What Happened Immediately After 9/11

On September 11th, 2001, terrorists struck the United States and launched the world into

a new era- the Global War on Terror.

After decades of Cold War preparations, the US and its allies found themselves unprepared

for this new, asymmetric war, but they were very quick learners.

First though, the US had to deal with the literal wreckage from the attack.

Both the Pentagon and the World Trade Center had suffered catastrophic damage, but the

The Pentagon was only partially destroyed.

The World Trade Center would be a near total loss.

Immediately upon realizing that the homeland was under attack, the United States took the

unprecedented steps of ordering all civilian aircraft in US airspace to land at the nearest

available airport.

Hundreds of aircraft from various nations were all forced to land or face the wrath

of the US Air Force, which was not in the mood for discussion that day.

Tens of thousands of travelers had their travel plans hopelessly disrupted as aircraft landed

on the nearest available air field all across the US.

French tourists on their way to Hawaii were suddenly stuck in Montana, and the shutdown

of air traffic affected incoming aircraft as well.

US Air Force F-15s and F-16s, loaded for air to air combat, immediately took up air defense

patrols over the American west and east coasts, as well as the air space west of Alaska and

north of North America.

The United States implemented DEFCON 3, or Defense Condition 3, across all of its military

facilities around the world.

This meant that US forces, specially the air force, had to be ready to mobilize at a moment's

notice, with all air force combat planes ready to take to the skies within 15 minutes of

alert.

The US wasn't just worried about further terrorist attacks using civilian air liners, it was

sending a clear and strong signal to any would be adversary that while the US had just taken

a nasty sucker punch to the face, it was still on its feet and ready to fight.

Any attempt to capitalize of US confusion and weakness in the immediate aftermath of

the attacks would be met with immediate and overwhelming force- including nuclear if need

be.

Civilian aircraft incoming to the United States were immediately ordered to divert and barred

from entering American airspace.

Anyone wishing to complain could take it up with Air Force F-15s- nobody did.

Planes were diverted to Canada and Mexico, causing a global aviation logjam and chaos

that would last for days.

The first priority were search and rescue efforts at both the Pentagon and the World

Trade Center.

The Pentagon had been a priority target, though each hijacker had been instructed that if

they couldn't reach their intended targets they had the freedom to use their own initiative

and choose secondary targets.

Anyone who couldn't do either or experienced any difficulties was to immediately crash

their planes.

As the very visual symbol of American global power, the Pentagon had been high on the list

of targets, but the attack did only relatively minor damage to the huge structure.

125 Pentagon workers were killed in the attack, seventy civilians and 55 military personnel-

mostly US Army or US Navy employees.

The highest ranking casualty was Lieutenant General Timothy Maude, an Army Deputy Chief

of Staff.

Thanks to reinforced construction techniques though, the Pentagon was a particularly tough

target to take on, and the damage was limited considering the incredible amount of energy

released in the impact.

At the World Trade Center site though, things were far more grim.

Firefighters from the New York City Fire Department rushed to the scene of the attack and braved

the smoke, dust, and raging firestorm above their heads.

Falling debris made the task even more difficult even after the towers collapsed in on themselves.

Engine 10 and Ladder 10 were the first to arrive on scene since their firehouse was

directly across the street, and at 8:50 AM an incident command post was established in

the lobby of the North Tower.

However due to safety concerns, the command post was moved across West Street.

This would end up saving the lives of many senior officials, though many more died as

the North Tower lobby was still being used to coordinate rescue operations when the tower

collapsed.

Tragically, a repeater system meant to help with radio communications during an emergency

had failed due to the attack, and fire chiefs were unable to contact many of their men when

the order to evacuate had been given.

As a result many firefighters and first responders, some of who had no radios and had simply shown

up in their off-duty hours to assist were lost in the collapse.

343 firefighters would die from both tower collapses.

The command post on West Street was taken out by falling debris, which also killed New

York Fire Department Chief Peter Ganci.

A new command post was set up in a firehouse in Greenwich Village, from where a response

by half of all New York fire department units, as well as volunteers from Nassau, Suffolk,

Westchester County and others could be managed.

Other volunteers who did not make it to the site instead went to the firehouses now short

on personnel in order to cover their duties for the duration of the search and rescue

efforts.

Just hours after the collapse though, Firefighters erected a flag taken from a nearby yacht on

the scene of the attack, evocative of the famous Iwo Jima flag-raising photograph.

The medical response began immediately after the first impact, with a casualty staging

area moved to the corner of Vesey and West streets.

Five triage areas would be set up around the entire site as volunteers flooded in to assist

with the massive number of casualties being brought off the site.

Triage centers would be moved to the Chelsea Piers and Staten Island Ferry terminal in

the wake of the collapse, while neighboring hospitals sped the flow of critical supplies.

Sadly, emergency medical services would end up treating very few individuals- mostly smoke

inhalation patients.

The truth is that very few people would end up surviving the collapse of the towers.

Both medical triage areas were shut down the next day.

On the water, the US Coast Guard mobilized as many assets as it could to aid in evacuating

people stranded on Manhattan Island.

Counter-terrorism patrols by watercraft were also conducted in an attempt to thwart any

possible follow-up attacks on either civilians or the emergency responders themselves.

Short on resources, the Coast Guard sent out a call for ships to assist with the evacuation

of Manhattan Island, while other ships such as the John J Harvey were critical in firefighting

efforts.

With many water mains severed by the collapse, the John J. Harvey, a fireboat that had operated

since 1930, would speed to the proximity of the site.

Alongside two other FDNY fireboats she pumped water to the site so that firefighters could

fight the blaze amongst the wreckage for eighty hours until the water mains were repaired.

In eight hours following the attack, anywhere from half a million to a million people were

evacuated from Manhattan, in effect America's own Dunkirk and considered to be the largest

maritime evacuation in history.

To assist with communications, amateur radio operators set up emergency networks or joined

the hundreds of volunteers forming bucket brigades.

With official emergency networks completely overwhelmed, their work was invaluable to

New York authorities, and on December 12th, 2002, the New Jersey Legislature honored their

work.

Rescue efforts at the site however were not progressing well.

Few had survived the collapse of the towers, and to get to them workers first had to dig

through two feet of ash and soot.

Then heavy equipment had to be used to lift up massive blocks of concrete and random wreckage.

Incredibly, the day after the attack though eleven people would be rescued, including

six firefighters and three police officers.

Two police officers had survived for a full 24 hours buried in thirty feet of rubble.

But the discovery of survivors would not last long.

Only twenty people would be pulled alive from the wreckage, with the last survivor being

rescued 27 hours after the collapse of the North Tower.

Some of the trapped were able to make cell calls to those above, but debris made it impossible

to get to all of them in time.

Hundreds of volunteers and officials poured over the scene, with approximately 400 rescue

dogs- the largest deployment of dogs in US history.

But pretty soon only cadavers were being recovered, with the psychological impact to the rescue

dogs so severe that rescue workers had to bury themselves and pretend to be rescued

just to lift the animal's flagging spirits.

Around New York city, thousands of volunteers began to show up over the next few days to

assist in whatever capacity they could.

The city would register these individuals and shuttle them into lower Manhattan, which

had been closed off to everyone but rescue and recovery workers.

All over New York, construction projects came to a dead stop as workers walked off the job

and headed to the site of the attack.

By the end of week one, over one thousand ironworkers alone arrived at the site, with

thousands of other specialists from the US, Canada, Mexico, and other nations.

Days after the attack, the focus was on investigation and clearing debris.

Bucket brigades were organized by thousands of volunteers, with each person passing along

a five-gallon bucket full of debris.

At the end of each line, investigators sifted through the debris for evidence and human

remains, with the rest being deposited in a site known as 'the pile', as workers wanted

to avoid using the term 'ground zero' due to connotations of a nuclear attack.

By September 24th, 100,000 tons of 1.8 million tons had been removed from the site, searched

for clues or remains, and sent to the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island.

Much of the steel would end up being recycled for use in other construction projects.

24 tons of steel would be used in constructing the USS New York, an amphibious transport

dock ship meant to assist in amphibious assaults.

Incredibly, through the recovery efforts someone had attempted to conduct what would have been

the heist of the decade.

Just days after the collapse, rescue workers discovered scorch marks on a basement doorway

underneath 4 WTC.

Upon exploring the building's basement, a vault containing large amounts of gold and

silver coin and bars was discovered, all stored by the Bank of Nova Scotia.

The would-be thieves were never discovered, their attempt at a heist likely foiled by

the hundreds of rescue workers on the site, and the thousands of volunteers just past

it.

The US military also mounted immediate efforts to assist civilian personnel on the ground.

The Civil Air Patrol was one of the few institutions allowed to launch aircraft, and it used the

opportunity to conduct aerial reconnaissance missions over ground zero in order to provide

analysis of the wreckage.

CAP aircraft also assisted in airlifting personnel and medical equipment and supplies.

The first military personnel at ground zero however was elements of the New York Army

National Guard's 1-101st Cavalry, 258th Field Artillery, 442nd Military Police Company,

and 69th Infantry Regiment.

National Guard troops supplemented NYPD and FDNY, with 2,250 national guardsmen assisting

rescue efforts by the next morning.

The armory of the 69th Infantry would become a Family Information Center to assist family

members of victims in locating their loved ones or recovering their remains.

National Guardsmen also provided security to other possible target locations across

New York, as well as assisted in traffic control.

Soon after, the New Jersey National Guard sent its own personnel to assist.

The US Navy redirected its hospital ship, USNS Comfort to Pier 92 in Manhattan, from

there crew members helped feed and house 10,000 relief workers.

Its galley provided 30,000 meals, while its medical facilities assisted injured rescue

workers immediately after the attack and during the recovery process.

With Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda claiming responsibility for the attacks, President

Bush immediately declared a war on terrorism with the goal of destroying and dismantling

global terror networks.

Al Qaeda would be enemy number one however.

A NATO committee agreed that the attack on the US constituted an article 5 response,

and overnight Osama Bin Laden had brought down the heat of the entire NATO alliance

on his head.

Across the nation, federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies coordinated to arrest

762 suspects with known or suspected ties to terror networks.

However, none of those detained would be charged with terrorism, and the response is largely

seen as a knee-jerk response to the September 11th attacks.

To head off growing Islamophobia by parts of the US population, President Bush visited

the Islamic Center of Washington, and reminded the nation that Arabs and Muslims living in

the US were still patriots.

Sadly, a 1600 percent surge in hate crimes or harassment of Muslims, Arabs, middle easterners,

and South Asians would occur in the days immediately following the attacks.

Immediately after the attacks, President Bush took legislative action to shut down the financial

assets of known terrorists and their financial networks.

This froze billions of dollars in assets and would be the first shot at the global

war on terror.

On September 18th, a joint resolution from Congress gives President Bush the authority

to use “all necessary and appropriate force” against the planners and instigators of the

September 11th attacks.

Two days later, the president announces the start of a global war on terror.

Osama Bin Laden has horrendously misjudged America's response to the September 11th attacks.

He believed that the US would respond in one of two ways- a general pullout of the Middle

East, or a round of cruise missile strikes against training facilities.

Having weathered a storm of missiles before that did little to nothing, Bin Laden believed

Al Qaeda had won the day.

Instead, the United States chose a third option- one that Bin Laden could have never seen coming

and would spell his personal doom and the destruction of the Al Qaeda terror network.

Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, President George Bush signed into law a joint resolution

by the American Congress authorizing the President to use all reasonable force required to bring

to justice, or eliminate, the individuals responsible for carrying out the September

11th attacks.

This makes Osama Bin Laden public enemy number one not just by the US, but by America's vast

network of global allies.

Al Qaeda itself is targeted for destruction, and the Afghanistan Taliban regime sheltering

Al Qaeda is given an ultimatum: had over AQ operatives or else.

Meanwhile, American intelligence operatives are infiltrating northern Afghanistan, with

security provided by American special forces.

In a series of clandestine meetings, the US develops a plan to work together with the

anti-Taliban, so-called “Northern Alliance”.

This alliance is a coalition of anti-Taliban opposition, mostly made up of Tajik factions

as well as Uzbek, Hazara Shiite, and some Pashtun Islamist factions.

Before the September 11th attacks, US policy was to pressure the Taliban with sanctions

and political action, but America had so far refrained from providing direct military assistance

to the Northern Alliance.

However, leading up to the 9/11 attacks, the internal pressure within the White House is already

shifting and edging the President closer to providing weapons to the alliance.

Just two days before the terror attacks in the US, the Taliban had assassinated Ahmad

Shah Masoud (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmad_Shah_Massoud#/media/File:Ahmad_Shah_Massoud.jpg), leader of the alliance, with the aid of Al

Qaeda operatives posing as journalists.

Wounded in the suicide bombing, Masoud would die on his way to the hospital.

The attack would later be seen as an indication that the Taliban feared the US would strike

back by directly financing the alliance, and thus sought to fracture it and throw it into

chaos just two days before the 9/11 attacks.

However, Mohammad Fahim (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Fahim#/media/File:Mohammad_Fahim_in_2004_cropped.jpg), Masoud's lieutenant, quickly consolidated

power and ensure the alliance remained intact.

Shortly after the terror attacks against the US, President Bush issued his ultimatum, and

when refused to initiate a plan to militarily overthrow the Taliban.

Equating those who harbor terrorists as terrorists themselves, President Bush made a decision

that neither the Taliban nor Al Qaeda saw coming- US troops would lead the war against

the Taliban themselves.

The Bush administration sought UN approval of military action, resulting in UN Security

Council Resolution 1368.

However, while widely interpreted as an authorization for military action, it technically did not

authorize America's invasion of Afghanistan.

China, which sits on the security council, wished for the US to seek full authorization from

the UN, knowing that they could then control US military action by threatening a veto vote.

They hoped to leverage their veto power in the security council in exchange for manipulating

the US to stop supplying weapons and equipment to Taiwan, which the Chinese Communist Party

continues to wish to forcefully annex to the mainland to this day.

On October 4th, the Taliban began to read the writing on the wall and offered to turn

Bin Laden over to Pakistan, to be put on trial in an international tribunal that operated

according to Islamic sharia law.

The proposal was rejected.

Knowing that seeking full authorization for invasion from the UN would jeopardize Taiwan's

independence, the US invoked the right to self-defense and UN Resolution 1368 as justification.

On October 7th, 2001, less than a month after the attacks on the homeland, American combat

aircraft launched a blistering assault on Taliban positions.

The air attacks were coordinated with an offensive by the Northern Alliance, which was itself

working alongside approximately 1,000 American special operations forces and Central Intelligence

Agency field operatives.

That same day, even as bombs were raining down on their forces, the Taliban contacted

the US and offered to try bin Laden in Afghanistan itself, under an Islamic court.

Knowing that justice would never be served in what would amount to a sham trial, the

US rejected the proposal.

Meanwhile, American and British aircraft continued a blistering offensive against Taliban strongholds.

Cruise missiles launched from warships in the Arabian Sea flew over Pakistan to strike

at military targets inside Afghanistan.

On the ground, Northern Alliance forces fighting alongside Green Berets from the 5th Special

Forces Group, aircrew from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and numerous

Air Force Combat Controllers pushed south from their strongholds in the mountains.

The American bombing campaign was so fierce that just like in Desert Storm, Taliban forces

surrendered or defected en masse.

The first major victory of the ground war would come on the 9th of November when the

Taliban stronghold of Mazar-i-Sharif was captured.

This allowed US-backed forces to rapidly conquer most of northern Afghanistan.

Four days after the capture of Mazar-i-Sharif, Kabul was captured after a surprise Taliban

withdrawal from the city.

As the pressure mounted, the Taliban in the north of the country were forced into a last-ditch

defense in Kunduz.

However, under withering air attack, Northern Alliance forces destroyed Taliban defenses

and took the city on the 26th of November.

A new problem arose, as a significant number of Taliban fighters fled across the border

and into Pakistan.

In the Pakistani tribal areas, the government has little power, and the US hesitated from

pursuing and destroying retreating Taliban fighters out of fear of inflaming greater

tensions amongst the northern tribes of Pakistan.

Wishing to secure Pakistani support for the war, the US also refrained from taking actions

that would violate its attempt at cooperation with the government.

Unbeknownst for a few more years to the US though, Pakistan was secretly aiding and even

equipping the Taliban and other insurgents as they would cross the border into Afghanistan.

Their support was spearheaded by Pakistan's Inter-services Intelligence agency, which

ran a massive effort to arm, feed, and even provide medical care for wounded Taliban and

other insurgent fighters.

While never verified, it's strongly suspected that Pakistan was also fully aware of the

fact that Osama Bin Laden was hiding in their territory, and likely even assisted efforts

to keep him hidden from US sources.

Given that Bin Laden was discovered hiding in Abbottabad, a major city known for its

military institutions and often compared to America's West Point, it's incredulous to

think that Pakistan was not actively protecting Bin Laden from American arrest or assassination.

The reason why is simple: the Taliban represented a strong barrier between Pakistan and Iran,

as well as helping to limit western influence in the region.

Pakistan had every incentive to keep the Taliban in power and under their influence, and US

plans to uproot Al Qaeda directly clashed with what they saw as a national security

priority.

In the south of the country, Taliban forces retreated to Kandahar.

Before the assault on the city began, the Taliban agreed to surrender to the US, a deal

which was rejected by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld as a precondition to surrender

was that Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar be granted amnesty.

This was unacceptable to the United States, who knew that leaving Omar in power would

only encourage the Taliban to persist in a future conflict.

Thus the First Battle of Kandahar was on.

On the 19th of October, 200 Rangers from the 3rd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment,

landed on a desert landing strip south of the city.

There they linked up with 750 American paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division.

The task force immediately set about creating the US's first base inside Afghanistan, known

as Camp Rhino.

This would serve as a logistics base to support the Northern Alliance and provide direct combat

aid to their forces in the battle to come.

Kandahar was heavily defended, and given its dense urban nature, would be a difficult city

to capture.

Defended by fanatical Taliban fighters who knew this was their last stand, the US moved

to prepare Northern Alliance forces for the tough fight ahead.

On the 18th of November, militia commander Gul Agha Sherzai was contacted by American

special forces.

Under his command, Sherzai had about 800 fighters, but they were severely under-equipped for

the task at hand.

With Uncle Sam bringing lots of spare toys, Sherzai's militia was soon reinforced with

weapons, ammunition, and vehicles.

On November 22nd, a force of 100 vehicles advanced on Kandahar through the desert.

Sherzai attempted to bypass Taliban strongholds ringing the city, but was forced to stop at

the Taliban-held town of Takht-e-pol.

There he attempted to negotiate a surrender of the outnumbered and outgunned Taliban fighters,

but was instead ambushed.

American air power held in reserve to directly support Sherzai was immediately called, devastating

the Taliban ambush.

Their forces were put into full retreat, vacating the city.

Meanwhile, the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit arrived at FOB Rhino on November 25th, relieving

the 101st Airborne.

The 101st was immediately tasked to strike at Taliban positions outside of the city,

and two days later the 15th MEU joined the fight, supported by a unit of Australian Special

Air Service operators.

Hamid Karzai, leading the Eastern Alliance, had spent several weeks recruiting after the

Battle of Tarin Kowt on November 14th.

With about 800 men, Karzai led an attack on Kandahar from the North.

On the 30th of November, Karzai's forces took the town of Petaw without a fight, but when

they attempted to take the bridge at Sayd Alim Kalay, met with stiff resistance.

The United States aided Karzai's forces with two days of heavy airstrikes using precision

munitions that left the bridge intact.

On the 4th of December, overwhelmed by American air power, Karzai's forces managed to secure

the bridge by setting up a beachhead on the other side.

Unfortunately, the next day a stray American bomb would land on a US position, killing

three special forces soldiers and wounding Karzai.

However, Karzai's forces remained cohesive even with their leader wounded, and began

negotiations with the Taliban for surrender of Kandahar.

Meanwhile, Sherzai's forces initiated an assault on Kandahar's airport, but were surprised

to discover little resistance from the Taliban.

Unbeknownst to Sherzai, the Taliban had surrendered the city to Karzai, but it was Sherzai at

the head of his militia who entered the city and was declared governor of the city.

Karzai meanwhile did not object, as he'd already been declared chairman of the Afghan Interim

Administration, which would work to establish a new, democratic government after the fall

of the Taliban.

By the 9th of December Kandahar had been fully secured.

A group of al-Qaeda troops under the command of Saif al-Adel managed to escape into Pakistan.

Al-Adel remains on the FBI's top ten most wanted terrorists to this day, and is believed

to be hiding out in Iran.

Now Check Out How SEAL Team Took Down Osama Bin Laden Minute by Minute, or click this

other video instead.

As Kandahar was being secured, the United States and its allies launched a massive attack

against al Qaeda forces in the cave complex of Tora Bora.

On December 3rd, 20 CIA National Clandestine Service's Special Activities Division operatives,

alongside members from the 5th Special Forces Group, were inserted via helicopter into Jalalabad.

Codenamed Jawbreaker, the tank force coordinated with Northern Alliance fighters as they began

an assault on the plains leading up to the cave complexes.

For 72 hours, Jawbreaker called in a series of non-stop airstrikes on enemy positions,

forcing them to retreat into more entrenched positions further up the mountains.

One week later, 70 special operators from the US Army's Delta Force's A Squadron, and

Air Force Special Tactics Squadron, joined Jawbreaker via vehicle.

They would lead the ground operation against the al Qaeda positions.

For their part, al-Qaeda fighters would light fires at night for warmth and to cook, which

allowed US aircraft to launch precision strikes against them.

With the aid of US, German, and British special forces, Northern Alliance fighters made progress

into the cave complexes.

Al-Qaeda forces contacted a local Afghan commander and negotiated a truce, however the time requested

to surrender their weapons was believed to actually be used to buy time to allow senior

al-Qaeda officials to escape.

On the 12th of December, fighting resumed as a rear guard attempted to buy time for

al-qaeda's main forces to escape into Pakistan.

Alliance forces along with US special forces and heavy air support assaulted heavily fortified

al-qaeda positions in caves and bunkers.

Leading the attack against the complex of Tora Bora itself were thirteen British special

forces operators alongside German and American operators.

These forces helped secure the flanks of the Alliance assault against al-qaeda ambush,

and were critical in success of the operation.

Intent on the complete destruction of al-qaeda forces, the US continued a heavy bombing campaign

against the cave complexes.

A force of 2,000 local militias, organized and paid for by US special forces and CIA

operatives, massed for an attack against the complex.

By December 17th, al-qaeda's last stronghold was destroyed, and US special forces immediately

launched a search for Osama Bin Laden.

Bin Laden however had managed to successfully escape into Pakistan.

Later it was revealed that the CIA officer leading the CIA team on the ground had requested

more US forces to directly attack caves he believed Bin Laden had been trapped inside

of.

His request was denied by the Bush administration, who believed that even if Bin Laden evaded

capture, he would be arrested as soon as he entered Pakistan.

We know now that bin Laden was likely captured by the Pakistan government, who promptly whisked

him into hiding in order to use him as a future bargaining chip.

Had the request for additional forces been approved, the war on terror could have ended

a decade earlier than it did.

After the taking of Kandahar and the destruction of al-Qaeda's stronghold in Tora Bora, surviving

Taliban and al-Qaeda forces either went to ground, or escaped into Pakistan.

From the safety of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, an insurgency blossomed which

allowed the Taliban to launch repeated assaults against the democratic government taking root

in Afghanistan.

Without permission from Pakistan to send troops to root out the cancer growing in its tribal

areas, the US was forced to rely on drones to surveil and target enemy leadership.

These drone strikes drew global condemnation, thanks in no part to the fact that Pakistan's

ISI itself fanned the flames of outrage in order to limit US influence.

The truth is that casualties from US drone strikes were self-reported by forces operating

in the Tribal areas, which did not allow Pakistani government investigators to enter.

Thus casualty figures were never truly verified by anyone other than the very insurgents and

terrorists the US was targeting, and the fact that these individuals don't wear military

uniforms allowed them to claim that all the victims, or at least most, were innocent civilians.

Al Qaeda however would be destroyed as a global terror organization, while the Taliban would

bide its time until 2021, when they exploited a US pull-out of the nation to topple the

weak democratic government.

Now Check Out How SEAL Team Took Down Osama Bin Laden Minute by Minute, or click this

other video instead.