Posted on 09/08/2003 1:38:10 PM PDT by bedolido
Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and what followed:
Q: How many people died and where?
A: At the World Trade Center: 2,645 died on the ground; 87 passengers and crew members died aboard American Airlines Flight 11; 60 passengers and crew members died aboard United Airlines Flight 175. Ten hijackers (five on each plane) also died.
At the Pentagon: 125 died in the building; 59 passengers and crew members died aboard American Airlines Flight 77. Five hijackers also died aboard the plane.
In Shanksville, Pa.: 40 passengers and crew members died aboard United Flight 93. Four hijackers also died aboard the plane.
In memorializing the victims, government officials do not include the hijackers in the victim tolls.
Q: How many of the 2,792 victims of the trade center attacks have been positively identified through their remains?
A: The New York City medical examiner has been able to identify the remains of about 54 percent of the victims. The office hopes to make 1,700 to 1,800 identifications in all - about 60 percent to 65 percent - although future advances in DNA technology may enable additional identifications. Toward that end, the medical examiner is storing more than 12,000 unidentified body parts collected from the trade center site. Those remains will be kept at a memorial at the site.
The families of those whose remains have not been identified were able to obtain death certificates from the courts after submitting proof their loved ones were in the trade center.
Q: Have authorities detained people believed responsible for the attacks?
A: Many of the alleged organizers and associates of the hijackers have been detained around the world, although Osama bin Laden and his chief deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, remain at large.
Alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was captured in March in Pakistan along with one of the suspected financiers of the attacks. Mohammed's aide, Ramzi Binalshibh - a close associate of Mohammed Atta and the other Germany-based hijackers - was detained in September 2002 in Pakistan. Both are being interrogated in secret.
Abdelghani Mzoudi, a Moroccan, is on trial in Germany on charges he aided Atta. Mounir el Motassadeq, another Moroccan Hamburg associate, was convicted in February of aiding al-Qaida and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Zacarias Moussaoui, an associate of Binalshibh who took flying lessons in the United States, was charged in connection with the attacks and is awaiting trial. Some high-level al-Qaida prisoners have said he was not directly involved in the Sept. 11 plot.
Q: What other terror-related cases has the government brought?
A: The government has brought 255 criminal charges in anti-terrorism cases since Sept. 11. Of those, 132 people have been convicted or pleaded guilty. Attorney General John Ashcroft often cites the breakup of alleged terror cells in Lackawanna, N.Y., Detroit, Seattle and Portland, Ore., as among the most notable victories in the war on terrorism.
Q: What happened to immigrants detained in the United States after the attacks?
A: At least 762 foreigners who were inside the United States illegally were detained following the Sept. 11 attacks as part of the FBI's investigation. More than 500 were deported. An audit by the Justice Department's inspector general found "significant problems" with the detentions, including allegations of physical abuse. Civil liberties groups have noted that only one of those detained, Moussaoui, has been charged with any terrorism-related crime.
Q: What is being done to fight terrorism?
A: The United States launched a war against the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan in direct retaliation for the Sept. 11 attacks. The Taliban quickly lost control of the country and both they and the al-Qaida terrorist network were disrupted, but both groups have since been trying to regroup. Osama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaida, has never been captured and the Taliban have recently launched raids in Afghanistan, where roughly 9,600 U.S. soldiers remain.
In addition, President Bush has said the war in Iraq was being fought in part to thwart the worldwide terrorist threat.
The federal government also created a new Department of Homeland Security to try to improve the country's ability to protect itself against, and prevent terrorist attacks, incorporating elements of law-enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies, emergency-management agencies and air and other transportation safety agencies.
Both the FBI and CIA, in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, pledged greater cooperation on intelligence-sharing matters, and the FBI changed its focus from prosecuting crimes to trying to prevent terrorist attacks.
Q: What has New York City done to fight terrorism?
A: The New York Police Department has reassigned about 1,000 officers to anti-terrorism duties, including more than 300 in a new counterterror bureau. Detectives are posted overseas in cities such as Tel Aviv, London and Lyons, France, to gather intelligence.
Heavily armed units known as Hercules teams make surprise visits to likely targets, like Times Square, to disrupt terrorist reconnaissance. Counterterror teams assess the vulnerabilities of prominent buildings, and recommend changes in security.
Detectives in the counterterror operations center monitor overseas broadcasts, tap into local, regional and federal law-enforcement databases, and check overhead shots of city buildings.
Q: What health effects from the trade center attack and its aftermath have been documented?
A: Some ground zero workers suffered respiratory problems and post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a study by Mount Sinai Medical Center and the National Institute for Occupational Safety. Screenings a year after the attack showed 52 percent of workers suffered ear, nose and throat ailments, 46 percent had symptoms of pulmonary ailments, and 52 percent reported mental health problems.
Air pollution from the attack may have resulted in smaller babies among pregnant mothers who were in or near the collapsing towers, according to a separate study, also led by a Mount Sinai researcher. Exposed pregnant women faced double the risk of delivering babies up to about a half-pound smaller than babies born to non-exposed women.
Hundreds of firefighters and emergency medical workers reported nightmares, sudden anger and other psychological symptoms so severe they were taken off active duty, city officials say. Thousands more sought counseling.
Q: What happened to businesses once based in or near the World Trade Center?
A: Some have returned to downtown Manhattan. They include Aon Corp., which lost 176 employees in the attack and moved back downtown with the help of a $15 million incentive package.
Other financial services companies moved some or all of their operations to midtown Manhattan or elsewhere in the metropolitan area. Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost 658 employees, has leased temporary space in midtown Manhattan and has no plans to return to downtown.
Thousands of small businesses affected by the attack have resumed business or plan to do so with the help of federal and state aid.
The city has lost 162,900 jobs since the attack and unemployment stands at 8.1 percent - well above the national rate. Economists generally agree the attack significantly worsened economic problems that began when the stock market foundered in the previous year.
Q: Have all the victims' families been compensated? What's the timetable?
A: Families of those killed and those injured in the attacks are eligible for compensation from a fund set up by the federal government. The deadline to apply is Dec. 22. Families agree not to sue the airlines in exchange for compensation.
About 2,200 families have applied for compensation from the fund; about 1,700 eligible families have yet to apply.
The fund has paid out more than $565 million so far, with an average payout of about $1.5 million. Payments so far range from $250,000 - the minimum payment under the law - to $6.8 million. Awards are based on the victim's projected lifetime income plus variables like the number of children in the family and the amount of money available from other sources such as life insurance.
Q: What's the timetable for rebuilding at ground zero?
A. Gov. George Pataki has called for construction on the first building to begin in summer 2004. He wants the structural steel for the first building, the 1,776-foot "Freedom Tower," to be in place by Sept. 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the attacks, and he wants the building to be completed and ready for occupancy in 2008. Developer Larry Silverstein, who holds a 99-year lease on the trade center property, says he expects the rebuilding process to be completed by 2012.
Construction of 7 World Trade Center, a 52-story skyscraper across the street from the main site, has already begun. The 750-foot glass-and-steel office tower, which also houses a utility substation, replaces a building destroyed in the attack.
Q. Will there be a memorial to the victims of the trade center attack?
A. Officials say the memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the Feb. 26, 1993, attack on the World Trade Center will be the centerpiece of a redeveloped trade center. A 13-member jury will select the design for the memorial out of 5,200 submissions. The finalists will be made public, but the jury will not solicit opinions from the public.
Q. What else is planned at the trade center site?
A. A train station for PATH commuter rail to New Jersey is scheduled for completion in November, replacing a station destroyed in the attack. Long-term plans include a museum and cultural center, a transportation hub that links PATH to ferries and city subways, and a total of 10 million square feet of office space.
Q: What rebuilding was done at the Pentagon?
A: Largely rebuilt by the one-year anniversary of the attacks, the damaged section of the Pentagon first reopened on Aug. 15, 2002, to 22 workers. The first areas reopened were on the fourth floor, above the spot where hijackers flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the building. A bronze canister filled with mementos of the attack was installed behind the limestone facade of the rebuilt Defense Department headquarters. The rebuilding of the section was finished in February 2003.
Q: What are plans for memorials at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania?
A: Victims in the Pentagon attack will be remembered outside the massive Defense Department headquarters by a grove of trees, 184 lighted pools and benches engraved with the names of those who died. The two-acre memorial will be 165 feet from the point of impact, directly along the flight path taken by the jetliner that was crashed into the building. The benches represent those killed in the building and in the hijacked jetliner, excluding the hijackers.
The National Park Service will lead a federal commission in designing a memorial at the Shanksville, Pa., crash site. President Bush has ordered the design be completed and delivered to the Interior Department and Congress by 2005. A design competition will begin next year.
I wish all terrorism attacks were reported using this policy.
Example: "Seven Die in Terrorist Attack, Six Innocent civilians and One Brainless Barbarian"
Does anyone else remember that?
I use the new improved large size Reynolds tin foil for protection. The voices still get thru though.
I think the JFK case is sealed until 2038, which makes it 75 years. I'm hoping to still be around when that information is released...
Really... I do remember them saying that. 75 years plus my original 19 will make me....hmmmmmm older (where'd I put my counting rocks).
This, of course, is not to say that they haven't been investigated.
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