Good morning,
9/11 Anniversary
It was a jarring moment in American history, as planes highjacked by terrorists crashed into New Yorks twin towers. 20 years ago tomorrow - the smoke, the fires, the unbelievable images of the buildings collapsing live on TV and seen around the World.
Planes were grounded across America, many in the air diverted to Canada as air controllers began to understand teams of Al Qaeda terrorists had taken 4 airplanes in all, two which hit the World Trade Centre in New York, another hit the Pentagon and the fourth plane crashed into a field, 80 miles from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
-American Flight 11, which departed from Logan International Airport at 7:59am en rote to Los Angeles
-American Airlines Flight 77, which departed from Washington Dulles International Airport at 8:20am en route to Los Angeles
-United Flight 93, which departed from Newark International Airport at 8:42am en route to San Francisco
-United Airlines flight 175, which departed Logan International at 8:14am en route to Los Angeles
This was the worst terror attack in American history, claiming the lives of 2996 people. America was under attack, and very quickly we would come to understand the 19 terrorists were trained and guided by Osama Ben Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist organization in Afghanistan.
I was based in Moscow for NBC News and very quickly was tasked to get in to Afghanistan as quickly as possible. It meant travelling into Dushanbe, Tajikstan and negotiating with the last rebel group in Northern Afghanistan the Northern Alliance, to board an Mi-8 helicopter, on an ammunition/gun run into the Panjshir valley.
Within weeks the American’s would invade Afghanistan, and begin a 10 year hunt for Ben Laden that would come to a dramatic and deadly end in a compound in Pakistan where U.S. Special forces would kill him.
Today you know the rest of the story. President Biden completed a disastrous plan to leave Afghanistan set in motion by former President Trump. The Country has been allowed to collapse and the Taliban which harboured Al Qaeda, and was backed by Pakistan, is back in power.
Afghanistan will once again be used as a terrorist base. I have no doubt, Al Qaeda will thrive because of the U.S. pullout.
More than 30 nations which came to Americas aid after 9/11 were forced to cut and run in Afghanistan as well. And those nations feel their sacrifices like American efforts over two decades, were wasted. 9/11 was the one instance where NATO invoked article 5, an attack on one is an attack on all and came to the aid of America in it’s invasion of Afghanistan and the war on terror.
9/11 is a stark reminder what Afghanistan was all about, for a generation which wasn’t even born when the attack took place. Terrorist organizations from Al Qaeda and IS dream of doing harm to Western interests and carrying out more attacks like 9/11. Terror groups are constantly reorganizing and regrouping. Afghanistan will give many of them new room to grow.
Biden’s over the horizon approach to preventing another 9/11 smacks of White House cliche and to a degree nonsensical sloganism. When you watch some of the 9/11 remembrance coverage, think about how that attack actually shut down the Worlds largest economy with planes grounded across North America until September 13, and Wall Street closed until September 17 with a 1.4 trillion dollar loss in market value.
20 years after 9/11, terrorists seem emboldened by the American Afghan pullout.
Quite simply and most concerning, the World is now a more dangerous place.
On Back Story w/Dana Lewis podcast this week a new episode on kids and Covid vaccines. Please check it out at this link:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/9165585
Have a good weekend everyone and excuse any typos in the newsletter!
Dana