What Really Led to 9/11

To understand how the attacks of 9/11 could have been stopped, we need to go back to 1980s and look at some facts from that time on.

​After contesting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, the Saudi nationalist Osama bin Laden organized a network of unconventional combatants known as Al-Qaida. Bin Laden believed that the stationing of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War of 1990-91 violated the sacred spaces around Mecca and Medina and in 1996 he essentially declared war on the United States. Bin Laden and his allies orchestrated a series of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 1993 in the basement parking space that killed six people and injured scores more, in retrospect, a trial run for the 9/11. He also ordered attacks on American military barracks in Saudi Arabia in 1996, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, and the USS COLE bombing in Yemen in 2000 killing 17 sailors. The bombing of the Cole lead to the subsequent investigation by the FBI and NCIS Special Agents that tracked down the Al Qaeda perpetrators.

​The most destructive act ascribed to al-Qaeda was the series of attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, when four commercial jet airlines were hijacked. Two of these were crashed into the Twin Towers which later collapsed, destroying the rest of the World Trade Center building complex. The third was crashed into the Pentagon and the fourth into a field near Shanksville, PA during a struggle between passengers and hijackers to control the plane. Nearly 3,000 and people were killed and thousands more injured in the attacks, making them the deadliest act of terrorism to occur in current history. Investigation conducted after the attacks concluded that members of al-Qaeda planned and orchestrated the attacks. Osama bin Laden denied his organization was involved at first but later in 2004, admitted that they were the ones responsible.

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On February 13, 2010 Al-Qaeda commander Mustafa Abu al-Yazid bombed a German bakery in India killing at least 17 people and injured 350. On October 29, 2010, two packages were found containing 300 to 400 grams of plastic explosives and a detonating mechanism in cargo planes. The bombs were discovered as a result of intelligence received from Saudi Arabia’s security chief. They were bound from Yemen to the United States, and were discovered at an en route stop-over. The Naval Air Station Pensacola shooting occurred in Pensacola Florida on December 6, 2019. Three people were killed and 8 wounded. The shooter was killed by police. Al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attack. President Barack Obama ordered a secret mission to Pakistan that resulted in the killing of bin Laden.

​Al Qaeda is still active in what amounts to war against the United States. The big problem is that they are not criminals, but foreign terrorists that will attack the United States every chance they get. They must be stopped.