PICTURES!

Here are some cute cartoons on Al-Qaeda/terrorists!

Failures & Success of 9/11

An image that shows the various success and failures brought by the 9/11 attack. What do you think the cartoonist is trying to tell the people of U.S from this image?

(Source: http://img.timeinc.net/time/cartoons/20090123/cartoons_04.jpg)

Posted by: MX

Background Information on 911 Incident

The September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by Al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. On that morning, 19 Islamist terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the buildings. Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying at least two nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Somerset County, Pennsylvania, after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C. There are no survivors from any of the flights.

Excluding the 19 hijackers, 2,974 people died in the attacks. The overwhelming majority of casualties were civilians, including nationals of over 90 different countries. In addition, the death of at least one person from lung disease was ruled by a medical examiner to be a result of exposure to dust from the World Trade Center's collapse.

Social Impacts of 911

Social Impacts
After the 911 attack in 2001, there was a strong surge of patriotism in virtually all facets of American society. The government, being aware that the most deadly attack ever in U.S could stir up animosity against the ethnic or religious group of the perpetrators, went out of its way along with the media to separate Islam from the actions taken by its more radical adherents, referring to it at multiple times as a "religion of love".

The overall effect of hostility towards these groups was barely noticeable. Although there were literally millions of Muslims in America out of a total population of 300 million who could have sought out reprisals, in an entire year less than 500 cases of aggression of verbal hostility were reported.

POLITICAL IMPACTS

Terrorist acts have great potential to alter the structure of a society, and by mandating the development of new laws, these outbreaks can challenge the roots of a society.

After the 911 attack...

In the United States, after the attack on September 11, 2001,there was tightnening various controls and new airport laws were enforced, which involved multiple checks on luggage and belongings.

The atmosphere of hatred and intimidation which will be whipped up against the seven million Muslims in the US and other countries is typified by what has been reported from Chicago.

Many taxi drivers come from Muslim countries and one fleet ordered drivers to go home on Tuesday following a proliferation of abusive comments from passengers. Moreover, many Muslim colleges and mosques remain under guard.

sources:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/news/2008/09/sec-080911-rferl01.htm

http://socialistworld.net/eng/2001/09/14d.html

Psychological Impact

The 911 incident traumatized the citizens in America. When the building is collapsing, people jumped out of it and the bodies landing down from the building created an unforgettable poignant image of the victims' plight.

Tens of thousands of public-school children in New York City are experiencing chronic nightmares, fear of public places, severe anxiety and other mental health problems months after the World Trade Center attack, a study conducted for the Board of Education has found.

Board officials say the study provides the most comprehensive look ever at the psychological impact of a major disaster on American schoolchildren.

The results released provided strong evidence that the terrorist attack took a heavy psychological toll on city children, including many who were not directly affected. Girls were more likely than boys to experience psychological problems.

The study estimates that 75,000 schoolchildren in the 4th through the 12th grades, or 10.5 percent of the children in those grades, suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after Sept. 11. Even more -- 107,395, or 15 percent -- suffered agoraphobia, or fear of public places. Mr. Levy said that many in that category admitted a fear of riding public transportation after the attack. That is a a significant finding, since a large percentage of city students take buses or subways to school.

Children who live or attend school near ground zero were most likely to experience mental health problems, but they were not so heavily affected as children from around the city who had relatives or acquaintances injured or killed in the attack.

Symptoms experienced:

• Thinking obsessively about the attack
• Trying not to think, hear or talk about it
• Trouble sleeping
• Chronic nightmares
• Shortened attention spans

Employees can suffer from post traumatic stress disorders even when an extreme incident is not work-related. The impact of disaster and death on human beings has been chronicled for long. Traumatic incidents affect an individual's personal and professional life.

Symptoms experienced:

• "Flashbacks" about the traumatic incident
• Nightmares or sleep disorders
• Impaired functioning
• Occupational instability Sense of detachment, memory lapses Marital or family discord

Economic Costs to the United States Stemming From the 9/11 Attacks

9/11 terrorist attack not only resulted in a tragic loss of life and destruction of property, but also a short-term disruption of economic activity. There is short term and long term impacts brought by the terrorist attack.

Short term Impacts
1. Lower Manhattan lost approximately 30 percent of its office space and a number of businesses ceased to exist.
2. Close to 200,000 jobs were destroyed or relocated out of New York City, at least temporarily.
3. The destruction of physical assets was estimated in the national accounts to amount to $14 billion for private businesses, $1.5 billion for state and local government enterprises and $0.7 billion for federal enterprises.
4. Rescue, cleanup and related costs have been estimated to amount to at least $11 billion for a total direct cost of $27.2 billion.

Long term Impacts
1. Higher operating costs.
2. Higher levels of inventories.
3. Higher risk premium.
4. Shift of resources away from the civilian labor force toward the military.
5. Shift away from globalization.

Looking for more information? : http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si/aug02/homeland.asp

Posted by: MX