|
International:
==By dawn, Bush, Powell, and other senior
US officials are calling on world leaders to form a coalition to combat
international terrorism. Powell contacts Sharon, Arafat. Kofi
Annan, key figures in the European Union, and several Arab leaders.
Bush speaks with Blair, Chirac, Chinese President Jiang, Putin (twice), and
others. The intended role of the coalition is unclear.
[wap.Sep.13.2001 / nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==Foreign policy experts - including Senate
Foreign Relations Committee chairman Joseph Biden - begin to predict that the
campaign against terrorism will force the Bush administration to abandon its
unilateralism and to start working constructively with other nations.
But the administration's new multilateralism is halfhearted - according to
Bob Woodward, Bush and his senior advisers value the legitimacy they can gain
from an international coalition, but are unwilling to allow other coalition
members to have serious input on policy matters (as Woodward puts it, “they
did not want the coalition to tie their
hands”). [nyt.Sep.13.2001 / wap.Jan.28.2002]
==The phrase “You’re either with us or against
us” appears for the first time after 9/11, in a quote from an unnamed senior
US official. [nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==Both the UN General Assembly and Security
Council approve resolutions condemning the attacks and calling on member
states to cooperate in tracking down the
perpetrators. [usdos.Dec.26.2001]
Europe/Russia:
==In Brussels, an emergency meeting of
European Union Foreign Ministers expresses “complete solidarity” with the US
and proclaims a European day of mourning on
Friday. [gdn.Sep.12.2001]
==After Powell calls NATO Secretary General
George Robertson, NATO pledges collective military assistance for the US
by invoking Article 5 for the first time in its history. Article 5
states that an attack against one member of the alliance is an attack against
all. [wap.Sep.13.2001]
==On Wednesday morning, an American flag is
tied to an oak tree in a traffic island close by Grosvenor Square near the US
embassy, and soon Londoners are laying flowers and mementoes around the tree
in a spontaneous memorial. Among the tributes are many from British Islamic
organizations. One of the offerings is a bouquet from the London branch
of a New York firm, with the message “To memory of staff of Alliance
Consulting, 102nd floor, South Tower, World Trade Centre. We now know none of
them got out.” [wap.Sep.13.2001]
==In Paris, Le Monde’s leading editorial is
headlined “We Are All Americans.” (Five years later, Saudi commentator Mai
Yamani expresses her disillusionment with post-9/11 US Middle Eastern policy
in a Guardian editorial entitled "We Are No Longer All
Americans.") [lmon.Sep.12.2001 /
gdn.Sep.07.2006]
==German Chancellor Schroeder tells the
Reichstag that the 9/11 attacks are "a declaration of war against the
entire civilized world." He receives unanimous applause from the
assembly. [sal.Sep.13.2001]
==Despite broad international support, there
is already unease in Europe over the possibility of an American overreaction.
In Britain, the Guardian reports “Alongside the outpouring of condolence and
revulsion, however, some commentators feared the outcome will be an angry and
isolationist US, lashing out at its shadowy enemies, not caring who or what
is damaged in the process.” The French Foreign Minister urges
Washington to think about the risks of provoking a new round of terrorism,
contending that "if an act of retaliation leads to a new
destabilization, you haven't won anything at
all." [gdn.Sep.12.2001 /
wap.Sep.13.2001]
Middle East:
==Through its ambassador, Jordan pledges to
"lend support in any way" to the US. [nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==President Assad of Syria calls for “global
mutual help” to eradicate terrorism and to protect human
rights. [nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==Both Yasser Arafat and Israeli President
Moshe Katsav separately announce that they’re donating blood for the victims
of 9/11. Israel observes a day of
mourning. [nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==Israeli intelligence erroneously claims that
al-Qaeda could not have accomplished the 9/11 attacks by themselves, and
speculates that the attacks were backed by Saddam Hussein.
[wdt.Sep.12.2001]
==Israeli military incursions into the West
Bank kill at least ten Palestinians at Jenin and Jericho in the worst
bloodshed in weeks. Palestinians accuse Sharon of taking advantage of
the international distraction caused by the 9/11
attacks. [gdn.Oct.17.2001]
==A Lebanese paper - the Daily Star - hopes
that the attacks will “prompt a renewed American resolve to understand the
region and to help redress the inequities that prevail here… In the long run,
this could actually help America and all parties in the Middle East by
causing them to see that they in fact have a common interest in achieving a
fair and comprehensive peace that portends a better life for Arabs and
Israelis alike.” This optimism proves to be
excessive. [dast.Sep.12.2001]
Persian Gulf:
==Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to the
US, offers “full support fighting terrorism,” but declines to provide any
details. [wap.Sep.13.2001]
Afghanistan/South Asia:
==The UN envoy for Afghanistan says that for
three months the US had made it clear to the Taliban regime that any serious
act of terror by al-Qaeda would result in retaliation. Powell ominously
singles out the Taliban for providing "protection, opportunity,
facilities" to bin Laden. [gdn.Sep.13.2001
/ wap.Sep.13.2001]
==The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan claims
that his regime has taken away all communications from Bin Laden, but that
talk of extradition is “premature.” The Taliban regime is clearly
worried. In the evening it issues a desperate plea for restraint by the
US: “Killing our leaders will not help our people any. There is no factory in
Afghanistan that is worth the price of a single missile fired at us.”
Pakistani military intelligence reports that Taliban leader Mullah Omar has
slipped out of Kandahar and has gone into hiding. There are early
reports of Taliban preparations for war. [gdn.Sep.13.2001
/ nyt.Sep.13.2001 / wap.Sep.13.2001]
==The few Afghans who still have money begin
fleeing Kabul, heading for the Pakistani border. Afghans have learned of the
9/11 attacks through radio reports, and are beginning to understand the
danger of their situation - but more than twenty years of war and hardship
has made many of them fatalistic. When asked what he thinks of the
possibility of an American attack, one Kabul resident shrugs and says
“Americans are powerful and can do anything they like without us stopping
them.” [obs.Sep.16.2001 / nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==International aid workers rush to leave
Afghanistan - a special UN flight carries the first evacuees out of Kabul by
noon. The UN World Food Program stops importing wheat into the
drought-stricken country, citing security risks. [nyt.Sep.13.2001 /
bbc.Sep.22.2001]
==The US begins to pressure Pakistan
into turning against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. In Washington, Deputy
Secretary of State Armitage meets with Pakistani intelligence chief Mahmood
Ahmed, who has close ties to the Taliban. A US official comments “There
was an extremely candid exchange from our side, one that left little room for
misunderstanding. It is safe to say the rules have changed. They changed
yesterday.” The implications are that if Pakistan does not cooperate,
it will become a target. Through his ambassador, Musharraf pledges “unstinted
cooperation,” but does not yet make specific
commitments. [wap.Sep.13.2001 /
nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, a pro-Taliban Pakistani
activist, says religious leaders will proclaim a jihad against America if the
US attacks Afghanistan. [reu.Sep.14.2001]
==In India, two Pakistanis with links to
Kashmiri terrorists are arrested for plotting bombings in Delhi. [bbc.Sep.13.2001]
Africa:
==In the northern Nigerian city of Kano, where
Osama Bin Laden posters are selling briskly, there are attacks on Christian
churches, and in Jos in central Nigeria, where there has been unrest since
Sep.07, Islamist extremists inspired by the 9/11 attacks riot against
non-Muslims. A BBC correspondent in Jos sees two people hacked to death
by machetes, as their murderers shout “Allahu Akbar” (God is great).
Perhaps as many as 500 have died in Nigerian religious violence in the last
few days. [nyt.Sep.13.2001 / bbc.Sep.13.2001 / gdn.Sep.13.2001]
Far East:
==Chinese President Jiang tells Bush that he’s
ready to join an international campaign against
terrorism. [nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==North Korea announces that it is opposed to
all terrorism. [nyt.Sep.13.2001]
Latin America:
==The lead story in the state-controlled Cuban
press is not the 9/11 attacks, but the visit of the President of
Mali. [nyt.Sep.13.2001]
Canada:
==With 30,000 stranded passengers, Canada
reopens its domestic airspace. [nyt.Sep.13.2001
/ iasa]
War/Military:
==The Bush administration begins describing
its response to 9/11 as a full-scale war rather than as an
counterterrorist operation. Bush, Cheney, and Powell make the fateful
decision to describe the 9/11 attacks as ‘acts of war’ around early AM
Wednesday. [nyt.Sep.16.2001]
==In a televised interview on Wednesday morning,
Secretary of State Powell says “The American people made a judgment - we are
at war.” Powell speaks of going after terrorism “branch and root” and
says that nations that aid terrorists will be held accountable. Powell
also calls the 9/11 attacks “a war against
civilization.” [nyt.Sep.13.2001 /
wap.Sep.13.2001 / cnn.Sep.12.2001]
==After conferring with his national security
team on Wednesday morning, Bush makes a statement to reporters, saying that
the 9/11 attacks were "more than acts of terror. They were acts of war,”
speaking of using “all of our resources” in response, and going on to say “We
will rally the world… This will be a monumental struggle of good versus evil,
but good will prevail." This is a sharp escalation of rhetoric from
his speech on Tuesday night. [ap.Sep.12.2001
/ wap.Jan.28.2002 / nyt.Sep.16.2001]
==At this time, the administration’s decision
to invoke war is supported by the majority of the public and the press.
(See Public Mood and Opinion, below) But for the first time in American
history, the country is in a state of war without knowing who or what it’s at
war with. Al-Qaeda is a clandestine organization, not a military
target, and its ally the Taliban regime is too primitive for the sort of massive
military action the US seems to be gearing up for. The Bush
administration will treat the vaguely defined, open-ended ‘war on terrorism’
as a sort of blank check that gives it a completely free hand in foreign
policy. The administration’s goals are quickly becoming very ambitious
- when Bush speaks of “a monumental struggle of good versus evil,” he’s
apparently already contemplating something much grander than just settling
scores with al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
==More than four years later, disillusioned
neoconservative Francis Fukuyama writes "we need to demilitarize what we
have been calling the global war on terrorism and shift to other types of
policy instruments… 'war' is the wrong metaphor for the broader struggle,
since wars are fought at full intensity and have clear beginnings and
endings. Meeting the jihadist challenge is more of a 'long, twilight
struggle' whose core is not a military campaign but a political contest for
the hearts and minds of ordinary Muslims around the world."
[nyt.Feb.19.2006]
==Richard Clarke later writes “On the morning
of the 12th, (the Pentagon’s) focus was already beginning to shift from
al-Qaeda.” Deputy Secretary of Defense Wolfowitz begins promoting the idea
that Iraq sponsored the attacks, despite a complete lack of
evidence. [clarke]
==War with Iraq
is discussed among senior administration officials for the first time after
9/11. During NSC meetings on
Wednesday, Vice President Cheney repeatedly urges that the ‘war on terrorism’
be directed primarily against states rather than specifically against
al-Qaeda. "To the extent we define our task broadly," Cheney
says, "including those who support terrorism, then we get at states. And
it's easier to find them than it is to find bin Laden." Rumsfeld
advocates an immediate war with Iraq, at one point bizarrely suggesting that
Iraq should be bombed because it had so many more suitable targets than
Afghanistan. Powell counters that the American people expect action
against al-Qaeda and that they would not now support an attack on Iraq.
The disgusted Richard Clarke tells Powell “Having been attacked by al-Qaeda,
for us now to go bombing Iraq in response would be like our invading Mexico
after the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor.” [wap.Jan.28.2002
/ clarke]
==In the White House Situation Room Wednesday
evening, Bush repeatedly tells the incredulous Richard Clarke to find links
between the 9/11 attacks and Iraq. One of Clarke’s aides says of the
president “Wolfowitz got to him.” On the day after 9/11, Bush already seems
committed to pursuing a conflict with Iraq. See
Sep.13 [clarke]
==Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, who will
become a key promoter for war against Iraq, is already saying that “one or
more governments” must be responsible for preparing the 9/11 attacks.
Perle erroneously assumes that the hijackers couldn’t have learned to fly
airliners “without the assistance of large
governments.” [wap.Sep.12.2001]
==Former CIA Director James Woolsey, another
war enthusiast, tells commentator James Fallows that Saddam Hussein must be
overthrown even if he wasn’t involved in the 9/11 attacks, since he’ll
probably be involved the next time. [atl.Jan.2004]
==The administration is reportedly already
considering sustained, large-scale military operations. One officer
says “The constraints have been lifted.” [nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==The call-up of as many as 40,000 reservists
is under consideration. [nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==“Crisis action teams” are established at
most major military commands to prepare units for war and to increase
security at US bases. [wap.Sep.13.2001]
==Defense Secretary Rumsfeld prepares a video
for US troops, saying "…it is my duty as head of this department to tell
you that more, much more, will be asked of you in the weeks and months
ahead.” [defl.Sep.12.2001]
==Speaking in the Senate, John McCain says “I
say to our enemies: We are coming. God may have mercy on you, but we
won't.” Zell Miller of Georgia says “I say, bomb the hell out of them.
If there's collateral damage, so be it. They certainly found our civilians to
be expendable.” [cnn.Sep.13.2001 /
millz.Sep.12.2001]
==Military writer Ralph Peters says “It's time
now to start talking about killing people.” [wap.Sep.13.2001]
==A few observers have already detected that
some members of the Bush administration are pushing for war with Iraq.
Media critic Danny Schechter writes “So, is another Gulf War in the offing?
Will Son of Bush "finish" his father's failed Desert Storm? That is
a real possibility, suggesting also that more media manipulation is on the
way… But you heard it here first: the road to revenge may just take us back
to Baghdad, guilty or not.” [mdc.Sep.12.2001]
==See also Congress - and for more warlike
rhetoric, see Press
Terrorism:
==According to a Pakistani newspaper, bin
Laden denies responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. Later that day, there
are false reports that the Taliban has placed him under house
arrest. [reu.Sep.12.2001 / afp.Sep.13.2001]
Counterterrorism:
==Attorney General Ashcroft calls the FBI’s
response to 9/11 “perhaps the most massive and intensive investigation ever
conducted in America,” already involving 4000 agents and 3000 support
personnel. [nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==The FBI establishes that the hijackers who
piloted the planes trained in American flight schools. The name
‘Mohamed Atta’ appears in news reports for the first
time. [wap.Sep.13.2001 / indy.Sep.12.2001]
==The round-up of suspects begins.
In the weeks after 9/11, US authorities arrest many hundreds of Muslim
immigrants, often holding them for months while denying them virtually all
legal rights and subjecting them to harsh verbal and physical abuse,
according to a June 2003 report by the inspector general of the Justice
Department. Although the Justice Department refuses to release figures, it’s
been estimated that more than 5,000 aliens are detained in the two years
after 9/11. Of these, as of Sep.2003, a grand total of four are charged
in connection with terrorism, and two of the four are later acquitted.
The American press pays very little attention to the detainees’
treatment. [cnn.Jun.03.2003 /
nyrb.Oct.23.2003]
==FBI and ATF agents, along with two bomb
squads and two SWAT teams equipped with battering rams, shields, and machine
guns, descend on the Westin Copley Hotel in Boston and detain three guests -
a Saudi businessman, his wife and his sister - in response to reports that
suspects were holed up in the hotel. Shortly afterwards, authorities evacuate
the entire hotel and an adjacent shopping mall. A few days later, the FBI
confirms that the tip was false and that the arrested Saudis had no
connection with terrorism. Other agents search homes and businesses in New
Jersey, Massachusetts and Florida. [indy.Sep.12.2001 / wap.Sep.15.2001
/ nyt.Sep.12.2001]
==In a highly publicized arrest, two Muslims
from India - Mohamed Azmath and Syed Shah (also known as Ayub Khan) - are
pulled off an Amtrak train in Fort Worth, after police notice that their
behavior is “nervous and evasive” and find that they are in possession of box
cutters, hair dye, letters written in Arabic and other suspicious
items. At the time, the incident is seen as a frightening indication
that terrorists are still at large in America. The two detainees are
denied access to a lawyer until December and are kept in solitary confinement
in exceptionally severe conditions for about a year, while their families
back home are harassed by Indian authorities. It’s eventually
determined that they have no connection with terrorism - they had box cutters
because they had worked at a news stand, they had hair dye because they were
going gray, and they had good reason to be nervous. The two are finally
convicted of unrelated credit card fraud, released on time served, and deported
back to India… though their release gets much less news coverage than their
arrest. The US attorney who prosecuted their cases later says “I don't
think anyone would say the government acted unreasonably.” Azmath and
Shah see things rather differently. After his release, the disgusted
Azmath comments “America is still the same, but the federal system is totally
changed.” [cnn.May.27.2003 / vv.Sep.25.2002]
==Overzealous police in Providence, Rhode Island,
pull about ten Arabs and South Asians from another Amtrak train and question
them for almost two hours while the train idles in the station. One
Sikh who has a kirpan (a small knife worn as a religious symbol) is arrested
for carrying a concealed weapon - train passengers cheer and run after the
police car as he’s driven away. The city of Providence finally drops
his charges in late October. [nyt.Sep.14.2001
/ csm.Oct.21.2001 / indy.Sep.12.2001]
==Unnamed officials announce that five men
from Union City, New Jersey, are being investigated for supposedly setting up
cameras beforehand to photograph the attacks on the World Trade Center, and
then congratulating each other on the buildings’ destruction. But this
story of sinister al-Qaeda cameramen is evidently unfounded, and nothing more
is heard of it. [nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==The FBI announces that some of the hijackers
who took off from Boston entered the US from Canada. This proves to be
untrue. It is also announced that the hijackers were assisted by
supporters in Newark, Boston and Virginia - and this also evidently turns out
to be untrue. [nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==Increased security measures are being
hurriedly implemented throughout the world, especially regarding air travel -
but air travel is already massively disrupted
everywhere. [cnn.Sep.12.2001 /
bbc.Sep.12.2001]
==At 0200 AM Transportation Secretary Mineta
announces that heightened security measures will be implemented as soon as
airports reopen. Curbside check-ins will be eliminated and all knives
of any sort will be banned from commercial planes and from airport terminals
- patrons of airport diners will have to cut their food with their
forks. The Air Line Pilots Association urges its members to wear
civilian clothing “so as to not be targeted by terrorists as pilots to be
used in further hijackings.” [time.Sep.14.2001 /
wap.Sep.12.2001]
==The General Accounting Office warns that the
internet is still very vulnerable to attack, and the FBI's National
Infrastructure Protection Center holds an emergency meeting on
cyber-security. A security consultant warns “Terrorists attacked our
financial and political centers Tuesday. The logical next step is to
attack our computer infrastructure.” [bbc.Sep.12.2001
/ ust.Sep.13.2001]
==Worldwide, about 50 US embassies and
consulates are either partially or entirely closed for security reasons,
including many in the Middle East. [wap.Sep.12.2001
/ iasa]
==Salon airs comments by disenchanted
intelligence personnel, who complain that the CIA and FBI have long been
grossly mismanaging counterterrorist activities. Intelligence-gathering
capability is said to be very weak throughout the Middle East - Iraq in
particular is described as “a black hole.” The issue of pre-9/11 intelligence
failures doesn’t really become a major news story until the spring of
2002. [sal.Sep.12.2001]
==On Wednesday morning, the German federal
police (the BKA) receive a request from the FBI to look into the background
of the 9/11 suspects, most of whose names the FBI has already
determined. From Wednesday night to early Thursday morning, German
police raid eight addresses in Hamburg, including some of Mohamed Atta’s old
homes. This is the beginning of an enormous German investigation, involving
a 600-agent BKA task force. [bbc.Sep.14.2001
/ inside]
==The Russian foreign intelligence agency
announces that it will work closely with the US against
terrorism. [bbc.Sep.12.2001]
==Israel offers to immediately send 170
counterterrorist experts to aid the US. [ap.Sep.12.2001]
==Philippine police raid a Manila hotel
looking for three Omanis believed to be linked to
al-Qaeda. [bbc.Sep.14.2001]
==Kim Schmitz, a young German Internet tycoon,
offers a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of bin
Laden. He receives 10,000 e-mails in 24
hours. [cnn.Sep.14.2001]
==US officials are investigating three Afghans
arrested a year ago in the Cayman Islands, and later anonymously accused of
involvement in 9/11. (see late Aug.2001) The Afghans say they
arrived in the Caymans by accident, mistaking it for Canada. A Cayman
police commissioner told American reporters “You may have some bizarre things
where you are, but this takes the biscuit here.”
[lat.Sep.20.2001]
==See also Civil Liberties, for the genesis of
the USA Patriot Act.
9/11 Aftermath:
==Early attempts are made to estimate the
number of causalities. Congressman Jim Moran speculates that 10,000 may
have been killed at the World Trade Center, and it’s thought that there may
have been 800 fatalities at the Pentagon. Texas Senator Kay Bailey
Hutchinson estimates that 15,000 to 25,000 died. Fortunately, these
figures prove to be much too high… but estimates of 300 firefighters and 85
police officers killed are closer to the mark. [cnn.Sep.12.2001
/ indy.Sep.12.2001]
==Five survivors are rescued from the debris
of the World Trade Center, many fewer than was hoped. The last person
to be rescued alive is a woman pulled from a collapsed walkway on Wednesday,
shortly after noon. There are more false reports of survivors trapped
under the rubble calling for help on their cell phones, and false reports
that a policeman who’d been on the 82nd floor of one of the towers
miraculously “rode the building down to the ground” and
survived. [nyt.Sep.13.2001 /
wire.Sep.12.2001 / urblrp.Sep.11.2003]
==A five-story-high remnant of the South Tower
collapses in late afternoon, causing rescue workers and medical personnel to
flee. Other buildings in the area are in danger of falling. CNN
reports “One 20-story building seems as if it would tumble in a heavy
wind.” [nyt.Sep.13.2001 / cnn.Sep.13.2001]
== A weary firefighter at Ground Zero comments
"I lost count of all the dead people I saw. It is absolutely worse
than you could ever imagine." A man leaving the area says “You
don't want to know. You don't want to know the things we stepped over.”
A doctor who is asked what sort of injuries victims have, replies “The sort
of injuries you expect when billions of tons of rubble fall from the sky on
top of people.” A volunteer says “We found some people and they were
squished. There's not much of them. They were squished so hard that basically
there's nothing. We were asking for small body bags because otherwise they
were going to get lost.” A dog trained to detect cadavers is
overwhelmed - his handler says “Basically, what he's doing is smelling flesh
in the air, and it's just coming out of the cracks. It's
everywhere.” [gdn.Sep.13.2001 /
cnn.Sep.12.2001 / nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==The EPA finds the amount of asbestos in the
air at Ground Zero to be four times the acceptable level. More than 300
rescue workers are treated for eye and respiratory injuries, and doctors
predict that some workers may suffer permanent respiratory damage. Two
years later, a medical screening survey finds that almost half of the rescue
workers still have ear, nose, or throat
problems. [wap.Sep.13.2001 /
cnn.Aug.28.2003]
==One Liberty Plaza, the home of NASDAQ across
from the WTC, is sealed off when it appeared to be about to collapse, but is
later reopened. The upscale Brooks Brothers clothing store in One
Liberty Plaza and the elegant lobby of the nearby American Express Building -
both now strewn with debris - are being used as temporary morgues.
Outside the Brooks Brothers morgue, someone has scrawled in the ash “God
bless America, land that we love.” [nyt.Sep.12.2001
/ gdn.Sep.14.2001]
==The Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island,
which had been closed in March, reopens to receive the rubble of the World
Trade Center. Many commentators note the grim irony of the landfill’s
name. The Washington Post estimates that it will take over 100,000 dump
truck loads to shift most of the rubble. [wap.Sep.14.2001]
==Hundreds of men and women wander around New
York City, checking hospitals for relatives or friends who never came
home. Posters seeking news of the missing begin to appear in the
morning, and are all over the town by afternoon. On Wednesday night,
the city opens a missing persons information center at the 69th Regiment
Armory, and within less than a day, 2,500 people register information about
vanished friends or family members. Near the armory, at Union Square,
near Bellevue Hospital, and in other places searchers cover walls with flyers
about the missing. Thousands of somber visitors file past, starting at
one end and working their way down, peering closely at the photographs and
information. By Sep.22, a reporter writes of the posters: “At this
point it seems clear that they are not queries so much as
memorials.” [gdn.Sep.22.2001 /
nyt.Sep.13.2001 / csm.Sep.17.2001]
==There is a tremendous wave of
volunteerism. One woman who tried to volunteer her services in New York
said "I'm here to do whatever. I can hold hands, listen to
stories, sweep the streets, whatever." But there was little to
volunteer for. More than enough blood is quickly donated, and only
those with special skills are allowed to assist in the rescue work. For
the most part, volunteers are turned away. [nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==Giuliani’s vigorous and humane handling of
the disaster is much admired, even by old foes. One long-time critic
notes that the mayor has completely resisted using macho political
rhetoric. But Salon editor Joan Walsh remains a little wary: “I try to
check myself before going into full swoon over Giuliani. You can see how
decades of crisis could lead to fascism; at a time like this I worry I'm
entirely too ready to fall into the arms of a strong man.”
[sal.Sep.12.2001]
==New York City is eerie, almost
lifeless. Most businesses and stores are closed, streets, subways, and
parking lots are nearly empty, and what activity there is seems muted.
Only essential personnel are allowed into the evacuated zone of lower
Manhattan south of 14th Street. [nyt.Sep.13.2001
/ iasa]
==Frequent bomb hoaxes and building
evacuations occur over the next few days - about this time the NYPD estimated
that bomb hoaxes jumped from about seven to over one hundred per day.
The UN and the Empire State Building are evacuated on Sep.12, as are many
other buildings around the world, including 10 Downing Street in London and
the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin. [sal.Sep.20.2001
/ irex.Sep.12.2001 / cnn.Sep.12.2001 / iasa]
==About 230 AM, rescue workers hang an
American flag from the roof of the Pentagon near the crash site. Just
before noon, a false report that a plane is closing in from four miles away,
pursued by fighters, causes personnel to briefly flee the recovery area.
The Pentagon fire is under control by mid-day. Rescue workers find
corpses still sitting at their desks, as well as an open dictionary on a
wooden pedestal, untouched in the midst of the
ruins. [wap.Sep.13.2001]
==A large part of the Pentagon is sealed off
and guarded by MPs armed with M-16s, and much of the rest of the immense
building reeks of smoke. In a show of defiance, around half the
workforce shows up - about 10,000 employees - but little work is getting
done. Bush makes a brief public appearance at the Pentagon in late
afternoon. [wap.Sep.13.2001 /
nyt.Sep.16.2001]
==Snipers are still deployed on rooftops near
the White House. [cnn.Sep.12.2001]
==Air traffic is still shut down for most of
the day throughout America. A ground crew member describes La Guardia
Airport in New York: “It's like a ghost town. All we need is the
tumbleweed blowing through.” A few flights stranded in Canada are given
clearance to return in the evening. Many international carriers cancel flights
to the Middle East. [nyt.Sep.13.2001 / iasa]
==Reports begin to appear of 9/11-related
Internet scams, often in the form of fraudulent e-mails soliciting donations
for victims’ charities. [cauce.Sep.12.2001]
The Administration:
==For a couple of days after the attacks,
Bush’s behavior on 9/11 is frequently unfavorably compared with Giuliani’s in
New York, with Rumsfeld’s at the Pentagon, or with John F. Kennedy’s during
the Cuban Missile Crisis. Until Friday, the president has little
interaction with the press or the public. The conservative Boston
Herald bluntly states that the president’s conduct “did not inspire
confidence.” [nyt.Sep.13.2001 /
sal.Sep.12.2001]
==Administration officials publicly claim that
Bush failed to immediately return to Washington because there was evidence
that the terrorists were planning to crash into the White House or to attack
Air Force One. In the morning, Karl Rove says "We are talking
about specific and credible intelligence, not vague suspicions."
In the afternoon, Ari Fleischer says that the plane which crashed into the
Pentagon originally intended to hit the White House. These claims prove to be
untrue. [nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==In a taped address to US forces, Defense
Secretary Rumsfeld feels a need to assure his listeners that “throughout this
crisis, the President has been as commanding and impressive in person as he
has been in his public addresses.” [defl.Sep.12.2001]
==Apparently reacting to earlier indiscretions
by Senator Hatch, Rumsfeld bitterly denounces officials who leak sensitive
information, saying they are “willing to frustrate our efforts to track down
and deal with terrorists, and willing to reveal information that could cost
the lives of men and women in uniform.” The administration prevents the CIA
and FBI from briefing the Senate Intelligence Committee behind closed doors,
and tells the agencies that all future briefings will be controlled by the
White House’s National Security Council. In the afternoon, the
administration finally gives an intelligence briefing to the Senate, but a
Congressional source said the briefing was merely cosmetic, “the same as no
briefing at all.” From this point on, the administration tightens its
control over what information is released to the Congress and the
press. At the same time, its careful grooming of Bush’s image is
intensified. [wap.Sep.13.2001 /
bls.Sep.14.2001]
Congress:
==At 1000 AM, Congress reconvenes for the
first time after the attacks with strong shows of bipartisanship.
Hillary Clinton warmly praises Bush. A government professor at Cornell
says that Congress will likely be devoid of partisanship for months to
come. Bad prediction. [nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==Both houses of Congress unanimously pass a
resolution condemning the attacks, supporting Bush in punishing the
perpetrators, and proclaiming September 12 to be a “national day of unity and
mourning.” [wap.Sep.13.2001]
==Action is begun on a $20 billion emergency
recovery package, to help pay immediate costs of rescue and rebuilding at the
Pentagon and the WTC, and to bolster security. This emergency funding
request is developed through consultation between the administration and
Congressional Republicans. In contrast, Congressional Democrats are given
"no consultation, no collaboration, virtually no information."
Meanwhile, the harsh Congressional debate on preserving Social Security
surpluses that was underway before 9/11 has abruptly ended. See Sep.13
and Sep.14 [wap.Sep.13.2001 / nyt.Sep.14.2001]
==In the evening, the Bush administration asks
Congress to authorize the president to use force against whoever committed
9/11, to deter future acts of terrorism, and to draw whatever funds were
needed. Congress fears that the administration is asking for the power to
wage war at will and for a blank check, and quietly balks at the demands
while maintaining a public show of solidarity. See Sep.14
[sal.Sep.13.2001]
==A prayer service is held under the dome of
the Capitol, during which Capitol Police Officer Dan Nelson sings an
unaccompanied pitch-perfect rendition of ‘Amazing
Grace.’ [wap.Sep.13.2001]
Press:
==In Britain, newspapers enormously increase
their print runs, sometimes by hundreds of thousands, but many newsstands are
still sold out by mid-morning. [gdn.Sep.12.2001]
==The first wave of written commentary on 9/11
is coming out. Media observer Jamie L. Jones divides the early
editorials into basic categories: mourning, raging, scholarly, flag-waving,
and warning. Rage is predominant. Jones comments that overall
“much of (the writing) is the drivel that spews forth on such public
occasions, but there too are the odd commentaries of great insight, seemingly
slipped in as if by accident amid the torrents of anger and rabble-rousing
rhetoric.” [mdli.Sep.14.2001]
==Some commentators have become
unhinged. The Philadelphia Daily News publishes a blood-curdling
editorial by Frank Burgos: “REVENGE. Hold on to that thought. Go to bed thinking
it. Wake up chanting it. Because nothing less than revenge is called for
today… we will remember your actions, and crave only one thing: blood for
blood.” Columnist Lance Morrow writes in Time magazine: “Let's have
rage… What's needed is a unified, unifying, Pearl Harbor-sort of purple
American fury… Let America explore the rich reciprocal possibilities of the
fatwa. A policy of focused brutality does not come easily (but) America needs
to relearn why human nature has equipped us all with a weapon (abhorred in
decent peacetime societies) called hatred.” In a New York Post
editorial entitled ‘Simply Kill the Bastards,’ Steve Dunleavy cuts loose with
comments like “A gunshot between the eyes, blow them to smithereens, poison
them if you have to…. As for cities or countries that host these worms, bomb
them into basketball courts,” and so on. [pdn.Sep.12.2001
/ time.Sep.12.2001 / nyp.Sep.12.2001]
==Equally violent commentary can be heard on
television - but TV producers deny that their broadcasts are feeding war
fever, and insist that they’re only reflecting the reaction of the public and
the government. [nyt.Sep.14.2001]
==Henry Kissinger writes that the US must
destroy “the system that is responsible for (the attacks). That system is a
network of terrorist organizations sheltered in capitals of certain
countries.” Kissinger doesn’t specify the
countries. [wap.Sep.12.2001]
==Making the already standard comparison
between the 9/11 attacks and Pearl Harbor, a Washington Post editorial says
that America must commit itself to full-scale war… but also warns that the
country must not allow its freedoms to be
eroded. [wap.Sep.12.2001]
==Political commentator William Pfaff writes
that “the only real defense against external attack is serious, continuing
and courageous effort to find political solutions for national and
ideological conflicts that involve the United States.” But Pfaff is
aware that the Bush administration is not inclined to go that
route. [inht.Sep.12.2001]
==The generally pro-Arab Robert Fisk writes a
despairing piece in The Independent: "So it has come to this. The entire
modern history of the Middle East… all erased within hours as those who claim
to represent a crushed, humiliated population struck back with the wickedness
and awesome cruelty of a doomed people… America is at war and, unless I am
mistaken, many thousands more are now scheduled to die in the Middle East,
perhaps in America too. Some of us warned of "the explosion to
come". But we never dreamt this nightmare."
[ind.Sep.12.2001]
==David Rieff writes “Instead of the next big
thing being some new technological innovation or medical breakthrough, the
next big thing is likely to be fear.” [lat.Sep.12.2001]
==Lead news stories of a couple days earlier
have been buried by 9/11. In Los Angeles, stand-up comedienne Paula
Poundstone pleads no-contest to lewd conduct and child abuse charges.
For months the case had been a media circus with reporters “literally…
stumbling and tripping” over each other - but at this climactic hearing, one
day after the attacks, “there may have been one camera” in the
courtroom. [lat.Sep.20.2001]
Culture/Entertainment:
==Numerous movie releases, television series
premieres, promotional campaigns, sports events, and other such entertainment
activities are postponed. Major league baseball games are called off
for the second night for the first time since D-Day in
1944. [cnn.Sep.13.2001 / nyt.Sep.12.2001 /
wap.Sep.13.2001]
==Weirdly, both Disneyland and Disney World
reopen the morning after the attacks. Crowds are
thin. [cnn.Sep.12.2001 / nyt]
Public Mood and Opinion:
==A number of opinion polls are conducted in
America immediately after the attacks. A CNN/Gallup/USA Today poll
released on Wednesday finds that 86% consider the attacks an act of war and
92% favor military retaliation, though most (71%) want to wait until the
guilty parties are clearly identified before launching attacks. ABC
reports that 84% support attacking countries that assist terrorists, while
only 11% oppose it. In all polls, an overwhelming majority is very
confident or somewhat confident that the US will apprehend those responsible
for planning the attacks. Gallup finds that 45% were ‘very confident’
in Bush’s ability to handle the crisis, 33% ‘somewhat confident’ and 18% ‘not
too confident’ or ‘not confident at all.’ An Ipsos-Reid survey asking
about emotional response finds sorrow to be predominant at 82%, with anger a
distant second at 42%. CBS finds shock to be the most common reaction.
According to Gallup, 87% of the respondents say that the attacks were the
most tragic news event of their lifetime. See other poll results under
Civil Liberties. [gallup.Sep.13.2001 /
gl&m.Sep.13.2001]
==The text of Canadian radio commentator
Gordon Sinclair's 'The Americans' begins to be widely circulated. This very
pro-American 1973 broadcast praises the United States for its generosity and
laments the world's lack of gratitude. [usen.Sep.12.2001]
==An unidentified man spent most of Wednesday
waving an American flag from an overpass above busy Interstate 480 in
Ohio. [gdn.Sep.14.2001]
==In Wyoming, a retired truck driver tells the
local newspaper “I know just what to do with these Arab people. We have
to find them, kill them, wrap them in a pigskin and bury them. That way they
will never go to heaven.” [nyt.Sep.14.2001]
==Muslim groups have already received over a
hundred reports from across the US of harassment of Middle Easterners and
South Asians. Among other incidents, Molotov cocktails are tossed into
a Sikh temple in suburban Cleveland, and a Pakistani woman in Long Island is
nearly run over by a man who screams that he was “doing this for my
country.” Wednesday night, in the Chicago suburb of Bridgeview, a crowd
of over 100 - many of them teenagers - marches on a mosque waving
American flags and shouting ‘U.S.A.’ While there are many reports of
harassment by individuals, the Bridgeview incident seems to be the only case
of anti-Muslim mob action in America. A Muslim woman in San Francisco
says "There are no words. This is my country, these are my people.
It is a double-edged sword because I know when people look at me they won't
see that, they'll just see that I'm one of them."
[nyt.Sep.14.2001 / sfc.Sep.12.2001]
==A school bus full of Muslim children is
stoned near Brisbane, Australia. [age.Sep.13.2001]
==3,000 people attend an interfaith mourning
service at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, that opens with a Muslim call to
prayers. There are quite a few similar services held across America around
this time. [sal.Sep.16.2001 / plupr]
==A poster to alt.conspiracy has his own
theories: "Geoge Bush is Bill Clinton! They are both "Alien
Agency" Presidents and they all are allowing the alien race to play the
"snuff" game here in America… NYC, like the othe major cities of
the world, is a huge alien agency HIVE. 99% of the people who work or live
there are telepathic aliens and are protected by the alien agency… Any act of
violence or catistrophic occurence in NYC is controlled by the "Alien
Agency"… Its about time human Americans found out the
truth." [usen.Sep.12.2001]
==An Associated Press photo of the burning
World Trade Center that had been printed in some papers on September 11
becomes famous when it’s noticed that the smoke pouring out of the South
Tower resembles a face. Thousands believe that the picture reveals the
image of Satan, presiding over the 9/11 attacks. Other observers, less
impressed, think that the face looks more like Bob Hope, Richard Nixon, or
Harvey Keitel. [sagin.Sep.13.2001 /
gadf.Oct.08.2001]
==A very widely circulated e-mail appears that
suggests that the number 11 recurs with sinister regularity in dates and
words associated with the attacks (“The date of the attack: 9/11 - 9 + 1 + 1
= 11… September 11th is the 254th day of the year: 2 + 5 + 4 = 11…” and so
on.) This ominous message is soon satirized by Dave Pawson, who comes
up with other 11-letter phrases, including ‘It’s Bullshit.’
[alt.conspiracy.Sep.12.2001 / urblrp.Oct.26.2001]
Civil Liberties:
==The Justice Department begins work on
what will become the USA Patriot Act. In the aftermath of the 9/11
attacks, Bush tells Attorney General John Ashcroft to take extraordinary
measures. Ashcroft later recalls “My instruction was this: We've got to think
outside the box…” On Wednesday morning, he is still in hiding with
other senior government officials, but he conveys a directive to Assistant
Attorney General Viet Dinh, who convenes a meeting of a half dozen officials
in the Justice Department. Dinh eagerly tells the group “Beginning
immediately, we will work on a package of authorities” that will give
far-reaching new powers to law enforcement, and he charges his colleagues
with cataloging any legal restraints that might get in the
way. [wap.Jan.28.2002+Oct.27.2002]
==Internet service providers AOL and Earthlink
announce that they’re providing information on their clients to the FBI, but
decline to give details. Both ISPs deny reports that ‘Carnivore’ spy
systems have been installed. [cnet.Sep.13.2001]
==Republican Senator Trent Lott declares:
"When you are at war, civil liberties are treated differently. We cannot
let what happened yesterday happen in the
future." [nyt.Sep.15.2001]
==A Washington Post/ABC poll released on
Wednesday found that 66% of respondents would be willing to surrender some of
the civil liberties guaranteed Americans in order for the government to crack
down on terrorism, 24% were unwilling, and 10% had no opinion.
[gl&m.Sep.13.2001]
==Morton Halperin, a former head of the
Washington ACLU and a former national security official who had himself been
wiretapped by the Nixon administration, sends an e-mail calling on civil
libertarians to organize in opposition to the sweeping counterterrorism
legislation expected to emerge soon in Congress. See
Sep.14 [wap.Oct.27.2002]
==Liberal commentator Harold Meyerson writes “We could… end up making
war on ourselves, sacrificing our freedoms to the security of a garrison state…
In a war against terrorism… a number of government agencies and their
cheerleaders would be clearly tempted to lock the Bill of Rights away in some
basement dustbin of the National Archives.” [ampros.Sep.12.2001]
==In the Washington Post, commentator David
Von Drehle foresees the coming struggle between those who want to preserve
civil liberties and others who want to strengthen the government’s police
powers - “What We Stand For versus What It Takes,” as Von Drehle puts
it. He predicts “these attacks truly were the first step down a very
dark and dangerous alley.” [wap.Sep.12.2001]
==See also the crackdown on suspected
immigrants in the Countererrorism section.
Economy/Business:
==There is growing fear of a global
recession. An American financial analyst says “We're right on the
edge of whether it's a worldwide recession or not. It's not going to
take too many things to tip the balance the wrong way.” A British economist
glumly comments “The world was looking for the United States economy to
recover later this year and help the global economy get back on its feet.
Suddenly, everything that seemed well established has been blown out of the
water.” A few analysts are still trying to be optimistic - a Boston
money manager says “My guess is that after an initial shock, there will not
be a lot of effect on the economy or markets.” James Glassman, chief
domestic economist for J. P. Morgan Chase, is even more determined to be
positive, saying “…good things are going to come out of it.”
[indy.Sep.12.2001 / gdn.Sep.12.2001 / wap.Sep.12.2001 / nyt.Sep.12.2001]
==Asian, European, and Latin American stock
markets plummet in reaction to the attacks. Japan’s Nikkei average
drops nearly 7%, falling below 10,000 for the first time since 1984, which
temporarily puts it below the Dow Jones industrial average for the first time
since 1957. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong falls nearly 10%.
But financial markets showed signs of stabilizing later in the day.
Share prices of airlines and travel industry companies fell especially
sharply. [wap.Sep.13.2001 / nyt.Sep.12.2001 /
bbc.Sep.12.2001]
==The Federal Reserve injects $38.25 billion
into the financial system by buying up government bonds. Worldwide,
governments pump in about $120 billion. [nyt.Sep.13.2001
/ wap.Sep.13.2001]
==The first air carrier falls victim to the
9/11 attacks: Midway Airlines, already bankrupt, announces that it is
suspending operations and immediately laying off its 1,700
employees. [cnn.Sep.13.2001 / iasa]
==Beginning the day of the attack, panic
briefly drives gas prices up – in some places to $5/gallon – before state
governments step in and threaten price gougers with hefty fines. Opec
announces that it will ensure a steady flow of oil, helping to stabilize petroleum
prices. [ap.Sep.11.2001 /wiki /
bbc.Sep.12.2001]
==Shipping of goods within the US is somewhat
slowed but not paralyzed. However, the aviation shutdown and tightened
border security is badly hurting international
commerce. [nyt.Sep.13.2001]
==Mayor Giuliani vows that New York City will
come back "economically stronger." But many observers worry
that the 9/11 attacks will lead to a slump in tourism and loss of
revenue. There are also fears that some firms will move out of the
city. The attacks destroyed or damaged about 27.5 million square feet of
office space, or roughly 20 percent of the space available in lower
Manhattan, and many businesses are desperately searching for new locations.
Some are leasing offices in New Jersey rather than Manhattan.
[goth.Sep.14.2001 / cnn.Sep.14.2001]
Enviroment:
==An internal Sierra Club memo outlines the
group's post-9/11 policy. "In response to the attacks on America, we are
shifting our communications strategy for the immediate future. We have taken
all of our ads off the air; halted our phone banks; removed any material from
the web that people could perceive as anti-Bush, and are taking other steps
to prevent the Sierra Club from being perceived as controversial during this
crisis. We will re-evaluate as the national climate shifts… For now, we are
going to stop aggressively pushing our agenda and will cease bashing
President Bush." Other environmental groups are soon backing away from
protests and generally damping down their activities.
[grist.Sep.15.2001 / cnp.Sep.14.2001]
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