9/11 Terrorism Research Paper

On September 1, 2001, terrorists associated with the Al-Qaeda hijacked four airliners and carried out suicide attacks against the United States that forever impacted American’s lives. It was the deadliest event in U.S. history for first responders: 343 firefighters and 72 policemen were killed. In addition, 2,996 civilians were killed, and it led to over $3 trillion in total costs. The attacks explained by the cause of the attacks, the description of the attack, and the impact it had on the U.S.

A combination of radical Islamic beliefs and U.S. involvement with Middle Eastern affairs was the main motivation behind the September 11th attacks. Osama Bin Laden, an Islamist terrorist, founded the terrorist group Al-Qaeda that was responsible for

Islamic terrorists hold resentment against the west, and they use the Quran as justification for their heinous acts. Since the 1930s, the U.S. has been directly involved with the Middle East to protect its supply of oil. Due to American and Western intervention in the Middle East, Osama Bin Laden had plans to attack the U.S. starting in the 1990s. In fact, Al-Qaeda bombed the World Trade Center parking garage in 1993, planning to bring down the twin towers, but failed and killed six people. Al-Qaeda’s main goal of the attacks was to cripple the U.S.’s main centers of power, including Wall Street, the Pentagon, and the White House. In Sheikh Mohammed’s words, the goal was to “wake the American people up.” In 1998, Osama bin Laden signed the fatwā, a declaration of war against America. In this document, he listed

On two of the planes, American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, terrorists took over and crashed into the north and south towers of the World Trade Center Complex in New York City, causing them to collapse. American Airlines flight 77 was crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, DC. The last plane to take off, United Airlines Flight 93, was speculated to target the White House or the Capitol Building, but the plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania as passengers tried to regain control of the plane from the hijackers. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was part of the terrorist organization the Muslim Brotherhood, and he was the operational planner of 9/11. He stracted practicing jihad against the Soviets when they attacked Afghanistan and had plans to blow up American planes as early as 1990s. Finally in 1996, “he stood a chance of bringing about his long awaited dream” when Mohammed met Osama Bin Laden, who would supply him with the personnel, money, and logistics to perform the operation (“September 11…”). They planned the attack by recruiting Islamic militant operatives and taking flight lessons in the