This report examines a wide range of actions taken by the United States government over the last six months in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It updates our report entitled “A Year of Loss” published in September 2002, on the first anniversary of the attacks.
On the morning of September 11, men now believed to be members of the al Qaeda network forcibly took control of four commercial jetliners to attack the United States. Within minutes, 19 hijackers crashed two of those planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and a fourth into a field in Pennsylvania, killing more than 3,000 people.
Topic:
Human Rights, International Law, and National Security
On July 12, the online wire of the Associated Press included a story out of the Welsh city of Swansea, where a synagogue had been vandalized the night before. According to the story, which was not picked up by any major American newspaper, a group of youths broke into the synagogue, destroyed one of the temple's Torah scrolls, drew a swastika on the wall, and attempted to burn the building down before fleeing.