Background history of the September 11, 2001 attacks
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The background history of the September 11, 2001 attacks includes US foreign policy with regard to predominantly Muslim countries and Israel in the latter part of the Cold War, the growth of radical Islamism, and prior terrorist attacks on the United States.
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[edit] Historical background
[edit] Pre-Seventies
1953-1979: Following nationalization of British oil interests in Iran, in 1953 the U.S. helps overthrow Iran's secular democratic government with a CIA-backed coup against elected Premier Mohammed Mossadegh, then supports the autocratic monarchy of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Fundamentalist Shi'ite Islam gains appeal as an alternative to failed or dictatorial secular alternatives.
1967: United States holds that Israel should withdraw from territory won in the Six-Day War (Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights), and agrees with both the UN and Israel that it should do so as part of a comprehensive peace agreement. Whether Israel complied is under dispute, see UN Security Council Resolution 242.
[edit] Seventies
- 1972-1973: The North (1972) and South (1973) towers of the World Trade Center are completed.
- 1978: A Communist government with Soviet backing comes to power in Afghanistan, and the United States (under Jimmy Carter) and Pakistan begin arming Mujahadeen rebels. After several months in 1979 the Soviet Union begins its war in Afghanistan. Carter's National Security Adviser Zbigiew Brzezinski boasts that by arming the Mujahadeen he has forced the Soviet Union to invade, drawing it into an "Afghan trap." Though, Soviet advisors were already in the country prior to this, thus this assertion is debatable. Ronald Reagan greets representatives of the Mujahadeen as "freedom fighters" on the White House lawn. The U.S. arms and trains the mujahideen, which included Saudi national Osama bin Laden.
- 1979: A popular uprising unseats U.S.-backed Iranian dictator Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Fundamentalist Shi'ite Islamists, led by Ayatollah Khomeini, seize power, creating a radical theocracy and beginning to back radical Islamist forces all through the region.
[edit] Eighties
- 1983: United States troops go to Lebanon as part of a United Nations peace-keeping force. The U.S. withdraws after its Beirut embassy and Marine barracks are bombed by Iranian-backed Shiite militant group of Hezbollah[1] in Beirut, killing 258 Americans. The US Navy, in support of Israel, its allies and proxy forces, shells villages and residential areas of Beirut.
- 1980-1988: United States arms both sides in the long and bloody Iran-Iraq War starting in 1982, giving support to Iraq along with the Soviet Union, France, China, and others; seeking to preclude Iranian expansion. The U.S. among other countries blocks UN Security Council resolutions condemning the Iraqi invasion and removes Iraq from its list of nations sponsoring terrorism together with allowing transfer of U.S. arms to Iraq and re-establishing diplomatic relations.
- 1987-1988: U.S. sends its navy to the Persian Gulf to protect oil tankers and show support for Iraq. On March 17, 1987, an Iraqi aircraft attacks the USS Stark, killing 37 seamen; the attack is considered an error by both sides. So is the USS Vincennes's shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 on July 3, 1988, killing 290.
- 1989: Introduction of the new US Quadrennial Defense Review which contains the Base Force strategy. This strategy defines international terrorism and rogue states as new national security threats, labelling Iraq and a number of other countries as rogue states, a year before the invasion of Iraq into Kuwait.
- Osama bin Laden founds Al-Qaida from the years 1981-1988. Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan in 1988. The United States ceases support for the mujahadeen. The Communist government falls three years later in 1992. A new government is formed to replace it but civil war among many rival factions ensues with some backed by Pakistan and other outsiders including the CIA.
- Throughout the 1980s the Islamist movement spreads widely, capitalizing on U.S. support for local dictatorships, teaching that all Arab nations are corrupt and not representative of "true" Islam; thus all of these nations must be overthrown and replaced with an Islamic government, run solely by Islamic law.
[edit] Nineties
- 1990-1991: Citing disputes over cross-border oil fields, Iraq invades Kuwait, starting the Gulf War. An international coalition led by the United States expels Iraq and restores the Kuwaiti monarchy. The U.S. ends the war as rebel movements in Iraq's (Shi'ite) Southern and (Kurdish) Northern regions are gaining steam. Saddam Hussein crushes these rebellions, remaining in power. U.S. and allied forces keep new military bases in Saudi Arabia. Osama bin Laden, outraged by what he views as an infidel presence near the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, turns completely against the United States.
- 1991-2003: The U.S. and U.N. maintain comprehensive economic sanctions against Iraq conditional on the end of the Iraqi WMD program. Over a million Iraqi deaths are attributed to the sanctions. Critics claim the sanctions weaken popular resistance to Hussein while punishing an innocent population. The sanctions will become an often-cited grievance of Osama bin Laden. The U.S. subjects Iraq to regular bombings. The United States and allies patrol no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq to protect minorities.
- 1991: the Cold War ends with the Soviet Union splitting apart into independent republics.
- February 26, (1993): World Trade Center bombing: A team likely backed by Osama bin Laden planted a van bomb in the World Trade Center, which exploded in the underground garage of the north tower. Six people were killed and over a thousand injured. Six Islamic extremist conspirators were convicted of the crime in 1997, and each sentenced to 240 years in prison.
- 1994: Osama bin Laden's Saudi Arabian citizenship revoked. He goes to Sudan.
- December 11, 1994: A small bomb explodes on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, killing a Japanese businessman. It is later discovered that Ramzi Yousef planted a bomb on the aircraft to test a bomb for his terrorist plot.
- January 6-January 7, 1995: Operation Bojinka is discovered by investigators in a laptop computer and a group of floppy diskettes found in a Manila apartment after a chemical fire occurred in the apartment. Conspirator Abdul Hakim Murad is picked up. Ramzi Yousef would get arrested a month later and financier Wali Khan Amin Shah would get arrested by the end of the year, yet Khalid Sheik Mohammed would not get arrested until 2003.
- November 13, 1995: A bomb at United States military headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia kills five Americans and two Indians.
- December 1995: Wali Khan Amin Shah, financier of Operation Bojinka, is arrested in Malaysia.
- 1996: The Taliban, a radical Islamic movement backed by the Arab mujahadeen staying in Afghanistan after the war with the Soviet Union ended, takes the capital Kabul and most of Afghanistan from the hands of the local mujahadeen groups and forms a government. This Islamist regime is recognized only by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Osama bin Laden arrives from Sudan. The area of the country not under Taliban control remains under the Northern Alliance, made up of forces that had belonged to the local mujahadeen, and ironically, the former Communist government, in addition to Afghan minorities who faced persecution (the Taliban members who are Afghani are mainly the ethnic majority Pashtun group).
- June 25, 1996: A bombing at a United States military barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, kills 19 people and injures 500.
- February 1998: Osama bin Laden and other Islamic extremists issue a fatwa declaring it the religious duty of all Muslims "to kill the Americans and their allies - civilians and military ... in any country in which it is possible". Bin Laden bases the fatwa on the United States support for Israel and its actions during and following the Gulf War.
- August 7, 1998: bombings of the United States embassies in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. Over 200 people died in these attacks, which the United States has linked to Osama bin Laden.
- August 21, 1998: The United States employs with cruise missiles to destroy a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant (and with it, half of the country's medicine supply) based on faulty evidence that the plant is involved in chemical weapons manufacture: and tries to kill bin Laden in a cruise missile attack on his camp in Afghanistan, during a meeting of terrorist leaders (Operation Infinite Reach). Only Twenty-four people were killed because of outstanding precision, but the leaders had dispersed by the time the missiles struck, and bin Laden was unharmed. The United States blocks a United Nations investigation into the Sudan attack. Sudan was allowed to import pharmaceuticals from the U.S. to replace the destroyed ones.
- December 1998: Citing lack of Iraqi cooperation in a report issued by the U.N., U.S. and UK planes built up to bombard Iraq. United Nations weapons inspection teams subsequently left Iraq, later to be denied re-admittance. The following U.S./UK bombardment, dubbed Operation Desert Fox, seeks to destroy possible Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. and the United Kingdom introduce less strict Rules of Engagement, resulting in intermittent bombing of Iraqi Anti-Aircraft installations regarded as dangerous to overflying aircraft.
- 1999: Drought in Afghanistan begins.
- September 23, 1999: Texas Governor George W. Bush predicts on his Presidential Exploratory Committee website, that if he were to become President of the United States, he would prioritize the defense of the homeland stating:
- "The protection of America itself will assume a high priority in a new century. Once a strategic afterthought, homeland defense has become an urgent duty. Every group or nation must know if they sponsor such attacks, our response will be devastating. If elected president, I will set three goals: I will renew the bond of trust between the American president and the American military, I will defend the American people against missiles and terror, and I will begin creating the military of the next century. Our military needs the rallying point of a defining mission. And that mission is to deter wars - and win wars when deterrence fails. Sending our military on vague, aimless and endless deployments is the swift solvent of morale."
- December 12, 1999:Jordanian authorities uncover a plot to bomb targets in Jordan as part of the 2000 millennium attack plots. 28 are arrested and 22 of them will be found guilty
- December 14, 1999:Ahmed Ressam is caught on the United States-Canada border with nitroglycerin in his car. He and three other Algerians were accused by U.S. authorities of trying to bomb Los Angeles International Airport as part of the 2000 millennium attack plots.
- December 24 (Christmas Eve), 1999: Indian Airlines Flight 814, which just took off from Kathmandu, Nepal to Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, India is hijacked. The plane flies around different points in South Asia and Southwest Asia as officials of the government of India and the Taliban negotiate. One passenger is killed and some are released.
- December 31, 1999: The rest of the hostages on Indian Airlines Flight 814 are freed following the release of an Islamic militant from an Indian prison.
- January 3: An attempt to sink USS The Sullivans fails as the boat with the explosives sinks. The plot was part of the 2000 millennium attack plots.
[edit] Recent (2000-01)
- January 5 - January 8, 2000: The 2000 Al Qaeda Summit takes place in a Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia condiminium. Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, who would allegedly hijack American Airlines Flight 77 during the September 11, 2001 attacks, attend the meeting.
- October 2000: USS Cole bombing in which 17 American sailors die, also blamed on Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda group.
- September 15, 2000: The Israeli-Palestinian peace process falls apart, and the al-Aqsa Intifada begins.
- May 2001: the United States gives $43 million to the Taliban for reducing poppy production (poppies are the source of heroin).
[edit] Intelligence available pre 9/11
There are a number of unresolved claims regarding prior warning in addition to the list below. See the discussion at: 9/11 conspiracy theories.
[edit] Dated
- June 22, 2001: The United States Department of State issues a "worldwide caution" for U.S. citizens around the world of possible Osama bin Laden-related terrorist attacks. The warning is due to expire or be updated September 22.
- June 28, 2001: Senator Warner states in his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, that he would scrutinize their budget submissions "because we've got to prepare for an attack here at home of a terrorist nature in some form right in the cities here in the United States, and how best this nation responds."
- July 20, 2001: The G8 summit in Genoa, Italy begins. Security is extremely tight because of large protests and intelligence indicating that terrorists associated with Osama bin Laden were planning to attack the summit to kill George W. Bush and other attendees. The reported attack plan involved crashing a plane packed with explosives into the buildings where the delegates were meeting or staying during the summit.
- Numerous precautions against this attack were taken, including: George W. Bush staying at a separate location from the other delegates, fighter jets patrolling the sky over the city, a large no-fly zone for commercial aircraft, and surface-to-air missile batteries emplaced around the city.
- August 6, 2001: George W. Bush is informed in his President's Daily Brief that Osama bin Laden was determined to strike targets within the United States and that the FBI believed activity consistent with preparations for hijacking US airplanes was underway.
- August 18, 2001: The FBI reports that, if released, suspect Zacarias Moussaoui "might take control of an airplane and crash it into the World Trade Center".
- September 9, 2001: Taliban assassination of Ahmed Shah Massoud, the military leader of the Northern Alliance Afghani opposition (he dies of the wounds on September 13).
- September 10, 2001: The National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States intercepted two Arabic language messages to Saudi Arabia from Afghanistan. U.S. officials believed the two people in Afghanistan were connected with Al-Qaida. The statements "Tomorrow is zero hour" and "The match begins tomorrow" were contained in the messages. However, the messages which hinted at an impending attack, were not translated until September 12, 2001.
- September 11, 2001: The attacks.
[edit] Exact dates unknown
In the months preceding September 11, the governments of at least four countries—Germany, Egypt, Russia and Israel—gave specific "urgent" warnings to the US of an impending terrorist attack, indicating that hijacked commercial aircraft might well be used to attack targets in the USA. [1], full list of July-August 2001 intelligence warnings here. The Egyptian and French warnings to the USA are said to have originated from Mossad and German intelligence. [2].
- The exact dates these warnings were received is unknown, the warnings only being made public in the aftermath of 9/11.
- German intelligence service BND told both US and Israeli intelligence agencies in June that Middle East terrorists were "planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture." (Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 14, 2001)
- Egypt sent an urgent warning to the US June 13. It , Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told the French newspaper Le Figaro that the warning was originally delivered just before the G-8 summit in Genoa, and was taken seriously enough that antiaircraft batteries were stationed around the Genoa airport. According to Mubarak, "an airplane stuffed with explosives" was mentioned. (Source: New York Times, September 26, 2001)
- Russian intelligence notified the CIA during the summer that 25 terrorist pilots had been specifically training for suicide missions. In an interview September 15 with MSNBC, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that he had ordered Russian intelligence in August to warn the US government "in the strongest possible terms" of imminent attacks on airports and government buildings. (Source: From The Wilderness web site; MSNBC).
- The Israeli Mossad warned FBI and CIA in August that as many as 200 followers of Osama bin Laden were slipping into the country to prepare "a major assault on the United States." The advisory spoke of a "large-scale target," and The Los Angeles Times cites unnamed US officials confirming Mossad's warning had been received. (Source: Sunday Telegraph, September 16, 2001; Los Angeles Times, September 20, 2001)
- The Independent, a liberal daily in Britain, published an article asserting the US government "was warned repeatedly that a devastating attack on the United States was on its way." The Independent cited an interview given by Osama bin Laden to a London-based Arabic-language newspaper, al-Quds al-Arabi, in late August. (Source: Independent, September 17, 2001)
[edit] Previous suicide plane attacks
On several occasions, attackers attempted to use civilian aircraft to use as weapons:
- In 1974, Samuel Byck attempted to hijack an airliner and crash it into the White House to kill Richard Nixon.
- A plot in 1984 concerned terrorist groups planning to crash airplanes into the U.S. embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus, and in the Middle East. [3]
- The original plan of the Rome and Vienna airport attacks in 1985 was possibly to blow up two hijacked airliners over Tel Aviv.
- Disgruntled FedEx employee Auburn Calloway tried to hijack FedEx Flight 705 in 1994 and crash it into FedEx headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee.
- Frank Eugene Corder attempted to crash a stolen Cessna 150 into the White House, though he failed and he was the only one killed.
- Algerian extremists hijacked Air France Flight 8969 in 1994 and planned to either blow it up over Paris or crash it into the Eiffel Tower.
[edit] References
- ^ Bates, John D. (Presiding). "Anne Dammarell et al. v. Islamic Republic of Iran" (pdf). The United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Retrieved on 21 September.
[edit] External links
- "Complete 911 Timeline" from Dec. 1979 through Sep. 2001 - Provided by the Center for Cooperative Research.
- For Ages, Afghanistan Is Not Easily Conquered, The New York Times, September 18, 2001
- TIME.com Primer: The Taliban and Afghanistan, Time, September 18, 2001
- Debate On the Roots of 9/11 - The failures of three successive presidential administrations to stop Bin Laden.
- USAToday.com - Heard 9/10: 'Tomorrow is Zero Hour'
