Just days before the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the trial into the terror attack still remains in the pretrial phase. The prosecution of the alleged mastermind and four others restarts Tuesday, stirring new hopes for justice and retribution.

Pretrial hearings for alleged 9/11 terrorist attack plotters restarts

For more than two weeks after the twin towers collapsed on 9/11, hundreds of search and rescue dogs hunted for signs of life in the smouldering ruins.

Ricky, a 17-inch-tall rat terrier, was able to squeeze into tight spaces. Trakr, a German shepherd from Canada, combed the wreckage for two days — then collapsed from smoke inhalation, exhaustion and burns. Riley, a 4-year-old golden retriever, searched deep into the debris fields and helped locate the bodies of several firefighters.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/is-911-a-day-or-is-it-an-era-411151">Is 9/11 a day, or is it an Era?</a>

“We went there expecting to find hundreds of people trapped,” said Chris Selfridge, 54, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, who was Riley’s handler. “But we didn’t find anybody alive.”

Though there were not many survivors to find amid the destruction, the devotion of the dogs to their work became an inspiring sight to emergency medical workers and to others who witnessed the urgent rescue effort. Now, as the 20th anniversary of the attacks approaches, those efforts are being memorialized in an exhibition opening Wednesday at the American Kennel Club’s Museum of the Dog.

Titled “9/11 Remembered: Search &amp; Rescue Dogs,” the exhibition also looks beyond the parameters of 9/11 to recognize dogs who worked at other disasters as well, not just in the United States, but around the world. The show will also include several pieces from the DOGNY project, an art initiative that features life-size sculptures of German shepherds. Roughly 100 of them were placed around New York after the attacks.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/how-911-changed-air-travel-more-security-less-privacy-411141">How 9/11 changed air travel: More security, less privacy</a>

“I hope this can be a little more uplifting,” Alan Fausel, the museum’s executive director, said. “We also showcase some of the brighter sides and positive outcomes: Rex of White Way rescued a whole train of people stuck in the Sierra Nevadas in the ’50s, and we’ll talk about St. Bernards such as Barry, a very famous St. Bernard in the St. Bernard hospice in Switzerland who rescued avalanche victims.”

The display follows up on an ongoing temporary exhibition at the 9/11 Memorial &amp; Museum in lower Manhattan, “K-9 Courage,” which opened in January 2020, but was hardly seen because of the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/coronavirus">pandemic</a>. That exhibit, which runs into spring 2022, features photographer Charlotte Dumas’ portraits of 15 of the dogs who aided in recovery efforts at ground zero, taken for the 10-year anniversary in 2011, alongside photos of them working in the wreckage.

“You look into their eyes in their old age and can, with the help of the documentary photographs, imagine what their eyes had seen,” Alice M. Greenwald, the chief executive and president of the museum, said. “But you also know that they’ve lived lives of service and surely, there is satisfaction in that — for dogs and human beings, alike.”

Some 2,753 people were killed when the terrorist group al-Qaida hijacked two planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center’s towers, causing them both to collapse in the span of 102 minutes.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/freedom-tower-the-skyscraper-symbolising-new-yorks-resilience-411055">'Freedom Tower' - the skyscraper symbolising New York's resilience</a>

As an acrid dust cloud enveloped lower Manhattan and a nation mourned, hundreds of search and rescue teams from around the country descended on ground zero to join the search for survivors, with the first dogs, from the NYPD’s K-9 urban search and rescue team, arriving at the South Tower just 15 minutes after its collapse.

The teams worked 12-hour days for an average of 10 days straight.

The New York Police Department has reported that though survivors were found in the rubble, none of those was the direct result of a dog’s discovery. Several people, though, have credited Trackr, a retired police dog, with having played a role in one rescue. His handler, a Canadian policeman who drove down from Nova Scotia, was suspended from his job for leaving without permission when his department saw him on television aiding the rescue efforts. (Jane Goodall later presented him with a humanitarian service award).

Dr. Cynthia Otto, the director of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center in Philadelphia who looked after the dogs at ground zero, said the that, for the most part,&nbsp;the dogs’ injuries were only “very minor” — cuts and scrapes on their paw pads, legs and bellies, mainly, as well as fatigue and heat exhaustion. The bigger challenge, she said, was the frustration of searching for hours and not finding anyone. When the dogs began to get discouraged and lose their motivation to search, handlers had to stage “mock finds” so the dogs could feel successful.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/twenty-years-on-pandemic-gives-911-conspiracists-fresh-impetus-411061">Twenty years on, pandemic gives 9/11 conspiracists fresh impetus</a>

“When they train, they don’t search for hours without finding anybody,” she said in a recent phone conversation. “You need to remind the dogs every so often that they do get to win.”

Bretagne (pronounced Brittany), a golden retriever who was then 2 years old, arrived the week after the attacks and spent 10 days searching for survivors. She slept in a kennel at the Javits Center alongside her handler, Denise Corliss, an electrical engineer from Texas who had traveled to the city with Texas Task Force 1, one of the 28 teams that form the FEMA National Urban Search and Rescue System.

Corliss, 56, said Bretagne, who died in 2016, was the last known living service dog to have been employed by FEMA at ground zero. She brought comfort to rescuers and firefighters, who would approach the dog and pet her. Soon, they’d open up to Corliss, sharing personal stories of the missing friends and colleagues they were searching for.

“A gentleman came up and started petting Bretagne and said, ‘You know, I don’t really like dogs,’” she said. “Which was a surprising statement considering he was kneeling down to pet her. I said ‘Oh?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, my best friend loved dogs; he had a golden retriever himself. My best friend is somewhere out there,’ and he pointed to the pile. It was a tie back to his missing friend.”

And that, Fausel said, is what the Museum of the Dog hopes to capture in its new exhibition.

“The search and rescue dogs didn’t rescue any people from the pile,” he said. “But I think they somewhat rescued the people who were searching.”

For more than two weeks after the twin towers collapsed on 9/11, hundreds of search and rescue dogs hunted for signs of life in the smouldering ruins. Ricky, a 17-inch-tall rat terrier, was able to squeeze into tight spaces.

For more than two weeks after the twin towers collapsed on 9/11, hundreds of search and rescue dogs hunted for signs of life in the smouldering ruins. Ricky, a 17-inch-tall rat terrier, was able to squeeze into tight spaces. Trakr, a German shepherd from Canada, combed the wreckage for two days — then collapsed from smoke inhalation, exhaustion and burns. Riley, a 4-year-old golden retriever, searched deep into the debris fields and helped locate the bodies of several firefighters. Also read | Is 9/11 a day, or is it an Era? “We went there expecting to find hundreds of people trapped,” said Chris Selfridge, 54, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, who was Riley’s handler. “But we didn’t find anybody alive.” Though there were not many survivors to find amid the destruction, the devotion of the dogs to their work became an inspiring sight to emergency medical workers and to others who witnessed the urgent rescue effort. Now, as the 20th anniversary of the attacks approaches, those efforts are being memorialized in an exhibition opening Wednesday at the American Kennel Club’s Museum of the Dog. Titled “9/11 Remembered: Search & Rescue Dogs,” the exhibition also looks beyond the parameters of 9/11 to recognize dogs who worked at other disasters as well, not just in the United States, but around the world. The show will also include several pieces from the DOGNY project, an art initiative that features life-size sculptures of German shepherds. Roughly 100 of them were placed around New York after the attacks. Also read | How 9/11 changed air travel: More security, less privacy “I hope this can be a little more uplifting,” Alan Fausel, the museum’s executive director, said. “We also showcase some of the brighter sides and positive outcomes: Rex of White Way rescued a whole train of people stuck in the Sierra Nevadas in the ’50s, and we’ll talk about St. Bernards such as Barry, a very famous St. Bernard in the St. Bernard hospice in Switzerland who rescued avalanche victims.” The display follows up on an ongoing temporary exhibition at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in lower Manhattan, “K-9 Courage,” which opened in January 2020, but was hardly seen because of the pandemic. That exhibit, which runs into spring 2022, features photographer Charlotte Dumas’ portraits of 15 of the dogs who aided in recovery efforts at ground zero, taken for the 10-year anniversary in 2011, alongside photos of them working in the wreckage. “You look into their eyes in their old age and can, with the help of the documentary photographs, imagine what their eyes had seen,” Alice M. Greenwald, the chief executive and president of the museum, said. “But you also know that they’ve lived lives of service and surely, there is satisfaction in that — for dogs and human beings, alike.” Some 2,753 people were killed when the terrorist group al-Qaida hijacked two planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center’s towers, causing them both to collapse in the span of 102 minutes. Also read | 'Freedom Tower' - the skyscraper symbolising New York's resilience As an acrid dust cloud enveloped lower Manhattan and a nation mourned, hundreds of search and rescue teams from around the country descended on ground zero to join the search for survivors, with the first dogs, from the NYPD’s K-9 urban search and rescue team, arriving at the South Tower just 15 minutes after its collapse. The teams worked 12-hour days for an average of 10 days straight. The New York Police Department has reported that though survivors were found in the rubble, none of those was the direct result of a dog’s discovery. Several people, though, have credited Trackr, a retired police dog, with having played a role in one rescue. His handler, a Canadian policeman who drove down from Nova Scotia, was suspended from his job for leaving without permission when his department saw him on television aiding the rescue efforts. (Jane Goodall later presented him with a humanitarian service award). Dr. Cynthia Otto, the director of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center in Philadelphia who looked after the dogs at ground zero, said the that, for the most part, the dogs’ injuries were only “very minor” — cuts and scrapes on their paw pads, legs and bellies, mainly, as well as fatigue and heat exhaustion. The bigger challenge, she said, was the frustration of searching for hours and not finding anyone. When the dogs began to get discouraged and lose their motivation to search, handlers had to stage “mock finds” so the dogs could feel successful. Also read | Twenty years on, pandemic gives 9/11 conspiracists fresh impetus “When they train, they don’t search for hours without finding anybody,” she said in a recent phone conversation. “You need to remind the dogs every so often that they do get to win.” Bretagne (pronounced Brittany), a golden retriever who was then 2 years old, arrived the week after the attacks and spent 10 days searching for survivors. She slept in a kennel at the Javits Center alongside her handler, Denise Corliss, an electrical engineer from Texas who had traveled to the city with Texas Task Force 1, one of the 28 teams that form the FEMA National Urban Search and Rescue System. Corliss, 56, said Bretagne, who died in 2016, was the last known living service dog to have been employed by FEMA at ground zero. She brought comfort to rescuers and firefighters, who would approach the dog and pet her. Soon, they’d open up to Corliss, sharing personal stories of the missing friends and colleagues they were searching for. “A gentleman came up and started petting Bretagne and said, ‘You know, I don’t really like dogs,’” she said. “Which was a surprising statement considering he was kneeling down to pet her. I said ‘Oh?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, my best friend loved dogs; he had a golden retriever himself. My best friend is somewhere out there,’ and he pointed to the pile. It was a tie back to his missing friend.” And that, Fausel said, is what the Museum of the Dog hopes to capture in its new exhibition. “The search and rescue dogs didn’t rescue any people from the pile,” he said. “But I think they somewhat rescued the people who were searching.”

The dogs of 9/11: Their failed searches for life helped sustain it

The TV specials for the Sept. 11 anniversary offer any number of ways to return to hell. There are wrenching interviews with survivors and with those whose loved ones died; uplifting stories of rescues and agonizing stories of those who perished in the attempt; footage of the conflagration, chaos and shock, as seen on morning newscasts and in the ash-blanketed streets; images of the first responders and volunteers digging through wreckage.

A clarification: I actually took those descriptions from this newspaper’s review programming for the 10th anniversary. But they apply just as well this year, for the 20th.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/how-911-changed-air-travel-more-security-less-privacy-411141">How 9/11 changed air travel: More security, less privacy</a>

In documentary after documentary, on cable, streaming and broadcast, you can hear, over and over, the air traffic-control distress calls. You can see, again and again, the stunning footage of an airliner slamming into the north tower of the World Trade Center, captured by a documentary filmmaker accompanying firefighters on a routine call. You can be reminded, time after heartbreaking time, what a beautiful, blue-sky September morning it was.

The interview subjects have aged. Time has passed. The children who fled schools or lost parents that morning are now grown adults. (Two documentaries, on the History Channel and Discovery+, focus on them.) But the story, as told, is mostly the same.

Twenty years later, is there anything still to say about Sept. 11? Of course; it would be unimaginable to simply ignore it. A tougher question is: Is there anything&nbsp;more&nbsp;to say than there was five, 10, 15 years ago?

There is. But actually saying it can be riskier.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/freedom-tower-the-skyscraper-symbolising-new-yorks-resilience-411055">'Freedom Tower' - the skyscraper symbolising New York's resilience</a>

TV’s treatment of Sept. 11 has changed over the years, in bits and pieces. The adrenaline rush of “24” gave way to the moral grayscale of “Homeland.” MSNBC finally ended its grim tradition of replaying the live coverage of the attacks. But the general approach of the memorial specials, tightly focused on honouring the loss and sacrifice of one discrete day, has kept a kind of ritual familiarity.

For 20 years, the refrain has been: Remember, remember, remember. Memory is so ingrained in the language of Sept. 11 — “Never forget” — as to imply that it is obligatory, and sufficient, for future generations merely to remember by revisiting the narrative and imagery of one terrible day, rather than to connect it to the years of history that followed.

But is Sept. 11 simply a day, or is it an era? Was it the beginning of something or a continuation? You can divide most of the anniversary specials between those that focus closely on the day that the towers fell and those that pull back, way back, to look at what emerged from the dust.

There are plenty of the former kind. On National Geographic, the four-part series “9/11: One Day in America” reassembles in granular detail the horrific experience of that morning. (It’s streaming on Hulu — all the programs mentioned here are currently streaming unless otherwise noted.) A special episode of “60 Minutes,” premiering Sept. 12, revisits the stories of firefighters who survived the catastrophe, and those who didn’t.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/twenty-years-on-pandemic-gives-911-conspiracists-fresh-impetus-411061">Twenty years on, pandemic gives 9/11 conspiracists fresh impetus</a>

Apple TV+’s “9/11: Inside the President’s War Room” interviews George W. Bush and former members of his staff about the decisions and chaos of that morning, with scant reference to any decisions — say, the invasion of Iraq — that followed. And the seven hours of new 9/11 programming on the History Channel include “9/11: Four Flights,” about the aircraft that crashed into the towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, and “9/11: I Was There,” based on amateur video (both premiere on Sept. 11).

These remember-the-day documentaries tend to be heartfelt and reverent; they are often meticulously researched and assembled. (I cannot speak for “Long Island Medium: In Memory of 9/11,” the TLC special, premiering Thursday, that promises to bring families messages from the spirits of their lost loved ones.) They have the benefit of two decades of fact-finding. But for years now, it has been hard for anything to match the immediacy and urgency of “9/11,” the film by Gédéon and Jules Naudet — the brothers whose intended firefighter documentary produced that famous tower-impact shot — which aired on CBS in 2002. (CNN will re-air it on Sunday.)

Focusing on the emotion and heroism of one day, of course, avoids getting ensnared in everything that came after. It sticks to what we can all agree on. It’s safer, in the way that it’s safer to teach the Civil War or Jim Crow as horrors of the past instead of events on a continuum that reaches into the present.

The other approach is to decide that 20 years, a full generation, is long enough to treat the terror attacks as part of a larger historical era.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/911-attacks-us-president-moves-to-declassify-documents-as-20th-anniversary-approaches-410579">9/11 attacks: US president moves to declassify documents as 20th anniversary approaches</a>

Sept. 11 is not only in the past, as you can see in the bloody news from Afghanistan. For viewers who want to unpack how the attacks led to two decades of military entanglements, there’s Netflix’s five-part “Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror,” which looks unsparingly at the intelligence failures before Sept. 11 and the mission creep through multiple administrations. Enlighteningly, it includes the voices of Afghan leaders and civilians. Sept. 11, as an epoch, meant upheaval for more than one nation.

But the history of Sept. 11 goes far beyond war and foreign policy. It affected domestic politics, domestic enmities and even American culture.

And two of the anniversary’s most striking documentaries present Sept. 11 as an event that struck at America’s democracy and even its soul.

The “Frontline” special “America After 9/11,” premiering Tuesday on PBS, is driven by a striking video juxtaposition. First, on the Capitol steps the day of the attacks, a chorus of members of Congress, Republican and Democratic, senators and representatives, join to sing “God Bless America.” Two decades later, on the same site, a mob besieges Congress in an attempt to overturn the results of an election.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/blame-for-afghanistan-lies-on-president-biden-says-911-era-nypd-commissioner-410532">Exclusive: Blame for Afghanistan 'lies on President Biden', says 9/11-era NYPD commissioner&nbsp;</a>

It’s a provocative connection, but filmmaker Michael Kirk lays it out economically: The attacks set off a chain of action and changes — military quagmires, suspicion and racism at home, the loss of trust in institutions — that demagogues used to undermine democracy, and that fulfilled Osama bin Laden’s goal of dividing and weakening America.

From the beginning, the special argues, America’s response was driven by paradox: the moral rhetoric of Bush and the strategies of his vice president, Dick Cheney, who said that America would need to work with “the dark side” to survive.

The dark side won, “America After 9/11” argues. It won when specious claims of weapons of mass destruction rationalized war in Iraq; when images of torture emerged from Abu Ghraib prison; when illustrations of Barack Obama as bin Laden circulated; when the media fed hysteria about terror threats; and when the 2016 election was won by a candidate who said, “I think Islam hates us” and used similar rhetoric for people he labelled domestic enemies.

In this light, the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — with its racist language and its fantasy of reclaiming America from a shadowy existential threat — was, says former Obama aide Ben Rhodes, “the logical endpoint” of the 9/11 era.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/former-commissioner-of-new-york-city-police-dept-bernard-kerik-speaks-on-911-attacks-410624/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

But the most sweeping — and, I expect, ultimately the most memorable — of this year’s documentaries is Spike Lee’s elegiac, messy and feisty “NYC Epicenters: 9/11-2021½,” airing in four parts on HBO.

As the title suggests, “Epicenters” is only partly about 9/11, and it makes a strong case that the 9/11 era can only be captured with the widest lens. It works backwards, starting from the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/coronavirus">COVID-19 pandemic</a> and moving — through Black Lives Matter, the 2016 and 2020 elections and more — to its starting point. In Lee’s telling, Sept. 11 is not just a matter of terrorism, but also the opening act to decades of calamity and uproar.

If it seems like a stretch, “Epicenters” soon makes it difficult to see the subject otherwise, drawing connection after connection across the years. There is Rudy Giuliani, “America’s Mayor” in the days after the towers fell, spouting election-hoax fan fiction at Four Seasons Total Landscaping. There is the rash of Islamophobic attacks after Sept. 11, echoing in the xenophobia of the Trump era. There are emergency medical workers suffering from 9/11-related illnesses that loom as preexisting conditions during the pandemic.

Sept. 11, in Lee’s telling, is itself a preexisting condition. It is not a one-time injury but a chronic affliction, and other, pre-preexisting conditions express themselves through it as well. New York came back from it, and, “Epicenters” insists, it will come back from COVID. But in his crowning image, Lee likens that comeback to Marlon Brando’s bloodied stagger at the end of “On the Waterfront.” Each blow leaves a mark.

“Epicenters” uses clips from a lot of films to evoke the city, from “On the Town” to the 1976 remake of “King Kong” to Lee’s own work. Lee’s memory of New York, like many people’s, is a blend of lived experience and fantasy. And sometimes the exaggerated language of film is the only thing that can capture larger-than-life experience; as the series notes, people describe Sept. 11, over and over, as being “like a movie.”

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/entertainment/hollywood/news-spike-lee-re-edits-9-11-documentary-featuring-conspiracy-theorists-408396">Spike Lee re-edits 9-11 documentary featuring conspiracy theorists</a>

Lee’s interviews — with hundreds of people, from high elected officials to heavy-equipment operators at ground zero — are warm, emotional, sometimes sparring. He ribs every Boston Red Sox fan he talks to; when his subjects need time to collect themselves, he lets the moments play out. For politicians, he lets the raspberries fly freely (the captions refer to Donald Trump, in the words of the rapper Busta Rhymes, as “President Agent Orange”).

One could argue over which director is most essentially New York. But Lee’s passionate heckler’s breed of New York-ness may be the best suited to this subject. He is loving and critical, impulses that New Yorkers know as synonyms. And his focus on diversity and race helps him find less-heard voices in a much-told story, like those of the Vulcan Society for Black firefighters, or of the Black flight attendant who guiltily recalls “racially profiling” a Saudi passenger after Sept. 11.

Unfortunately, “Epicenters” has made the most news for what you won’t see in it: an extended, bizarre section in the original final episode that gave credence to the conspiracists who theorize that the towers were brought down by a controlled explosion. Lee snipped the entire section, and despite the blunt edit, the shorter final cut, which premieres on Sept. 11, actually flows better.

I could imagine a version of “Epicenters” that still covered the conspiracy theories, not to legitimize them, but as an example of the paranoia that thrives in a country lacking social trust — which Lee rightly deplores when it comes to anti-vaccine theories and the election hoaxes that drove some of the Capitol assailants.

There’s a sobering meta-lesson in the fact that the most artful of this season’s Sept. 11 documentaries became an example of one of the very problems it diagnosed. But at least the resolution shows that criticism can make a difference, and that it’s not too late to look at history seriously and make a change.

The TV specials for the Sept. 11 anniversary offer any number of ways to return to hell. There are wrenching interviews with survivors and with those whose loved ones died; uplifting stories of rescues and agonizing stories of those who perished in the attempt; footage of the conflagration, chaos and shock, as seen on morning newscasts and in the ash-blanketed streets; images of the first responders and volunteers digging through wreckage.

The TV specials for the Sept. 11 anniversary offer any number of ways to return to hell. There are wrenching interviews with survivors and with those whose loved ones died; uplifting stories of rescues and agonizing stories of those who perished in the attempt; footage of the conflagration, chaos and shock, as seen on morning newscasts and in the ash-blanketed streets; images of the first responders and volunteers digging through wreckage. A clarification: I actually took those descriptions from this newspaper’s review programming for the 10th anniversary. But they apply just as well this year, for the 20th. Also read | How 9/11 changed air travel: More security, less privacy In documentary after documentary, on cable, streaming and broadcast, you can hear, over and over, the air traffic-control distress calls. You can see, again and again, the stunning footage of an airliner slamming into the north tower of the World Trade Center, captured by a documentary filmmaker accompanying firefighters on a routine call. You can be reminded, time after heartbreaking time, what a beautiful, blue-sky September morning it was. The interview subjects have aged. Time has passed. The children who fled schools or lost parents that morning are now grown adults. (Two documentaries, on the History Channel and Discovery+, focus on them.) But the story, as told, is mostly the same. Twenty years later, is there anything still to say about Sept. 11? Of course; it would be unimaginable to simply ignore it. A tougher question is: Is there anything more to say than there was five, 10, 15 years ago? There is. But actually saying it can be riskier. Also read | 'Freedom Tower' - the skyscraper symbolising New York's resilience TV’s treatment of Sept. 11 has changed over the years, in bits and pieces. The adrenaline rush of “24” gave way to the moral grayscale of “Homeland.” MSNBC finally ended its grim tradition of replaying the live coverage of the attacks. But the general approach of the memorial specials, tightly focused on honouring the loss and sacrifice of one discrete day, has kept a kind of ritual familiarity. For 20 years, the refrain has been: Remember, remember, remember. Memory is so ingrained in the language of Sept. 11 — “Never forget” — as to imply that it is obligatory, and sufficient, for future generations merely to remember by revisiting the narrative and imagery of one terrible day, rather than to connect it to the years of history that followed. But is Sept. 11 simply a day, or is it an era? Was it the beginning of something or a continuation? You can divide most of the anniversary specials between those that focus closely on the day that the towers fell and those that pull back, way back, to look at what emerged from the dust. There are plenty of the former kind. On National Geographic, the four-part series “9/11: One Day in America” reassembles in granular detail the horrific experience of that morning. (It’s streaming on Hulu — all the programs mentioned here are currently streaming unless otherwise noted.) A special episode of “60 Minutes,” premiering Sept. 12, revisits the stories of firefighters who survived the catastrophe, and those who didn’t. Also read | Twenty years on, pandemic gives 9/11 conspiracists fresh impetus Apple TV+’s “9/11: Inside the President’s War Room” interviews George W. Bush and former members of his staff about the decisions and chaos of that morning, with scant reference to any decisions — say, the invasion of Iraq — that followed. And the seven hours of new 9/11 programming on the History Channel include “9/11: Four Flights,” about the aircraft that crashed into the towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, and “9/11: I Was There,” based on amateur video (both premiere on Sept. 11). These remember-the-day documentaries tend to be heartfelt and reverent; they are often meticulously researched and assembled. (I cannot speak for “Long Island Medium: In Memory of 9/11,” the TLC special, premiering Thursday, that promises to bring families messages from the spirits of their lost loved ones.) They have the benefit of two decades of fact-finding. But for years now, it has been hard for anything to match the immediacy and urgency of “9/11,” the film by Gédéon and Jules Naudet — the brothers whose intended firefighter documentary produced that famous tower-impact shot — which aired on CBS in 2002. (CNN will re-air it on Sunday.) Focusing on the emotion and heroism of one day, of course, avoids getting ensnared in everything that came after. It sticks to what we can all agree on. It’s safer, in the way that it’s safer to teach the Civil War or Jim Crow as horrors of the past instead of events on a continuum that reaches into the present. The other approach is to decide that 20 years, a full generation, is long enough to treat the terror attacks as part of a larger historical era. Also read | 9/11 attacks: US president moves to declassify documents as 20th anniversary approaches Sept. 11 is not only in the past, as you can see in the bloody news from Afghanistan. For viewers who want to unpack how the attacks led to two decades of military entanglements, there’s Netflix’s five-part “Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror,” which looks unsparingly at the intelligence failures before Sept. 11 and the mission creep through multiple administrations. Enlighteningly, it includes the voices of Afghan leaders and civilians. Sept. 11, as an epoch, meant upheaval for more than one nation. But the history of Sept. 11 goes far beyond war and foreign policy. It affected domestic politics, domestic enmities and even American culture. And two of the anniversary’s most striking documentaries present Sept. 11 as an event that struck at America’s democracy and even its soul. The “Frontline” special “America After 9/11,” premiering Tuesday on PBS, is driven by a striking video juxtaposition. First, on the Capitol steps the day of the attacks, a chorus of members of Congress, Republican and Democratic, senators and representatives, join to sing “God Bless America.” Two decades later, on the same site, a mob besieges Congress in an attempt to overturn the results of an election. Also read | Exclusive: Blame for Afghanistan 'lies on President Biden', says 9/11-era NYPD commissioner It’s a provocative connection, but filmmaker Michael Kirk lays it out economically: The attacks set off a chain of action and changes — military quagmires, suspicion and racism at home, the loss of trust in institutions — that demagogues used to undermine democracy, and that fulfilled Osama bin Laden’s goal of dividing and weakening America. From the beginning, the special argues, America’s response was driven by paradox: the moral rhetoric of Bush and the strategies of his vice president, Dick Cheney, who said that America would need to work with “the dark side” to survive. The dark side won, “America After 9/11” argues. It won when specious claims of weapons of mass destruction rationalized war in Iraq; when images of torture emerged from Abu Ghraib prison; when illustrations of Barack Obama as bin Laden circulated; when the media fed hysteria about terror threats; and when the 2016 election was won by a candidate who said, “I think Islam hates us” and used similar rhetoric for people he labelled domestic enemies. In this light, the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — with its racist language and its fantasy of reclaiming America from a shadowy existential threat — was, says former Obama aide Ben Rhodes, “the logical endpoint” of the 9/11 era. But the most sweeping — and, I expect, ultimately the most memorable — of this year’s documentaries is Spike Lee’s elegiac, messy and feisty “NYC Epicenters: 9/11-2021½,” airing in four parts on HBO. As the title suggests, “Epicenters” is only partly about 9/11, and it makes a strong case that the 9/11 era can only be captured with the widest lens. It works backwards, starting from the COVID-19 pandemic and moving — through Black Lives Matter, the 2016 and 2020 elections and more — to its starting point. In Lee’s telling, Sept. 11 is not just a matter of terrorism, but also the opening act to decades of calamity and uproar. If it seems like a stretch, “Epicenters” soon makes it difficult to see the subject otherwise, drawing connection after connection across the years. There is Rudy Giuliani, “America’s Mayor” in the days after the towers fell, spouting election-hoax fan fiction at Four Seasons Total Landscaping. There is the rash of Islamophobic attacks after Sept. 11, echoing in the xenophobia of the Trump era. There are emergency medical workers suffering from 9/11-related illnesses that loom as preexisting conditions during the pandemic. Sept. 11, in Lee’s telling, is itself a preexisting condition. It is not a one-time injury but a chronic affliction, and other, pre-preexisting conditions express themselves through it as well. New York came back from it, and, “Epicenters” insists, it will come back from COVID. But in his crowning image, Lee likens that comeback to Marlon Brando’s bloodied stagger at the end of “On the Waterfront.” Each blow leaves a mark. “Epicenters” uses clips from a lot of films to evoke the city, from “On the Town” to the 1976 remake of “King Kong” to Lee’s own work. Lee’s memory of New York, like many people’s, is a blend of lived experience and fantasy. And sometimes the exaggerated language of film is the only thing that can capture larger-than-life experience; as the series notes, people describe Sept. 11, over and over, as being “like a movie.” Also read | Spike Lee re-edits 9-11 documentary featuring conspiracy theorists Lee’s interviews — with hundreds of people, from high elected officials to heavy-equipment operators at ground zero — are warm, emotional, sometimes sparring. He ribs every Boston Red Sox fan he talks to; when his subjects need time to collect themselves, he lets the moments play out. For politicians, he lets the raspberries fly freely (the captions refer to Donald Trump, in the words of the rapper Busta Rhymes, as “President Agent Orange”). One could argue over which director is most essentially New York. But Lee’s passionate heckler’s breed of New York-ness may be the best suited to this subject. He is loving and critical, impulses that New Yorkers know as synonyms. And his focus on diversity and race helps him find less-heard voices in a much-told story, like those of the Vulcan Society for Black firefighters, or of the Black flight attendant who guiltily recalls “racially profiling” a Saudi passenger after Sept. 11. Unfortunately, “Epicenters” has made the most news for what you won’t see in it: an extended, bizarre section in the original final episode that gave credence to the conspiracists who theorize that the towers were brought down by a controlled explosion. Lee snipped the entire section, and despite the blunt edit, the shorter final cut, which premieres on Sept. 11, actually flows better. I could imagine a version of “Epicenters” that still covered the conspiracy theories, not to legitimize them, but as an example of the paranoia that thrives in a country lacking social trust — which Lee rightly deplores when it comes to anti-vaccine theories and the election hoaxes that drove some of the Capitol assailants. There’s a sobering meta-lesson in the fact that the most artful of this season’s Sept. 11 documentaries became an example of one of the very problems it diagnosed. But at least the resolution shows that criticism can make a difference, and that it’s not too late to look at history seriously and make a change.

Is 9/11 a day, or is it an Era?

Ask anyone old enough to remember travel before Sept. 11, 2001, and you're likely to get a gauzy recollection of what flying was like.

There was security screening, but it wasn't anywhere near as intrusive. There were no long checkpoint lines.

Passengers and their families could walk right to the gate together, postponing goodbye hugs until the last possible moment. Overall, an airport experience meant far less stress.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/freedom-tower-the-skyscraper-symbolising-new-yorks-resilience-411055">'Freedom Tower' - the skyscraper symbolising New York's resilience</a>

That all ended when four hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

The worst terror attack on American soil led to increased and sometimes tension-filled security measures in airports across the world, aimed at preventing a repeat of that awful day. The cataclysm has also contributed to other changes large and small that have reshaped the airline industry,&nbsp;and, for consumers, made air travel more stressful than ever.

Two months after the attacks, President George W. Bush signed legislation creating the Transportation Security Administration, a force of federal airport screeners that replaced the private companies that airlines were hiring to handle security. The law required that all checked bags be screened, cockpit doors be reinforced, and more federal air marshals be put on flights.

There has not been another 9/11. Nothing even close. But after that day, flying changed forever.

New threats, privacy concerns

Here's how it unfolded.

Security measures evolved with new threats, and so travellers were asked to take off belts and remove some items from bags for scanning. Things that clearly could be wielded as weapons, like the box-cutters used by the 9/11 hijackers, were banned. After 'shoe bomber'&nbsp;Richard Reid's attempt to take down a flight from Paris to Miami in late 2001, footwear started coming off at security checkpoints.

Each new requirement seemed to make checkpoint lines longer, forcing passengers to arrive at the airport earlier if they wanted to make their flights. To many travellers, other rules were more mystifying, such as limits on liquids because the wrong ones could possibly be used to concoct a bomb.

"It's a much bigger hassle than it was before 9/11,&nbsp;much bigger,&nbsp;but we have gotten used to it,"&nbsp;Ronald Briggs said as he and his wife, Jeanne, waited at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport for a flight to London last month. The north Texas retirees, who traveled frequently before the pandemic, said they are more worried about <a href="https://www.wionews.com/topics/coronavirus">COVID-19</a> than terrorism.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/twenty-years-on-pandemic-gives-911-conspiracists-fresh-impetus-411061">Twenty years on, pandemic gives 9/11 conspiracists fresh impetus</a>

"The point about taking shoes off because of one incident on a plane seems somewhat on the extreme side," Ronald Briggs said, "but the PreCheck works pretty smoothly, and I've learned to use a plastic belt so I don't have to take it off."&nbsp;

The long lines created by post-attack measures gave rise to the PreCheck and Global Entry "trusted-traveler programs" in which people who pay a fee and provide certain information about themselves pass through checkpoints without removing shoes and jackets or taking laptops out of their bag.

But that convenience has come at a cost: privacy.

On its application and in brief interviews, PreCheck asks people about basic information like work history and where they have lived, and they give a fingerprint and agree to a criminal-records check. Privacy advocates are particularly concerned about ideas that TSA has floated to also examine social media postings (the agency's top official says that has been dropped), press reports about people, location data and information from data brokers including how applicants spend their money.

"It's far from clear that that has any relationship to aviation security,"&nbsp;says Jay Stanley, a privacy expert at the American Civil Liberties Union.

More than 10 million people have enrolled in PreCheck. TSA wants to raise that to 25 million.

The goal is to let TSA officers spend more time on passengers considered to be a bigger risk. As the country marks the 20th anniversary of the attacks, the TSA's work to expand PreCheck is unfolding in a way privacy advocates worry could put people's information at more risk.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/blame-for-afghanistan-lies-on-president-biden-says-911-era-nypd-commissioner-410532">Exclusive: Blame for Afghanistan 'lies on President Biden', says 9/11-era NYPD commissioner&nbsp;</a>

At the direction of Congress, the TSA will expand the use of private vendors to gather information from PreCheck applicants. It currently uses a company called Idemia, and plans by the end of the year to add two more ? Telos Identity Management Solutions and Clear Secure Inc.

Clear, which recently went public, plans to use PreCheck enrollment to boost membership in its own identity-verification product by bundling the two offerings. That will make Clear's own product more valuable to its customers, which include sports stadiums and concert promoters.

"They are really trying to increase their market share by collecting quite a lot of very sensitive data on as many people as they can get their hands on. That strikes a lot of alarm bells for me,"&nbsp;says India McKinney, director of federal affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group for digital rights.

TSA Administrator David Pekoske, though, sees Clear's strategy as helping TSA. Says Pekoske: "We have allowed the vendors to bundle their offerings together with the idea that would be an incentive for people to sign up for the trusted-traveler programs." The TSA is testing the use of kiosks equipped with facial-recognition technology to check photo IDs and boarding passes rather than having an officer do it. Critics say facial-recognition technology makes errors, especially on people of color.

Also read |&nbsp;​​​​​​​<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/911-attacks-us-president-moves-to-declassify-documents-as-20th-anniversary-approaches-410579">9/11 attacks: US president moves to declassify documents as 20th anniversary approaches</a>

TSA officials told privacy advocates earlier this year that those kiosks will also pull photos taken when the traveler applied for PreCheck, McKinney says. That concerns her because it would mean connecting the kiosks to the internet&nbsp;(TSA says that much is true)&nbsp;and potentially exposing the information to hackers.

"They are totally focusing on the convenience factor," McKinney says, "and they are not focusing on the privacy and security factors."

Security theatre&nbsp;

Despite the trauma that led to its creation, and the intense desire to avoid another 9/11, the TSA itself has frequently been the subject of questions about its methods, ideas and effectiveness.

Flight attendants and air marshals were outraged when the agency proposed in 2013 to let passengers carry folding pocket knives and other long-banned items on planes again. The agency dropped the idea. And after another outcry, the TSA removed full-body scanners that produced realistic-looking images that some travelers compared to virtual strip searches. They were replaced by other machines that caused fewer privacy and health objections. Pat-downs of travelers are a constant complaint.

In 2015, a published report said TSA officers failed 95 per cent of the time to detect weapons or explosive material carried by undercover inspectors. Members of Congress who received a classified briefing raised their concerns to Pekoske, with one lawmaker saying that TSA "is broken badly."

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/former-commissioner-of-new-york-city-police-dept-bernard-kerik-speaks-on-911-attacks-410624/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

Critics, including former TSA officers, have derided the agency as "security theater"&nbsp;that gives a false impression of safeguarding the traveling public. Pekoske dismisses that notion by pointing to the huge number of guns seized at airport checkpoints&nbsp;(more than 3,200 last year, 83 per cent&nbsp;of them loaded)&nbsp;instead of making it onto planes.

Pekoske also ticked off other TSA tasks, including vetting passengers, screening checked bags with 3-D technology, inspecting cargo and putting federal air marshals on flights.

"There is an awful lot there that people don't see,"&nbsp;Pekoske says. "Rest assured: This is not security theater. It's real security."

Many independent experts agree with Pekoske's assessment, though they usually see areas where the TSA must improve.

"TSA is an effective deterrent against most attacks,"&nbsp;says Jeffrey Price, who teaches aviation security at Metropolitan State University of Denver and has co-authored books on the subject. "If it's security theater, like some critics say, it's pretty good security theater because since 9/11 we haven't had a successful attack against aviation."

This summer, an average of nearly 2 million people per day have flowed through TSA checkpoints. On weekends and holidays they can be teeming with stressed-out travelers. During the middle of the week, even at big airports like DFW, they are less crowded; they hum rather than roar. Most travelers accept any inconvenience as the price of security in an uncertain world.

Travel "is getting harder and harder, and I don't think it's just my age,"&nbsp;said Paula Gathings, who taught school in Arkansas for many years and was waiting for a flight to Qatar and then another to Kenya, where she will spend the next several months teaching. She blames the difficulty of travel on the pandemic, not the security apparatus.

"They are there for my security. They aren't there to hassle me," Gathings said of TSA screeners and airport police. "Every time somebody asks me to do something, I can see the reason for it. Maybe it's the schoolteacher in me."

Threats from within

In 2015, a Russian airliner crashed shortly after taking off from Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. American and British officials suspected it was brought down by a bomb.

It was, however, the exception rather than the rule. Even outside the United States, terror attacks on aviation since Sept. 11, 2001 have been rare. Is that because of effective security;&nbsp;Proving a negative, or even attributing it directly to a certain flavor of prevention, is always a dicey exercise.

And then there are the inside jobs.

— In 2016, a bomb ripped a hole in a Daallo Airlines plane shortly after takeoff, killing the bomber but 80 other passengers and crew survived. Somali authorities released video from Mogadishu’s airport that they said showed the man being handed&nbsp;a laptop containing the bomb.

— In 2018, a Delta Air Lines baggage handler in Atlanta was convicted of using his security pass to smuggle more than 100 guns on flights to New York.

— The following year, an American Airlines mechanic with Islamic State videos on his phone pleaded guilty to sabotaging a plane full of passengers by crippling a system that measures speed and altitude. Pilots aborted the flight during takeoff in Miami.

Those incidents highlight a threat that TSA needs to worry about — people who work for airlines or airports and have security clearance that lets them avoid regular screening. Pekoske says TSA is improving its oversight of the insider threat.

“All those folks that have a (security) badge, you’re right, many do have unescorted access throughout an airport, but they also go through a very rigorous vetting process before they are even hired,” Pekoske says. Those workers are typically reviewed every few years, but he says TSA is rolling out a system that will trigger immediate alerts based on law enforcement information.

With all the different ways that deadly chaos could happen on airplanes after 9/11, the fact remains: Most of the time, it hasn’t. The act of getting on a metal machine and rising into the air to travel quickly across states and countries and oceans remains a central part of the 21st-century human experience, arduous though it may be.

And while the post-9/11 global airport security apparatus has grown to what some consider unreasonable proportions, it will never neutralize all threats — or even be able to enforce the rules it has written. Just ask Nathan Dudney, a sales executive for a sporting goods manufacturer in Nashville who says he occasionally forgets about ammunition in his carry-on bag.

Sometimes it’s discovered, he says, and sometimes not. He understands.

“You can’t catch everything,” Dudney says. “They’re doing things to the best of their ability.”

Ask anyone old enough to remember travel before Sept. 11, 2001, and you're likely to get a gauzy recollection of what flying was like. There was security screening, but it wasn't anywhere near as intrusive.

Ask anyone old enough to remember travel before Sept. 11, 2001, and you're likely to get a gauzy recollection of what flying was like. There was security screening, but it wasn't anywhere near as intrusive. There were no long checkpoint lines. Passengers and their families could walk right to the gate together, postponing goodbye hugs until the last possible moment. Overall, an airport experience meant far less stress. Also read | 'Freedom Tower' - the skyscraper symbolising New York's resilience That all ended when four hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. The worst terror attack on American soil led to increased and sometimes tension-filled security measures in airports across the world, aimed at preventing a repeat of that awful day. The cataclysm has also contributed to other changes large and small that have reshaped the airline industry, and, for consumers, made air travel more stressful than ever. Two months after the attacks, President George W. Bush signed legislation creating the Transportation Security Administration, a force of federal airport screeners that replaced the private companies that airlines were hiring to handle security. The law required that all checked bags be screened, cockpit doors be reinforced, and more federal air marshals be put on flights. There has not been another 9/11. Nothing even close. But after that day, flying changed forever. New threats, privacy concerns Here's how it unfolded. Security measures evolved with new threats, and so travellers were asked to take off belts and remove some items from bags for scanning. Things that clearly could be wielded as weapons, like the box-cutters used by the 9/11 hijackers, were banned. After 'shoe bomber' Richard Reid's attempt to take down a flight from Paris to Miami in late 2001, footwear started coming off at security checkpoints. Each new requirement seemed to make checkpoint lines longer, forcing passengers to arrive at the airport earlier if they wanted to make their flights. To many travellers, other rules were more mystifying, such as limits on liquids because the wrong ones could possibly be used to concoct a bomb. "It's a much bigger hassle than it was before 9/11, much bigger, but we have gotten used to it," Ronald Briggs said as he and his wife, Jeanne, waited at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport for a flight to London last month. The north Texas retirees, who traveled frequently before the pandemic, said they are more worried about COVID-19 than terrorism. Also read | Twenty years on, pandemic gives 9/11 conspiracists fresh impetus "The point about taking shoes off because of one incident on a plane seems somewhat on the extreme side," Ronald Briggs said, "but the PreCheck works pretty smoothly, and I've learned to use a plastic belt so I don't have to take it off." The long lines created by post-attack measures gave rise to the PreCheck and Global Entry "trusted-traveler programs" in which people who pay a fee and provide certain information about themselves pass through checkpoints without removing shoes and jackets or taking laptops out of their bag. But that convenience has come at a cost: privacy. On its application and in brief interviews, PreCheck asks people about basic information like work history and where they have lived, and they give a fingerprint and agree to a criminal-records check. Privacy advocates are particularly concerned about ideas that TSA has floated to also examine social media postings (the agency's top official says that has been dropped), press reports about people, location data and information from data brokers including how applicants spend their money. "It's far from clear that that has any relationship to aviation security," says Jay Stanley, a privacy expert at the American Civil Liberties Union. More than 10 million people have enrolled in PreCheck. TSA wants to raise that to 25 million. The goal is to let TSA officers spend more time on passengers considered to be a bigger risk. As the country marks the 20th anniversary of the attacks, the TSA's work to expand PreCheck is unfolding in a way privacy advocates worry could put people's information at more risk. Also read | Exclusive: Blame for Afghanistan 'lies on President Biden', says 9/11-era NYPD commissioner At the direction of Congress, the TSA will expand the use of private vendors to gather information from PreCheck applicants. It currently uses a company called Idemia, and plans by the end of the year to add two more ? Telos Identity Management Solutions and Clear Secure Inc. Clear, which recently went public, plans to use PreCheck enrollment to boost membership in its own identity-verification product by bundling the two offerings. That will make Clear's own product more valuable to its customers, which include sports stadiums and concert promoters. "They are really trying to increase their market share by collecting quite a lot of very sensitive data on as many people as they can get their hands on. That strikes a lot of alarm bells for me," says India McKinney, director of federal affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group for digital rights. TSA Administrator David Pekoske, though, sees Clear's strategy as helping TSA. Says Pekoske: "We have allowed the vendors to bundle their offerings together with the idea that would be an incentive for people to sign up for the trusted-traveler programs." The TSA is testing the use of kiosks equipped with facial-recognition technology to check photo IDs and boarding passes rather than having an officer do it. Critics say facial-recognition technology makes errors, especially on people of color. Also read | 9/11 attacks: US president moves to declassify documents as 20th anniversary approaches TSA officials told privacy advocates earlier this year that those kiosks will also pull photos taken when the traveler applied for PreCheck, McKinney says. That concerns her because it would mean connecting the kiosks to the internet (TSA says that much is true) and potentially exposing the information to hackers. "They are totally focusing on the convenience factor," McKinney says, "and they are not focusing on the privacy and security factors." Security theatre Despite the trauma that led to its creation, and the intense desire to avoid another 9/11, the TSA itself has frequently been the subject of questions about its methods, ideas and effectiveness. Flight attendants and air marshals were outraged when the agency proposed in 2013 to let passengers carry folding pocket knives and other long-banned items on planes again. The agency dropped the idea. And after another outcry, the TSA removed full-body scanners that produced realistic-looking images that some travelers compared to virtual strip searches. They were replaced by other machines that caused fewer privacy and health objections. Pat-downs of travelers are a constant complaint. In 2015, a published report said TSA officers failed 95 per cent of the time to detect weapons or explosive material carried by undercover inspectors. Members of Congress who received a classified briefing raised their concerns to Pekoske, with one lawmaker saying that TSA "is broken badly." Critics, including former TSA officers, have derided the agency as "security theater" that gives a false impression of safeguarding the traveling public. Pekoske dismisses that notion by pointing to the huge number of guns seized at airport checkpoints (more than 3,200 last year, 83 per cent of them loaded) instead of making it onto planes. Pekoske also ticked off other TSA tasks, including vetting passengers, screening checked bags with 3-D technology, inspecting cargo and putting federal air marshals on flights. "There is an awful lot there that people don't see," Pekoske says. "Rest assured: This is not security theater. It's real security." Many independent experts agree with Pekoske's assessment, though they usually see areas where the TSA must improve. "TSA is an effective deterrent against most attacks," says Jeffrey Price, who teaches aviation security at Metropolitan State University of Denver and has co-authored books on the subject. "If it's security theater, like some critics say, it's pretty good security theater because since 9/11 we haven't had a successful attack against aviation." This summer, an average of nearly 2 million people per day have flowed through TSA checkpoints. On weekends and holidays they can be teeming with stressed-out travelers. During the middle of the week, even at big airports like DFW, they are less crowded; they hum rather than roar. Most travelers accept any inconvenience as the price of security in an uncertain world. Travel "is getting harder and harder, and I don't think it's just my age," said Paula Gathings, who taught school in Arkansas for many years and was waiting for a flight to Qatar and then another to Kenya, where she will spend the next several months teaching. She blames the difficulty of travel on the pandemic, not the security apparatus. "They are there for my security. They aren't there to hassle me," Gathings said of TSA screeners and airport police. "Every time somebody asks me to do something, I can see the reason for it. Maybe it's the schoolteacher in me." Threats from within In 2015, a Russian airliner crashed shortly after taking off from Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt. American and British officials suspected it was brought down by a bomb. It was, however, the exception rather than the rule. Even outside the United States, terror attacks on aviation since Sept. 11, 2001 have been rare. Is that because of effective security; Proving a negative, or even attributing it directly to a certain flavor of prevention, is always a dicey exercise. And then there are the inside jobs. — In 2016, a bomb ripped a hole in a Daallo Airlines plane shortly after takeoff, killing the bomber but 80 other passengers and crew survived. Somali authorities released video from Mogadishu’s airport that they said showed the man being handed a laptop containing the bomb. — In 2018, a Delta Air Lines baggage handler in Atlanta was convicted of using his security pass to smuggle more than 100 guns on flights to New York. — The following year, an American Airlines mechanic with Islamic State videos on his phone pleaded guilty to sabotaging a plane full of passengers by crippling a system that measures speed and altitude. Pilots aborted the flight during takeoff in Miami. Those incidents highlight a threat that TSA needs to worry about — people who work for airlines or airports and have security clearance that lets them avoid regular screening. Pekoske says TSA is improving its oversight of the insider threat. “All those folks that have a (security) badge, you’re right, many do have unescorted access throughout an airport, but they also go through a very rigorous vetting process before they are even hired,” Pekoske says. Those workers are typically reviewed every few years, but he says TSA is rolling out a system that will trigger immediate alerts based on law enforcement information. With all the different ways that deadly chaos could happen on airplanes after 9/11, the fact remains: Most of the time, it hasn’t. The act of getting on a metal machine and rising into the air to travel quickly across states and countries and oceans remains a central part of the 21st-century human experience, arduous though it may be. And while the post-9/11 global airport security apparatus has grown to what some consider unreasonable proportions, it will never neutralize all threats — or even be able to enforce the rules it has written. Just ask Nathan Dudney, a sales executive for a sporting goods manufacturer in Nashville who says he occasionally forgets about ammunition in his carry-on bag. Sometimes it’s discovered, he says, and sometimes not. He understands. “You can’t catch everything,” Dudney says. “They’re doing things to the best of their ability.”

How 9/11 changed air travel: More security, less privacy

It is the skyscraper that replaced the Twin Towers in New York's skyline. Inaugurated in 2014, the One World Trade Center has become a symbol of resilience after the horror of 9/11.&nbsp;

Commonly referred to as the "Freedom Tower," it is America's tallest building at 1,776 feet (541 meters) and an emblem of the US economic capital.

From its conception, the tower had to testify to New York's durability -- looking to the future despite the tragedy -- according to one of its architects, Kenneth Lewis.

As harrowing as the images were of the Twin Towers collapsing to the ground on September 11, 2001, no one questioned replacing them with another skyscraper, situated right next "Ground Zero."

For the architects at SOM, which builds skyscrapers around the world, it was an opportunity to realize concepts that they had been thinking about for years.

"We were thinking it's the beginning of the millennium, we were thinking that this had to be the next generation of buildings, both in terms of safety, as well as environmental impact," recalled Lewis.

Evacuation time

Among the most nightmarish images from 9/11 are those of people jumping to their deaths from the towers to escape the blaze.

The architects launched ideas about how to evacuate people other than from the stairs. Inventors came back with a giant chute, and a zip wire, with a parachutist demonstrating the latter, Lewis remembers.

"It was the scariest thing," he says. "We just couldn't imagine someone who might be a little bit overweight or a little bit afraid taking a jump out the window."

In the end, the only solution was to shield the heart of the building with reinforced concrete, "broad enough that people can get out of there," he explained.

The architects implemented safety standards on One WTC that have since become standard for skyscrapers.

They include wide stairwells to allow a quick evacuation of the 104-storey tower, a signaling light to alert aircraft, fire-resistant cameras and communication tools on every floor to allow rescuers to constantly monitor the situation.

"We had a goal, which was an hour evacuation total time to evacuate the whole building," said Lewis. 
Firefighters were invited to planning meetings. It was they who suggested a back-up system capable of compensating for the failure of emergency generators on 9/11 to provide electricity long enough to evacuate the building.

"They had been through such trauma, they had to be a part of the solutions we were coming up with," said Lewis. 
Fire was not the only concern: in the fall of 2001, several anonymous letters containing anthrax were sent to some media and politicians, killing five people.

"We started to think about the filtering system and the air quality," Lewis explained.

"Think of a worst-case scenario and then what would that mean, and then prepare for it," he added, explaining their methodology.

'Transformative moment'

Almost 20 years later and the pandemic has left One WTC and most of Manhattan's prestigious towers empty for months.

"People were thinking we were going to come back much quicker than we have," admitted Lewis.

"We were immediately looking at the types of filtration systems that are in there these buildings, and most new buildings have high efficiency filters, particulate filters that also deal with viruses."

But if the office towers have not yet regained their pre-pandemic occupancy rate, their preeminence in New York's skyline cannot be called into question.

A tower of some 600 apartments is under construction in Brooklyn and will become the first "super-skyscraper" outside Manhattan when it is completed next year.&nbsp;

Around 20 other skyscrapers are in the works across New York.

As well as the environment, the mental health of the occupants of these buildings is now also a priority, said Lewis.

"We're in 2021 and we're talking about well-being and incorporating that into the spaces we're doing, creating outdoor spaces that people can work in, rooftop terraces that are really workspaces, meeting spaces.

"It really is a transformative moment," he said.

In the meantime, One WTC is on the way to becoming as iconic as its predecessors.

While the 9/11 Memorial symbolises "the void" created by the attacks, the "Freedom Tower" tower represents "the positive," according to Lewis.

"A place of innovation and new thinking and modern ideas of safety and security," he said.

It is the skyscraper that replaced the Twin Towers in New York's skyline. Inaugurated in 2014, the One World Trade Center has become a symbol of resilience after the horror of 9/11.

It is the skyscraper that replaced the Twin Towers in New York's skyline. Inaugurated in 2014, the One World Trade Center has become a symbol of resilience after the horror of 9/11. Commonly referred to as the "Freedom Tower," it is America's tallest building at 1,776 feet (541 meters) and an emblem of the US economic capital. From its conception, the tower had to testify to New York's durability -- looking to the future despite the tragedy -- according to one of its architects, Kenneth Lewis. As harrowing as the images were of the Twin Towers collapsing to the ground on September 11, 2001, no one questioned replacing them with another skyscraper, situated right next "Ground Zero." For the architects at SOM, which builds skyscrapers around the world, it was an opportunity to realize concepts that they had been thinking about for years. "We were thinking it's the beginning of the millennium, we were thinking that this had to be the next generation of buildings, both in terms of safety, as well as environmental impact," recalled Lewis. Evacuation time Among the most nightmarish images from 9/11 are those of people jumping to their deaths from the towers to escape the blaze. The architects launched ideas about how to evacuate people other than from the stairs. Inventors came back with a giant chute, and a zip wire, with a parachutist demonstrating the latter, Lewis remembers. "It was the scariest thing," he says. "We just couldn't imagine someone who might be a little bit overweight or a little bit afraid taking a jump out the window." In the end, the only solution was to shield the heart of the building with reinforced concrete, "broad enough that people can get out of there," he explained. The architects implemented safety standards on One WTC that have since become standard for skyscrapers. They include wide stairwells to allow a quick evacuation of the 104-storey tower, a signaling light to alert aircraft, fire-resistant cameras and communication tools on every floor to allow rescuers to constantly monitor the situation. "We had a goal, which was an hour evacuation total time to evacuate the whole building," said Lewis. Firefighters were invited to planning meetings. It was they who suggested a back-up system capable of compensating for the failure of emergency generators on 9/11 to provide electricity long enough to evacuate the building. "They had been through such trauma, they had to be a part of the solutions we were coming up with," said Lewis. Fire was not the only concern: in the fall of 2001, several anonymous letters containing anthrax were sent to some media and politicians, killing five people. "We started to think about the filtering system and the air quality," Lewis explained. "Think of a worst-case scenario and then what would that mean, and then prepare for it," he added, explaining their methodology. 'Transformative moment' Almost 20 years later and the pandemic has left One WTC and most of Manhattan's prestigious towers empty for months. "People were thinking we were going to come back much quicker than we have," admitted Lewis. "We were immediately looking at the types of filtration systems that are in there these buildings, and most new buildings have high efficiency filters, particulate filters that also deal with viruses." But if the office towers have not yet regained their pre-pandemic occupancy rate, their preeminence in New York's skyline cannot be called into question. A tower of some 600 apartments is under construction in Brooklyn and will become the first "super-skyscraper" outside Manhattan when it is completed next year. Around 20 other skyscrapers are in the works across New York. As well as the environment, the mental health of the occupants of these buildings is now also a priority, said Lewis. "We're in 2021 and we're talking about well-being and incorporating that into the spaces we're doing, creating outdoor spaces that people can work in, rooftop terraces that are really workspaces, meeting spaces. "It really is a transformative moment," he said. In the meantime, One WTC is on the way to becoming as iconic as its predecessors. While the 9/11 Memorial symbolises "the void" created by the attacks, the "Freedom Tower" tower represents "the positive," according to Lewis. "A place of innovation and new thinking and modern ideas of safety and security," he said.

'Freedom Tower' - the skyscraper symbolising New York's resilience

As a supportive gesture to victims' families, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing the declassification of certain documents related to the September 11, 2001&nbsp;terrorist attacks, on Friday.

The families have been asking for the records for a long time. Coming little more than a week before the 20th anniversary of the attacks,&nbsp;the order&nbsp;is a significant moment in a years-long tussle between the government and the families over what classified information about the run-up to the attacks could be made public.

Watch | Gravitas: America's lies on the trillion-dollar Afghan war

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Last month, the conflict was on display when some 1,800 relatives, survivors and first responders opposed Biden's participation in 9/11 events if the documents remained declassified.

"The significant events in question occurred two decades ago or longer, and they concern a tragic moment that continues to resonate in American history and in the lives of so many Americans," the executive order said.

"It is therefore critical to ensure that the United States Government maximises transparency, relying on classification only when narrowly tailored and necessary," added the order.

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/un-chief-to-host-afghanistan-aid-meeting-in-geneva-on-sept-13-spokesman-410578" hreflang="en">UN chief to host Afghanistan aid meeting in Geneva on Sept 13: Spokesman</a>

The order has directed the Justice Department and other executive branch agencies to begin a declassification review and requires that declassified documents be released over the next six months.

The executive order's practical impact and any new documents it might yield was not immediately clear.

(With inputs from agencies)

As a supportive gesture to victims' families, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing the declassification of certain documents related to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, on Friday.

As a supportive gesture to victims' families, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing the declassification of certain documents related to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, on Friday. The families have been asking for the records for a long time. Coming little more than a week before the 20th anniversary of the attacks, the order is a significant moment in a years-long tussle between the government and the families over what classified information about the run-up to the attacks could be made public. Watch | Gravitas: America's lies on the trillion-dollar Afghan war × Last month, the conflict was on display when some 1,800 relatives, survivors and first responders opposed Biden's participation in 9/11 events if the documents remained declassified. "The significant events in question occurred two decades ago or longer, and they concern a tragic moment that continues to resonate in American history and in the lives of so many Americans," the executive order said. "It is therefore critical to ensure that the United States Government maximises transparency, relying on classification only when narrowly tailored and necessary," added the order. Also Read: UN chief to host Afghanistan aid meeting in Geneva on Sept 13: Spokesman The order has directed the Justice Department and other executive branch agencies to begin a declassification review and requires that declassified documents be released over the next six months. The executive order's practical impact and any new documents it might yield was not immediately clear. (With inputs from agencies)

9/11 attacks: US president moves to declassify documents as 20th anniversary approaches

It is going to be 20 years since the world suffered a devastating loss in the US on September 11 as a terrorist-controlled aircrafts struck the famous World Trade Center.<o:p></o:p>

Now, two decades later, the fear caused by those horrifying attacks still continue to haunt several people living in the US, a study claims.<o:p></o:p>

On September 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people were declared dead and several hundred others were injured in the US.

<o:p>Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/jacinda-ardern-calls-new-zealand-stabbing-terrorist-attack-suspect-shot-dead-410375">Jacinda Ardern calls New Zealand stabbing 'terrorist attack'; suspect shot dead</a></o:p>

Data collected before Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan suggests that a lot of people in America are still scared about possible terrorist attacks and have developed a fear of entering skyscrapers.<o:p></o:p>

Majority of Americans who are old enough to remember the attack have clear memories of where they were and what were doing when the heinous attack took place. These people are also scared of travelling in planes and going to a skyscraper now.<o:p></o:p>

Nearly 26 per cent Americans are now scared of flying in airplanes and 36 per cent are hesitant about travelling abroad. In addition to this, 27 per cent people are unwilling to enter a skyscraper and 37 per cent people admit they try to avoid any event that is being attended by hundreds of people.<o:p></o:p>

While the numbers have reduced, the fear still continues decades later, and some believe it may increase now as Taliban took control of Afghanistan.<o:p></o:p>

In a survey, it was also revealed that 44 per cent people from minority groups have altered their lifestyle and are scared of flying since the attack. This showed the way the minority groups were targeted in the country after the attack, as only 21 per cent of White Americans agreed to this change.

<o:p><a href="https://www.wionews.com/videos/gravitas-what-is-the-cost-of-talking-to-the-taliban-410307">WATCH |</a></o:p>

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Americans are sceptical and doubtful about the US government’s hold on terrorism and claim that irrespective of what the officials claim, they believe the government has failed to achieve an upper hand in its fight against terrorism.<o:p></o:p>

US troops were deployed in Afghanistan following the 9/11 attack, as the government vowed to take revenge and justice for those killed in the brutal attack. However, now decades later, as the US troops returned to their home country and Taliban took control of Afghanistan once again, 28 per cent Americans claim they have permanently changed the way they live.<o:p></o:p>

Even before the current Afghan crisis, 22 per cent of people believed that the terrorists are winning the war, rather than the US and 49 per cent of people say that nobody is winning the 'forever war'.<o:p></o:p>

Now, people are also hesitant about whether or not the US government will be able to protect its citizens from terrorism as nearly 36 per cent of people were worried about becoming a victim of some terrorist attack, even before the current Afghan crisis.<o:p></o:p>

It is going to be 20 years since the world suffered a devastating loss in the US on September 11 as a terrorist-controlled aircrafts struck the famous World Trade Center.

It is going to be 20 years since the world suffered a devastating loss in the US on September 11 as a terrorist-controlled aircrafts struck the famous World Trade Center. Now, two decades later, the fear caused by those horrifying attacks still continue to haunt several people living in the US, a study claims. On September 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people were declared dead and several hundred others were injured in the US. Also read | Jacinda Ardern calls New Zealand stabbing 'terrorist attack'; suspect shot dead Data collected before Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan suggests that a lot of people in America are still scared about possible terrorist attacks and have developed a fear of entering skyscrapers. Majority of Americans who are old enough to remember the attack have clear memories of where they were and what were doing when the heinous attack took place. These people are also scared of travelling in planes and going to a skyscraper now. Nearly 26 per cent Americans are now scared of flying in airplanes and 36 per cent are hesitant about travelling abroad. In addition to this, 27 per cent people are unwilling to enter a skyscraper and 37 per cent people admit they try to avoid any event that is being attended by hundreds of people. While the numbers have reduced, the fear still continues decades later, and some believe it may increase now as Taliban took control of Afghanistan. In a survey, it was also revealed that 44 per cent people from minority groups have altered their lifestyle and are scared of flying since the attack. This showed the way the minority groups were targeted in the country after the attack, as only 21 per cent of White Americans agreed to this change. WATCH | Americans are sceptical and doubtful about the US government’s hold on terrorism and claim that irrespective of what the officials claim, they believe the government has failed to achieve an upper hand in its fight against terrorism. US troops were deployed in Afghanistan following the 9/11 attack, as the government vowed to take revenge and justice for those killed in the brutal attack. However, now decades later, as the US troops returned to their home country and Taliban took control of Afghanistan once again, 28 per cent Americans claim they have permanently changed the way they live. Even before the current Afghan crisis, 22 per cent of people believed that the terrorists are winning the war, rather than the US and 49 per cent of people say that nobody is winning the 'forever war'. Now, people are also hesitant about whether or not the US government will be able to protect its citizens from terrorism as nearly 36 per cent of people were worried about becoming a victim of some terrorist attack, even before the current Afghan crisis.

Two decades later, Americans fear entering skyscraper as memories of 9/11 attack still haunt US

As the US enters the final phase of its pullout from <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/several-rockets-fired-towards-kabul-airport-intercepted-by-us-defence-system-report-409275">Afghanistan</a>&nbsp;amid attacks on Kabul airport, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said people on the ground working with indigenous forces is the "best insurance policy against another 9/11".

Graham was speaking to a US television network asserted that, "I wouldn’t have withdrawn" while adding, "I would have kept the counterterrorism forces on the ground."

"I would have held the Taliban to the conditions set out in the agreement with Trump,” the Republican Senator said referring to the Doha talks which opened last year between the former Trump administration officials and the Taliban.

Watch:

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The Republican Senator said, "parade of horribles" has been unfolding in Afghanistan amid the US evacuation with "hundreds of American citizens" being left behind.

"The chance of another 9/11 just went through the roof. These drone attacks will not degrade ISIS," Graham said, adding," the number of <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/hibatullah-akhundzada-talibans-reclusive-leader-set-to-play-key-role-in-afghanistan-409338">ISIS</a> fighters have doubled. We have turned our back on our allies and we set the conditions for another 9/11.”

US has evacuated several thousand personnel including Afghans with just hours left for the pullout deadline. President Biden had set August 31 as the date for US personnel to leave the country.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/watch-taliban-militants-surround-tv-anchor-during-news-show-as-video-goes-viral-409309">Watch: Taliban militants surround TV anchor during news show as video goes viral</a>

On Monday&nbsp;rockets were fired towards Kabul airport as reports said the rocket attack was launched from the back of a vehicle. However, there were no reports of causalities.

The incident was confirmed by the White House and President Biden was briefed about the incident even as airport evacuation operations continued.

On Sunday, a US drone strike had killed a suicide car bomber which the US said was preparing&nbsp;another attack on Kabul airport with ISIS-K which had claimed responsibility for the attack on Thursday suspected to be planning another attack in an explosive-laden vehicle.

(With inputs from Agencies) 
&nbsp;

As the US enters the final phase of its pullout from Afghanistan amid attacks on Kabul airport, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said people on the ground working with indigenous forces is the "best insurance policy against another 9/11".

As the US enters the final phase of its pullout from Afghanistan amid attacks on Kabul airport, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said people on the ground working with indigenous forces is the "best insurance policy against another 9/11". Graham was speaking to a US television network asserted that, "I wouldn’t have withdrawn" while adding, "I would have kept the counterterrorism forces on the ground." "I would have held the Taliban to the conditions set out in the agreement with Trump,” the Republican Senator said referring to the Doha talks which opened last year between the former Trump administration officials and the Taliban. Watch: The Republican Senator said, "parade of horribles" has been unfolding in Afghanistan amid the US evacuation with "hundreds of American citizens" being left behind. "The chance of another 9/11 just went through the roof. These drone attacks will not degrade ISIS," Graham said, adding," the number of ISIS fighters have doubled. We have turned our back on our allies and we set the conditions for another 9/11.” US has evacuated several thousand personnel including Afghans with just hours left for the pullout deadline. President Biden had set August 31 as the date for US personnel to leave the country. Watch: Taliban militants surround TV anchor during news show as video goes viral On Monday rockets were fired towards Kabul airport as reports said the rocket attack was launched from the back of a vehicle. However, there were no reports of causalities. The incident was confirmed by the White House and President Biden was briefed about the incident even as airport evacuation operations continued. On Sunday, a US drone strike had killed a suicide car bomber which the US said was preparing another attack on Kabul airport with ISIS-K which had claimed responsibility for the attack on Thursday suspected to be planning another attack in an explosive-laden vehicle. (With inputs from Agencies)

Chance of another 9/11 just went through the roof, says Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Afghanistan

The US Department of Homeland Security issued a&nbsp;new&nbsp;terrorism&nbsp;threat&nbsp;advisory on Friday&nbsp;ahead&nbsp;of the&nbsp;anniversary&nbsp;of the September&nbsp;11&nbsp;terror attacks and amid a resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic.

The National&nbsp;Terrorism&nbsp;Advisory System Bulletin said the United States faces a "heightened&nbsp;threat&nbsp;environment" from both domestic terrorists "and those inspired or motivated by foreign terrorists and other malign foreign influences."

It cited increased use of "online forums to influence and spread violent extremist narratives and promote violent activity."

The&nbsp;new&nbsp;advisory updated a January alert following the attack on the US Congress by supporters of then-president Donald Trump, when DHS said the country faced "increasingly complex and volatile" threats from anti-government and racially motivated extremists, often stirred up by online influence from abroad.

The bulletin had already been amended in May, with DHS&nbsp;warning&nbsp;violent extremists could exploit the easing of Covid-19 restrictions to conduct attacks.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/businesses-in-portland-oregon-close-early-amid-scorching-heat-405201">Also read |&nbsp;Businesses in Portland, Oregon, close early amid scorching heat</a>

"Extremists may seek to exploit the emergence of Covid-19 variants by viewing the potential re-establishment of public health restrictions across the United States as a rationale to conduct attacks," the DHS advisory said, adding that "pandemic-related stressors... may contribute to more violence this year."

Despite a rapid vaccination program, coronavirus case numbers have increased sharply in recent months in the United States due to the spread of the Delta variant, prompting&nbsp;new&nbsp;health measures.

The advisory, which expires on November&nbsp;11, also noted that in the lead-up to the 20th&nbsp;anniversary&nbsp;of the September&nbsp;11&nbsp;attacks, the Yemeni branch of Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), had put out an English-language version of its propaganda "Inspire" magazine for the first time in over four years.&nbsp;

This "demonstrates that foreign terrorist organisations continue efforts to inspire US-based individuals susceptible to violent extremist influences," DHS said.

The United States, which considers AQAP the terror group's most dangerous branch, has carried out a campaign of drone strikes against its fighters in Yemen since soon after the&nbsp;9/11&nbsp;attacks.&nbsp;

DHS was established after&nbsp;9/11&nbsp;and regularly&nbsp;issues&nbsp;terrorism&nbsp;threat&nbsp;advisories.

The US Department of Homeland Security issued a new terrorism threat advisory on Friday ahead of the anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks and amid a resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic.

The US Department of Homeland Security issued a new terrorism threat advisory on Friday ahead of the anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks and amid a resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic. The National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin said the United States faces a "heightened threat environment" from both domestic terrorists "and those inspired or motivated by foreign terrorists and other malign foreign influences." It cited increased use of "online forums to influence and spread violent extremist narratives and promote violent activity." The new advisory updated a January alert following the attack on the US Congress by supporters of then-president Donald Trump, when DHS said the country faced "increasingly complex and volatile" threats from anti-government and racially motivated extremists, often stirred up by online influence from abroad. The bulletin had already been amended in May, with DHS warning violent extremists could exploit the easing of Covid-19 restrictions to conduct attacks. Also read | Businesses in Portland, Oregon, close early amid scorching heat "Extremists may seek to exploit the emergence of Covid-19 variants by viewing the potential re-establishment of public health restrictions across the United States as a rationale to conduct attacks," the DHS advisory said, adding that "pandemic-related stressors... may contribute to more violence this year." Despite a rapid vaccination program, coronavirus case numbers have increased sharply in recent months in the United States due to the spread of the Delta variant, prompting new health measures. The advisory, which expires on November 11, also noted that in the lead-up to the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the Yemeni branch of Al-Qaeda, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), had put out an English-language version of its propaganda "Inspire" magazine for the first time in over four years. This "demonstrates that foreign terrorist organisations continue efforts to inspire US-based individuals susceptible to violent extremist influences," DHS said. The United States, which considers AQAP the terror group's most dangerous branch, has carried out a campaign of drone strikes against its fighters in Yemen since soon after the 9/11 attacks. DHS was established after 9/11 and regularly issues terrorism threat advisories.

US issues new terrorism threat warning ahead of 9/11 anniversary

The Biden administration on Monday transferred its first detainee out of Guantánamo Bay, repatriating a Moroccan man who had been recommended for discharge from the wartime prison starting in 2016 but nevertheless remained there during the Trump years.

The transfer of the man, Abdul Latif Nasser, 56, was the first sign of a renewed effort under President Joe Biden to winnow the population of prisoners by sending them to other countries that promise to ensure the men remain under security measures. Nasser was never charged with a crime.

The transfer process, which was pursued by the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, had atrophied under President Donald Trump. With Nasser’s departure, there are now 39 prisoners at Guantánamo, 11 of whom have been charged with war crimes. At its peak in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the invasion of Afghanistan, the prison complex at the U.S. naval base held about 675 men.

Far more complex policy decisions about transfers await the Biden team, including whether to transfer a mentally ill Saudi man, Mohammed al-Qahtani, who was tortured at Guantánamo and is considered to have been one of several candidates to be a potential 20th hijacker on 9/11.

The remaining 28 prisoners who have not been charged during the nearly two decades they have been in custody are held as Nasser had been — as indefinite law-of-war detainees in the armed conflict against al-Qaida. Of those, 10 have been recommended for transfer with security arrangements by a federal parole-like panel.

The Biden White House, while supporting the goal of closing the prison, has adopted a low-key approach in that effort. Obama made it a signature policy, ordering that the prison be closed during his first year in office — and failed in the face of intense opposition from Congress. Biden and his aides have sought to avoid igniting the same kind of backlash by working quietly to begin reducing the prison population again.

“The United States is grateful to the Kingdom of Morocco for its willingness to support ongoing U.S. efforts to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility,” a senior administration official said Sunday, while the transfer was underway, and so declined to be identified by name. The official said the White House was “dedicated to a deliberate and thorough process of responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantánamo Bay detention facility.”

Military intelligence officials have cast Nasser as a former Taliban fighter who battled the invading US&nbsp;forces in the Tora Bora mountains in late 2001. He told an interagency panel through a representative five years ago that he “deeply regrets his actions of the past,” and he was approved for release by the government panel on July 11, 2016, on the condition that he be sent only to his native Morocco with security assurances from its government.

Details of such arrangements are not public, but in the Obama years they typically included not letting the former detainee travel abroad for several years and a commitment to monitor him and to share information with the U.S. government about him.

U.S. forces delivered Nasser to Moroccan government custody early Monday. His attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin of Chicago, said he was being held at a police station in the Casablanca area and that they expected him to be reunited with his family in coming days.

The Moroccan national news agency, MAP, said he was under investigation “for his alleged involvement in the perpetration of terror acts.” Detainees who were repatriated to Morocco in earlier administrations were similarly investigated, and some were prosecuted.

Nasser’s family members in Casablanca have pledged to support him by finding him work in his brother’s swimming pool cleaning business, Durkin said.

Durkin, who has represented Nasser for more than a decade, noted that Nasser was on the verge of release in early 2017 when the Trump administration halted all transfers and closed the office at the State Department that negotiated security arrangements for such deals.

Only one detainee left the prison during the Trump years, and under very different circumstances: A confessed al-Qaida terrorist was repatriated to Saudi Arabia to serve out a prison sentence imposed by a U.S. military commission, in accordance with an earlier plea agreement.

In a statement, Durkin called the last four years of Nasser’s 19-year detention “collateral damage of the Trump administration’s and zealous Republican war-on-terror hawks’ raw politics,” adding, “If this were a wrongful conviction case in Cook County, it would be worth $20 million.”

“We applaud the Biden administration for causing no further harm,” he said.

The Biden administration did not renegotiate the Obama-era agreement to repatriate Nasser, the senior official said, but the State Department did need “to reaffirm” the terms of the transfer agreement with Morocco. They were not disclosed.

A public radio personality with a similar name, Latif Nasser, now of the public radio program “Radiolab,” devoted a six-part audio series to questions about whether his near-namesake’s activities, including a stint at an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, merited two decades of U.S. military detention.

Nasser, the Guantánamo detainee, had been captured in 2001 by Pakistani security forces, which turned him over to the US&nbsp;military.

As part of its low-key approach, the Biden team has not revived the Obama-era position of a special envoy to travel the world negotiating deals for other countries to take in lower-level detainees. Instead, regional diplomats and career employees in the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism handled talks with the Moroccan government, according to officials familiar with the matter.

“We are trying to find a way to act on each individual case,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a human rights discussion in Paris on June 25. “In certain cases you need to find a country that is ready to welcome the person in question.”

Once a country is identified, he said, “we must have a guarantee that the rights of these people will be protected in that country. That’s not easy, either.”

On Monday, State Department spokesman Ned Price praised the Moroccan government for taking custody of Nasser and used the opportunity to urge other countries — which he did not name — to repatriate their citizens who were captured in Syria or Iraq in the conflict against the Islamic State group. Many European countries have hesitated to take responsibility for handling their nationals, leaving them in the hands of Kurdish fighters.

“Morocco’s leadership in facilitating Nasser’s repatriation, alongside its past willingness to return its foreign terrorist fighters from northeast Syria, should encourage other nations to repatriate their citizens who have traveled to fight for terrorist organizations abroad,” Price said.

The Biden administration has reinvigorated a parole-like process that was established in the Obama years to consider each Guantánamo detainee who was not charged with crimes, to decide whether to recommend turning him over to the custody of another country. The interagency Periodic Review Board has announced five decisions since Biden took office, and all of those detainees were approved for transfers — including the oldest man held at Guantánamo, a 73-year-old Pakistani with heart disease and other geriatric ailments.

The panel has representatives from six national security agencies, including the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff and the Department of Homeland Security, but a recommendation for transfers does not assure release. The State Department must still come up with a transfer deal, and the defense secretary must personally approve it and provide notice to Congress.

The board also held a hearing May 18 on whether to recommend the transfer of the Saudi prisoner who was tortured at Guantánamo, al-Qahtani, but has not announced a decision.

He has a separate lawsuit pending in federal court over whether his psychiatric condition, acute schizophrenia, justifies repatriating him to medical care in Saudi Arabia because he cannot receive adequate care at the naval base. As part of that lawsuit, his lawyers obtained a court order to have a panel of doctors, including two non-American ones, examine him.

The Justice Department during the Trump administration had opposed that lawsuit, and days before Trump left office his Army secretary changed a regulation to try to disqualify all Guantánamo prisoners, notably al-Qahtani, from the possibility of a court-ordered independent examination by outside doctors.

Some Democrats in Congress, signalling impatience at the pace of efforts to close the prison, have proposed legislation in the Appropriations Committee that would defund the detention operation at Guantánamo, which has been estimated to cost more than $13 million per prisoner per year.

Doing so, however, would require finding a place for the remaining 39 detainees to go. And even if the transfer of Nasser to Morocco turns out to be the first of a flurry, transfers of lower-level detainees alone will not close the prison.

Some prisoners would have to be brought to the United States, potentially to a military detention setting, notably Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has yet to go on trial as the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Current federal law dating to early 2011 forbids such transfers. The Biden White House’s 2022 budget proposal would restore presidential authority to transfer Guantánamo detainees to a mainland prison facility. But that would be up to Congress.

Republicans and some Democrats have opposed the transfer of Mohammed and the others to detention in the United States and sought to stoke fears that giving them a trial on US&nbsp;soil or simply detaining them in the mainland would be more of a danger to national security. Opponents of the restrictions say that the federal government already holds many convicted terrorists on domestic soil safely and that bringing detainees from Guantánamo to similar detention would be no different.

In a sign that such political messaging may soon return, on May 25, eight Republican senators wrote Biden opposing his intent to close the detention center through transfers.

“The remaining 40 detainees are all high risk,” the senators wrote.

Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma led the effort. The others who signed it were Marsha Blackburn, Kevin Cramer, Ted Cruz, Steve Daines, James Inhofe, Jerry Moran and Thom Tillis.

The Biden administration on Monday transferred its first detainee out of Guantánamo Bay, repatriating a Moroccan man who had been recommended for discharge from the wartime prison starting in 2016 but nevertheless remained there during the Trump years.

The Biden administration on Monday transferred its first detainee out of Guantánamo Bay, repatriating a Moroccan man who had been recommended for discharge from the wartime prison starting in 2016 but nevertheless remained there during the Trump years. The transfer of the man, Abdul Latif Nasser, 56, was the first sign of a renewed effort under President Joe Biden to winnow the population of prisoners by sending them to other countries that promise to ensure the men remain under security measures. Nasser was never charged with a crime. The transfer process, which was pursued by the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, had atrophied under President Donald Trump. With Nasser’s departure, there are now 39 prisoners at Guantánamo, 11 of whom have been charged with war crimes. At its peak in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the invasion of Afghanistan, the prison complex at the U.S. naval base held about 675 men. Far more complex policy decisions about transfers await the Biden team, including whether to transfer a mentally ill Saudi man, Mohammed al-Qahtani, who was tortured at Guantánamo and is considered to have been one of several candidates to be a potential 20th hijacker on 9/11. The remaining 28 prisoners who have not been charged during the nearly two decades they have been in custody are held as Nasser had been — as indefinite law-of-war detainees in the armed conflict against al-Qaida. Of those, 10 have been recommended for transfer with security arrangements by a federal parole-like panel. The Biden White House, while supporting the goal of closing the prison, has adopted a low-key approach in that effort. Obama made it a signature policy, ordering that the prison be closed during his first year in office — and failed in the face of intense opposition from Congress. Biden and his aides have sought to avoid igniting the same kind of backlash by working quietly to begin reducing the prison population again. “The United States is grateful to the Kingdom of Morocco for its willingness to support ongoing U.S. efforts to close the Guantánamo Bay detention facility,” a senior administration official said Sunday, while the transfer was underway, and so declined to be identified by name. The official said the White House was “dedicated to a deliberate and thorough process of responsibly reducing the detainee population and ultimately closing the Guantánamo Bay detention facility.” Military intelligence officials have cast Nasser as a former Taliban fighter who battled the invading US forces in the Tora Bora mountains in late 2001. He told an interagency panel through a representative five years ago that he “deeply regrets his actions of the past,” and he was approved for release by the government panel on July 11, 2016, on the condition that he be sent only to his native Morocco with security assurances from its government. Details of such arrangements are not public, but in the Obama years they typically included not letting the former detainee travel abroad for several years and a commitment to monitor him and to share information with the U.S. government about him. U.S. forces delivered Nasser to Moroccan government custody early Monday. His attorney, Thomas Anthony Durkin of Chicago, said he was being held at a police station in the Casablanca area and that they expected him to be reunited with his family in coming days. The Moroccan national news agency, MAP, said he was under investigation “for his alleged involvement in the perpetration of terror acts.” Detainees who were repatriated to Morocco in earlier administrations were similarly investigated, and some were prosecuted. Nasser’s family members in Casablanca have pledged to support him by finding him work in his brother’s swimming pool cleaning business, Durkin said. Durkin, who has represented Nasser for more than a decade, noted that Nasser was on the verge of release in early 2017 when the Trump administration halted all transfers and closed the office at the State Department that negotiated security arrangements for such deals. Only one detainee left the prison during the Trump years, and under very different circumstances: A confessed al-Qaida terrorist was repatriated to Saudi Arabia to serve out a prison sentence imposed by a U.S. military commission, in accordance with an earlier plea agreement. In a statement, Durkin called the last four years of Nasser’s 19-year detention “collateral damage of the Trump administration’s and zealous Republican war-on-terror hawks’ raw politics,” adding, “If this were a wrongful conviction case in Cook County, it would be worth $20 million.” “We applaud the Biden administration for causing no further harm,” he said. The Biden administration did not renegotiate the Obama-era agreement to repatriate Nasser, the senior official said, but the State Department did need “to reaffirm” the terms of the transfer agreement with Morocco. They were not disclosed. A public radio personality with a similar name, Latif Nasser, now of the public radio program “Radiolab,” devoted a six-part audio series to questions about whether his near-namesake’s activities, including a stint at an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan in the late 1990s, merited two decades of U.S. military detention. Nasser, the Guantánamo detainee, had been captured in 2001 by Pakistani security forces, which turned him over to the US military. As part of its low-key approach, the Biden team has not revived the Obama-era position of a special envoy to travel the world negotiating deals for other countries to take in lower-level detainees. Instead, regional diplomats and career employees in the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism handled talks with the Moroccan government, according to officials familiar with the matter. “We are trying to find a way to act on each individual case,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a human rights discussion in Paris on June 25. “In certain cases you need to find a country that is ready to welcome the person in question.” Once a country is identified, he said, “we must have a guarantee that the rights of these people will be protected in that country. That’s not easy, either.” On Monday, State Department spokesman Ned Price praised the Moroccan government for taking custody of Nasser and used the opportunity to urge other countries — which he did not name — to repatriate their citizens who were captured in Syria or Iraq in the conflict against the Islamic State group. Many European countries have hesitated to take responsibility for handling their nationals, leaving them in the hands of Kurdish fighters. “Morocco’s leadership in facilitating Nasser’s repatriation, alongside its past willingness to return its foreign terrorist fighters from northeast Syria, should encourage other nations to repatriate their citizens who have traveled to fight for terrorist organizations abroad,” Price said. The Biden administration has reinvigorated a parole-like process that was established in the Obama years to consider each Guantánamo detainee who was not charged with crimes, to decide whether to recommend turning him over to the custody of another country. The interagency Periodic Review Board has announced five decisions since Biden took office, and all of those detainees were approved for transfers — including the oldest man held at Guantánamo, a 73-year-old Pakistani with heart disease and other geriatric ailments. The panel has representatives from six national security agencies, including the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff and the Department of Homeland Security, but a recommendation for transfers does not assure release. The State Department must still come up with a transfer deal, and the defense secretary must personally approve it and provide notice to Congress. The board also held a hearing May 18 on whether to recommend the transfer of the Saudi prisoner who was tortured at Guantánamo, al-Qahtani, but has not announced a decision. He has a separate lawsuit pending in federal court over whether his psychiatric condition, acute schizophrenia, justifies repatriating him to medical care in Saudi Arabia because he cannot receive adequate care at the naval base. As part of that lawsuit, his lawyers obtained a court order to have a panel of doctors, including two non-American ones, examine him. The Justice Department during the Trump administration had opposed that lawsuit, and days before Trump left office his Army secretary changed a regulation to try to disqualify all Guantánamo prisoners, notably al-Qahtani, from the possibility of a court-ordered independent examination by outside doctors. Some Democrats in Congress, signalling impatience at the pace of efforts to close the prison, have proposed legislation in the Appropriations Committee that would defund the detention operation at Guantánamo, which has been estimated to cost more than $13 million per prisoner per year. Doing so, however, would require finding a place for the remaining 39 detainees to go. And even if the transfer of Nasser to Morocco turns out to be the first of a flurry, transfers of lower-level detainees alone will not close the prison. Some prisoners would have to be brought to the United States, potentially to a military detention setting, notably Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has yet to go on trial as the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. Current federal law dating to early 2011 forbids such transfers. The Biden White House’s 2022 budget proposal would restore presidential authority to transfer Guantánamo detainees to a mainland prison facility. But that would be up to Congress. Republicans and some Democrats have opposed the transfer of Mohammed and the others to detention in the United States and sought to stoke fears that giving them a trial on US soil or simply detaining them in the mainland would be more of a danger to national security. Opponents of the restrictions say that the federal government already holds many convicted terrorists on domestic soil safely and that bringing detainees from Guantánamo to similar detention would be no different. In a sign that such political messaging may soon return, on May 25, eight Republican senators wrote Biden opposing his intent to close the detention center through transfers. “The remaining 40 detainees are all high risk,” the senators wrote. Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma led the effort. The others who signed it were Marsha Blackburn, Kevin Cramer, Ted Cruz, Steve Daines, James Inhofe, Jerry Moran and Thom Tillis.

Biden administration transfers its first detainee from Guantánamo Bay

A Guantanamo Bay inmate alleges he was tortured by his American captors after the September 11 attacks and will file a complaint with the UN Friday over his unending 19-year detention, his lawyer said.

Abu&nbsp;Zubaydah's lawyer Helen Duffy said the complaint will be filed with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention against the United States and six other countries, asking for intervention in his case.

The 50-year-old Saudi-born Palestinian, whose real name is Zayn&nbsp;al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, was detained in Pakistan in March 2002 on suspicions he was a senior member of Al-Qaeda who helped plan the 9/11 attacks.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/10-years-after-death-al-qaeda-chief-osama-bin-laden-still-mobilises-jihadists-380730">10 years after death, al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden still mobilises jihadists</a>

According to his lawyer, he was handed over to the CIA, which moved him through a series of secret&nbsp;units in several countries where he was brutally interrogated.

He was the first of a series of detainees to go through waterboarding and other now-banned techniques as US intelligence sought to force information from him about others in the jihadist group.

In 2003 he was transferred to Guantanamo, where he has stayed ever since. US officials have since admitted he was never a member of Al-Qaeda or an important figure among Islamic extremists.

Moreover, one of his interrogators, an FBI agent, has said that he cooperated easily before he was tortured so that he had nothing to add once he was subjected to the CIA's extreme interrogation methods, which included 83 instances of waterboarding.

Like most others among the last 40 detainees in Guantanamo,&nbsp;Abu&nbsp;Zubaydah&nbsp;has never been charged and faces indefinite imprisonment.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-shuts-secret-guantanamo-prison-unit-moves-prisoners-to-another-nearby-camp-375521">US shuts secret Guantanamo prison unit, moves prisoners to another nearby camp</a>

"His detention has no lawful basis in international law (and) offends all principles of due process," Duffy said in a statement.

The petition will ask the UN agency to find that the United States is obliged to release him.&nbsp;

It also demands that six other countries involved in his disappearance and rendition;&nbsp;Britain, Thailand, Afghanistan, Lithuania, Poland and Morocco, use their powers to secure his release and relocation.&nbsp;

"After 19 years of arbitrary detention, the only appropriate legal remedy for&nbsp;Abu&nbsp;Zubaydah&nbsp;is release and rehabilitation," Duffy said.

She added that how the administration of US President Joe Biden responds to the complaint "will be a test of its newly stated commitment to international rule of law&nbsp;and human rights."

In a separate legal case, the US Supreme Court on Monday said it would review&nbsp;Abu&nbsp;Zubaydah's petition to subpoena two CIA consultants who oversaw post-9/11 torture operations.

That petition is related to an investigation in Poland into torture conducted by the CIA at a black site in that country, including on&nbsp;Abu&nbsp;Zubaydah.

A Guantanamo Bay inmate alleges he was tortured by his American captors after the September 11 attacks and will file a complaint with the UN Friday over his unending 19-year detention, his lawyer said.

A Guantanamo Bay inmate alleges he was tortured by his American captors after the September 11 attacks and will file a complaint with the UN Friday over his unending 19-year detention, his lawyer said. Abu Zubaydah's lawyer Helen Duffy said the complaint will be filed with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention against the United States and six other countries, asking for intervention in his case. The 50-year-old Saudi-born Palestinian, whose real name is Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, was detained in Pakistan in March 2002 on suspicions he was a senior member of Al-Qaeda who helped plan the 9/11 attacks. Also read | 10 years after death, al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden still mobilises jihadists According to his lawyer, he was handed over to the CIA, which moved him through a series of secret units in several countries where he was brutally interrogated. He was the first of a series of detainees to go through waterboarding and other now-banned techniques as US intelligence sought to force information from him about others in the jihadist group. In 2003 he was transferred to Guantanamo, where he has stayed ever since. US officials have since admitted he was never a member of Al-Qaeda or an important figure among Islamic extremists. Moreover, one of his interrogators, an FBI agent, has said that he cooperated easily before he was tortured so that he had nothing to add once he was subjected to the CIA's extreme interrogation methods, which included 83 instances of waterboarding. Like most others among the last 40 detainees in Guantanamo, Abu Zubaydah has never been charged and faces indefinite imprisonment. Also read | US shuts secret Guantanamo prison unit, moves prisoners to another nearby camp "His detention has no lawful basis in international law (and) offends all principles of due process," Duffy said in a statement. The petition will ask the UN agency to find that the United States is obliged to release him. It also demands that six other countries involved in his disappearance and rendition; Britain, Thailand, Afghanistan, Lithuania, Poland and Morocco, use their powers to secure his release and relocation. "After 19 years of arbitrary detention, the only appropriate legal remedy for Abu Zubaydah is release and rehabilitation," Duffy said. She added that how the administration of US President Joe Biden responds to the complaint "will be a test of its newly stated commitment to international rule of law and human rights." In a separate legal case, the US Supreme Court on Monday said it would review Abu Zubaydah's petition to subpoena two CIA consultants who oversaw post-9/11 torture operations. That petition is related to an investigation in Poland into torture conducted by the CIA at a black site in that country, including on Abu Zubaydah.

Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah to file complaint with UN agency

The social media giant, Twitter, suspended the soon-to-be-impeached US President Donald Trump's account after he was accused of promoting the idea of&nbsp;violence during the Capitol riots.

While the digital activists hailed Twitter's action against Trump, several European Union leaders, including Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, seem to have a different opinion on this matter.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/melania-condemns-us-capitol-violence-says-its-time-for-healing-in-a-civil-manner-356036" hreflang="en">Melania condemns Capitol violence, says time for 'healing in a civil manner'</a>

Merkel believes the action taken by Twitter and Facebook is 'problematic' as it points out the power the bosses of these digital platforms exercise in today's world and the limitation of freedom of opinion being provided to world leaders.

"The fundamental right to freedom of opinion is a fundamental right of elementary importance, and this fundamental right can be interfered with, but through the law and within the framework defined by the legislature, not according to the decision of the management of social media platforms. From this point of view, the chancellor considers it problematic that the accounts of the US president have been permanently blocked.," Merkel's spokesperson said on Monday.&nbsp;

French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, too, agreed with Merkel's point of view saying it is unfair that these digital platforms get a say in blocking and unblocking accounts of world leaders, rather than States and Justice.&nbsp;

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/twitter-blocks-phrase-hang-mike-pence-as-trump-supporters-turn-against-him-355959" hreflang="en">Twitter blocks phrase 'Hang Mike Pence' as Trump supporters turn against him</a>

"What shocks me is that it is Twitter that is shutting down Trump's account. The regulation of the digital giants cannot and should not be done by the digital oligarchy itself. It is necessary but it must be done by States and by Justice," he said.

Some EU leaders have also compared this attack and the following consequences to the deadly 9/11 attacks in the US. A top EU official on tech policy said this attack on the Capitol will be remembered&nbsp;as social media's September 11.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/videos/us-house-speaker-nancy-pelosi-says-ready-to-start-impeachment-against-donald-trump-356032">WATCH|&nbsp;</a>

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/us-house-speaker-nancy-pelosi-says-ready-to-start-impeachment-against-donald-trump-356032/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

"Just as 9/11 marked a paradigm shift for global security, 20 years later we are witnessing a before-and-after in the role of digital platforms in our democracy," he said in a published story.

"The fact that a CEO can pull the plug on (Trump's) loudspeaker without any checks and balances is perplexing," Breton said. "It is not only confirmation of the power of these platforms, but it also displays deep weaknesses in the way our society is organised in the digital space."

The social media giant, Twitter, suspended the soon-to-be-impeached US President Donald Trump's account after he was accused of promoting the idea of violence during the Capitol riots.

The social media giant, Twitter, suspended the soon-to-be-impeached US President Donald Trump's account after he was accused of promoting the idea of violence during the Capitol riots. While the digital activists hailed Twitter's action against Trump, several European Union leaders, including Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, seem to have a different opinion on this matter. Also read| Melania condemns Capitol violence, says time for 'healing in a civil manner' Merkel believes the action taken by Twitter and Facebook is 'problematic' as it points out the power the bosses of these digital platforms exercise in today's world and the limitation of freedom of opinion being provided to world leaders. "The fundamental right to freedom of opinion is a fundamental right of elementary importance, and this fundamental right can be interfered with, but through the law and within the framework defined by the legislature, not according to the decision of the management of social media platforms. From this point of view, the chancellor considers it problematic that the accounts of the US president have been permanently blocked.," Merkel's spokesperson said on Monday. French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, too, agreed with Merkel's point of view saying it is unfair that these digital platforms get a say in blocking and unblocking accounts of world leaders, rather than States and Justice. Also read| Twitter blocks phrase 'Hang Mike Pence' as Trump supporters turn against him "What shocks me is that it is Twitter that is shutting down Trump's account. The regulation of the digital giants cannot and should not be done by the digital oligarchy itself. It is necessary but it must be done by States and by Justice," he said. Some EU leaders have also compared this attack and the following consequences to the deadly 9/11 attacks in the US. A top EU official on tech policy said this attack on the Capitol will be remembered as social media's September 11. WATCH| "Just as 9/11 marked a paradigm shift for global security, 20 years later we are witnessing a before-and-after in the role of digital platforms in our democracy," he said in a published story. "The fact that a CEO can pull the plug on (Trump's) loudspeaker without any checks and balances is perplexing," Breton said. "It is not only confirmation of the power of these platforms, but it also displays deep weaknesses in the way our society is organised in the digital space."

Suspension of Trump's Twitter account is 'problematic': Angela Merkel

9/11 made the US launch its war on terror. Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda were the top targets. So too were the states which sponsored terrorism. Sudan was one of them.

9/11 made the US launch its war on terror. Osama Bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda were the top targets. So too were the states which sponsored terrorism. Sudan was one of them. Nearly 20 years later, America is easing up on Sudan. Mike Pompeo has become the first US Secretary of State to visit Khartoum in 15 years. So, why is America seeking deeper ties with Sudan? Reason number one: Democracy The pretext under which America usually interferes in countries. America likes to project itself as the promoter of democracy, Sudan fits the bill. Its Islamic dictator, Omar al Bashir, was ousted last year. Now, civilians and military leaders have a power-sharing agreement. In 2022, Sudan will hold its first democratic elections in nearly three decades. Also read: Pompeo addresses RNC for Trump from Jerusalem, sparks criticism The next two years will decide how Sudan will shape up. China and Russia may step in and, encourage authoritarian rule. But, if America moves first Sudan can give an opening in an already fragile neighbourhood. Reason number two: Sanctions For Sudan's democracy to succeed ----- it needs a strong economy. But, Sudan has lived under the US Sanctions for nearly three decades. These sanctions were imposed to stop Bashir from supporting terrorists like Osama bin Laden. Sudan remains on America's list of states that sponsor terrorism. So it cannot turn to international lenders. To remove Sudan from the list US is asking for compensation worth 300 million dollars. For American victims of Al Qaeda attacks on two US embassies in Africa. Sudan had earlier agreed to compensate families of USS Cole bombing. But, the latest request has angered the cash-strapped Sudanese govt. The Trump administration finds itself in a fix ----- as this compensation matter is a legal issue. Reason number three: West Asia Mike Pompeo is jet-setting in the Arab world. From Israel, he came to Sudan and, proceeded to Bahrain, Libya and Oman. He intends to urge Arab states to become friends with Israel ----- like the United Arab Emirates. America thinks such alliances will rattle Iran and, bring stability to the Middle-East. But, Israel is a sensitive issue in Sudan. Under Bashir, Sudan was among the hardline Muslim foes of Israel. The hate for Israel is still strong among the masses. The trouble in the region doesn't end here. Sudan conflicts with Ethiopia and Egypt over the river Nile. America's attempt to mediate has failed and has played a part in handicapping Sudan. Now, it wants to rectify the wrongs of the past. But, diplomacy involves giving and take.

Mike Pompeo's Sudan visit: Why is America seeking deeper ties with African nation?

The only man ever convicted in the 9/11 attack in the US,&nbsp;Zacarias Moussaoui, has said that he is renouncing&nbsp;al-Qaida and the Islamic State.

In a handwritten court motion Moussaoui filed with the federal court in Alexandria last month, Moussaoui wrote: ''I denounce, repudiate Osama bin Laden as a useful idiot of the CIA/Saudi. I also proclaim unequivocally my opposition to any terrorist action, attack, propaganda against the US.''

He also said he wanted ''to warn young Muslim against the deception and the manipulation of these fake jihadis.''

<img alt="Zacarias Moussaoui" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="01c0a609-1a03-4220-9b5d-b406756cb39e" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/1328.jpg" /> 
Zacarias Moussaoui

Moussaoui made his renunciation in a petition seeking relaxation of the conditions under which he serves his sentence. In particular, he says he wants either Donald Trump’s lawyer&nbsp;Rudy Giuliani&nbsp;or Alan Dershowitz to represent him as a lawyer, so he can testify in a civil trial filed by victims of the 9/11 attacks.

He has written numerous letters seeking to testify at the 9/11 civil trial, and at the military trials of al-Qaida members including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

He is serving his life sentence&nbsp;at a federal prison in Colorado after narrowly escaping the death penalty at his 2006 trial.

&nbsp;

The only man ever convicted in the 9/11 attack in the US, Zacarias Moussaoui, has said that he is renouncing al-Qaida and the Islamic State. In a handwritten court motion Moussaoui filed with the federal court in Alexandria last month, Moussaoui wrote: ''I denounce, repudiate Osama bin Laden as a useful idiot of the CIA/Saudi.

The only man ever convicted in the 9/11 attack in the US, Zacarias Moussaoui, has said that he is renouncing al-Qaida and the Islamic State. In a handwritten court motion Moussaoui filed with the federal court in Alexandria last month, Moussaoui wrote: ''I denounce, repudiate Osama bin Laden as a useful idiot of the CIA/Saudi. I also proclaim unequivocally my opposition to any terrorist action, attack, propaganda against the US.'' He also said he wanted ''to warn young Muslim against the deception and the manipulation of these fake jihadis.'' Zacarias Moussaoui Moussaoui made his renunciation in a petition seeking relaxation of the conditions under which he serves his sentence. In particular, he says he wants either Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani or Alan Dershowitz to represent him as a lawyer, so he can testify in a civil trial filed by victims of the 9/11 attacks. He has written numerous letters seeking to testify at the 9/11 civil trial, and at the military trials of al-Qaida members including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. He is serving his life sentence at a federal prison in Colorado after narrowly escaping the death penalty at his 2006 trial.

Only 9/11 attack convict renouncing terrorism and Bin Laden

An F.B.I report has accidentally named a Saudi diplomat - suspected of supporting the terrorists behind the 9/11 terror attacks. Why was the United States trying to hide potential evidence of Saudi involvement? WION's Executive Editor Palki Sharma Upadhyay gets you a report.

Gravitas: Saudi diplomat behind 9/11 attacks?

US administration looked ar what went wrong and learn from its mistakes. The attack on the twin towers took place on September 11, 2001. Over 3000 people died in the attack. The coronavirus has taken lives of more than the 9/11 attack. Watch report.

A 9/11-style commission for COVID-19: Democrats mull idea of empowered panel

The U.S. has once again recorded its biggest spike in its Coronavirus death toll. 4500 Americans have died in the last 24 hours. Why does Trump still want to reopen the economy? WION's Palki Sharma gets you a report.

Gravitas: U.S. Coronavirus horror worse then 9/11

Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that joining the United States after 9/11 was the country's "biggest blunder" which led to the loss of many lives and cost Pakistan $200 billion.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that joining the United States after 9/11 was the country's "biggest blunder" which led to the loss of many lives and cost Pakistan $200 billion. The Pakistan prime minister speaking at the US Council on Foreign Relations, said, "Then came 9/11 and Pakistan again joined the US in the war against terror...Pakistan by joining the US after 9/11 committed biggest blunder. 70,000 Pakistanis died in this." When asked on whether there was any information of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden being in Pakistan, PM Imran Khan said, "As far as I know, Pakistani military chief, ISI chief had no idea about this" and if "there was, it was at a lower level." Osama was killed in Abbottabad, a town just 120 kilometres away from Islamabad on May 2, 2011, by American forces with fingers being pointed at Pakistan for providing him protection. Watch: Pakistan PM Imran Khan on failure of US-Taliban talks × On ties with New Delhi, Khan said, he told PM Modi, "let us have a new chapter" and "assured it is our policy that we will not allow any terrorist groups in Pakistan and we were dismantling from day one..let's base our relationship on trust." "But we found that India is pushing us to blacklist on Financial Action Task Force (FATF)," the Pakistan prime minister added. The plenary of FATF meet in October and could see a blacklisting for Islamabad if the country is not able to show concrete action taken by it on terror groups being hosted on its territory. FATF kept Pakistan on grey list in its June meeting, after failing to meet deadline two times, January and May 2019. Being on the greylist impacts the Pakistani economy which loses $10 billion annually.

Pakistan joining US after 9/11 was biggest blunder: PM Imran Khan in US

US support for Saudi Arabia an irony, Watch video to know more.

US support for Saudi Arabia an irony

On again, off again: Erratic history of US talks with the Taliban

The Lasting Effects Of The September 11, 2001 Attacks That Changed The U.S. & The World.

Gravitas: How 9/11 Changed The U.S.

Jacquelin Febrillet was 26 years old on September 11, 2001, when jihadist hijackers flew two passenger jets into the World Trade Center just two blocks from where she worked.

Fifteen years after the attacks that day, Febrillet, by then a mother of three, was diagnosed with metastatic cancer. The likely cause: a cloud of toxic ash that engulfed her.

"I was there (on) 9/11 For years I have been working down there every day since 9/11. We were never told that something could happen," she says.

Unlike Febrillet, Richard Fahrer, then 19, wasn't in the area on 9/11, but he regularly worked as a land surveyor between 2001 and 2003 in south Manhattan, where the Twin Towers came crashing down.

Eighteen months ago, the young father, now 37, was diagnosed with aggressive colon cancer, a disease that usually affects older men and which there is no history of in his family.

Febrillet and Fahrer represent a growing category of patients who were living or working close to the World Trade Center in the wake of the attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people.

They were not among the thousands of emergency personnel who rushed to the site or who spent months clearing debris at Ground Zero, but their health is being similarly affected.

As the 18th anniversary of the attacks approaches, New York continues to count the number of people who have developed cancer or other serious illnesses related to the toxic cloud that hovered over Manhattan for several weeks.

'People are dying'&nbsp;

The 9/11 attacks released unprecedented amounts of chemicals into the air, including dioxins, asbestos, and other carcinogenic substances.

Firefighters, other first responders, and volunteers who helped with the months-long clean-up were the first to be affected. Studies found they faced an increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Ten thousand of them have been diagnosed with cancer by the World Trade Center Health Program, a federal treatment program helping survivors.

At the end of June this year, 21,000 people not considered first responders were also in the program twice as many as in June 2016. Of these, almost 4,000 have cancer, the most common being prostate, breast, and skin.

Febrillet, now 44, is one of them. She recalls that the message at the time was to get the city back to normal as quickly as possible.

"People were just going about their business a few days later. But look at what happened a few years later, people are dying," says Febrillet, who also lived close to Ground Zero.

Fahrer, too, laments that city officials did not do more to protect residents and office staff in the vicinity.

"My wife asks me, 'Did terrorists cause your cancer?' I can't say 100 percent, but I do know there could have been better efforts to limit the exposure of healthy adults from entering into the disaster area," he says.

Compensation fund&nbsp;

Health experts say it is impossible to pinpoint exactly the cause of cancer in every patient, but note that there is a clear correlation between the rate and exposure to toxic debris.

Several studies have shown that the cancer rate "has increased between 10 and 30 percent" among people who were exposed compared to those who weren't, David Prezant, New York fire department chief medical officer, told AFP. &nbsp; &nbsp;

The rate is expected to increase further, he said, as exposed people get older. The risk of cancer increases with age and some cancers, including lung, can take 20 to 30 years to develop, Prezant added.

It is because of this that President Donald Trump signed a bill in July that extends a deadline for victims to file claims for compensation from December 2020 to 2090.

The Victim Compensation Fund will be regularly topped up after exhausting its initial budget of $7.3 billion. The average compensation per patient is $240,000, or $682,000 for a deceased person.

Lawyer Matthew Baione, who represents Fahrer and Febrillet in their pursuit of claims, said the extension recognized that it was appropriate to cover someone "who was a baby during the attacks for the rest of their life."

"We have lost so many people, so many friends are sick," says Febrillet

"You get to a point where you are not asking, 'Have you seen so and so, I wonder how she is doing, is she retired?'

"Instead you are asking, 'So how is the surgery, how is the treatment going?' We are so young, this shouldn't be happening."

Jacquelin Febrillet was 26 years old on September 11, 2001, when jihadist hijackers flew two passenger jets into the World Trade Center just two blocks from where she worked.

Jacquelin Febrillet was 26 years old on September 11, 2001, when jihadist hijackers flew two passenger jets into the World Trade Center just two blocks from where she worked. Fifteen years after the attacks that day, Febrillet, by then a mother of three, was diagnosed with metastatic cancer. The likely cause: a cloud of toxic ash that engulfed her. "I was there (on) 9/11 For years I have been working down there every day since 9/11. We were never told that something could happen," she says. Unlike Febrillet, Richard Fahrer, then 19, wasn't in the area on 9/11, but he regularly worked as a land surveyor between 2001 and 2003 in south Manhattan, where the Twin Towers came crashing down. Eighteen months ago, the young father, now 37, was diagnosed with aggressive colon cancer, a disease that usually affects older men and which there is no history of in his family. Febrillet and Fahrer represent a growing category of patients who were living or working close to the World Trade Center in the wake of the attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people. They were not among the thousands of emergency personnel who rushed to the site or who spent months clearing debris at Ground Zero, but their health is being similarly affected. As the 18th anniversary of the attacks approaches, New York continues to count the number of people who have developed cancer or other serious illnesses related to the toxic cloud that hovered over Manhattan for several weeks. 'People are dying' The 9/11 attacks released unprecedented amounts of chemicals into the air, including dioxins, asbestos, and other carcinogenic substances. Firefighters, other first responders, and volunteers who helped with the months-long clean-up were the first to be affected. Studies found they faced an increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. Ten thousand of them have been diagnosed with cancer by the World Trade Center Health Program, a federal treatment program helping survivors. At the end of June this year, 21,000 people not considered first responders were also in the program twice as many as in June 2016. Of these, almost 4,000 have cancer, the most common being prostate, breast, and skin. Febrillet, now 44, is one of them. She recalls that the message at the time was to get the city back to normal as quickly as possible. "People were just going about their business a few days later. But look at what happened a few years later, people are dying," says Febrillet, who also lived close to Ground Zero. Fahrer, too, laments that city officials did not do more to protect residents and office staff in the vicinity. "My wife asks me, 'Did terrorists cause your cancer?' I can't say 100 percent, but I do know there could have been better efforts to limit the exposure of healthy adults from entering into the disaster area," he says. Compensation fund Health experts say it is impossible to pinpoint exactly the cause of cancer in every patient, but note that there is a clear correlation between the rate and exposure to toxic debris. Several studies have shown that the cancer rate "has increased between 10 and 30 percent" among people who were exposed compared to those who weren't, David Prezant, New York fire department chief medical officer, told AFP. The rate is expected to increase further, he said, as exposed people get older. The risk of cancer increases with age and some cancers, including lung, can take 20 to 30 years to develop, Prezant added. It is because of this that President Donald Trump signed a bill in July that extends a deadline for victims to file claims for compensation from December 2020 to 2090. The Victim Compensation Fund will be regularly topped up after exhausting its initial budget of $7.3 billion. The average compensation per patient is $240,000, or $682,000 for a deceased person. Lawyer Matthew Baione, who represents Fahrer and Febrillet in their pursuit of claims, said the extension recognized that it was appropriate to cover someone "who was a baby during the attacks for the rest of their life." "We have lost so many people, so many friends are sick," says Febrillet "You get to a point where you are not asking, 'Have you seen so and so, I wonder how she is doing, is she retired?' "Instead you are asking, 'So how is the surgery, how is the treatment going?' We are so young, this shouldn't be happening."

18 years later, cancer cases linger over 9/11 anniversary

Alleged <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/trump-signs-911-victim-compensation-fund-bill-into-law-for-first-responders-239332">9/11</a> plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp will finally go on trial in 2021, almost two decades after the devastating <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-senate-passes-911-victim-fund-sends-it-to-president-donald-trump-238095">Al-Qaeda attack</a>, the New York Times reported Friday.

A military judge at the US Navy's Guantanamo, Cuba base set the date for the death-penalty trial for January 11, 2021, according to the newspaper.

The date was included in a scheduling order for pre-trial activities by the military judge, Colonel Shane Cohen, the Times said.

Watch: Taliban provokes America, justifies 9/11 attack

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The five will be the first to go on trial in the military commissions established to handle the "War on Terror" detainees captured and sent to Guantanamo after September 11, 2001 attacks that left 2,976 people dead in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington.

Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi were accused of planning and participating in the plot hatched by Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to hijack four airliners and crash them into New York's World Trade Center and buildings in Washington.

Two of the planes struck the World Trade Center, another hit the Pentagon and a fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers, having learned of the other flights, fought the hijackers.&nbsp;

The five were formally charged in 2012 with conspiracy, attacking civilians, murder in violation of the law of war, aircraft hijacking and terrorism.

Mohammed, a Pakistan native thought to be about 54, is a key figure in the trial: he has been accused of being the mastermind of the 9/11 plot.

He was captured in Pakistan in 2003. Turned over to the US Central Intelligence Agency, he underwent severe torture, including repeated waterboarding, as US officials sought to learn more about the plot and Al-Qaeda.

Alleged 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp will finally go on trial in 2021, almost two decades after the devastating Al-Qaeda attack, the New York Times reported Friday.

Alleged 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp will finally go on trial in 2021, almost two decades after the devastating Al-Qaeda attack, the New York Times reported Friday. A military judge at the US Navy's Guantanamo, Cuba base set the date for the death-penalty trial for January 11, 2021, according to the newspaper. The date was included in a scheduling order for pre-trial activities by the military judge, Colonel Shane Cohen, the Times said. Watch: Taliban provokes America, justifies 9/11 attack × The five will be the first to go on trial in the military commissions established to handle the "War on Terror" detainees captured and sent to Guantanamo after September 11, 2001 attacks that left 2,976 people dead in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington. Mohammed, Walid bin Attash, Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, and Mustafa al-Hawsawi were accused of planning and participating in the plot hatched by Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to hijack four airliners and crash them into New York's World Trade Center and buildings in Washington. Two of the planes struck the World Trade Center, another hit the Pentagon and a fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers, having learned of the other flights, fought the hijackers. The five were formally charged in 2012 with conspiracy, attacking civilians, murder in violation of the law of war, aircraft hijacking and terrorism. Mohammed, a Pakistan native thought to be about 54, is a key figure in the trial: he has been accused of being the mastermind of the 9/11 plot. He was captured in Pakistan in 2003. Turned over to the US Central Intelligence Agency, he underwent severe torture, including repeated waterboarding, as US officials sought to learn more about the plot and Al-Qaeda.

Trial for alleged 9/11 terror attack mastermind Pakistani national Khalid Sheikh Mohammad set for January 2021

Political activists from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) have accused<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/indian-envoy-to-pakistan-to-reach-new-delhi-today-after-expelled-by-islamabad-242051"> Islamabad</a> of spreading terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir with no regard for the locals.

They said that Islamabad is only using religion as a tool to nurture and proliferate terrorism which has deeply hurt the interests and ambitions of Kashmiris.

Nasir Aziz Khan, a political activist from PoK and spokesperson of United Kashmir People's National Party said, "When militancy set its foot in Kashmir in the 1990s, we, the United Kashmir People`s National Party (UKPNP) had appealed and informed to all that Pakistan never had Kashmiri welfare in mind and was using them in their proxy war against India".

"But the people, who had distorted notions in their mind and continue to have the same beliefs even today, went ahead and embraced militancy shouting slogans of 'Al-Jihad' and 'Al Qatar'," he added.

"Kashmir is a multi-cultural and multi-religious state and providing support to one particular religion has only consolidated the divisive mindset and fanning the flames on minor communal incidents clearly means that you don't have any sympathy for the people of the region and you don`t want to see them united", said Nasir.

Several terror organisations like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen, which are now amongst the most dreaded terrorist groups, were floated in the 80s in the name of Kashmiri welfare.

But, their agenda is well exposed. Locals say that their movement was crippled by such organisations as Kashmiris were dubbed internationally as terrorists and the region became infamous due to this only.

Sardar Sagir Khan, a leader of <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/pakistan-supports-terrorism-for-creating-turmoil-in-jammu-and-kashmir-pok-activist-245257">Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF)</a> in Rawalakot said, "We have, for years, been saying that Pakistan`s intelligence agencies have been sabotaging our movement by smuggling non-state actors into our territory. People perceive our movement as terrorism. We have not been given any importance".

&nbsp;"Our movement has been left behind by the things that panned out after 9/11. Our sacrifices are wasted. We were protesting then and we are still protesting," he added.

Nisar Shah, a lawyer and activist of Jammu Kashmir People`s National Alliance (JKPNA) said, "The nation which has been raising a slogan "Kashmir Banega Pakistan" (Kashmir will become Pakistan) and holding its own flag, is the one which is responsible for the killing of 90,000 Kashmiri people in the name of jihad".

Pakistan continues to hold a significant portion of Kashmir under its control and it has been meting out a novercal treatment to the people living here.

They are deprived of fundamental rights and are not given services and facilities at par with the people in the other parts of the region.

They do not have any representation in the parliament and their pleas and demands are not rendered any attention.&nbsp;

They are not eligible for even key posts in the region.

The ruling dispensation, which had promised of undoing the wrong done with Kashmir, has not just been ineffective but has stepped up cruelty to a newer level, which has induced unprecedented plights for the people. 
&nbsp;

Political activists from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) have accused Islamabad of spreading terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir with no regard for the locals. They said that Islamabad is only using religion as a tool to nurture and proliferate terrorism which has deeply hurt the interests and ambitions of Kashmiris.

Political activists from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) have accused Islamabad of spreading terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir with no regard for the locals. They said that Islamabad is only using religion as a tool to nurture and proliferate terrorism which has deeply hurt the interests and ambitions of Kashmiris. Nasir Aziz Khan, a political activist from PoK and spokesperson of United Kashmir People's National Party said, "When militancy set its foot in Kashmir in the 1990s, we, the United Kashmir People`s National Party (UKPNP) had appealed and informed to all that Pakistan never had Kashmiri welfare in mind and was using them in their proxy war against India". "But the people, who had distorted notions in their mind and continue to have the same beliefs even today, went ahead and embraced militancy shouting slogans of 'Al-Jihad' and 'Al Qatar'," he added. "Kashmir is a multi-cultural and multi-religious state and providing support to one particular religion has only consolidated the divisive mindset and fanning the flames on minor communal incidents clearly means that you don't have any sympathy for the people of the region and you don`t want to see them united", said Nasir. Several terror organisations like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizbul Mujahideen, which are now amongst the most dreaded terrorist groups, were floated in the 80s in the name of Kashmiri welfare. But, their agenda is well exposed. Locals say that their movement was crippled by such organisations as Kashmiris were dubbed internationally as terrorists and the region became infamous due to this only. Sardar Sagir Khan, a leader of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in Rawalakot said, "We have, for years, been saying that Pakistan`s intelligence agencies have been sabotaging our movement by smuggling non-state actors into our territory. People perceive our movement as terrorism. We have not been given any importance". "Our movement has been left behind by the things that panned out after 9/11. Our sacrifices are wasted. We were protesting then and we are still protesting," he added. Nisar Shah, a lawyer and activist of Jammu Kashmir People`s National Alliance (JKPNA) said, "The nation which has been raising a slogan "Kashmir Banega Pakistan" (Kashmir will become Pakistan) and holding its own flag, is the one which is responsible for the killing of 90,000 Kashmiri people in the name of jihad". Pakistan continues to hold a significant portion of Kashmir under its control and it has been meting out a novercal treatment to the people living here. They are deprived of fundamental rights and are not given services and facilities at par with the people in the other parts of the region. They do not have any representation in the parliament and their pleas and demands are not rendered any attention. They are not eligible for even key posts in the region. The ruling dispensation, which had promised of undoing the wrong done with Kashmir, has not just been ineffective but has stepped up cruelty to a newer level, which has induced unprecedented plights for the people.

Pakistan using terror, religion as tools to mislead Kashmiris: Activists

Taliban's head spokesman Sohail Shaheen, in an interview with a US news channel, said there is no proof that Al Qaeda was behind the deadly 9/11 attack in the United States.

Shaheen comments came at the time when <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/us-president-donald-trump-hails-very-good-discussions-with-the-taliban-243958">US-Taliban talks</a> are underway in Qatar.&nbsp;

Shaheen also stressed on the necessity for the war to end, adding that the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/two-us-service-members-killed-in-afghanistan-nato-244690">death of two US service members in Afghanistan</a> highlights the fact that stopping of violence is essential.&nbsp;

Two American service members were killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement, as the United States seeks to reach a negotiated end to the nearly 18-year-old war.

The incident brings the number of US troops killed in Afghanistan to at least 14 in 2019.

About 14,000 US troops are stationed in Afghanistan as part of the US-led NATO mission to train, assist and advise Afghan forces and to carry out counter-terrorism operations.

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the US military role in Afghanistan has basically turned into a "ridiculous" police force in a sign that he is open to a US troop drawdown there after 18 years of war.

Trump, inheriting a war begun by then-President George W. Bush in response to the September&nbsp;11, 2001 attacks, expressed a willingness to remove some of the US troops there but said some are needed to make sure the United States has intelligence assets on the ground.

Trump was briefed on Friday by top national security aides on a peace plan being negotiated by US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad with leaders of the Afghanistan government and the&nbsp;Taliban.

A pullout has raised fears within the US military and among some lawmakers that Afghanistan could plunge into a new civil war that could see a return of&nbsp;Taliban&nbsp;rule and give al Qaeda and other militants a sanctuary in which to expand and plot new attacks on US and allied targets.

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<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WATCH?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WATCH</a> US President Donald Trump yesterday on militant groups in Afghanistan: India is right there, they are not fighting it. We are fighting it. Pakistan is right next door, they are fighting it very little, very very little. It's not fair. <a href="https://t.co/syuYN37i6W">pic.twitter.com/syuYN37i6W</a>
— ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1164537341735854081?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The US President on Wednesday looked frustrated as he spoke about militant groups in Afghanistan. He said, while the United States is doing the fighting, Afghanistan's <a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/india-should-take-a-larger-role-in-fighting-terrorism-in-afghanistan-donald-trump-244724">neighbours are doing very little</a>.

"India is right there, they are not fighting it. We are fighting it. Pakistan is right next door, they are fighting it very little, very very little. It's not fair," Trump said.&nbsp;

Taliban's head spokesman Sohail Shaheen, in an interview with a US news channel, said there is no proof that Al Qaeda was behind the deadly 9/11 attack in the United States.

Taliban's head spokesman Sohail Shaheen, in an interview with a US news channel, said there is no proof that Al Qaeda was behind the deadly 9/11 attack in the United States. Shaheen comments came at the time when US-Taliban talks are underway in Qatar. Shaheen also stressed on the necessity for the war to end, adding that the death of two US service members in Afghanistan highlights the fact that stopping of violence is essential. Two American service members were killed in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the NATO-led Resolute Support mission said in a statement, as the United States seeks to reach a negotiated end to the nearly 18-year-old war. The incident brings the number of US troops killed in Afghanistan to at least 14 in 2019. About 14,000 US troops are stationed in Afghanistan as part of the US-led NATO mission to train, assist and advise Afghan forces and to carry out counter-terrorism operations. US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the US military role in Afghanistan has basically turned into a "ridiculous" police force in a sign that he is open to a US troop drawdown there after 18 years of war. Trump, inheriting a war begun by then-President George W. Bush in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, expressed a willingness to remove some of the US troops there but said some are needed to make sure the United States has intelligence assets on the ground. Trump was briefed on Friday by top national security aides on a peace plan being negotiated by US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad with leaders of the Afghanistan government and the Taliban. A pullout has raised fears within the US military and among some lawmakers that Afghanistan could plunge into a new civil war that could see a return of Taliban rule and give al Qaeda and other militants a sanctuary in which to expand and plot new attacks on US and allied targets. #WATCH US President Donald Trump yesterday on militant groups in Afghanistan: India is right there, they are not fighting it. We are fighting it. Pakistan is right next door, they are fighting it very little, very very little. It's not fair. pic.twitter.com/syuYN37i6W — ANI (@ANI) August 22, 2019 × The US President on Wednesday looked frustrated as he spoke about militant groups in Afghanistan. He said, while the United States is doing the fighting, Afghanistan's neighbours are doing very little. "India is right there, they are not fighting it. We are fighting it. Pakistan is right next door, they are fighting it very little, very very little. It's not fair," Trump said.

Taliban's head spokesman says no proof Al Qaeda was behind 9/11 attack

President Donald Trump on Monday signed the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-senate-passes-911-victim-fund-sends-it-to-president-donald-trump-238095">9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Bill </a>into law to provide health care facilities to the police officers, firefighters and other first responders to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

The President was joined by more than 200 individuals affected by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, including more than 60 first responders, at the White House Rose Garden ceremony, CNN reported.

"Today we come together as one nation to support our September 11th heroes to care for their families and to renew our eternal vow -- never ever forget," Trump said, calling the fund`s extension "a sacred duty".

"The love and loyalty of our 9/11 responders knew no bounds. They answered terror with the emotional strength of true American warriors," he added.

Trump told the crowd of 9/11 first responders and their families that he was also at Ground Zero in the wake of the terror attacks, though he said he does not consider himself to be a first responder.

"I was down there also, but I`m not considering myself a first responder," Trump said.

"But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you," he added.

Trump`s signature marked the end of a 15-year fight to get the government to permanently pay claims to first responders and other victims who were sickened by the toxic fumes in the days and weeks following the September 11 terror attacks.

It came after powerful testimony in mid-June from first responder Luis Alvarez, an NYPD detective who contracted cancer.

Alvarez came to Washington before his 69th round of chemotherapy and spoke at a poorly attended congressional hearing, leading to former "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart`s viral shaming of lawmakers that upped public support for the bill.

Alvarez died in late June but gave his police badge to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, inspiring the Kentucky Republican to commit to passing the bill by August.

The bill cleared the House of Representatives on July 12, The New York Post reported.

The extension of the fund will ensure compensation for individuals injured during the 2001 terrorist attacks and in their aftermath rescuing people and removing debris under hazardous conditions.

The fund was slated to expire in 2020. 
But the newly signed legislation ensures the compensation for victims through 2090.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the fund`s extension will cost about US $10 billion over the next decade.

However, Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and Senator Mike Lee of Utah were the only senators to vote against the bill.

President Donald Trump on Monday signed the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Bill into law to provide health care facilities to the police officers, firefighters and other first responders to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

President Donald Trump on Monday signed the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Bill into law to provide health care facilities to the police officers, firefighters and other first responders to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The President was joined by more than 200 individuals affected by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, including more than 60 first responders, at the White House Rose Garden ceremony, CNN reported. "Today we come together as one nation to support our September 11th heroes to care for their families and to renew our eternal vow -- never ever forget," Trump said, calling the fund`s extension "a sacred duty". "The love and loyalty of our 9/11 responders knew no bounds. They answered terror with the emotional strength of true American warriors," he added. Trump told the crowd of 9/11 first responders and their families that he was also at Ground Zero in the wake of the terror attacks, though he said he does not consider himself to be a first responder. "I was down there also, but I`m not considering myself a first responder," Trump said. "But I was down there. I spent a lot of time down there with you," he added. Trump`s signature marked the end of a 15-year fight to get the government to permanently pay claims to first responders and other victims who were sickened by the toxic fumes in the days and weeks following the September 11 terror attacks. It came after powerful testimony in mid-June from first responder Luis Alvarez, an NYPD detective who contracted cancer. Alvarez came to Washington before his 69th round of chemotherapy and spoke at a poorly attended congressional hearing, leading to former "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart`s viral shaming of lawmakers that upped public support for the bill. Alvarez died in late June but gave his police badge to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, inspiring the Kentucky Republican to commit to passing the bill by August. The bill cleared the House of Representatives on July 12, The New York Post reported. The extension of the fund will ensure compensation for individuals injured during the 2001 terrorist attacks and in their aftermath rescuing people and removing debris under hazardous conditions. The fund was slated to expire in 2020. But the newly signed legislation ensures the compensation for victims through 2090. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the fund`s extension will cost about US $10 billion over the next decade. However, Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and Senator Mike Lee of Utah were the only senators to vote against the bill.

Trump signs 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund bill into law for first responders

A Report On The New Video Released By Taliban Which Justifies 9/11 Attacks. Trump may boast of his deal-clinching abilities. But one deal that he is over-seeing is looking dicey. Amidst the ongoing Afghanistan peace talks, Taliban releases a new video justifying the 9/11 attacks. What's more, Taliban calls the 9/11 attacks as a slap to the U.S. Here's more on the video.

Gravitas: Taliban releases a new video justifying 9/11 attacks

The Taliban have justified the 9/11 attack and blamed America's policy for it. The group has released new footage. The footage was shared online by the American website Long War Journal.

Taliban justifies 9/11 attack, blames US for 9/11

The US House of Representatives on Friday approved legislation to permanently compensate first responders to the September&nbsp;11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre who have been suffering from cancers and other illnesses as a result of working at the contaminated site.

The House voted 402-12 to pass the "Never Forget the Heroes Act" that had been championed by Jon Stewart, the popular former host of the late-night comedy programme The Daily Show, and highlighted by recent gripping testimony by a dying 9/11 New York police detective.

"On September 11th and its aftermath, our brave first responders were there for us. We must always be there for them," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said just before the vote on the bill.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the legislation will be brought to a vote in his chamber soon.

Without prompt action by Congress, victims of the attack would see steeply reduced benefits due to a lack of funding.

Former New York Detective Luis Alvarez died last month shortly after his testimony to the US House Judiciary Committee in which he urged a replenishment of the fund.

At that same hearing, Stewart delivered impassioned testimony in which he chastised some lawmakers for not acting quickly enough to continue helping the police, firefighters and other workers immediately following the Sept. 11 attack.

If passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Donald Trump, the victims' fund would be authorized through 2092 and they could file claims until October 2089.

It would end the string of temporary measures that have required constant lobbying by groups trying to avert an interruption in benefits to help those sickened by toxic materials released into the atmosphere and ground following the impact of commercial jetliners that were hijacked and flown directly into the twin towers.

Government officials told responders at the time that it was safe to work at the site, despite questions by many experts.

The US House of Representatives on Friday approved legislation to permanently compensate first responders to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre who have been suffering from cancers and other illnesses as a result of working at the contaminated site.

The US House of Representatives on Friday approved legislation to permanently compensate first responders to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre who have been suffering from cancers and other illnesses as a result of working at the contaminated site. The House voted 402-12 to pass the "Never Forget the Heroes Act" that had been championed by Jon Stewart, the popular former host of the late-night comedy programme The Daily Show, and highlighted by recent gripping testimony by a dying 9/11 New York police detective. "On September 11th and its aftermath, our brave first responders were there for us. We must always be there for them," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said just before the vote on the bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the legislation will be brought to a vote in his chamber soon. Without prompt action by Congress, victims of the attack would see steeply reduced benefits due to a lack of funding. Former New York Detective Luis Alvarez died last month shortly after his testimony to the US House Judiciary Committee in which he urged a replenishment of the fund. At that same hearing, Stewart delivered impassioned testimony in which he chastised some lawmakers for not acting quickly enough to continue helping the police, firefighters and other workers immediately following the Sept. 11 attack. If passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Donald Trump, the victims' fund would be authorized through 2092 and they could file claims until October 2089. It would end the string of temporary measures that have required constant lobbying by groups trying to avert an interruption in benefits to help those sickened by toxic materials released into the atmosphere and ground following the impact of commercial jetliners that were hijacked and flown directly into the twin towers. Government officials told responders at the time that it was safe to work at the site, despite questions by many experts.

US House approves funding for 9/11 responders, sends to Senate

A US congressional committee on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation to extend the fund compensating first responders to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Centre for the next 70 years, a move that would avoid steep benefit reductions over a lack of money.

The House Judiciary Committee acted one day after television personality and comedian Jon Stewart castigated lawmakers at a hearing for their slow response to helping New York City firefighters, police officers and other emergency personnel who rushed to the scene of the attacks that left two of Manhattan`s most well-known skyscrapers in rubble.

The fund also helps construction workers and victims of the attack.

"Your indifference costs these men and women their most valuable commodity - time," Stewart said to a hearing room packed with lawmakers and first-responders, including those now suffering from cancer, respiratory problems and other serious health issues as a result of inhaling contaminated air nearly 18 years ago.

Before Wednesday`s vote, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, whose constituents live in New York City, said that despite federal officials` statements that the air was safe in the aftermath of the attack, "more than 95,000 responders and survivors are sick."&nbsp;

The bill, which next goes to the full House for debate, would extend the victims` compensation fund to 2090, putting it on the same terms as a health program for World Trade Centre victims. It also would reverse any benefit cuts due to insufficient funds.&nbsp;

Also on Wednesday, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York pleaded for fast passage in that chamber.

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was asked by a reporter whether he would advance the legislation.

"I hadn`t looked at that lately. I`ll have to. We`ve always dealt with that in a compassionate way and I assume we will again," McConnell said. 
In the past, some lawmakers have complained about the cost of helping 9-11 victims at a time of severe U.S. budget deficits.&nbsp;

"It`s shameful. There’s no other word for it. Shameful, that our brave first responders have had to suffer the indignity of delay after delay after delay," Schumer said in a speech to the Senate.

A US congressional committee on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation to extend the fund compensating first responders to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Centre for the next 70 years, a move that would avoid steep benefit reductions over a lack of money.

A US congressional committee on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation to extend the fund compensating first responders to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Centre for the next 70 years, a move that would avoid steep benefit reductions over a lack of money. The House Judiciary Committee acted one day after television personality and comedian Jon Stewart castigated lawmakers at a hearing for their slow response to helping New York City firefighters, police officers and other emergency personnel who rushed to the scene of the attacks that left two of Manhattan`s most well-known skyscrapers in rubble. The fund also helps construction workers and victims of the attack. "Your indifference costs these men and women their most valuable commodity - time," Stewart said to a hearing room packed with lawmakers and first-responders, including those now suffering from cancer, respiratory problems and other serious health issues as a result of inhaling contaminated air nearly 18 years ago. Before Wednesday`s vote, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, whose constituents live in New York City, said that despite federal officials` statements that the air was safe in the aftermath of the attack, "more than 95,000 responders and survivors are sick." The bill, which next goes to the full House for debate, would extend the victims` compensation fund to 2090, putting it on the same terms as a health program for World Trade Centre victims. It also would reverse any benefit cuts due to insufficient funds. Also on Wednesday, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York pleaded for fast passage in that chamber. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was asked by a reporter whether he would advance the legislation. "I hadn`t looked at that lately. I`ll have to. We`ve always dealt with that in a compassionate way and I assume we will again," McConnell said. In the past, some lawmakers have complained about the cost of helping 9-11 victims at a time of severe U.S. budget deficits. "It`s shameful. There’s no other word for it. Shameful, that our brave first responders have had to suffer the indignity of delay after delay after delay," Schumer said in a speech to the Senate.

US House panel approves permanent September 11 victims' compensation

The family of an Afghan man detained and allegedly tortured to death by the Central Intelligence Agency in the wake of the 9/11 attacks sued Friday to find out what happened to his body.

The lawsuit says that Gul Rahman and his family were living in a refugee camp in Peshawar when he was kidnapped by the US spy agency on suspicion of being a jihadist militant on November 5, 2002 and transferred to a CIA prison for interrogation.

"Over the next two weeks, CIA personnel subjected Mr. Rahman to extensive and systematic torture and abuse," the lawsuit said, until he died of hypothermia on November 20, the lawsuit said.

His death was not reported until 2010 and not officially confirmed until 2014.

"To date, the CIA has not officially informed Mr Rahman's family of his death, nor returned his body to his family," the lawsuit said.

The suit, brought in the federal district court in Washington, demands the release of records regarding his death and his body under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

It came after the agency failed to respond to formal requests under FOIA for the information.

Rahman's family had already shared part of a settlement in a case filed together with two men who were also tortured in CIA prisons in Afghanistan against two CIA contract psychiatrists who advised on interrogations and torture techniques.

But the family was never told what happened to his body.

"I have faith that people in America will know the right thing for their government to do is to tell me and my family what happened to my father's body," Hajira Hematyara, Rahman’s daughter, said in a statement.

"Only then will we be able to do right by my father and give him a proper funeral."

The American Civil Liberties Union, which helped Rahman's family file the lawsuit, lodged a second complaint against the CIA with the court, saying agency director &nbsp;Gina Haspel was preventing the release of information to protect the agency's reputation and because it "related to her personal role in prisoner torture and abuse."

"This country still needs to continue to reckon with the consequences of torture," said ACLU staff attorney Dror Ladin.

The family of an Afghan man detained and allegedly tortured to death by the Central Intelligence Agency in the wake of the 9/11 attacks sued Friday to find out what happened to his body.

The family of an Afghan man detained and allegedly tortured to death by the Central Intelligence Agency in the wake of the 9/11 attacks sued Friday to find out what happened to his body. The lawsuit says that Gul Rahman and his family were living in a refugee camp in Peshawar when he was kidnapped by the US spy agency on suspicion of being a jihadist militant on November 5, 2002 and transferred to a CIA prison for interrogation. "Over the next two weeks, CIA personnel subjected Mr. Rahman to extensive and systematic torture and abuse," the lawsuit said, until he died of hypothermia on November 20, the lawsuit said. His death was not reported until 2010 and not officially confirmed until 2014. "To date, the CIA has not officially informed Mr Rahman's family of his death, nor returned his body to his family," the lawsuit said. The suit, brought in the federal district court in Washington, demands the release of records regarding his death and his body under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). It came after the agency failed to respond to formal requests under FOIA for the information. Rahman's family had already shared part of a settlement in a case filed together with two men who were also tortured in CIA prisons in Afghanistan against two CIA contract psychiatrists who advised on interrogations and torture techniques. But the family was never told what happened to his body. "I have faith that people in America will know the right thing for their government to do is to tell me and my family what happened to my father's body," Hajira Hematyara, Rahman’s daughter, said in a statement. "Only then will we be able to do right by my father and give him a proper funeral." The American Civil Liberties Union, which helped Rahman's family file the lawsuit, lodged a second complaint against the CIA with the court, saying agency director Gina Haspel was preventing the release of information to protect the agency's reputation and because it "related to her personal role in prisoner torture and abuse." "This country still needs to continue to reckon with the consequences of torture," said ACLU staff attorney Dror Ladin.

Afghan family sues CIA to find body of post-9/11 detainee

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