Crisis 911

Delegate: Maria Victoria Ramos Sánchez

Borges – 8th Grade
Delegation of Jalid Sheij Mohammed

Topic A: Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001.
Topic B: Military interventions of the United States army in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The delegation of Jalid Sheij Mohammed acknowledges its impact and protagonism in the
September 11 attacks; being considered the intellectual author of the strikes; nevertheless, the
delegation believes that it must be recognized, also, that the motivations behind the attack were
utterly within reason, considering the exploitative interests of the United States. Hesitating to
justify the killings of September 11 as morally correct, the purpose of this document is to elucidate
the reasons behind Al-Qaeda's decision to assail the United States and to declare the United States'
behavior pertaining to the Islamic region as corrupt and economically driven. Likewise, the
delegation wishes to expose the hypocrisies and incoherencies concerning the ongoing retaliation
of the United States that manifests itself in the enduring warfare in the middle east.

Jalid Sheij Mohammed was a Pakistani, Muslim, member of Al-Qaeda, a transnational

militant Sunni Islamic extremist organization that surged as a logistical network in opposition to
the Soviet invasions during the Afghan War and Cold War. Jalid Sheij Mohammed enrolled in
Chowan University in North Carolina and then transferred to North Carolina Agricultural and
Technical State University where he received a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering of the
department of science. He dedicated his efforts on the withdrawal of Soviet forces in Islamic
nations when he returned to Pakistan. After the expulsion of Soviet troops, Al-Qaeda focused on
the withdrawal of corrupt Islamic regimes and foreign presence in Islamic Territories. Within
these, the United States was one of the prominent presences that Al-Qaeda wanted to resist
considering its intentions to be abusive and centered around its own monetary gain.

Afghanistan possesses a rare wealth of nonfuel minerals with an estimated value of more
than US$1 trillion. In 2022 the United States still expects that in 2050, 80% of its petroleum will
be extracted from the middle east and its oil from Afghanistan and Pakistan particularly. Donald
Trump, former president of the United States, stated that he would refuse to withdraw troops in
the hopes of a US$3 trillion in gain. Furthermore, there are ongoing plans to build a pipeline
through Afghanistan and its neighboring Islamic countries controlled by the American government
to extract the petroleum and natural wealth of these Islamic nations.

In 1989 the US was interested in the withdrawal of Soviet troops in Afghanistan, with its
military aid and weaponry supply, which they succeeded in. Furthermore, in exchange for some
American authorities in Afghanistan, they provided the Islamic nation with a constitution and
improvements in education. Still, these interventions did not build Afghanistan; “Wherever the US
has intervened, the countries have generally become chaotic, poor, Hobbesian disasters,” as said
by the Jerusalem Post. Corruption in America was evident with hundreds of millions of dollars in
reconstruction money stolen or misappropriated and this led to the inability of meeting basic needs
in Afghanistan.

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 Moreover, the lack of support to Islamism as well as allowance of Muslim persecution in
other countries were questionable decisions that ignored the core Islamic values and protection of
freedom of religion. For instance: sanctions against Iraq, supporting the Indian oppression and
persecution of Muslims in Kashmir, condoning 1982 massacres in Lebanon, the United States'
encouragement of Israel, the presence of the United States’ troops in Saudi Arabia (including the
Mecca), Western encouragement for attacking Muslims in Somalia, supporting Russian atrocities
against Muslims in Chechnya, among other motives, demonstrated the United States’ decision to
allow and –in occasions– encourage the persecution of Muslims.

Jihad, a radical movement that sought for Islam to return to its traditional values, aimed to
force the United States out of Islam by assailing its representation of capitalism, the World Trade
Center, which killed 2,801 people. The September 11 attack consisted in the hijacking of 4
airplanes and the crashing of 3 of them into both Twin towers and the Pentagon. The third airplane
crashed into flatlands because of the efforts of the passengers. Jalid Sheij Mohammed confessed
to have been the mastermind behind the operation by planning the strike and presenting it to Al-
Qaeda’s leader Osama Bin Laden. The 2,801 deaths are few in comparison to the minimum amount
of 929,000 estimated Islamic civilian killings as a result of direct war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria,
Yemen, and Pakistan. Drone strikes and airstrikes alone have been estimated to have killed 48,000
civilians. That is to say, men, women, and children unrelated to the September attacks were killed
in the middle east as virtually “Collateral Damage” to the war which supposedly had begun to
minimize terrorism.

A terrorist is defined as “a person who systematically perpetrates kidnappings, bombings,

assassinations, threats, and intimidation”; the United States’ retaliation to the September attacks
most certainly aligns with this definition. The New York Times has revealed a report of the known
toll of America's air war –in response to the September 11 strikes– in the Middle East and
Afghanistan. The list included: covering an attack in Syria that killed dozens of women and
children (who were secretly buried by the American military), bombing a Syrian dam despite being
on the no-strike list, and killing ten civilians in a drone strike mistaking them for ISIS members,
among other "errors." The systematic failure to prevent civilian deaths in the American airstrikes,
particularly in the middle east demonstrates the reckless nature of the attacks and evidences a lack
of care in Islamic territories. It further shows that Al-Qaeda’s wish of expulsion of American troops
from the beginning was an effort to prevent the inconsideration of Islamic lives from the United
States.

George W Bush declared “A War of Terror” on Afghanistan and additionally determined

in 2003 to occupy Iraq despite criticism that the Iraqi government had no involvement nor
association with the September 11 attacks. The Bush administration thus unfoundedly linked Islam
with terrorism with its invasions. The aforementioned resulted in the massive segregation and
discrimination against Islamic people and Muslims throughout America reaching the entire
international community through its western political propaganda.

Jalid Sheij Mohammed was captured in 2003 and was kept in American custody until 2006
when he was detained at Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Both the Human Rights Watch (HRW)
and Jalid Sheij Mohammed himself have accused there to have been torture involved in his
custody. The right to a just trial has been denied to him for about two decades and his legal process

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hasn’t been allowed closure. Jalid Sheij Mohammed admitted to having been the architect of the
attack on the World Trade Center in addition to other failed assailing attempts but has been refused
an end to his judicial procedures despite his cooperation.

To conclude, the delegation believes that the United States has failed the middle Eastern
Islamic territories by belittling Muslim lives in foreign sites and by retaliating viciously and
carelessly against the attacks of September 11. The delegation of Jalid Sheij Mohammed further
declares that the United States participated in terrorist behaviors and currently partakes in terrorism
directed at the Islamic region. The response to the attacks of September 11 demonstrated how the
objective of a withdrawal of American troops was fundamental and rational from the beginning as
an ideal of Al-Qaeda and was not unfounded in the least. Moreover, the alienation of Islamic
territories and the association with terrorism that the United States government and press have
developed has been an excuse to segregate and continue the killings to this day of Islamic people.
Additionally, the delegation desires to suggest proposals that amend the past actions of the United
States and moreover deal with the current repercussions and the aversion of events of a similar
nature from occurring in the future:

• The United States must withdraw its troops from Islamic territories.
• The United States must acknowledge its terrorist actions and behaviors regarding
retribution against Islamic territories.
• The United States must not intervene in the religious conflicts between Israel and
Afghanistan.
• The United States must provide Jalid Sheij Mohammed and other assailants of September
11 with an adequate trial.
• The United States must dismantle all anti-Islamic propaganda.
• To compensate for damages against the infrastructure of Islamic grounds by the United
States they must give a reparation fee with its amount determined by the Islamic nations
with the United States in cooperation.
• The United States must compensate victims and their families for harm to their property or
their lives.
• The United States must renounce the possibility of extracting any mineral goods in the
Islamic territories.

Conclusively, the delegation of Jalid Sheij Mohammed hopes to reiterate that it has been an
honor to have been included in this assembly and that it wishes to reach a satisfactory accord and
unanimity with the international community.

REFERENCE LIST

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