Homeland Security Capstone - Essay Example

?2.0 Literature Review There are still many unanswered questions for many who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001. Many wonder what if anything could have been done to stop the terrorist attacks. When the anniversary of the tragic terrorist events comes around every year the survivors, and the survivors of those who lost someone in the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, or on one of the hijacked planes are reminded the authorities, and others in charge in Washington, DC might have known about the pending events, yet did nothing to prevent the attacks. The loss of anyone is difficult to handle. This is true if a loved one or a friend were to be diagnosed with a type of cancer, or another type of terminal illness. When one has time to prepare for the death of a loved one or a friend, one can build those lasting memories by enjoying every minute left with the loved one or friend. However, when there is no time to prepare for the death of a loved one or a friend the death is much more difficult to accept. The sudden death of a friend or loved one will leave on wanting one more day, one more chance to build a memory, or to take one last photo with the person who has died. On September 11, 2001 more than five thousand families were left wondering what happened. These families faced the sudden death of a loved one or a friend. There were more than five thousand lives lost in the matter of one hour on the morning of September 11, 2001. The losses were sudden and no one, especially those who lost someone close had time to prepare for the events that would change America forever. There is still so much pain for some of the survivors of those who lost a life in the terrorist attacks. Having no time to say goodbye to a loved one or a cherished friend is the most painful tragedy for anyone to face, some never get over such a loss. Some might live with regrets such as, having had a disagreement with the person the night before the person died, and never having had the opportunity to apologize about the disagreement. The losses suffered on September 11, were difficult for many, even for some who did not have a loved one, or a friend who died that day. Still today, nearly ten years later one must ask is there anything that could have been done to prevent the events of September 11, 2001, from happening at all. 2.1 The Communication between Government Officials After the events the government officials such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the United States Military Intelligence agencies were quick to inform the American people no agency new anything about the pending attacks on US soil. The agencies were also quick to blame Osama bin Laden, and al-Qaeda. Within hours of the attacks there were news reports released informing the American people of who the hijackers were, and where the hijackers received training on how to fly a Bowing 747. The American people quickly began to doubt the FBI, CIA, and US Military Intelligence Agency when the agencies stood by stories stating there was no prior knowledge of pending attacks going to happen. The Philippine intelligence informed both the CIA, and FBI of a pending plot called project Bojinka. Project Bojinka was a plan masterminded by Osama bin Laden to have al-Qaeda troops crash eleven hijacked airplanes headed to the United States into monuments with significance to the American people, two of the prospected targets were the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon, (Ahmed, 2002). “Project Bojinka was known by the CIA, and the FBI. It was described in court documents in the trial in New York of Ramzi Yousef, and Abdul Murad for their participation in the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993” (Ahmed, 2002). Project Bojinka was known to United States government officials as early as 1995. There were many FBI agents whose jobs were threatened in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. These are the FBI agents who had investigated suspicious Arab-Americans who were taking flight training lessons in Arizona, Illinois, and New York. These FBI agents informed the Offices of the Directors of the FBI as early as July, 2001 about the suspicious activity of the flight lessons. The Offices of the Directors chose to ignore the warnings from the agents in the field offices. The agents feared these Arab-Americans were going to hijack American flights. One agent, Special Agent Robert G. Wright Jr. said the FBI was corrupt, and there had been thousands of innocent American lives lost unnecessarily, (Vernon, 2002). The Offices of the Directors of the FBI threated Wright with criminal prosecution if he said anything to the media about the prior knowledge the FBI had of the attacks against the United States, (Vernon, 2002). Special Agent Wright was demoted to doing paperwork at a desk in the office, and was scheduled to testify against the FBI for not saving thousands of innocent people of September 11, 2001, (Vernon, 2002). 2.2 The FAA and NORAD During the Cold War the United States Military Intelligence strategically placed fighter jets throughout the United States. Most of these fighter jets were on the west coast, and in Canada. During the Cold War the United States feared the Soviet Union sending nuclear missiles across the Bering Strait (Could fighter jets have stopped 9/11, 2004). On the morning of September 11, 2001 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) informed the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) at 8:40 A.M. and 8:43 A.M. that American Airlines Flight 11, and United Airlines Flight 175 had been hijacked, respectively (Could fighter jets have stopped 9/11, 2004). American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center within a few minutes of these calls (Could fighter jets have stopped 9/11, 2004). Around the same time that American Airlines Flight 11 hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center another flight that took off from Washington, DC airport had changed its flight path (Could fighter jets have stopped 9/11, 2004). This flight was American Airlines Flight 77 (Could fighter jets have stopped 9/11, 2004). The FAA lost track of flight 77 on the radar. The officials at NORAD waited on word from President George W. Bush to deploy the two fighter jets stationed at Andrews Air Force Base in Virginia. The officials at NORAD could not make a decision to shoot down a civilian plane without the authorization of the United States President (Could fighter jets have stopped 9/11, 2004). President Bush gave this authorization only after the United States Pentagon was struck by American Airlines Flight 77 (Could fighter jets have stopped 9/11, 2004). Since, the terrorist attacks on September 11, both the FAA, and NORAD have made improvements with the way the organizations will handle a situation like this in the future. The FAA through the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) has tightened security both with boarding an airliner headed to, or within the United States. The FAA has also made it more difficult for anyone to rush into the cockpit while the flight is in the air. There is now a seal on the cockpit door that will prevent any unauthorized personnel from entering the cockpit while the flight is in the air. The FAA and the TSA have found it necessary to arm all flights within, and headed to the United States with United States Air Marshals. The United States Air Marshals is a new branch of federal law enforcement that has been enacted since the attacks of September 11. The United States Air Marshals are in charge of making sure if a terrorist does get through all security measures and is able to board a plane in the United States that the flight will land safely. The Air Marshal is in charge of taking a disgruntled passenger, or a suspected terrorist into custody while the plane is in motion. 2.3 The Collapse of the World Trade Centers The World Trade Centers were constructed of a steel frame. Many are suspicious of how a fire alone could have destroyed the World Trade Centers. Many are confused because the World Trade Centers were constructed from steel the structures should still be standing. This is based on history, and the history of many fires involving high rise constructions throughout history. None of the high rise buildings constructed of steel had collapsed during the fire. There has been much speculation that there were also demolition dynamite planted within the structure, and the offices of the World Trade Centers. However, there is also much evidence to state that the collapse of the World Trade Centers was not made through a controlled demolition, that it was due to the structural damage caused by the planes crashing into the towers that caused the World Trade Center towers to collapse the way they did. “Recent and historical large fires in steel frame buildings have demonstrated that actual fire performance of the structural system is much better than results of the test of a single component” (Munyak, 2006). There have been many structures that have burned without collapsing. These have all been high rise building such as the Broadgate Fire in the UK (Munyak, 2006). The Broadgate fire occurred before there was any kind of fireproofing that could be added to the interior of the building. The building did receive much structural damage however, the building did not collapse. Then there have been times in history where a high rise was on fire, and the floors that were damaged by the fire were buckling. The floors buckled and caused the fire departments to evacuate the inside of the buildings out of fear that the buildings were going to collapse. Throughout history it appears only that the floors damaged by the fire would begin to buckle, and that the entire structure would remain standing with extensive damage depending on how long the fire burned. Based on the evidence from the past that no other high rise building constructed of steel has collapsed during a fire one might begin to wonder whether, or not there was a conspiracy to demolish the World Trade Centers on September 11, 2001. However, evidence from other engineers points to the structural damage caused by the impact of a plane the size of a Boeing 767 hitting the towers at a speed of five hundred miles per hour, and the gasoline stored in the wings of the Boeing 767 that caused the fire to burn at an excessive heat, and then made the buildings collapse. At the time when the World Trade Centers were constructed the buildings were constructed to withstand high winds, and the impact of a Boeing 707. The Boeing 707 was the largest plane at the time of construction of the World Trade Centers (Debunking 9/11 conspiracy theories, ND). The Boeing 767 is much heavier than the Boeing 707. The Boeing 767 would have caused much more structural damage to the World Trade Centers than the Boeing 707. Besides the damage caused to the structure of the WTC by the Boeing 767 jets that hit the towers there was over one hundred pounds of fuel in the wings of the jets. A fire caused by jet fuel burns at a higher temperature, and a faster rate of speed than a fire caused by an electrical shortage. The fires of past high rise buildings have been caused by electrical shortage, and have burned at a slower rate of speed, as well as a lower temperature than the fire that was caused on September 11, 2001, at the World Trade Centers. There was also over one thousand pounds of oil stored in the World Trade Center 7. This caused a second explosion after the explosion of the Boeing 767 jets that hit the sides of the buildings. There was so much structural damage, along with the heat intensity of the fire that caused the collapse of the buildings. There was no conspiracy to demolish the World Trade Centers on September 11, 2001 (Debunking 9/11 conspiracy theories, ND). Because, the World Trade Centers were constructed of high steel only on the outside of the building to leave room for more office space in the center of the buildings is another reason for the collapse of the towers (Debunking 9/11 conspiracy theories, ND). When the other high rise buildings that had, had fires were constructed they were constructed with reinforcement steel rods throughout the building, and under the floors (Debunking 9/11 conspiracy theories, ND). This could be another reason why the other buildings did not collapse and the World Trade Centers did (Debunking 9/11 conspiracy theories, ND). 2.4 Could Anything Have Been Done? During the transition of the George Herbert Walker Bush, and the Bill Clinton Administrations there was not much help given to Bill Clinton’s National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger. Mr. Berger was determined not to have the same problems during the transition of the Bill Clinton, and the George W. Bush Administrations. The upcoming president George W. Bush had appointed Condoleezza Rica to become the National Security Advisor in his administration. One month prior to George W. Bush taking office on January 20, 2001, Berger set up many meetings between Condoleezza Rice, and his National Security team. Berger wanted Rice to be informed about the state of the nation’s security at the time she assumed her post as the National Security Advisor to George W. Bush. There were many briefings that Rice and her assistant would have in the thirty days prior to George W. Bush taking office in January. Berger states he did attend one of the meetings. This meeting was a meeting based upon the threat of terrorism to the United States. The meeting was delivered by Richard Clarke (Elliot, 2002). Clarke “was a career bureaucrat who served in the first Bush Administration and risen during the Clinton years to become the White House’s point man on terrorism” (Elliot, 2002). Clarke delivered the meeting with a PowerPoint presentation. The meeting dealt with the real threat of Osama bin Laden, and al-Qaeda (Elliot, 2002). Clarke was calling for a strike against al-Qaeda, more so a strike against Osama bin Laden (Elliot, 2002). Rice and her assistant never took this information to George W. Bush neither before he took office in January, 2001, nor after he took office. The warnings given to Rice and her assistant by Clarke were for the most part ignored, and swept under the rug. Part of the reason everything Clarke said that day during the briefing of the real threat of a possible terrorist attack being planned by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda was swept under the rug, and put on hold is because it takes the United States Congress more than four weeks after a president takes office to confirm anyone of the presidents appointees to cabinet positions (Elliot, 2002). This would mean it would take until at least the last week in February, 2001, for Condoleezza Rice to be sworn in as National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush. By then the meeting had been forgotten about, and of course George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice had an agenda of their own for when they took over at the White House. This happens with all administrations. The possible threat of another terrorist attack against the United States would not be brought up again until May, 2001 (Eliot, 2002). The Clinton Administration was tainted by too many terrorist attacks that happened abroad during his administration. The latest was the attack on the U. S. S. Cole in Yemen, in October, 2000 (Elliot, 2002). During the summer, 2001, the Bush Administration, and Condoleezza Rice had many meetings with Clarke regarding the possible threat of a terrorist attack against the United States. By the summer, 2001 Clarke had designed a new plan, and had done more research on the possible threat of a terrorist attack (Elliot, 2002). The threat was no longer merely a possibility, but became an imminent reality (Elliot, 2002). The terrorist attack would happen sometime within the next couple weeks this was in mid-July, 2001 (Elliot, 2002).The George W. Bush Administration braced themselves for the attack, it appeared the events of September 11, 2001 would happen because the threat of the possibility of a terrorist attack happening on American soil, or to America had become a victim of the changing of Administrations. One might ask then is there anything that could have been done to prevent the tragedy of September 11, 2001. References Ahmed, N. (2002), Did Bush know? Media Monitors Network, http://www.mediamonitors.net/mosaddeq36.html, Retrieved August 1, 2011. This seems like a credible source that explains so much about what the Bush Administration new of the pending events on September 11. This article explains much more, and has information dating back six years before the events. Could fighter jets have stopped 9/11 attacks? (2004), Associated Press, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5215957/ns/us_news-security/t/could-fighter-jets-have-stopped-attacks/, Retrieved August 1, 2011. This is an article that tells of information about how the FAA, and NORAD worked together on September 11, and how the organizations have changed since. Debunking 9/11 conspiracy theories (ND), http://www.debunking911.com/firsttime.htm, Retrieved August 1, 2011. This is a resource explaining all about the possible causes of why the World Trade Centers collapsed due to the fire. This is a credible source that seems useful to use. Elliot, M. (2002), They had a plan, Time Magazine Online, http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020812/story.html, Retrieved August 1, 2011. This seems like a very good resource to use for this project. This is a resource that explains all about the transition between the Clinton, and George W. Bush Administrations, and how the threat of September 11, was lost during the transition. Munyak, E. (2006) High rise buildings and large fires This PowerPoint presentation is a detailed research project on many fires prior to, and after the fire at the World Trade Center. The author is an engineer, and explains how the structural damage to the WTC was perhaps the cause of the collaps. Vernon, M. (2002) Agent: FBI could have prevent 9/11, Newsmax, http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/5/30/161204.shtml, Retrieved August 1, 2011. This is a source that explains what the FBI new, and how the formation of the Department of Homeland Security was thought of. It is a useful article that offers much information. Read More