September 11 attacks

The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States that occurred on the morning of September 11, 2001, a Tuesday. The attacks targeted America's three pillars of power — the economic, represented by the World Trade Center; the military, represented by the Pentagon; and the political, represented by either the Capitol or the White House (it is unknown which was targeted by the last plane's hijackers). 9/11 is the deadliest terrorist attack in history, causing 2,977 fatalities, excluding the 19 hijackers, along with over 25,000 injuries and many other instances of health issues. Despite all this the aftermath was far worse and more tragic than the attacks themselves. It led to and helped justify large political, economic, and cultural changes, such as the rise of the surveillance state in the US as well as the War on Terror. There are many widespread conspiracy theories about this subject, with many figures — from authors of the 9/11 Commission Report, to congressmen, to military leaders, expressing some sort of doubt over the official narrative, with some calling for a new investigation.

The Pentagon released a videotape of Osama bin Laden discussing the attacks in December 2001, wherein he indicates having known the time and place they were going to happen as well as having calculated the destruction beforehand, being surprised that the towers fell completely as opposed to merely the top portions. Publicly, he denied involvement at first though admitted to responsibility in 2004, stating the attacks were carried out because "we are free ... and want to regain freedom for our nation. As you undermine our security, we undermine yours". Thus with bin Laden's admission the attacks were likely not an inside job, although the United States government certainly has manipulated them to further an imperialist agenda, having prepared the invasion of Afghanistan just the day before the attacks, with all that was left then being an excuse to implement it. One other interesting fact is that Afghanistan provides 80-90% of the world's heroin and opium, though then-Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar banned this in July 2000, declaring the growing of poppies to be un-Islamic, resulting in a 99% decrease in poppy farming within a year. This was to the detriment of major pharmaceutical companies, which benefit off the overprescription of opioids that has also led to the modern opioid epidemic.

Use as a justification

Imperialism

The United States used the attacks as justification to begin the ambiguously defined War on Terror, which began by invading Afghanistan in late 2001 and later Iraq in early 2003, despite Iraq having nothing to do with al-Qaeda and the US government being conscious of this. In the case of Iraq, the US wanted to get rid of rogue puppet Saddam, and following the collapse of the Taliban government in Afghanistan, this enabled it to better encircle Iran. General Wesley Clark described the "seven countries in five years" plan that this was all part of in an interview; first to "take out Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran." Iran is a naturally much harder target to take out than Iraq however, owing to a significantly larger size, population, economy, and very difficult terrain, and this, coupled with Iran's building up of a network of influence throughout the Middle East, stalled the plan to take out the Iranian leadership. The United States has further stalled in taking out Lebanon, which has close relations with Iran, however reportedly, along with Saudi Arabia, the US pumped money into militias, some even linked to al-Qaeda, that opposed Iran-backed ones — this taking place in countries including Lebanon, Syria, and Iran itself.

After the United States began bombing Afghanistan, George Bush said it would continue until the Taliban "turn [bin Laden] over, turn his cohorts over, turn any hostages they hold over." The Taliban eventually agreed to such on condition that the US provide evidence for his involvement in 9/11 on top of ending the bombing campaign, wherein they would then turn him over to a third country that would be negotiated with the US. The Bush administration promptly rejected this proposal, with Bush saying that "There's no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We know he's guilty.", continuing the bombing and war effort in general, indicating that it really wasn't about al-Qaeda but rather about expanding influence throughout the Greater Middle East.

The attacks propelled George Bush's approval ratings from around 50% to record highs of 90%, the highest of any President at any one time, and was accompanied by broad public willingness to use military force to combat terrorism. The wars dragged on and American deaths continued to rack up, with doubt over the pretext for the wars starting to rise, and all this, compared with Bush's other policy shortcomings, gradually wore down his approval rating to around 30% at the end of his second term, among the lowest recorded. By 2021, as the United States withdrew troops from Afghanistan following the Taliban victory, over 60% of Americans say that this war as well as the one in Iraq were not worth fighting.

Domestic policy

9/11 was used to raise the surveillance state to new levels, leading to the creation of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the passing of the USA PATRIOT Act, as well as the passing of the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force.

Osama bin Laden's motive

Bin Laden basically argued that his terrorist antics were justified because al-Qaeda was inflicting the same sort of pain the US government inflicted on the Middle East, and that ordinary Americans were responsible for the policies of the US government. For instance:

"The main targets [of 9/11] were the symbol of the United States: their economic and military power. . . The American people should remember that they pay taxes to their government and that they voted for their president. Their government makes weapons and provides them to Israel, which they use to kill Palestinian Muslims. Given that the American Congress is a committee that represents the people, the fact that it agrees with the actions of the American government proves that America in its entirety is responsible for the atrocities that it is committing against Muslims. I demand the American people to take note of their government's policy against Muslims. They described the government's policy against Vietnam as wrong. They should now take the same stand that they did previously. The onus is on Americans to prevent Muslims from being killed at the hands of their government." (pages 140-141)

"There is a lesson in what is happening in occupied Palestine, and what happened on September 11 and March 11 are your goods returned to you. It is well known that security is a vital necessity for every human being. We will not let you monopolize it for yourselves. . . Our actions are but a reaction to yours—your destruction and murder of our people, whether in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Palestine. . ." (page 234)

"al-Qaeda spent $500,000 on the September 11 attacks, while America lost more than $500 billion, at the lowest estimate, in the event and its aftermath. That makes a million American dollars for every al-Qaeda dollar, by the grace of God Almighty." (page 242)

Prior to admitting his role outright in 2004 though while still being an adversary of the United States, bin Laden wrote a "letter to America" where he elaborates on why al-Qaeda fights against America, being largely that it is opposed to American attacks on Islamic nations and seeks to get America out of them. The result of the 9/11 attacks was seen as a justification for American imperialism and the War on Terror, which bin Laden thought would unify the Islamic world and wear down the United States, whose government and media bin Laden described as being owned by Jews hostile to Muslims. This backfired however and America's Muslims allies were more than willing to fight alongside the empire, with principled anti-imperialist Muslim nations not wanting anything to do with al-Qaeda lunacy.

Conspiracy theories

Given the shocking and high-stakes nature of the attacks, many conspiracy theories have sprung up seeking to explain them. Some are more plausible while others are less so.

World Trade Center 7

People often see one particular video of WTC 7 smoking just a bit and then collapsing, sometimes edited to make it look like it all happened within a short amount of time. What videos and photos from other perspectives reveal however is that the building had extensive damage caused by hours-long fires, with the metal bars visibly buckling within the building in one video. The collapse of the building started from damage done by debris, rather than the impact of the debris itself, on top of a lack of water in the building's fire sprinklers.

Israeli involvement

Israel and in particular the Mossad, its intelligence agency, is alleged to have had involvement in the attacks ranging from sending spies to causing 9/11 outright. One common incident that is cited is the arrest of five Israelis, who appeared to be happily observing the event and according to one witness, "seemed to be taking a movie". The arresting officers saw a lot that aroused suspicion about the men, such as one of them having $4,700 in his sock, another having two foreign passports, and a box cutter being found in their van. The FBI transferred this case from its Criminal Division to its Foreign Counterintelligence Section, which is responsible for espionage cases, apparently believing the men may have been providing cover for an Israeli intelligence operation. Speculation abounded from the arrest of the men, with The Forward, a respected Jewish newspaper in New York, reporting that the FBI concluded that two of the men were Israeli intelligence operatives. The men said they read about the attack on the Internet and went to get a better look, with both their lawyers and the Israeli Embassy saying their apparent happiness for the attacks was just immaturity.

America had foreknowledge of the attacks

Given evidence such as the numerous (and quite specific) intelligence reports that al-Qaeda was going to attack America, on top of the faultiness of bin Laden's reasoning for the attacks, thinking that an American invasion would unify the Muslim world, some believe the United States knew the attacks would happen and let them transpire, given that it would serve to advance what was in the end American imperialism. There appears to be however no clear evidence that the Bush administration definitely knew the attacks were coming and intentionally sat on the information, so instead it could be assumed (as is widely argued) that Bush simply dismissed the intel he received as unimportant and/or unlikely to lead to anything.

Other facts

• Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria since 2000, was born on September 11, 1965.
• Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev died exactly three decades before 9/11 — on September 11, 1971.
• The 1973 Chilean coup d'état, in which far-right General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende with the help of the US, took place on September 11.