Attacks of 11 September 2001

al Qaeda, a stateless network of terrorists that struck us on 9/11

The 19 men were aboard four transcontinental flights.

the 19 operatives were funded by al Qaeda, either through wire transfers or cash provided by KSM

To date, the U.S. government has not been able to determine the origin of the money used for the 9/11 attacks.

Our investigation has uncovered no credible evidence that any person in the United States gave the hijackers substantial financial assistance. Similarly, we have seen no evidence that any foreign government—or foreign government official—supplied any funding.

The FDNY suffered 343 fatalities—the largest loss of life of any emergency response agency in history.

Bin Ladin, apparently at Atef ’s urging, finally decided to give KSM the green light for the 9/11 operation sometime in late 1998 or early 1999.

KSM also presented a proposal for an operation that would involve training pilots who would crash planes into buildings in the United States.

Khalid al Mihdhar and Majed Moqed, checked in at the American Airlines ticket counter for Flight 77, bound for Los Angeles.

Khalid al Mihdhar and Majed Moqed, checked in at the American Airlines ticket counter for Flight 77, bound for Los Angeles. Within the next 20 minutes, they would be followed by Hani Hanjour and two brothers, Nawaf al Hazmi and Salem al Hazmi.

How did this happen, and how can we avoid such tragedy again?

To answer these questions, the Congress and the President created the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (Public Law 107-306, November 27, 2002).

On September 11, the nation suffered the largest loss of life—2,973—on its soil as a result of hostile attack in its history.

At 8:46:40, American 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.

At 9:58:59, the South Tower collapsed in ten seconds, killing all civilians and emergency personnel inside, as well a number of individuals—both first responders and civilians—in the concourse, in the Marriott, and on neighboring streets.

The North Tower collapsed at 10:28:25 A.M., killing all civilians alive on upper floors, an undetermined number below, and scores of first responders.

Incredibly, twelve firefighters, one PAPD officer, and three civilians who were descending stairwell B of the North Tower survived its collapse.

The FDNY suffered 343 fatalities—the largest loss of life of any emergency response agency in history. The PAPD suffered 37 fatalities—the largest loss of life of any police force in history.

The NYPD suffered 23 fatalities—the second largest loss of life of any police force in history, exceeded only by the number of PAPD officers lost the same day.

Reports from two flight attendants in the coach cabin, Betty Ong and Madeline “Amy” Sweeney, tell us most of what we know about how the hijacking happened.

Oh my God we are way too low.

The FDNY Chief of Department, the Port Authority Police Department Superintendent, and many of their senior staff were killed.

Hundreds of civilians were killed instantly by the impact. Hundreds more remained alive but trapped.

First responders assisted thousands of civilians in evacuating the towers, even as incident commanders from responding agencies lacked knowledge of what other agencies and, in some cases, their own responders were doing.

We had a very strong sense we would lose firefighters and that we were in deep trouble, but we had estimates of 25,000 to 50,000 civilians, and we had to try to rescue them.

efforts of first responders, assistance from each other, and their own good instincts and goodwill, the vast majority of civilians below the impact zone were able to evacuate the towers.

between 16,400 and 18,800 civilians were in the WTC complex as of 8:46 A.M. on September 11.

American Airlines Flight 11 provided nonstop service from Boston to Los Angeles.

United 175 pushed back from its gate at 7:58 and departed Logan Airport at 8:14.

At 8:42, United Airlines Flight 93 took off from Newark (New Jersey) Liberty International Airport bound for San Francisco.

At 9:37:46, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, traveling at approximately 530 miles per hour.

United 93 crashed in Pennsylvania at 10:03:11, 125 miles from Washington, D.C.

During at least five of the passengers’ phone calls, information was shared about the attacks that had occurred earlier that morning at the World Trade Center. Five calls described the intent of passengers and surviving crew members to revolt against the hijackers.

According to one call, they voted on whether to rush the terrorists in an attempt to retake the plane. They decided, and acted.

Everyone’s running up to first class. I’ve got to go. Bye.

We are sure that the nation owes a debt to the passengers of United 93. Their actions saved the lives of countless others, and may have saved either the Capitol or the White House from destruction.

All on board, as well as many civilian and military personnel in the building, were killed.

the aircraft plowed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 580 miles per hour, about 20 minutes’ flying time from Washington, D.C.

All 64 people aboard the airliner were killed, as were 125 people inside the Pentagon (70 civilians and 55 military service members).

That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001

On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

The United States, over the last two decades, has already spent and the Biden administration has requested about $5.8 trillion in reaction to the 9/11 attacks.

They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate.

None of these demands were met.

The 4,000 figure apparently came from an article entitled “Hundreds of Israelis missing in World Trade Center attack,” which appeared in the September 12 Internet edition of the Jerusalem Post.

It stated, “The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem has so far received the names of 4,000 Israelis believed to have been in the areas of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon at the time of the attacks”

Anti-Semitism is at the root of numerous contemporary conspiracy theories, including the following examples of false claims.

The Syrian ambassador to Iran, Turki Muhammad Saqr, at a conference held at the Iranian Foreign Ministry on October 24, 2001

and the Pentagon at the time of the attacks”—in other words, in New York City and Washington, D.C.

Sources emphasized that the release of all the Israelis under investigation indicates that they were cleared of any suspicion that they had prior knowledge of the September 11 attacks, as some anti-Israel media outlets have suggested.

a group of five Israelis arrested in New Jersey shortly after the September 11 attacks and held for more than two months