history. Congress passed the USA
PATRIOT Act, stating that it would help detect and prosecute terrorism and other crimes. Civil
liberties groups have criticized the PATRIOT Act, saying that it allows law enforcement to
invade the privacy of citizens and eliminates judicial oversight of law-enforcement and domestic
intelligence gathering. The Bush Administration also invoked 9/11 as the reason to initiate a
secret National Security Agency operation, "to eavesdrop on telephone and e-mail
communications between the United States and people overseas without a warrant.

Following the attacks, 80,000 Arab and Muslim immigrants were fingerprinted and
registered under the Alien Registration Act of 1940. 8,000 Arab and Muslim men were
interviewed, and 5,000 foreign nationals were detained under Joint Congressional Resolution
107-40 authorizing the use of military force "to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism
against the United States."

2.4.5 Investigations

 9/11 Commission

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (9/11
Commission), chaired by former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean, was formed in late 2002
to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the attacks, including
preparedness for, and the immediate response to, the attacks. On July 22, 2004, the 9/11
Commission issued the 9/11 Commission Report. The Commission and report have been subject
to various forms of criticism, on a number of different bases.

26
  Collapse of the World Trade Center

A federal technical building and fire safety investigation of the collapses of the Twin
Towers and 7 WTC has been conducted by the United States Department of Commerce's
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The goals of this investigation,
completed on April 6, 2005, were to investigate the building construction, the materials used,
and the technical conditions that contributed to the outcome of the WTC disaster. The
investigation was to serve as the basis for:

Improvements in the way in which buildings are designed, constructed, maintained, and used

• Improved tools and guidance for industry and safety officials

• Revisions to building and fire codes, standards, and practices
• Improved public safety

The report concludes that the fireproofing on the Twin Towers' steel infrastructures was
blown off by the initial impact of the planes and that, if this had not occurred, the towers would
likely have remained standing. The fires weakened the trusses supporting the floors, making the
floors sag. The sagging floors pulled on the exterior steel columns to the point where exterior
columns bowed inward. With the damage to the core columns, the buckling exterior columns
could no longer support the buildings, causing them to collapse. In addition, the report asserts
that the towers' stairwells were not adequately reinforced to provide emergency escape for
people above the impact zones. NIST stated that the final report on the collapse of 7 WTC will
appear in a separate report. This was confirmed by an independent study by Purdue University.

Although potential improvements were found, Gene Corley, the director of the original
investigation, commented that the original towers did quite well overall.

"Our report points out that the towers really did amazingly well," Corley said. "The terrorist
aircraft didn’t bring the buildings down; it was the fire which followed. It was proven that you
could take out two thirds of the columns in a tower and the building would still stand."

Nonetheless, additional fireproofing and improvements to stairwells will certainly be priorities

for the reconstruction of the towers.

 Internal review of the CIA

The Inspector General of the CIA conducted an internal review of the CIA's pre-9/11
performance, and was harshly critical of senior CIA officials for not doing everything possible to
confront terrorism, including failing to stop two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and
Khalid al-Mihdhar, as they entered the United States and failing to share information on the two
men with the FBI.

Senators from both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party in May, 2007 drafted
legislation that would openly present an internal CIA investigative report. One of the backers,
Senator Ron Wyden stated "The American people have a right to know what the Central
Intelligence Agency was doing in those critical months before 9/11.... I am going to bulldog this
until the public gets it." The report investigates the responsibilities of individual CIA personnel
before and after the 9/11 attacks. The report was completed in 2005, but its details have never
been released to the public

27
 Chapter III : The effects of the dissaster

3.1. Long-term effects

 Economic aftermath

The attacks had a significant economic impact on the United States and world markets.
The Federal Reserve temporarily had reduced contact with banks because of outages of
switching equipment in the lower NY financial district. Contact and control over the money
supply, including immediate liquidity for banks, was restored within hours. The New York Stock
Exchange (NYSE), the American Stock Exchange and NASDAQ did not open on September 11
and remained closed until September 17. NYSE facilities and remote data processing sites were
not damaged by the attack, but member firms, customers and markets were unable to
communicate due to major damage to the telephone exchange facility near the World Trade
Center. When the stock markets reopened on September 17, 2001, after the longest closure since
the Great Depression in 1929, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (“DJIA”) stock market index
fell 684 points, or 7.1%, to 8920, its biggest-ever one-day point decline. By the end of the week,
the DJIA had fallen 1,369.7 points (14.3%), its largest one-week point drop in history. U.S.
stocks lost $1.2 trillion in value for the week. As of 2007, Wall and Broad Streets near the New
York Stock Exchange remained barricaded and guarded to prevent a physical attack upon the
building.

The economy of Lower Manhattan, which by itself is the third-largest business district in
the United States (after Midtown Manhattan and the Chicago Loop) was devastated in the
immediate aftermath. Thirty percent (31.2 million sq ft, 2.7 million m³) of Lower Manhattan
office space was either damaged or destroyed. The 41-story Deutsche Bank Building,
neighboring the World Trade Center, was subsequently closed because extensive damage made it
unfit for habitation or restoration and it was scheduled for demolition. Power, telephone, and gas
were cut off in much of Lower Manhattan. People were not permitted to enter the SoHo and
Lower Manhattan area without extensive inspection. Much of what was destroyed was valuable
Class-A space. The pre-2001 trend of moving jobs out of Lower Manhattan to Midtown and New
Jersey was accelerated. Many questioned whether these lost jobs would ever be restored, and
whether the damaged tax base could ever recover. Economic studies of the effects of 9/11 have
confirmed that the impact of the attacks on the Manhattan office market as well as on office
employment was more limited than initially expected because of the strong need for face-to-face
interaction in the financial services industry.

The rebuilding has been inhibited by a lack of agreement on priorities. For example,
Mayor Bloomberg had made New York's bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics the core of his
capital development plan from 2002 until mid-2005, and Governor Pataki largely delegated his
role to the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation which has been widely criticized for
doing little with the enormous funding directed to the rebuilding efforts. On the sites of the
totally destroyed buildings, one, 7 World Trade Center, has a new office tower which was
completed in 2006. The Freedom Tower is currently under construction at the site and at 1,776 ft
(541 m) upon completion in 2010, will become the tallest building in North America and one of
the tallest in the world. Three more towers are expected to be built between 2007 and 2012 on
the site, and will be located one block east of where the original towers stood.

28
 North American air space was closed for several days after the attacks and air travel
decreased significantly upon its reopening. The attacks led to nearly a 20% cutback in air travel
capacity, and severely exacerbated financial problems in the struggling U.S. airline industry.

 Potential health effects

The thousands of tons of toxic debris resulting from the collapse of the Twin Towers
consisted of more than 2,500 contaminants, more specifically: 50% nonfibrous material and
construction debris; 40% glass and other fibers; 9.2% cellulose; and 0.8% asbestos, lead, and
mercury. There were also unprecedented levels of dioxin and PAHs from the fires which burned
for three months. Some of the dispersed substances (crystalline silica, lead, cadmium, polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons) are carcinogenic; other substances can trigger kidney, heart, liver and
nervous system deterioration.

This has led to debilitating illnesses among rescue and recovery workers, which many
claim to be directly linked to debris exposure. For example, NYPD Officer Frank Macri died of
lung cancer that spread throughout his body on September 3, 2007; his family contends the
cancer is the result of long hours on the site and they have filed for line-of-duty death benefits,
which the City has yet to rule on. Health effects have also extended to some residents, students,
and office workers of Lower Manhattan and nearby Chinatown.

On May 24, 2007, for the first time a death was linked to the toxic dust caused by the
World Trade Center's collapse. Felicia Dunn-Jones died of lung disease five months after Sept.
11. Dunn-Jones will be listed on the Sept. 11 memorial when it opens in 2009. The death of a
retired police detective, James Zadroga, who died in January 2006, has been ruled by the New
Jersey medical examiner to be "directly related" to his work at ground zero on and after Sept. 11.
His name, as of yet, has not been added to the list of the attack victims, and the New York City
medical examiner's office strongly disputed the conclusion.

Legal disputes over the attendant costs of illnesses related to the attacks are still in the
court system. On October 17, 2006, federal judge Alvin Hellerstein rejected New York City's
refusal to pay for health costs for rescue workers, allowing for the possibility of numerous suits
against the city.

There is also scientific speculation that exposure to various toxic products and the
pollutants in the air surrounding the Towers after the WTC collapse may have negative effects on
fetal development. Due to this potential hazard, a notable children's environmental health center
is currently analyzing the children whose mothers were pregnant during the WTC collapse, and
were living or working near the World Trade Center towers. The staff of this study assesses the
children using psychological testing every year and interviews the mothers every six months.
The purpose of the study is to determine whether there is significant difference in development
and health progression of children whose mothers were exposed, versus those who were not
exposed after the WTC collapse.

Government officials have been faulted for urging the public to return to lower
Manhattan in the weeks shortly following the attacks. U.S. President Bush has been faulted for
interfering with the EPA interpretations and pronouncements regarding air quality. Mayor
Giuliani has also been criticized for urging financial industry personnel to return to the greater
Wall Street area.

29
3.2. Memorials ( see annexe 3.2 )

In the days immediately following the attacks, many memorials and vigils were held,
including candlelight vigils in New York on September 12 and September 14, and a candlelight
procession in Washington on September 14. In Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, over 100,000 people
attended a memorial service on Parliament Hill, while all across Europe a three-minute silence
was held at noon, Central European Time. The United Kingdom paid special homage on
September 13, 2001, pausing the changing of the guard for two minutes in silence, then playing
the American national anthem.

In addition, pictures were placed all over Ground Zero. Mark Sigmund described it by
saying, "In the nearby area, you can’t get away from faces of innocent victims who were killed.
Their pictures are everywhere, on phone booths, street lights, walls of subway stations.
Everything reminded me of a huge funeral, people quiet and sad, but also very nice. Before, New
York gave me a cold feeling; now people were reaching out to help each other.”

Temporary memorials were quickly erected at the three sites, with permanent memorials
in the planning stages, or under construction. One of the first was the Tribute in Light, an
installation of 88 searchlights at the footprints of the World Trade Center towers which projected
two vertical columns of light into the sky. It initially ran from March 11 to April 14, 2002, but
has since been re-lit every year on the anniversary of the attacks. In New York, the World Trade
Center Site Memorial Competition was held to design an appropriate memorial on the site. The
winning design, Reflecting Absence, was selected in August 2006, and consists of a pair of
reflecting pools in the footprints of the towers, surrounded by a list of the victims' names in an
underground memorial space.Plans for a museum on the site have been put on hold, following
the abandonment of the International Freedom Center after criticism from the families of many
victims.

At the Pentagon, an outdoor memorial is currently under construction, which will consist
of a landscaped park with 184 benches facing the Pentagon. When the Pentagon was rebuilt in
2001-2002, a private chapel and indoor memorial were included, located at the spot where Flight
77 crashed into the building. A temporary memorial is located 500 yards (450 meters) from the
Flight 93 crash site near Shanksville. A permanent Flight 93 National Memorial is in planning
stages, which will include a sculpted grove of trees forming a circle around the crash site,
bisected by the plane's path, while wind chimes will bear the names of the victims. Many other
permanent memorials are being constructed around the world and a list is being updated as new
ones are completed.

In addition to physical monuments, scholarships and charities have been established by

the victims' loved ones, along with many other organizations and private figures. Numerous
public benefits and concerts have been held to raise money for the families of victims. In
addition, the Raoul Wallenberg Award was given to New York City in 2001 "For all of its
citizens who searched for the missing, cared for the injured, gave comfort to loved ones of the
missing or lost, and provided sustenance and encouragement to those who searched through the
rubble at ground zero.

30
3.3. Film and media
The World Trade Center was an iconic structure and has been featured in numerous films,
as well as appearing in many television shows, cartoons, comic books, computer/video games
and music videos. The Twin Towers have appeared in popular television shows such as Friends,
Sex and the City, New York Undercover, NYPD Blue, the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,
The Mr. Bill Show, The Simpsons and Family Guy. The Twin Towers have also appeared
prominently in popular films such as Three Days of the Condor, Escape From New York,
Godspell, the 1976 King Kong, Gremlins 2: The New Batch, New Jack City, Home Alone 2: Lost
in New York, Die Hard: With a Vengeance, Daylight, Sleepless in Seattle, The Wiz, Armageddon,
Independence Day, Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), Crocodile Dundee and Crocodile Dundee II. The
Towers have also been featured in music videos by popular musicians such as Janet Jackson, The
Spice Girls, Madonna, Blondie, Linkin Park, Depeche Mode, and Ryan Adams.

The events surrounding September 11 are portrayed in several documentaries and movies,
including two major motion pictures made in 2006, Oliver Stone's World Trade Center and Paul
Greengrass' United 93. Several movies released shortly after 9/11 digitally erased the Twin
Towers from skyline shots, such as Spider-Man (film).As of 2007 most reruns of popular
television shows have chosen to leave the Twin Towers in airings of the show such as cut scenes
in Friends and episodes of The Simpsons.

In his novel, Underworld (1997), Don DeLillo cites the Towers on several occasions,
once even having his protagonist ponder the metaphysical (prescient and eerie) connection
between the Towers and the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island (where the debris from the WTC
site was taken). In Part 4 of the novel, however, subtitled "Summer 1974," the Center is
described as still being under construction.

3.4. Rebuilding the World Trade Center

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the agency charged with coordinating
the reconstruction of the World Trade Center site, selected the master plan, Memory Foundations
by Daniel Libeskind,[40] which includes the 1,776 ft (541 m) Freedom Tower. The height of 1,776
feet (541 m) was chosen as a reference to the year of American independence. A new 7 World
Trade Center office building, which was not part of the site master plan, officially opened on
May 23, 2006.

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation sponsored the World Trade Center Site
Memorial Competition, an international design competition for the World Trade Center
Memorial in spring 2003. The winning design, Michael Arad and Peter Walker's Reflecting
Absence, was chosen in January 2004.

The World Trade Center name will continue to be used as name of the site, as will the
New York City Subway and PATH train stations that serve the complex. A temporary PATH
station, largely following the layout of the original, is the first part of the complex to have
reopened.

On November 22, 2004, New York Governor George Pataki named the living former
presidents as honorary members of the board rebuilding the World Trade Center.

31
 On May 18, 2005, Donald Trump, long-time opponent of the Freedom Tower, proposed
the Twin Towers II plan to rebuild the Twin Towers with various safety, structural, and
technological improvements.

On June 29, 2005, a redesigned Freedom Tower was unveiled which more closely
resembled the character of the fallen towers. The new design also boasted several safety
improvements over previous proposals.

On December 15, 2005, Sir Norman Foster was announced as the architect who will
design the second of five new office towers planned for the site.

On March 13, 2006 workers arrived at the World Trade Center site to remove remaining
debris and start surveying work. This marks the official start of construction of the WTC
Memorial and Museum.

In April 2006, a tentative agreement was reached by the owner of the site, The Port
Authority, and private developer Larry Silverstein. The main elements of that agreement are that
Silverstein ceded rights to develop the Freedom Tower and Tower Five in exchange for financing
with Liberty Bonds for Tower Two, Three, and Four which are considered to be the most
marketable properties of the site. On April 27, 2006, a ground breaking ceremony was held for
the Freedom Tower.[

In May 2006, architects Richard Rogers and Fumihiko Maki were announced as the
architects for Towers Three and Four, respectively.

The final designs for Towers Two, Three and Four were unveiled on September 7, 2006.
Tower Two, or 200 Greenwich Street, will have a roof height of 1,254 feet (382 m) and a 96-foot
(29 m) tripod spire for a total of 1,350 feet (411 m). Tower Three, or 175 Greenwich Street will
have a roof height of 1,155 feet (352 m) and an antennae height of 1,255 feet (383 m). Tower
Four, or 150 Greenwich Street, will have an overall height of 946 feet (288 m).

As of late 2007, work at the World Trade Center site continued. Foundation work has
started on the Freedom Tower, Calatrava Hub, and the memorials.

On June 22, 2007 the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced that JP
Morgan Chase will build Tower 5, a 42 story building on Site 5 currently occupied by the
Deutsche Bank Building. Kohn Pedersen Fox was officially chosen as the architect for the
building on July 17, 2007.

32
 Bibliography

 Neilan, Terence. "2 Planes Crash Into World Trade Center", The New York Times, 2001-
09-11.
 Lipton, Eric. "Study Maps the Location of Deaths in the Twin Towers", The New York
Times, 2004-07-22.
 Roddy, Dennis B.. "Flight 93: Forty lives, one destiny", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 2001,
October 28.
 Siegel, Aaron. "Industry honors fallen on 9/11 anniversary", InvestmentNews, September
11, 2007.
 Gunarathna, Rohan (2002). Inside Al Qaeda, Global Network of Terror. Berkley Books,
p. 61-62.
 Glynn, Simone A (May 7, 2003). Effect of a National Disaster on Blood Supply and
Safety: The September 11 Experience. Journal of the American Medical Association.
DOI:289 No. 17 Vol. 289 No. 17^ Red Cross Woes. PBS (2001-12-19
 Heilprin, John. "White House edited EPA's 9/11 reports", Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
2003-06-23
 Sept. 11 Flight 93 Memorial Design Chosen. Fox News (2005-09-08).
 911 Memorials List. List of 911 and World Trade Center Memorials Across U.S. and the
World..
 Fallon, Scott. "After 9/11, charities met $2.6B challenge", The Record, 2003-09-10.
 Recipients of the Raoul Wallenberg Award (2001). Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the
United States (2003).
 Gillespie, Angus K. (1999). "Chapter 2", Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World
Trade Center. Rutgers University Press.
 Ruchelman, Leonard I. (1977). The World Trade Center: Politics and Policies of
Skyscraper Development.. Syracuse University Press, p. 11.
 Blumenthal, Ralph. "Tapes in Bombing Plot Show Informer and F.B.I. at Odds", New
York Times, 1993, October 27, p. Section A, Page 1, Column 4.
 Lance, Peter (2003). 1000 Years for Revenge. Covers the plotting and motives of those
who caused the first WTC bombing.

33
 Annexe

1.1 World Trade Center

1.1a .Design inovations

34
2.1 The attacks

2.2.3 Osama ben Laden

35
2.3.1
International
Reactions

3.2 The Tribute in Light

viewed from Jersey City on
the anniversary of the
attacks in 2004

36