The 9/11 terror attacks are forever etched in the collective memory of the world. On September 11, 2001, the world witnessed horrors hitherto unseen as the Twin Towers in New York City, USA, came crumbling down after two commercial flights crashed into them. Another jetliner hit the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed in Pennsylvania.
Its scars are still visible 25 years later, in the form of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum and the accounts of many who lost loved ones. At its core, the 9/11 terror attacks involved four planes that were hijacked by terrorists. From 2021: Worldview with Suhasini Haidar | 20 years after 9/11, what have we learned? The four flights that were involved were American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 77, and United Airlines Flight 93. A jet airliner is lined up on one of the World Trade Center towers in New York, September 11, 2001 | Photo Credit: AP
The moment and its aftermath, chronicled by The Hindu from the ground, completely changed the way the world looked at terrorism. Their intended targets were the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. The target of the fourth flight has been speculated widely, with some saying that even the White House could have been the final destination of that fateful aircraft. The world watched in horror as the city descended into chaos and smoke spread across New York with people jumping from the Twin Towers.
The then UK correspondent of The Hindu , Hasan Suroor, reported on how PM Tony Blair said that “ we stand with the USA on this. Internet whistleblower site Wikileaks revealed that the inmates linked to the U.S. Three of the suspected pilots – Mohamed Atta, Marwan Al-Shehhi, and Zaid Jarrah – were part of the terror cell in Hamburg, Germany. Fifteen of the hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates or UAE, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon. The Hindu’s then foreign correspondent Sridhar Krishnaswami, while reporting on the immediate aftermath, wrote that “what has stunned intelligence and law enforcement agencies, as also the common man, is the kind of coordination and precision the terrorist acts had been executed. Describing the horrifying scenes that he witnessed, Mr. Krishnaswami wrote about how smoke and shock spread all over New York and that “ the first impression here and elsewhere is where intelligence went wrong and some are already talking about colossal intelligence failure . The attacks predominantly covered the front page, which also ran an AP report that questioned whether terrorists had their own pilots. Inside pages featured more details, with Mr. Krishnaswami’s ‘Needle of suspicion on Osama bin Laden’ pointing out that attacks appeared to be extremely well planned and coordinated. “In spite of all the denials of the Taliban, the needle of suspicion is on Osama bin Laden and the fundamentalist outfit in Kabul that is known to protect him. Krishnaswami’s ‘The Hunt Is On For The Culprits’ described about how the US was tracking down the assailants. Krishnaswami explained how America will never be the same again. “There is a lot of pain in America. There is a lot of anger as well,” he wrote in the aftermath of the attack. C. Raja Mohan, in his ‘Dealing with the enemy’ report, pointed out that homeland defence will now take precedence in the U.S. First-person accounts of victims, emergency operators, and The Hindu journalists themselves reveal the human scale of the tragedy even years later. Krishnaswami recounted the horrors in ‘A day that changed America’. ‘” Hold on, I hear the fire alarms. They’re coming. My God, this- don’t worry. God is there. Nations across the globe condemned the attacks. Notably, Russia, who had shared prickly foreign relations with the US, also joined this cohort. Mr. Putin sent out a message of condolence to President Bush referring to him as “ Dear George . Mr. The attack cast a shadow on India’s then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s scheduled visit to New York for the UN General Assembly. Mr Singh spoke to the US Ambassador to India and assured more security to US citizens in the country. Security was beefed up across New Delhi, with Air India flights bound for New York and Chicago being called back as a precaution. But the heroism of the passengers against their hijackers led to many hundreds of lives being possibly saved. Captain Jason Dahl, the pilot, could be heard asking air traffic controllers, “Did you say that they weren’t accepting any traffic into the New York area? Captain Dail and his co-pilot Leroy Homer were being attacked. One of the hijackers then spoke to the passengers, saying, “ Hi this is the captain, we’d like you all the remain seated. There is a bomb aboard. And they have our demands so please stay quiet . A passenger, Todd Beamer, then uttered words to other passengers. These were later quoted by President George Bush. The Bush administration ran a military prison at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba to imprison terror suspects.
Nearly 3,000 people died on 9/11, according to the FBI, which adds that the victims of the attack were from New York, Washington, D.C. and 27 other states of the country. The US Army lost 75 personnel in the attack. More than 400 first responders, including 60 law enforcement officers, were killed, and nearly 3,000 children lost a parent. The 19 men who hijacked and crashed the four planes were all trained by terrorist organisation al-Qaeda, according to the FBI . The FBI adds that the hijackers began entering the US in January 2000, and all nineteen of them were in the country by early July 2001, three months before that tragic day. At this time, Osama bin Laden is the prime suspect, especially after what happened to the American Embassies in Africa in 1998 and last year’s bombing of the USS Cole. On September 13 too, the focus was on the perpetrators of the crime as Mr. In ‘A giant grievously wounded’ report on September 16, 2001, Mr. A year after 9/11, Mr. An April 2006 report in The Hindu , provided by the New York Times News Service, notes how tapes from 9/11 provide details of victims from the Towers calling emergency operators, saying final goodbyes, and asking for help. The UN General Assembly expressed shock over 9/11 and postponed the commencement of its 56th session. United Airlines Flight 93 took off from Newark towards San Francisco when it was hijacked. It did not, however, reach its intended target and crashed into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all 44 on board. A report in The Hindu, on November 19, 2001, , describes what happened. The Bush administration went after the Taliban in Afghanistan and invaded the country in October 2001 to dismantle al-Qaeda. Iraq was invaded by the US in 2003 in the continuance of its war against terrorism. The Obama administration in 2011 killed the chief of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, in an overnight operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2, 2011. A report in The Hindu , dated May 7, 2011, noted that ‘the CIA had Osama’s compound under surveillance for months before U.S. commandos killed him, watching and photographing residents and visitors from a rented house nearby, according to several officials briefed on the operation. It continues to be operational since 2002 even as the Obama and Biden administrations tried to shut it down.
A person falls headfirst from the north tower of New York’s World Trade Center, September 11, 2001 | Photo Credit: AP Front page of The Hindu, September 12, 2001 “America under attack” was the front-page headline of The Hindu on the day after, with images of a crumbling World Trade Centre dominating the coverage. He wrote “ for someone who had come to New York two days earlier on a routine assignment to the United Nations, the day literally started with a jolt …”. “Just hold on one second, Sir,” a police operator is taped saying to a victim of the attack. God is- don’t worry, ” he adds .“Take care” “Bye” “Bye” “Were you able to call your family?” , says another emergency operator to a victim of the attack. A Reuters report, published in The Hindu, noted how Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a televised address, said that the attack was an “ unprecedented act of aggression on the part of international terrorism” and a “brazen challenge to all mankind . Mr Blair added that 9/11 had consequences “ right around the world ” and the “ international community as a whole should consider the nature of the groups behind such acts, how they were financed, how they operated and how they should be defeated. Krishnaswami noted in The Hindu that the Secretary-General said that everyone was “traumatised” by the tragedy and that terrorism must be fought resolutely “wherever it appears. The Hindu report, dated September 12, 2001, quoted the then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh saying that India offers its “deepest condolences” to the people, the Government, and the President of the U.S. The controller replied: “ They’re not, they’re having a problem with World Trade Centre. ” Moments later, there were screams and shouts of “Get out of here ! “ Are you guys ready!, let’s roll ,” he said. “war on terror” were subjected to torture, abuse and “enhanced interrogation techniques”.
