Connor: Blog Of The Day

On September 11, 2001 America was attacked by Al Qaeda in the morning.  At first people thought the first plane flew into the Twin Towers on accident, but after two more planes crashing, one in the other tower and the other plane into the Pentagon, it was clear that it wasn't an accident.  Four planes were hijacked in total, the two that crashed into the towers, the one that crashed into the Pentagon, and a fourth one that was planned to crash into the White House.  Fortunately, the passengers of the fourth plane fought back and reclaimed the plane.  The fourth plane then flew into a field in Pennsylvania, where it crashed and killed everyone on board.  The American people were so afraid of the terrorist attack that they all tried to protect their families from a possible fifth attack in a different state.  There was no fifth attack, although the Twin Towers crashed to the ground and many people died.

In the United States the government began to use questionable tactics of finding out if there were terrorists in the country.  They checked library records to see what people were reading, taped phones to figure out if anyone was calling members of Al Qaeda.  The airport security plans changed completely, they no longer used the metal detectors you would walk through.  They began using x-rays and millimeter wave scans.  As for the questioning of those in the military jail at Guantanamo in Cuba, the interrogation methods were essentially torturing the detainees until they confessed that they were part of some terrorist group or another.  The debates about a few of these topics, mostly the interrogation methods, and whether or not they can be continued was partially ended, in the case of the checking library records and wiretapping, years ago.

9/11 caused people to jump to conclusions and caused war between America and some countries in the middle east.  The war in Iraq started shortly after the disaster, because the government said it was Saddam Husein's fault.  As it turned out it wasn't him who caused 9/11, Osama bin Laden caused the attack.  In search of Osama the US army went to war with Afghanistan.  Afghanistan's leaders, the Taliban, were protecting the Al Qaeda and Osama.  This year the US army found Osama in Pakistan and killed him.  Although the mastermind behind 9/11 was killed, people are wondering if the right thing was done.  The wars America was involved in while searching for Osama changed Iraq.  At the time, US soldiers are still in Iraq, because the government thought that Saddam had caused 9/11 in the past.