Atentado 11-S (Continuación)

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En 1904 Ortega y Gasset defendió su tesis doctoral sobre un estudio acerca de las leyendas sobre un inminente fin del mundo que se difundieron en Francia a finales del siglo XI. Ninguna inquietud futurista semejante atemorizaba a los ciudadanos occidentales cuando íbamos a traspasar el umbral del siglo XXI. La última década del viejo siglo, que antes de empezar ya nos regaló la sorpresa de la caída del Muro de Berlín, parecía marcar para muchos la senda de un progreso imparable. De aquel tiempo quizá les suene todavía el título de un ensayo, «El fin de la historia», publicado en 1989 por el politólogo Francis Fukuyama.…  Seguir leyendo »

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We all remember where we were when the planes hit the World Trade Center — and then the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania — 15 years ago this Sunday.

I was barely 20 years old, offshore in the Bay of Biscay as a volunteer able-bodied crewmember on a square red sailing ship for disabled people. Immediately, one had the feeling that the destiny of millions of people – perhaps many I knew – had been immediately changed.

For the officials in authority, it was likely even more jarring. For them, it meant nothing less than changing the way the West approached the world.…  Seguir leyendo »

The myth of Saudi support for terrorism

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Last Friday, the infamous “28 pages” from the 2002 Congressional Joint Inquiry into the 9/11 attacks were declassified. For years, this final section of the report was kept from the public, which led some to believe that it contained evidence that the Saudi Arabian government was behind the attacks, either indirectly by financing al Qaeda or directly by providing support to the actual terrorists on the planes. Now that the pages have been released, the truth is out, and in the words of the 9/11 Commission: “[there is] no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded [al Qaeda].”…  Seguir leyendo »

An video image of Osama bin Laden from 2002. Text at bottom reads "Voice message from Osama bin Laden." Al Jazeera, via Associated Press

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It's rare when we find ourselves as the right person in the right place at the right time. More often, it’s an unsatisfying mix of those and other variables: The place is right, the timing is spot on — only you were off.

I was 22 years old, and one day into an internship at the ABC program “Nightline,” when the Sept. 11 attacks happened. They woke this country up from the slumber of the 1990s, and in my case, from a jet-lagged coma in a corporate housing unit down the street from the Pentagon. In a week, I went from a sheltered college existence to having ash on the balcony from the smoldering crash site nearby.…  Seguir leyendo »

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The anniversaries of 9/11 mount, yet every year on that date we recall with extraordinary clarity where we were on that terrible day, what we felt, how we gradually absorbed the enormity of the horror that had been visited upon us.

I was in the New York Times newsroom in Times Square that day, and among many other things, I remember how we scrambled to glean some information about Al Qaeda and its zealous leader, Osama bin Laden. Islamic extremism was not new, but it was still a dim and obscure force. The acrid smoke and dust billowing over ground zero spoke to the enormous potential for destruction in that hatred, yet when President George W.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Do not call what happened 13 years ago this week a tragedy. It was a terrorist atrocity, an act of war and a war crime. These are very different.

The self-proclaimed jihadis responsible for hijacking commercial jets and using them as missiles targeted the World Trade Center because it was a Western financial capital, a place where men and women of many ethnicities and religions worked in peace to create prosperity. Another plane was flown into the Pentagon — the brains of the greatest liberation army the world has even known. One more jet was meant to hit the political heart of the Free World — the Capitol or the White House — but Americans on that flight refused to surrender and thereby won a battle.…  Seguir leyendo »

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September 11 was the moment when history finally caught up to America, that sparkling bright day when we lost whatever innocence still remained. Living in McLean, Va., and working as a military analyst for NBC News, I was no better prepared than anyone else. Ironies abounded: Beginning on a snowy morning in February, I had regularly taped running commentaries for an MSNBC documentary (remember them?) with a working title of “Attack on Manhattan.” Focused on the unlikely idea of terrorists attacking the United States, it eerily predicted an attack on the twin towers and was scheduled to air later in September.…  Seguir leyendo »

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After Britain was reportedly dismissed as a “small island” by a Russian official last week, David Cameron took the steering wheel and sped off to compose his response. For security reasons, prime ministers are not normally supposed to drive. But at the G20 summit in St Petersburg, there were electric cars to ferry the participants from one location to another. Cameron decided to commandeer one such buggy, and give his officials, Craig Oliver, Liz Sugg and Helen Bower, a lift to the press conference.

Occasionally hair-raising as Cameron-Cabs turned out to be, the team was calm enough to help the driver draw up his inventory of British accomplishments, which the PM duly rattled off to the media when they arrived – ending, correctly, with a quip: “If I start talking about this 'blessed plot, this sceptred isle, this England’, I might have to put it to music, so I think I’ll leave it there.”…  Seguir leyendo »

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My family and I marked the 10th anniversary of 9/11 last year with a ceremony at the Los Angeles Fire Academy. Our daughters marveled at the enormous fire engine ladders, lifted toward the sky to proudly display an American flag.

The older one took pictures with my phone of a twisted piece of steel, a piece of the World Trade Center, pictures she would later share with her second-grade class.

They listened, as best they could, to speeches by the mayor and other politicians. They stood at attention as a bagpiper played taps.

As a mother, I felt as if I'd found the perfect way to mark the solemn day.…  Seguir leyendo »

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It was perhaps the most famous presidential briefing in history.

On Aug. 6, 2001, President George W. Bush received a classified review of the threats posed by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network, Al Qaeda. That morning’s “presidential daily brief” — the top-secret document prepared by America’s intelligence agencies — featured the now-infamous heading: “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S”. A few weeks later, on 9/11, Al Qaeda accomplished that goal.

On April 10, 2004, the Bush White House declassified that daily brief — and only that daily brief — in response to pressure from the 9/11 Commission, which was investigating the events leading to the attack.…  Seguir leyendo »

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It can sometimes take a tragedy to reveal a truth.

Who does not remember where they were on Sept. 11 when they heard that the towers had come down? But terrible times also can provide insight that might otherwise never come.

In 2001, I was teaching in Chicago. My main break from work was frequent participation in a daily pickup soccer game that I stumbled onto soon after arriving in town. It was a virtual United Nations, with players from Argentina, Russia, Germany, Iran, Italy, Turkey, Georgia, Brazil, Poland, Korea, China and Mexico.

I was the only non-immigrant who was a regular, and each group had its own style.…  Seguir leyendo »

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It can sometimes take a tragedy to reveal a truth.

Who does not remember where they were on Sept. 11 when they heard that the towers had come down? But terrible times also can provide insight that might otherwise never come.

In 2001, I was teaching in Chicago. My main break from work was frequent participation in a daily pickup soccer game that I stumbled onto soon after arriving in town. It was a virtual United Nations, with players from Argentina, Russia, Germany, Iran, Italy, Turkey, Georgia, Brazil, Poland, Korea, China and Mexico.

I was the only non-immigrant who was a regular, and each group had its own style.…  Seguir leyendo »

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No hay drama, en el caluroso día festivo, cuando te acercas entre una multitud de pantalón corto y gorra, pero aun así apenas bullanguera, al Memorial del 11 de septiembre (Memorial 9/11 en las siglas americanas). Tampoco la mayoría de los visitantes que hacen cola, provistos de su pase gratuito, conocerá la intriga, a veces cruel, que ha precedido y sigue manifestándose en la construcción de este parque conmemorativo que es ya, en su estado incompleto, una de las grandes atracciones turísticas de Nueva York, aunque, al contrario que todo lo demás en Nueva York, sea gratuita y no suponga pagar impuestos ni propinas.…  Seguir leyendo »

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The Islamic fundamentalist regime in Iran has been at war with the United States for more than 30 years, but every administration from President Jimmy Carter’s to the current one has tried to ignore it. Currently, the Obama administration is wrestling with the issue of Iran’s drive to achieve nuclear weapons capability. The question of what we should do about it really becomes moot, since we now have clear evidence of Iran’s direct involvement and support of al Qaeda before and after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Evidence indicates Iran, Hezbollah and al Qaeda made an alliance in the 1990s.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Hace unos meses se cumplieron 10 años del más cruento embate terrorista ocurrido en Estados Unidos a lo largo de su historia: el que se produjo aquel 11 de septiembre de 2001 en Nueva York y Washington. Ese 9/11 del que hablan los norteamericanos, fechado según su costumbre de anteponer el número del mes al del día. Pues bien, con un intervalo de precisamente 911 días, fue en España donde el terrorismo se dejó sentir asimismo con una capacidad letal hasta entonces desconocida. Otro día 11 —como aquel originario día 11— pero de marzo de 2004 y en Madrid. Los terroristas del 11-S utilizaron cuatro aviones para atentar contra las Torres Gemelas, el Pentágono y el Capitolio o la Casa Blanca, aunque el comportamiento heroico de los ciudadanos del vuelo United 93, que se dirigía hacia uno de estos dos últimos blancos, hizo que cayese sobre unos campos de Pensilvania.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Dominique Moïsi argued on these pages on Sept. 8 (An infamy in history) that the significance of 9/11 lies not in what many observers see as an opening salvo in a “clash of civilizations,” but rather in the fact that the attacks accelerated the end of the American Century. Ted Widmer, a historian who directs the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, joins the debate.

It was irresistible, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, to draw large historical conclusions about the demise of the United States, and to express regrets over paths not taken. And so a mighty wind blew across the media landscape, lamenting “the lost decade,” as Dominique Moïsi called it in his column.…  Seguir leyendo »

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When I arrived at my office at the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region on Sept. 12, 2001, the phone was ringing off the hook. Colleagues from around the region were calling to ask: What can we do to help?

My staff had been weighing the same question. By week’s end, local leaders had entrusted the foundation with creating a fund whose sole purpose would be to help individuals and families directly affected by the Sept. 11 Pentagon attack. The Survivors’ Fund was born.

On one level, we were in familiar territory. Since its creation in 1973, the Community Foundation has tackled the region’s greatest challenges — drug violence, inequities in education, natural disasters, the economic crisis.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Entre las numerosas teorías de la conspiración que circulan a propósito del 11-S, una que aún no he visto es que Osama bin Laden era un agente chino. Sin embargo, camaradas (como solían decir los comunistas), se puede decir objetivamente que China ha sido el mayor beneficiario de los 10 años de reacción de Estados Unidos tras las puñaladas islamistas recibidas en su corazón.

En otras palabras: cuando se escriban artículos sobre el aniversario el 11 de septiembre de 2031, ¿hablarán los comentaristas de una guerra de 30 años contra el terrorismo islamista, comparable a la guerra fría, y la considerarán el rasgo fundamental de la política mundial desde 2001?…  Seguir leyendo »

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A 10 años del 11-S, los principales éxitos de Al Qaeda pueden reducirse en lo fundamental a tres. En primer lugar, el de haber conseguido persistir, articulada y activa, una década después de los atentados de Nueva York y Washington, pese a cuantas iniciativas contraterroristas gubernamentales y multilaterales han sido adoptadas desde entonces para destruirla. Eso sí, la estructura terrorista formada en 1988 y que continúa existiendo en la actualidad es muy diferente de la de 2001. Si entonces contaba con un vasto santuario en Afganistán, hoy sus infraestructuras son mucho más reducidas y confinadas en enclaves muy concretos de las zonas tribales al noroeste de Pakistán.…  Seguir leyendo »

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El martes 11 de septiembre de 2001, un total de diecinueve terroristas islámicos secuestraron dos aviones de American Airlines y otros dos de United Airlines, que cubrían vuelos de larga distancia entre la Costa Este y la Oeste de los Estados Unidos, y los utilizaron como armas destructoras contra las Torres Gemelas en el World Trade Center en Manhattan y contra la sede de la Secretaría de Defensa de los Estados Unidos, el edificio conocido como el Pentágono, en Washington D.C. El cuarto avión, que aparentemente tenía como objetivo el edificio del Capitolio federal, también en Washington D.C., se estrelló en la localidad rural de Shanksville, en Pennsylvania, cuando los secuestradores decidieron acabar con el vuelo al comprobar que los pasajeros estaban a punto de conseguir el control del aparato.…  Seguir leyendo »