DemDaily: In Memory of 9/11
September 12, 2024
Wednesday marked the 23rd anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States -- when a group of al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four airplanes and, in a coordinated plan, carried out one of the deadliest acts of terrorism in human history.
It is difficult to pass the day without acknowledging the tragedy -- one that continues to have a profound effect on the lives of many Americans.
The Attack
At 8:46am on September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight #11 was forced to crash into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City's lower Manhattan.
17 minutes later, at 9:03am, United Airlines Flight #175 crashed into the South Tower, resulting in the collapse of both 110-story buildings within an hour and forty-two minute period.
24 minutes later, at 9:37am, a third plane, American Airlines Flight #77, crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, leading to a partial collapse of the building's west side.
The fourth plane, United Airlines Flight #93, believed to have been headed for the US Capitol, crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania at 10:03am -- after its 40 passengers and crew bravely sacrificed their lives to thwart the hijackers.
| Nearly 3,000 people were murdered that day and more than 6,000 injured. The Trade Center attack remains the single most fatal incident in US history for firefighters and law enforcement officers with, respectively, 343 and 71 of their ranks killed in the buildings or on the ground. 55 military personnel died at the Pentagon. |
While a new generation of Americans learns about the devastating assault on our country every September 11th, those of us living during the attack will forever remember where we were at the time and the reality that pierced our way of life and the seemingly safe bubble of our homeland.
The Victims
For the families of responders and victims who subsequently died from toxic exposure and the thousands of those who continue to suffer long-term health effects, the assault is still very real.
The CDC estimates that the health of up to 400,000 people could have been affected. Diseases related to the dust and smoke produced by the collapse of the Twin Towers have now claimed twice as many lives as the attacks themselves 23 years ago – and new health problems are still emerging.
Medical examiners still work daily to match the remains of the approximately 2,700 ground zero victims, 40% of which have still not been identified.
Following the 2001 attack, the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) was created to provide compensation for any individual, or a personal representative of a deceased individual, who was killed, suffered physical harm or who have since been diagnosed with a related illness as a result of the September 11th attacks.
The VCF, which is administered under the Department of Justice, is available to first responders, recovery and cleanup workers and volunteers, as well as people who lived, worked, or went to school in the exposure zone. It is funded through the year 2092.
The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 (Zadroga Act), signed into law in 2011 by President Barack Obama, created The World Trade Center Health Program, which is administered by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
WTC provides high-quality, compassionate medical monitoring and treatment services for WTC-related conditions to first responders, volunteers, survivors and those directly affected by the September 11th attacks in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. That includes first responders from all 50 states and abroad who came to the city to help with the clean-up process in the aftermath of the attacks.
The Health Program, which also funds medical research into physical and mental health conditions related to 9/11 exposures, was extended in 2015 and is authorized through 2090.
| As of June 30, 2024, over 132,000 people were enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program, more than 6800 of whom have died. Researchers have identified more than 60 types of cancer and two dozen other conditions linked to Ground Zero exposures. A victim of a 9/11-related illness dies every two to three days. |
The Threat Within
The 23rd anniversary of 9/11 comes as our nation is suffering the repercussions of its own homegrown terrorism.
Far-right extremism, in particular, has proven itself to be the deadliest ideological threat in the country. Data from think tank New America shows that since the September 11, 2001 attacks, extremists associated with alt-right ideologies – an umbrella covering white supremacy, anti-government, militias, and anti-abortion ideologies – have contributed to the most deaths on US soil of any extremist ideology, including jihadism.
Since the Spring of 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has almost tripled its domestic terrorism caseload.
Three months after the violent January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by far-right extremists, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas testified that "Domestic violent extremism poses the most lethal and persistent terrorism-related threat to our country today."
Three years later, domestic terrorism remains a paramount US national security concern.
In January, “for the first time in its sixteen-year history,” an annual survey on threat priorities conducted by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) “found that the leading concern for foreign policy experts is not a foreign threat to U.S. interests but the possibility of domestic terrorism and acts of political violence in the United States, particularly around the 2024 presidential election.”
Each September 11th is a painful reminder of those we lost, but also of the way Americans came together and triumphed in spirit over those who attempted to divide us. It is a history lesson, we hope, that continues to teach.
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Kimberly Scott
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Sources: CDC, 9/11 Memorial, AP, White House, WTC Health Program, 9/11 VCF, Mount Sinai, Scientific America, US Congress, BBC, SoufanCenter
