462 World Trade Center, September 11, 2001 World Trade Center, September 11, 2001 The United States of America and, in fact, the world, would not be the same after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 The term 9/11 was added to the U.S vocabulary, symbolizing armed aggression holding humankind for ransom American Airlines Flight 11, United Airlines Flight 175, American Airlines Flight 77, and United Airlines Flight 93 were hijacked by al-Qaeda, a group owing allegiance to the militant Islamic leader Osama bin Laden The aircraft, respectively, were crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center (WTC), the south tower of the WTC, the Pentagon headquarters, and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania About 3,000 people died, and property worth billions of dollars was lost Bin Laden, the son of Saudi Arabian construction tycoon Mohammed Awad bin Laden, was the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks Bin Laden had a deep hatred of the U.S policy in the Middle East and called for the liberation of the region from the United States previous target The United States had previously been the target of terrorist attacks such as the World Trade Center bombing (February 1993), a truck bomb at the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City (April 1995), bomb attacks on U.S barracks in Dhahran (June 1996), the bombing of U.S embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi (August 1998), a bomb attack on the USS Cole (October 2000), and year 2000 millennium attack plots But these were not like September 11 in magnitude and precision Bin Laden was linked with many terrorist attacks all over the world The successful execution of the attack inside U.S territory by 19 Islamic militants was a demonstration of the failure of U.S intelligence The terrorists dispatched by al-Qaeda passed through security checkpoints of airports easily and performed their mission It was one of the greatest failures of U.S intelligence since Pearl Harbor The militants had visited the United States and stayed there Targets, as well as the type of aircraft, were being modified until the final decision The plan had begun with Operation Bojinka, which was conceived by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Yousef as early as 1995 in Manila While Khalid was in Afghanistan, he presented al-Qaeda with the argument that instead of using aircraft loaded with explosives, commercial planes could be used to hit the targets Nine planes were to be crashed into different targets such as the WTC, the Pentagon, the White House, and the Capitol A 10th plane was to be hijacked by Khalid himself It would be landed in the United States after all the male passengers were killed Bin Laden decided to use four planes The WTC, the Pentagon, and the United States Capitol were to be the targets A new terrorist cell was established in Hamburg, Germany, and militants were chosen by bin Laden Bin Laden was eager to carry out the plan At a January 2000 meeting held in Kuala Lumpur, militants discussed the USS Cole bombing and the September 11 attacks Some of the members had already been to the United States, renting apartments and undergoing training as students at flight schools By June 2000 alMihdhar, al-Hazmi, Mohammed Atta, and Marwan al-Shehhi were already in the United States Omar alBayoumi had been in San Diego, California, since 1995 The terrorists often changed their places of residence, spent money on airline tickets, and got driver’s licenses by obtaining mailboxes In the final preparations, four teams were chosen and airline tickets were purchased The first plane, AA Flight 11, crashed into the north tower of the WTC and had on board the hijackers Walid Al Shehri, Wail Alsheri, Mohammad Atta, Aabdul Alomari, and Satam Sugami UA Flight 175 hit the south tower of the WTC and had on board Marawn Alshehhi, Fayez Ahmed, Mohald Alshehri, Hamza Al Ghamdi, and Ahmed Al Ghamdi The Pentagon was hit by AA Flight 77, this third plane carrying Khalid al-Mihdhar, Majed Moqued, Nawaf Al Hazmi, and Salem Al Hazmi Ahmed Al Haznawi, Ahmed Alnami, Ziad Jarrah, and Saeed Alghamdi had overpowered the fourth plane, UA Flight 93, which eventually crashed into the ground in Shanksville Flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46:40 a.m local time and at 9:03:11 a.m Flight 175 crashed into the south tower Millions of people watched the live collapse of the north and south towers The casualty figure was 2,986 shock around the world The whole world was shocked by the attacks Some European countries observed three minutes of silence Messages of sympathy poured in to the administration and the people of the United States The United Nations, in Resolution 1368, expressed its support to the United States in defending its homeland The member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (nato) declared that the attack on the United States was an attack against all NATO members The