Attacks of September 11th, 2001

The expression attacks of September 11th, 2001 (abbreviations: 11/9 , 11-September and, in English, 9/11 ) indicates a series of dramatic events which took place in the North-East of the the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001: three commercial aircraft were crushed buildings against highly symbolic systems: twin towers of the World Trade Center to Manhattan, New York, and the Pentagon, seat of the ministry for the Defense of the United States, with Washington. A fourth plane was crushed in open country with Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The thesis of the islamist plot was the very same day presented by the American authorities and the great media, then constant in the report of the charged commission of investigation (Commission Kean), published at the end of August 2004. According to this thesis, the nineteen hijackers who prepared in the shade these attack-suicides, the surprise having allowed their result, were members of Al-Qaïda.

These attacks, most consequent of the modern history, made this day one of bloodiest than knew America on its territory after the Bataille of Antietam (1862). They were almost lived in real-time by hundreds of million televiewers throughout the world. The surprise and the psychological shock were considerable within the populations, in particular in America and Occident. They generated effects powerful and persistent, in particular political and economic. The government of the the United States made accept a sedentary legislation and, denouncing a “Axe of the Evil”, launched out in a “Guerre against terrorism” unlimited in time and space.

The direct victims of these events were quantified with: 2973 died and 24 missings. Several thousands of wounded people and the thousands of others, in particular among the rescuers, are reached diseases induced by the inhalation of toxic dust.

Attacks: facts

With their load (partial) in Fuel estimated at 45 000 Liter S each one, the planes, two Boeing 757 and two Boeing 767 were used as bends S flamers flying. Of the four diverted planes, only flight UA93 could not reach its target, being crushed in an unused mine with open sky of Pennsylvania whereas it moved towards the capital.

Some passengers and team members could pass from the phone calls, mainly of flight UA93, mentioning the presence of hijackers armed with knives to retractable blade ( Box cutter in English), which they used to threaten or kill out of the flight crew and the passengers during the takeover of the plane. A witness reports also the use of chemicals of the type Teargas used in flight American 11 to keep the passengers away of the first class. The National Commission on the terrorist attacks against the United States , could establish that two of the hijackers had recently bought knives multifunction Leatherman. Threats of bomb were made on three of the planes (not on American 77).

Diversions

the labels below present the ways of the diversions as reconstituted by the report/ratio of the “Commission 9/11”

, flights UA175 and AA11 were programmed to take off at one minute of interval, but the first left the ground with 16 min of delay and reached its target very exactly 16 min after the AA11 struck the Northern tower, the duration of flight having been of 49 min (48 min for AA11).
These courses do not correspond to a concern of minimizing the duration to the air defense reaction: after the takeover by the kamikazes, flight 11 was maintained 13 min during in a direction (the North-West) which moved away it from its objective. This choice finds for flight 175 with its broad turning with the top it New Jersey to return on Manhattan by the South.

This feature is also divided by flights AA77 and UA93: the late character of the takeover of the planes (after 26 and 45 min) resulted in an important distance from their target, increasing as much faculties of intervention of air defense.

Air defense reactions

The procedures regulating coordination between the civil aviation and air defense, places from there since the years 1960, functioned satisfactorily (67 exits between September 2000 and May 2001). They were however modified at the beginning of June 2001 by depriving the commanders of bases of their autonomy of decision, placing them in dependence of the Secretary to defense (Donald Rumsfeld, with the Pentagon). The NORAD had this day for the east coast on four bases eight hunters armed and ready to take off (of which those of Langley Air Force Bases with Hampton in Virginia, of Otis in Falmouth in Massachusetts and of Oregon AB in Portland in the Oregon while War games such Global Guardian were in hand.

The space of times offered by the diversions were consequent: taking as alarm signal the radio-dumbness of flight AA11 (8h14), at the moment of the successive impacts, 33,49,83 and 112 minutes ran out. None the fighter plans having been implemented was able to interfere with the pirated flights. The NORAD supported that this major bankruptcy of the protective system of the airspace was due to the times taken to transmit the incidents of flight (24 and 39 minutes for flights AA11 and AA77) or their nontransmission. Taking again the data of the NORAD, the Commission Kean stated that the soldiers would have been informed a few minutes only before the impacts of flights AA11 and AA77, and after the impacts for the others. However, the choices operated by the NORAD caused interrogations. According to the deposition of September 13rd of the general Myers, confirmed by the press conference of the vice-president Dick Cheney of the 16, no fighter plan would have been implemented before the impact of flight AA77 against the Pentagon (9h37). The chronology of the NORAD, published the 18, indicated that hunters had taken off with 8:44 and 9:30. According to the Commission Kean, the first hunters took off at 8:52, 38 minutes after the diversion of flight AA11 of Otis, near to Boston, distant from 240 km. After having flown to the quarter their maximum speed, they were to 114 km of New York when flight UA175 struck the Southern tower. After having reached New York with 9:11, they were affected to patrol the New Yorkean airspace. During this time, the NORAD made take off other hunters of the bases of Langley, located 210 km at the south of Washington. That of Andrews, to 15 km of the capital, whose hunters took part in a exercise in North Carolina this morning there accepted on its side the order by the secret services to prepare an armed patrol. But half an hour later, with the reception about the Presidency to make take off these hunters following the attack against the Pentagon, they were still not ready. Wheel with 35 % of their capacity, the hunters of Langley arrived at the Pentagon 12 minutes after the impact of flight AA77 at the moment when three F-16 not armed took off of Andrews, forty five minutes after the setting in alarm.

Although nonthe respect of the alarm procedures was thus pointed finger, it there have no public survey and no sanction against the persons in charge of the FAA. The failure of the NORAD did not prevent either the high ranking officials, the such generals Eberhard and Myers, to be confirmed in their functions even promoted.

From 9:49, all the commercial flights in the United States are cancelled (and all international flights in their direction diverted on Canada), and the airports of closed Los Angeles and San Francisco. The civil aviation will be nailed on the ground until September 14th.

The US Navy announces with 14:51 the deployment of 2 aircraft carriers and other ships coming from the naval Base of Norfolk off New York and of Washington.

Among the military units deployed in reinforcement on the place of the disaster, it is necessary to note the presence of a bacteriological unit of Guerre of the National guard of the United States charged to analyze the air in order to determine pathogenic germs so had widespread summers. Put in alarm a few minutes after the second impact, it confirmed with 20:30 the absence of risks in this field.

Impacts and damage

Approximately 17.400 people were in the two turns at the time of the attacks, the greatest part had the possibility of evacuating the places before their destruction.

WTC1

With 8:46 (local time) (UTC 12:46), the flight AA11 quasi perpendicularly struck in its center the north-eastern face of the Northern twin tower, its angle of lodging (25°) resulting in an influence on five stages (93 to 97). Animated a speed estimated at 710 km/h, the plane in the frontage its partial print left (35 m for 48 m of scale), the ends of the wings causing only surface damage. The damage caused with the external structure was quantified with 36 divided posts (12 on average per stage reached, that is to say 5 % of the 240 of the circumference). The damage on the central structure remains unknown and not established (alone, the 47 central posts supported 60% of the static head). According to the report/ratio of the FEMA which takes again on its account the opinion experts expressed on September 11th during interviews, the top of the turns would have moved from 6 to 8 meters at the time of the impacts. But according to the study which made continuation of the engineers financed by the NIST, the maximum displacement of the Southern tower (on the level of the impact), obtained by simulation, would have been only of 40 cm, result which confirms calculations of Pr Bazant of MIT (45cm).

Only a small portion of landing gear arose by the face opposed, after having lost approximately 95 % of its energy, and will be found with a corner of street, a few 385 meters further. The FBI will affirm to have found in the vicinity the intact passport of the one of the kamikazes (Satam Al Suqami). With all the broken down elevators and the staircases made impracticable, the people located above the stages reached were trapped and smoked out.

The damage noted in the hall of the ground floors, brought back in particular by the firemen (panes and puffed up doors of elevators, separated mural marble plates) and first-aid workers (burned people) is usually allotted to the kerosene pulverized around the 95^ème stage, which would then have traversed the few 400 m of a lift shaft, granting to its combustion in free atmosphere the capacity to produce a powerful shock wave. According to these witnesses, the elevators concerned were those of the center, known as buildings, which served the lower stages and the basements. Testimonys of technicians working in the stages of the basement, such as William Rodriguez or Philipp Morelli in addition give a report on a strong explosion which would have devastated the sixth stage right before the impact of flight AA11. Mike Pecoraro, an engineer who was on this floor even, delivered a detailed description of the damage which it allotted to a bomb.

WTC2

With 9:03, the flight UA175 penetrated of skew (15° approximately) the south-western face of the Southern tower, with a few 7 meters of its center. The event could be largely recorded by the télédiffuseurs who covered the attack against the Northern tower.

According to the report published by the FEMA, the speed of the plane was estimated at 870 km/h, which granted 50 to him; % of more than energy than flight AA11. But, striking the tower between stages 78 and 83, it left a shorter print (26 m of scale) in spite of an angle of more important lodging (38°) because on this level the external structure was (twice) more resistant than to the level of stage 95. The angulation of the direction of flight made that apparatus half starboard could not meet the internal structure of the carrying posts, thus allowing parts of engine, of fuselage and landing gear to arise by the angle is building and to be found up to 400 m of distance. The plane divided 25 columns of the external structure (11 per stage on average, that is to say 5 % of the circumference), damage for which it is necessary to add those carried out in the Eastern angle by the exit of the pieces of engine and train rights. The print left by the plane had a surface completely comparable with that of WTC1. The damage undergone by the central structure is quite as unknown as those of the Northern tower, but can only be less, reason for which the elevators functioned during fifteen minutes (until 9:03) and which at least a staircase remained practicable.

The Pentagon

With 9:37, the flight AA77 would have penetrated the central part of the Western wing of the Pentagon according to a tilted axis of 52° compared to the frontage, the plane slipping by at the estimated speed of 850 km/h. The traces which it left on various devices located in front of the building (shot down standard lamps, started low wall, damaged compressor) are compatible only with the characteristics of a Boeing 737 or 757. To date, only one video, among the many safety video cameras of the Pentagon, was made public. The video lasts approximately 4 seconds, contains 5 images of which none makes it possible to see a plane. The plane penetrated in the center of a section in completion of restoration, the exterior facade has just been reinforced to resist an terrorist attack (steel posts, cover of Kevlar). With the impact a powerful explosion occurred of which characteristics, described by witnesses and partly recorded by the surveillance camera of the northern carpark (silver plated flash, luminous vagueness, white face, intense red color, shock wave), similar to those of a deflagration of explosives. According to the testimonys mentioned, parts of the plane and pieces of concrete, as with the “aluminum confettis” fallen down “in rain” after being projected in the air strewed the lawn in front of the building until on the roadway with the fast track, 150 away meters. Some rare recognizable parts were found (parts of engine and gear landing inside, fuselage on the lawn, empennage on the roof).

The line of steel columns was destroyed over a width of ten meters with height of the ground floor. A whole whole of columns of support of the concrete stages also was destroyed of the impact, but also at a consequent distance, divided immediately behind at the base. From where the collapse of the section of stages half an hour later. With 100 meters of the impact, exactly in the axis of flight, a circular perforation 2,3 meters in diameter had been made in the internal wall of the ring C of the building, mark above the opening of an important deposit of gas residues combustion and traces of a shock wave (broken panes). Always in this axis, the wall external of the ring B which dealt with this opening was carrying another deposit of residues of combustion.

Fires

Released instantaneously by the bursting of the wings against the frontages of the turns, the kerosene (around 35.000 liters per plane) was spread largely with the remains in the direction given by the impacts until partly bringing out by the frontage of entry and those opposite, formant of enormous fireballs (thus burning 20% of fuel) energy of the yellow to orange, generating fires which were going to move exhaustion of fuels progressively (according to the NIST, the maximum of heating resulting from combustion from part of kerosene -40% - and furnishing was reached 20 mn after the impact), and of the flashover of new materials. This fast combustion caused oxygen a shortage, smoke, gray and light following the fireballs, transfering with the black at the end of fifteen minutes. Nowhere was not noted of reddening of parts out of steel (from 700°C), nor even of bursting of panes (above 600°C), even near the breaches of exit of the parts of planes where were to be itself accumulated the remains of all kinds (movable, equipment.), testifying to the relative weakness of the fires. Analyzed by NIST, the external samples of beams of the impacted stages indicate for the majority an exposure to a maximum temperature of 250°C, one making exception with an higher temperature, but below 600°C. The calculations carried out by this organization indicated maximum temperatures of approximately 500°C. These results are coherent with the data of experiments carried out by metallurgical industry where hydrocarbon fires in carparks were not able to overheat the steel beams not protected with more 360°C.
The power of these fires in addition remains much lower than that of fires of turns indexed, such that of One Meridian Plaza (on 8 stages, during 18 hours) or of First Interstate Bank (on 5 stages, lasting 3:30). As for the effects of these fires, it should be stressed that the role of fire protection passive protections is appreciated from the point of view of a “fire resistance” which does not indicate time during which a building must remain upright, but that during which the fire must be contained in space where it took naissance.
In spite of the immediate exhaustion of the essence of the kerosene, the mediocrity of fires to collapse and the water sprinkling on accumulated rubble, of the zones of high temperatures (above 700°C) persisted of the days lasting according to a study of the U.S. Geological Survey. 100 days after, these hearths were still active. According to a dozen independent testimonys, of which those of the managers of undertakings of cleaning of the site Peter Tully and Mark Loizeaux, among the remains of the turns progressively discovered of clearing quantity of molten metal, pariculièrement in the basements of the twin towers and tower WTC7, including in the form of flaques.

WTC1

Fires remained contained in the spaces opposed to the impact, except for an sudden appearance with the 105^ème stage which exhiba the single emergence of flames of the building. The collapse of the Southern tower induced a reactivation of fires inside the building (smoked bulkier and grayer). The gaping left by the impact, putting “at sight” the heart of the building, remained permanently a black hole, thus announcing the absence of fire to the level of the cage of the services.

WTC2

The slope of the impact made that the kerosene of the right wing arose by the frontages in three enormous fireballs. It was followed from there that the subsequent fire was quite less than for the Northern tower and remained very localized with the corner is with however an unusual phenomenon mentioned by the NIST: little before collapse was recorded a followed intense luminous flash, several minutes during, of a flow of fused metal. At the time of collapse, fires gave indications of smothering, only a black smoke being visible, which escaped from the building. The team of firemen which had arrived at the 78^ème stage had announced the presence of two residual fires and had asked for the sending of lances to extinguish them. A few minutes later, the tower crumbled before could be transmitted the order of evacuation emitted by the headquarters of the urgencies located in the WTC7. At least ten eight people who were located in the upper floors had been able meanwhile to cross without difficulty the disaster area by one of the three staircases of the core of services (where the columns of the internal structure of support are grouped).

WTC7

Reached by hot metal remains projected on its southern face (in its Eastern third) during the collapse of the Northern tower, this skyscraper of 47 stages sheltered some fires, with sporadically and partially visible flames (levels 11 to 13 and 28 to 30). No information can be found in the Commission Report of investigation (Keane report/ratio), which does not mention this skyscraper.

the Pentagon

The subsequent fire with the impact relatively violent but was circumscribed with the northern part of the struck wing (in the direction of the axis of flight). The firemen could not until 13:00 approach the zone of impact because of its intensity and it was still active later 18 hours. It was noted that panes were liquefied, of the split concrete and that the back of a truck fireman, at station vis-a-vis the Héliport at the time of the impact, had the back partially melted, testimonys of an high temperature (near to 1500°C).

Collapse of the turns

With 9:50, 56 minutes after being reached, the Southern tower crumbled. it is the perplexity which the face of the major Joseph Pfeffer in his headquarters expressed, at the ground floor of the Northern tower, filmed by the Naudet brothers. This incredulity is also expressed in the collection of testimonys of the Town hall. Having already intervened at the time of a fire and of an attack to the explosives, the New Yorkean firemen had a perfect knowledge of the buildings and believed that they were ready to support such impacts. Moreover, John Skilling, foreman of engineers originators of the World Trade Center, had declared into 1993 that the turns had been calculated to resist the collision of a Boeing 707 or a DC8, the largest transport aircrafts of the time, in full load and wheel to 950 km/h (maximum cruising speed). He had added that the impact would result " only in local damage which could not cause the collapse nor of consequent damage at the building ". Frank Demartini, supervisor of the building site, which had its offices with the 88^e stage of the Northern tower and perishes there following its decision to help with the evacuation of the trapped occupants, had specified, during a maintenance of January 25th, 2001, which the turns could probably support several impacts of airliners thanks to their design. According to these engineers, all the columns external on a side of the building, like those close to the adjacent corners, could even be divided that would not prevent the structure in “tube” from continuing to fulfill its function perfectly.

With 10:29, forty minutes after the Southern tower, it was its binocular which crumbled and, with 17:25, tower WTC7.

A characteristic common to three collapses is that they were done, according to the indications given by the FAQ n°6 of NIST, the report/ratio of FEMA or calculations of Pr Bazant (11-12s, 9-10s and 6,3-6,5s respectively for turns WTC1, WTC2 and WTC7), in a time slightly higher than that of a fall in the vacuum (8-9s, 7,5-9s and 6s), indicating an absence of resistance of the central carrying structures, which the specialized engineer of structures Bazant concrete expresses while speaking about the fall of the upper floors in an empty tube. Another is the production of gas jets and dust spouting out of the frontages, at least ten stages below the face of destruction for the binoculars, in the stages for WTC7. A third is about perfect symmetry of these destructions.
In a radius of approximately 130 meters, quantity of panes of the buildings were destroyed by the breath generated by the destruction of the twin towers.

WTC2

A few minutes after the last communication with the team of firemen which, having reached the 78^e stage, carried help to wounded and prepared to extinguish two residual hearths, the chief Ganci fireman, received the messenger of the office of urgencies (OEM), Steve Moscillo. It was amazed to hear that “the buildings were going to crumble and that they had to be evacuated” (questioned by ABC News, the Giuliani mayor, member of the OEM, recognized that it had done nothing but transmit this information and the origin of this forecast remains unknown). A few minutes later, the section above the impact was inclined towards the South, a rotation which translated the total loss of the support of the internal structure, the resistance of the intact part of the external structure (the “tube”), but less of the damaged sector. Then, after an acceleration until a angulation of approximately 25°, this rotation ceased abruptly, leaving the place to the development of an enormous “eruptive” cloud which progressed to identical to the length of the tower to its foot, of the elements being projected with more than 150 meters of distance, the contents of the stages (cement of the grounds, plasters partitions, pieces of furniture, equipment, human beings) being reduced in dust or fragments. The majority of the vestiges thus were distributed around the foot of the tower and on the surrounding buildings.

WTC1

The destruction of the Northern tower occurred with the same characteristics as that of its binocular, put aside the fact that the summit part immediately crumbled - without resistance - and so as to little close vertical, after the antenna - supported by the central structure - oscillated on its basis and preceded the movement by total fall. The propulsion at least continues vestiges pulverized or fragmented towards outside (: 300000 tons), i.e. their nonaccumulation in heap in the print of the tower, is the phenomenon which allowed the survival of rare survivors (20 people) surprised in the stages lower which were found either on the surface of the remains, or hidden than a few meters of depth, making it possible the majority of them (16 people) to escape from the places immediately or after a few tens of minutes of effort.

WTC7

More than one score of testimonys - primarily of firemen state that, towards 16:00, the evacuation of the building was ordered for the reason which it was going to crumble. The declarations of the owner, Larry Silverstein, indicate that in agreement with the chiefs of the firemen, firefighting was to be abandoned, because of the risk of flashover of the hydrocarbon reserves located in the lower stages. To qualify the decision which it had just made, it used the expression sweater it (literally: draw it or, in short cut, let us draw it ). Indeed, 17:25, the firemen attended with the perfectly vertical fall of the building, symmetry which implies the simultaneous failure of the 24 enormous internal columns of steel support, the centrist block which overhung the initially disappearing top of it. A cloud of dust developed starting from the base, the building going down such as it is, as if it were inserted in the ground, collapse creating a well of aspiration made visible by the drive of the smoke of fires. Contrary to what was noted for the twin towers, the vestiges were found in heap, in the print of the building, the walls of the low part lying towards the interior. The mediatization of this collapse was very weak, and the Commission Report Kean does not mention tower WTC7.

Testimonys

Between October 2001 and January 2002 was collected the account of 503 firemen and rescuers thanks to Thomas Von Essen, person in charge of the sector fires to the town hall of New York. During three years, these recordings remained inaccessible in spite of the requests of the victims' families. Trails in justice by the NewYork Times, the mayor of the city, Michael Bloomberg, was finally constrained to return them public in August 2005. The firemen report in a recurring and chronological way to have heard explosions and to have seen luminous flashes (captain Karin Deshore) before and during collapses, these series of explosions starting in top of the buildings (chief Cruthers fireman). Some explicitly compared these phenomena to the characteristics of a controlled demolition (Daniel Rivera, battalion 31). Certain witnesses delivered a more precise account, thus ED Cachia: in fact, depression WTC2 occurred on a lower floor, not that reached by the plane. We had initially thought that resembled the deflagration of explosives placed inside because they followed one another: boom, boom, boom, boom; and, then, the tower crumbled. . The Commission Kean did not audition any of these witnesses.

Assessments human and material

At least 2 986 people were thus killed.

Close to 1 366 people in the Northern tower and 600 in the Southern tower were blocked above and on the level of the impacts. Confronted with a desperate plight due to smoke, approximately two hundreds of them preferred to jump in the vacuum, being crushed in the streets and on the roofs of the adjacent buildings. Others still tried to reach the roof in the hope of a rescue per helicopter and ran up against locked access doors. Only eighteen could escape from the Southern tower.

On the 2780 people having lost the life in the twin towers, only 293 bodies were found. Nearly the quarter of the 20 000 fragments of bone and recovered fabrics could be allotted, leaving without trace some 1 151 missings, reported the agency Associated Press . This work of identification was completed at the beginning of 2005. In April 2006, 300 osseous fragments (length lower than 2 cm) were discovered in the remains accumulated on the roof of the building of Deutsche Bank, located at a few 130 m in the south of WTC2. The institution which carried out this identification by using markers DNA, the National Criminal Justice Refer Service , had paid the incredible degree of fragmentation body, with an average of only seven fragments recovered by victim .

With the collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, four other buildings on the site of the WTC and four stations of Métro were destroyed or very damaged. On the whole, twenty-five buildings were damaged.

The gigantic clouds of dust generated by this destruction induced the largest movements of panic which the town of New York knew. They indeed invaded all the south of the peninsula of Manhattan and even crossed the river to reach Brooklyn. There were many casualties and a certain number of missings, perhaps even of dead (ever confirmed). In another field, the police force of New York recorded beaucoups flight of the shops and store of the district of the businesses as well as voluntary deteriorations.

Medical and environmental problems

Among the thousands of people assigned since pulmonary problems, respiratory deficiency, cancers (approximately 300), a few hundreds were addressed to the courts to obtain repair, considering the institutions responsible for their state by dissimulation of atmospheric pollution.

A study led in 2002 partly by the State department off health' S office off managed care showed that in the west of Brooklyn the asthmatic ones complained 2,4 times more asthma worsened than in the remainder of the city after September 11th. And 1,5 times plus went to the hospital for this type of problems.

In 2006, only one death by pulmonary Fibrose was officially allotted to Ground Zero after autopsy (60 people would have died following this type of infection according to Dr. Levin of the Medical World Trade Center Monitoring Programs with the MT the Sinai Hospital).

The air pulverization of the twin towers and the collapse of WTC7 had indeed dispersed in the atmosphere of Manhattan quantity of pollutants, all more dangerous the ones than the others: Dioxane, Lead (in the 50000 computers of each turn), of the Asbestos, the mercury (in tens demilliers of fluorescent tubes), of americium 241 (radioactive present in the thousands of smoke detectors) and of glass fiber in significant amounts. Let us add polycarbonates in a concentration 75000 times that which ever was measured before (in a workshop of the port) and ultra dust fine toa rate never yet noted. The Agence of Environmental protection was in responsibility of evaluate the risks and the dangerosity of the air. Several months after, the EPA still recorded dioxane high rates. Christine Todd Whitman, administrator of this organization, with five official statements in the ten days which followed, had then guaranteed the healthy character of the atmosphere of Manhattan, as well as water of the city. August 21st, 2003 however, the Agency made public a report/ratio signed by the General inspector Nikki Tinsley exposing the modifications imposed by the Bush administration to the statements of prudence written to prevent danger represented by dust, supplemented by a study of 2004 of the documents by the Sierra Club where the Agency is seen reproaching for not having not an office warned the public, before any measurement of pollution, because of the knowledge which it had constituting of the dangerosity of certain materials the buildings. The EPA even planned to classify “secret” the document concerning with this pollution. The complaints of patients were accepted by the judges Deborah Batts and Alvine Hellerstein in February and October 2006.
Le March 8th, 2007, at the request of Jerrold L. Nadler, the “ 9/11 Heroes Health Improvement Act off 2007 ” should bring 1,9 billion dollar (1,4 billion Euro S) to finance the evaluation and the solutions to the health issues induced by on September 11th.

In addition, the association of the Mental health of New York indicates at the beginning of 2006 that 12.000 people requested an psychological assistance since 2002 following this drama.

Official theories on collapses

The theses emitted by recognized authorities or official organizations arise as variations of the postulate according to which the turns crumbled themselves, i.e. from only the force of gravity. This theory was formulated at the time of the report on line on ABC News by journalist daN Dahler while at the same time it had put forth little before the assumption of a controlled Démolition. Other example of this confrontation, expert in demolition Van Romero, which had spontaneously affirmed that collapses had not been able to occur without explosives, retracted ten days later while adopting the theory of progressive collapse.

the thesis of the crucible cast steel

As of on September 11th, the media presented the explanations of experts, the majority of the engineers of structures, professors of university, such as Hyman Brown or Richerd Ebeltoft for whom the fires, having released an intense heat (1500°C with 2200°C), had dissolved the steel of the structures. The following day, an article of the New Scientist advanced the same explanation. This theory of infernal fire , recovery one month later in the Scientific American , although having profited from these guarantees, disappeared from the debate following the publication of more serious studies.

the thesis of fatal weakening

September 12th, in a technical review of reference, the Journal off Engineering Mechanics ASCE was published an article of Pr Bazant, celebrity world of the concrete structures, heading: “Why the WTC did crumble? A first analysis”, in which it stated that the turns were dedicated to collapse when the majority of the columns of support for the level of the same stage were heated with 800°C, losing their capacity then to hold their load . This article is at the origin of the theory of the progressive collapse of the stages, destroyed in cascade by the fall of the blocks of stages located above the impacts. Then, the magazine Scientific American made appear on October 9th an article exploiting the results of a simulation carried out by engineers of the structures of MIT, “When the twin towers crumbled”. The essential parameter which underlies the interventions of several experts of structures would have been the intensity of the fires which, with their duration (assumption of the accumulation of heat in the metal masses), would have ended up making lose its strength to the central structure of support. The model of simulation used was however not published, thus preventing its evaluation.

The thesis can be summarized like made Jon Magnusson, director of a firm working in the Civil engineering: “It is the force of the Gravitation which finally overcame the resistance of the structure. When the last levels started to crumble, they brutally weighed on the directly lower levels, adding the force of the impact to their own weight. It followed from there a true chain reaction, in which not only the weight, but also speed increased quickly. No structure could resist that, also robust is it. But it is the fire which made it possible gravity finally to carry it against the intrinsic resistance of the two turns”.

the thesis of the unhooking of the floors

The report ordered by FEMA with the Team of evaluation of the behavior of buildings (BPAT), entitled WTC building Performance Study , was published in May 2002. It presents an explanation of the collapse of the twin towers by the intensity of the fires, which had ended up weakening and deforming the metal structure of a stage so much so that it broke its fasteners with the carrying structures, involving its fall, which caused successively that of the lower stages (“pancake theory”). As for the carrying structures, they would have been unable to be maintained, private support brought by the stages.

As regards tower WTC7, the report/ratio concluded, after eight month of study, with the need for an research effort, from analysis and investigation within sight of the provisional result according to which the best assumption of the damage following the fires represents only one weak probability of occurrence (ch.5-7, p.5-31). However, a microstructural analysis of a sample of beam showed one fast and unexpected deterrioration , resulting from three phenomena: an oxidation, a sulphurization and a temperature close to 1000°C.

the thesis of the stripping of the columns

However, these theories of fires as origin of the three bankruptcies ran up against the fact that there does not exist example of collapse of skyscraper with metal structure following a fire, as intense and durable as it was, the most convincing example being that of the One Meridian Plaza of Philadelphia, in 1991. In addition, the work of the BPAT had been completed without the relevant plans, outcome with an erroneous representation of the central carrying structures. The government, under the pressure exerted by associations of victims' families, determined to finance one second study, which he entrusted to NIST.

During three years, this official organization made carry out (by the same expert firms of structures that the FEMA had responsible for subcontracting) a work of modeling of the stages reached, planes, of their approach and structures external and intern of the turns, used in a series of simulations of the impacts and fires, and delivered a final report/ratio on the twin towers in October 2005. Two years later, work concerning the tower WTC7, which was entrusted in subcontracting to the company MACAW with the instruction to limit the study on floors 8 to 46, still did not succeed.

Its study was restricted with the sequence of the events which engaged the fall of the blocks of stages located above the impacts. The theory presented allots collapse to a combination of destruction of central columns by the planes, important depression of the floors (1 m) and of loss of resistance of the intact columns, it by heating (a temperature reaching 700°C), heating made possible by the failure of the fire protection insulation of all the columns, consisted of a fibrous flocking which would not have resisted the impacts. The process being the following: with the behavior of their fasteners to the carrying structures (conclusion reverses those of the FEMA), the depression of the floors draws the external columns towards the interior, making them fold and, possibly, break. The evaluation of this work is made impossible by the refusal of the NIST to publish simulations of collapses which ask of the independent civil engineers. However, the modeling of the internal structures is affected same insufficiencies as those which had been noted for work of the BPAT (thus, the model shows the 47 columns central as identical whereas 16 of them were double the different ones) and simulations of the impacts use for the two turns the same model of internal structure, leading to obtaining more important damage for WTC2 (level 80) that for WTC1 (level 95). But especially, the NIST did not seek to attach these simulations to the results of the tests which it had made carry out on the behavior of the floors (which expressed only one arrow of 10 cm), on the fire resistance of the central structure under maximum loading by the laboratory Underwriters (four tests during 2 hours without notable effect), on the behavior of heat insulator under the impact of balls of firearms (not of unhooking), nor of the analyzes and calculations relating to the temperatures reached, with more than 500°C). Lastly, the intrinsic weakness of the method chosen by the NIST remains the taking into account of the only section reached by the impacts, thus avoiding the problems of nonthe resistance of the carrying structures, in particular internal, below the stages struck by the planes. these problems are isolated with the postulate according to which once engaged, the fall of the upper floors could not be stopped (p.144-145).

These official studies left side two aspects essential of collapses: the energy assessment (potential energy of the blocks versus kinetic energy, work of pulverization and destruction of the stages) and duration of the falls (deceleration by successive collisions of the stages and interference of the carrying structure interns).

The alternative theory of the controlled demolition

The thesis of the destruction by explosives was spontaneously advanced before being marginalized by the institutional consensus built around that of collapses by gravity. It developed with the passing of years through work of physicists, such Steven E. Jones or Frank Legge, as well as independent engineers like Kevin Ryan and Willian Rice or academics such Jeff King (of MIT). Under the considerable social pressure developed after September 11th, Kevin Ryan was laid off after having made public the results of the tests entrusted to its laboratory (Underwriters) by NIST. To have publicly criticized the work of NIST, Steven E. Jones has to leave his station at the university of Brigham Young.

Six years after the events, this theory is supported by more than 200 professionals gathered by the architect Richard Gage under the banner: Architects and Engineers for 911 truth . She claims to be alone to give an account of the totality of the available data: history of collapses of buildings and fires of turns (no tower with completed metal structure never crumbled and there does not exist example of spontaneous collapse of building with a total setting in part of the structures), accounts of the witnesses and matter of actors (118 witnesses attest flashes and noises of explosions before and during the destruction of the three turns and of a forecast of collapses), technical data and visual (photographs and vidéos). She affirms herself constant by a whole of studies and simulations, including the physical tests produced or financed by NIST. These authors explain that a natural collapse following fire gradually starts with important visible deformations, that it is necessarily asymmetrical (where the damage is sufficiently severe), according to the way of less resistance and always leads to recognizable vestiges (not split metal structures, sections of wall, partitions and floors). According to them, tower WTC7 was destroyed according to the traditional procedure (simultaneous destruction of all the supports at the base of the building associated with destruction on certain floors to split the columns) whereas the twin towers were it according to an opposite protocol (destruction starting from the upper floors by progression towards the base).
Concurrently to publications of scientiifque nature like those on the energy assessment by Gordon Ross whose conclusion contradicts that of Pr Bazant, of the calculation of the acceleration undergone by tower WTC7 by Frank Legge, the traces of thermite in samples of ingots (of crucible cast steel) and dust by Jerry Lobdill, certain work come to criticize the publications at the base of the official thesis, such those of Eric Douglas (" The NIST WTC investigation. How real was the Simulation? ") and Frank Legge (" NIST Dated Disproves Collapse Theories Based one Fire "), or Gordon Ross (" NIST and Dr. Bazant. With simultaneous Failure "), leading these academics to require NIST - with the name of the laws and rules defining the quality of the information delivered by the organizations of State a correction of their report/ratio on a really scientific basis.

A considerable emotion and an international judgment

Few terrorist events will have received similar media cover , exceeding even the taken hostages of the Olympic Games of Munich. The place, one of the most known cities in the world and seat of many news agencies and television, the sequence of the events, glaze immediately by the journalist presents on the spot as of the crash landing of the first plane, led to a considerable mediatization and the observation on line of the crash landing of the second plane, then of the collapse of the turns. In France, these attacks and their consequences remained with the one of the tv news several weeks during.

In addition, the attacks of September 11th constitute a “clap of thunder in a blue sky” for the American after several decades during which the American people had regarded themselves as saved by international terrorism since, except for the attack against the Northern tower in February 1993, the only anti-American demonstrations had aimed at the Ambassade S with the Kenya and in Tanzania on August 7th, 1998) or of the military devices to the Yemen.

The terrorist attacks were denounced by the international mediums and the governments like an aggression perpetrated by terrorists even of the fundamentalist Moslems. Certain commentators compared this event with the Attaque on Pearl Harbor by the Japan board on December 7th, 1941.

The comparison is related to the resulting traumatism, in spite of the basic difference between a military aggression by an identifiable foreign nation and an attack made by isolated or invisible individuals.

The shortly after the attacks, the Safety advice of the United Nations adopts the resolution 1368, suggested by the France, condemning these terrorist acts:

1. Categorically condemn in the terms the strongest terrible terrorist attacks which took place on September 11th, 2001 in New York, Washington (cd.) and in Pennsylvania and considers such acts, like any international terrorist act, like a threat with international peaces and safety;
2. Express its deeper sympathies and condolences with the victims and their families like with the people and the government of the United States of America.

Investigations and polemics

The culprits are designated and the FBI carries out the survey

This attack was the very same day allotted by the American authorities, the whole of the dominant media and it quasi totality of the foreign governments to the terrorist network Al-Quaïda directed and financed by Usama Bin Laden, which had, on behalf of the CIA, recruited with others by the secret services of Saudi Arabia to exacerbate resistance Moudjahiddin against the troops of the Soviet Union during the first war of Afghanistan.

Under the single control of the Executive, the Federal office of Investigation accepted the whole control of the various aspects of these events: places, vestiges, silence of the people and any communication of information towards the public.

Thus, in the five minutes which followed the collision of flight 77 against the Pentagon, its agents confiscated the recordings of the surveillance cameras of the Sheraton hotel, of the service station SETCO, as well as organization of automobile traffic control. Whereas the fire made rage, they passed to the fine comb the neighborhoods to recover the remains projected by the explosion, the vestiges inside (for certain evacuees under cover), and the “block boxes”.

In Pennsylvania, it is the local manager of the FBI which organized the looping and the investigation of the site where flight 93 finishes. The “block boxes” which had been given to NTSB for their deciphering were recovered by the services of the FBI. It is them which prohibited to the air-traffic controllers of Cleveland to reveal anything of what they had been able to see on their screens. They also forced with silence the employees of the airline companies and confiscated the recordings of the communications between the diverted flights and the sol.
This investigation, named PENTTBOM, brought into play more: 7000 agents, including 750 agentssur the site of the WTC in Manhattan.

After six months of work where least information was exploited, Robert S. Mueller, director of the Agency, recognized that the pirates did not leave behind them any document. Our research led to discovered of no document, neither here in the United States, nor among the treasure of data updated in Afghanistan or elsewhere, mentioning some manner the plot of September 11th , associated description, in the same speech, with the assertion - not supported - according to which the FBI had obtained the proof, clear and final, that Al-Quaida was behind these attacks . Other persons in charge of the FBI, such as Flagstone L. Watson, made this same type of declaration. All the efforts to establish complicities having allowed these attacks led to no inculpation. More than there be of judicial enquiry, justice could not proceed to continuations, except for the brought lawsuit with Zacarias Moussaoui (stopped one month before the attacks, it had chosen - what he regretted later - to plead guilty in order to avoid the death sentence which proved to be probable in the context of after September 11th).

This situation of failure was expressed by Rex Tomb, chief of the Publicity Investigation, during an interview where it advanced that the FBI did not have tangible proof hardware obviousness to bind Bin Laden to September 11th. Ambiguity is found in the fact that Bin Laden is indeed always required for the attacks against the embassies in Kenya and in Tanzania, but not those of September 11th.

An interior plot?

Since the attacks, several theses, in particular formulated in the works of Jimmy Walter, Thierry Meyssan, Webster G. Tarpley or David Ray Griffin, like in vidéos of talks and images of files presented on the Web, are presented in the form of refutations of certain aspects of the dominant version - known as official - events. Some of them affirm or suppose the implication passivates or active US government and state that certain remarks or reported are not taken into account by the aforementioned version or are not explained by it. For these authors, the attacks would have provided the pretext to the Administration Bush to modify the domestic policies radically and external of the the United States, in particular with the legislative measures of the Homeland Security Act and of the Patriot Act 1 and 2, and justify the military invasions of the Afghanistan and the Iraq which followed.

These theses are seldom evoked in the dominant media, if is not to disqualify them by qualifying them of the Anglicisme “conspirationnists”. They are however increasingly present in the American public opinion following the repeated demonstrations of the victims' families and with the conferences organized by these the marginal in order to present these alternative theses to the population, with the assistance of local mediums or regional researchers.

September 6th, 2007 a national chain of television of a country of the European Union - ORF 1 in Austria - for the first time diffused documentary ( 911 Mysteries ) proposing the assumption of a controlled demolition of the Twin Towers and tower 7 of the WTC.

Consequences

Reactions in the world

The agitation caused by the attacks produced reactions of all kinds:

reactions of compassion coming from a great mediatized and political intellectual part of the world, except for the parties located at the extremes of the political chessboard;
reactions of concern: the German chancellor Gerhard Schröder declares after the attacks: “It is not there a battle between civilizations, it is a battle for civilization. ”
reactions much empathiques of part of the world population, certain intellectuals and in favor of the Extreme left; in France, the delegates and militants of the CGT present at the Fête of Humanity 15 September 16th, 2001 refused to join the three minutes of silence in homage to the victims.
shared reactions people who observe that the few three thousand victims in the United States which, according to them, deserves their respect, however have an media impact without common measurement with that of the victims of terrorism in Africa or elsewhere, and in particular those of the Génocide in Rwanda for which a million dead forever caused such demonstrations;
reactions of joy of part of the world population going until the proclamation of a victory against the American imperialism by certain groups or certain populations, in particular in many Moslem countries but also to Latin America and Southeast Asia. ;
of many countries reinforced their security measures, as for example France which increased the level of alarm of its plan Vigipirate.

Military operations

The military impact most direct is the invasion of the Afghanistan, indicated like the operational Al-Quaïda seat, as of the month of October 2001 and the inversion of the mode of the Talibans a few months later by the armed forces American, British, Canadian, Frenchwomen, and others. This inversion and the establishment of a transition government is accompanied by the arrest of many Moslems supposed terrorist, interned in camps disseminated around planet, which will cause the strong reactions of many ONG, of which Amnesty International. The creation of the Prison of Guantanamo is explained partly by this important surge of prisoners.

Legal procedures

Several complaints were deposited by victims of the attacks against several people, states, companies and organizations including the one on September 3rd, 2002 at the court of the southern district of New York.

Legal actions were authorized in September 2002 by judge Alvin Hellerstein against the airline companies whose planes were diverted, Boeing as well as the owners of the World Trade Center not to have been able to prevent the attacks as against the Port Authority off New York and New Jersey which could not provide suitable plans of evacuation.

Federal judge Harold Baer declared the Iraq Co-person in charge with Al-Qaida of the attacks of September 11th in its decree of May 7th, 2003 and granted 104 million dollars (92 million Euro S) of damages to the victims' families of the attacks of September 11th and on September 22nd, 2005, a New Yorkean federal judge, Richard Casey, received the lodged complaint against the International Islamic Relief Organization, an charitable organization implied in the financing of islamist networks.

In the United States, the only person to be judged until now for her direct involvement with the attacks of September 11th is the French Zacarias Moussaoui. Decree less than one month before the attacks, it was shown by the American federal authorities to have been informed of the attacks to come but not to have communicated its information. May 3rd, 2006, at the end two months of lawsuit, he was recognized guilty by the jury of the federal court of Alexandria in Virginia of six counts of indictment of plot in connection with the terrorist attacks of September 11th and was condemned to the prison with perpetuity, without possibility of handing-over of sorrow.

In Germany, the Morocco Ain Mounir Al-Motassadeq stopped on November 28th, 2001, first once is condemned to fifteen years of prison in 2003 for complicity in these attacks. Given in freedom in February 2006 after its judgment was broken, he sees his first sorrow confirmed by the court of Hamburg on January 8th, 2007.

In Spain, the Syria N Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, chief of the local Al-Qaida cell is stopped on November 13rd, 2001, of conspiracy for the attacks of September 2001, it is condemned on September 26th, 2005 to 27 years of prison.

Khalid Sheik Mohammed and Ramzi Ben Al-Shaiba, suspected of being the organizers of the attacks, is in detention with Guantanamo since September 2006. In March 2007, they pass before a military commission charged to determine their statute. They had asserted the logistic organization of the attacks in June 2002 on a maintenance diffused on television qatarie Al-Jazira.

See also: Zacarias Moussaoui, Mounir Al-Motassadeq

Economic consequences

The majority of the economic analysts consider that the attacks of September 11th were at the origin of a significant economic deceleration (or amplification of important braking which had been started by the bursting of the Speculative bubble in the year 2000).

The durable effect on the world cannot be still measured to know if it were a catalyst (direction of the History) or a change. The Médias of mass maintain a pressure towards concern and paranoia.

According to the “WorldEconomic Carryforward” of the Funds international currency of December 2001, the US National Income and Products Accounts evaluates the destruction and the expenditure which is directly bound to them, after September 11th, to 24,1 billion dollars American.

May 23rd, 2007, seven insurers of the turns of the World Trade Center found an agreement extra-legal with the promoter of the complex of the World Trade Center, Larry Silverstein. The companies Swiss Re, Travelers Companies, Zurich American Insurance Company, Total Allianz Risks Insurance Company, Employers Insurance Company off Wausau, and Royal Indemnity Company will on the whole pay 2,1 billion dollars instead of the 7 billion claimed after the attacks. ,

More than 40.000 employees found themselves with unemployment and from the thousands of companies (particularly in the tertiary sector) disappeared or underwent considerable losses following the destruction of this business district, which was one of most active of planet. Many companies left Downtown to settle with Brooklyn, Midtown, or in the Connecticut.

The world airline companies, especially those of the United States, already in difficulty for a few years, have largely suffered from the fall of frequentation of their lines and from work of safety undertaken after this quadruple diversion, in spite of the assistances of the public authorities. The premiums of insurance of the buildings and those of the airliners strongly increased.

The legislations post- September 11th

The legislative measures voted in the tread of the attacks of September 11th brought an addition of power to the American Executive, at secret services (the CIA) and organizes it (FBI), like with the soldiers (budget of the Pentagon).
the USA Patriot Act was submitted to the members of Parliament as of on September 24th and voted on October 26th. Two senators who got busy to slow down the adoption of this project, Patrik Leahy, president of the legal Commission of the Senate, and Tom Daschle, chief of the senatorial majority, were the targets of sendings of envelopes charged with militarized carbuncle (9 octrobre). Under the simple assertion of participation in the fight anti-terrorist, the FBI is seen allotting the capacity of espionner the political associations and religious without those being suspectées criminal activities. The government can trail in Justice the owners of files and data which would reveal that they had to reach requisitions of information. it can make proceed to searchings and seize the documents and effects had by citizens. Without having to be justified, it being able to make imprison whoever, including citizens, this indefinitely and without lawsuit, without these people are shown, nor that they can be confronted with those which would have deposited against them. The FBI nor the CIA are not constrained to answer their actions in front of the elected officials. This license thus granted to the secret services and the police force is always object of debate on the political scene and in the opinion, because perceived as opposed to the rights civiques.
Homeland Security Act was presented to the Congress in the months which followed and was voted on November 25th, 2002. It gathers in only one structure (Homeland Security Department) a score of federal agencies like the FEMA, the Customs, the Secret services… It proposes a definition of “terrorism interns” so vague that it permetrait to include the radical political militants there. this law takes again the contents of a Commission Report known as Binder-Rudman ( US Commission one National Security for the 21^st Century ) created in 1988 with in the chair Bill Clinton, heading Road Map for national Security: Imperative for Exchange . The Total information Awarness office (TIA), which materializes a project of the pentagon ( Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ) proposed to constitute a bank of 300 million cards, grouping information of public and private sources on each American. he authorizes the secret meetings of the presidential Councils, the exemption of justification intervening in opposition with law 92-463 on the transparency of the meetings of the Executive. he guarantee immunity with whoever provides at an federal agency relative informations with faults or bankruptcies, even following negligence or fault. He gives, by commercial transaction, access by the Administration to files consisted firms deprived on citizens, thus circumventing the protection given by the 4ère Amendement.
Lastly, the military commissions Act , signed on October 18th, 2006 by president Bush, repeals, it with retroactive effect, the right of the people hitherto recognized in the international treaties signed by the USA by defining a new class of individuals, them enemy combatants outlaw , those which engage in engagements of resistance to the American activities. these can be indefinitely held, without the need for showing them anything, are excluded from the protection granted by Geneva Convention, can be subjected to psychological and physical tortures.

Several reports/ratios of Amnesty International came to denounce this violation of the Droits of defense and these practices of arbitrary detention.

Clearing and future of the site

More than 1,8 million tons of remains were removed site of the World Trade Center after this disaster and were resold at once. Even the FEMA could not reach Ground Zero to study engraved them.

In 2004, the old site of the World Trade Center, renamed Ground zero , is cleared and ready to accommodate a new construction, the Freedom Tower for which an architectural contest was open for a memorial, a place of life and activities.

The first stone was posed the July 4th 2005, national feastday of the United States. This skyscraper will be inaugurated in 2011.

24 ton S of Acier recovered on the site of the WTC are used for the construction of the US New York (LPD-21) renamed thus in the memory of the victims.

See too

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