Post 9/11

1. Afghanistan Post 9/11

2. Immediate news reaction • 'Osama bin Laden' threatens retaliation over 9/11 trial Osama bin Laden has warned al-Qaeda will kill Americans if Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept 11 attacks, is executed, according to a tape Al-Jazeera television aired on Thursday. • Osama Bin Laden grossly underestimated U.S. retaliation to 9/11: Ex-associate Washington, Apr 28: A former Osama bin Laden associate has said that the Al-Qaeda leader did not expect the United States to strike back as hard as it has following the September 11, 2001 attacks

3. Was there warning? • The Islamic terror attacks of September 11, 2001 did not come out of the blue. • Two earlier attacks + lack of American retaliation, might have paved the way for the atrocity of 9/11. • These two attacks were the Iranian takeover of the American embassy in Tehran in 1979 and the bombing massacre of the Marines in Beirut in 1983. • The attack, sanctioned by the government of Iran, may be considered the date when fanatical Islam began its official war on America. • One of America’s most embarrassing humiliations. • Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his Islamic Republic of Iran had brought the United States to its knees. • Carter wrote a polite letter to the Ayatollah requesting that the hostages be released. The letter appeared only to embolden Khomeini, who later boasted that “America cannot do a damn thing.” http://www.faithfreedom.org/articles/islamic-jihad-articles/americas-odyssey-with-islamic-terror-the-failure-to-retaliate/

4. 9/11 • A series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. • On that morning, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. • Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City • Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. • The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C. There were no survivors from any of the flights. • Nearly 3,000 victims and the 19 hijackers died in the attacks. • According to the New York State Health Department, 836 responders, including fire fighters and police personnel, have died as of June 2009. • Among the 2,752 victims who died in the attacks on the World Trade Centre were 343 fire fighters and 60 police officers from New York City and the Port Authority. • 184 people were killed in the attacks on the Pentagon. • The overwhelming majority of casualties were civilians, including nationals of over 70 countries. • In addition, there was at least one secondary death—one person was ruled by a medical examiner to have died from lung disease due to exposure to dust from the collapse of the World Trade Centre

5. Overall Response • War on Terror, invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, who had harbored al-Qaeda terrorists, and enacting the USA PATRIOT Act. • Many other countries also strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and expanded law enforcement powers. • Some American stock exchanges stayed closed for the rest of the week following the attack, and posted enormous losses upon reopening, especially in the airline and insurance industries. • The destruction of billions of dollars' worth of office space caused serious damage to the economy of Lower Manhattan.

6. International response to war on terror • At 2:40 p.m. in the afternoon of September 11, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was issuing rapid orders to his aides to look for evidence of Iraqi involvement, according to notes taken by senior policy official Stephen Cambone. "Best info fast. Judge whether good enough hit S.H." — meaning Saddam Hussein — "at same time. Not only UBL" (Osama bin Laden), Cambone's notes quoted Rumsfeld as saying. "Need to move swiftly — Near term target needs — go massive — sweep it all up. Things related and not.“ • The NATO council declared that the attacks on the United States were considered an attack on all NATO nations and, as such, satisfied Article 5 of the NATO charter. • Upon returning to Australia having been on an official visit to the U.S. at the time of the attacks, Australian Prime Minister John Howard invoked Article IV of the ANZUS treaty. • Goals - bringing Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda to justice and preventing the emergence of other terrorist networks. • Accomplished by means including economic and military sanctions against states perceived as harboring terrorists and increasing global surveillance and intelligence sharing. • The second-biggest operation of the U.S. Global War on Terrorism outside of the United States, and the largest directly connected to terrorism, was the overthrow of the Taliban rule of Afghanistan by a U.S.-led coalition.

7. Legitimisation Article 5 The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognised by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area. Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security . Article IV of the ANZUS Treaty Each Party recognizes that an armed attack in the Pacific Area on any of the Parties would be dangerous to its own peace and safety and declares that it would act to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional processes. Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall be immediately reported to the Security Council of the United Nations. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.

8. Domestic response • Announcements • ‘Clean up’ and recovery • Compensation • Hate crimes • Muslim American reaction • Top Muslim organizations in the United States were swift to condemn the attacks on 9/11 and called "upon Muslim Americans to come forward with their skills and resources to help alleviate the sufferings of the affected people and their families".Top organizations included the Islamic Society of North America, American Muslim Alliance, American Muslim Council, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Islamic Circle of North America, and the Shari'a Scholars Association of North America. Along with massive monetary donations, many Islamic organizations launched blood drives and provided medical assistance, food, and shelter for victims

9. International response • The attacks were denounced by mass media and governments worldwide. Across the globe, nations offered pro-American support and solidarity. • Leaders in most Middle Eastern countries, and Afghanistan, condemned the attacks. Iraq was a notable exception, with an immediate official statement that "the American cowboys are reaping the fruit of their crimes against humanity” • Tens of thousands of people attempted to flee Afghanistan following the attacks, fearing a response by the United States • Pakistan, already home to many Afghan refugees from previous Afghan conflict, closed its border with Afghanistan on September 17. • Approximately one month after the attacks, the United States led a broad coalition of international forces in the removal of the Taliban regime for harboring the al-Qaeda organization. • Pakistani authorities moved reluctantlyto align themselves with the United States in a war against the Taliban. Pakistan provided the United States a number of military airports and bases for its attack on the Taliban regime and arrested over 600 suspected al-Qaeda members, whom it handed over to the United States.

10. International response • Numerous countries, including Canada, China, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Germany, India and Pakistan introduced anti-terrorism legislation and froze the bank accounts of businesses and individuals they suspected of having al-Qaeda ties. • Law enforcement and intelligence agencies in a number of countries, including Italy, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines arrested people they labelled terrorist suspects for the stated purpose of breaking up militant cells around the world. • In the U.S., this aroused some controversy, as critics such as the Bill of Rights Defense Committee argued that traditional restrictions on federal surveillance were "dismantled" by the USA PATRIOT Act.Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union argued that certain civil rights protections were also being circumvented. • The United States set up a detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba to hold inmates they defined as "illegal enemy combatants". The legitimacy of these detentions has been questioned by, among others, the European Parliament, the Organization of American States, and Amnesty International

11. War on Terror • The War on Terror (also known as the Global War on Terror or the War on Terrorism) is an ongoing international military campaign led by the USA and the UK with the support of other NATO and non-NATO countries. The campaign was launched in 2001 with the US/UK invasion of Afghanistan in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Since then, other operations have commenced, the largest being the War in Iraq, beginning with a 2003 invasion. Originally, it was waged against al-Qaedas and other terrorist organizations with the purpose of eliminating them

12. Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan • When Bush delivered the ultimatum to the Taliban government of Afghanistan to turn over Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda leaders ,The Taliban demanded evidence of bin Laden's link to the attacks and, if such evidence warranted a trial, they offered to handle such a trial in an Islamic Court. The US refused to provide any evidence. • October 2001 US forces (with UK and coalition allies) invaded Afghanistan (with the Afghan Northern Alliance too) • On October 7, 2001, the official invasion began with British and US forces conducting airstrike campaigns. • Kabul, the capital city of Afghanistan, fell by mid-November. The remaining al-Qaeda and Taliban remnants fell back to the rugged mountains of Eastern Afghanistan, mainly Tora Bora. • In December, the US and her allies fought within that region. It’s believed that Osama bin-Laden escaped into Pakistan during the battle.

13. In March 2002, the United States and other NATO and non-NATO forces launched Operation Anaconda in the hopes that they’ll destroy any remaining al-Qaeda and Taliban forces in the Shahi-Kot Valley and Arma Mountains of Afghanistan. The Taliban suffered heavy casualties and evacuated the region. • The Taliban regrouped in Western Pakistan and began to unleash an insurgent-style offensive against the US and her allies in late 2002. Throughout Southern and Eastern Afghanistan, firefights broke out between the surging Taliban and Coalition forces. • The United States and her allies responded with a series of military offensives and an increase in the amount of troops in Afghanistan. In February 2010, Coalition forces launched Operation Moshtarak in Southern Afghanistan along with other military offensives in the hopes that they’ll destroy the Taliban insurgency once and for all. Peace talks are also underway between Taliban affiliated fighters and Coalition forces.

14. Taliban’s initial reaction • During the following Karzai administration, the character of the war shifted to an effort aimed at smothering an insurgency hostile to the US-backed Karzai government, in which the insurgents preferred not to directly confront the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops, but blended into the local population and mainly used improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and suicide bombings.

15. Recent Years • Since 2006, Afghanistan has experienced increased Taliban-led insurgent activity, record-high levels of illegal drug production, with participation by Northern Alliance drug lords in the Karzai regime, and a corrupt government with limited control outside of Kabul. • The Taliban can sustain itself indefinitely, according to a December 2009 briefing by the top U.S. intelligence officer in Afghanistan.

16. 2010 • Karzai goverment attempted peace talks with Taliban in January • No progress as people fear another resurgence • Recent elections have been held • No results after several weeks • Many claim election as illegal and call for a new poll