What happened on September 11th. Official version of events

Having received no support in Congress, the head of state in early March 2011 ordered the resumption of military trials against terrorism suspects held in the Guantanamo Bay prison.

In early April 2011, US Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed that defendant Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other defendants in the September 11 case would not appear before civil court USA, and before a special military commission at the Guantanamo Bay base.

On May 31, 2011, US military prosecutors again charged five suspects, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, with involvement in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.

On May 5, 2012, a military tribunal formally charged five suspects with involvement in organizing the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack in the United States. They are accused of conspiracy, attacking civilians, intentionally causing physical harm, murder, violating the laws of war, causing destruction, hijacking and terrorism.

All five defendants refused to answer whether they plead guilty.

New York District Judge George Daniels issued a default judgment ordering Iran to pay $7.5 billion to relatives and other representatives of those killed at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The judge determined that Iranian authorities must pay another three billion to insurers who covered property damage and other material losses. Earlier, Judge Daniels ruled that Tehran could not prove its non-involvement in providing assistance to the organizers of the terrorist attack, and therefore the Iranian authorities bear a share of responsibility for the damage caused during it.

On the site of the destroyed Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2011, there was a World War II Memorial. shopping center. It consists of two square fountain pools located right at the bases of the former twin towers, along the inner walls of which streams of water cascade into square holes located at the bottom of each of the pools.

The names of 2,983 terrorist victims (including six who died in the 1993 World Trade Center attack) are carved into bronze slabs that line the parapets of both fountains.

The new World Trade Center complex was opened. It is the fourth tallest skyscraper in the world - its height is 541 meters. Construction began in April 2006 on the corner of a 65,000-square-meter site where the twin towers of a destroyed shopping center previously stood.

Celebrated in the United States as Patriot Day since 2009, after the approval of Act 111-13 of the US General Law, this date is also referred to as the national Day of Service and Remembrance.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

16 years have passed since that very day, with Nine-Eleven, when Three skyscrapers collapsed in New York. No, I was not mistaken. Not two, but three, but for some reason they prefer not to remember the third. And when the third plane crashed into a wing of the Pentagon that was being repaired, and in a strange way almost self-destructed, and another one fell in the desert. And these are not all the mysteries of the tragedy that happened.

So, on the morning of September 11, 2001, some unknown persons hijacked four Boeing planes (two in Boston, one in Washington and another in Newark), after which the first two planes crashed into the New York skyscrapers WTC-1 and WTC-2, the third hit the Pentagon wall, and the fourth crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The two WTC towers, attacked by planes, suddenly collapsed completely within an hour and a half in a very strange way, folding neatly inward. Also for some reason completely and neatly The neighboring skyscraper WTC 7 also collapsed, although no planes hit it.

Only a few days passed after the “terrorist attacks” before the first official version of everything that happened was ready and the perpetrators were named. Osama bin Laden, who directed this action from Afghanistan, and, of course, his brainchild Al-Qaeda, were immediately named as the culprit. The names of all were also immediately announced 19 hijackers, who abandoned their cars near airports, in which they found the Koran and instructions in Arabic “How to fly an airplane,” and miraculously preserved passports of “terrorists” were found in the wreckage of the planes. It followed from this that we urgently needed to start bombing Afghanistan and invading Iraq.

In the fall of 2002, a special commission was created under the loud name “National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States.” It was chaired by former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean. The commission included former employees CIA, FBI, Department of Justice and other government agencies. All actions and the course of the investigation were led by Philip Zelikow, a member of the administration of President Bush Jr., who also worked under Bush Sr.

The official version indicated above took its final form on July 22, 2004, when the above-mentioned commission of 83 people completed a report of 585 pages. The report of the Keene Commission confirmed the above version, which even now remains the only and irrefutable one.

Now let's give some facts, showing how US intelligence agencies are able to “investigate” and obtain the desired and obviously announced results.

Cell Phones

The official report claims that all information from the Boeing that crashed into the World Trade Center skyscraper was transmitted to the ground via mobile phones. In particular, flight attendant Betty Ong spoke for 23 minutes, and flight attendant Madeline Sweeney for 25 minutes. Sweeney's last words were: “I see water! I see buildings! .

The fact is that when the phone enters the broadcast area of the base station, or “cell,” a so-called “greeting” occurs, which in 2001 took at least eight seconds. The welcome system was not designed for driving at 700 km/h and is possible at a maximum speed of 150 km/h. And only in 2004, Qualcomm, together with American Airlines, developed a system that, using a satellite, provides calls to cell phones from an aircraft on which a special mobile base station is installed. On July 15, 2004, a trial run of the system was carried out, after which it began to function.

Cheating with speed

The official report of the Keene Commission provides a diagram of the alleged movement of Flight 175, which crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center, according to which the plane covered the final straight leg from Trenton to New York in four minutes.

And now a fact: The distance between Trenton and New York in a straight line is 85 kilometers. For good measure, you can even consider it equal to 80. According to official data, the plane covered this distance in 4 minutes. We'll find average speed liner in this section: V = 80 km / 4 min = 20 km/min = 1200 km/h. We get the speed of sound.

Of course, the Boeing 767 was not supersonic. IN technical specifications The Boeing 767-200 is said to have a maximum cruising speed at an altitude of 12 km of 915 km/h. And this is only at an altitude of 12,000 meters, where the air density is five times lower than at sea level, and the airliner flew into the building at an altitude of several hundred meters. The same technical specifications say that the maximum permissible speed of the Boeing 767-200 (the so-called Vne - Velocity Never Exceed), exceeding which the plane will simply begin to collapse, is 0.86 the speed of sound, that is, about 1000 km/h. Therefore, even if the plane had managed to reach the speed of sound, it would have disintegrated long before Manhattan. That is, the official investigation invites everyone to believe into something that is purely physically impossible. So, another lie from the official investigation.

"Twins" could not collapse on their own

According to official report, the one hundred and ten-story skyscraper WTC-1 completely collapsed 1 hour 42 minutes after the plane hit, and its twin WTC-2 - 56 minutes later. The reason, of course, is given as follows - the impact and subsequent fire that occurred after the Boeings hit the buildings.

But this is where some more equally amazing facts appear.

It turns out that the “Twins” were designed in such a way that, in addition to the wind load, they could withstand Boeing 707 head-on impact, the largest passenger airliner in those years. In the early 1970s, Leslie Robertson, a building designer, calculated the effect of a Boeing 707 colliding with the World Trade Center tower. He reported the results to the New York Times, claiming that the towers would withstand the impact of a liner flying at a speed of 960 km/h, that is, having taken the blow of the liner, the skyscraper would remain standing without undergoing serious structural damage. In other words, the central frame and the remaining perimeter will withstand the additional load resulting from the absence of the demolished part of the load-bearing structures. It was with this safety margin that the “twins” were built.

Frank DeMartini, one of the leaders of the WTC project, confirms this idea: the building was designed to withstand the impact of a Boeing 707 at maximum take-off weight. It was the largest aircraft of that time. I am sure that the building would have withstood even several plane strikes, since its structure resembled a fine mosquito net, and the plane is like a pencil that pierces this net and does not affect the structure of the rest of it.

The fire also could not destroy the skyscrapers. Here's proof that the official report is lying again:

So, the WTC-1 building withstood the first blow. However, in the next hour and a half, something happened as a result of the fire that caused the tower to collapse. By the way, this is the first and the only case in world history, when a skyscraper actually turns into a pile of ruins as a result of an hour and a half fire - this is according to the official version.

In the mid-1990s, two British firms, British Steel and the Building Research Establishment, conducted a series of experiments in Cardington to determine the impact of fires on steel-framed structures. In an experimental model of an eight-story building, the steel structures did not have fire protection. Despite the fact that the temperature of the steel beams reached 900 °C (!) with a critical maximum of 600 °C, in none of the six experiments did destruction occur, although certain deformations did occur.

In August 2005, John R. Hall Jr. of the National Fire Protection Association of the United States published an analytical work, “Fires in High-Rise Structures.” In particular, it provides statistics according to which in 2002 alone, 7,300 fires occurred in high-rise buildings, many of which were very intense and lasted for many hours, consuming more than one floor. Despite the casualties and significant damage, none of these fires resulted in collapses.

If that's not enough, here are some more specific examples of the worst fires in recent decades:

On February 23, 1991, a fire broke out in the 38-story One Meridian Plaza building in Philadelphia. The fire started on the 22nd floor, spread to 8 floors and lasted 18 hours. As a result of this fire, many windows were broken, granite cracked and load-bearing walls sagged. Nevertheless, the building survived and not a single part of it collapsed.

On May 4, 1988, the 62-story First Interstate Bank building in Los Angeles caught fire. The fire lasted 3.5 hours, 4.5 floors burned out - from the 12th to the 16th. But the load-bearing structures survived completely, and secondary structures and several interfloor ceilings received only minor damage. The building survived.

On August 5, 1970, an explosion occurred in the 50-story building 1 New York Plaza and a fire broke out that lasted six hours. There were no collapses.

On October 17, 2004, a skyscraper in the Venezuelan city of Caracas caught fire. The fire broke out at the 34th floor, engulfed 26 (!) floors and lasted 17 hours. The building survived.

And finally, a fire in the same New York World Trade Center. February 13, 1975 year, a fire occurred in the north tower on the 11th floor, as a result of which 65% of the floor burned out completely. In addition, the fire spread down to the 9th and up to the 16th floors, but did not affect the office premises and was limited to the shafts inside the central frame. The fire lasted three hours, and despite its much higher intensity than September 11, 2001, the structure of the building was not damaged. Not only the central frame, within which the fire mainly spread, but also all the interfloor ceilings remained completely undamaged.

World Trade Center fire in 1975

And the 47-story World Trade Center 7 collapsed on its own... by accident.

The official report states that WTC 7 "collapsed" due to weakening of the supporting structures, despite the fact that no aircraft hit it.

About the demolition of building No. 7 of the World Trade Center, as it turned out, very few people knew at all. Its destruction somehow went unnoticed against the background of the other events of that day. This 47-story skyscraper, which also bore the name Salomon Brothers, housed the offices of the FBI, the Department of Defense, the 1RS tax service (according to the Online Journal, with a huge amount of incriminating evidence, including the infamous Enron), counterintelligence USA, the stock exchange (with evidence of stock fraud), as well as various financial institutions. Its collapse occurred at approximately 17:20 New York time, and several rather interesting incidents are associated with it.

FEMA claims that this building collapsed for the same reasons as the “twins” - due to weakening of the supporting structures. But why? The plane did not hit him. There were no fires raging there - only in three places were there small local fires: on the seventh, twelfth and twenty-ninth floors. If we remember the diagram of the entire World Trade Center, then building No. 7 is the farthest from the “epicenter”, separated from the main complex by a street. Where did he get the damage? The report is silent about this.

This small fire allegedly caused the complete destruction of the WTC-7 building

And the most “truthful” thing in the world was even reported by the BBC about the collapse of WTC 7 in advance.

Indeed, the report of the British television channel BBC (BBC) looks unique. In a television news broadcast that aired at 10:00 London time, that is, 17:00 New York time, the presenter told viewers that the World Trade Center 7 building in New York had collapsed. But there were still 20 minutes left before it collapsed. Moreover, the channel's correspondent Jane Standley, in her live report from New York, talked about the collapse of WTC-7, while being in front of it. A rare photograph shows exactly this moment - the WTC-7 building is indicated by arrows. The caption at the bottom of the screen reads: "The 47-story Salomon Brothers building next to the World Trade Center also collapsed."

BBC reports on the destruction of WTC 7

However, at some point, apparently, the television crew realized what had happened, and at 17:14 the picture of the broadcast from New York was suddenly distorted by interference, and after a few seconds it completely disappeared.

How else to explain this incredible “blunder”, if not by the presence pre-written script? Is it possible that they planned to demolish the building a little earlier, but they simply did not have time to convey information about the delay in this mise-en-scène to London in a timely manner, and the British continued to follow the script. So they got the press release before all this happened? But from whom and how?

Of course, such an incident raised a lot of questions for the BBC television channel. However, news chief Richard Porter explained it this way: mysterious story: « We are not part of a conspiracy. Nobody told us what to talk about or what to do on September 11th. No one told us in advance that the building was going to fall. We have not received a press release or a script of events that are about to happen».

It turns out that if no one told them anything in advance, it means that they themselves, on their own initiative, told about the collapse of the building, which would happen in 20 minutes. But we read further: “We do not have the original recording of the September 11 reports - not because of a conspiracy, but because of confusion.” The news recording of one of the most important days in the history of the TV channel was suddenly lost.

Dead “terrorists” turned out to be alive

Official list of "hijackers"

The list was accompanied by the following comment: “The FBI is absolutely confident in the accuracy of the identification of the nineteen hijackers responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks. In addition, the 9/11 investigations have been thoroughly reviewed by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States and jointly by the Senate and House of Representatives. None of these checks raised the slightest doubt as to the identities of the nineteen hijackers."

On September 23, 2001, the British BBC news agency unexpectedly reported that Waleed al-Shehri, a Saudi Arabian national and the named hijacker of Flight AA11, currently alive, well and doing well in Casablanca, Morocco. Embassy Saudi Arabia confirmed that he attended flight school in Daytona Beach, Florida. He left the United States in September 2000 and works for Royal Air Morocco. This is further confirmed by the Associated Press, according to which Walid al-Shehri appeared at the American embassy in Morocco: “The FBI released his photograph, which was circulated in newspapers and television news around the world. This same Mr. al-Shehri showed up in Morocco, thereby proving that he was not a member of the suicide pilot team." Total minus one.

Weil al-Shehri (AA11) is also alive and well. He works as a pilot and his father is a Saudi Arabian diplomat in Bombay. The Los Angeles Times, in an article dated September 21, 2001, reports that the head information center Saudi Arabian Embassy in the United States Gaafar Allaghani confirmed that he personally spoke with both father and son. Total minus two.

Abdulaziz al-Omari (AA11) lost his passport while studying in Denver, which he reported to the police. He currently works as an engineer at Saudi Telecom. The Telegraph newspaper on September 23, 2001 quotes him: “I couldn’t believe it when I saw myself on the FBI lists. They showed my name, my photograph and my date of birth, but I am not a suicide bomber. I'm here. I'm alive. I have no idea how to fly an airplane. I had nothing to do with any of this." Total minus three.

Said al-Ghamdi (UA93), a Saudi Airlines pilot, was in Tunisia at the time of 9/11, where he and 22 other pilots were training to fly an Airbus 320 aircraft. The Telegraph quotes him as saying: “The FBI has not provided any evidence linking me to the attacks. You can't imagine what it's like to be called a dead terrorist when I'm alive and innocent." Total minus four.

Ahmed al-Nami (UA93) works as an office manager for Saudi Airlines in Riyadh: “As you can see, I am alive. I was shocked to see my name on the [terrorist] lists. I've never heard of Pennsylvania, where I happen to have hijacked a plane." Total minus five.

Salem al-Hamzi (AA77) works at a chemical plant in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia: “I have never been to the United States and have not left Saudi Arabia for the last two years.” Total minus six.

Khalid al-Midhar (AA77) is a computer programmer in Mecca, Saudi Arabia: "I like to think there's some kind of bug." He was watching television when his friends started calling him to see if he was alive, the Chicago Tribune reported. Total minus seven.

P.S. And this is only a small part of the “evidence” that was found in the “most reliable” official investigation into the 9/11 tragedy. But this, in my opinion, is quite enough to understand what methods the United States uses to achieve its goals, having destroyed more than three thousand Americans. In continuation of the investigation, I will talk about the mysterious plane that crashed into the Pentagon and strangely disappeared, and about the other, no less mysterious planes of that terrible day - September 11, 2001.

More details and a variety of information about events taking place in Russia, Ukraine and other countries of our beautiful planet can be obtained at Internet Conferences, constantly held on the website “Keys of Knowledge”. All Conferences are open and completely free. We invite everyone interested...

On September 11, 2001, three planes controlled by terrorists crashed into the skyscrapers of the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York and the Pentagon building. The fourth crashed in Pennsylvania. The attacks killed those in the buildings and on the hijacked planes. In addition, the disaster claimed the lives of firefighters and police officers, thanks to whose efforts it was possible to save about 30 thousand people. On weekdays, over 55 thousand people worked at the World Trade Center; the daily number of visitors and tourists reached 150 thousand. On July 15, 2002, the search for the remains of victims of the terrorist attacks was officially completed.

On August 20, 2002, the first official list of those killed in New York as a result of the World Trade Center collapse was published. It includes 2,819 people from 80 countries, including three Russians. A total of 157 people were killed on the two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center skyscrapers. 343 firefighters died. 1,102 people were identified by relatives or using DNA analysis. According to statistics, of the ten people who died in New York, eight were men; the average age of the victims was forty years. These were predominantly knowledge workers, from software developers to bank employees and insurance workers. Many were at the peak of their careers. About ten people were executives, founders or presidents of companies. At least 59 people served as vice presidents. Of the identified victims, fifteen were under twenty-one years of age, including three three-year-old children.

As a result of the terrorist attack in Washington, when a plane crashed into the Pentagon building, 184 people were killed: 120 employees and 64 passengers and crew members. 44 people died on a plane that was hijacked by terrorists but crashed in Pennsylvania before reaching Washington. The total number of deaths was more than three thousand people, about six thousand were injured. On September 12, 2001, US President George W. Bush made a televised address to the nation in connection with the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. He said he had ordered the use of the “full intelligence and law enforcement resources” of the United States to find and punish the perpetrators of the attacks. The head of the White House said that the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks carried out an “act of mass murder.” According to him, terrorists sought to create chaos in America, but they failed to do so.

On September 15, the US President, in his weekly radio address to the country, said that the US was planning a “comprehensive offensive” against terrorism. The US is planning a "broad and sustained campaign to defend our country and destroy the evil of terrorism." George W. Bush warned Americans that they would need patience because the coming “conflict will not be short,” as well as determination because “the conflict will not be easy.” Bush called the terrorists' actions "barbaric." He said that the United States will work together with other countries of the world, including Russia, India, and Pakistan, to punish the perpetrators and organizers of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

TBILISI, September 11 – Sputnik. The largest in human history terrorist attack was committed in the USA exactly fifteen years ago.

On September 11, 2001, suicide bombers from the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda captured four passenger aircraft, pointing two of them at the symbol of business New York - the World Trade Center towers, and the other two - at the Pentagon and, presumably, the White House or the Capitol. All aircraft except the last one reached their targets. The fourth hijacked plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

19 terrorists were also listed as killed in the attacks, 15 of them were citizens of Saudi Arabia, two were citizens of the United Kingdom. United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt and one from Lebanon.

Chronology

At 8:46 a.m. (hereinafter local time), an American Airlines Boeing 767 flying from Boston to Los Angeles crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC) on Manhattan Island in New York between the 93rd and 99th floors. There were 81 passengers (including five terrorists) and 11 crew members on board the plane.

At 9:03 a.m., a United Airlines Boeing 767 en route from Boston to Los Angeles crashed into the WTC South Tower between the 77th and 85th floors. There were 56 passengers and nine crew members on board the plane.

At 9:37 a.m., an American Airlines Boeing 757 flying from Washington to Los Angeles crashed into the Pentagon building. There were 58 passengers and six crew members on board the plane.

At 10:03 a.m., a United Airlines Boeing 757 flying from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco crashed into a field in southwestern Pennsylvania, near the city of Shanksville, 200 kilometers from Washington. There were 37 passengers and seven crew members on board the plane.

As a result of a severe fire, the South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed at 9:59, and the North Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed at 10:28.

At 18:16, the 47-story building of the World Trade Center complex, located in close proximity to the World Trade Center towers, collapsed.

The exact amount of damage caused by the September 11 terrorist attacks is unknown. In September 2006, US President George W. Bush reported that the cost of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States was, at a low estimate, $500 billion.

Investigation and search for those responsible

On November 27, 2002, the United States established an independent commission to investigate the September 11 terrorist attacks (9/11 Commission). On July 22, 2004, the commission released its final report on the investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy. One of the main conclusions of the 600-page document was the recognition that the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks took advantage of “deep administrative failures” in the work of the US government.

The only defendant in the United States in the case of the terrorist attacks is a French citizen of Moroccan origin, Zacarias Moussaoui. He was arrested in August 2001 after he graduated flight school in Oklahoma and trained on a Boeing 747 simulator in Minnesota. In April 2005, Moussaoui was found guilty of intending to carry out a terrorist attack, which was supposed to be the fifth in a series of tragic events of September 11, 2001. On the personal instructions of Osama bin Laden, he was to hijack a plane and ram the White House in Washington - the terrorist himself stated this at trial. In May 2006, by a decision of the federal court in Alexandria (Virginia), where the trial took place, Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Six other suspects in the attacks were arrested in 2002 and 2003, spent several years in CIA prisons, and in 2006 were taken to a camp at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In February 2008, the US Department of Defense charged six prisoners with murder and war crimes as part of the investigation into the September 11 attacks.

Charges were brought against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who, according to the 9/11 Commission report, is a central figure in the preparation of the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001; Yemeni-born Ramzi Binalshib (another spelling Ramzi bin al-Shiba), who provided organizational support to terrorists and transferred money to them; Mohammed al-Qahtani, who, according to investigators, on September 11, 2001 was supposed to become another, the 20th hijacker of four American planes; as well as Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, Mustafa Ahmed Hawsawi (other spelling Mustafa Ahmad Khausawi) and Walid bin Attash.

In May 2008, the Pentagon dropped charges against Mohammed al-Qahtani.

After President Barack Obama ordered the suspension of all military prosecutors at Guantanamo Bay in January 2009 and vowed to close the facility, the military was forced to drop the charges. However, this promise of the president remained unfulfilled.

Having received no support in Congress, the head of state in early March 2011 ordered the resumption of military trials against terrorism suspects held in the Guantanamo Bay prison.

In early April 2011, US Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed that the accused Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other defendants in the September 11 case would not appear before a US civilian court, but before a special military commission at the Guantanamo Bay base.

On May 31, 2011, US military prosecutors again charged five suspects, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, with involvement in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.

All five defendants refused to answer whether they plead guilty.

In July 2014, a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay ruled that one of the five accused in the attack, Ramzi Binalshiba, should be tried separately because of a report from military doctors that he had a “serious mental illness.”

Hearings in the case of those accused of involvement in organizing the terrorist attack continue.

Iran's responsibility

In March 2016, New York District Judge George Daniels entered a default judgment requiring Iran to pay $7.5 billion to relatives and other representatives of those killed at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The judge determined that Iranian authorities must pay another three billion to insurers who covered property damage and other material losses. Earlier, Judge Daniels ruled that Tehran could not prove its non-involvement in providing assistance to the organizers of the terrorist attack, and therefore the Iranian authorities bear a share of responsibility for the damage caused during it.

Memorial and new World Trade Center

On September 11, 2011, the World Trade Center Memorial was opened on the site of the destroyed Twin Towers in New York. It consists of two square fountain pools located right at the bases of the former twin towers, along the inner walls of which streams of water cascade into square holes located at the bottom of each of the pools. The names of 2,983 terrorist victims (including six who died in the 1993 World Trade Center attack) are carved into bronze slabs that line the parapets of both fountains.

The site of the World Trade Center bombing in New York. Archive photo

In November 2014, the new World Trade Center complex opened. It is the fourth tallest skyscraper in the world - its height is 541 meters. Construction began in April 2006 on the corner of a 65,000-square-meter site where the twin towers of a destroyed shopping center previously stood.

Since 2002, September 11 has been celebrated in the United States as Patriot Day; since 2009, after the approval of Act 111-13 of the US General Law, this date is also referred to as the national Day of Service and Remembrance.

There is a beautiful theory that centuries are like certain historical periods– rarely fit into the rigid framework allocated to them in the calendar. For example, the 19th century began only after the end of the Napoleonic wars, and ended on July 28, 1914, the day the First World War began, which gave rise to a whole series of events that determined the course of the next, 20th century.

If you follow this logic, then the new 21st century began on September 11, 2001 with a series of terrorist attacks committed by the Islamic radical organization Al-Qaeda in the United States.

Until this moment, the collective West was still on the laurels of the winner in the Cold War, its hegemony seemed undeniable, and its military and political power unshakable. It seemed that Fukuyama's prophecy had come true, and history had finally stopped. However, the events of September 11, 2001 dispelled these illusions. The fall of the Twin Towers in New York was broadcast live by television companies around the world. The picture on the TV screen seemed so unreal that it looked more like the filming of another Hollywood blockbuster about the end of the world.

The September 11 terrorist attack was a real shock for the United States. Terrorists were able to strike at the main symbols of America: its money and military power - the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Despite the huge defense budget and all the power of the American intelligence services, it turned out that the United States was completely unprepared for such an attack. On September 11, 2001, confusion and panic reigned in the high offices of Washington.

For America, the events of September 11, 2001 became the second Pearl Harbor; the most powerful country in the world simply could not leave such a slap in the face unanswered. A few days later, Al-Qaeda was declared the organizer of the attacks, which was the reason for the start of the operation in Afghanistan. In 2003, American troops invaded Iraq, accusing Saddam Hussein of allegedly supporting terrorists.

Analyzing all subsequent events, we can say that the world today lives in a geopolitical reality, which is a consequence of the explosions that occurred on September 11, 2001.

Despite the fact that more than fifteen years have passed since the tragedy, great amount people around the world believe that we still don’t know the whole truth about September 11th. This applies to the number of victims of the attack, its participants, and the role of American special services in these events.

Naturally, an official investigation was carried out, which recognized Osama bin Laden as the organizer of the terrorist attacks, but its results are still subject to severe criticism to this day. Moreover, the events of September 11, 2001 have become a favorite topic of numerous conspiracy theories. Even today they claim that there were no Arab terrorists, and that the World Trade Center explosions were prepared by American intelligence services and the world behind the scenes.

So, what really happened in the United States on September 11, 2001? How many people died during the terrorist attack? And why does the official version of events not suit conspiracy theorists?

Official version of events

According to the official version, a group of terrorists managed to hijack four passenger airliners, which different airports were heading to California. A total of 19 criminals boarded the planes, fifteen of whom were Saudi citizens, two more were from the OAU, one was from Egypt, and another was from Lebanon. Several more members of the terrorist group were unable to enter the United States.

To hijack airliners, terrorists used the simplest edged weapons, most likely stationery or penknives, as well as gas canisters. In addition, they threatened to blow up the planes, although this was just a bluff - they did not have any explosive devices. We know little about the dramatic tragedy that unfolded in the sky that day, only what passengers who were able to use satellite or mobile phones. It is known that as a result of clashes with criminals, several flight attendants, passengers, and at least one of the pilots were killed.

The terrorists were well prepared for the attack; each group included at least one person who had completed special courses in aircraft control.

At 8:46 a.m. local time, Boeing 767-200 aircraft number N334AA collided with the north side of the World Trade Center (1 WTC) tower. The impact hit a section of the building between the 94th and 98th floors. After a fire that lasted approximately 100 minutes, the north tower of the World Trade Center collapsed.

The second of the hijacked aircraft, a Boeing 767-200 with tail number N612UA, crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center at 9.02 at the 78-85 floor level. The fire lasted about 50 minutes and at 9.56 the building collapsed.

According to the investigation, at the time of the attack there were approximately 16 thousand people in the WTC buildings. The vast majority of them survived, as they were evacuated before the collapse began. To date, it is believed that 2,977 people (not counting the terrorists) have died as a result of the terrorist attacks. This list included 246 passengers and crew members of the hijacked aircraft, as well as 2,606 people who were in or near the World Trade Center buildings. The strike on the Pentagon resulted in the death of 125 people. The vast majority of the victims were Americans, but the dead included citizens of 91 other countries.

Most of the victims were in the north tower of the World Trade Center. Here, during the explosion caused by the collision of the plane with the building, the subsequent fire and collapse, 1,366 people died. In the south tower a large number of people fell into a deadly trap on the upper floors of the building, from which only a few managed to escape. Many of the unfortunate people preferred to jump down rather than be burned alive. Due to the fire and smoke, it was not possible to evacuate people from the roof by helicopter.

A large number of firefighters, police officers, and other employees died during the terrorist attacks. emergency services, their total exceeds 400 people. These people worked truly selflessly. Many police officers and firefighters from other parts of the country took vacations and traveled to New York to help their colleagues.

Of the total number of dead, only 1,670 bodies were identified; more than a thousand bodies are still unnamed.

The start of an unprecedented terrorist attack led to real chaos throughout the United States. All commercial flights were canceled and aircraft in the air were diverted or grounded at airports in Mexico or Canada. IN large quantities There were reports of new terrorist attacks, which later turned out to be false. US Air Force and National Guard fighter jets took to the skies.

The American Emergency Alert System, which was developed in 1997 to alert the population in the event of large-scale natural disasters, major terrorist attacks or the outbreak of war, was put on high alert. However, no one addressed the people. The US government went into emergency mode, and the country's national leaders were hastily evacuated.

Just a few days after the attacks, the FBI has already announced the names of the terrorists, as well as their basic information. The luggage of one of the participants in the attack was never loaded onto the plane and fell into the hands of the investigation. In it, law enforcement officers found records that shed light on the organization of the terrorist attack and its participants. Soon American intelligence agencies stated that al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden, was behind the September 11 attacks. The intelligence services of other countries: Great Britain and Germany came to a similar conclusion.

Bin Laden initially denied his participation in the events, but already in 2004 he admitted that he personally directed the terrorist attack, and the direct control of the hijackers was exercised by his closest associate, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

This was not the first attack against America for bin Laden. In 1998, he organized bombings of American embassies in African countries.

The main reasons for organizing the terrorist attacks were American support for Israel, as well as the war against Iraq in 1990. In turn, American President Bush Jr., shortly after the tragic events, said that terrorists attacked the United States because they hate American freedom and democracy.

The international reaction to the bloody events of September 11 was expected: the world community, with rare and absolutely marginal exceptions, condemned them. The exception was the Palestinians, who, without hiding their joy, celebrated the massacre of infidels. Iraq said America was reaping the consequences of its crimes, and there were reports of a demonstration by Chinese students allegedly in support of the attacks. Most world leaders expressed their absolute support for the United States. Russian President Putin, in a telephone conversation with Bush, offered assistance in investigating this crime. The terrorist attacks were also officially condemned in the Middle East.

About months later, American troops at the head of an international coalition invaded Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden had his headquarters at that time. Within a few months, the Taliban regime was defeated, and a pro-Western government came to power in the country. In the months following September 11, arrests of people suspected of links to al-Qaeda took place around the world.

In 2003, the United States and its allies launched a second war against Iraq, accusing its leadership of participating in the events of September 11, as well as manufacturing and storing weapons of mass destruction.

This is the official version of the September 11 attacks, as well as the events that followed them. However, it does not suit everyone. There are many alternative versions, whose supporters include not only obvious marginalized people, but also highly respected people, including famous scientists, journalists, and public figures.

Conspiracy theory

The events of September 11th were a real shock to American society. Many simply could not comprehend how a small group of terrorists could conceive and successfully carry out such a large-scale attack against a country with the most powerful intelligence services in the world.

Soon a conspiracy hypothesis emerged that in fact there were no terrorists, and that the explosions and hijackings were staged by the US authorities in order to solve their geopolitical and financial problems. It can be added that today the events of September 11, 2001 have become a favorite topic of conspiracy theorists, pushing into the background even such “eternal classics” as the American landing on the Moon or the government hiding aliens in Area 51.

Controlled demolition theory. Conspiracy theorists believe that the WTC towers collapsed not due to collisions with airplanes, but as a result of the detonation of certain explosives that were previously placed in them. Proponents of this theory argue that the construction of the twin towers was so strong that an airplane strike and subsequent fire could not have caused their collapse. Combustion temperature aviation fuel is about 1 thousand degrees Celsius, which is not enough to melt load-bearing metal structures.

Proponents of this theory claim that thermite was embedded in the building (sometimes they talk about a mysterious nanothermite or superthermite), which burned through the load-bearing structures of the World Trade Center. True, this hypothesis is not confirmed by any physical evidence.

However, official American experts say otherwise. Indeed, aviation kerosene cannot melt steel, but high combustion temperatures can significantly weaken it. Already at 600 °C, the metal becomes half as strong, and if the flame temperature reaches 980 °C, then approximately 10% of the strength of steel remains. In addition, from high temperature it begins to expand, breaking the concrete surrounding it.

So the action of two factors at once - high temperature and a ramming impact - is quite enough to collapse even such a huge building as the World Trade Center.

Pentagon. Conspiracy theorists also claim that the plane did not crash into the Pentagon at all, but that the building was destroyed as a result of a missile strike carried out by the American military itself. To prove this theory, they usually cite photographs of a building in which the destruction zone is much smaller than the wingspan of a Boeing 757. Conspiracy theorists believe that another proof of their correctness is the absence of aircraft wreckage (engines, landing gear, fuselage parts) in the photographs.

Indeed, the building's destruction zone looks much smaller than a huge passenger airliner. However, experts who studied the crash site said that the plane sheared one wing when it collided with the ground, and the second - on the supporting column of the building. The Boeing fuselage crashed directly into the structure itself.

In addition, the very moment the plane hit the Pentagon was seen by many witnesses; parts of the landing gear, engines and fuselage of the airliner were found at the crash site. As well as numerous remains of passengers and black boxes of the aircraft. After the hijacking of Flight 77, many of the passengers were able to use their mobile phones to inform their families that their plane had been hijacked by terrorists. However, conspiracy theorists believe that the calls were fabricated by intelligence services.

Flight 93. Another popular topic for conspiracy theorists regarding the events of September 11 is the fate of the fourth airliner hijacked by terrorists. According to the official version, the criminals planned to send it to the Capitol, but the passengers rebelled and tried to neutralize the hijackers. A struggle ensued, as a result of which the plane fell. Fans of conspiracy theories believe that all this is not true, and in fact the airliner was shot down by a combat fighter.

The main evidence for this theory is the large scattering of debris from the airliner at the crash site. According to conspiracy theorists, this only happens if the plane is shot down by a missile.

Several witnesses claimed to have seen an unusual white plane flying over the crash site almost immediately after Flight 93 crashed. This information gave rise to conspiracy theorists to talk about yet another proof of the shooting down. passenger airliner military plane. Later, reports appeared on several resources that FBI employees were allegedly putting pressure on witnesses to the incident, forcing them to remain silent.

In fact, there really was such a white plane. On that tragic day, a commercial Dassault Falcon 20, owned by one of the corporations, flew near the crash site. He was contacted and asked to examine the Boeing crash site from the air, which was done. Falcon descended to a height of 460 meters and its crew saw a black crater in the ground from which smoke was pouring out. Having noted its coordinates, Falcon returned to its previous route.

Without portholes. Another point under discussion regarding the events of September 11, 2001 is an interview with a certain Mark Birnbach. He told reporters that the plane that crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center did not have windows. From this statement, conspiracy lovers immediately concluded that instead of the passenger airliner Flight 175, the cunning military used refueling aircraft filled to capacity with fuel to ram the buildings of the shopping center.

However, this fake is especially easy to refute, because on the Internet you can easily find photographs of aircraft wreckage in which the windows are clearly visible. And in the case of using refueling aircraft, a reasonable question immediately arises: what happened to the hundreds of passengers flying on four airliners?

The above are just the main questions regarding the September 11 tragedy that keep conspiracy theorists awake. In fact, there are many more of them. However, answers to them have also already been found, and they were given by officials or representatives of special services, and by professional experts working in various fields: civil engineers, pilots, firefighters, explosion experts, criminologists.

However, that's not even the point. It seems highly unlikely that anyone would be able to stage events similar to what happened on September 11 in America. Imagine how many people needed to be involved in such a staging? How can we then force them all to keep their mouths shut?

Our world is too large, complex and messy for any serious conspiracy to have any chance of success. So, as the smartest monk from Ockham once said: “Do not multiply entities unnecessarily.”