15:9/11: Lessons

From USA Today:

"15 years after Sept. 11, the questions that still remain in our minds"

What happened on Sept. 11, 2001?

Nineteen men hijacked four fuel-laden U.S. commercial airplanes and crashed them into each tower of New York City’s World Trade Center complex, the Pentagon building in Washington and a field in Shanksville, Pa.

How many people died? Were injured?

The attacks caused a total of 2,996 deaths, making it the deadliest foreign attack ever on U.S. soil. It surpassed the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, which claimed 2,403 American lives. More than 6,000 others were injured in the 9/11 attacks.

Who was behind the attacks, and why? The terrorist group al-Qaeda coordinated and took credit for the attacks. An earlier declaration of holy war against the United States by al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden, was seen as the main motivator for the hijackers. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and the rest originated from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon. Some had lived in Europe and were able to assimilate in the USA.

What was the World Trade Center? What was it used for before 9/11?

The World Trade Center was a complex of seven buildings in Lower Manhattan used mostly as office and commercial space. At the time of their completion in the early 1970s, the landmark twin towers, standing at about 1,300 feet, were the tallest buildings in the world.

Were the 9/11 attacks the first time the World Trade Center was targeted?

No. In 1993, terrorists detonated a truck bomb in the underground garage beneath the World Trade Center complex. The explosion tore a hole seven stories up, killed six people and injured more than 1,000. But the towers remained standing. The FBI later arrested several Islamic terrorists responsible for the bombing.

Was America caught completely off guard by the 9/11 attacks, or was there intelligence suggesting an attack was coming?

There were several incidents leading up to the 9/11 attacks that hinted at a larger attack coming, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole while harbored in Yemen. The CIA had even tracked some of the 9/11 hijackers into the United States as potential threats, but authorities never acted on that information.

How did the hijackers commandeer those planes? And how did the passengers aboard the flight that crashed in Shanksville, Pa., overpower them? Where was that plane headed?

The hijackers entered the cockpit of all four planes and killed or subdued the crew using box cutters and other rudimentary tools. Passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93 revolted against the hijackers and managed to get into the cockpit before the hijackers drove the plane into the ground, killing everyone onboard. The plane was headed to Washington, D.C., where its likely target was either the White House or the Capitol.

How long did it take to find Osama bin Laden?

It took U.S. authorities nearly 10 years to track down and kill bin Laden, considered the architect of the 9/11 attacks, despite a $25 million bounty on his head. On May 2, 2011, a team of Navy SEALs raided his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, killing bin Laden and several of his bodyguards.

What’s at the site of the World Trade Center now? The Pentagon? Shanksville?

The World Trade Center site is now home to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum and the 1,776-foot-tall One World Trade Center. Other skyscrapers and buildings are planned for the site. At the Pentagon, there's an outdoor memorial at the site where American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building, and, inside, there's a memorial honoring victims of the attack. In Shanksville, Pa., a memorial embedded into an open field honors the passengers who brought down the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93.

How has America changed since the 9/11 attacks?

The attacks greatly increased government focus on terrorism, not just in the U.S. but around the world. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was created to coordinate efforts between security agencies, airports beefed up passenger screenings, and cooperation and intelligence gathering between nations sharply increased. “We now see terrorism as a top responsibility of presidents and our political leaders in a way we didn’t before 9/11,” said Daniel Byman, a national security professor at Georgetown University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Could a similar attack occur in America today?

Not impossible, but not likely. The improved intelligence sharing between U.S. security services and between nations, increased attention to terrorist groups and, most importantly, increased cooperation from U.S. Muslim communities make it much harder to pull off a terrorist attack of that scale, Byman said. In the 15 years since the 9/11 attacks, 94 people have died in jihadist terrorist attacks on U.S. soil — far less than those killed by car accidents, heart disease or accidental gun discharges. “All those things that led [the 9/11 attacks] to succeed would be much harder to do today,” he said.

^ This gives a good basic summary of the attacks and their aftermath. It is 15 years since the largest terrorist attacks (in both the US and in the world) and things have changed for people. In all those years we have learned the good and the bad, the once classified and the now open. One thing people should have learned from the attacks is that you really can not expect to depend on anyone else to save you in a similar situation - whether in a plane or a building. I have learned several lessons/thoughts since the attacks that I personally use/follow/believe. Here are a few - although each person has to decide for themselves what they think they would do: (1)If you are in a building and see an attack happen in your building or in a near-by building you should evacuate (regardless of what the announcements inside your building tell you to do.) The World Trade Center was not designed (for some dumb reason) to deal with the evacuation of the whole building at the same time and so in all their drills people inside were told to stay where they were unless told to leave. On the day of the attacks that advice cost many people their lives. Those that had a chance to leave (below the impact zone and with access to a usable stairway) often stayed where they were because of the bad advice they had been told (not to evacuate.) (2) 15 years later we have also learned not to expect first responders to be able to get to you in time. If you call 9-1-1 and tell them your situation don't stay on the line if you have a chance to get to safety (especially if they put you on hold.) Tell them what's happening and then leave. I have since dealt with 9-1-1 in a few states and they tend to take their time on the phone and in getting to you. In my state they have a central 9-1-1 system where everyone in the state calls. Then they ask you what's going on and where you live (and have an outdated address system.) Then they tell you to wait while they transfer you to your local police/fire/EMT. Then once transferred you have to repeat everything to your town. This one call can take many minutes to do and in that time the emergency (the reason you are calling) could have gotten much worse. In the end I have personally found it faster to just drive the person to the hospital myself rather than have to explain the same thing to many people and then wait. (3) In the past 15 years there have been numerous attacks or would-be attacks on-board airplanes. Like Flight 93 it is now most likely up to the passengers themselves to make sure they are safe or to at least protect others (ie. those on the ground.) Flight crews nowadays tend to have superior authority and often abuse that while in the air, but in the end it is usually the passengers that have to stop an unruly person or even a terrorist on-board. (4) In the last 15 years we have learned that the US military has often been working with old war scenarios. On 9/11 the military was using Cold War techniques (even though we had won the Cold War and it had ended 10 years before.) Those old  techniques weren't designed to protect the country from an attack coming from within the country itself (for some reason - haven't they ever heard of 5th columnists?) Hopefully the US Military has changed their procedures in the 15 years since the attacks so the same mistakes and confusion won't happen again. With all of these lessons we have learned in the past 15  years we should also remember the reason why things have changed in the first place: because of all the innocent men and women in New York City, Pennsylvania and Washington DC that died or were wounded on 9/11. Each person had a name, a family and a story. ^

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/09/09/sept-11-attacks-fifteen-years-anniversary/89745060/