September 11, 2001

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On September 11, 2001, 19 men affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jets. Each team of hijackers included a trained pilot. Two planes crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane into each tower. The pilot of the third team crashed a plane into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. Passengers and members of the flight crew on the fourth hijacked aircraft attempted to retake control of their plane from the hijackers; that plane crashed into a field in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania. A total of 2,976 people died in these attacks.

The leadership of al-Qaeda, a jihadist movement led by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden , claimed responsibility for these attacks. According to the official 9/11 Commission Report, the justification was a “fatwa,” or religious order, claiming that America had declared war against God and his messenger. It was issued by Bin Laden and fugitive Egyptian physician Ayman al-Zawahiri from their base in Afghanistan, and faxed to an Arabic language newspaper in London in February 1998. The individuals who piloted the four aircraft were hand picked by Osama Bin Laden, who also compiled a list of potential targets.

As a consequence of these attacks, the George W. Bush Administration declared a “War on Terror,” with the goal of bringing Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda movement to justice, and preventing the emergence of other terrorist networks. The USA Patriot Act of 2001 provided for the strengthening of domestic defenses against terrorism toward the United States, and for changes to protect Americans abroad. The establishment of the Department of Homeland Security by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 was a direct outgrowth of this legislation, consolidating Federal agencies tasked with immigration policy, border and coastline defense, airport security, domestic preparedness, and other related issues in one Executive Branch department.

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