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Causes And Consequences Of 9 / 11

Good Essays

On the morning of September 11th, 2001, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks by way of four hijacked airliners was conducted by members of the Islamic terrorist group al-Qa’ida, resulting in the loss of over 3,000 American lives. In the wake of the attacks, many issues were identified within the Intelligence Community (IC), namely that intelligence information had not been shared between agencies or with local law enforcement apparatuses in order to piece together the looming threat. The 9/11 Commission, created in the aftermath of the attacks to piece together a complete account of the circumstances that led up to the tragedy, soon discovered that law enforcement officials in Maryland had issued a traffic citation two days before the attacks to Lebanese-born Ziad Samir Jarrah, an individual who had been placed on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) watch list, and who would later become known as the pilot hijacker of United flight 93. To the Commission, this was a gross miscommunication that had resulted in missed opportunities to apprehend the terrorists. Had law enforcement officials been able to have access to this vital information, Jarrah might have been apprehended before committing his crime. Other discoveries revealed the bold moves of the perpetrators of the attack, who had not hidden their identities nor made any attempt to mask their disinterest in learning to land commercial aircraft; they further communicated openly by way of the Internet. Government

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