Spc. Michael Pendry with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment participates in a patrol on July 17, 2011 in Iskandariya, Babil Province, Iraq.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Timeline
Key moments of the 9/11 decade
Jennifer Pagliaro
Globe and Mail Update
Published
Last updated
In the decade since 9/11, the Globe plots the significant moments where America lost its moral, financial and physical footing in the war on terror and where al-Qaeda lost its support from and influence over the Middle East.
-
This September 11, 2001 file photo shows a man standing in the rubble, and calling out asking if anyone needs help, after the collapse of the first World Trade Center Tower in New York.— Doug Kanter/AFP/Getty Images
SEPT. 11, 2001
Attacks on America
At 8:46 a.m., hijacked American Flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. Seventeen minutes later, United Flight 175 hit the south tower. It was the beginning of a day that included two more hijacked planes – one that crashed into the Pentagon and another that was taken back by those onboard and crash landed in a field in Pennsylvania. In all, the attacks killed nearly 3,000 people.
-
U.S. Marines run to load their gear as they prepare to fly to a new position somewhere near Kandahar, Afghanistan, Monday, Dec. 10, 2001.— Earnie Grafton/AP Pool/The San Diego Union-Tribune
OCT. 7, 2001
Invasion of Afghanistan
The war on terror began with Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led mission into Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaeda and Taliban strongholds and snuff out Osama bin Laden. In his address to the nation that day, president George W. Bush drew a line in the sand for anyone who would consider harbouring the “enemy”: “Every nation has a choice to make. In this conflict, there is no neutral ground. If any government sponsors the outlaws and killers of innocents, they have become outlaws and murderers, themselves. And they will take that lonely path at their own peril.” America’s total monetary cost of war is highly debated. A recent study from Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies estimates the combined cost of wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan could be as high as $4-trillion. According to the U.S. Department of Defence, 1,749 U.S. personnel have died and 13,609 have been wounded in action since the Afghanistan operation began.
-
President George W. Bush signs the Patriot Act Anti-Terrorism Bill into law during a ceremony at the White House, October 26, 2001.— Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
OCT. 26, 2001
Signing of the Patriot Act
The United State’s antiterrorism bill became law just over a month after the attacks of Sept. 11. Among other controversial provisions, the Patriot Act allows police to detain anyone suspected of terrorism for seven days without charge and approves the use of roving wiretaps. The act originally included “sunset clauses,” causing several of these controversial provisions expire after four years if not renewed by Congress. In July 2005, those provisions were extended and again under President Barack Obama in May 2011.
-
In this Feb. 2, 2002 file photo, a suspected al-Qaeda or Taliban detainee from Afghanistan is carried on a stretcher before being interrogated by military officials at the detention facility Camp X-Ray on Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. — Lynne Sladky/AP
JAN. 11, 2002
Guantanamo's first prisoners arrive
The first 20 suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners were transported in shackles to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, exactly four months after the attacks on American soil. Since then, prisoner’s have lived in legal limbo, since the base does not sit on U.S. territory. At the time of the first prisoner’s arrival, then U.S. defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld told media the detainees would not be treated as prisoner’s of war, but as “unlawful combatants,” therefore stripping them of all rights under the Geneva Conventions. In 2006, the Bush administration announced treatment of detainees would be held to minimum standards of the Geneva Conventions. The U.S. government has come under fire since Guantanamo opened for the reportedly inhumane treatment of inmates. Prisoners were reported to be chained to the floor, forced to bark like a dog and endure near day-long interrogation. Most recent numbers suggest the prison currently holds 171 detainees.
-
A U.S. Marine attached to the 15th Marines Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable (15th MEU (SOC)) dashes over foothills and trenches while conducting a mission in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in Zubayr, southern Iraq, in this March 23, 2003 photo made available Wednesday, April 2, 2003.— Lance Cpl. Brian L. Wickliffe/AP Pool
MARCH 19, 2003
Invasion of Iraq
After George W. Bush delivered an ultimatum for Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave Iraq, the U.S. and coalition forces launched Operation Iraqi Freedom, targeting the presidential palace in Baghdad where Mr. Hussein was believed to be. In the end, Mr. Hussein wasn’t inside the complex. After less than two months of fighting, in a grand ceremony on the deck of an aircraft carrier, Mr. Bush stood in front of a banner that read “Mission Accomplished” and declared an end to combat operations in Iraq. But that war continued well into 2010, with mounting causalities on both sides. In December 2003, Mr. Hussein was captured in a dirt hole by U.S. forces. Three years later, after being convicted of mass murder, he was executed in Baghdad. In February 2010, the war was re-coined “Operation New Dawn,” coinciding with a U.S. troop drawdown. According to the U.S. Department of Defence, since operations in Iraq began, 4,477 U.S. personnel have been killed and 32,186 have been wounded in action.
-
This handout photo from SBS TV received 15 February 2006 allegedly shows a hooded and bound prisoner being attacked by a dog in Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib jail supposedly during interrogation by US soldiers in Baghdad in 2004.— AFP/Getty Images
APRIL 28, 2004
Abu Ghraib abuse revealed
A month after six U.S. military police were charged on multiple counts for abuse of about 20 Iraqi inmates, CBS News aired graphic images of the prisoners on 60 Minutes II. The images depicted the officers stacking prisoners in human pyramids, and in one iconic image, of a prisoner standing atop a box with a bag on his head and wires attached to his hands. He was allegedly made to believe he would be electrocuted if he fell from the box. The abuse at Abu Ghraib renewed international criticism of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and its violent military actions.
-
Osama bin Laden is seen in this video grab image taken from an undated video, aired on al-Jazeera Arabic Satellite TV October 29, 2004. — Muhannad Fala'ah/Getty Images
OCT. 29, 2004
Al Jazeera airs new bin Laden videotape
In an 18-minute broadcast on the Arabic language news channel during a U.S. presidential election, Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the Sept. 11 attacks and taunted the Bush administration for its financial scramble to continue to fight against al-Qaeda. “So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy,” Mr. bin Laden said. The video came at the beginning of what analysts claim was a resurgence for al-Qaeda. According to Foreign Affairs, al-Qaeda “quadrupled its output of videos between 2005 and 2006.” And in 2007, The New York Times reported Mr. bin Laden and his commanders had regained “significant control” over their international terror network and were building up operations in northern Pakistan.
-
A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange September 15, 2008 in New York City.— Spencer Platt/Getty Images
SEPT. 15, 2008
Lehman Brothers fall, signalling economic crisis
Mid-September, amid a credit crisis on Wall St., investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. filed for the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history, with $613-billion in debt. As one of several institutions who bet big on the housing market – and lost – the fall of Lehman brothers signalled a growing economic crisis that spurred a crumbling housing sector on the back of subprime mortgages. In the end, it was regular Americans, not investment bankers, who were out in the cold – with nearly a million homes foreclosed in the immediate aftermath and plans for millions more to join them.
-
Young Afghan boys attend daily Quranic lessons in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010.— Altaf Qadri/AP Photo
OCT. 13, 2009
Finances, and support, for al-Qaeda wanes
U.S. Treasury officials announced at a press conference that al-Qaeda was experiencing a significant shortage in funds. “We assess that [al-Qaeda] is in its weakest financial condition in several years, and that, as a result, its influence is waning,” the Guardian reported David Cohen, senior U.S. treasury department’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing, as saying. But Mr. Cohen warned that reality could quickly change. While analysts agreed that support remained strong for the Taliban in Afghanistan, there was debate over whether the ties between the two groups would suffer as a result of al-Qaeda’s financial situation. In February 2011, the United Nations reported that al-Qaeda was “weaker than at any time since its resurgence in 2005” and the events of the Arab Spring signified a failure to influence that part of the world.
-
A Tunisian man puts flowers at Mohamed Bouazizi Martyr Street, in recognition of Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire on December 17, 2010 which in part sparked the Tunisian revolution.— Fethi Belaid/AFP/Getty Images
DEC. 17, 2010
Mohamed Bouazizi becomes a martyr for Tunisian revolution
When a 26-year-old street vendor was publicly humiliated by a municipal inspector in Tunisia, he set himself on fire in political protest. It sparked a wave of protest across Tunisia and would end with the resignation of dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. Those protests would later be recognized as the beginning of the Arab Spring, which included revolutions across the Arab world in Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, Jordan and Syria. Months after the fall of Mr. Ben Ali, protesters in Egypt’s forced president Hosni Mubarak to step down and rebels toppled Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi.
-
fghans watch television coverage announcing the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at an electronics store on May 2, 2011 in Kabul, Afghanistan.— Majid Saeedi/Getty Images
MAY 2, 2011
Osama bin Laden is killed
When President Barack Obama stepped to the podium on May 2, he announced to the world that America’s No. 1 enemy and the mastermind of 9/11, was killed. Americans amassed on the lawn of the White House, and in New York, to celebrate, carrying American flags and signs that read: “Thanks Barack.” But analysts were quick to comment on the ability of al-Qaeda to survive without its so-called spiritual leader. And Mr. Obama said the U.S.’s mission to fight terror is still far from over: “There’s no doubt that [al- Qaeda] will continue to pursue attacks against us. We must – and we will – remain vigilant at home and abroad.”
