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 [Wikpedia]

Many conspiracy theories have been presented concerning the September 11, 2001 attacks,
many of them claiming that President George W. Bush and/or individuals in his
administration knew about the attacks beforehand and purposefully allowed them to occur
because the attacks would generate public support for militarization, expansion of the
police state, and other intrusive foreign and domestic policies by which they would benefit.

Proponents point to the Project for the New American Century, a conservative think tank
that argues for increased American global leadership, whose former members include ex-
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney and several other key
Bush administration figures. An 1990 report from the group stated that ³some catastrophic
and catalyzing event ² like a new Pearl Harbor´ would be needed to budge public opinion
in their favor.

The 



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coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On
that morning, 19 al-Qaeda terroristshijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners.[2][3]
The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World
Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the
buildings. Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and
damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington,
Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. The fourth plane crashed into a field near
Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to
retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C.
There were no survivors from any of the flights.

The death toll of the attacks was 2,996, including the 19 hijackers.[1] The overwhelming
majority of casualties were civilians, including nationals of over 70 countries.[4] In addition,
there is at least one secondary death ± one person was ruled by a medical examiner to have
died from lung disease due to exposure to dust from the World Trade Center's collapse.[5]

The United States responded to the attacks by launching the War on Terror: it invaded
Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, who had harbored al-Qaeda terrorists. The United States
also enacted the USA PATRIOT Act. Many other countries also strengthened their anti-
terrorism legislation and expanded law enforcement powers. Some American stock
exchanges stayed closed for the rest of the week following the attack and posted enormous
losses upon reopening, especially in the airline and insurance industries. The destruction of
billions of dollars worth of office space caused serious damage to the economy of Lower
Manhattan.

The damage to the Pentagon was cleared and repaired within a year, and the Pentagon
Memorial was built adjacent to the building. The rebuilding process has started on the
World Trade Center site. In 2006 a new office tower was completed on the site of 7 World
Trade Center. 1 World Trade Center is currently under construction at the site and, at
1,776 ft (541 m) upon completion in 2013, it will become one of the tallest buildings in
North America. Three more towers were originally expected to be built between 2007 and
2012 on the site. Ground was broken for the Flight 93 National Memorial on November 8,
2009, and the first phase of construction is expected to be ready for the 10th anniversary of
the attacks on September 11, 2011.[6]

There were a total of 2,996 deaths, including the 19 hijackers and 2,977 victims.[39] The
victims were distributed as follows: 246 on the four planes (from which there were no
survivors), 2,606 in New York City in the towers and on the ground, and 125 at the
Pentagon.[40][41] All the deaths in the attacks were civilians except for 55 military personnel
killed at the Pentagon.[42]

More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks on the World Trade Center.[43] In 2007,
the New York City medical examiner's office added Felicia Dunn-Jones to the official
death toll from the September 11 attacks. Dunn-Jones died five months after 9/11 from a
lung condition which was linked to exposure to dust during the collapse of the World Trade
Center.[44] Leon Heyward, who died of lymphoma in 2008, was added to the official death
toll in 2009.[45]

NIST estimated that about 17,400 civilians were in the World Trade Center complex at the
time of the attacks, while turnstile counts from the Port Authority suggest that 14,154
people were typically in the Twin Towers by 8:45 a.m.[46][47] The vast majority of people
below the impact zone safely evacuated the buildings, along with 18 people who were in
the impact zone in the south tower and a number above the impact zone who evidently used
the one intact stairwell in the south tower.[48] At least 1,366 people died who were at or
above the floors of impact in the North Tower and at least 618 in the South Tower, where
evacuation had begun before the second impact.[49] Thus over 90% of the workers and
visitors who died in the Towers had been at or above impact.

According to the Commission Report, hundreds were killed instantly by the impact, while
the rest were trapped and died after tower collapse.[50] At least 200 people jumped to their
deaths from the burning towers (as depicted in the photograph "The Falling Man"), landing
on the streets and rooftops of adjacent buildings hundreds of feet below.[51] Some of the
occupants of each tower above its point of impact made their way upward toward the roof
in hope of helicopter rescue, but the roof access doors were locked. No plan existed for
helicopter rescues, and on September 11, the thick smoke and intense heat would have
prevented helicopters from conducting rescues.[52]

The smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center 6 days after the attacks.

A total of 411 emergency workers who responded to the scene died as they attempted to
rescue people and fight fires. The New York City Fire Department (FDNY) lost 341
firefighters and 2 FDNY paramedics.[53] The New York City Police Department lost 23
officers.[54] The Port Authority Police Department lost 37 officers,[55] and 8 additional
EMTs and paramedics from private EMS units were killed.[56][57]
Cantor Fitzgerald L.P., an investment bank on the 101st±105th floors of One World Trade
Center, lost 658 employees, considerably more than any other employer.[58]Marsh Inc.,
located immediately below Cantor Fitzgerald on floors 93±101 (the location of Flight 11's
impact), lost 355 employees, and 175 employees of Aon Corporation were killed.[59] After
New York, New Jersey was the hardest hit state, with the city of Hoboken sustaining the
most deaths.[60]

Weeks after the attack, the estimated death toll was over 6,000.[61] The city was only able to
identify remains for about 1,600 of the victims at the World Trade Center. The medical
examiner's office also collected "about 10,000 unidentified bone and tissue fragments that
cannot be matched to the list of the dead".[62] Bone fragments were still being found in 2006
as workers were preparing to demolish the damaged Deutsche Bank Building. That
operation was completed in 2007. On April 2, 2010 a team of anthropology and
archaeological experts began searching for human remains, human artifacts and personal
items at the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island. The operation was completed in June
2010 with 72 human remains found, bringing the total human remains found to 1,845. The
identities of 1,629 of the 2,753 victims [63] have been identified. DNA profiling in an
attempt to identify additional victims is continuing.[64]

The motives for the attacks include the presence of the U.S. in Saudi Arabia,[135] the support
of Israel by the U.S.,[136] and the sanctions against Iraq.[137] These motives were explicitly
stated by Al-Qaeda in proclamations before the attacks, including the =
 of August
1996,[138] and a shorter fatwa published in February 1998.[139] After the attacks, bin Laden
and al-Zawahiri published additional video tapes and audio tapes, some of which repeated
those reasons for the attacks. Two particularly important publications were bin Laden's
2002 "Letter to America",[140] and a 2004 video tape by bin Laden.[141] In addition to direct
pronouncements by bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, numerous political analysts have postulated
motivations for the attacks.

The continued presence of U.S. troops after the Gulf War in Saudi Arabia was one of the
stated motivations behind the September 11th terrorist attacks,[139] the Khobar Towers
bombing, as well, the date chosen for the 1998 United States embassy bombings (August
7), was eight years to the day that American troops were sent to Saudi Arabia.[142] Bin
Laden interpreted the Prophet Muhammad as banning the "permanent presence of infidels
in Arabia".[143] In 1996, Bin Laden issued a fatwa, calling for American troops to get out of
Saudi Arabia. In the 1998 fatwa, Al-Qaeda wrote " for over seven years the United States
has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula,
plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors,
and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the
neighboring Muslim peoples."[144] In the December 1999 interview with
RahimullahYusufzai, bin Laden said he felt that Americans were "too near to Mecca" and
considered this a provocation to the entire Muslim world.[145]