September 11th,
- 8:45 a.m.: A large plane, possibly a hijacked airliner, crashes into one of the World Trade Center towers, tearing a gaping hole in the building and setting it afire.
- 9:03 a.m.: A second plane, apparently a passenger jet, crashes into the second World Trade Center tower and explodes. Both buildings are burning.
- 9:30 a.m.: Bush, speaking in Florida, says the country has suffered an “apparent terrorist attack.”
- 9:43 a.m.: An aircraft crashes into the Pentagon, sending up a huge plume of smoke. Evacuation begins immediately.
- 9:45 a.m.: The White House evacuates.
- 10:05 a.m.: The south tower of the World Trade Center collapses, plummeting into the streets below. A massive cloud of dust and debris forms and slowly drifts away from the building.
- 10:10 a.m.: A portion of the Pentagon collapses.
- 1:27 p.m.: A state of emergency is declared by the city of Washington.
- 1:30 p.m. The country wants answers.
First shock, then terror, followed by sorrow, and lastly rage. How could such an act be committed on American soil? This country asks this question in disbelief. The US demands answers and revenge for this act of evil. Who is to blame for the possible tens of thousands of deaths? The only way to answer this question is to look at the people that could do such an act and what possible reasons they would have for doing it.
This county as a hole looks over seas for answers, they look to a county called Afghanistan that harbors a terrorist called Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden, an Islamic fundamentalist and the son of a Saudi billionaire, has been on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitive list since 1999, and the U.S. State Department has offered a $5 million reward for his arrest. Quoted from www.cnn.com. Most U.S. prosecutors say bin Laden is the leader of a group called al Qaeda, this is a network blamed for successful and failed terrorist strikes on the U.S. Some are the millennium-bombing plot, last year’s attack on the USS Cole, in Yemen killing 17 U.S. sailors and wounding 39, and the nearly simultaneous bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. Bin Laden, a Muslim believes that he is fighting a holy war in the name of his religion. Muslims are Followers of the Islam religion. They believe that Allah is the One True God.
Also they believe that Abraham, David, Moses Jesus and Muhammad’s are Prophets and that Jesus is not the true Son of God. Muhammad is believed to be the newest profit and has had the greatest effect on the Islam religion. Muhammads role as the last of the Prophets was to formalize and clarify the faith and to purify it by removing foreign ideas that had been added in error. Muhammad was visited in Mecca by the angel Gabriel. He developed the conviction that he had been ordained a Prophet and given the task of converting his countrymen from their pagan, polytheistic beliefs and what he regarded as moral decadence, idolatry, hedonism and materialism.
There are acts that Muslims perform in there religion. There is a chant that most devoted Muslims repeat at least daily. “There is no God but God and Muhammad is his Prophet”.Also part of the Muslim belief is to donate regularly to charity, a yearly 2.5% charity tax that goes to support Muslim beliefs. They should fast a month out of the year. And it is also believed that during a Muslims lifetime if economically and physically able, to make at least one pilgrimage to Mecca, the Muslims holly land. This dedication to religion and to there holy land is very strong and has been the reason for many wars. Mecca was taken by the Egyptians in the 13th century. In the 16th century control passed to Turkey. From 1517 the descendants of Muhammad through governed Mecca for the Turks. Then latter were driven from the city in 1916. In 1924 the British supported Husein ibn Ali. Who made Mecca the religious capital of Saudi Arabia. www.encarta.com. Under Husein jbn Ali leadership treaties were formed and led to the formation in 1945 of the Arab League. By leasing oil concessions in Saudi Arabia to British and American businessmen, the king became one of the richest men in the world. Needless to say Muslims were pissed that Holy land was being rented to the American and British. A new reason for war was formed over the holy land and with that came hate for the Americans and British.
The straw that broke the camels back for Muslims was the 1990 decision by Saudi Arabia to allow the U.S. to attack on Iraqi forces in Kuwait and Iraq. After the U.S. victory, the U.S. military decided to make their presence in those areas permanent. Laden said the ongoing U.S. military presence in Saudi Arabia is an “occupation of the land of the holy places.” To bin Laden this was a start of a holy crusade. In 1996, bin Laden issued a statement to all Muslims urging them to kill U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia and Somalia. A second order in 1998 called for attacks on American civilians.
This started the rain of terror. A car bomb in spring 1995 in Riyadh was the first major anti-American action in the British kingdom. Bin Laden never claimed responsibility, but the Saudi government tried to link the incident to bin Laden by showing video confessions of four “Arab Afghans” involved in the bombing.
June 1996, after his arrival in Afghanistan was the Khobar bombing. Nobody claimed responsibility, but sources from inside the Saudi ministry of interior confirmed involvement of Arab Afghans, with possible link to bin Laden. Bin Laden himself never claimed responsibility but gave many hints that he might have been involved. The Saudi government has acknowledged recently that bin Laden’s men were behind the bombing. www.cnn.comIn April 1998 Laden held a press conference in Khost and warned of impending attack in few weeks time. The bombings in Kenya and Tanzania July 1998 were not a big surprise. Despite his declaration of war against America anywhere, the attack was expected inside Saudi Arabia. Needless to say most believe that he was involved.
These are but a few attacks that have been committed angst the US, not to mention the countless attacks that have occurred in other countries. Osama bin Laden and the countries that allow him to reside there must be punished no matter what the costs. These attacks along with the recent Trade tower bombing are acts of war on the idea of freedom. The loss of human life is something that will stay with this country for as long as it remains a country. Images burned into the minds of todays youth will stay with them for all of there days. This act is an attempt to tear our country apart but has only made us come together and become stronger. We must as a country obtain revenge for this attack on democracy. Afghanistan and what other countries support the terrorist acts of bin Laden must be punished for these crimes angst humanity. The coming months are going to be hard on everyone. We are all ready at war, at war with terrorism. And it fills me with such rage to see cowards commit such acts. I feel sorry that people view their religious beliefs in such hateful manners and try to force their views on others.
I also feel sorry for non-hateful Muslims in this country. There have all ready been attacks and killings on innocent Muslims. To some degree I have a hate in my heart for Muslims as well, but I must remember that not all Muslims view their religion the same way that Bin Laden does. To take the extreme acts of one and place it on a group of people is wrong and is also un-American. This country was founded on something better than that. It was formed on the idea that we should accept people for who they, the individual and not the color of there skin.
We fell we must cast blame and we have more anger than we feel we can vent. But in the coming months we will find the perpetrators of this ungodly act and they will be punished. We should not take out our anger on the innocent, because that makes us no better than terrorist. All we can do is express our views and pray because god knows what is going to happen in the next coming months. I know this is a view many people take during a time of uncertainty and it could very well be an over reaction. But I just really feel this is going to be huge.
I guess we will know in the next 72 hours what is going to happen. In 72 hours if Afghanistan does not hand over Bin Laden they are going to be screwed royally. The one huge fear I have is Iraq getting involved in this and if that happens god know where this can go. Iraq is not really that powerful but depending how strong its current link with China is there could be some really bad alliances there. This could very well be the start of something very big. Thank you for giving this report I have been sitting in the computer lab for the past 3 hours typing and I think it has really helped me vent.
