Sept. 11 Ten-Year Anniversary

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright September 9, 2011
All Rights Reserved.                                         

           Now that the euphoria’s over about the long-awaited death of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden May 1 by U.S. Navy Seals, the nation commemorates the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11 with mixed blessings.  While much progress has been made since the four simultaneous hijackings of U.S. airliners and nearly 3,000 deaths on Sept. 11, al-Qaeda’s diabolical organization persists, now lead by 60-year-old Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahiri, threatening more terror attacks on U.S. soil.  Al-Qaeda would like nothing more than proving its relevance on the anniversary of Sept. 11 with a spectacular terror attack.  Since Bin Laden’s death, al-Zawahiri has promised revenge, raising the nation’s terror alert-level before Sunday’s memorial.  Armed with automatic weapons at key New York landmarks, Sept. 11 reminds all citizens that the threat of terror continues to dog the American lifestyle  

            Before Sept. 11, Americans traveled freely inside and outside the U.S.  Since the 2001 Patriot Act, American civil liberties and mobility have been compromised, trying to figure out the best way to prevent another attack.  More horrific than the Dec. 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Sept. 11 involved no uniformed military but opened the era of a shadowy sabotoge by the world’s most infamous terror network.  Bin Laden lived up to his billing as the world’s most dangerous man, topping the FBI’s Most Wanted List.  With the stealth attack killing 1,997 innocent bystanders and 19-al-Qaeda suicide bombers.  More than $500 billion has been spent on beefed up U.S. security, including creating the Transportation Security Administration Nov. 19, 2001 at a cost $8.1 billion annually for security at the nation’s airports and ports with 58,401 federal employees, adding to the nation’s budget deficits

            Damage to the U.S. economy has been incalculable, including the trillions of dollars lost in the market sell-off following the Sept. 11 attacks.  Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 684 points or 7.1% on Sept. 18 or the first day of trading after the attacks, the biggest one-day decline in U.S. history.  By the end of the week, the DJIA lost 1,369 points or 14.3%, the nation’s biggest weekly drop, losing $1.4 trillion in market capitalization.  More than the financial losses, the country lost its confidence, a real blow to world’s last remaining superpower.  With firms like investment bank Cantor-Fitzgerald LP losing nearly all its employees [678 to be exact], short sellers reacted violently to Sept. 11, driving the market down with merciless profit-taking.  Watching the colossal market sell-off when stock exchanges reopened Sept. 18, showed the volatile nature of Wall Street trading.

            Every American or world traveler since Sept. 11 knows the long security delays at airports and ports, where TSA officials apply a one-size-fits-all approach to transportation security.  Cognizant of racial profiling, the TSA has bent over backwards targeting security across the board, sometime shocking travelers with outrageous searches of the disabled and elderly.  Calling the terror threat for the anniversary “credible and unconfirmed,” New York police promised tightened security around Times Square, Wall Street and the Sept. 11 memorial at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, the former site of the World Trade Center Twin Towers.  New York Police reported an urgent manhunt for suspected terrorists linked to al-Zawahiri.   While Friday’s 304 sell-off was blamed on Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, senior Wall Street trader Sam Ginzburg with First New York Securities could feel the sane post-Sept. 11 panic.

            New York authorities and the U.S. Secret Service are especially concerned about President Barack Obama’s memorial speech on Sunday, Sept. 11 at Ground Zero.  “We have the opening of the 9/11 memorial, the president and two former presidents here, obviously a lot of high profile public officials will be here, so we have to be concerned,” said New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelley.  Unconfirmed security reports indicate that al-Qaeda seeks to detonate a car bomb to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden.  With all the cordons and checkpoints, it’s going to be difficult for any operative to attack a hard target, possibly choosing soft targets like bridges, tunnels or the New York City subway system.  “We don’t have a smoking gun but we do have the talk about using a car bomb,” said Vice President Joe Biden on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” confirming chatter picked up in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

               Ten years after Sept. 11, the country is still occasionally on pins and needles, with intel and law enforcement officials groping to find terror operations.  Sunday’s 10-year anniversary is a bitter reminder of the ongoing war on terror.  Whether or not the U.S. fights active wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the daily drudgery and vigilance goes on to protect U.S. national security from terrorist acts.  Killing Bin Laden was proof the long arm of American justice eventually gets its man.  However Bin Laden slipped through the cracks of the CIA and FBI, the daily work of refining intel and law enforcement work to fight terrorism continues.  Costly foreign wars won’t prevent the next terror attack against the U.S. homeland.  Sunday’s memorial at Ground Zero should help the country regain a stable footing lost when Bin Laden’s gang of outlaws awakened the sleeping giant to meet its new destiny on the world stage.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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