Aftermath of the September 11 attacks

                             
as a result of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon about 3000 people died, this included some of the rescue workers that were trying to get people out of both the North and South towers of the World Trade center. Another result was that for the first time in American history SCATANA ( Security Control of Air Traffic and Air Navigation Aids) was invoked which meant that all airspace was closed and all non-emergency civilian aircraft in the United States of America and Canada as well as several other countries through out the world so tens of thousands of passengers ended up getting stranded. one of the most major results of the September 11 attacks was the U.S. led War on Terror which started on the 7th of October 2001 and is still going on in 2012, this includes the War in Afghanistan (2001–present), Operation Enduring Freedom – Philippines that started on the 15th of January 2002 and is still ongoing, Operation Enduring Freedom – Horn of Africa which started on the 7th of October 2002 and is also still ongoing Operation Enduring Freedom – Trans Sahara which started on the 6th of February 2007 and is still ongoing, the Iraq War which started on the 20th of March 2003 and ended on the 15th of December 2011 and there has also been fighting in Pakistan, Yemen and Kashmir. Since the September 11 attacks in 2001 airport security in America and other countries around the world was made better by introducing things like bullet proof and locked cockpit doors on aircraft, another measure that was taken by airports was that most passengers were patted-down and then checked with hand held metal detectors also the security personel were starting to be better trained to perform searches. In 2003 John Gilmore sued United Airlines, Southwest Airlines and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft because he argued that the fact that passengers now had to show some sort of identification  before bording domestic  flights  is almost the same as having an internal passport and is therefore is unconstitutional, Gilmore lost the case and an apeal to the U.S. supreme court was denied.

Planing of the September 11 attacks on the United States

                 
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed aparently got the idea for the September 11 attacks from a similar but different  plan of hijacking a plane and then flying it into the CIA's (Central Intelligence Agency) headquarters in Langley Virginia. Khalid first proposed his plan to Osama bin Laden in Tora Bora a cave complex that is along the Afghan-Pakistan border in 1996, then in late 1998/ early 1999 bin Laden gave his approval for Khalid to go forward with organising the attacks. Mohammed Atef who was bin Ladens deputy at the time gave operational support that included selecting targets to attack and helping to provide travel for the hijackers that were going to carry out the attacks, Osama bin Laden himself provided leadership and financial support for the attacks, he was also involved in selecting who would carry out the attacks. He selected  Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar who were both experienced jihadists that had fought in Bosnia, they arrived in the United States in mid January 2000 and ended up becoming muscle hijackers instead of pilots because both spoke little english and did badly at flying lessons. Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi, Ziad Jarrah and Ramzi bin al-Shibh had all come from Hamburg Germany  and arrived in Afghanistan in late 1999, these four men were selected by bin Laden because they could speak english, were educated and they had experience living in the west.  Marwan arrived in the U.S. at the end of May 2000, Mohamed arrived on the 3rd of June 2000 and Ziad arrived on the 27th of June 2000. Ramzi applied several times to get a visa so he could get in to the United States of America but was denied because he was a Yemeni and the U.S. immigration department thought he would overstay his visa and stay in the United States as an illegal immigrant, so he stayed in Hamburg Germany to provide coordination. Mohamed, Marwan and Ramzi all took pilot training in South Florida. The secondary hijackers began arriving in Spring 2001, in july that year Mohamed met with Ramzi in Spain to coordinate details for the attacks, this included final target selection. Ramzi also passed along bin Ladens wish for the attacks to be carried out as soon as possible.

Motives for the September 11 Attacks

 
Osama bin Laden's Fatawā of 1998 calling for the killing of American civilians to be killed is thought to be evidence of his motovations for the September 11 attacks on the United States, also before and after the attacks the terrorist group al-Qaeda cited three motives for their activities against countries in the west as being the fact that U.S. soldiers were in Saudi Arabia, that the American government supported Israel and their third motive was that there were sanctions against Iraq. bin Laden also interpreted  Allah's/Gods prophet Muhammad as having banned the "permanent presence of infidels in Arabia". Apart from those motives that were cited by Osama bin Laden analysts have suggested that there are other motives such as western support of non-Islamist regimes in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and northern Africa, and western troops in some of these countries, some other authors said that humiliation from the fact that the Islamic world was falling behind the western world as a motive, other people have argued that the September 11 attacks were a way to provoke the United States of America into a war that causes a pan-Islamic revolution (Pan-Islamism is a political movement advocating the unity of Muslims under one Islamic state often a Caliphate)

Attackers and their background

al-Qaeda

 

al-Qaeda came about because of the Soviet Union invading Afghanistan in 197. during this time Osama bin Laden traveled to Afghanistan  where he helped organise the Arab Mujahideen (Muslims who believe they struggle in the path of God) to resist the invading Soviet forces. Then in 1996 bin Laden issued his first Fatwā (in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar) calling for all American troops to leave Saudi Arabia. then in 1998 he issued a second Fatwā in which he outlined his oposition to American Foreign policy with respect to Israel, this was as well as the continued presence of American Troops in Saudi Arabia after the  Fist Gulf War 1990-1991. He also used islamic texts to call upon  Muslim people to attack Americans untill the grievances that he had outlined in his two Fatwā's were reversed.

Osama bin Laden

 

Osama bin Laden originaly denied any involvement in the September 11 Attacks on the twin towers, Al Jazeera  broardcasted  a statement of bin Laden saying "I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation" on the 16th of September 2001. But then in 2004 he admited responsibility and said "we are free ... and want to regain freedom for our nation. As you undermine our security we undermine yours". The United States government never formaly accused bin Laden for the September 11 Attacks, but the FBI had him on their most wanted list for  the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Tanzania and in Kenya. Finaly after a 10 year long man hunt bin Laden was killed by American forces on the 1st of May 2011 in Abbottabad Pakistan.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

 
it was reported that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed admited his involvement in the September 11 attacks in April 2002 along with his fellow al-Qaeda member Ramzi bin al-Shibh. Khalid was the main architect of the september 11 attacks. It was determind in a 9/11 Commission Report that his bitternes towards the United States came from his "violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel". Khalid was also an adviser and financier of the previous World Trade Center bombing in 1993 eight years before the September 11 attacks. He was arrested by Pakistani security officials working with the CIA ( Central Intelegence Agency) in Rawalpindi Pakistan on the 1st of March 2003. Later he was taken to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp where he was interrogated using methods like waterboarding. He admited his responsibility for the attacks again in hearings at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in March 2007.

Other al-Qaeda members

Abu Dahdah was sentenced to 27 years in prison by the spanish high court for being a member of the terrorist group al-Qaeda and conspiracy to do with the 9/11 attacks. 17 other members of al-Qaeda at the same time were sentenced to between six to eleven years in prison. In the next year the spanish high court decided to reduce Abu Dahdah's sentence to 12 years because his involvement in the 9/11 conspiracy could not be proven. Another member Moussaoui who people originally thought might have been the 20th hijacker assigned to the 9/11 attacks was convicted of conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism and air piracy, he is currently serving a life sentece in prison with out parole. Mounir el-Motassadeq who was an associate of the hijackers that were based in Hamburg Germany  was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role of helping the hijackers to prepare for the September 11 attacks.

this is a bit from my new wikieducator page on the September 11 attacks in 2001, its still a work in progress.

September 11 Attacks

                               

The September 11 Attacks also known as 9/11 were a series of four suicide attacks that were carried out by 19 hijackers from the terrorist organisation al-Qaeda. these attacks took place on Tuesday the 11th of September 2001 in the United States of America. They flew American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia and they tried to fly United Airlines Flight 93 into a target in Washington D.C. but failed because some of the passengers on the flight tried to regain control of the plane, during their attempt United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. These attacks resulted in 3,000 deaths including the 19 hijackers from al-Qaeda and  the 246  people that were on the hijacked planes from American Airlines and United Airlines. Osama bin Laden the al-Qaeda leader from 1988-2011 originaly denied involvement in the attacks  but then in 2004 he claimed responsibility for them. Both  al-Qaeda and bin Laden cited that there motives for the attacks were U.S. support of Israel, U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia and sanctions against Iraq. As a result of the september 11 attacks the United States launched the War on Terror which started on the 7th of October 2001 and is still ongoing 10 years and 263 days after it started. They also invaded Afghanistan to get rid of the Taliban. This war like the War on Terror is still ongoing. Also many countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation and gave their law enforcement organisations more power.

this is another bit from one of my other history wikieducator pages

World War One
The First World War which was mostly called the World War or the Great War from 1914 until the start of World War 2 in 1939, was a major war centred in Europe that started on the 28th of July
1914 and ended on the 11th of November 1918. All the world's major powers at the time were involved, they were split into two groups the allies which was made up of the United Kingdom , France and Russia (until their revolution in October 1917 when the Bolsheviks who were communist took over) and then on April the 6th 1917 the USA joined World War One on the side of the allies, and the Central Powers who were made up of Germany, Austria-Hungry and later on in August with the signing of the Turco-German alliance the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers. These two groups got bigger as more nations entered the war.
During the course of the war more than 9 million soldiers were killed. This was mostly because of the great advances in firepower from previous conflicts and the lack of advances in mobility.
http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZVDUXPB_sTs

This is a bit from my history wikieducator page on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Background to the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Ottoman era
Because of the development of the Zionist movement the immigration of European Jews increased. This lead to tensions emerging after the 1880's between the Jews and Arabs, it also increased the size of Jewish communities in Palestine by the attainment of land from Ottoman and individual landholders who were known as effendis, also agricultural settlements were established in the historic lands of Judea and Israel which had been part of the Ottoman Empire since 1516. In 1880 it was estimated that the population of Palestine west of the Jordan River was under 590,000 people of witch 96 percent were Arabs (Muslim or Christian) and roughly 4 percent of the population were Jewish. Michael Oren the current Israeli ambassador to the United States of America has written that about 300,000 Arabs did eventually move into Palestine from other surrounding Arab countries to benefit from the economic opportunities that were created by the Zionists, who were more skilled with modern technology and at building urban institutions.
British Mandate 1920-1948
During the time of the British mandate, the Balfour Declaration which had been signed previously in 1917 before the British mandate said that the government of Great Britain supported the establishment of a "Jewish national home" in Palestine. As a result this exasperated the tensions between the Arabs who already lived in the Mandate of Palestine and the Jewish people who had moved there during the Ottoman era. The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement which was signed on the 3rd of January 1919 was done to promote Arab-Jewish cooperation on the advancement of a Jewish national homeland and an Arab nation in a large part of the Middle East. However this agreement between Emir Faisal and Chaim Weizmann had little to no effect on the conflict at all. Eventually tensions rose between the Palestinians and the Jews which led to the 1920 Nebi Musa riots in which five Jews and four Arabs were killed, 216 Jews and 23 Arabs were wounded. And the 1921 Jaffa riots in which 47 Jews and 48 Arabs were killed, with a further 146 Jews and 73 Arabs being wounded.
further conflicts between the Jews and Arabs happened in 1929 with the Hebron massacre where 67 Jews were killed and Jewish homes and synagogues were ransacked and in the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine where the British and Jewish losses were 300 Jewish people killed and 4 Jewish people executed and 262 British soldiers killed with 550 soldiers being wounded. The Arab losses were 5000 killed,15,000 wounded, 108 executed, 12,662 detained and 5 exiled.
A British Royal Commission of Inquiry was set up in 1936, this became known as the peel commission because it was led by William Robert Wellesley Peel. In 1937 the commission proposed a partition plan for Palestine. This plan gave the Arabs control over all of the Negev, most of what is the present day West Bank and Gaza and the Jews got control over the city's of Tel Aviv and Haifa, present-day Northern Israel and the surrounding area's. The British were to maintain control over the city's of Jaffa, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and there surrounding areas. The Jews accepted the partition plan however the Arabs rejected it and demanded an end to Jewish immigration and the sale of land to the Jews. They were also calling for Palestine to become an independent Arab state. As of 1947 it  was reported that the population of Israel/Palestine is 1,845,000. with 608,000 Jewish people making up 33.9% of the population at the time and 1,237,000 Arabs and others making up the other 67.05% of the population at the time.