The Stories Behind 9/11
By: Noah Baker
How we overcame 9/11
- On May 9th, 2007, President George W. Bush issued National Security Presidential Directive 51. The order provided for “continuity of government” and for the country’s “effective response to and recovery from a national emergency."
- The directive recognized the reality that the Cold War’s end had ushered in a different and far more complex security environment
How it changed the U.S.
- This time, there was no declaration of war or independence, just a warning that if we altered our ways, the terrorists would have won.
- It changed us by the way we get through airport security they check everything and make you walk through an x-ray.
- But Sept. 11, 2001, did not change the nation as abruptly as Dec. 7, 1941, or as dramatically as July 4, 1776.
How did they do this?
- At least three eyewitnesses spotted al Qaeda hijackers casing the security checkpoints at Boston’s Logan Airport months before the 9/11 attacks.
- The witness alerted security, but authorities never questioned the belligerent Egyptian national or flagged him as a threat
- One of the witnesses, an American Airlines official, actually confronted hijacking ringleader Mohamed Atta after watching him videotape and test a security checkpoint in May 2001.