Liceul Teoretic Mihail Sadoveanu Bucuresti, sector 2

ENGLISH CERTIFICATE

Coordinator teacher:

Student: Class: XII C

Contents

Chapter I: The descriptions of World Trade Center 1. Planning and construction 2. The complex 3. Life of the World Trade Center 4. February 13, 1975 fire 5. Bombing of February 26, 1993 6. Lease 7. September 11, 2001 Chapter II: The attacks of the 11th September 2001 1. The attacks 2. Fatalities 3. Damage 4. Survivors 5. Responsibility 6. The hijackers 7. Other potential hijackers 8. Osama bin Laden 9. Motive 10. International reaction 11. U.S. Government response (Rescue, recovery, and compensation) 12. Investigations 13. Afterword

Chapter I: The descriptions of World Trade Center

The World Trade Center in New York City, United States, (sometimes informally referred to as the WTC or the Twin Towers) was a complex of seven buildings in Lower Manhattan, mostly designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki and engineer Leslie Robertson and developed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. It was initiated in 1960 by a Lower Manhattan Association created and chaired by David Rockefeller, who had the original idea of building the center, with strong backing from the then- New York governor, his brother Nelson Rockefeller. The World Trade Center, New York, like most World Trade Centers located around the globe, belonged to the family of World Trade Centers Association. Prior to its destruction, Larry Silverstein held the most recent lease to the complex, the Port Authority having leased it to him in July 2001.The complex, located in the heart of New York City's downtown financial district, contained 13.4 million square feet (1.24 million m) of office space, almost four percent of Manhattan's entire office inventory at that time. Best known for its iconic 110-story twin towers (101 usable floors, eight engineering- only "service" floors on top of a lobby which was three stories high) the World Trade Center was beset by a fire on February 13, 1975 and a bombing on February 26, 1993. All seven original buildings in the complex were destroyed by terrorists linked to AlQaeda on September 11, 2001. Three of the buildings collapsed: One World Trade Center (1 WTC, the North Tower), Two World Trade Center (2 WTC, the South Tower), and 7 World Trade Center (7 WTC). The Marriott World Trade Center (3 WTC) was crushed by the collapses of 1 WTC and 2 WTC. 4 World Trade Center (4 WTC), 5 World Trade Center (5 WTC), and 6 World Trade Center (6 WTC) were damaged beyond repair and later demolished. Three buildings not part of the complex were also destroyed: St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was destroyed by the collapse of 2 WTC. The Deutsche Bank Building and Borough of Manhattan Community College's Fiterman Hall were damaged beyond repair by the collapse of 7 WTC; these are currently being deconstructed.

1. Planning and construction

During the post-World War II period, the United States thrived economically, with increasing international trade. At the time, economic growth in New York City was concentrated In Midtown Manhattan, with Lower Manhattan left out. To help stimulate urban renewal,David Rockefeller, with support from his brother, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, suggested that the Port Authority should build a "world trade center " in Lower Manhattan.[6] Initial plans, made public in 1961, identified a site along the East River for the World Trade Center. Objections to the plan came from New Jersey Governor Robert B. Meyner, who resented that New York would be getting this $335 million project. Meanwhile, New Jersey's Hudson and Manhattan Railroad (H&M) was facing bankruptcy. Port Authority executive director, Austin J. Tobin agreed to take over control of the H&M Railroad, in exchange for support from New Jersey for the World Trade Center project.

With this acquisition, the Port Authority would obtain the Hudson Terminal, and decrepit buildings located above the terminal in Lower Manhattan. The Port Authority decided to demolish these buildings, and use this site along the Hudson River for the World Trade Center. The towers in the complex were designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki with Antonio Brittiochi and Emery Roth & Sons as associate architects. The World Trade Center was one of the most striking American implementations of the architectural ethic of Le Corbusier, as well as the seminal expression of Yamasaki's gothic modernist tendencies. a. Structural design The World Trade Center included many structural engineering innovations in skyscraper design and construction. The towers were designed as framed tube structures. There was a frame of closely-spaced columns tied together by deep spandrel beams along the exterior perimeter. The interior had 47 columns, all concentrated in the core. Engineer Felix Samuely used a similar concept in his "Mullion wall" buildings in the early 1950s as did Eero Saarinen in his US Embassy, London (1955-60); but these projects were low to medium rise and may not have been influences. The perimeter columns supported virtually all lateral loads, such as wind loads, and shared the gravity loads with the core columns. All columns were founded on bedrock , which unlike Midtown Manhattan, where the bedrock is shallow, is at 65 feet (20m) below the surface. Above the seventh floor there were 59 perimeter columns along each face of the building. The perimeter columns had a square cross section, 14 inches on a side (36 cm), and were constructed of welded steel plate. The thickness of the plates and grade of steel were varied over the height of the tower, ranging from 36 ksi to 100 ksi, with the steel strength and plate thickness decreasing with height. The perimeter structure was constructed with extensive use of prefabricated modular pieces, which consisted of three columns, three stories tall, connected together by spandrel plates. The spandrel plates were welded to the columns at the fabrication shop. The modular pieces were typically 52 inches (1.3 m) deep, and extended for two full floors and half of two more floors. Adjacent modules were bolted together, with the splices occurring at mid-span of the columns and spandrels. The spandrel plates were located at each floor, and served to transmit shear flow between columns, thus allowing them to work together in resisting lateral loads. The joints between modules were staggered vertically, so the column splices between adjacent modules were not at the same floor. The building's core housed the elevator and utility shafts, restrooms, three stairwells, and other support spaces. The core in 1 WTC was oriented with the long axis east to west, while that of 2 WTC was oriented north to south. The core of each tower was a rectangular area 87 by 135 feet (27 by 41 m) and contained 47 steel columns running from the bedrock to the top of the tower. The columns tapered with height, and consisted of welded box sections at lower floors

and rolled wide-flange sections at upper floors. All of the elevators and stairwells were located in the core. The large, column-free space between the perimeter and core was bridged by prefabricated floor trusses. The floors supported their own weight, as well as live loads, provided lateral stability to the exterior walls, and distributed wind loads among the exterior walls. The floors consisted of 4 inch (10 cm) thick lightweight concrete slabs laid on a fluted steel deck. A grid of lightweight bridging trusses and main trusses supported the floors. The trusses had a span of 60 feet (18.2 m) in the long-span areas and 35 feet (11.0 m) in the short span area. The trusses connected to the perimeter at alternate columns, and were therefore on 6 foot 8 inch (2.03 m) centers. The top chords of the trusses were bolted to seats welded to the spandrels on the exterior side and a channel welded to the core columns on the interior side. The floors were connected to the perimeter spandel plates with vicsoelastic dampers, which helped reduce the amount of sway felt by building occupants. The trusses supported a 4-inch (10 cm) thick lightweight concrete floor slab, with shear connections for composite action. Hat trusses (or "outrigger truss") located from the 107th floor to the top of the buildings were designed to support a tall communications antenna on top of each building, though only 1 WTC (north tower) actually had an antenna. The truss system consisted of six trusses along the long axis of core and four along the short axis. This truss system allowed some load redistribution between the perimeter and core columns and supported the transmission tower. b. Design innovations To solve the problem of wind sway or vibration in the construction of the towers, chief engineer Leslie Robertson took a then unusual approach instead of bracing the buildings corner-to-corner or using internal walls, the towers were essentially hollow steel tubes surrounding a central core and perimeter columns sharing the loads. The 208 feet (63.4 m) wide facade was, in effect, a prefabricated steel lattice, with columns on 39 inch (100cm) centers acting as wind bracing to resist all overturning forces; the central core took the majority of the gravity loads of the building. A very light, economical structure was built by keeping the wind bracing in the most efficient area, the outside surface of the building, thus not transferring the forces through the floor membrane to the core, as in most curtain-wall structures. The core supported the weight of the entire building and the outer shell containing 240 vertical steel columns called around the outside of the building, which were bound to each other using ordinary steel trusses. In addition, 10,000 dampers were included in the structure. With the large core and high load-bearing perimeter for structural integrity, Robertson created a tower that was extremely light for its size. The buildings were also the second super tall buildings to use sky lobbies, after the John Hancock Center in Chicago. Sky lobbies are floors where commuters can switch from an express elevator that goes only to the sky lobbies to a local elevator that goes to each floor in a section.

The local elevators were stacked on top of each other, within the same elevator shaft. Located on the 44th and 78th floors of each tower, the sky lobbies enabled the elevators to be used efficiently while taking up a minimum of valuable office space. Altogether, the World Trade Center had 95 express and local elevators. This system was inspired by the New York City Subway system, whose lines include local stations where local trains stop and express stations where all trains stop. The site of the World Trade Center was located on landfill, with the bedrock located 65 feet (20 m) below. In order to construct the World Trade Center, it was necessary to build the "bathtub", with the slurry wall along the West Street side of the site, which serves the purpose of keeping water from the Hudson River out. The slurry method involves digging a trench, and as excavation proceeds, filling the space with a "slurry" mixture, composed of bentonite, which plugs holes and keeps water out. When the trench was dug out, a steel cage was inserted, with concrete poured in, forcing the "slurry" out. The "slurry" method was devised by the Port Authority's chief engineer, John M. Kyle, Jr. c. Construction Groundbreaking for the construction of the World Trade Center was on August 5, 1966. The construction was under the auspices of the semiautonomous Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Thirteen square blocks of low rise buildings in Radio Row, some of which predated the American Civil War, were razed to clear the site for construction. The excavation of the foundations of the WTC complex, known as the Bathtub, was particularly complicated since there were two subway tubes close by needing protection without service interruption. A six level basement was built in the foundations. The excavation of about 1 million cubic yards (760,000 m) of earth and rock created a $90 million real estate asset for the project owner, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which helped offset the 5 enormous loss in revenues which came from the tax breaks given to the Trade Center itself. The soil was used to create 23 acres (93,000 m) of landfill in the Hudson River next to the World Trade Center site, which became the site of Battery Park City (still under development). In 1970, construction was completed on One World Trade Center, with its first tenants moving into the building in December 1970. Tenants first moved into Two World Trade Center in January 1972. When the World Trade Center twin towers were completed, the total costs to the Port Authority had reached $900 million. The ribbon cutting ceremony was on April 4, 1973.

2. The complex
The Twin Towers Ultimately the complex came to consist of seven buildings, but its most notable features were the main twin towers. Each of the WTC towers had 110 stories. 1 WTC (the North Tower, which featured a massive 360-foot (110 m) high TV and radio antenna added in 1978) stood 1,368 feet (417 m) high, and 2 WTC (the South Tower, which contained the observation deck) was 1,362 feet (415 m) highThe length and breadth of the towers were 208 feet (63.4 m) x 208 feet (63.4 m). Although only Tower 1 featured an antenna, the structure of each building was designed to carry a broadcast mast, and in the basement of the complex, The Mall at the World Trade Center was Manhattan's largest mall until 9-11. When completed in 1972, 1 WTC became the tallest building on Earth, unseating the Empire State Building after a 40 year reign. 2 WTC became the second tallest building in the world when completed in 1973. The difference in height between the two towers was because of a Port Authority request to have two floors, the 43rd and the 67th, in 1 WTC raised, the lower of the taller floors being a cafeteria for PANY workers. 2 WTC did not need these facilities, so it remained 1,362 feet (415 m). Regardless, the WTC towers held the height record only briefly. As the building neared completion in 1973, work had already begun on Chicago's Sears Tower, which ultimately reached 1,450 feet (442 m). With the World Trade Center's destruction, the Empire State Building again became the tallest building in New York, after spending almost 30 years as the third-tallest in the city. The towers' sheer size was the subject of a joke during a press conference unveiling the landmarks. Minoru Yamasaki was asked: "Why two 110-story buildings? Why not one 220-story building?" His response was: "I didn't want to lose the human scale". Another popular joke among New York urbanites that died out late in the 1970s from over telling was that the towers looked like the boxes in which the Chrysler Building and Empire State Building were packaged. The 110th Floor of 1 WTC (North Tower) housed commercial and public service radio & television transmission equipment. The roof of 1 WTC contained a vast array of transmission antennas, including the 360 ft (approx 110m) center antenna mast, which was rebuilt in 1999 by Dielectric Inc. to accommodate DTV. The center mast contained the television signals for almost all NYC television broadcasters: WCBS-TV2, WNBC-TV4, WNYW5, WABC-TV7, WWORTV9 Secaucus, WPIX11, WNET13 Newark, WPXN-TV31, andWNJU47. It also had four NYC FM broadcasters on it as well: WPAT-FM 93.1, WNYC 93.9, WKCR 89.9, and WKTU 103.5. Access to the roof was controlled from the WTC Operations Control Center (OCC) located in the B1 level of 2 WTC. The World Trade Center complex was protected by an extensive fire detection and voice evacuation paging system upgraded after the 1993 bombing. Fire Command Stations, staffed by Fire Safety Directors were located in the lobbies of each building and the Operations Control

Center (OCC) monitored these systems. An extensive study of the performance of World Trade Center Fire Protection Systems was conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) following 2001-09-11.

3. Life of the World Trade Center

On a typical weekday 50,000 people worked in the towers, with another 200,000 passing through as visitors. The complex was so large that it had its own zip code, 10048. The towers offered spectacular views from the observation deck (located on top of the South Tower) and the Windows on the World restaurant (located on top of the North Tower). The Twin Towers became known worldwide, appearing in movies, TV shows, postcards, merchandise, magazines and much more, and became a New York icon, such as the Empire State Building, or Statue of Liberty. French high wire acrobatic performer Philippe Petit walked between the towers on a tightrope in 1974, and Brooklyn toymaker George Willig scaled the south tower in 1977.

4. February 13, 1975 fire

On February 13, 1975, the WTC North Tower was beset by a fire which spread over nearly half of the 11th floor. The fire spread to other floors through openings in the floor slabs which were used to carry phone wires. The fires on other floors were extinguished almost immediately, and the main fire was put out in a few hours. Fireproofing protected the steel from melting and there was no structural damage to the tower. This event led to the installation of a sprinkler system in both towers. Firefighters claim that had the sprinklers been installed when the tower was built, the fire probably would not have spread as much as it did. Other than the damage caused by the fire, a few floors below suffered water damage from the extinguishing of the fires above.

5. 1993 World Trade Center bombing

In the 1993 World Trade Center bombing (February 26, 1993) a car bomb was detonated below Tower One of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,500-lb (680 kg) urea nitrate-hydrogen gas enhanced device was intended to knock the North Tower (Tower One) into Tower Two, bringing both towers down and killing thousands of people. It failed to do so, but did kill six people and injured 1,042. The attack was planned by a group of conspirators including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin and Ahmad Ajaj. They received financing from al-Qaeda member Khaled Shaikh Mohammed, Yousef's uncle. In March 1994, four men were convicted of carrying out the bombing: Abouhalima, Ajaj, Ayyad and Salameh. The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property and interstate transportation of explosives. And in November 1997, two more were convicted: Yousef, the mastermind behind the bombings, and Eyad Ismoil, who drove the truck carrying the bomb.

The bomb exploded in the underground garage at 12:18 P.M., generating a pressure estimated over one GPa and opening a 30-meter-wide hole through four sublevels of concrete.The detonation velocity of this bomb was about 15,000 ft/s (4.5 km/s). a quote from the claim of responsibility letter written by one of the terrorists, "We are, the Liberation Army fifth battalion, again. Unfortunately, our calculations were not very accurate this time. However, we promise you that next time it will be very precise and World Trade Center will continue to be one [of] our targets unless our demands have been met.

6. Lease
In 1998, plans were approved by the Port Authority to privatize the World Trade Center. In 2001, the Port Authority sought to lease the World Trade Center to a private entity. Bids for the lease came from Vornado Realty Trust, a joint bid between Brookfield Properties Corporation and Boston Properties, and a joint bid by Silverstein Properties and The Westfield Group. By privatizing the World Trade Center, it would be added to the city's tax rolls. The lease was also intended to raise funds for other Port Authority projects. On February 15,2001, the Port Authority announced that Vornado Trust Realty had won the lease for the World Trade Center, paying $3.25 billion for the 99-year lease. Vornado Realty outbid Silverstein by $600 million, though Silverstein upped his offer to $3.22 billion. However, Vornado insisted on last minute changes to the deal, including a shorter 39-year lease, which the Port Authority considered nonnegotiable. Vornado later withdrew and Silverstein's bid for the lease to the World Trade Center was accepted on April 26,2001, and closed on July 24,2001.

7. September 11, 2001

OnSeptember 11, 2001 at 8:46 a.m. Eastern Time, Al Qaeda suicide hijackers crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the northern facade of the North Tower. Seventeen minutes later, at 9:03 a.m., a second team of hijackers crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower, which collapsed and disintegrated at 9:59 a.m. At 10:28 a.m., the North Tower collapsed and disintegrated. At 5:20 p.m., 7 World Trade Center collapsed as a result of damage from the North Tower's collapse. The four remaining buildings in the WTC plaza sustained heavy damage from debris, and were ultimately demolished. At the time of the incident, media reports suggested that tens of thousands might have been killed in the massacre, as on any given day upwards of 50,000 people could be inside the towers. Ultimately, 2,750 death certificates were filed relating to the 9/11 attacks, as of May 23, 2007. Of these, 1,614 (59%) were identified from recovered physical remains. 340 Emergency personnel and 60 police officers were killed in the collapse of the Twin Towers. Morgan Stanley was the largest tenant in the World Trade Center, with approximately 2,500 employees in the South Tower and 1,000 in the North Tower. For the following 8 months, the World Trade Center site cleanup and recovery continued 24 hours a day and involved thousands of workers. The massive pile of debris smoked and smoldered for 99 days.

Chapter II: The attacks of 11th September 2001

The September 11, 2001 attacks (often referred to as 9/11) were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States. On that morning, nineteen terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. Each team of hijackers included a member who had undergone some pilot training. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners (American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175) into the World Trade Center in New York City, one plane into each tower (1 WTC and 2 WTC), resulting in the collapse of both buildings soon afterward and extensive damage to nearby buildings. The hijackers crashed a third airliner (American Airlines Flight 77) into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. Passengers and members of the flight crew on the fourth aircraft (United Airlines Flight 93) attempted to retake control of their plane from the hijackers; that plane crashed into a field near the town of Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania. Aside from the 19 hijackers, 2,974 people died as an immediate result of the attacks, and the death of at least one person from lung disease was ruled by a medical examiner to be a result of exposure to WTC dust. Another 24 people are missing and presumed dead, bringing the total number of victims to 2,998, the overwhelming majority of whom were civilians. The dead included nationals from over 80 different countries.

1. The attacks
Four commercial airliners were hijacked en route to California from Logan International,Dulles International, and Newark airports. Each of the airliners had a jet fuel capacity of nearly 24,000 U.S. gallons (91,000 liters). Two of the airliners were flown into the World Trade Center, one each into the North and South towers, one was flown into the Pentagon, and the fourth, whose ultimate target was probably either the White House or the U.S. Capitol building, crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767-200 wide-body aircraft, crashed into the northern side of the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) at 8:46:30 a.m. local time (Eastern Daylight Time, 12:46:30 UTC), hitting at the 94-98th floors United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767-200, crashed into the 78-85th floors of the South Tower at 9:02:59 a.m. local time (13:02:59 UTC), an event covered live by television broadcasters and amateur filmers from around the world who had their cameras trained on the buildings after the earlier crash.

American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757-200, crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37:46 a.m. local time (13:37:46 UTC). United Airlines Flight 93, a Boeing 757-200, crashed in a field in southwest Pennsylvania just outside of Shanksville, about 150 miles (240 km) northwest of Washington, D.C., at 10:03:11 a.m. local time (14:03:11 UTC). The crash in Pennsylvania resulted from the passengers of the airliner attempting to regain control from the hijackers. Three buildings in the World Trade Center Complex collapsed due to structural failure on the day of the attack. The south tower (2 WTC) fell at approximately 9:59 a.m., after burning for 56 minutes in a fire caused by the impact of United Airlines Flight 175. The north tower (1WTC) collapsed at 10:28 a.m., after burning for approximately 102 minutes. A third building, 7 World Trade Center (7 WTC) collapsed at 5:20 p.m. as a result of debris damage from 1 WTC and subsequent fire. Tommy Dunn, a firefighter on the scene described the collapse of the tower. "I looked up and I could very clearly see that the entire top section of the tower had begun to collapse and was falling down on us. The best I can compare it to is when you were a kid and you were in the water and you ducked down, down, down and let a wave come over your head. That's what the debris was like. It was spread so far that you were not gonna outrun this." During the hijacking of the airplanes, some passengers and crew members were able to make phone calls using the cabin GTE airphone service and mobile phones. They reported that several hijackers were aboard each plane. The terrorists reportedly took control of the aircraft by using knives and box-cutter knives to kill flight attendants and at least one pilot or passenger, including the captain of Flight 11, John Ogonowski. Some form of noxious chemical spray, such as tear gas or pepper spray, was reported to have been used on American 11 and United 175 to keep passengers out of the first-class cabin. Bomb threats were made on three of the aircraft, but not on American 77. According to the 9/11Commission Report,the bombs were probably fake. The 9/11 Commission established that two of the hijackers had recently purchased Leatherman multi-function hand tools. On United Airlines Flight 93, black box recordings revealed that crew and passengers attempted to seize control of the plane from the hijackers after learning through phone calls that similarly hijacked planes had been crashed into buildings that morning. According to the transcript of Flight 93's recorder, one of the hijackers gave the order to roll the plane once it became evident that they would lose control of the plane to the passengers. Soon afterward, the aircraft crashed into a field near Shanksville in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, at 10:03:11 a.m. local time (14:03:11 UTC). Al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh

Mohammed mentioned in a 2002 interview with an Al Jazeera journalist that Flight 93's target was the United States Capitol, which was given the code name "the Faculty of Law." The attacks created widespread confusion across the United States. All international civilian air traffic was banned from landing on US soil for three days; aircraft already in flight were either turned back or redirected to airports in Canada or Mexico.Unconfirmed and often contradictory reports were aired and published throughout the day. One of the most prevalent of these reported that a car bomb had been detonated at the U.S. State Department's headquarters, the Harry S Truman Building in Foggy Bottom, Washington, D.C. This erroneous report, picked up by the wire services, was reported on CNN and in a number of newspapers published that day. Soon after reporting for the first time on the Pentagon crash, CNN and other media also briefly reported that a fire had broken out on the Washington Mall. Another report went out on the AP wire, claiming that a Delta 767 Flight 1989had been hijacked. This report, too, turned out to be in error; the plane was briefly thought to represent a hijack risk, but it responded to controllers and landed safely in Cleveland, Ohio. Chairman Rudman of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) Committee released in a press statement that it was not necessary to activate the EAS due to near immediate coverage by News Media. Rudman kept the 34 main PEP stations on high alert if needed, but as time passed, using the EAS was no longer necessary.

2. Fatalities
There were 2,974 fatalities, not including the 19 hijackers: 246 on the four planes (no one on board of the hijacked aircrafts survived), 2,603 in New York City in the towers and on the ground, and 125 at the Pentagon. Lieutenant General Timothy Maude was the highest ranking military official killed at the Pentagon. John P. O'Neill was a former assistant director of the FBI who assisted in the capture of Ramzi Yousef and was the head of security at the World Trade Center when he was killed trying to rescue people from the South Tower. An additional 24 people remain listed as missing. 1,366 people died who were at or above the floors of impact in the North Tower (1WTC). According to the Commission Report, hundreds were killed instantly by the impact while the rest were trapped and died after the tower collapsed. As many as 600 people were killed instantly or were trapped at or above the floors of impact in the South Tower (2 WTC). Only about 18 managed to escape in time from above the impact zone and out of the South Tower before it collapsed. At least 200 people jumped to their deaths from the burning towers (as depicted in the photograph " The Falling Man"), landing on the streets and rooftops of adjacent buildings hundreds of feet below. To witnesses watching, a few of the people falling from the towers seemed to have stumbled out of broken windows. Some of the occupants of each tower above its point of impact made their way upward toward the roof in hope of helicopter rescue, but no

rescue plan existed for such an eventuality. The roof access doors were locked and thick smoke and intense heat would have prevented rescue helicopters from landing. A total of 411 emergency workers who responded to the scene lost their lives as they attempted to implement rescue and fire suppression efforts. The New York City Fire Department lost 341 firefighters and 2 FDNY Paramedics.The New York City Police Department lost 23 officers. The Port Authority Police Department lost 37 officers. Private EMS units lost 8 additional EMTs and paramedics. Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., an investment bank on the 101st105th floors of One World Trade Center, lost 658 employees, considerably more than any other employer. Marsh Inc. , located immediately below Cantor Fitzgerald on floors 93101 (the location of Flight 11's impact), lost 295 employees, and 175 employees of Aon Corporation were killed. The dead included 8 children: 5 on American 77 ranging in age from 3 to 11, 3 on United 175 ages 2, 3, and 4. The youngest victim was a 2 year-old child on Flight 175, the oldest an 82 year-old passenger on Flight 11. In the buildings, the youngest victim was 17 and the oldest was 79. After New York, New Jersey was the hardest hit state, with the town of Hoboken sustaining the most fatalities All of the fatalities were civilians except for some of the 125 victims in the Pentagon. According to the Associated Press, the city identified over 1,600 bodies but was unable to identify the rest (about 1,100 people). They report that the city has "about 10,000 unidentified bone and tissue fragments that cannot be matched to the list of the dead." Bone fragments were still being found in 2006 as workers prepared the damaged Deutsche Bank Building for demolition. The average age of all the dead in New York City was 40.

3. Damage
In addition to the 110-floor Twin Towers of the World Trade Center itself, numerous other buildings at the World Trade Center site were destroyed or badly damaged, including 7 World Trade Center , 6 World Trade Center ,5 World Trade Center ,4 World Trade Center , the Marriott World Trade Center and St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. The Deutsche Bank Building across Liberty Street from the World Trade Center complex was later condemned due to the uninhabitable, toxic conditions inside the office tower, with deconstruction once scheduled for completion in September 2007. The Borough of Manhattan Community College's Fiterman Hall at 30 West Broadway was also condemned due to extensive damage in the attacks, and is slated for deconstruction. Other neighboring buildings including 90 West Street and the Verizon Building suffered major damage, but have since been restored. World Financial Center buildings, One Liberty Plaza, the Millenium Hilton, and 90 Church Street had moderate damage. Communications equipment, such as broadcast radio, television and two-way radio antenna towers, were damaged

beyond repair. In Arlington County, a portion of the Pentagon was severely damaged by fire and one section of the building collapsed.

4. Survivors
According to the 9/11 Commission, approximately 16,000 people were below the impact zones in the World Trade Center complex at the time of the attacks. About 92% of those below the impact areas survived, evacuating before the towers collapsed.

5. Responsibility
Al Qaeda's origins date back to 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Soon after the invasion, Osama bin Laden traveled to Afghanistan and with American government assistance, helped organize Arab mujahideen, creating Maktab al-Khidamat (MAK), to resist the Soviets. In 1989, as the Soviets withdrew, MAK was transformed into al-Qaeda, as a "rapid reaction force" in jihad against governments across the Muslim world. Under guidance of Dr. Ayman al Zawahiri, Osama became more radical. In 1996, Bin Laden issued his first fatw which called for "American soldiers to get out of Saudi Arabia". A second fatwa, issued by bin Laden in 1998, "directed his followers to kill Americans anywhere". In the fatwa, bin Laden outlined his objections to American foreign policy towards Israel, as well as the continued presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia after the Gulf War. As media covered the 9/11 attacks unfolding, many quickly speculated that Bin Laden was behind the attacks. Within hours of the attacks, the FBI was able to determine the names and in many cases details such as dates of birth, known and/or possible residences, visa status, and specific identity of the suspected pilots and hijackers. Few had made any attempt to disguise their names on flight and credit card records, and they were some of the few people of Arabic descent on the flights. Mohamed Atta 's luggage, which did not make the connection from his Portland flight onto American Airlines Flight 11, contained papers that revealed the identity of all 19 hijackers, and other important clues about their plans, motives, and backgrounds. On the day of the attacks, the National Security Agency intercepted communications that pointed to Osama bin Laden, as did German intelligence agencies. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States was formed by the United States government and was commonly called the 9/11 Commission. It released its report on July 22, 2004, concluding that the attacks were conceived and implemented by members of al-Qaeda. The Commission stated that "9/11 plotters eventually spent somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000 to plan and conduct their attack, but that the specific origin of the funds used to execute the attacks remained unknown." To date, only peripheral figures have been tried or convicted in connection with the attacks. Bin Laden has not yet been formally indicted for the attacks.

6. The hijackers
Nineteen men boarded the four planes, five each on American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 77, four on United Airlines Flight 93. Fifteen of the attackers were from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and one from Lebanon. The group consisted of six core organizers, which included the four pilots, and thirteen others. In sharp contrast to the standard profile of suicide bombers, the hijackers were welleducated, mature adults, whose belief systems were fully formed.

7. Other potential hijackers

27 members of al-Qaeda attempted to enter the United States to take part in the September 11attacks, but only 19 participated. Other would-be hijackers are often referred to as the 20th hijacker.

8. Osama bin Laden

On September 27, 2001, the FBI released photos of the 19 hijackers, along with information about the possible nationalities and aliases of many. The FBI investigation into the September 11, 2001 attacks, code named operation PENTTBOM , was the largest and most complex investigation in the history of the FBI, involving over 7,000 special agents. The United States government determined that al-Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden, bore responsibility for the attacks, with the FBI stating that evidence linking Al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the attacks of September 11 is clear and irrefutable. The Government of the United Kingdom reached the same conclusion, regarding Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's culpability for the September 11, 2001 attacks. Osama bin Laden's declaration of a holy war against the United States, and a Fatw signed by bin Laden and others calling for the killing of American civilians in 1998, are seen by many as evidence of his motivation to commit such acts. Bin Laden initially denied, but later admitted involvement in the incidents. On September 16, 2001 , bin Laden denied any involvement with the attacks by reading a statement which was broadcast by Qatar's Al Jazeera satellite channel: "I stress that I have not carried out this act, which appears to have been carried out by individuals with their own motivation." This denial was broadcast on U.S. news networks and worldwide. In November 2001, U.S. forces recovered a videotape from a destroyed house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, in which Osama bin Laden is talking to Khaled al-Harbi. In the tape, bin Laden admits foreknowledge of the attacks. The tape was broadcast on various news networks from December 13, 2001.

On December 27, 2001, a second bin Laden video was released. In the video, he stated "Terrorism against America deserves to be praised because it was a response to injustice, aimed at forcing America to stop its support for Israel, which kills our people," but he stopped short of admitting responsibility for the attacks. Shortly before the U.S. presidential election in 2004, in a taped statement, bin Laden publicly acknowledged al-Qaeda's involvement in the attacks on the U.S, and admitted his direct 20 link to the attacks. He said that the attacks were carried out because, "We are a free people who do not accept injustice, and we want to regain the freedom of our nation. "In a videotape aired on Al Jazeera, on October 30, 2004, bin Laden said he had personally directed the 19 hijackers. In the video, Bin Laden said "we had agreed with the Commander-General Muhammad Atta, Allah have mercy on him, that all the operations should be carried out within 20 minutes, before Bush and his administration notice.Another video obtained by Al Jazeera in September 2006 shows Osama bin Laden with Ramzi Binalshibh, as well as two hijackers, Hamza al-Ghamdi and Wail al-Shehri, as they make preparations for the attacks.

9. Motive
The September 11 attacks were consistent with the overall mission statement of al-Qaeda, as set out in a 1998 fatw issued by Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Ahmed Refai Taha, Mir Hamzah, and Fazlur Rahman. In the fatwa, Bin Laden directed his followers "to kill Americans anywhere".He also outlined his objections to American foreign policy towards Israel, 21 as well as U.S. aggression against the Iraqi people, the ensuing sanctions against Iraq, as well as the continued presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia after the Persian Gulf War. The fatwa also specifically condemns the U.S. for "plundering" the resources of the region, oppressing the people by supporting abusive regimes in the region, and dictating policy to legitimate leaders. It also opposes the presence of U.S. military bases and installations in the region, especially on Muslim holy land, which are used to "threaten" Muslim countries, while fomenting disunity and strife. By a similar token, it decries the continued refusal to address the occupation of Palestine [111] The fatwa uses Islamic texts to exhort violent action against American military and citizenry until the alleged grievances are reversed, stating " ulema have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries."Statements of al-Qaeda recorded after 9/11 add weight to the U.S account of who was responsible for the attacks. In a 2004 video, apparently acknowledging responsibility for the attacks, bin Laden states that he was motivated by the 1982 Lebanon War, for which he held the U.S. partially responsible. In the video, bin Laden also claims that he wants to "restore freedom to our nation," to "punish the aggressor in kind," and to inflict economic damage on America. He declared that a continuing objective of his holy war was to "bleed America to the point of

bankruptcy." Bin Laden said, "We swore that America would not live in security until we live it truly in Palestine. This showed the reality of America, which puts Israel's interest above its own people's interest. America will not get out of this crisis until it gets out of the Arabian Peninsula, and until it stops its support of Israel." The 9/11 Commission Report determined that the animosity towards the United States felt by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the "principal architect" of the 9/11 attacks, stemmed "not from his experiences there as a student, but rather from his violent disagreement with U.S. foreign policy favoring Israel." The same motivation was shared by the two pilots who flew into the WTC: Mohamed Atta was described by Ralph Bodensteinwho traveled, worked and talked with himas "most imbued actually about... U.S. protection of these Israeli politics in the region." "When someone asked why he and Atta never laughed, Shehhi retorted,"How can you laugh when people are dying in Palestine?" Mohammed Atta is described in Lawrence Wright's account to have committed himself to martyrdom in immediate response to the Israeli strikes at the beginning of Operation Grapes of Wrath. Abdulaziz al-Omari, a hijacker aboard Flight 11 with Mohammed Atta, said in his video will, "My work is a message those who heard me and to all those who saw me at the same time it is a message to the infidels that you should leave the Arabian peninsula defeated and stop giving a hand of help to the coward Jews in Palestine."

10. International reaction

A solitary firefighter stands amid the rubble and smoke in New York City. Days after the Sept. 11 attack, fires still burned at the site of the World Trade Center. The attacks had major global political ramifications. They were denounced by mainstream media and governments worldwide, with the headline of France's Le Monde newspaper summing up the international mood of sympathy: "We Are All Americans" (Nous sommes tous Amricains). The most publicized exception was that some Palestinians celebrated jubilantly upon hearing about 9/11. There was a report by a journalist about public demonstrations of enthusiasm for the attacks conducted by Chinese students in Beijing, China during the night after the attacks. Although the journalist was not in China on the day of 9/11, he reported the event on the 5th anniversary of 9/11 based on accounts he had learned from his sources. Leaders in most Middle Eastern countries, including 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." 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. The Pakistani authorities moved decisively to align themselves with the United States in a war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Pakistan provided the U.S. a number of military airports and bases for its attack on the Taliban regime and arrested over 600 supposed al-Qaeda

members, whom it handed over to the U.S. Numerous countries, including the UK , India , Australia , France , Germany , Indonesia , China , Canada , Russia , Pakistan, Jordan, Mauritius, Uganda and Zimbabwe introduced "anti-terrorism" legislation [128] 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 labeled 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 (e.g. COINTELPRO's monitoring of public meetings) were "dismantled" by the USA PATRIOT Act ;civil liberty organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Liberty argued that certain civil rights protections were also being circumvented. The United States set up a detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to hold what they termed "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. In the United Kingdom , outrage swelled in the media when Jo Moore , a special adviser to Transport Secretary Stephen Byers , sent an email to staff an hour after the attacks, but before the towers had collapsed, suggesting that "It is now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury. Councillors' expenses?" Moore faced calls for her resignation, but after apologising and receiving backing from Byers and Downing Street, she remained in her job until February 2002, when a further 'burying bad news' scandal finally led to her resignation.

11. U.S. Government response

Rescue, recovery, and compensation The FDNY deployed 200 units (half of the department) to the site, whose efforts were supplemented by numerous off-duty firefighters. NYPD Emergency Service Units (ESU) and other police personnel, along with numerous EMTs rushed to the scene. NYPD helicopters were soon at the scene, reporting on the status of the burning buildings. Though, FDNY commanders lacked communication with the NYPD, as well as with 9-1-1 dispatchers to provide good situation awareness. FDNY commanders also had difficulties communicating evacuation orders to firefighters inside the towers due to malfunctioning repeater systems in the World Trade Center. Within hours of the attack, a massive search and rescue (SAR) operation was launched. Initially, only a handful of wounded people were found at the site, and in the weeks that followed it became evident that there were no survivors to be found. Rescue and recovery efforts took months to complete. It took several weeks to simply put out the fires burning in the rubble of the buildings, although there was smoldering and smoke for 99 days, before the fire was

completely out. The clean-up was not completed until May 2002. Temporary wooden "viewing platforms" were set up for tourists to view construction crews clearing out the gaping holes where the towers once stood. All of these platforms were closed on May 30, 2002. Many relief funds were immediately set up to assist victims of the attacks, with the task of providing financial assistance to the survivors and the families of victims. By the deadline for victim's compensation, September 11, 2003, 2,833 applications had been received from the families of those killed.

12. Investigations
Collapse of the World Trade Center A federal technical building and fire safety investigation of the collapses of the Twin Towers and 7 WTC has been conducted by the United States Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology ( NIST). The goals of this investigation, completed on April 6, 2005, were to investigate the building construction, the materials used, and the technical conditions that contributed to the outcome of the WTC disaster. The investigation was to serve as the basis for: Improvements in the way in which buildings are designed, constructed, maintained, and used Improved tools and guidance for industry and safety officials Revisions to building and fire codes, standards, and practices Improved public safety The report concludes that the fireproofing on the Twin Towers steel infrastructures was blown off by the initial impact of the planes and that, if this had not occurred, the towers would likely have remained standing. The fires weakened the trusses supporting the floors, making the floors sag. The sagging floors pulled on the exterior steel columns to the point where exterior columns bowed inward. With the damage to the core columns, the buckling exterior columns could no longer support the buildings, causing them to collapse. In addition, the report asserts that the towers' stairwells were not adequately reinforced to provide emergency escape for people above the impact zones. NIST stated that the final report on the collapse of 7 WTC will appear in a separate report. This was confirmed by an independent study by Purdue University. Although potential improvements were found, Gene Corley, the director of the original investigation, commented that the original towers did quite well overall. "Our report points out that the towers really did amazingly well," Corley said. "The terrorist aircraft didnt bring the buildings down; it was the fire which followed. It was proven that you could take out two thirds of the columns in a tower and the building would still stand." Nonetheless, additional fireproofing and improvements to stairwells will certainly be priorities for the reconstruction of the towers.

13. Afterword

The World Trade Center name will continue to be used as name of the site, as will the New York City Subway and PATH train stations that serve the complex. A temporary PATH station, largely following the layout of the original, is the first part of the complex to have reopened. On November 22, 2004, New York Governor George Pataki named the living former presidents as honorary members of the board rebuilding the World Trade Center. On May 18, 2005, Donald Trump, long-time opponent of the Freedom Tower, proposed the Twin Towers II plan to rebuild the Twin Towers with various safety, structural, and technological improvements. On June 29, 2005, a redesigned Freedom Tower was unveiled which more closely resembled the character of the fallen towers. The new design also boasted several safety improvements over previous proposals. On December 15, 2005, Sir Norman Foster was announced as the architect who will design the second of five new office towers planned for the site. On March 13, 2006 workers arrived at the World Trade Center site to remove remaining debris and start surveying work. This marks the official start of construction of the WTC Memorial and Museum. In April 2006, a tentative agreement was reached by the owner of the site, The Port Authority, and private developer Larry Silverstein. The main elements of that agreement are that Silverstein ceded rights to develop the Freedom Tower and Tower Five in exchange for financing with Liberty Bonds for Tower Two, Three, and Four which are considered to be the most marketable properties of the site. On April 27, 2006, a ground breaking ceremony was held for the Freedom Tower. In May 2006, architects Richard Rogers and Fumihiko Maki were announced as the architects for Towers Three and Four, respectively. The final designs for Towers Two, Three and Four were unveiled on September 7, 2006. Tower Two, or 200 Greenwich Street, will have a roof height of 1,254 feet (382 m) and a 96-foot (29 m) tripod spire for a total of 1,350 feet (411 m). Tower Three, or 175 Greenwich Street will have a roof height of 1,155 feet (352 m) and an antennae height of 1,255 feet (383 m). Tower Four, or 150 Greenwich Street, will have an overall height of 946 feet (288 m). As of late 2007, work at the World Trade Center site continued. Foundation work has started on the Freedom Tower, Calatrava Hub, and the memorials. On June 22, 2007 the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced that JP Morgan Chase will build Tower 5, a 42 story building on Site 5 currently occupied by the Deutsche Bank Building. Kohn Pedersen Fox was officially chosen as the architect for the building on July 17, 2007.