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Running head: Consequences of 9/11

Consequences of the 9/11 Terrorist Attack

Jesus E. Lares
05/10/2015
UNIV 1301
University of Texas at El Paso

Approximately fourteen years ago one of the more destructive terrorist attacks in the
story of The United States happened. September 11, 2001 the Islamic terrorist group Al Qaeda

Running head: Consequences of 9/11

hijacked four airplanes with the purpose of crashing them in specific places. One of them with
destination to Washington DC crashed before reaching its destination. Thanks to the passengers it
crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately another one crashed into the Pentagon and the
other two crashed in the south and north towers, respectively, of the World Trade Center in New
York. Almost 3000 people die because of those terrorist attacks. After that day The United States
and the world changed drastically. It is important that we understand how this terrible
catastrophe is affecting us nowadays. This paper is a research of several consequences of the
9/11 attacks, and seeks to analyze how it is affecting millions of people in the United States, and
the world even nowadays.
The terrorist attack had an immediate effect in many Americans. Definitely the ones who
suffered the most during and after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were the residents of New York.
The people affected by the incident reported several psychological problems. Half of the people
reported having problems sleeping. 90 percent of Americans indicated one or more distress
symptoms to some degree and 44 percent indicated one or more stress symptoms to a
considerable degree (Burke, Ronald 2005). Most individuals directly or indirectly involved in
the events of 9/11 reported negative emotions and responses like anxiety, heightened fears, and
psychosomatic symptoms. American citizens were devastated because of this terrible disaster.
Provably as emotional a result of the 9/11 attacks on the following years there was a significantly
increase on the number of people who joined the US forces like the ARMY and the Marines and
many of them actually fought in wars.

The nine eleven attacks also had a huge impact different countries and it changed
completely the global antiterrorism law and policy. Although the United Nations had engaged

Running head: Consequences of 9/11

terrorism issues before the 9/11 attacks, the role of the Security Council in leading global
counter-terrorism efforts after the 9/11 was unprecedented. The Security Council and its
Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) operated without regard to human rights, especially in the
first three years after the 9/11 (Kent Roach 2011), which affected and continue affecting
thousands of people. The UN had influence behind a number of counter-terrorism measures like
laws against the incitement of terrorist, laws against the financing of terrorism, and the use of
migration laws as antiterrorism law. All this laws can limit human rights and may not be very
effective in prevention of terrorism. An interesting fact about this is that The General Assembly
failed to agree on a definition of terrorism even after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Many other countries also took antiterrorism actions. Canada implemented an
Antiterrorist Act. The bill extended the powers of government and institutions within the
Canadian security establishment to respond to the threat of terrorism. Other countries like the
United Kingdom, and Australia also reacted to the 9/11 attack in the United States by making or
reinforcing laws and acts antiterrorism.
Obviously the most affected country was the United States. The American response to the
9/11 disaster has been criticized around the world. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001
have dramatically heightened concerns over national security, and brought about, in the United
States more than anywhere else, a sharp rise in antiterrorism laws and related initiatives to build
and improve counterterrorism efforts. Paraphrasing Kent Roach (2011). The American approach,
especially in the first three years after 9/11, was dominated by an aggressive use of executive
power, and by a conduct that was supported by questionable claims of legality. The most
infamous conduct was directed at non-American citizens outside the United States. It included
detentions without trial at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib and

Running head: Consequences of 9/11

elsewhere, and increased use of extraordinary renditions to countries with poor human rights
records. The Government of the United States implemented or reinforced several laws to prevent
more terrorist attacks. For example; the use of immigration law as antiterrorism law and the USA
Patriot Act.
All these new laws had a racial impact that affected and continue affecting many
ethnicities, mostly Asian ethnicities. There is discrimination against some particular racial, ethnic
and religious groups. One of the most aggressive American responses to 9/11 were not
authorized by the Patriot Act. Immediately after the 9/11 thousands of non-American citizens
were detained under ridiculous uses of immigration laws that were followed by selective
immigrations registration programs that focused in those from Arab and Muslim countries before
being abandoned as a strategic mistake. All the people in the united states with Arabian or
Muslims characteristics, even if they were not even from Asia, were treated as possible terrorists
after the 9/11 attacks.
The Patriot Act expanded the ability to get warrants to spy on suspected members of
foreign terrorist groups, but President Bush ordered the NSA to intercept communications
involving Americans without judicial warrant or any legislative authorization. All these changes
made Americans concern about their privacy. After 9/11 many claims were made saying that
counterterrorism and related surveillance practices involved illegitimate invasions of privacy,
free speech, and other violations of civil liberties. Surveillance technology are argued to turn into
instruments of totalitarian control that create or exacerbate inequality and lack accountability
(Haggerty and Ericson 2006). The most common type of claims made relates to various forms of
detainee or prisoner abuse by employees of the Federal Bureau of prisons, mostly involving
Muslim or Arab inmates. According to research made by Mathieu Deflem and Shannon

Running head: Consequences of 9/11

McDonough these claims include allegations of illegal detention or arrest, being held without
access to an attorney, adverse conditions od detainment, verbal abuse, religious discrimination,

and unwarranted cell researches. Other common claims of verbal abuse included correctional
officers calling Muslim or Arab inmates derogatory names, such as terrorist, towel-head and
Bin Laden, or having told to hate them because they are Arabs or Muslims.
A culture of fear arise in our society. The analysis made by Mathieu Deflem and Shannon
McDonough in 2015 shows that civil liberties are not only a function of actual violations, but
also a result from a culturally entrenched fear of counterterrorism and the power of surveillance.
Fear justifies and motivates the use of surveillance, while the expansion of surveillance produces
a cultural fear of its capabilities and consequences.
The terrorist attacks of 9/11 did not had a political meaning or anything like that. The
main purpose of the attack was spread fear. Those attacks became the starting point of an
upcoming variety of activities to counter a new threat citizens of this country. The arrival of
global terrorism forced both states and international organizations to take steps to counter the
new enemy (Al Qaeda), and prevent new attacks. All of these led to the creation of
counterterrorism institutions. Counterterrorism is here conceived of as a governmental activity
aimed at combating any nonstate actor, group, or individual, who consciously use or threatens to
use random violence against innocents for political ends (Michael Karlsson 2012).
Definitely one of the worse effects of the 9/11 attacks was the War on Terror, a war
against Al Qaeda. In 2005 the ex-President George W. Bush stated; Our country is at war, and
our government has the obligation to protect the American people. Anything we do to that end, in

Running head: Consequences of 9/11

that effort, any activity we conduct, is within the law. The War on Terror began in 2001 after the
attack to the World Trade Center, and although the leader of Al Qaeda Osama bin Laden was
killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011 by a US Navy team, the war continued for a couple years until
President Barak Obama declared the war over on 2013. Still many people believe the war is not
over yet.
Since the September 11, 2001 the lives of millions of people changed drastically not only
in the United States, but in the world. Definitely a line can be drawn before and after 9/11. It
continues affecting us nowadays, and probably it will continue affecting us for many more years.
Off course we need the counterterrorism measures to prevent more attacks and make the citizens
in this country feel a little safer, but cannot throw our personal liberties and human rights away
just because of that. There must be a balance, so we can be safe while the rights of everyone are
respected. We may need to change the actual system. We need antiterrorism, but we also need to
respect civil liberties and human rights.

REFERENCES
Borradori, Giovanna. Philosophy in a Time of Terror. Chicago. The University of Chicago Press.
2003.

Running head: Consequences of 9/11

Burke, Ronald. Disaster Prevention and Management. Effects of 9/11 on Individuals and
Organizations: Down but not out! 2005.
Deflem, Mathieu. McDonough, Shannon. The Fear of Counterterrorism: Surveillance and Civil
Liberties Since 9/11. Springer Science + Business Media. New York. 2015.
Karlsson, Michael. 9/11 and the design of the Design of Counterterrorism Institutions. Ashgate
Publishing limited. 2012.
Roach Kent. The 9/11 Effect, Comparative Counter- Terrorism. Cambridge. Cambridge
University Press. 2011.
Rollings Magnusson, Sandra. Dobrowolsky, Alexandra. Doucent G. Marc. Gazso Amber. AntiTerrorism, Security and Insecurity after 9/11. Canada Fernwood Publishing. 2009.