A4 Conflict Assessment Report-1

A4 Conflict Assessment Report:
September 11, 2001 appears to be a saddest day of the history as it becomes the deadliest attack
and a night mare for the US Citizens when 19 militants that belongs to an Islamic terrorist group
named Al-Qaida have hijacked four US airplanes and coordinated this attack against US on the
order of their leader Osama Bin Ladin (Moghadam, 2008). Two plans (American Flight 11 and
175) out of four targeted twin towers of the WTC, one plan (American Flight 77) targeted
pentagon that is located at the outside of Washington D.C. That was headquarter of US defense
department and last but not the least flown towards Washington D. C but crashed into the fields
of Pennsylvania. Due to this attack, almost 3000 people died. In order to minimize the
destruction of attack and save lives, fire fighters and police of New York has aligned hundreds of
fire fighter that rushed to the crime scene and 400 from them got killed. These attacks cause a
huge cost to the infrastructure of the building that was approximately ten billion dollar of that
time. (Talon, 2004). .
In response to this attack, United States has taken an initiative to start a terrorist war against the
terrorist group especially Al-Qaeda Group and asked Afghanistan to depose this group of
Taliban. After this many countries have established their own anti-terrorism cells and rules in
order to strengthen their economy and prevent terrorist attacks in the region. In the beginning
Osama bin Ladin deprived of but in 2004, he took the responsibility of attack. They declared that
they have started a Holy War against United States. United States support for Israeli, sanction
against Iraq and availability of troops in Saudi Arabia was their main motive to attack and teach
a less to United States. In his interview, Osama Bin Ladin stated that Mecca is the Holy Place
of Muslims and troops presents in Saudi Arabia is considered as provocation (Rahimullah,
2001). If United States do not send their troops in Saudi Arabia, Al Qaeda definitely not planned
a suicide attack (Pape, 2005).
On Tuesday morning at 8:45, an American Boeing 767 crashed on the north side tower of the
World Trade Centre that was totally loaded with twenty Thousand Gallon Jet Fuel. It caused a
massive damage by killing hundreds of people by burning the whole 80 th floor of the tower and
trapping other hundreds of people in the higher floor with the fear to be killed. This freak
incident was broadcasting live on the television spreading an air of fear in New York City. Right
after 18 minutes, another plane appeared in the air and targeted the 60 th floor of south tower of
World trade Centre that clearly showed that American is under terrorist attack.
According to the investigation, there were three main heads who planned this attack that was
Khalid Sheikh Mohammad (Planner), Osama bin Ladin (Leader) and Mohammad Altef
(Organizer).In an interview, FBI stated that they have information of hijacking of planes and
attacking main buildings a year before of this attack. They were keenly observing the movements
of few persons. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was the one who presented the plan of hijacking the
airlines on the east and west coasts and flown into the targets. Whereas Mohammad Altef
managed others hijackers. In order to execute their plan successful they have deeply analyzed
each detail of various places of US and their security environment.
According to the investigation few attackers had lived in United States for more than a year and
for this attack. Whereas others had just come one or two month before the attack and have played
their role very well in the operation. Six hijackers played their part in implementing and
suggesting ideas. From these six four became pilots. They had taken the professional flying
lessons at the American Commercial flight schools. To make this plan more destructive, they
have deeply analyzed the security risks of various place which they can attack. They have
collected data from various sources such as US Telephone directory, aviation’s magazines &
publications and other sources. They have observed the security and passenger pattern of the
airport in order to make arrangement of the attack such as the arrival and departure time of the
passengers, airline schedules, airport guidelines and procedures and main loopholes to minimize
their security risk while hijacking the planes (NK Cell Aviation, 2002)
Khalid Sheikh Muhammad’s idea of hijacking plans had a great impact on deciding and selecting
a suitable target as they were finding it difficult to target small places like White House from
height as it becomes less visible. Due to this Osama Bin Ladin rejected the idea of targeting the
US Bank Town located in Los Angeles and White House. Initially, targeting white house was the
first preference of Osama Bin Ladin. He had a meeting with supervisor of the operation of that
time regarding this operation and present its choice of attack whereas he objected its choice by
presenting its view that it is a tough target (Mc Cormick, 2003). Navigation reason, small size
and unclear visibility makes it an undesired target. Also its defensive system also make it a tough
choice.The success of this suicide attack was based on their weightage of selecting right choices,
planning, coordination, check and balance on security risk analysis (Illardi, 2009).
Due to this attack the US economy suffers a lot and within a month 143000 people lost their
jobs. The 9\11 attacks that targeted Pentagon and the World Trade Center had an adverse impact
not only on the United States but also on the whole world.
Reference:
Ilardi, G. J. (2009). The 9/11 Attacks—A Study of Al Qaeda’s Use of Intelligence and
Counterintelligence. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 32(3), 171–187.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10576100802670803
McCormick, G. H. (2003). Terrorist Decision Making. Annual Review of Political Science, 6(1),
473–507. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.6.121901.085601
Stop-Start Action in NK Cell Activation. (2002). Science, 296(5571), 1197n – 1197.

https://doi.org/10.1126/science.296.5571.1197n
Moghadam, Assaf (2008). The Globalization of Martyrdom: Al Qaeda, Salafi Jihad, and the
Diffusion of Suicide Attacks. Johns Hopkins University. p. 48. ISBN 978-0-8018-9055-0
Pape, Robert A. (2005). Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. New York:
Random House. ISBN 978-0-8129-7338-9. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
Yusufzai, Rahimullah (September 26, 2001). "Face to face with Osama". The Guardian. London.
Retrieved September 3, 2011.

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A4 Conflict Assessment Report:

Stop-Start Action in NK Cell Activation. (2002). Science, 296(5571), 1197n – 1197.

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