International reaction
The attacks had major global political ramifications. They were denounced
by mainstream media and governments world-wide, with the headline of Paris,
France's Le Monde newspaper summing up the international mood of sympathy
[15]: "Today We Are All Americans". Approximately one month
after the attacks, the United States led a broad coalition of international
forces into Afghanistan in pursuit of al-Qaeda forces in order to topple
the Taliban Government for harboring what it referred to as a terrorist
organization. [16] The Pakistani authorities moved decisively to align
themselves with the United States in a war against Osama bin Laden and
al-Qaeda. It gave the U.S. a number of military airports and bases for
its attack on Afghanistan, and arrested over six hundred supposed al-Qaeda
members, whom it handed over to the U.S. [17]
The Honolulu Advertiser was mindful of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December
7, 1941 in its headline.Numerous countries, including the UK, France,
Germany, Indonesia, China, Russia, Pakistan, Jordan, Mauritius, Uganda
and Zimbabwe [18] (PDF), introduced "anti-terrorism" legislation
and froze the bank accounts [19] of businesses and individuals they suspected
of having al-Qaeda ties. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies in
a number of countries, including Italy [20], Malaysia, Indonesia, and
the Philippines [21] arrested people they labeled terrorist suspects for
the stated purpose of breaking up militant cells around the world. This
process aroused controversy, as critics such as the Bill of Rights Defense
Committee argued that traditional restrictions on federal surveillance
(e.g. COINTELPRO's monitoring of public meetings) were "dismantled"
by the USA PATRIOT Act [22] (PDF); civil liberty organizations such as
the American Civil Liberties Union [23] and Liberty [24] argued that certain
civil rights protections were also being circumvented. The United States
set up a detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to hold "illegal
enemy combatants". The legitimacy of these detentions has been questioned
by, among others, member states of the European Union, the Organization
of American States, and Amnesty International. (See Camp X-Ray for further
details.)
In September, 2004 Yusuf Islam, a British Muslim previously known as
the singer Cat Stevens, was barred from entering the U.S. and was subsequently
extradited to the UK after his flight was briefly diverted to Maine. [25]
Yusuf Islam's expulsion led British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, to
complain to the U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who ordered a review
of restrictions placed on people entering the United States.
Public response in the United States
The attacks also had immediate and overwhelming effects upon the United
States population. Gratitude toward uniformed public-safety workers, and
especially toward firefighters, was widely expressed in light of both
the drama of the risks taken on the scene and the high death toll among
the workers. The number of casualties among the emergency service personnel
was unprecedented. The highly visible role played by Rudolph Giuliani,
then Mayor of New York City, won him high praise nationally. He was named
Person of the Year by Time magazine for 2001, and at times has had a higher
profile in the U.S. than President George W. Bush.
View of the WTC and the Statue of Liberty.New York City bore the brunt
of the attacks and will always bear physical and physiological scars from
the events of the day. Blood donations saw a surge in the weeks after
9/11. According to a report by the Journal of the American Medical Association
released on May 7, 2003: "...the number of blood donations in the
weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks was markedly greater than in
the corresponding weeks of 2000 (2.5 times greater in the first week after
the attacks; 1.3–1.4 times greater in the second to fourth weeks
after the attack)." [26]
There were some incidents of harassment and hate crimes against Middle
Easterners and other "Middle Eastern looking" people, particularly
Sikhs. A total of nine people were murdered within the United States as
part of retaliation. Balbir Singh Sodhi, one of the first victims of this
backlash, was shot dead on September 15. He, like many others, was a Sikh
yet was mistaken for a Muslim.
Economic aftermath
The attacks had significant short-term economic impact for the United
States and world markets. The New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock
Exchange and NASDAQ did not open on September 11 and remained closed until
September 17. New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) facilities
and remote data processing sites were not damaged by the attack, but member
firms, customers and markets were unable to communicate due to major damage
to the telephone exchange facility near the World Trade Center. When the
stock markets reopened on September 17, 2001, after the longest closure
since the Great Depression in 1929, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (“DJIA”)
stock market index fell 684 points, or 7.1%, to 8920, its biggest-ever
one-day point decline. By the end of the week, the DJIA had fallen 1369.7
points (14.3%), its largest one-week point drop in history. U.S. stocks
lost $1.2 trillion in value for the week. As of 2005 Wall and Broad Streets
near the New York Stock Exchange remain barricaded and guarded to prevent
a physical attack upon the building.
The economy of Lower Manhattan, which by itself is the third-largest
business district in the United States (after Midtown Manhattan and the
Chicago Loop) was devastated in the immediate aftermath. 30% (28.7 million
sq. ft) of Lower Manhattan office space was either damaged or destroyed.
Much of what was destroyed was valuable Class-A space. The pre-2001 trend
of moving jobs out of Lower Manhattan to Midtown and New Jersey was accelerated.
Many questioned whether this loss of jobs and its associated tax based
would ever be restored.
The rebuilding has been inhibited by a lack of agreement on priorities.
For example, Mayor Bloomberg had made New York's bid for the 2012 Summer
Olympics the core of his capital development plan from 2002 until mid-2005,
and Governor Pataki largely delegated his role to the Lower Manhattan
Development Corporation [27] which has been widely criticized for doing
little with the enormous funding directed to the rebuilding efforts. [28]
On the sites of the totally destroyed buildings, one, 7 World Trade Center,
has a new office tower. Only Ameriprise Financial, Inc., a spinoff of
American Express Financial Advisors has been named as a potential tenant
for it[29]. There is no consensus regarding the demand for office space
looking forward to 2010, so the market for 7 WTC and other new construction
in the financial district is soft.
North American air space was closed for several days after the attacks
and air travel decreased significantly upon its reopening. The attacks
led to nearly a 20% cutback [30] in air travel capacity, and exacerbated
financial problems in the struggling U.S. airline industry.
Many towers in the United States metropolitan areas were evacuated hours
after the attacks, including Los Angeles, where traffic was at its lowest
volume ever for that city, and the major downtown business district was
virtually deserted.
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